The Devil’s Cage

Bang!

Leaf Dining’s door was kicked open fiercely.

A group of intimidating men rushed in. The one who spoke had a baseball bat in his hand and was pointing it towards Teddy and Kieran. He tilted his neck and said in an angry voice, “Be quiet, don’t get yourself in trouble!’

Kieran was very calm while tidying his newspaper after reading, watching the men walk closer to the corner where Amy was.

Teddy’s face turned heavy.

Since when did Ai City become so dangerous at night?

Barging in unannounced and trying to take a woman away?

“Stop it!” Teddy shouted.

“I said keep quiet and don’t get yourself in trouble, why don’t…”

The man with the baseball bat coldly laughed at Teddy but was stopped by the glaring reflection of his police badge.

Most importantly, the gun that had appeared in Teddy’s hand, which was pointed towards the man.

“…Officer! This is just a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”

The man with the baseball bat stood there blankly, but the middle-aged man in the group whose head was hurt wasn’t startled by the gun, he seemed experienced enough and walked out immediately, showing a flattering smile to Teddy.

“Officer, this is really a misunderstanding! We’re just messing around…”

Bang!

Before the man finished, the gun was fired and smoke came out of the barrel.

The man whose head was hurt looked down at the blood stain in his chest and then at Teddy, who was also stunned by the sudden fire in disbelief.

Shouldn’t this be a warning instead of a real fire? Shouldn’t an officer fire after the warning is useless? Why did he fire it right away?!

Until his last breath, the man had no idea what happened.

The group of intimidating men were quivering after the shot, some even ran outside.

Bang!

Another shot was fired, the man who ran first was shot to the ground.

The second shot frightened everyone, freezing them on the spot.

However, Chief Teddy screamed anxiously, “Run! Run! Get away from me!”

Bang Bang Bang!

Repeated shots were fired after he screamed.

The men who barged into the restaurant were all shot to the ground and the gun was then pointed towards Kieran.

“RUN!”

Teddy’s anxiety rose when he saw Kieran was still in his seat. He tried to take control of his body but it was useless.

His consciousness was still in his head but his body’s control was robbed from him!

He couldn’t stop firing at the men just now, he only wanted to scare the men with his gun but he pulled the trigger uncontrollably.

Teddy didn’t feel anything throughout the process, as though it was a reasonable action for him to take. He only realized the mistake after the gun was fired and he had already lost control of his body.

He saw Kieran sitting in his chair, as if Kieran was frightened beyond his senses. Teddy couldn’t help but shut his eyes, not able to witness what would happen next.

His finger was already squeezing the trigger.

Kak!

The shot was fired, but nothing came out! He ran out of bullets!

Teddy was stunned, opening his eyes and seeing himself jumping over the bar counter, swinging a punch at Kieran.

Then… he was punched by Kieran instead.

Bang!

Teddy crashed on the wooden bar counter, the pain in his body making him clench his teeth. He suddenly realized he regained control of his body again, like how he had lost it in the first place.

After regaining control, Teddy touched his arms and checked his body, then looked at the floor of bodies. He couldn’t help but fall into limbo, at a loss for action.

As a chief officer, he had shot and killed before but every person he killed was a vicious criminal.

It was the first time he shot some street gangster, in a rather simple situation which only needed a warning.

What happened?

What had he done?

Teddy stood there and looked at his hands blankly.

“I think you should go check on your body. If you can, try to remember if there are any unusual people you’ve come across lately or ate something weird.”

Kieran’s voice entered his ears, Teddy looked at Kieran blankly for a few seconds before regaining his sense.

Without a second of delay, Teddy started to take off his clothes and examine his body.

After he took off his coat, he found something off: a paper figure the size of a palm was stuck on his inner shirt.

“This?”

Teddy tore the paper figure off and saw his name, his date of birth, and blood on it. He was quite horrified.

“Can I have a look?” Kieran asked.

Teddy hesitated for a while before passing Kieran the piece of paper.

[Name: Cursed Paper Man]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Magic]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: None]

[Attribute: Control 0/1]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: No]

[Remark: A long line of witchcraft spells, a lot of people are using it but most are just for frights, this is different though! (Your current Mystical Knowledge level is too low, unable to further read related information)]

…

[Control: After acquiring the name, the date of birth, and the blood of the target, stick the paper man on the target’s back and the target will fall into your control for a short period of time. E- Spirit authentication, passed and it will lose its effect)]

…

Lines of words piled up in his vision when he touched the paper figure.

Kieran frowned at the description. It seemed like this mysterious opponent was much more cunning than expected.

After failing one, the mysterious opponent gave up all the original methods and brought many more weird stuff to the table.

“Witchcraft, eh?” Kieran muttered to himself.

“What did you find?” Teddy asked.

The chief was eager to know what happened.

“Do you know anything about witchcraft?” Kieran asked.

“Witchcraft? How is it possible? It’s just…”

The chief wanted to refute it but when the words escaped his mouth, he remembered how he lost control of his body. He fell into silence.

Two to three seconds later, Teddy looked at Kieran again.

“Is there really witchcraft involved?” Teddy asked.

“The world is big, it’s not surprising at all if there is witchcraft involved. Besides, didn’t you notice? After so long, isn’t it too quiet outside?”

Teddy finally realized the situation after Kieran’s reminder.

That’s right! It was too quiet!

The gunshots should have broken the silent night!

Teddy’s men weren’t good-for-nothing cops, they would have arrived at the scene at lightning speed.

But now?

Not even a siren, let alone his men.

Teddy looked back at Kieran in confusion. He wanted to know what had just happened, but Kieran didn’t answer him this time. He turned around and walked into the kitchen.

Starbeck has been waiting in the kitchen.

“Is it dangerous?” Starbeck asked nervously.

“Em,” Kieran nodded without hiding anything. Rather than letting Starbeck fall into a whirlpool of guessing and further increasing his nervous state, might as well tell him straight away.

“What should I do?” Starbeck took a deep breath and asked.

“Take off your clothes,” Kieran said.

Huh?

Starbeck was shocked, but because of their tacit understanding of each other, he did not hesitate and started to take off his clothes.

“Turn around,” Kieran said after Starbeck took off his outer coat.

Starbeck turned around and also took off his shirt, leaving himself with an inner singlet, his back clean.

Kieran heaved a breath of relief.

Witchcraft wasn’t anything scary to Kieran, all he needed to do was be aware of its existence but if Starbeck was under some kind of spell, things would turn bad very fast.

“Is it okay now?” Starbeck asked with his back at Kieran.

“Yeah, it’s okay now. Remember, from now on, unless I tell you to, do not touch anything that you are not familiar with or things you feel are weird,” Kieran said with a nod.

“Noted,” Starbeck nodded, putting on his shirt and turning around.

Kieran was searching for the other item that he had prepared in the kitchen, which was inconspicuous yet useful enough, so he did not see Starbeck’s shy gaze and flushed face.

“Let’s go,” Kieran found what he was looking for and walked out. Starbeck followed tightly.

Coming back to the hall, Kieran gave a kitchen knife to Starbeck and Chief Teddy.

“We don’t have guns here, but it’s better than fighting with bare hands,” Kieran said.

Chief Teddy nodded in agreement.

Teddy then saw Kieran pulled out a sword wrapped in animal pelt and 4 bottles of molotov cocktail from under the bar counter.

“Don’t tell me you got those things from some gatherings you participated in.”

Teddy saw the clean and crystal clear bottles containing gasoline, his temple swelling immediately.

He knew Kieran wasn’t some John Doe but he never thought the bar counter that he had just climbed over contained molotov cocktails.

“No, I’m used to being alo-…with Roye.”

Kieran shook his head, altering his words when they came out from his mouth in order to maintain his cover.

“You better be. Now, what should we do?” Teddy asked after a deep breath.

Kieran didn’t answer, lighting up a molotov cocktail instead and tossing it outside the restaurant.

Teddy watched the bottle fly over in an arch and then… vanish from his sight

There was no breaking, no explosion, no fire!

Teddy carefully walked closer to the exit and he gasped.

Unbeknownst to him, the exit of the restaurant had become a bottomless abyss.

The surrounding even fell into an unimaginable darkness and Teddy couldn’t see anything with his sight.

“T-This is…”

Teddy opened his mouth, in the hope of describing the situation he saw but no proper words came out.

Kieran, on the other hand, tossed the Molotov cocktails outside, one after another.

When all the bottles were tossed outside, Kieran pulled out the gas tank which he got from the kitchen, opened the lever, lit it up, and threw it outside with all his might.

The half-full gas tank swirled across the air when Kieran threw it out with all his mind, falling into that bottomless abyss. However, unlike the molotov cocktails which were devoured silently, moments later, the gas tank exploded loudly.

Kabooom!

The explosion caused a shockwave and shook the ground.

Kieran then took another gas tank and threw it out again. A second explosion happened.

When Kieran was on his third tank, Teddy, who kept an eye at the dark abyss, was shocked by what he saw.

The abyss was slowly disappearing.

“The abyss is slowly…”

Fung!

Kaboom!

Teddy turned around to Kieran, wanting to deliver the good news but Kieran threw out the gas tank nonetheless.

This explosion was louder and shook the ground harder than any other time before.

Teddy’s ears even buzzed.

Aaaaa!

A distinct scream entered his ears amid the buzz.

The scream sounded wicked and ferocious, Teddy couldn’t help but hold his kitchen knife tightly, readying himself for combat but nothing came, even after some time.

The darkness in front of the restaurant disappeared, revealing a straight corridor.

“T-This is… the corridor of Ai City University!”

Teddy cried in shock after he got a clear view. It was very familiar to him.

He had been to the site and flipped through pictures a lot recently because of the missing case. He could almost count how many bricks and tiles were used to build the corridor.

“What should we do? Go in and check things out?” Teddy was helpless against the unusual phenomenon.

He put all his hope on to Kieran, who seemed to know the situation.

He then saw another gas tank Kieran had taken out.

“How many gas tanks do you keep in your kitchen?” Teddy couldn’t help but ask.

“There are four stoves in the kitchen,” Kieran answered and then threw the gas tank outside again.

Kabooom!

The gas tank rolled out quite some distance before the explosion.

The shockwave shook the corridor, but the glass windows in the corridor weren’t shattered, even the ground did not shake this time.

Even though Teddy wasn’t familiar with the unusual phenomenon, he knew this seemingly familiar corridor wasn’t the one that he remembered.

Unfortunately, there was only one gas tank left, otherwise…

“How the hell do you still have gas tanks? Didn’t you say you had only 4 stoves?”

Just when Chief Teddy felt pity that they couldn’t cause sufficient damage to the scene to witness the change on the corridor, he turned around to Kieran and saw he and Starbeck pushing out a cart of gas tanks from the kitchen.

“Who told you that 4 stoves equals 4 gas tanks? Keeping gas tanks for cooking is common sense, isn’t it?” Kieran answered and took another gas tank, lighting it up and throwing into the corridor again.

Kaboom!

An explosion happened again. The corridor, which wasn’t affected by the previous explosion, was finally damaged, the glasses shattering and the ground breaking, causing a chain reaction leading to its collapse.

After the corridor collapsed, the original street outside the restaurant returned.

“It’s gone!?”

Teddy shouted in joy.

Kieran smiled coldly and then took another gas tank. He lit it up and threw it out again.

Kaboom!