The Devil’s Cage

The cold voice, as cold as the arctic wind, froze Sivalka, even his bones starting to hurt, but he dared not move a muscle at the moment.

He knew who this old man was, Hunting Knife Anderson!

Although he looked a lot older in the pictures, the basic contours of his face were still recognizable and… that dagger that moved like a ghost!

The automatic dagger that required no wielding and was able to hunt down its prey was the signature move of the Hunting Knife!

Factoring in the comments about how ruthless he was towards pagans, Sivalka shook his head repeatedly, despite the fact that he didn’t know why a dead person would appear before his eyes.

“No! I am not! As for how the Watcher became one, I only know a few details about it. My remnant kept whispering in my ears recently, it wanted me to do something but I was too much of a coward and didn’t follow. I’m just someone who is able to use the remnant and before I came out from the Dark Hall, I left my remnant back there!” said Sivalka in a confirming tone.

Anderson didn’t even have to ask and Sivalka spilled the beans on his own.

It wasn’t about boldness or courage, it was just that in that little notebook about titled Demon Hunters, it clearly said that one better be honest in front of a titled Demon Hunter if he wanted to live. A Demon Hunter disliked beating around the bush and bullying the weak.

After the quick explanation, Sivalka looked at the old hunter with a pitiful expression.

Honor?

Dignity?

He was the coward Sivalka, not a noble or knight. He didn’t care about the mentioned traits, all he wanted was to live.

The old hunter glanced over Sivalka with a curious gaze and furrowed brows.

His experience told him the person before him wasn’t lying but because of the honesty, things took a turn for the worst.

Anderson knew nothing about what a remnant was but he knew what had happened to the Watcher that he just killed. Deducing from there, everything came into the light.

War God Temple was using the pagans in their assimilation experiments!

It was exactly what Silent Night Secret Society did back then!

“Have the folks at War God Temple gone mad? Do they know what they are doing?”

The old hunter questioned Sivalka in a heavy grumble.

“I-I am just an armed deacon, I’m a very foregin member from the core, I don’t know what the details are,” Sivalka was on the brink of breaking down as he replied.

It was the fact, he didn’t lie.

Although he had the title of an armed deacon, he didn’t have the corresponding rights and authority. He even had to exchange his rest time with mission time.

As a matter of fact, throughout the 15 years that he had been in the Dark Hall, other than that one particular high rank who taught him before, he had never seen other high rank officers before.

Or, Sivalka was avoiding them intentionally. He just wanted to live his life steadily and had no intention to involve himself in something big.

However, at this very moment, he had a premonition that he couldn’t escape what was coming.

The next moment, the old hunter stared at him with those intimidating eyes of his and said “What did that remnant whisper in your ears? Tell me everything.”

“O-Okay,” Sivalka nodded.

Following Sivalka’s revelation, the furrowed brows on Anderson’s face locked tighter than ever.

Things were much more complicated than he thought, the pagans were much more cunning than before.

No! Not cunning, they had evolved! They had grown!

Spending several decades in the battle with man, these pagans weren’t those predatory instinct monsters anymore, they had evolved into much more complicated creatures that understood the importance of scheming and planning.

This incident was the perfect example of their evolution.

The pagans were planning to ride on the experiments performed by the War God Temple and cause an uprising to destroy Edatine Castle, turning the whole city into their dining ground.

Whether or not the Silent Night Secret Society was involved, the old Hunter still had no idea, but he knew if he just sat around and did nothing, huge trouble would come.

With that thought in mind, he drew the silver dagger from his waist and sliced it over Sivalka’s palm.

“Aaa!”

The sudden slice shocked Sivalka and made him cry out sharply.

“Shut up! This is just a test!” Anderson shouted at Sivalka to stop him from making a fuss.

Looking at the cut on his palm, tears pooled in Sivalka’s eyes.

Pain! It was really painful!

Other than cutting his finger ten years ago when he was cutting his nails, there was no other time that he had bled.

The red blood from the palm slightly eased up the old hunter, at least this Sivalka hadn’t been assimilated.

“Take this.”

The old hunter tossed a roll of gauze and a dagger to Sivalka.

Sivalka looked at Anderson in a daze.

He knew the gauze was for him to patch himself up, but the dagger… he didn’t want to fight at all!

“I am not good at fighting, can I…”

“Are you a coward? You have a body better than normal people and are quite skilled in combat techniques yet you want to hide like a coward?” Anderson was obviously angered by Sivalka’s cowardliness.

Sivalka shrunk his neck, looking down and keeping quiet, but his attitude said it all.

Anderson the old Demon Hunter took another glance at Sivalka, ultimately grunting coldly and disappearing from the spot.

A Demon Hunter would never force others into submission.

Neither would they force others to compromise or to join their ranks.

Everything about a Demon Hunter was voluntary.

Life and death were related in his line of profession, so no one could make the choice on behalf of others.

It is your life and you should be responsible for it, even if it is running away.

The old Demon Hunter vanished like the wind.

Sivalka heaved a long breath.

It seemed like what the little notebook wrote was real, a Demon Hunter would not force others into submission, otherwise he would have died here.

As he quickly wrapped his hand with the gauze, Sivalka was thinking about the situation.

He couldn’t go back to Dark Hall anymore because he couldn’t explain how the Watcher died.

Even if he could provide an excuse, he would still have to go through some interrogation.

He knew he wouldn’t make it through the harsh torture.

Other than that, it was the uprising!

Dark Hall would be the epicenter.

The blabbering whispers in his ears were telling him how strong they were inside Dark Hall.

Once he headed back and exposed that he wasn’t one of them, death would be waiting for him.

So…

“All I can do is run?” Sivalka sighed helplessly.

He unconsciously headed to the fences beside the road and looked down.

The night in Edatine Castle was quiet.

Even the most prosperous commercial district was left with scattered lights, let alone the Lower Seven Ring.

Other than the several permitted taverns, military camps, and on top of the walls, all other areas were blanketed by darkness.

Sivalka looked down at the slum area at the Lower Seven Ring.

His gaze was apologetic.

“I’m sorry, Ellie. I think I might have to come back a little later…”

Before his whispers finished, his eyes were widened out of shock.

Fire!

A blazing fire burst up into the sky from the slums.

What followed was an ear-deafening explosion.

KABOOM!

The whole of Edatine Castle was awoken, lights lit up one after another.

The sleeping citizens woke up and walked out from their houses while wearing clothes. They were looking at the slum area in the Lower Seven Ring in shock, as if they had no idea what had just happened.

Sivalka knew, so he shook his head repeatedly.

“Impossible! It should be the Dark Hall! Why the slums?! Impossible!?”

As Sivalka shook his head, he stepped backwards, and because of his astonishment, he did not notice the crevice between two stone plates and stepped into it, causing him to fall on the ground.

When his face touched the dirty, cold snow on the ground, he finally realized it.

He turned and climbed up, then grabbed the dagger he got from Anderson and jumped down from the edge of the Central Third Ring, dashing towards the Lower Seven Ring.

…

Ellie was extra happy due to receiving half an extra egg for dinner.

The egg white was soft and chewy, the egg yolk was rich and aromatic.

Erin even gave her the bigger half.

Ellie wanted to reject it at firs but the boiled egg was too delicious.

She couldn’t hold back and agreed to take it.

The porridge cooked with charcoal bread had the dried herbal leaves she and Erin picked during summer and it tasted great.

Especially when Ellie could have a whole piece of charcoal bread in the morning, her anticipation rose to its peak.

With the anticipation rumbling in her heart, she couldn’t sleep.

She wanted to talk to Erin but Erin was already asleep beside her.

On the other bed beside theirs, their mother was also snoring.

Their mother tends to exhaust herself more than the two little girls.

Knowing how tired her mother was, Elli obediently shrunk herself into the blanket and tried to force herself to sleep.

Only with a good night of sleep could she gain enough energy and be able to share the burden with her mother.

As she wrapped herself around the thought, she started to get drowsy.

Dong, Dong, Dong!

A sudden knock on their door woke Ellie up.

The knocks were slow but heavy.

Ellie wasn’t just the one, even Erin and their mother had woken up.

Being abruptly awoken from a winter night, their mother did not grumble at all. Instead, she was cautious about the knocks.

She grabbed the woodcutting knife in her hand.

Erin grabbed the chopping knife from under her pillow and Ellie had a sharp stick with her.

They had to rely on everything in the slums to survive but their house and living environment were by no means a happy home, especially at night.

If they were careless, they might not even see the sun a second morning.

Dong, Dong, Dong!

The knocks continued, and they were heavier than before.

The latch was knocked off after several more knocks, the door opened up into a crack as the mother blocked it from opening fully with a table.

Scarlet red eyes peeked into the crack.

The mother shuddered with fear when she saw the eye.

It wasn’t what she thought but much worse than what she expected.

“Erin, Ellie, run! Go to Uncle Cripple!” said the mother softly.

Erin, who was old enough to understand the situation, didn’t say anything and grabbed her younger sister towards the kitchen.

There was an emergency exit located in the kitchen.

The wooden walls of this broken house had started to rot due to the poor environment and harsh weather, hence a rather sizable hole was opened at the bottom of the wall. The hole was big enough for a child to squeeze through. During other days, the mother used snow to cover the outside and blocked the snow using a wooden plank inside.

Erin removed the wooden plank and used the chopping knife in her hand as a shovel, shoveling the snow away before she brought her sister out from the hole.

Holding hands, Erin ran straight to Uncle Cripple.

After the two little girls ran about a dozen meters away…GROOOM!

The house they once lived in collapsed.

A three meter tall monster stood on top of the ruins and was chewing on blood.

“Sis…”

“Shut up! Run!”

Erin stopped her sister before she could even finish.

She knew what her sister wanted to say, but not now, neither of them could afford to stop!

They had to run away before the monster came for them.

The chewing noise gradually grew soft.

Uncle Cripple’s house was already within their sight.

Compared to their own, Uncle Cripple’s house was bigger and much more crowded with people.

They would surely have a certain level of defensive capabilities.

More importantly, the quirky Uncle Cripple was a nice person.

Otherwise, no matter how safe Uncle Cripple’s place was, Erin wouldn’t dare to come.

Holding her sister’s hand, Erin ran faster, but it was at that moment that a fire started to burn.

Fire burned from inside Uncle Cripple’s house, followed by relentless explosions.

KABOOM!

The explosive shockwave sent the girls falling down the floor.

The two of them gazed at the fire engulfing the house in a daze.

Ellie was completely lost, Erin was also lost but she managed to regain her senses right away.

They couldn’t stay any longer!

The fire was too bright!

“Go there!”

Erin brought her sister to a pile of firewood and pulled her sister inside with her.

This little hiding spot was the safest that she could find.

The two little girls hid behind a bunch of firewood, looking at that weird one-eyed bird, that three-headed giant, that jackal with a giant mouth on its back, and many translucent ghostly figures. Their petite bodies were frozen, not by the cold but in fear.

They had no idea why so many monsters would appear in the slums but they knew one thing: they couldn’t make a single noise if they wanted to live.

But not making a sound was not a viable option either.

The jackal with a giant mouth on its back was sniffing the air, closing in on the pile of firewood.

The tongue on that giant mouth kept licking disgustingly.

A vile stench was carried by the night wound into the pile of firewood.

Erin gripped her chopping knife tightly. She didn’t throw it away when they were running away, and Ellie’s sharp stick was there too.

The two little girls looked nervously at the monster coming closer to them.

However, when the monster was three meters away from the pile of firewood, a gunshot from far away attracted its attention.

The monster turned around and ran towards the source of the gunshot.

The two little girls heaved a breath of relief at the same time, but at the next moment the firewood in front of them was lifted away.

They were completely exposed! The pair of scarlet eyes were staring at them.

That three meter tall body was drenched in blood.

“Delicious food!” mumbled the three meter tall giant. It then moved its hand to grab the two little girls.

Erin pushed her sister behind her and raised the chopping knife against the monster.

She hoped to protect her sister, but the hand holding the knife was shaking endlessly.

She knew it was impossible because of the gap in strength.

Tears rolled down from the tough and mature young lady, screaming her heart out.

‘Someone please save us!

Anyone!

Please save us!

God of War!

Lady Calamity!

Can you hear our call?

Save us! Or just save my sister!

I am willing to exchange my own life for my sister’s life!

Screams and prayers overflowed from her heart but she didn’t get any reply.

The giant palm was getting closer and closer, pressuring her with despair.

She was drowned by darkness, but right before she gave up, a voice sounded from her heart.

“Are you willing to worship the Mist?”