The Devil’s Cage

Inside a certain part of the abandoned sewer under Edland City, Melanie’s already cold face was completely frozen at that moment.

It even felt like even the temperature around her had dropped quite a bit.

It made the other Hounds unconsciously draw distance from her while Melanie herself stared at the magic circle on the ground.

The base of the magic circle was a hexagram, then two circles both big and small formed the advanced placement beside the hexagram on the left and right respectively.

Some small holes were present in all six edges of the hexagram and inside the big and small circles had traces of items being placed on it.

Although the knowledge that Melanie mastered couldn’t allow her to completely dissect this magic circle, based on what she saw and the power of the lingering aura, she was sure that someone had performed a conversion process here.

Converting the fruit of Yggdrasil into one’s own strength!

“Tell me, who is responsible for this block?” Melanie asked with each and every word being enunciated.

“It’s Jarles!” One of the Hound uttered the new Hound’s name without hesitation.

“Hey man, this isn’t my fault. The map that I got wasn’t the older version of Edland City! This place has been abandoned for over 70 to 80 years, who knew that guy could find this place!” Jarles explained again and again.

However, Melanie and the other Hounds wouldn’t accept his explanation.

They looked at the new guy with fierce gazes, ready to throw themselves at him, tearing him apart and split his possessions.

Jarles as the new Hound had quite a few decent items on him other than his own strength.

Many other Hounds started to approach him slowly.

The new Hound was in a tight spot.

Right at the next moment, a series of footsteps sounded.

The footsteps sounded in unison but were messy when heard together.

A team of thirty men appeared at the end of the tunnel and behind the group of men was a noisy crowd.

The Hounds instantly gave up their thoughts of ganging up on the new guy when they saw the group of thirty. They stood together in formation and looked across with heavy expressions.

As for the noisy crowd behind the thirty, the Hounds didn’t even spare a glance but it didn’t mean the crowd would stay back honestly.

“Look, there!”

“It’s really the Twenty Hounds!”

“The Twenty Hounds of the Elder Council and the knights from the Saint Relic Association, we are in for a good showdown!”

Whispers of excitement and taking pleasure from the misfortunate encounter sounded from the crowd but more of them placed their eyes on the magic circle on the ground.

Then, some of them with better knowledge started to look upset, so did the Knights of the association.

“Garcia, Jerad, Gryfen, Leslie, Quake, Eder, the six major churches of the Saint Relic Association, what are you people upset about?” Melanie’s clear voice was filled with sneers.

“Just some little things… compared to what’s between us!”

The knight standing in the front row said.

His voice was sonorous and sounded like thunder to the ears, not only did his voice suppress the clamor behind him, it shook quite a number of people and made them fall on the ground as if they were drunk.

His voice also acted as a signal of command, the thirty knights including him then charged towards the Twenty Hounds directly.

As mortal enemies, the Saint Relic Association and the Elder Council had no need for idle chatter.

A battle would be the only interaction between them and it would last for eternity.

All sorts of churches’ inheritance skills shone amidst the group of knights and merged in unison, causing changes that astonished one’s eyes.

The mystics behind the Knights opened their eyes wide at figures of illusive men descending from the sky one after another, opening their arms, staring down at their enemies or chanting loudly.

Then, a layer of dazzling brilliance clouded the entire team.

Each of the knights became stronger and fiercer, their aura was sharper and heavier under the brilliance.

Even if the mystics were quite far away from the knights, they could felt the overflowing energy from the knights.

“That’s Garcia!”

“That’s Gryfen and that’s Leslie!”

“And that, that’s Eder!”

“This… This is the God’s Descent!”

The voices sounded one after another and eventually, it could all be summed up into a single phrase.

The mystics had fear and anxiety all over their faces.

After all, it was very pressuring when the several founders of the churches that had God-like powers were mentioned, especially some of them who had done something guilty, they even started to back off instinctively.

In this dungeon world, there were rumors of divine beings who came down and sanctioned sinners.

However, after a mere step backing off, the mystics realized the entrance they came through had been sealed off without them knowing.

An area of black mist blocked the tunnel as if it was it had truly materialized, not only blocking the mystics’ retreat but also plunging them into a puddle of mud, immobilizing them.

The more terrifying thing was, the black mist was wriggling forward, devouring each and every mystic that stood in its way.

Each time it took on a mystic, that man would cry out in agonizing pain, followed by peeling skin and bleeding organs, turning into a pile of bones in the end.

But, the bones didn’t die! It used its deep eye sockets to stare into the others who were still standing there a while ago.

Although the skeletons were without eyeballs, all of the others still quivered when being stared down. It was fear on a much deeper level.

“What is this?”

“Damn it!”

“Go away!”

…

Fear made those mystics who came for a possible gains curse out loud.

They were struggling hard, trying to get away from the black mist but their efforts were futile.

On the contrary, it only hastened their deaths.

“Help me!”

“Please, help me!”

“Help me!”

Cries for help sounded relentless but for those charging knights, the opponents in front of them were more important than saving those avaricious men.

The ridiculing gaze in Melanie’s eyes was getting denser as she controlled the item in her hand.

Everything was as her expectations.

Those mystics who discovered the real thoughts of the knights cursed again, against the danger of dying, it made the men throw their reverence to the association behind them.

“You bastards fishing for fame and credit!”

“Is that the path of a knight that you bastards uphold so dearly?”

“You people will die a horrible death!”

…

Such cursing filled the entire sewer tunnel but at the next moment, it stopped abruptly.

Pillars of emerald fire burst out from the mystics’ eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths.

The emerald fire then gathered up quickly, and charged towards the illusive figures above the knights with all the negative emotions towards the Saint Relic Association.

The illusive figures with slight holy brilliance were instantly engulfed by the special flame.

The brilliance that shed its light on the knights started to dim but the more terrifying thing was the skeletons behind!

As the black mist rumbled behind, all the skeletons merged into a giant skeleton palm.

The skeleton palm then clenched into a fist and smashed towards the knights who were entangled by the flames with a loud bang.

BANG!

As the brilliance wobbled, it grew dimmer.

The Hounds on the other side let out series of vicious laughs. They were anticipating the next scene that will happen.

So, none of them saw or even noticed that the new Hound Jarles was slowly shifting his steps, quietly approaching Melanie.