The Devil’s Cage

“Ga, ga, ga!”

The scrawny face slightly opened its mouth and a sharp irritating voice sounded, followed by disgusting and sticky saliva dripping out.

Kieran frowned and wanted to step back to evade the disgusting saliva but a couple of withered palms sprung out from the ground and caught his feet.

Kieran was not just pinned down, he was pulled into the ground!

More importantly, the ground with pebbles somehow turned into an area of mud.

The bloody red mud behaved like a real swamp as it devoured the bodies around the area.

A couple of breaths of time later, over a dozen bodies were devoured.

Likewise, the lower part of Kieran’s calf was dragged into the mud and it didn’t stop there.

Bubbles after bubbles rose up from the mud and vile stench burst out when it popped. When each of the bubbles popped, a body that it has devoured was spat out.

The body that was bathing in a bloody red liquid was brought back to life. They were like wild animals, growling non-stop at their target.

Then, they threw themselves at Kieran in a frenzied manner.

A moment later, dozens of bodies piled up on top of Kieran like a pyramid, drowning him inside. The blood-like mud around swirled rapidly, it seemingly formed a gigantic mouth and swallowed the entire pile of bodies, including Kieran, into the ground.

After everything was swallowed, the blood-like mud started to fade and returned the ground back to its original state, including the other bodies.

A thumb-sized blood pearl formed out of the bloody mud after it gathered and flew towards the shadow with a trail of red light, landing on an elderly’s palm.

“Arrogant fool! I won’t kill you but you will wish that you are dead!”

As the elderly figure spoke with his aged voice, he turned around and wanted to leave.

However, the moment he turned around, the elder with the priest robe was stunned on the spot.

Before him was Kieran whose face was bathing under the moonlight; his mantle was fluttering with the night breeze, the reflection on the crow feathers looked like metallic luster.

“You!?”

The elderly priest unconsciously looked at the blood pearl in his hand and it was the last action that he took before his life ended.

[Arrogant Word] with its bewitching glimmer sliced the person in half.

That blood pearl flew up high with an orange glow before falling into Kieran’s hand.

[Name: Temptation of Bottomless Hell]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Attribute: Death Imprisonment, ½]

[Prerequisite: Spirit A+]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: This is a high-rank item forged by Sin Temple.]

…

[Death Imprisonment: Present at a tribute of at least 10 intact and tenacious souls to create an illusory realm that can affect reality itself (the more souls given as tribute, the more powerful the trap will be). Target locked onto will have to go through an S rank Spirit authentication (No higher than SSS+). Should the Target pass, they will not be affected; Should the Target fail, the target will have their soul imprisoned inside and the body will quickly die.]

…

“This item is so Sin Temple. Am I right?”

Kieran’s index finger and thumb were rolling the pearl as he sighed softly.

At a shadowy spot further away, the shadows started to wiggle and formed a figure. The figure slowly walked out from the shadow.

It was a thick-bearded middle-aged man with brown hair who only showed his eyes and nose. He was donned leather armor, had a bow on his back and short knives around his waist.

Beside him was a hunting hound. The hunting hound was large and black. When it stood up with all four of its limbs, its height could reach a common grown man’s upper thigh.

Its head was wide and it bared its sharp white fangs, showing off an extraordinary potential crushing force and agility.

Despite all of those features, the hunting hound was nothing but a decent one, it wouldn’t have caught Kieran’s attention.

The thing that concerned Kieran was the shadow beneath the hunting hound’s legs, it looked like mist and was rumbling around ceaselessly.

The man also relied on the hunting hound’s abilities to hide in the shadows.

“Magical being? Or an altered divine being?” Kieran wondered.

As for the man’s identity? It was too obvious.

Anyone who dressed like a hunter, possessed a certain strength, and had an outstanding hunting hound around him could only be from Hunter Temple.

Hunterox was a God that countless hunters believed in. Still, it didn’t mean Kieran would accept the man for hiding in the shadows and appearing all of a sudden.

“Sir Ryan, I bear no ill intentions. I am Herasu from Hunter Temple and I bear goodwill!”

Herasu’s sharp senses picked up the changes in Kieran’s aura, so he spoke quickly.

The hunting hound beside Herasu was baring its teeth at Kieran at first but when it caught Kieran’s gaze, it hid behind its master after being frightened.

In fact, not only the hunting hound but the master also shared the same feeling.

After seeing the bodies of the Sin Knights all over the place and Kieran not even suffering a scratch from the trap laid by Sin Temple, Herasu knew what kind of attitude he had to use with Kieran and because of that he really wished he could scold Pudd—his student—as loud as he could.

If it wasn’t for his ignorant student, how could he have ended up in this awkward position as if he was being questioned?

“Bear goodwill? Yours alone or from Hunter Temple altogether?”

Kieran casually asked Herasu after looking at him with a ridiculing gaze.

Herasu wanted to say it was his own goodwill but when he caught Kieran’s gaze, the words were altered when it reached his mouth.

“I bear goodwill from Hunter Temple. The Partner Festival is upon us and we hoped to invite Sir Ryan here to join this celebration of the hunters.” Herasu was being all serious, he didn’t seem like he changed his statement at the very last moment.

“Mm. Okay, I’ll participate on behalf of Thorn Temple.” Kieran nodded.

Then, he quietly turned his eyes at a certain spot. He felt slightly surprised.

Kieran senses picked up a presence rapidly approaching them.

After killing the elderly priest, Kieran thought other Sin Temple related personnel wouldn’t appear again.

What an unusual act!

Kieran instantly heightened his guard.

As the presence came closer and closer, Herasu and his hunting hound would have sensed it but after the words from Kieran, Herasu’s thoughts were chaotic.

Even the hunting hound hadn’t come back to its sense after being glared at by Kieran.

So, Herasu was destined to be the one who suffered but despite the bad timing, Herasu was still thinking and hesitating.

Inviting Kieran as a single individual and inviting him representing Thorn Temple were two completely different concepts for Hunter Temple.

The former might still provide space for them to turn things around but the latter would send Hunter Temple the complete opposite way of Wealth Temple and Sin Temple.

It wasn’t a good thing for Hunter Temple which had remained in a neutral state but when Herasu caught Kieran’s gaze that seemed calm yet pressured him from top to bottom, he quickly nodded.

“No problem! No problem at all! I just hope that you can spare Pudd for his disrespectful words towards you, all of those were because he is deeply revered you and also because of Bocard, that’s why he didn’t choose his words properly.”

Herasu clenched his teeth and defended his student.

At that particular moment, Herasu didn’t care anymore. It might bring more trouble but all he could do now was to compensate for it at a later time.

Now, the best thing for him to do was to clear the potential troubles that might spring up in the near future.

However, as Herasu’s words subsided, a furious growl sounded from afar.

“HERASU!”

Herasu’s face instantly turned ugly and he never thought that particular person would really appear before his eyes, he thought the incident would have laid to rest for a while after seeing [Temptation of Bottomless Hell] in action.

Who knew…

“A-Archpriest Burwell!”

Herasu was squeezing the words out of his mouth with a shivering voice.