The Devil’s Cage

Kieran raised a brow at Starbeck who was crying out loud.

He first stopped Starbeck from throwing himself over with a stern gaze before he grabbed Starbeck’s collar as he headed towards the secret hideout.

Kieran didn’t even have to ask. Based on Starbeck’s ugly cry, he already knew what happened but one thing was out of his expectation though.

The attacker’s identity!

When Kieran saw the unconscious Maize, Mizelle, Pelker, plus the empty hideout, thoughts came into his mind. Based on the lingering negative energy in the air, it allowed Kieran to know that the attacker was dead, otherwise, Starbeck wouldn’t have appeared before him that smoothly.

The attacker was dead but the body vanished.

Plus, the attacker was able to silently knock out Maize, Mizelle, Pelker and a dozen more of his men, it added more depth into the identity of the attacker.

It was a clone! A clone of a God!

In this dungeon world, other than the clone of a God who was able to easily achieve this feat, Kieran couldn’t think of anyone else. Coincidentally, Kieran had quite the grudge with a certain God too.

However, Kieran didn’t act recklessly. In order to verify his speculations, Kieran still questioned Starbeck about what happened.

“When you left, are you sure that attacker is really dead?” Kieran asked.

“Mm, mm, dead,” Starbeck answered as he sobbed.

His answer made Kieran squint his eyes, coldness too started to shine in Kieran’s gaze.

“Follow me!” Kieran said to Starbeck.

Starbeck nodded as he continued sobbing while following Kieran quietly.

Kieran did not circle around the place or make any stops, instead, he headed directly to Sin Temple.

“What are you trying to do?”

Lady Thorn who was watching Kieran spoke to Kieran through telepathy after Kieran stepped into the temple district.

“What do you think I am trying to do?” Kieran replied with his question.

“Because of a servant?”

Lady Thorn glanced at Starbeck. She didn’t notice what so special about him, he was a coward, weak, and almost useless, other than being able to stand beside Kieran, Starbeck was utterly useless.

In simple words, from how Lady Thorn viewed Starbeck, he was just there to adorn Kieran, the extremely inconspicuous kind.

“He is not a servant,” Kieran emphasized.

Starbeck had a special identity, despite him being cowardly and almost useless, Kieran would not treat him as a servant. Besides, from how Kieran viewed him, Starbeck wasn’t all that useless, at least his cooking was good, just that he couldn’t be honest with Lady Thorn on this matter.

Therefore, Kieran brushed it off with a vague answer.

“He is someone special to me,” Kieran said.

It wasn’t a lie though. Starbeck was his employer practically speaking and regarding the upcoming dungeon, it was not too much to acknowledge Starbeck as a special person.

“A special one? Every human has that one irreplaceable special existence and when someone dares to harm this special existence… you will kill without mercy?” Lady Thorn sounded curious with her words.

“Not just every human, even Gods are the same,” Kieran said slowly.

“What a scary state of mind! But to this weakling, it is the most reliable protection right?”

Lady Thorn gazed at Starbeck again.

Starbeck was still sobbing without noticing Lady Thorn’s presence. He wanted to reach out to Kieran’s coat with his fingers but as Kieran moved forward and purposely adjusted his steps to avoid Starbeck, he was not able to get a hold of Kieran.

Each time his fingers would graze over Kieran’s coat, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t catch it.

“What a stupid servant.” Lady Thorn commented on Starbeck in her heart.

In the end, Lady Thorn still couldn’t tell what was so special about Starbeck.

She gave up her attention to the stupid servant and focused her attention on Kieran.

“I hope that one day you can protect me like how you protect this little servant. I sense that when that day comes, I will need your help. It might seem weird to ask for help from a weaker existence like you but I still hope for a promise,” Lady Thorn said to Kieran.

“Is this the condition of helping me this time?” Kieran asked.

“No! It’s the condition of how many times I will help you before that day comes!” Lady Thorn answered.

“Condition of each time you’ll help me? Seems like you are really in big trouble! But… I promise you, I will give my best to help you without defying my own principles,” Kieran did not make a full promise.

A promise with a God was not some blabbering gibberish, even without the so-called contract, if he were to break the promise, the consequences would be much worse than a broken contract.

The book “God’s Words” and “The stories of mortals and Gods” that Kieran read in Nikorei’s collection mentioned a lot of mortals who broke promises with Gods, all of them ended up worse than you could even imagine.

“You are really a stingy and vigilant person. If I didn’t double check to make sure you really worship me, I might think that I’ve run into a fake believer.”

Lady Thorn sighed. She did not know of the existence of Nikorei, the God of Earth.

If her attention were not completely placed on Kieran, she would have noticed some inklings here and there. Lady Thorn would also realize from those inklings what kind of dangerous, horrifying power that was hiding in Kieran, those seemingly vicious, terrifying fake believers were nothing when compared.

It was not Kieran’s strength though but the kind of “affinity” that was forcefully added on Kieran which Lady Thorn didn’t even notice. It was all Nikorei’s handy work.

While under the influence of such “affinity”, Lady Thorn did not realize how different she treated Kieran compared to others. She would even think it was reasonable for her to do so.

As for Kieran, he still had his own habitual vigilance and calmness against any matter but since he hadn’t really come in contact with a real God, he didn’t understand a God’s pride.

From how Kieran viewed it, he was just finishing a deal with Lady Thorn, similar to how the natives made deals with their Gods.

Both of the involved did not realize anything unusual, let alone Starbeck who was just an observer.

“A fake believer? I am not that kind of person,” Kieran said in a natural tone.

“Mm.” Lady Thorn felt the authenticity in Kieran’s words.

She then gave Kieran one last reminder, “That God is different from Carricanton who ascended from mortal status. The Interrogator was already a God when this city was formed. You need to be extra careful.”

“Got it.”

Sin Temple was within sight, Kieran did not even pause as he barged into the temple.

However, when he stepped into the temple, his ears picked up an unusual sound.

Gak Cha, Gak Cha.

It sounded like something chewing on bones yet many times louder and clearer, as though thunder was echoing in the temple ceaselessly.

The sound came from the core area of Sin Temple.