The Devil’s Cage

The monstrous mouth was being devoured.

With Devil Kieran and the cardinal sins ripping it apart, there was nothing left behind of the giant mouth.

The cardinal sins then vanished on the spot, returning to Kieran’s heart after having a satisfying meal.

Kieran clearly felt the external energy he got from the mouth. It did not belong to the Dawn, the devil, or even the cardinal sins yet it did not clash with either of them.

It even had an unknown benefit to the cardinal sins.

As he felt the overjoyed, cardinal sins caused a more rigorous beating of his heart, Kieran reverted to his human form after the duration was over. He frowned.

He did not know whether this consumption was a good thing or a bad thing but he didn’t have the time to ponder the matter.

Kieran sized up the surroundings.

Sin Temple was emptied of people and after the ugly battle, it was filled with craters and looked desolated. Especially the divine light from the Interrogator, it started to fade away!

It was definitely not a normal thing.

When the divine light of a God started to fade, it mean it was falling! Similar to Lady Wealth!

But how did the Interrogator die?

He did not really fight the giant mouth and the mouth only ate the statue. The giant mouth was far from reaching the level of a God in terms of strength.

Could it be…

Kieran instinctively thought of Lady Thorn.

“It’s not what you think. Return to Thorn Temple, I’ll explain everything to you. Hurry!”

Lady Thorn urged Kieran in a never before seen anxiousness.

Keiran frowned.

Although he didn’t know what was going on, Lady Thorn’s anxious tone told him things were getting severe.

Without delay, Kieran grabbed Starbeck by the collar from behind the pillar’s shadow like a cat and sprinted out.

However, the moment he stepped out of Sin Temple, Kieran’s face turned heavy.

All the divine lights of the Gods in the temple district that he could lay eyes on were rippling. It was very small to the point that common people couldn’t even tell but it was very obvious in his sight.

“What is going on?” Kieran asked himself. He ran even faster but when he was still some distance away from Thorn Temple, he was stopped by someone.

Anxico.

He looked exactly like how Kieran met him for the first time: a gunny mantle and hood over his head, his face was smiling and was staring at Kieran with his gray eyes without pupils.

“Archpriest Ryan, can you see what is going on?” Anxico asked slowly.

“This is all your handy work?” Kieran asked directly.

“You can say that. So how is it? How is your consideration?” Anxico asked.

“Isn’t it a little bit rushed? We only met a couple hours ago. I need to carefully think over such a huge decision.” Kieran trying to brush him off with his words while the gears in his mind spun as fast as he could.

“This is all Anxico’s handy work? If he really can do something like this, why would he want to see me before? With this kind of power, even without me he could easily achieve his so called plans for revenge. He didn’t even need me in the first place… wait!”

“What if he didn’t need me for my powers?”

Kieran suddenly thought of something as he pondered upon the matter. He quickly expanded developed the particular thought.

“Anxico didn’t need my powers, he needed me as a person! Wait, no, no, no! More precisely, he gave my the Frost Wolf pup so I could participate in the Festival of Partners at Hunter Temple and at the festival…”

Kieran immediately thought of Pudd who was murdered and Herasu who behaved in an unusual manner.

“His target was Pudd all along?! What’s so special about Pudd? What made him drain all his blood?”

More questions popped up one after another in Kieran’s heart.

Likewise, what popped up in his heart was also the reason why Anxico came forward to him.

It was none other than the death of that monstrous mouth.

Or, to stall him from seeing Lady Thorn back at Thorn Temple.

When the thought came into his mind, Kieran’s eyes at Anxico became cold, he silently dished out a kick at him.

“You are really smart,” Anxico laughed.

Just as Anxico spoke, his body turned translucent. Kieran’s left kick went through his body without any resistance.

However, Anxico who was smiling suddenly changed his expression. An irresistible pain started to cover his face. The pain came from his soul and it made him growl heavily.

“Impossible! You can hurt my soul? The Interrogator should have fallen!”

As Anxico soul growled inconceivably, it swiftly dispersed followed by a [Cracked Soul Shard] falling down to the ground. At the same time a vague aura quickly dashed off.

Kieran glanced in the direction where the vague aura dashed. He didn’t give chase though.

He knew what was his priority currently was.

He grabbed Starbeck by the collar and sprinted towards Thorn Temple again.

…

Officiant Einderson was already kneeling in front of Lady Thorn’s statue, quietly waiting for her instructions. Despite the statue shining brightly, other than the initial summon, there was not a single word from the God.

Einderson knew Lady Thorn was waiting for her archpriest.

Compared to him, an old, unqualified officiant, the archpriest was the truly trustworthy one.

Einderson didn’t feel any jealousy though. His devoted beliefs and experience through age allowed him to know what he should do at the moment. He waited patiently, quietly for the archpriest’s arrival.

Dak Dak Dak!

Rapid footsteps approached.

Kieran strode in the grand hall like the wind.

“Ryan, it’s good to see you again before the battle of life and death. You have proved yourself again and didn’t let me down.”

The statue of Lady Thorn opened her eyes like a real person as he looked at Kieran beneath her feet. Her words had an obvious signs of comfort.

“Save your questions, time is running out. Listen to me. The Devourer has awoken again. It is our arch nemesis. We have been battling it ceaselessly over many centuries and 300 years ago, Hero Algor’s assistance allowed us to triumph over it but 300 years later, we have to face it ourselves. This time, it’s hard for us to escape alive…”

“Ryan, head north! There is another hidden temple of mine there and I will be waiting for you to awaken me again!” The statue uttered words after words.

Inches of light on the statue started to gather and formed a figure. Lady Thorn then appeared before Kieran.

She didn’t appear in her coarse long dress and straw shoes anymore but was donning her own unique armor while wielding a sword and a shield.

Lady Thorn then slowly walked outside the temple.

In fact, not only Lady Thorn, Harvest, Mercy, War, Valiant, Love, Hunter, Melody and others took up their battle ready form in their own respective temple; each of their godly figures was shining as they flew up to the sky.

All except for Lightning!

As the strongest within Naveya, Lightning Temple went completely silent at this particular moment. There was not a single movement from that temple but the Gods did not wait any longer.

All of them gathered in the sky, all sorts of colorful divine lights shined brightly across the sky yet the usual comfortable feeling was absent.

What replaced the comfortable feeling was endless depression, as though tons of weight was being placed on their bodies.

Prayers sounded of from their respective temples. It turned into the purest of energy and was enchanted on the Gods, making their shine every more dazzling.

The believers of the Gods were also leaving swiftly. The officiants and archpriests of their respective temple led their believers and evacuated temple district quickly.

Thorn Temple was no exception either but it wasn’t Kieran who led the group. It was Einderson.

Everyone who was evacuated were astonished beyond words. They knew the ones being evacuated were the seeds of fire, the seeds that could reignite the fire of their respective temples.

Kieran was much more suitable than Einderson to prolong the legacy of the temple regardless of aspects but he didn’t leave.

All the astonished ones saw Kieran standing in the empty square in the middle of the temple district, wielding his greatsword as he looked up to the sky.

The burning battle intent transformed into a powerful tornado, rumbling around Kieran.

The bewitching greatsword was emanating a pleasant buzz.

“He… What does he…”

Someone guessed correctly what Kieran wanted to do and it was because of that, they couldn’t suppress the shock in their heart.

Suddenly, the sky turned dark.

A long yet gigantic body slowly emerged from the dark clouds, it’s curling and twisting body was covering the sky itself.

It was…