The Devil’s Cage

It was a serpent!

A gigantic serpent that seemed to cover the sky itself.

The serpent head was as big as a temple, the tongue was as wide as a street; the saliva that dripped from its mouth could easily form a pond.

Its fangs were long, sharp, and appeared to be like small mountains yet with all those monstrous features, it didn’t have eyes.

It wasn’t born without a pair but they were dug away by something, two obvious wounds were left at its eye sockets.

However, the most terrifying point about the monstrous serpent wasn’t its gigantic body but its scales!

The scales of the gigantic serpent were different than the common ones, the scales on this monstrosity were alive!

Each of the scales had a giant mouth on it. Its sharp teeth were giving out irritating screeches as it opened and closed.

Gak Cha, Gak Cha!

The condensed crunching noises were coming from the serpent’s body ceaselessly, making it extra terrifying and vicious.

Kieran glanced over the hundreds and thousands of mouths on its scales, he squinted his eyes.

“So the gigantic mouth just now was part of this serpent’s scales?”

Kieran took a deep breath. He gripped [Arrogant Word] even tighter.

He knew how powerful the gigantic monstrous mouth was since he fought it just now yet that single mouth was just a single scale!

So, how powerful would the master of the scalebe?

Just look at the Gods rallying up against this monstrosity!

Despite all 22 of them rallying together, none of them dared to let their guard down.

On the contrary, Kieran felt the depression in from the light in the sky. He knew the Gods were facing their arch nemesis.

If it was possible, he definitely wished not to be a part of this monstrous battle but because of his main mission, he had no way to escape.

Be it the original one or the updated one.

His original mission was to ensure his identity not be exposed while staying in Naveya City for 4 weeks.

He was halfway through the main mission already but the sudden notification told him that the old main mission was completed early and a new one would replace it.

[Triggered key event, main mission completed earlier…]

[Special main mission appeared…]

[Special main mission: The terrifying Devourer has appeared. It is infamous for devouring Gods and it was awoken prematurely by the newly joined Follower. You need to inflict Light damage to the Devourer. (Any kind of damage is allowed, damage will be accumulated)]

…

Kieran glanced over the words in his vision.

The term “newly joined Follower” allowed him to have more guesses of the situation.

“The Followers? The self-proclaimed followers of the Hero’s descendants yet it was really the followers of the Devourer… still, its nature of toppling the temple is the same… What a confusing name! If Anxico was the original Follower, so who is this newly joined Follower?”

Kieran suddenly thought of Herasu out of the blue but he swiftly shook his head in denial.

He didn’t remove the suspicion on him but Herasu alone wouldn’t be qualified to participate in such an apocalyptic event.

Lady Thorn didn’t mention the Devourer was in slumber or where it was sealed but Kieran was sure the location was someplace off-limits to a mere priest. So there must be some higher ranking individual involved in this.

Who had a higher ranking than Herasu in Hunter Temple?

Archpriest Krecko!

Yet why would a real archpriest betray his own God, his own beliefs?

Other than being similar to Kieran’s situation there was only one other possibility.

The Hunter himself was also a follower of the Devourer!

It was really bizarre! Beyond any logic and reason. Yet it was the speculation Kieran had.

However, he wasn’t at all delighted despite getting the speculation.

Kieran felt chills on his back because if his speculations were correct, the other 21 Gods that seemed to be of aid to Lady Thorn weren’t even reliable!

Who could guarantee that the newly joined Follower was just the Hunter himself?

What if the other Gods were also part of the diabolic plan?

“Lady Vanessa, be careful of the Hunter and the other Gods!” Kieran gave a warning to Lady Thorn through telepathy.

He then turned to Starbeck who was hiding beside him.

“Did yours change?” Kieran spoke in a secret code that only the both of them knew.

“Mm, mm!” Starbeck nodded while trembling hard.

The moment the Devourer appeared, Starbeck’s mind went blank, he was stupefied.

A moment ago, everything was still looking normal. All he needed to do was survive a few more days to complete the dungeon world yet a moment later, the sky changed and a monster that was never before seen appeared before his eyes.

Starbeck would never understand how stubborn and frantic Kieran was in his bones since he cleared every dungeon without even doing anything.

Even though within this dungeon world where the Gods were the protagonists of the world, Kieran tried his best to trigger and complete all sorts of sub-missions, special events, and gave his fullest in triumphing and killing every enemy in his path.

Quantity will incite a qualitative change.

A bunch of small events will eventually alter the direction of how the world progresses.

Just like the Devourer which was supposed to be in slumber being awakened prematurely.

It was the result of those small changes.

Starbeck didn’t know all of that but even if he knew, he couldn’t do anything.

He was just an innocent observer who was there at the wrong time, or victim of the disaster of another’s doing.

Kieran, however, knew. He was different from Starbeck, even if he knew how catastrophic the event might turn out, he would do it again if he was given another chance and definitely be more frantic than this time.

Kieran knew what he must do since he knew his goal and what he wanted out of all this, this time was no exception.

However, Kieran also knew this was his choice, not Starbeck’s.

Once Kieran engaged the monstrosity, he wouldn’t have time to take care of Starbeck anymore.

So, his priority now was to let Starbeck leave.

“Do you have anything on you that can damage this monster lightly?” Kieran asked.

“Y-Yes. B-but it requires contact or for it to touch me,” Starbeck stuttered.

“Contact? After that do you have the confidence to hold on for 10 seconds?” Kieran raised a brow as he looked at Starbeck’s waist bag.

When Starbeck saw Kieran’s raised brow, a bad feeling struck him.

The instincts of a coward were usually sharper than others.

It was similar to how a small animal developed natural instincts against danger, Starbeck was one of the best in the category.

However, Starbeck nodded honestly against Kieran’s question.

“Y-Yes, I-I can!”

The moment his words subsided, the bad feeling became real.

Starbeck was grabbed and raised over Kieran’s head while Kieran was ready to run.

“W-What t-the hell y-you…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

Before Starbeck could even finish, Kieran sprinted forward with Starbeck over his head. As he ran forward, he threw Starbeck into the sky towards the Devourer.

Starbeck’s body flew up with extreme speed, the cowardice in him made him scream his lungs out.

His sharp scream echoed through the clouds for a long while without signs of stopping.