The Devil's Cage

The cold voice entered Du's ears.

The monster filled with broken scales, despite losing its consciousness, laughed coldly.

'Submit?

Why would I submit to you?

I am the soon to be king of monsters, Du!

I will become a legend!

I will become A GOD!

Even if I die, I will never submit!'

Du lifted its head up, its face holding its pride and arrogance, but what it got in return was a kick.

The arrogance on Du's face instantly swelled.

The pain woke Du up from its consciousness and after it regained its senses, Du saw Kieran's cold eyes.

It shuddered out of instinct.

It swore it had never seen such a terrifying gaze.

The eyes were cold and blank, as if they cared for nothing, yet were filled with killer intents.

The pair of eyes were like the abyss, destroying life and devouring souls.

Du slightly dazed off and felt like it was devoured into the abyss.

When it came back again, all Du saw in Kieran's eyes was sheer killer intent, it felt so real!

Du felt like the gaze was a sharp knife over its neck and the sharpness was stinging its skin!

It wasn't a joke, it wasn't metaphoric, neither was it a bluff. It was very real, it felt very real!

Kieran was going to kill Du!

What should Du do in this kind of situation?

Du knew what it should do but the remaining pride in its heart caused it to hesitate. However, after its face was smashed down to the ground, it cried out loud, "I submit! I hereby submit to the man before my eyes! I will become your most loyal servant, I will become the sword in your hands, paving paths and opening lands. I will be the shield in your hands, blocking the arrows from the dark to protect you from harm!"

The vows sounded weird, who knew where Du heard it from but [Seodi Stone] acknowledged the confession and categorized it as the Oath of Allegiance, it was already enough.

Du was stunned when it felt an extra restriction from the Oath of Allegiance in its body.

It originally planned to submit temporarily just so he could live, like what it had always done in the past, but how did it turn out like this?

Du had fallen under the Oath of Allegiance's control! And it would be the start of its nightmare!

Next, Kieran chose to use [Dominate].

Spirit authentications happened for both Kieran and Du, and this time it was faster than the previous one due to Du's Spirit being suppressed without resistance.

"Master!"

Du knelt on one knee and devoted his life and loyalty to Kieran.

"Tell me everything you know," Kieran ordered.

Right away, Du told Kieran everything it knew and had done, and after connecting it with what Bloody Mary saw outside, Kieran immediately painted a clear picture in his mind.

"Victor, eh?" Kieran went into deep thoughts.

The shard of [Philosopher's Stone] was no doubt a bait, a bait to seduce this scaley monster to do his bidding!

Create chaos and fake his death to escape!

But none of the listed was part of Victor's true goal!

What Victor sought after was far bigger than this speculation!

Doubts appeared in Kieran's mind, but he reached out for a healing potion he got earlier and tossed it to Du.

Kieran had plenty of healing potions and if he could recover a decent combatant's abilities by using them, he would be glad to do so, especially since Du still had use.

Multiple vials of potion were poured into Du's mouth and its injuries recovered in an exponential rate.

Kieran then brought Du back to the temporary camp.

When the group saw Kieran's return, they heaved a breath of relief but it was soon replaced by doubts when they saw Du.

They knew Du, and those who did not also heard of its name before, and Du was everything but good, notorious for various reasons.

Now, Du was walking behind Kieran with utmost respect and reverence. It felt surreal for the group.

"Royan, how did you do it?" Song Shi asked out of curiosity.

"I moved him with my virtues and reasons," Kieran said.

Song Shi squinted her eyes into a glare, "Do you think I'm stupid? It still has footprints on its body!"

"That's not footprints, that's lessons,!" Kieran said affirmatively.

BULLSHIT!

Song Shi went away after being upset by Kieran's bullshit.

Paladia took multiple deep breaths, trying to make himself look normal and suppress any kind of emotions showing on his face because he knew what had happened: [Seodi Stone]!

Other than the stone, there was no other explanation!

Paladia shuddered whenever he thought about the stone robbing people's mind.

He had no intentions ending up like Du, a mindless puppet, but…

Subconsciously, Paladia glanced at Kieran, and probably because of the viewing angle, or maybe he was overreacting, when Paladia looked towards Kieran's direction, he felt like Kieran was looking at him too, like a chef looking at a fish!

The tormenting feeling almost pushed him to tears.

"What's wrong?"

Pangnard realized something wasn't right with Paladia.

"Nothing. I just realized something. I thought my life before was regretful but after I've decided to follow Lord Royan and fill up the void in my heart before it's beyond redemption, my life is given a meaning and I will keep it that way!" Paladia said loudly.

'Are you sick?'

Pangnard rolled a white eye at Paladia.

Lucan, on the other hand, scratched his head. He thought Paladia was sick and unconsciously, Lucan looked at Paladia with an extra sense of pity, but on the outside, he was still sturdy and resolute.

He too didn't want to end up as a puppet, he had his own thoughts and consciousness.

Kieran didn't care about Paladia's begging.

Paladia might be good but only for the commoners and with his level of power occupying a precious [Dominate] slot in [Seodi Stone], unless Kieran had lost his mind, he would never do it.

In short, Kieran looked down on him.

Using the Oath of Allegiance on Paladia was to quickly gain the basic trust only, nothing more than that.

What happened after that was all Paladia's own overreaction.

Kieran looked at Du.

With Kieran's permission, Du stepped up and caught everyone's attention, it then spilled everything it knew and did frankly.

After hearing Du's confession, everyone looked heavy and serious, including Song Shi.

Song Shi might be reckless at times but she was by no means stupid.

She knew what they were facing, any misstep would cause them to die without a body.

No one would ever expect the Judge, Victor, to commit something like this.

"Some hidden powerhouse lurks in the battlefield of the Battle of Winter Night and the organizer of the event, Lord Victor, died an unexpected death. I may sound stupid and I don't want to admit it but… Lord Victor is the biggest suspect behind all this!" Pangnard said in furrowed brows.

It was obvious that the Judge, Victor, had deeply rooted his image into the people's heart.

Until now, Pangnard still couldn't believe all of this was Victor's scheme.

In fact, not only Pangnard, Lucan, Paladia, and Song Shi felt the same way too, especially the three Herders, who had a hard time accepting it.

Quite the opposite, Song Shi, the Inhuman, quickly tidied up her emotions.

"Did you guys ever think why Victor is doing this?" Song Shi asked.

Unknowingly, Song Shi altered the way she addressed Victor, the title Judge was removed.

Pangnard, Paladia, and Lucan were stunned.

Subconsciously, all three of them thought of the term 'hostage' that Kieran mentioned earlier.

With the hints given to them, they reacted fairly quickly.

"The organizer of the event, Victor, is dead, so if there's any kind of 'unexpected' situation that happened in the battlefield, it would seem normal too!"

"Like the monsters causing an uprising, or the monsters caught us off guard and take us hostage!"

"Each camp will surely send someone over and when that hidden powerhouse comes out again, we and the people who come for us would never be able to escape!"

Everyone came up with their own point of view on the situation and soon a terrifying fact was painted in front of everyone.

The group gasped when they had to face the horrifying fact.

However, Kieran quietly denied what the group said in his heart. He wasn't denying the guesses they came up with but the guesses were too one-sided, or in short, Song Shi and the others did not find the core of the whole situation, the shard of the Philosopher's Stone!

Victor had planned so meticulously, why wouldn't he know Du was going inside the venue?

Or in other words, the scheme was so grand, how could the final target be a couple of young men and women from various camps, plus the people who would come for them?

Victor's ultimate goal was to go after the entire mystical side and get everyone with a single blow!

It might seem hard but it was actually very easy!

The whole venue of the Battle of Winter Night didn't just hold the shard of Philosopher's Stone that Du brought in, it still had many other treasures acting as prizes hidden all over the plate!

A bird dies for food, a man dies for money!

When those men who came into the venue searched for the shard of [Philosopher's Stone] and realized the treasure prizes hidden all over the city, especially when the treasures were much better than expected, what would it turn out to be?

All the core forces from various camps would have a slaughterfest in the venue!

In the end, the slaughterfest would escalate into a full-fledged war!

A slight thought painted a river flowing in blood in Kieran's mind.

If the highest forces in the mystical side joined the war, it would be catastrophic!

It was without a doubt that Victor changed the whole Battle of Winter Night just for this particular moment and Kieran was sure Victor would still have many tricks under his sleeve as insurance and a backup plan.

After coming up with such a meticulous plan, Victor was considered a very careful person, and if such a careful person had zero backups or insurance, Kieran would be the first to not believe it.

As for himself?

Kieran ought to be careful of the backup plans, and at the same time, he would get his hands on those treasure prizes that were treated as bait!

…...

Somewhere underground.

The dirty water flowed out through the drains, rumbling loudly like a rapid current, but it wasn't as grand as a real river, especially with that terrible smell.

Each time the water rumbled, the bad smell would spread.

The smell had been around for a long time and the sewer reeked heavily.

Even rats couldn't take the smell and the monsters barely came down here, so it became a very ideal location for a secret meeting.

The red skull with the broken hood came down, its mantle waving as it walked and the soul fire in its eyes becoming the only light source in the dark sewers.

Even though the soul fire brought light, it showed nothing but coldness.

Anyone who basked under the soul fire would never feel warm, they will only feel despair, despair from the bottom of their soul.

The prayer beads were twisted one after another.

The lower jaw of the skull opened and closed repeatedly, muttering an eulogy that no one understood and it entered the ears of the one the incantations summoned.

It was a spell and a calling.

Fuaaa!

The smelly river rumbled fiercely.

A figure jumped out and landed in front of the red skull.

"I've been waiting for you," said the red skull. It raised its hand and gave the person a gunny robe.

The person accepted the robe and then started to wipe his body. After he cleaned himself, he put on the robe without any disagreement.

"I'm sorry. I only have a robe here for you to wear, and you won't like the other 'outfits' I have here."

The red skull pointed at its broken mantle and said with a grim smile, but the smile was hard to accept. It showed fear and ferocity only.

"After I made my choice, nothing matters anymore. Dead or alive, it's the same to me, let alone a piece of robe," the man said as he walked closer to the red skull.

With the light from the soul fire, it revealed a slim, handsome face. His grayish hair was messy and wet because of the current but his eyes were keen and shining under the light.

It wasn't crystal clear though, it was shining with substance, like fire.

His eyes were very attractive, like they had seen through everything on earth yet remained untainted by the mundane.

His unique eyes set off his handsome look better and it unconsciously made one forget about his age.

"Of course. You have left life and death behind, otherwise you wouldn't be this… crazy!"

The scarlet red skull thought for a while before coming up with the comment on the man. It sized up the man carefully, not knowing what the man was going to do or had done. The red skull could not imagine how a normal man like him could commit something so terrifying.

Strength was one of many ways to transcend, but the heart was the one and only.

Unknowingly, the red skull thought of a phrase that its master used to say when it was still alive.

Though transcendence and the matters at hand had zero relations, it was just similar.

The man before the red skull had zero power but his heart was very strong, probably even scarier than many other things!

The red skull dare not slack off in front of such a collaborator, so it asked again "Are you sure about this? Are you going to give me your heart, your flesh, your soul after you achieve your goal?"

"Didn't we agree on this? We even signed a contract," the man asked back.

"Contract? In my opinion, that's the most unreliable thing!" the red skull said and then turned aside.

"Come! Let me bring you to them. Without them, your plan may still fall short—but if you want them to bring out their preciousness, you have to show equivalent value or effort. And you have to promise to not have extra thoughts about those precious treasures. To me, those are also real treasures!"