The Devil's Cage

Empty!

The big treasure vault was empty!

Not even a single copper coin was on the floor, it was so clean!

Impossible!

Victor closed the door subconsciously and then opened it again, but he still got nothing.

He ran inside and tapped every single brick he saw and touched every single side of the walls, he hoped to find a secret room with Crossing Coins and items.

Unfortunately, taps and touches told him the whole room was solid.

"How is this even happening?" Victor muttered blankly.

Given the population of Ring City and how wealthy the monsters were, the treasure vault must have a substantial amount of goods, how could it be empty?

'Maybe… I came to the wrong place?

But the direction that I came from, there were footprints on the ground and there were also mythical markings on this door, which means this place is really the treasure vault of Ring City!'

Victor stood up, full of doubt.

He suddenly realized something and ran outside, but right before he stepped out of the treasure vault, a figure jumped in front of him.

It was King Qi, one of three kings of Ring City, and his body was shaking at the empty treasure vault!

"VICTOR!"

An angry roar was squeezed through his gnashing teeth.

Ring City's treasure vault might not be their secret stash but it was one of their important properties and it played an important role in their plan, and now someone had robbed them!

There were no drag marks from the treasure boxes in the area, so it was obvious that Victor must have used a transportation formation to send all of the equipment and items to his own world.

'Is this what Victor was really after?

Layers of set up and even using the Philosopher's Stone as the main bait just so he could rob them!?

Unforgivable!'

The thought bloomed in King Qi's mind and he attacked without hesitation.

"DIE!"

A formless wave spread towards Victor very quickly, and before he could even move, the wave drowned him.

Bang!

Victor exploded into a hundred pieces, his blood and organs flew everywhere.

King Qi spared his rage before because of the deal with Scarlet, it was more of a show on the surface and meandering around, but now he really wanted Victor dead, so he did not hold back at all.

However, to King Qi's surprise, it was too easy, Victor didn't even resist at all, straying from his expectation.

"Hmph!"

King Qi grunted and raised his hand at one of the pieces of meat on the floor, the meat floated up and flew away. He quickly followed the piece of flying meat.

At the same time, he also messaged King Reow and King Liao.

King Reow, who was heading to King Qi, looked extremely ugly when he received the news, the killer intents in his eyes getting colder.

King Liao was still tangling with that white bearman, roaring furiously when he found out what happened.

"DAMN IT! DAMN YOU ALL!"

The sudden roar startled the white bearman but he quickly pulled his concentration back into the battle, he dished out another paw strike at King Liao and said, "What the hell are you screaming? Someone robbed your house?!"

...

Meanwhile in the shadows, Victor held his breath in concentration. He had no idea how long his 'clone' could fool King Qi but he knew he would die a graveless death from the slightest mistake.

'What happened?

How did my flawless plan fail so badly?

I was ever victorious before, how come all of this is happening to me?

Am I cursed?'

The thought unconsciously came into Victor's mind but he quickly shook his head.

If he was really cursed, the wonder item that he had with him would have showed signs.

If he wasn't cursed, how would he explain the situation?

Many thoughts flooded Victor's mind in a short moment. Even the ever meticulous Victor, who precisely calculated everything, couldn't wrap his head around the situation.

Though he knew what he should do.

The city's treasure vault was empty, but what about the secret stash of the three kings?

Victor had a detailed understanding of Ring City before he even came into this world.

Other than the publicly known treasure vault of the city, there was another private vault of the three kings in the city. It was a lot smaller than the former but the things that it held inside were all truly good!

If he could take something from there, he could very well cover his loss, or even get something more than he had expected.

The reason he did not go there in the first place was because he was afraid that he would ring an alarm but now?

He didn't care anymore!

He had lost another 'clone', if he couldn't find ways to compensate for it, he would really die next time.

Victor quickly moved out as the thought lingered.

The secret vault of the three kings was not in the grand hall but behind it, a few hundred meters away from the hall in a straight line and Victor arrived in front of the door within a few breath's time.

There were many more layers of mystical markings and more complicated runes on it than the first place, Victor nodding unconsciously.

The more the mystical markings, the more valuable the items inside.

Victor pulled out his sword again and threw it at the door.

Similar to the first time, poison, acid, fire, and electricity, and all kinds of elements flew out upon contact. There was an extra unknown power that was eating up the sword too.

"The power of the curse! It's not only on the door, it's even on top and beneath the entrance!"

Victor gasped lightly at the discovery. No one liked the power of the curse, not even himself.

When the power of the curse spread on the blade, Victor chose to give up without a second thought, immediately cutting off the link between him and the sword.

Fung!

The blade shook for a few times, like it was crying.

Layers of rust spread, mottling it badly, and in the end… Pak!

A clear crack later, the sword shattered into pieces.

The blade fell on the ground.

Victor didn't even spare an extra glance, walking forward to the door of the vault.

The stone door had a relief of a wolf howling at the moon. On top of the wolf was a bird and a fish with one wing.

Victor read about the history of Ring City before, so the relief represented the three kings: King Liao, King Reow and King Qi.

They were using their own 'mark' to protect their wealth. It was rather normal for a monster but very useful.

Victor was certain as long as he pushed the door open, the three kings would know what happened. This 'mark' was much more profound and complicated than those protective markings earlier.

Though unlike the defensive markings, the 'mark' of the kings was used to identify the intruder's identity and face so that they could take him down.

Victor was wondering before he arrived in front of the secret vault but now he didn't care anymore, because his identity and his face were all made clear to the three kings.

At most, change a new identity and start over!

It wasn't the first time anyway, as long as he could secure sufficient resources, it wasn't a problem.

Therefore, he ought to save himself the trouble. He did have the thought of being careful before he came here but not now.

Victor reached out to the door and wanted to push it open, but the sense of danger that flooded his heart made him turn around, his back facing the door.

Less than a second later, a scarlet red figure appeared in Victor's sight.

"You are much more ambitious than I thought, my collaborator! You never thought of truly working with me and never thought of ditching your title as Judge. You even tried to prolong your legacy and make your name shine brighter! You destroyed Ring City and became their hero. After you return to the outside world, they will sing songs about you for generations to come, but you are not satisfied with that! You had your eyes on the treasures of the city... No, should I say the treasure of Ring City was always part of your plan? You needed them to make your fake praise and songs into real authority! Am I right, Victor?"

Scarlet slowly stepped out while telling Victor its own understanding of the situation, the last part where it called Victor by name became a loud, fearsome shout.

"If I say everything is a mere misunderstanding, will you believe me?" Victor asked.

"Misunderstanding?" Scarlet chuckled.

Its chuckle mocked Victor for trying and sneered at its own decisions.

That's right, it sneered at its own naiveness!

Scarlet always thought it had everything in control. It was going to be the ultimate victor, but after Ring City was destroyed, it finally realized things weren't how it thought it would be.

Its collaborator was much more cunning and ambitious than it could ever imagined.

And itself? The red skull?

It looked down on Victor before and it cost it dearly.

Losing one time would be enough for Scarlet, it would not want to experience it for a second or third time.

Thinking about the empty city treasure vault, Scarlet quietly altered its vows, its hatred and killer intents for Victor growing denser.

Without a sign, Victor started to bleed, blood oozing out from all his hair follicles, drop by drop, instantly turning into a bloody man

He tried to resist but failed, his own blood shackling him down.

"Your powers are special but your flaws are also obvious! I won't give you the chance to use it!"

Scarlet then clenched its skeletal hand.

Crack!

The bloody Victor was getting squeezed by his own blood little by little. It was as if he got thrown into a squeezer and the pressure was crushing his bones and organs.

Scarlet had ways to kill Victor immediately but it didn't want to, it wanted Victor to suffer and so did the three kings!

The eyes of the relief of the wolf, bird and fish on the stone door were glimmering, the three kings were watching the scene too.

They saw Victor being crushed by the red skull slowly, causing them to react with a pleasant laugh.

When they heard the painful growls from Victor, the relief on the stone door almost came alive, moving around the stone door and cheering pleasantly.

The bird chirped happily and that jumping fish with a single wing flew around and sang songs!

"You monsters will regret this!"

Victor managed to talk despite his body being squeezed.

His voice was hoarse and filled with rage, but none of them cared.

"You are talking about your 'clone'?"

"Don't worry, even if it's just a 'clone', with King Qi's abilities, we will find you and you will end up like this 'clone' of yours. We will tear you to shreds, little by little!" Scarlet said sinisterly.

It knew his collaborator had many tricks under his sleeve and truly killing him wouldn't be easy.

Though Scarlet didn't mind spending more efforts for more attempts, it swore it would deliver the most pain to Victor or any 'clone' of his. He would wish he was dead instead!

To carry out its vows, Scarlet's red skeletal hands twitched, many white maggots, as thick as a thumb, climbing out slowly.

The maggots looked fat but moved very fast, crawling into Victor's squeezed body in a few breath's time.

The maggots crawled into Victor's body and started to bite his squeezed organs.

Victor cried out in pain again, which satisfied Scarlet.

"Now, now, we are just getting started!"

Scarlet then controlled even more maggots and made them crawl into Victor's eyes and to his brain.

"They will eat off one of your eyeballs first, and then they will crawl out from that eye socket, pry open your crown and then make their way to your brain. Why all this effort, you ask? Because I want to see you suffer!"

Just like what Scarlet said it would do, after Victor's eyeball was bitten off, his crown was pried open, the pain unimaginable.

He really wanted to pass out, but while the maggots kept biting him, they secreted a kind of liquid, refreshing his brain, which kept him awake and fresh!

His brain clearly felt each bite from the many maggots in his body, it was really tormenting!

Therefore, when the first maggot jumped onto his brain, Victor chose to self-destruct.

Bang!

A loud bang later, what was left of Victor turned to a pile of blood and meat.

Scarlet grew gloomy when he saw the pile of bloody meat, not expecting Victor to kill his clone like this.

More importantly, Scarlet had gotten something secretive from Victor.

Right before Victor exploded, the maggot landed a bite on his brain, it wasn't much but the maggot managed to chew off a very tiny piece, enough for Scarlet to know its ex-partner had been planning to destroy Ring City with the Reek River to create chaos the moment he discovered the dirty stream.

Damn it!

'He had been planning for so long but I did not notice it!'

Scarlet blamed itself.

It then dutifully told the three kings what it discovered and after the three kings heard what Scarlet said, the mark of the three kings on the stone door reacted differently.

The wolf, King Liao, howled furiously.

The bird, King Reow, jumped around.

The fish, King Qi, did not react at all.

King Qi was not much of a talker and his reaction instantly attracted the other kings and Scarlet's attention.

"Victor had planned this for so long and so carefully, will he really give up the most valuable part of his plan? Our treasure vault?"

King Qi sounded like he was asking and answering his question at the same time, but after his words, King Liao and King Reow were shocked, even Scarlet trembling for a moment.

"Scarlet! Open the door!" King Liao said anxiously.

Scarlet didn't obey right away, looking at King Reow and King Qi.

Both the bird and the fish nodded.

Scarlet walked to the door right away and reached out its skeletal hand, attempting to push the door, but somehow it's skeletons were shaking.

What King Qi said left Scarlet in shock, and if what the king said was true…

The soul fire in its eye sockets flickered, Scarlet not daring to think anymore, pushing the door open.

Tsssk Gak!

The stone door opened.

Inside… was empty!

Scarlet fell on the ground weak.

'F*ck!

Everything is f*cked now!'

King Liao took a hit right in the face from the white bearman, then turned around and ran back to Ring City without any further concern about his opponent.

King Reow, who was also moving ten times faster, had an expression that was a mix between a frenzied smile and sadness.

King Qi also returned from his chase, his face as still as dead water and the killer intent erupting from his body.

The three kings returned to Ring City.

They flew through the city in ruins and the empty city treasure vault and when they stood in front of their own personal vault, which was empty of any contents, their expressions turned extremely bad.

One of them flushed and the other looked green.

Splash!

King Liao already had injuries on his face because of the white bearman, his blood gushing out because of his indescribable anger.

With blood rolling down his face, he shouted, "VICTOR! I WILL KILL YOU!"