The Devil's Cage

Rage and killer intents filled King Liao's heart, causing him to release himself from the restraints and allow his aura to blast up into the sky.

All the monsters in Ring City felt a minor delay after the aura blasted up.

King Reow and King Qi also joined him, all three kings merging their aura into one, distorting the space above Ring City.

The monsters in Ring City trembled in fear.

The red skull watched the scene in silence, not joining or stopping the kings. It was their business and it was not appropriate to stop them, at least as kings. They must do this for the sake of the monsters.

"Terrifying aura!"

Meanwhile, in the temporary hideout underground, Paladia noticed the aura overflowing in the sky. He looked to the direction of Ring City and his neck unconsciously shrunk, muttering softly, "All we did was rob a convoy, why the intense rage?"

"I don't think that's the case. It should be related to the explosions. Sending a group of scout riders to chase us for robbing the convoy was already very serious for them."

The minotaur walked to the corner, mimicking Paladia's action and popping its head over the edge, looking at the city beyond sight.

It sounded very certain, even the horseman nodded in agreement, but Lucan seemed to disagree.

The tall and young Herder stood vigilantly beside the convoy, protecting it and watching his surroundings for any suspicious movement.

However, he realized this convoy that they robbed was too rich!

The boxes of Crossing Coins, items, and equipment, especially the latter, every single one of them were good stuff, and there were ten of them!

Ten! It was considered a very large amount of wealth!

If the kings were mad because of this amount, in Lucan's point of view, it was understandable.

The young Herder from the Northern Woods had never seen so much treasure before.

Back then, when he left the Northern Woods, the most valuable thing on him was his bear rug, followed by his pants and shoes. He had nothing more than that.

The Northern Forest was a land troubled by cold and poverty, very few resources found there. The commoners had a hard life and so did the Herders, probably even more than the former.

The Herders of the Northern Woods had a very special lineage which increased their appetite 3 times the normal amount and could eat ten times their size, like Lucan's family.

Lucan knew how great of an appetite he had, eating five men's worth in one go.

As for his father?

The three meals for 10 grown men was a single meal for his father and his grandfather.

His grandfather was very old, sitting at the entrance of the cave to sunbathe every day, not moving a muscle at all, as though he was asleep. When he woke, however, he would eat a hundred men's worth of food for a day.

Given how large their family appetite was, even if they received aid from the Herders HQ, Lucan's family had it rough, especially when Lucan was in his puberty. Everything edible in a hundred miles was eaten, all that was left was snow and trees, even birds fled away from his hunger.

Just when Lucan was questioning whether to eat a tree or not, the registration for the Battle of Winter Night started.

Lucan signed up without a second thought so that he could retrieve the bear's sculpture and have a full meal!

So far so good!

He had many full meals in the camp and grew his knowledge and experience in this world, he even made friends!

Now his friend was not around, so he had a duty to protect his friend's treasure!

No one was allowed to get near, not even Paladia!

"I'm just trying to check our spoils!"

Paladia went over to the treasure boxes after he came back from the alleyway but before he truly got close to the cart, Lucan stopped him.

The alarming gaze made Paladia facepalm himself.

"We are on the same boat! I'm just checking it, not simply touching it!"

Paladia tried to talk some sense into Lucan.

It was torture for the Herder from Gemstone Sector after he was denied being able to touch and check the spoils by Lucan.

He had tried countless times in the past 12 hours and every time had ended in failure.

He had heard about the stubbornness of the Herders from the North but he didn't know they had muscles in their brains!

They knew nothing about improvising and always resolved things with brute strength!

The big hand tapped on Paladia's shoulder, like the many times before, and pushed him away.

Dak Dak Dak!

Paladia had quite a decent physique, even among the Herders, yet he was pushed backwards seven to eight steps and couldn't put up any resistance, staggering backwards until his back touched the wall.

The pain on his shoulder and back made him clench his teeth.

"This belongs to Royan, not you or me!" Lucan said solemnly.

"But I am a part of this! I am the most important part of this!" Paladia argued strongly.

"Bait has no rights to receive rewards. Baits are like reserved rations during war time," Lucan explained seriously about the rules of the Northern Woods to Paladia.

"I am a human being! HUMAN BEING! You want to eat a human being?!" Paladia glared angrily.

"That is why you are still breathing. You should be grateful and wait here for Royan," Lucan showed a stupid yet grateful smile.

Paladia was seriously upset by the stupid smile, he was suffocating!

What reserved ration?

What gratefulness?

He didn't become a bait just for fun!

He had a lot of credit in all this!

Like, like…

Paladia wanted to come up with a good argument to win Lucan but his brains squeezed all the juices out and did not find anything solid. He shockingly realized other than bait, he did nothing in this whole robbery.

He felt lost all of a sudden.

'Am I just some reserved ration?'

Lucan smiled and tapped on Paladia's shoulder after he saw how lost Paladia was, then walked back to the cart and waited patiently.

The horseman and minotaur watched the scene silently, treating this as some entertainment to kill time.

As for the treasure boxes, the duo never cared.

For them, robbing was part of life around Ring City, they never cared what they get in the end, like they wouldn't care how full they were after every meal.

Who would care whether they were full or not after each meal?

If they weren't full, they would just go on and eat a second round, robbing another monster or convoy!

The horseman and minotaur had simple thoughts, so they surprisingly got along well with Lucan.

"Savages!"

"Brutes!"

Paladia criticized his teammates while squatting.

A moment later, everyone stood up because they heard footsteps.

A series of clear footsteps entered their ears, followed by Kieran into their sight.

A black monster was following behind him like his personal bodyguard.

"Royan, you are back! Great!"

Lucan welcomed Kieran back with excitement, as he called out to Kieran loudly, he ran over and then said, "Watching your things wasn't easy, especially when Paladia was trying to open them and I couldn't really hurt him…"

Kieran frowned and then looked at Paladia.

The less than friendly gaze made Paladia shrink his neck lower.

"I just wanted to have a look," Paladia explained with a pale look.

"Those are mine," Kieran declared his possession over the loot in a simple manner.

He then turned to Lucan with a smile, "Thank you," he said courteously.

He clearly knew who treated him with sincerity and who had ulterior motives, and no doubt Lucan was the sincere one.

As for Paladia?

Neither was he the former or latter, he was just bait along the way.

How dare a bait have other thoughts?

Kieran was thinking about switching him out and while he was at it, Paladia noticed the atmosphere was getting weird, causing him to tremble in fear.

"I'm not trying to split the spoils with you, I'm just…"

"Split the loots? You are just bait, why do you have the right to split the loot?" Kieran frowned again and then stopped his naive thoughts.

Paladia was shocked, looking at Kieran in disbelief.

"You are not giving me anything at all?" He asked with a widened gaze.

"You are just a bait and before that, you were my captive. As captive, where do you get the confidence to ask me for spoils?" Kieran looked at Paladia with an unpleasant gaze.

Captive?

Paladia was shocked, again.

He then lowered his head in despair and sorrow.

He finally remembered who he was, a captive.

How dare a captive ask for distribution of spoils?

'I-I am just a captive!'

Paladia walked aside in despair, squatting down and not speaking again.

"Royan, what should we do now? Leave this place?" Lucan asked.

Lucan was eager when he talked about leaving the place.

He did come underground before but everything was a weird experience for him, he wasn't used to the feeling. The longer he stayed underground, the more his hands would sweat and his breathing would mess up.

"Em. Leave this place. The coast is clear back at the surface," Kieran said and then turned away.

Black understood what Kieran meant, following Kieran without uttering a word.

There was no going back now for Black, it didn't want to go back as a gatekeeper anymore.

Following Kieran was the best choice that it could possibly make.

More so, Kieran earned more of its respect by the second.

Kieran's opponents were a bunch of kings who thought they were so smart yet they were toyed by Kieran like children.

Victor?

Just wait and see, this wasn't the end yet.

Black curled its lips into a grin as it had a hunch what Kieran was going to do.

Minotaur and horseman were being themselves, pulling the camel with the cart along and following Kieran.

For the duo, after the Oath of Allegiance and addressing Kieran as lord, they would serve him for life, what else was there to think?

Wherever their lord went, that was where they would go.

Among the group, the happiest one was surely Lucan.

He cheered and grabbed Paladia before tagging along.

Paladia tried to resist but it was useless, so he gave up completely.

He was just a captive.

Being carried away by a big fella was not so hard to accept somehow.

The group moved very quickly, with minotaur and horseman as guide, soon locating a secret exit and going back to the surface.

The night was long gone back at the surface, the sun shining mercilessly while the outskirts of the abandoned city were extra quiet.

Sparks from fire sounded, many huge aerial predators skewered by giant tree branches and placed on top of the fire. The tall man with the white bear rug watched the fire with full concentration.

He spun the skewers from time to time to make sure they were fully roasted.

"Not a bad place. Lots of food!" He commented, yet none around him agreed to his point.

Daliphen looked at the remaining Herders with a painful gaze, half of the original numbers gone.

Before they came into this world, the Herders were lively and youthful but now… even their bodies were not intact.

More importantly, the Judge, Victor, was the mastermind behind all this.

The thought made Daliphen turn to Ciroc, he had to confirm this point above anything.

If it was a fake, he would find the one who fabricated the lie and 'ask' for an explanation.

If it was real, he would find that bastard and make him pay for the lives of the young ones.

Ciroc answered Daliphen's gaze with a never before seen hesitation, too was unsure whether or not it was a lie.

Unconsciously, Ciroc looked at the Inhumans further away.

The Inhumans too suffered a great loss, like the Herders. More than half of them were dead or missing.

As the person in charge of the Inhuman camp, Mian Yi's head was killing him.

The only good news out of all this was that Song Shi was fine, the silver lining during ominous weather for Mian Yi.

As for the rest, that will be a problem for another time.

Mian Yi had made a decision in his heart and when he caught Ciroc's gaze, both of them averted each other's gaze.

Victor's situation was very sticky.

Both people in charge remained quiet, but not the young ones of their respective camps.

Losing their friends and family in this major scheme riled them up.

They questioned authority and demanded an answer.

Why did the venue change in unpredictable ways?

Why were they sent to face enemies far stronger than their own?

Why was everything unlike what they agreed to in the first place?

Question after question flooded the young ones' hearts and they made it verbal.

Pangnard was sitting among the survivors quietly.

He was a smart person, he knew his answers would only cause a bigger panic, so after he simply brushed off Daliphen, the coastal area Herder has been quiet.

Song Shi ought to spill the beans, her attitude of a spoiled young lady of the famous house fueling her urge, but it was killed by Mian Yi with utmost efforts.

"Please consider the situation," Mian Yi told Song Shi.

Song Shi sealed her mouth when she saw how miserable Mian Yi's begging was, but someone else spoke.

"Consider the situation? So they became pawns and were sacrificed for nothing? Are you people still protecting Judge Victor? Isn't the fact obvious enough? He took lives for his own selfish gain, is he worth your protection?"

The loud and clear voice echoed in the air, the youngsters captivated by the question and every one of them turning to the convoy further away.

In front of the convoy was Kieran, accepting everyone's confused gaze frankly.

He did not step back, neither was he afraid of authority because what he said was the truth!