The Devil's Cage

The unknown existence in the void roared repeatedly.

It had no idea what it had gotten itself into!

All it wanted to do was get away from this troublesome guy yet Gluttony hung on tightly.

As for all the so-called 'table manners'?

What a joke, table manners matters or not, only eating and swallowing mattered!

Therefore, Gluttony clung on with munches and bites to the unknown existence.

"D-Delicious!"

Gluttony delivered the thought to his big brother.

"If it's delicious, eat more," Kieran replied softly.

Kieran never worried about Gluttony eating too much. In fact, it was quite hard for Gluttony to ever feel full recently, he could only be slightly satisfied at the restaurant where Starbeck prepared all the food.

The food, or the unknown existence, delivered itself up to Gluttony's doorstep. Kieran did not mind Gluttony helping himself.

With Kieran's permission, Gluttony went all out.

He was holding back at first and after receiving permission, his mouth clung on that unknown existence and started to swallow quicker, like a whale swallowing water.

The unknown existence was frightened, crying out loud in agony. It finally knew what Gluttony wanted to do: stuff it into his mouth and then swallow it whole.

The unknown existence did not doubt Gluttony a bit. It knew the cardinal sins would be able to swallow it alive because even though his body wasn't that big, its huge body would only provide more satisfaction to Gluttony.

It couldn't allow this to continue!

The unknown existence's heart sank, its indescribable body suddenly split into two.

The upper half was freed from the horrifying bite but the lower half was swallowed by Gluttony.

The unknown existence was suffering a heartache, its heart bleeding as it lost its lower body.

Not only did it lose half of its power, which it accumulated over a very long time, its divinity was also damaged and its divine position was at risk of being demoted.

Anger!

Grudge!

It wanted to swallow Gluttony but it knew should it be so reckless, it would be the one that ended up in Gluttony's stomach.

It had tried before, but it couldn't locate Gluttony's body. All it saw was a mouth, a non-stop eating mouth!

The things that the mouth ate were delivered out of the void and entered that powerful ant's body.

Even it couldn't understand what was going on.

How come the world had this kind of illogical monster?

The unknown existence saw the mouth coming closer to its upper body after swallowing its lower half. It shouted right away, "You boorish bastard that knows no table manners! I expel you!"

A part of the 'table manners' was activated right away, Gluttony was expelled out of the space all of a sudden and bounced back to Kieran's body.

The unknown existence heaved a breath of relief, but before it could catch a full breath Gluttony returned!

Gluttony moved along the 'table manners' ritual that it had set up and relied on the spiritual energy that shouldn't have existed in this space to fly closer to the unknown existence.

"How is this possible?!"

The unknown existence shrieked in disbelief when it felt the spiritual energy that was as vast as the sea.

It didn't have eyes, but if it did, they would have been as round and large as a billiard ball.

This level of spiritual energy could already compete with its own divine position, yet the target pretended to be weak, especially that divine fire in the target's head, which didn't match the target's personality at all!

Could it be… a trap!?

The unknown existence suddenly realized the possibility, recalling its old foes and remembering the enemies that sought to kill it a thousand times over. The more it recalled, the more it believed this was a trap.

This was really a trap! A trap specifically targeted at itself!

"I won't let you get what you want!" the unknown existence shouted fiercely.

Right before Gluttony returned to the 'table manners' ritual, the unknown existence made a move.

A round table appeared in the void.

On top of the wooden table was a glass tray slightly smaller than the table surface and on top of the glass tray was a black vase with nothing inside.

A pure silver tray appeared beside the glass tray and Kieran's image was reflected on it.

Kieran sized up the scene with an interested gaze.

He saw that unknown existence in the void at first glance. He couldn't really describe the existence's look though, couldn't put it in words because the unknown existence was constantly changing.

It was a giant octopus a second ago but it transformed into a starfish the very next moment.

The former was suitable for a frying pan and the latter could be used in soups.

Kieran looked at the unknown existence and the unknown existence looked at Kieran. It was natural that some of Kieran's thoughts spilled to the unknown existence.

"You shall not escape!" It said.

The unknown existence laughed when it sensed Gluttony was only a step away from its body.

"I admit I've miscalculated, but I did not fail!" It emphasized before it continued in delight, "Table manners, food shouldn't be wasted but can be traded. If you have food that you don't like, you can pass it or trade it with others. Since you are still in my 'table manners', I can perform such a trade—don't worry, it won't be just a simple trade, you still have the curse from me, the officiant! I curse you! You will meet the enemy that you hated the most!"

Right after the voice subsided, the black vase on the table sprayed out a mist as dark as ink.

An invisible tray twirled the glass tray, twisting the illusory Kieran on the silver tray further away from the unknown existence.

Where Kieran went was truly the 'faraway land'.

After Kieran's image disappeared from the tray, something else took his place: a wagon.

The golden wagon rode out of the tray in an instant, crushing the whole table upon coming out.

The unknown existence didn't even have the chance to grunt before it was run over by the sky wagon, crushing it into nothing.

The four figures in the wagon didn't feel anything though.

A man and two women were sitting opposite each other, with a little girl sitting on top of the man's lap.

The man on the seat was sitting lazily yet he had an indescribably prestigious feeling around him. He sat there like a shining sun, warm and glorious.

The little girl who sat on his lap was young and pure, sharing a great deal of resemblance with the man.

The little girl would touch the man's stubble and laugh occasionally.

The man's face was melted instantly by the pure laughs, showing the smile of a kind father.

The two ladies opposite the father and daughter showed smiles too, but the smiles were for the man and little girl—both of them had a rather weird atmosphere between them.

One was strict and just, while the other was bewitching and self-righteous.

The two ladies glanced over at each other and turned away instantly.

The little girl saw her mothers' reaction, pulling her father's sleeve.

"Papa, I've turned the wagon around, we are going back to the hotel soon! I missed Auntie Lanecruix so much!"

"You shouldn't call her auntie, call her big sister," the lady knight who was strict and just corrected the little girl.

"Yes, you should call her sister, not auntie," the bewitching lady beside the first added.

After that, the topic somehow went adrift, the atmosphere in the carriage instantly warming up. The little girl winked at her father happily, and her father quietly gave her a thumbs up.

Like any other kind and loving father, the man caressed his daughter's head.

While his daughter was looking away, the man's eyes shimmered gold for a second.

The wagon moved quicker and then vanished into the void.

When the wagon vanished, the void became empty, like a true void, as if nothing had happened.

...

Inside an extravagant palace, Broker took three complete [Philosopher's Stone]s out and placed them into the magical formation before him.

The magical formation was formed by a circle and three triangles.

The triangles were outside surrounding the circle and each triangle housed a special item.

The top triangle had a severed head and the snakes, which was the head's hair, hissed ferociously.

On the left triangle was an eye, only as big as a fist but was sparkling energetically with electricity swirling around.

On the right triangle was some snake sloughs. The sloughs should have been as light as paper but it sunk into the ground, like it was holding a world inside it.

Three [Philosopher's Stone] was placed in the intersection between the triangles and circle.

After double checking everything, Broker heaved a breath of relief.

"Now for the last step!" Broker muttered to himself.

It was at that moment, Broker sensed the power of the curse.

"That damn crazy woman!" Broker chuckled coldly.

He knew what was happening.

Even though he had chosen to slumber to push this plan of his forward smoothly, he knew everything that had happened in the big city.

Wu, the renown Wisher, was a person that he would eventually go up against because she was standing on Kieran's side.

Her abilities were an eyesore to him. Although he had prepared many layers of protection, he wasn't a hundred percent sure about bewitching her and once she saw through his little tricks…

With that thought in his mind, Broker chose to go with a simple setup.

When he was first cursed by Wu, he chose to take it head on so that he could numb her, only counterattacking during the second time.

Broker then stepped into the magical formation without further ado.

This would be the key point of the next phase of his plan. He had to pour everything out to achieve today's result. If he had to endure the crazy woman's curse just so he could progress, it would be considered a waste of resources.

Therefore, Broker quietly waited for the crazy woman to learn her lesson, only then could he vent his anger.

However, Broker immediately realized something was off: the power of the curse was so much stronger than he anticipated!

No! It was absurdly powerful!

It wasn't something the Wisher could achieve, not even a player with a Unique Title of the 'curse' category could achieve this level!

Hiss! Hiss!

The snakes on the head hissed sharply, and like a domino effect, the eyeball that sprayed lightning started to look left and right and the snake sloughs showed images of mountains and seas.

The three [Philosopher's Stone]s shimmered brightly.

Broker, in the middle of the magical formation, was affected right away.

No! He couldn't afford to let this continue!

He felt the power of the curse spreading. He knew things had gone south for some reason, so he had to activate his backup plan, but right before he did that…

A crushing pain came from his legs.

Broker instinctively defended with his hands and tightened his legs but before he could save any of his body, the crushing pain appeared a second time.

One, two, three times in total.

Veins popped up on Broker's forehead. He couldn't even stand straight anymore, kneeling down in the magical formation.

Promptly after that, the magical formation automatically entered its counterattack mode.

The magical formation carried out Broker's orders and countered with the strongest attack to the next person that laid the curse on him.

Three [Philosopher's Stone] was enough to perform a Grand Wishing that could bring forth divine miracles, but Broker had many offerings prepared!

The process completed smoothly, it was fair to even consider it perfect, but Broker wasn't happy at all.

He felt the aura was coming closer to him at an absurd speed and he didn't know what went wrong, so he was forced to endure the pain and carry out his escape plan.

A blinding light later, Broker vanished from the palace.

...

"I don't think that bastard Broker will let you curse him a second time. He must have some defensive measures or even some counterattacks!"

Rachel couldn't help but try to dissuade her friend when she saw Wu lay out 10 straw dolls on the floor.

"I know, that's why I had a divination! This is my best chance—Wisher isn't good at cursing, but I will use what I am good at to make the curse more effective!"

Wu then took a big mullet from her sleeve and started to hammer the straw dolls fiercely.

Bang Bang Bang!

Rachel facepalmed herself as she watched the straw dolls get hammered. She knew where her friend was aiming when she hammered the dolls.

Scary!

Rachel quietly walked out of the living room.

...

A blinding light shone.

Kieran appeared in the palace.

He vigilantly sized up the extravagant palace and then landed his gaze on the magic formation on the ground.

The items at the outer ring had lost their powers, their forms heavily distorted and Kieran couldn't tell what they were but he recognized the [Philosopher's Stone].

"Three complete [Philosopher's Stone]s! As I expected... that bastard was here!" Kieran squinted his eyes.

The reason why he held Gluttony back on the eating and allowed the unknown existence to complete the 'table manners' ritual was because he heard what it said.

With the half body that Gluttony ate and digested earlier, Kieran was sure that the existence wasn't lying.

It was just that he did not expect Broker to run so fast, but he still had clues to cling on.

Kieran checked around.

There were things in the palace that stated Broker had been staying here for quite a while.

"He has been staying here after he went missing? This magic formation…"

While Kieran was observing, a white-blue light suddenly appeared in the middle of the palace and quickly formed an oval door.

The moment the door appeared, a voice followed.

"I will pay the cost you speak, so please help me!"

The voice sounded hurried but weak and was very familiar.

It was Borl.