The Devil's Cage

The fresh blood was giving out a scarlet glare.

Kieran, who was in the shadows, focused his attention on the Church Hall before him.

Although the big gate was shut tight, preventing Kieran from seeing what was happening inside, the drops of blood on the stairs was enough for him to guess that the Church Hall was filled with bodies.

"What happened?" Kieran wondered silently.

He wanted to leave silently through the shadows.

It was best for him to minimize the risk rather than increase it, especially considering he had no equipment on him. His curiosity was still tingling his senses though.

One of the most important reasons to remain safe was that this was just a mercenary mission.

If it had been Kieran’s normal dungeon run, he would have taken the risk.

After all, as dungeon entry times increased, so did the difficulty of the normal dungeon run. If Kieran did not risk it, he would eventually be disqualified through a vicious cycle.

Kieran’s main concern now though was to do his best in helping Hanses finish his Main Mission.

If there were more Sub Missions or Title Missions, he would not mind completing them as long as they were on his path.

He was certain the situation inside the Church Hall was out of that range though.

No matter what angle Kieran looked at it from, there was immense danger lurking behind those doors.

Kieran still had other choices to create a diversion, so he did not need to risk going in there.

He took several light steps, backing off slowly, yet suddenly he halted.

A figure had appeared in front of the Church Hall.

The figure’s face was covered by a hood.

The man’s limbs were long, and his steps made no sound at all. He seemed to occupy a space between the light and the shadows. It looked like he possessed a certain level of [Undercover].

Kieran’s attention was caught instantly as the figure barged into the Church Hall straightaway.

Kieran held his breath and concentrated on the figure as the man pushed the door wide open.

He wanted to grab this opportunity to take a look inside the hall.

As the door was opened, even the pivot spot was smeared with blood. It produced a screeching noise as it collided with the frame. A fire from inside the hall allowed Kieran to get a clear look on what was inside.

As expected, the Church Hall was filled with dead bodies. Kieran could make out at least a dozen to twenty bodies, and that was definitely not all of them.

The figure was checking the bodies as well.

Since Kieran was further away from them, he could not see clearly the wounds on the bodies. Their outfits were very clear though.

They were not soldier or guard outfits, not even the clothes the servants in the castle were wearing.

Although the bodies had different weapons on them, they shared the same piece of leather armor. They seemed to be from the same faction.

"Private militias?" Kieran made a solid guess. The limited information he had did not help him recognize which faction they were from though.

"A massacre inside the castle? What the hell is going on?"

Kieran suddenly picked up a sense of conspiracy within the castle and he continued to back off.

This was enough for him to realize what had happened inside the Church Hall.

He hadn’t forgotten that his objective was to buy enough time for Lawless to get the medicine.

Suddenly, he had to halt again.

The figure who had been checking the bodies cried out in alarm, as if he’d seen something out of the ordinary.

The cry was stopped abruptly, as one of the bodies that were supposed to be dead suddenly jumped up and slashed a sword through the figure’s throat.

Fast! It had been very fast. All Kieran had seen was a sword flash through.

The figure was robbed of any signs of life without the slightest resistance.

Kieran drew in a silent breath. If he had been in the figure’s spot, he would not have been able to dodge the ambush either.

The sword had been drawn too fast, and the timing and hit had been extremely precise.

It made Kieran feel like he had met his arch nemesis. He squinted and tried locate the person out of the corner of his eyes.

The lightning speed of the sword had been ridiculous. It had surpassed even his wildest imagination. Kieran was not sure whether that person’s Intuition was also as sharp, but he dared not test it. Considering his current condition, it would be suicidal to face such a man.

Just as Kieran was gazing around, the man disguised as a corpse stood up and tilted his head down to check on the intruder. Suddenly, he laughed coldly.

Without any further delay, he pushed down all the candlesticks inside the hall.

The fire spread rapidly as soon as it came into contact with the curtains on the walls.

Within a couple of seconds, the whole hall had been engulfed in flames.

The man walked out of the burning hall slowly, sliding back into darkness.

He had showed no intention of covering his face up until that point.

The mask on his head was covered in blood, and Kieran could not see the face behind it clearly.

As soon as he watched the man disappear into darkness, Kieran left quickly.

The Church Hall fire would attract more soldiers, so if Kieran lingered around, he would eventually be surrounded.

He shuttled through the darkness and dashed towards his rendezvous point with Lawless.

The man who had set the Church Hall on fire had helped Kieran in a way, since he had spared him the time he would have needed to find another target.

Kieran knew the person’s intention had not been to help though.

He knew nothing about the earlier massacre, but the assassination that had followed had proved that the man had been waiting for his target to appear. Otherwise, he would not have disguised himself as a corpse and burned the place down after killing the unknown figure.

The right move would have been to burn the Church Hall down right after the massacre.

The person must have known that his target would go to the Church Hall.

That was not an easy feat, which meant that the man must have had quite a good understanding of his target.

"Were they acquaintances?" Kieran speculated.

Even if he knew the answer to that question though, it would still do him no good. He still had no idea who the killed man had been.

...

Gradon was standing outside the infirmary with a serious expression.

He had sent out four of his best men to capture the thief inside the infirmary, and the four of them had entered the room, but none of them had emerged.

It made Gradon realize the severeness of the situation. His target was even stronger than he had expected.

"Damn it! Is everyone on the Barrier Infantry blind? This kind of target surpasses even a captain level, and you people treat him like a normal soldier? Is your head stuffed with sh*t, Gilrulf?" Gradon scolded the commander of the Barrier Infantry.

As the Commanding Officer of the Western Area of the Principality, Gradon had an extensive understanding of all the elite squads in the Grand Duke’s military forces.

If someone had been able to kill four of his men without making the slightest noise despite the wounds on his body, then his strength was definitely on par with the highest ranking members of the military. There were only a handful of people in the forces who possessed such strength.

Gradon could not believe that such a target had been treated like a common theif by the infantries.

If Gradon did not know Gilrulf well enough and was not aware of his just personality, he would have suspected him of making a secret deal with the thief.

Gradon’s understanding was not enough to calm his rage though. He had lost four of his best men after all.

"Damn it! Damn it ! Damn it!"

Repeated curses escaped his mouth.

His mind was spinning quickly, thinking of ways to capture the thief inside the infirmary.

Gradon was aware of the difficulties of facing a target that shared similar abilities with a core member of the elite forces, but it was still not impossible.

With some heavy bows raining arrows down on him, plus some precise arrangements, such a target could be beaten as well.

Capturing him alive would be hard though. Gradon had no idea how to achieve that.

When he saw the other elite squads appear though, he suddenly smiled.

The Bestowed!

Gradon had no idea why the Bestowed would show up there, but their appearance had solved his problem.

Even though the target inside the infirmary shared similar abilities with military personnel, he couldn’t possibly withstand the power of the Bestowed.

Every single one of the faction’s members shared the same strength, and the captain’s strength surpassed any normal member’s by a mile.

Gradon went over with a smile.

"Captain Jorque, I’ve never been more delighted to see you!" Gradon told the tall, buff man.

The captain’s clothes looked tight on him because of the muscles underneath.

"We’ve received orders from the Grand Duke to follow Sir Ferlin. Where is he?" Captain Jorque said in a cold tone as he took a bow.

Gradon was not concerned about Captain Jorque’s manners.

He would have obeyed the Grand Duke’s orders himself without any hesitation.

Without any further delay, he explained the situation before him.

"Sir Ferlin must be chasing the other thief! You’ll find him later!" Gradon said.

Captain Jorque nodded, not questioning Gradon’s words. None of the soldiers present dared object either.

They believed that Ferlin would capture the other thief easily.

Suddenly, a soldier ran over. Panting hard, he said, "The Church Hall is on fire! There are bodies everywhere inside, including Sir Ferlin’s!"

His words shocked everybody except for one person.

Boom!

The infirmary door was blasted out, spinning in mid-air before crashing into the small crowd.