The Devil's Cage

Darkness filled every direction.

The Night Owl faded away after its time was up. Kieran was standing in the dark, squinting his eyes.

Somehow, the darkness before him originated from the supernatural. Otherwise, with his C+ Intuition, he could catch a glimpse in the dark even without the bright moon.

"It blocked my vision?" Kieran squinted his eyes and raised a brow.

He took a step forward.

Souu!

A strong wind blew past his body.

Arrow!

Kieran easily determined the attack pattern and direction based on his experience, but he didn’t rushed towards it.

He was trying to guess what the enemy was planning.

If it was just for a surprise attack, creating such a big field of darkness seemed a little too wasteful.

With the complicated architecture of the palace, setting up multiple squads of archers could achieve the same results as well; there was no need for such a grand move.

Even with Transcendence [Undercover], it was only a 5 meter diameter range of supernatural darkness. Although it didn’t have a time limit, but it would consume Stamina by the second, and the darkness before Kieran was far bigger in size than [Undercover, Shadow Cloak]. The consumption of materials and ingredients to maintain such a sizeable darkness was not to be underestimated.

"The darkness blocked my vision because someone is setting up something that couldn’t get under the light! It will be rendered useless if exposed, so there is only one possibility! Traps! Traps that the naked eyes could tell apart!"

Kieran took a deep breath and turned around, walking away in the opposite direction of the arrow. He didn’t believe the darkness created could cover the entire palace; if it could, there was no need for the enemy to do so in the first place with his abilities.

Sou Sou Sou!

Arrows were fired repeatedly from behind him. Even Kieran who was being attack could feel the sense of urgency from the archer. However, the arrows were destined to be useless.

Kieran kept dodging left and right, heading towards his intended direction without pause.

After a continuous fire of over thirty arrows, the firing stopped but the attack didn’t.

Kieran could clearly feel the darkness rumbling around him like the wind caressed his skin.

"What is this?" Kieran was surprised.

Any change was noteworthy while being inside the enemy’s territory, but before Kieran could clearly have any thoughts about the changes, a loud bang sounded in his ears.

BOOOM!

It was not an explosion, but was the crumbling of a dam after being crushed by the river current.

Then, the fast current started to drown Kieran, expelling the darkness around him as the water moved in. Kieran could finally see where he was at, or more precisely, inside something.

He was held inside a huge water ball over 5 meters in diameter.

Beyond the water ball stood two people.

One was donning a fancy outfit, holding a bow, with a sword hanging on his waist. He had a common middle-aged man’s features but his temperament was extremely outstanding. A glance at him would let one know he was someone with high authority.

The one in front him was a long-robed man with a withered face; there was still a stain of blood near the edge of his mouth, making him look extra wretched.

"Who was the one who started the Fear just now?"

Kieran inspected the middle-aged man and the sorcerer with the withered face that concealed his true age. He wasn’t sure where the Fear effect from before originated from, though one thing was for sure, the withered face sorcerer was enraged.

"Damn you! Forcing me to alter my magic traps... Taste the pain of suffocation! Stop struggling, my "water" is not only heavy, but is also mixed with toxin. There is no way you could escape now! You will meet your maker soon!"

The withered face sorcerer stared angrily at Kieran.

The words that spilled out from his mouth like a chain of pearls allowed Kieran to realized what had happened. Everything was as he had predicted, the trap layout itself was not clever at all, but the trap itself was shocking.

Kieran felt the water around him was pressuring him. If he was a common man, perhaps his organs would have already been crushed under the pressure. Evidently, it was just a 5 meter wide water ball, but he felt like he had fallen into the depths of the ocean.

Though, it was only the pressure that shocked him.

The suffocation that the sorcerer mentioned?

While equipping [Rudenmoren Skin], he could breathe under water, even at the bottom of the ocean. As for the toxin, B- rank Constitution and [Body of Evil] granted him immunity against toxins below Strong rank.

A moment later, Kieran slowly walked out of the water ball under the sorcerer’s disbelieving gaze. It was true that the water that made up the water ball was heavy, but Kieran’s strength was already B rank.

The "heavy water" that a common man could not even imagine, at most, required some extra effort from Kieran.

"How is this possible!?" The withered-face sorcerer’s eyes widened at the sight.

His repeated shouts couldn’t allow him to understand how Kieran managed to walk out of his magical water ball, and he never would understand.

Chang!

A cold glare flashed over.

The sorcerer lowered his head, looking at the long blade that had pierced his chest. He mustered all his remaining strength and turned around to look at the person.

"Fo...Folly!" The sorcerer grunted unwillingly, but it was completely useless.

As the military minister pulled his longsword out, the sorcerer body’s fell to the ground.

"A clown with tricks that couldn’t even fool the enemy’s eyes. Jeanne has no use for such pathetic trash around her!" The middle-aged man said and turned his eyes at Kieran.

"You are angry? Because I killed this trash? You wouldn’t ask me why would I kill such a trash, right? Trash deserves to die, especially those who are fond of wishful thinking!" Folly said sportingly.

"I am angry because you killed my target!"

Kieran said with an evaluating manner; the way that he was looking at Folly had a new layer of solemnity with it.

If Kieran was still wondering who gave out the Fear effect outside the castle gate, following the one stab from Folly, there was no need for further guessing.

Folly.

Kieran had heard the name before from Bosco. The most sturdy guardian of Jeanne James. The military minister of Warren Kingdom.

Just that Kieran hadn’t thought his sword skill would be this exquisite.

The speed of that sword! It was far superior than his own wielding speed!

Even with the weight of [Arrogant Word] and the burden of [Armor of Excellence], Kieran’s B rank Strength and B- rank Agility was a solid fact.

In other words, Folly’s Agility must be above B- rank!

"So here comes the true obstacle?" Kieran thought in his heart.

Then, he gripped [Arrogant Word] tightly as he clearly felt the changes in aura from Folly’s side.

Killer intent!

The cold, sharp killer intent was shrouding over Folly.

"Is that so?"

The military minister said lightly.

A moment later, Folly disappeared from where he was standing!

Tsssn!

Too fast! Even faster than that strike before!

However, Kieran was even faster! Because the two-handed greatsword was not Kieran’s most skilled technique.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Guess what is Kieran’s strongest attack to this point?

Hint, its on the lower parts of his body