The Devil's Cage

"I want to know the progress of battle of the Sanctuary and the West Coast government," Kieran said.

Since Kieran accepted [Special Event: Full-scale war], he would have to know the current situation of the war.

What else would be better than asking for information from one of the participating sides of the war?

"I can’t decide that on my own, all I can do is to deliver your request to the council."

Nicil spoke officially.

Kieran didn’t mind though, as long as the Sanctuary didn’t want to increase the tension of the softened relationship with him because of Schmidt, they would definitely provide the information to him, except for confidential secrets of course.

"Is there anything else? Otherwise..." Nicil signaled that he wanted to leave.

Kieran nodded with a smile.

The wooden door opened and closed in a flash, the cold wind only blew in for a fraction of a second.

Kieran then eagerly went over to the fireplace, the heartful scent of the meat in the pot had already filled the wooden cottage.

"Stewed rabbit, with carrots and potatoes. It would be great if we had tofu together!"

Kieran took his bowl and started to stir the pot with the wooden spatula, scooping up the meat for himself. He then gobbled it down like a hungry wolf.

Schmidt didn’t contend with Kieran over the stew like he always did. He kept quiet and lighted up another cigarette. When Kieran was on his third bowl, he finally spoke his mind.

"Thanks."

Schmidt then took in more puffs of his cigarette, trying to cover his embarrassment with the smoke he spat out.

"You’re right, you better thank me! Other than me, there would be no one else willing to eat what you cook!" Kieran nodded and said with a seemingly serious tone.

Schmidt was stunned, he continued watching Kieran gobbling down the food. His lips were slightly opened up, trying to say something but eventually, nothing escaped out.

After a while, the chief officer only shouted out, "Don’t simply comment on the cooking skills of a man that has the ambitions to open a restaurant!"

"After retirement," Kieran emphasized.

"Then it should be even more encourageable!" Schmidt crossed his arms and grunted.

Mealtime was always fun for both of them. Although the cooking and the food were average, it could be compensable by having the meal with a friend.

At night, Kieran left for his training, as usual, going back into the blizzard to practice the [Knights of Dawn Body Tampering Art].

Compared to a month ago, Kieran could already move quite far ahead. He was less than a hundred meters away from the eye of the blizzard.

Though, he couldn’t move forward an inch after that. [Saint Thorns II] was at its limit at that distance.

If he continued forward, he would lose his HP faster than his healing could recover. Hence, that spot has become Kieran’s base for training.

More so, that day was the crucial timing for him in his training. According to his feelings, he calculated that the last Golden Skill Point required for leveling [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] could be removed after the current training session.

Fuuuu!

The icy wind hurled across snowballs as hard as steel about the size of a grown man’s thumb at Kieran’s face. Pain struck him every time the snowballs smashed his face. The pain came from the impact upon his face and also the bone-piercing coldness inside the snowballs.

At that training spot, [Secondary Elemental Damage Resist] had completely lost its effect.

[Secondary Elemental Damage Resist] could only resist elemental damage of None to Weak range only, the blizzard before him was at least Average damage or above.

According to his own judgment after experiencing the icy cold with his body, as the blizzard moved closer to its core, the icy attacks will surely exceed Strong attack and range somewhere between Strong and Powerful.

It will surely be Powerful once Kieran was close enough.

There wasn’t such an extreme phenomenon naturally occurring within nature., so Kieran speculated that there must be something special at the core of the blizzard, it was just that he couldn’t approach it for now.

Kieran also tried to search for it in the day but bore no results.

Since then, Kieran felt even more surprised about the uniqueness of Final Island and grew curious about what was hiding at the core of the blizzard.

Though, all he could do for the time being was to focus the warm energy stream in his body.

The wind was cold, enough to pierce his bones each time it smashed on his face.

Each time [Saint Thorns II] healed him from the icy damage, the warmness soaked into his heart.

Being in the middle of hot and cold, he was being damaged and healed at the same time.

The energy that belonged to [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] was shuttling all over his body, being as lively as a toddler that had awakened from its sleep.

Not only was the energy stream lively, it didn’t seem to be exhausting itself to any degree.

Dong Dong Dong!

The [Fusion Heart] was serving its purpose as an organ as well, pumping blood throughout Kieran’s body.

At that very moment, the devil’s power was trembling slightly and it tangled itself with the excited energy of Eye of Chimeras right after. Both distinguished energies were fighting like a boa and python, rumbling fiercely.

The energy of the Holy Knight was quiet as usual but the healing power filled Kieran’s body.

Mercy and protection.

Kieran felt as such from the energy when he focused. He recollected the extra vigilance at the other energies and focused everything he had on practicing the [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art].

At this highest moment of concentration, [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] had reached its limit after rumbling around rapidly.

Boom!

It was as if Kieran heard an explosion in his mind.

Within the darkness of his closed eyes, he saw a dazzling dash of light in the midst of the darkness, as if the sun had just risen from its slumber.

[Grand Master Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art acquired a significant amount of experience through practicing, level up prerequisite met...]

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art leveled up...]

[Name: Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Arts (Musou)]

[Related Attributes: Strength, Agility, Constitution, Spirit, Intuition]

[Skill Type: Ancillary]

[Effects: You know how to utilize the special stances, movements and breathing techniques, All Attributes +6 (+1 Basic, +1 Entry, +1 Master, +1 Pro, +1 Grand Master, +1 Musou)]

[Knight’s Focus: Everyone has their own specialty, but not everyone can persevere; Spirit +4, Knight’s Persistent (When you persist on something, you are willing to sacrifice yourself to succeed; Ignite 200 HP to +2 level in Spirit, 1-second duration, cooldown none)]

[Consumes: Stamina]

[Prerequisites: Strength C, Agility C, Constitution C, Spirit C, Intuition C]

[Remarks: This was the Knights of Dawn entry course, but it will affect other related skills!]

...

[Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art leveled up, related attributes increasing...]

[Strength A- → A]

[Agility A- → A]

[Constitution A+ → S-]

[Spirit SSS+ → SSS+ (Knight’s Focus +3)]

[Intuition A → A+]

[Spirit attribute has reached the character limit, reserved 2 points of Spirit attribute]

...

System notifications kept spamming Kieran’s vision.

Kieran was savoring the warm stream of leveling for [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] and soaked himself in completely out of habit.

He didn’t even notice the changes that happened to him physically. Slight glimmers of white appeared around his hands.

Although it was weak and faint, it quickly melted the snow and ice that covered his body.

After a while, Kieran’s figure was completely defrosted and that glimmer of white light gathered into a ball, spreading across his body slowly.

...

The Sanctuary council hall.

While the deacons were still discussing the matters regarding Kieran, they clearly saw the scene through the communication crystal ball.

In fact, they never once let their eyes off Kieran for a single moment since the last incident, so every change that happened to Kieran was obvious to their eyes.

"Sanctuary Force!?"

One of the deacons stood up excitedly, he glanced over the others in the hall and said loudly, "There is no need to consider 2567’s identity anymore, he is the reincarnation of Hugh!"

"Without the baptism of the Hall of Legacy, those who can simulate the Sanctuary Force must the reincarnation of a Holy Knight! There isn’t any other explanation!"

"Our guardian has returned!"

Excited voices echoed throughout the hall.

The other members of the Sanctuary too heard the news, they couldn’t help but revealed a smile of delight on their face. After all, it was the only good news in recent times.