The Devil’s Cage

The coldness of death was like solid ice in the winter, stabbing into Kieran’s chest directly, stirring the boiling hot blood in his heart.

The cold and hot were at polar opposites and the wide gap in between made devilized Kieran grunt heavily before falling to the ground.

The magma outside his body quickly hardened and turned into a plaster-like state, shattering into fine bits, revealing Kieran inside.

At that moment, Kieran was at his worst form possible.

Constitution and Spirit authentications kept popping up non-stop quicker than he had ever seen before. He still could get a glimpse of the notifications at first but they soon turned into a rapid blur.

It wasn’t just that two attributes though, Strength, Agility, Intuition and even his skills and equipment display started to blur out as if a bunch of codes piled up in front of Kieran’s eyes.

Soon, it turned into a slow spinning gray vortex and it spun faster as it went.

A great suction force appeared from the core of the rapid spinning, dragging Kieran inside.

He didn’t know what would happen if he got dragged in but his instinct told him it would be nothing worth anticipating. However, the suction force was too strong, Kieran didn’t even have the strength to resist and was swiftly dragged closer to the vortex.

Just as the whirlpool was about to consume him, Kieran’s talent window [The Warden] suddenly shined with a golden radiance.

[Weak Spots Immune]!

[Authentication Advantage]!

Unlike other attributes, skills, and equipment which were blurry at the moment, the two talent attributes were shining in gold, dazzling to the eyes.

It wasn’t just simply clear and visible, they represented his hopes of survival!

The hot blood in his heart that was stirred by the coldness of death boiled once again.

The icy coldness was repelled, Kieran’s vision slowly returned to normal and more lines of notifications appeared in his vision.

[Encountered Secondary Malevolent Curse, Constitution has passed authentication…]

[Encountered Secondary Malevolent Curse, Spirit has passed authentication…]

[Encountered Malevolent Curse, Constitution has failed authentication, receive Extreme rank true damage, detected talent The Warden, Weak Spots Immune and Authentication Advantage have priority, Extreme rank true damage decreased to Powerful true damage…]

[Encountered Malevolent Curse, Spirit has passed authentication…]

[Encountered Secondary Malevolent Curse, Constitution has failed authentication, receive I rank true damage, detected talent The Warden, Weak Spots Immune and Authentication Advantage have priority, I rank true damage decreased to Powerful true damage…]

[Encountered Malevolent Curse, Spirit has failed authentication, being drag into Death Realm, detected talent The Warden, Weak Spots Immune and Authentication Advantage have priority, Death Realm difficulty decrease by 1…]

…

The words told Kieran what kind of danger he was in a moment ago.

His HP which has less than 1/10 of his original amount even made him shudder, chills went down his spine.

Without further hesitation, [Light of Healing] from [Ring of Blessing] was shining, three consecutive healing lights of High, Medium and Light damage gathered on Kieran’s body altogether.

After triple healing, Kieran’s HP recovered to a safe level.

He quickly turned and stood up, lifting his head up to Alinda Krely.

At that moment, the owner of both Witch’s and Emperor’s bloodline was floating in mid-air, wailing in a frenzy.

She sounded frantic and in pain.

“How did you get two hearts?!”

“How did you endure all three Malevolent Curses?!”

“Aaarrgh! I will not submit to this!!

While she was wailing, Alinda Krely’s body started to vanish, just like her limbs before.

The speed wasn’t all that fast which caused her more pain.

Her organs were being nibbled away, the pain far surpassed her limbs but the most excruciating thing was, she lost!

Her greed for the Emperor’s Legacy made her activate Malevolent Curse after clenching her teeth.

She thought sacrificing all four of her limbs was enough to support her activation of the highest rank of the curse that she knew of.

As for her limbs though, a Witch may have ways to regrow all her limbs, maybe she would have to pay an astounding cost but once the thought about the Emperor’s Legacy came to mind, Alinda Krely didn’t care anymore.

However, once she activated Malevolent Curse, she realized something was wrong.

Kieran had two hearts!

The Malevolent Curse specifically targeted at Kieran was forced to increase its energy consumption twice to the original amount.

The first Secondary Malevolent Curse made Alinda Krely lose her arms!

The second Malevolent Curse of normal rank made her lose her legs!

The third High Malevolent Curse directly took her whole body!

Fourth time?

Without a sufficient amount of sacrifice, the “great” existence would not do anything.

“No, no, no, no, no! I haven’t lost! I will be the one to get the Emperor’s Legacy!”

Alinda Krely, whose head was the only thing left, didn’t die yet.

She felt the ‘great existence’ gaze leaving her. Unwilling, she quickly flew towards the giant Creature of Desire’s carcass that had almost reached the surface.

However, Kieran was faster!

An 8-meter radius spider web laced with fire fell down from the sky, catching Alinda Krely’s flying head inside.

The fire and toxin started to frantically corrode the remains of Alinda Krely’s life energy.

[Mardos Arm]’s [Hell Fiend Shadow] was then triggered.

Countless illusion mirages started to penetrate Alinda Krely’s mind. If it was during normal times, she would be fine but after three overbearing sacrifices, she reached her limit.

The demonic entities from [Hell Fiend Shadow] became the last straw that crumbled her.

“Aaaaaargh!”

After a sharp, irritating scream, Alinda Krely’s head exploded right away.

A gloomy golden skill book appeared on the spider web.

As if it felt the difference of this spoils of war, the spider icon on the wristband turned into the faint Hell Fiend Spider’s mirage with a shake.

The little Hell Fiend Spider appeared on its spider web in a flash but right at the next moment, the Hell Fiend Spider returned to the wristband as if it was spooked, all the tiny hair on its body stood up and it gave its best effort in holding itself together, many of its eyes were showing a humane version of fright and fear of what it encountered.

Then out of Kieran’s expectation, the little Hell Fiend Spider turned to him.

The feeling of desire came afloat in Kieran’s heart as if both of them were telepathically connected.

The spider wanted to consume the skill book!

While on the other hand, the Creature of Desire which showed a stronger hunger went silent without a sign; the cardinal sins too.

Doubts and questions filled Kieran’s heart as he reached his hand inside the spider web and took the book out.

[Discovered skill book, Gezardrake Sacrificial Spell]

[Detected skill Mystical Knowledge, prerequisite met, learn?]

“Sacrificial Spell? And the name…”

Kieran unconsciously thought of the unknown, formless power as he read through the name.

He also thought of Alinda Krely’s vanished limbs and body and more importantly, her limbs and body that looked like they were chewed and nibbled off, where did they ultimately go?

Alert and vigilant, Kieran was happy to get more gains but he would never place himself into the crosshairs, especially with the unusual behaviors from the Creature of Desire and the cardinal sins.

His gaze at the skill book in his hand was very judgemental and at the same time, the Emperor’s Legacy finally, completely floated out of the ground.