The Devil's Cage

“Your Majesty?”

Hayden Ow was stunned but he quickly gave chase.

“The archpriest’s body, where did you bury it?” Kieran asked.

“Body?”

“Could it be?”

Hayden Ow’s face turned sour as he related to something, then he said, “Please come with me.”

Canmore Public Cemetery, the biggest public cemetery in Forest City.

Most of the civilians would choose to be buried here.

Neil as the archpriest of God of Forest City shouldn’t have been buried here after he died under normal circumstances, he should have been sent to a higher class priest cemetery but after the fall of the God of Forest City, everything changed.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Hayden Ow’s last moment of respect for what Neil did, he didn’t even have the rights to be buried here, dying without an intact body was what he deserved.

The notorious acts that he committed in the past made him well deserving of such an ending, therefore Hayden Ow didn’t give Neil a gravestone because he was afraid something bad might happen.

Still, Hayden Ow remembered clearly where Neil was buried.

“Here, Your Majesty,” said Hayden Ow with a bow while pointing at a nameless gravestone at the edge of the cemetery.

“Hmm.”

Kieran nodded and placed his attention on the gravestone for a while before sizing up the surroundings.

Hayden Ow was looking at Kieran in confusion but he dared not question him.

Based on how Kieran expressed himself, it was enough for the branch manager to know something went wrong with Neil’s body but judging from how Kieran reacted now, the nervousness from before was gone.

“What happened?”

“Was something left out? Or…”

Just when Hayden Ow was pondering the question, Kieran beside him vanished from the spot and quietly entered the shadows.

Hayden Ow’s reaction wasn’t slow at all. The moment he saw Kieran enter the shadows, he leaped aside and took cover behind a gravestone with quick steps.

Around 20 seconds later, a sneaky figure appeared in Hayden Ow’s sight and when he caught a glimpse of the face, Hayden Ow’s pupils dilated.

Neil!

Neil should be dead yet he appeared before Hayden Ow!

Which meant the Neil they buried was a fake! An imposter in disguise!

Instantaneously, Hayden Ow had precise speculation about what happened in his heart.

It was very easy for Neil to pull off such a trick.

After a brutal, bloody battle, it was very normal for Neil to have cuts and slashes on his faces and body, to the point that Hayden Ow completely neglected the details, or in other words…

“This bastard used the respect from my heart to mislead me, causing me to instinctively neglect the idea of thoroughly searching his “body!” Bloody bastard!”

Enraged, Hayden Ow wanted to jump out and kill the man, making him a real dead body but when Hayden Ow thought about Kieran who was still in hiding, he quickly suppressed the rage in his heart.

He knew in this place, at this time, he wasn’t the one calling the shots.

Everything had to follow Kieran’s will.

…

Neil was breathing heavily after a rapid sprint.

The body which hadn’t been through real training was not used to such a vigorous exercise but Neil dared not even pause for a second.

He knew his time was running out and following those bastard’s move, he will be exposed soon.

“Bunch of reckless fools! They never understood the meaning of strategy!”

Neil was mumbling as he traveled to “his” grave.

He smiled when he saw the wordless gravestone.

“As I expected of Hayden Ow and that Bird of Death!”

“The former shows respect for my death and the latter is infatuated by the treasure of the God of Forest City. But… the real treasure is with me!”

When he felt the fluttering waves a few feet away from him, Neil’s smile was bright and delightful. He took a deep breath and dug with the iron shovel.

The ground was quickly shoveled away.

After the clouds and rain went away, Forest City returned to its tropical hot weather again, Neil who was already panting from the sprint was drenched in sweat from the shoveling.

However, the archpriest that faked his death kept on moving the shovel as though he couldn’t feel tired.

Dang!

When the shovel hit something hard in the ground, the sweaty Neil showed delight on his face, even a brighter smile appeared on his face.

However, a moment later his smile froze hard because…

A shadow silently approached him and appeared beside him.

The firearm from the shadow’s hand was even showing the most primitive killer intent.

“Don’t kill me! I didn’t break the promise! I’m just…”

Bang!

Before Neil finished, the firearm in the gun wielder’s hand was fired.

The bullet was shot into Neil’s body and blood gushed out before he fell to the ground.

The gun wielder didn’t seem to care about killing a person as he added a few more shots to Neil’s body.

The last shot fired even blasted Neil’s crown off of his head, causing his brains to splatter.

Without a doubt, Neil would surely be dead 10 times over after being shot into such a hideous state.

The gun wielder then put away his gun and picked up the shovel to continue digging in front of the gravestone.

Compared to Neil’s feeble body, the gun wielder wasn’t just energetic, he was strong as well.

Less than 5 minutes into digging, the dirt on top and around the coffin was cleared.

The gun wielder stuck the shovel into the seam of the coffin, trying to pry it open with brute force.

Gak Tsk!

Gak Tsk!

Bang!

After a series of tooth-numbing screeches, the coffin lid was pried open and fell off. The gun wielder anxiously looked into the coffin, trying to see its contents but then…

A pair of hands came out from the coffin and grabbed the gun wielder by the neck.

The gun wielder didn’t even scream or breathe and he was dragged into the coffin.

Then, a series of meat chewing noises came from inside the coffin, numbing Hayden Ow’s scalp as he was listening behind a gravestone.

Although he did see a lot of remains of humans after the fiends devoured them, it was a first for Hayden Ow to witness it “live”, especially when the body that was eating people was the body that he buried himself.

“What happened?”

Hayden Ow questioned himself while his gaze instinctively flew towards Neil’s body.

He was wondering whether the scene was related to Neil but under his vigilant gaze, Neil’s body didn’t even budge.

It seemed like after faking his death once, Neil was really dead this time, even his brains spilled out, not even a fiend could survive that.

The chewing stopped.

That bleached white pair of hands appeared again, its fingers were tainted with bright red blood.

Hayden Ow squinted his eyes, his palm instinctively reached his weapon at his waist.

Even though he knew he would be fine when Kieran was around, his battle instinct allowed him to make the right choice.

However, the moment Hayden Ow’s fingers touched his gun—

Huu!

Huu!

Heavy breaths came from behind him.

The icy cold presence struck chills down his spine and caused goosebumps on his neck and back.