The Devil's Cage

Kieran was extremely vigilant as he closed the distance between him and the stranger.

When the two of them were less than 10 meters apart, the person, who had been hiding their face behind the electric pole, moved their head and exposed their face to Kieran.

It was a blank face with no traditional features on it. It was just a head covered with skin.

A low-pitched howl came from under the skin, and the whole face started to ripple like water, upsetting the surface of the creature's whole body.

Its body started to twist before Kieran's eyes.

Kieran’s gaze was glued to the twisted body and the ripples on it. Suddenly, he saw snakes coming out of the body.

The scarlet red tongues of the snakes were hissing at Kieran, their venomous fangs ready to strike.

The cold hard gaze of the snakes was caressing his exposed skin.

All of a sudden, tons of snakes leapt out of the strange body, trying to drown Kieran with their number. However, before the snakes could reach him, every single one of them disappeared.

[Illusions: You fell under the target’s Illusion Realm, your Spirit has passed the test, your Intuition has passed the test, the Illusions have had no effect on you...]

Illusions!

The notification told Kieran exactly what he had just witnessed.

As he faced the faceless man throwing himself at him with a dagger in his hand, Kieran knew what he had to do.

He quickly raise his leg and kicked the dagger off man’s hand. His second kick landed on the man's chest.

The flames from Kieran’s boots were burning bright, engulfing the strange faceless man completely.

The flames were burning extra hot and fierce, as if the faceless man was covered in gasoline. Within an instant, he had turned into a giant torch.

Kieran frowned over his weakness before turning to his battlelog.

[Flame Kick: Inflicts 100 Damage to Target HP, (50 Hand-to-Hand Combat (Musou) X2), Target is an Evil Earth Spirit, Damage received X3, 300 True Damage inflicted, Target dies…]

"Evil Earth Spirit?" Kieran mumbled the monster's name.

When he'd kicked the monster, it had not felt like kicking a person or a formless soul.

It had felt harder, as if he had kicked a piece of brick.

The monster had a form and a great defense, but it was extremely weak against fire.

It was what Kieran had gathered from the notification.

Until that notification, he had not known what he'd been dealing with, but that had still not stopped him from finishing the monster off effectively.

"What happened, 2567?"

Schmidt seemed to have noticed the drama from afar and quickly ran over.

As he reached Kieran's side, he took his gun out and pointed it at the unknown burning residue.

Obviously, working with Nikorei a dozen times had given Schmidt a general understanding of the supernatural.

He could clearly tell that the monster was highly flammable and had ignited without any catalyst. This was not a common scene by any means though.

"I’ve been ambushed, but I don’t know why yet. I'm pretty sure this fellow here is dead though!"

Kieran went over to the Evil Earth Spirit after it had stopped burning. Other than a pile of dirt, the fire had not left anything else behind.

"What’s this?" Schmidt asked as he stood beside Kieran looking at the pile of dirt.

Even if Kieran hadn't already been sure, Schmidt’s question would have confirmed his guess.

An Evil Earth Spirit was not something Schmidt dealt with everyday.

If it had been a real person, there would have been a charred body left behind after the fire instead of a pile of dirt.

"An Evil Earth Spirit," Kieran said.

Schmidt wanted to ask more, but before he could, his cell phone rang in his pocket.

Schmidt made an apologetic gesture at Kieran and walked two steps away to answer his phone.

"What?" he yelled loudly seconds after picking up his phone.

Kieran could see that he was enraged.

Schmidt walked back over when he hung up the phone.

"The Heart Taker is dead! He was killed in the station, even though he was under surveillance!" Schmidt said, clearly upset.

"Killed?" Kieran had noticed the word Schmidt had used to describe the incident.

If the Heart Taker had been killed, then there had to be a killer on the loose.

"Where’s the killer?" Kieran asked.

"There is none! None of the officers at the scene saw anyone, including two of my most trusted men. I guess this is another case that I’ll need your help with," Schmidt said in a serious tone.

He shivered as the thought of a formless, shadowless killer bloomed in his mind.

Schmidt knew better than anyone how scary it was for normal people to face such a creature. He had encountered one before, which was how he had met Nikorei.

If he had a choice, Schmidt would choose his ordinary life over the eerie supernatural world.

"Is no an option?" Kieran shrugged as he headed towards the police cruiser.

His mind was still on the Evil Earth Spirit. It had obviously been there to kill him.

This proved that the Evil Earth Spirit had not been sent by the Night Demon Society.

The Night Demon Society wanted information about Kieran’s time at Alcatraz, so there was no way that they would have tried to kill him right away.

It could be the Hatch Heresy, but the heretics had a certain degree of knowledge concerning Kieran. If they'd sent a killer after him, they would not have sent a small Evil Earth Spirit, but a bunch of creatures.

Neither the Hatch Heresy nor the Night Demon Society were potential suspects.

"Is there some other faction or person after me?"

Kieran was thinking about potential attacks on his way to the police cruiser.

He quickly stopped thinking when Schmidt brought over a young man along with the pale old couple.

It was Louver.

Kieran could tell it was him by just one look.

"Please don’t worry. I swear on my badge’s honor that I will ensure Louver will be treated justly. In fact, if you want to, the two of you can come with us," Schmidt told Louver’s parents with a serious expression.

The father walked straight up to his car and started it without a word. The mother hugged her son and watched him get in the backseat of the police cruiser with unwilling eyes.

Kieran moved his backpack over to made space for Louver on the backseat.

"Tha... Thank you," Louver said.

His words were not connected properly, and his voice was extremely rough. It seemed like he was not a talker.

He did not make eye contact with Kieran as he thanked him.

After he got in the car, he shrunk to the side and tried very hard to keep some distance between him and Kieran.

Louver was afraid of the unfamiliar environment and people. Kieran was not surprised given that he had been kidnapped 10 years ago.

Kieran kept quiet as well. He did not want to upset the anti-social young man.

He inspected Louver’s hands instead. He had thick palms, long fingers, and a layer of thick calluses across his fingers and on the spot between his index finger and thumb.

Kieran imagined Muntle being stabbed through the heart.

"What a good pair of hands to wield a knife," he thought.

The very next moment, Louver proved Kieran’s thought right.