The Devil's Cage

"Player? What do you mean?"

Kieran was stunned, not understanding what the question was referring to.

"Aren't you a player?" the figure was also stunned, her eyes overflowing with astonishment.

"Mary, I have no idea what you are talking about. Did death cause some irreversible damage to your memories?" Kieran asked with a worried face.

"You are not?!" the figure stood there blankly, at a loss for action.

"Mary, I don't know what you are talking about but it's great to see you."

Kieran naturally went up with open arms, trying to hug her but his arms went through the figure's body.

"I am a little different than before…"

"I know. I just wanted to make sure."

The figure explained sorrowfully but before she finished, Kieran smiled.

His estranged smile was blank. It was his usual smile at people but the smile raised an alarm in the figure's heart.

"What did you do to me?" she yelled.

She checked her body nervously but there was nothing. Yet, because of that, she became more anxious and doubtful.

The unknown causes fear.

Unknowingly, she began preparing her trump card.

Suddenly, Kieran said in a serious tone, "You aren't Mary! Who are you?"

The question stopped the illusory figure from her little action.

'He only found out that I'm not Mary?'

The illusory figure heaved a breath of relief. She wasn't Mary for sure, hence she already had a perfect excuse up her sleeve.

No one would doubt her current state after all.

"Relax! I know there are some differences from who I used to be, but I am really Mary!" she explained.

"I need proof! Tell me something that only Mary and I know!" Kieran frowned and looked dubious.

"Like you said, my current state caused some irreversible damage to my memories, but I assure you my feelings for you haven't changed! Even in this form, when I laid eyes on you, I still felt happy. Do you know, I never thought my heart would feel this hot again!" the illusory figure said as she moved closer to Kieran. Her illusory hand almost landed on Kieran's face but when it was a finger finger away, Devil Flame engulfed her completely.

Through charging and the buffs from [Fiery Sulphur] and Fire Raven, Devil Flame rapidly reached rank V!

The moment the flames appeared, it took the form of a roaring devil head!

The horns of a goat were sharp and spiral, it was so tall that it almost pierced the sky.

The mouth filled with sharp teeth was burning in an unique noise as sparks of flame flew out, but when the unique burning sparks entered the illusory figure's ears, it became... a sneer!

A raw, merciless sneer without any intention of holding back!

"Y-You lied to me!"

The illusory figure finally reacted to the situation and yelled at Kieran.

She ought to activate her final trump card and die with the man before her eyes but rank V Devil Flame hard far surpassed her abilities.

The moment the flames appeared, they burned her charged up powers into cinders, returning her to her original form—a sculpture.

The sculpture was less than 30 cm tall. It was armored, with a sword in one hand and a demon's head in the other.

It was [Hell Breath]!

Unlike how Kieran remembered it, he did not see his face on the sculpture, instead becoming Mary's face.

Following [Hell Breath]'s revelation, stone crumbling noises entered Kieran's ears.

In his eyes, the 4th, 5th and 7th Mordin's Sculpture that had been hiding in the void started to crumble, followed by the appearance of that white light.

"When did you notice?" [Hell Breath] yelled in the light.

"From the moment you created…"

Kieran carefully opted out the word 'player'.

Unlike the previous questions, Kieran would want to avoid any usage of the term related to the big city or players while he stated his words.

"You don't believe Mary was a player?" the sculpture asked.

Kieran kept quiet. His silence was considered an acknowledgement.

Based on the sculpture's questions, Kieran was certain after he placed [Hell Breath] into his backpack and went back to the big city or other dungeon worlds, it would not have been able to know anything about the outside world.

Otherwise, it would have ended up like Devil Heart, where its original conscience was wiped away by the system.

Therefore, there was only a single explanation left: Mary was indeed a player, a player who had been approached by [Hell Breath] that knew the existence of players.

Starting from that point, Kieran came up with a series of interesting thoughts.

Where did [Hell Breath] originate from then?

It must be one of Mordin's sculptures without a question.

So did this Mordin come across any 'players' before?

The answer was also certain.

Mordin did not just come across real players, it seemed like Mordin understood the players quite well too, hence [Hell Breath] was carved into this Mary's face.

Based on the natural order of how spirits came to be, [Hell Breath]'s first memory should come from Mordin herself.

Meaning during the papal age 600 years ago, a player came to this dungeon world and had intimate contact with Mordin, or even had a task assigned by Mordin herself, such as finding her father?

After that, Mordin's wait for the player to return was fruitless, so when she sculpted [Hell Breath], she used the player as a model and told the sculpture about the existence of the 'players'.

Or…

Everything about the so-called players were just Mordin's wild guess.

As for how the guess took form?

There were many smart people in the world.

Since Mordin could sculpt something this powerful, she must have quite the power and wisdom herself.

Maybe her eyes were blinded in a short period of time, but when the duration was prolonged, she must be able to spot flaws.

Kieran didn't know what kind of flaws 'Mary' left behind and allowed Mordin to lock on to the term 'players', but he knew he wasn't the first player to enter this dungeon world.

600 years ago, or even earlier than that, there were players who arrived in this dungeon world.

However, all the mentioned players were dead, either in this dungeon world or others.

According to the rule of a single player dungeon, Kieran could tell only when the previous players were all 'dead', the system would allow the next to enter, with different identity and different time period.

If this theory of his was correct…

Kieran couldn't help but squint his eyes.

Some questions that were buried in his heart were finally solved.

Why were there always some vague yet existent connections, or similar legends, between different dungeon worlds?

The reason was because in different time periods, players with unique powers entered the dungeon world and left their mark behind.

However, these players had 'legal' identities in the mentioned dungeon worlds.

They were all protected by the big city and perfectly fit into the time period of the selected dungeon world. Even without protection from the big city, they would have their own methods to lay low, making themselves less 'obvious'.

And this 'obvious' became the key point of this sudden incident. [Hell Breath] went through a lot of effort, even creating an almost real 'virtual world', just to make Kieran stand out, to make him 'obvious'!

Fortunately, he had never let his guard down from the moment he was teleported to this dungeon world, even when [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture] appeared.

[Hell Breath] made him believe everything in this world was related to Mordin, [Imperfect Mordin Sculpture] was hidden in the secret slaughter room in the morgue and was purposely arranged to make everything seem seamless.

However, the seamless flow did not lower Kieran's guard down a bit, because it was too coincidental. Even more so when he realized this 'Mary' might be a player, his alarm reached an all time high.

It wasn't just because he had never encountered this kind of situation before, it was also because he knew how greedy a player could be.

As long as there were enough gains and benefits, nothing would be too atrocious or strange to commit.

Therefore, when the sculpture asked about his identity, he denied it without a second thought and used it to test the sculpture's identity.

Then with his near rank II Intuition and rank V Spirit, when he touched the illusory figure, he knew something was definitely wrong.

If there was anyone in the world who knew a lot about demons or evil spirits, Kieran was definitely one of the best.

He could clearly sense that the illusory figure was different from a real demon and where did the difference come from: Mordin's Sculptures!

Similarly, Kieran also knew his loot very well.

Mordin herself might forget the patterns on the sculptures but Kieran 'carved' them into his brain, especially after he acquired the Talent [Memory Palace]. He'd remember anything with a glance and would check his memories frequently.

He knew his loot too well. The illusory figure mixed a bit of Demon Energy into the negative energy, it blended very well but in Kieran's eyes, it was like a black sheep mixed into a group of white sheep.

After making sure the hidden power from the illusory figure was from Mordin's Sculpture, Kieran quickly reacted to the situation. However, he did not expose the sculpture right away, instead playing along with the acting.

The hyper realistic world that the sculpture created told Kieran there were still powers that he didn't know of hiding away from him.

Therefore, he had to deliver the lethal blow to the sculpture before the hidden power was activated, such as now!

Fuaa!

Devil Flame burned out of thin air again and engulfed [Hell Breath] completely. A while later, [Hell Breath], which Kieran stomped to pieces before, crumbled further.

Until her very last breath, the sculpture didn't understand why Kieran wasn't curious at all, wasn't he curious about how she created this hyper realistic world?

Or, wasn't he curious about how she knew about the term 'players'?

He didn't even spare her a breathing window!

Kak!

The broken [Hell Breath] crumbled further, the little broken pieces disintegrating into powder before they were blown away by the wind.

The wind also brought the white light over.

Kieran was unwilling to part with the green glowing item in the room, holding back his impulse to getting the loot because he didn't know whether or not the first test was a trap.

Kieran then disappeared into the white light, but not this world.

Instead, everything in this world stopped.

A slender, fair hand came out from the void and picked up the green glowing item.

"He is not?"

Amid the soft mumbles, the hand was going back into the void but before it could, an invisible wave appeared around it.

The wave contained terrifying powers.

It was vast and unmeasurable.

Its light was too bright to even look at.

When the hand touched the vast power, it was badly mutilated. A few twitches later, the hand fell, together with the item.

The item fell on the floor but not the broken hand.

The invisible wave enveloped the falling hand and crushed it into bits, turning it into nothing.

The invisible wave even went into the void and chased after the owner of the hand, leaving behind the fallen item on the floor.

Knock, Knock Knock!

A while later, the door was knocked on. McRose came in shortly after that.

"Teacher? 2567?"

She called out to both of them but no one was inside the room anymore. She then saw the item on the floor.

"Whose knife is this? 2567?"

McRose never thought her teacher would possess something like this.

As for Kieran?

She wasn't sure.

She picked it up and wanted to return it to Kieran but when her fingers touched the knife, her body shook and disappeared.

…

Everything before Kieran's eyes changed again, he was then returned to the street that he remembered.

Behind him was Ferris the Freezer and Odork the Bloodman, engaged in battle.

Beside him was a translucent gem the size of a peanut, emanating a dark golden glow.

[Name: Broken Io Mirror]

[Type: ETC]

[Rarity: ???]

[Attack: ???]

[Defense: ???]

[Attribute: ???]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: Yes]

[Remark: In a fateful encounter, Mordin acquired this piece of mirror from player Mary. It was then used as the core to sculpt Hell Breath—it has magical powers!]

…

The question marks on the description was enough to tell Kieran this piece of gemstone was something remarkable.

Just when he was about to pick up the gem, something happened.