The Devil's Cage

The underground was huge.

The hole, including the hundred meters deep entrance, was just the surface.

After the entrance, there were some extremely complicated underground paths that spread out like a spider web. Intersections would appear every dozen meters and each path was equipped with many booby traps.

Some were loaded with arrows, others were bathed in acid, there were even landmines buried under the ground.

Regardless of which type of trap, it wasn't a problem for Bloody Mary as it could very well picture how difficult it was for those normal humans and monsters to get down here.

Every step was filled with difficulties and that was just the start.

Bloody Mary went further down and saw tons of worms wriggling around.

It made Bloody Mary very uncomfortable by looking at them.

The worms were eating each other, laying eggs, and then dying on the spot. The carcasses became nutrients for the eggs and the eggs would hatch in mere minutes. The larvae then rapidly matured and the disgusting process would repeat itself over and over again.

If Bloody Mary was doubtful about the complicated paths filled with booby traps, after it saw the disgusting worms, it was sure that this whole underground network wasn't built in a hurry!

It was built a very long time ago!

This was also the reason why Victor returned here after failing back in Ring City.

No! That wasn't right!

Even if he did return, he wouldn't create a scene about it.

Unless... all this was to divert attention?

Bloody Mary squinted its devilish eyes habitually.

After spending a ridiculous amount of time beside Kieran, it was influenced by what it saw and heard, so some little habits resembled Kieran's.

Of course, it wasn't just the habits that it picked up, Bloody Mary also learned how to think like Kieran!

After the doubts appeared, Bloody Mary dived in deeper and faster.

Layer after layer, the Superior Demon was able to ignore every resistance with its ghost form, like a drop of water moving through the sea.

A while later, it arrived at a deeper layer and saw 'Victor'.

'Victor's' eyes were closed, his breaths long and steady, like he was asleep, but Bloody Mary sensed a source of energy inside his body.

The slightest touch from any outside source would cause it to erupt and Bloody Mary had no intention to become a victim.

It was undead but it didn't mean it liked dying.

Moving around freely without pain was good enough, it wasn't a masochist that was fond of being tortured.

Bloody Mary quickly got away from 'Victor'. It didn't go back to the farm. Instead, it went back to Ai City straightaway and when it finally walked out from the shadow, the sky was already dark.

Bloody Mary looked up to the night sky, its mouth muttering softly, sounding like incantations, but not entirely either. It was some little trick that it got from the Witchcraft Mystical Knowledge.

The gloomy night breeze blew.

The low temperature during late autumn further plummeted, and when a layer of mist appeared, the temperature dropped below freezing point, droplets of water turned into ice in an instant.

Illusory figures and voices came out of the icy mist, one after another.

They were actually mindless souls and were part of the spoils that Bloody Mary collected throughout its kills.

Everyday, after it finished its tasks from Kieran and completed the patrol of the premise, Bloody Mary spent most of its time 'collecting' subordinates.

That's right, the subordinates were a group of mindless souls!

As Kieran's strongest follower, Bloody Mary knew better than anyone how convenient and important it was to have a good subordinate to carry out tasks, especially in this Unique Dungeon.

It believed its boss would do anything to prepare himself and recover his strength to his former glory, and as for the other trivial stuffs like information collecting, taking care of spoils, following and watching targets, all of that would naturally be part of Bloody Mary's responsibilities.

So, there was nothing wrong in collecting a workforce to help itself out, it was doing this so that it could carry out its boss' orders better.

Moreover, those Witchcraft practitioners had a poor practise of protecting their knowledge. It didn't want to see it at first but those practitioners kept wandering in front of its eyes.

Its targets muttered non-stop and occasionally wrote down notes in their little book, so there was nothing wrong for it to learn the tricks during its free time.

It was because it wanted to serve its boss better. Everything it had done was for its boss, it wasn't because it wanted to slack and hand the tasks to the mindless souls, despite the fact that the number of 'subordinates' that it collected was a little too many.

Bloody Mary voiced out its order to the thousands of souls in the mist.

"Find this guy!"

Bloody Mary took out a portrait of Victor, colored and high definition.

It stole the piece of portrait from one of the monsters that it bumped into earlier at the farm.

When Victor's schemes were exposed, Victor's portrait became the hottest selling item. A lot of Inhuman and monsters were buying them but most of the portraits sold were blurry. Therefore, this kind of colored, high definition portrait was the best of the bunch.

Bloody Mary had zero reasons to let the portrait slip through its fingers, it's mission was to find Victor after all.

Deep inside the mist, thousands of mindless souls bowed at Bloody Mary before vanishing into the dark.

The temperature returned to normal as the souls went off, the mist also dispersing on the spot.

Bloody Mary stretched its body and curled up in the corner without caring about the dirt on the ground.

It wasn't worried about punishment from its boss, it knew what kind of person its boss was: distinguished reward and punishment.

Despite being a little stingy and always holding a grudge against others, as long as things were done, everything was good and Bloody Mary was confident of that.

Since Victor attracted all the attention around Ai City, he would be around Ai City too and his true goals lie somewhere around the corner.

As for where exactly?

Bloody Mary had faith in its army of souls, just like how its boss had faith in itself.

It never let its boss down and those souls had never let itself down.

Less than 20 minutes later, results came in.

"Underground sewer?" Bloody Mary chuckled.

Among all of the familiar places in Ai City, the underground sewer would be on top of the list.

Most of the souls that Bloody Mary collected came from the underground sewer and now they located him at the very same place!

Great!

Bloody Mary jumped up and vanished with a smile lingering on its face.

...

Victor felt cold.

His clones were dying, one after another, plus after he burned the last trick on his sleeve, that temporary hideout, he was exhausted to his last straw, even though he had borrowed the power from the core of [Philosopher's Stone].

He had to get his hands on the core of the stone again, but it wasn't an easy task.

In order to safely secure the [Philosopher's Stone], Victor spent a great amount of effort to arrange this place.

To open the secret room holding the stone, the corresponding incantations were required, together with proper gestures and keys. It was under 3 layers of protection and missing anyone of them could not work.

The key had always been with Victor, on his real body, so the incantations and gestures were branded in his mind.

Now, all he needed to do was chant the incantations, pose the gestures, remove the cover of the room, and disable the security mechanism before he could open the door with the key.

However, with his current state, the long and tedious incantations required a lot from him, especially where the hand gestures were concerned, draining his life force even more.

The cold had him like a snake trying to constrict his body, numbing the majority of his body, especially his feet, which he put inside the dirty water, which felt ticklish.

Victor knew he had to hurry, otherwise he wouldn't be able to save his legs in the dirty water.

"Zazasi…

X.zazasi…"

After the last verse of the incantations, Victor lowered his arms down.

Kak!

A tick sounded behind the wall.

The flat wall then produced waves outwards, like a stone that was thrown into calm waters.

When a ruby appeared in Victor's hand, he held it tight and put it inside the center of the wall.

The waves vanished at the next moment, revealing a door at the wall.

The door was very common, like any wooden door in a cheap apartment.

Victor reached his hand out to the handle, but before his palm could touch the handle, his palm fell off his hand.

A scarlet red figure appeared at the end of the sewer.

The soul fire in the eye sockets of the skull was jumping furiously, laughter coming promptly.

"Victor, my ex-partner!

Did you think you can run from me!?

Or did you overthink your abilities?" Scarlet asked in a casual manner.

The pain from his wrist forced Victor to stagger back, leaning on the wall so he wouldn't fall to the ground.

"The potion from before?" Victor asked.

"Yes, the potion from before. My potion doesn't just work on the body, it works on the soul as well. Although not too effective, but enough to track you down," Scarlet nodded.

"It's not me!" Victor growled heavily.

"Do you think I will believe anything you say after all that has happened?

You bastard, you ruined my hundred years of planning!

I ought to skin you alive and rip your bones apart!

Don't worry, I am the 'skeleton' of my words!"

Scarlet raised its skeletal hand as he talked, and then he swung it down at Victor.

Tssss!

Victor's other hand fell off his wrist, followed by his legs, and then his penis.

In the end, Victor became a human sausage, falling down into the dirty waters of the sewer face first.

The cold dirty water washed his face and injuries, the immense pain and anger twisting his handsome face beyond recognition, the insult that it felt twisting even its soul.

As a man, after his penis was cut off, even if he wasn't a psycho before, there was a high chance that he would become one after that, if he survived that was.

The urge to shout at Scarlet wanted to erupt but he held it back by closing his mouth tight, clenching his teeth tightly and closing his eyes, the slightest seam on his lips allowing the dirty water to go in.

Victor knew, as did Scarlet, that it cut off Victor's penis on purpose. It wanted to insult Victor in the harshest way possible and never wanted him to stand back up again, only then could it ease its grievance.

Everything was just a start, it still had many ways to insult Victor but it wasn't the time to settle its personal grudge.

Scarlet's priority was to retrieve the wealth of Ring City!

It reached out its skeletal claw and grabbed Victor by the collar, putting him in front of itself.

Scarlet then went over to the door and opened it.

The room wasn't big, it could even be considered small, probably around one square yard.

Rather than saying the place was a secret room of sorts, you might as well call it a safety box, but there was nothing inside this safety box.

Victor was the first to see the empty place, his eyes widening in shock.

'Where is the Philosopher's Stone core?!

Why isn't it here?

I put it right here!'

While Victor's heart was going through some shocking moments, Scarlet saw the empty place too, reaching out its other skeletal hand and searching the little room back and forth.

After making sure there wasn't anything inside, the soul fire in its eye sockets jumped violently.

It grabbed Victor by the collar with both its hands and pressed its skull on his forehead, saying, "Speak, where did you hide the treasures of Ring City?!"

Victor laughed when he heard Scarlet's threats, the astonishment in his heart hidden pretty well, just sneers left on his face.

He didn't know who beat him but at least it wasn't Scarlet, which was good news to Victor.

"You really think you can locate the treasure?

Or do you think you can pick on my flaws so easily?

This is also part of my plan!

As for why?

I bet you came here alone. The three kings don't know you found me, right?

If the three kings realized you came here alone, do you think your little tricks would work on them?"

The sneers and mocks on Victor's face grew dense, verbally stimulating Scarlet frenziedly.

Although none of this was part of his plan, as long as he could make Scarlet believe it was, he would be able to take revenge on the skull face and the sense of defeat would drown Scarlet.

Victor felt delight in his heart when he saw how furious the soul fire in Scarlet's eye sockets.

Then… something in his heart was activated. It was his last resort, not a trump card, but extremely useful.

At the very next moment, Scarlet tossed Victor away.

Bang!

Victor's body exploded in mid-air.

The explosion was huge, his blood and flesh flew everywhere, going off like a ton of explosives.

The whole underground sewer was blown to bits, a deep hole appearing on the road back on the surface. The patrol cruisers heard the commotion, putting on their sirens and speeding to the scene.

Scarlet stood there with utmost hatred.

"I WILL FIND YOU!"

It growled before it vanished.

Meanwhile,underneath Roze Farm, Victor, the bait, opened his eyes.

This body was actually the bait but now it became his real body.

The sudden reverse damaged his soul again.

Although he survived, his mind was messed up, making him forget important things, such as his own name.

He sat there, looked up at the ceiling and pondered over it all.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What am I doing?

...

At the same time, Kieran was also thinking deeply after he got the core of the [Philosopher's Stone] from Bloody Mary. The description of the item made him grind his gears.

[Name: Philosopher's Stone (Core)]

[Type: Wonder Item]

[Rarity: V]

[Attack: None]

[Defense: V]

[Attribute: Equivalent Exchange (1/1)]

[Effect: None]

[Prerequisite: None]

[Able to bring out of dungeon: No]

[Remark: This is the epitome of ancient alchemy, it is not complete but it has astonishing powers!]

…

[Equivalent Exchange: What you pay is what you get in return, in equivalence.]

[Note: Equivalence is the core of everything, exceeding the value may cause unexpected results!]

…

Kieran tapped the table lightly.

This core... could achieve wonders!