The Devil's Cage

The sky, which had been turning dark as night fell, was suddenly dyed red.

Clouds rumbled and shrunk before smashing through.

A black spot pierced the clouds, falling down with an ear-numbing sound.

Kieran widened his eyes at the black spot.

A meteor! A meteor was on fire!

Kieran had gotten a general impression of Nikorei's friends long ago, so he knew who was powerful and who was not.

What Kieran was witnessing was blowing his mind though.

The very moment that he saw the meteor fall down from the sky, an impression formed on his mind.

The gray mist seeped out of the seams of the Black Knights' armor and turned itself into an enormous head with only two eye sockets that stared at the falling meteor without eyes.

Suddenly, it threw itself up into the sky, where the meteor was still falling.

The meteor smashed the misty head out of shape when they came into contact.

The head dispersed in ripples and vanished in the horizon as the meteor crashed hard against the primitive forest.

BOOM!

The earth trembled and flames rose as it collided.

The shockwave felt like sweeping away dead leaves. Everything within a three-kilometer radius was destroyed.

Neither the tall trees nor the deep-rooted grass survived the blast.

Everything was crushed and disintegrated into ashes, turning into a sea of fire.

Kieran was supporting Charles with one hand.

He could find no words to describe his feelings as he witnessed the scene.

Overwhelmed? Powerless?

Kieran unconsciously placed himself in the shoes of the mist monster, realizing he could not have withstood the meteor strike, even if he had transformed into his devil form.

His attention was quickly attracted by the night sky.

The burning sky formed a projection before his eyes.

The projection showed Nikorei carrying Tiki as Ferad trailed behind her.

Nikorei was leading a group of men, including the Night Demon leader Morenderke, the Dark Star leader Serdenk, and three more unfamiliar men, who had to be the Unicorn, White Deer and Polaris leaders.

They were walking through a small town, heading to an old building. It looked ancient, but Kieran couldn't tell anything else about its structure.

Suddenly, he saw a big and a small gate appear before the group. Kieran raised his brow. He was unfamiliar with the big gate, but he had seen the small gate before.

It was the sealed stone gate!

Nikorei and co. didn't seem to care about the small gate though. They were focused on the bigger gate instead. Nikorei pushed it open, and light shone through as everyone vanished through it.

The projection started to get blurry before it eventually vanished.

"Is this a mirage?" Kieran asked Charles.

"It's a power reflection!" Charles said, using a strange new word.

"Whenever you cast a powerful spell in a special location, it will leave a trace on the horizon. Then thanks to changes in temperature and other natural causes, the scene will be projected. The moment Rei opened that gate, an immense force must have broken through. Even though the projection was not displayed, the power reflection, the primitive forest and the mist monster are proof enough for this!" Charles explained, although he was still looking doubtful.

"Forende Town was hiding both a devil and something else that is just as horrifying? What is Forende Town really?"

Kieran took a deep breath helplessly as he heard Charles' words.

Although he could guess that the place where Nikorei was was the actual Forende Town, he was not sure because he had never been there before. Now Charles seemed to be confirming his theory.

Kieran had a question of his own on his mind. What was behind the gate that Nikorei and co. had gone through?

The devil had to be behind that sealed stone gate, but what was more fearsome than the devil himself?

Kieran realized his imagination was running dry. He couldn't imagine what could be behind that gate.

[Sub Mission: Missing Town! (Completed)]

Even the system notification could not cheer him up. His mind was filled with burning questions about the strange stone gate. He was eager to perform a thorough investigation to put his burning doubts to rest.

...

"2567! Master Charles!"

Schmidt, Raul and Cidney jumped out of the limo as it screeched to a stop.

They were all in shock when they saw the primitive forest in ruins.

The three of them thought they were dreaming. The meteor had fallen down and destroyed the forest in mere minutes.

A primitive forest as big as a town had been destroyed just like that. Even Raul and Cidney, who were members of the mystical realm, were overwhelmed, let alone Schmidt, who was just an amateur.

Schmidt looked somewhat absent-minded. Kieran could tell that his soul had left his body, but he had no spare time to comfort the Chief Officer. He had more urgent things to deal with.

"Take care of Master Charles! I'll go take a look!"

Kieran pointed at the burning crater that was the primitive forest and patted Schmidt's shoulder, hoping he would get a grip on himself.

"Be careful!" Charles warned Kieran. He knew what Kieran wanted to look for.

He would search for the unknown stone gate. There were similar questions on Master Charles' mind as well.

The burning air assaulted Kieran right away. If he didn't have [Secondary Elemental Damage Resistance], he would have gotten burned.

Sweat slid down his forehead, but before it could reach his cheeks, it had already evaporated.

Kieran's head looked like it was steaming if one saw it from afar, but this still didn't stop him from investigating the scorched land.

Even without any visible obstacles, Kieran could not rely on his naked eyes to search for clues inside the burning meteor crater. He activated [Tracking] right away, hoping that this skill would help him spot some kind of special being.

The description of Grand Master [Tracking] stated that by using it, one was able to sense special beings. Kieran's eyes could not just spot formless spirits though.

He could see pitch black tracks everywhere, very much unlike common burn marks.

He wanted to follow the tracks, but before he could do it, his eyes started hurting.

"Aaargh!" he cried out in pain.

A tremendous power struck his body, making him fly like a kite let loose.