The Devil's Cage

Teresa was driving the car, speeding through the intercontinental highway.

Kieran in the backseat was carefully checking the letter in his hand.

The envelope was white, the common type, though the paper wasn’t the regular one. It was a high-quality goatskin paper with an extra white surface suitable for being kept for prolonged periods of time.

The content of the letter was as followed.

……

To Police Captain Teresa.

I apologize in greeting you with such way.

Your subordinate, Hoskin is in our hands now. If you wish for this young man to be able to continue his life, please come to Yuda State University.

We would also like Sir 2567 to accompany you for the trip.

Please don’t disclose the content of this letter. The methods we possess are far beyond your imagination and it isn’t limited to simply delivering letters.

JR

Yours Sincerely

Graven sending our regards from the year of the Falling Comet.

…

The fancy calligraphy was thick yet nimble. The threats lied between the lines was very obvious as well.

Kieran was certain Teresa didn’t receive this letter the usual way. Otherwise, with her temper, she would have brought enough weapons and charged into Yuda State University alone and not seek for his help at Augen Manor.

Augen Manor was Anne Aldrich Augen’s turf and based on Teresa’s hatred of the woman, unless she could arrest Anne Aldrich Augen herself, she wouldn’t have appeared or even stepped near the place.

But…

“Graven eh?”

Kieran’s attention lingered on the name.

The first time Teresa mentioned the name, Kieran already felt familiar and after the mention, he would surely investigate the name.

Things turned out just as his initial thought, Graven was a mystical organization in the dungeon world. It wasn’t a secret organization like the churches but it was formed by people who shared a common goal, similar to a society of sorts.

Though Graven Society was very famous, the books from Mecathy and Borjane Bookstore had a lot of books mentioning Graven Society and most of it addressed the society as “Yuda State University Secret Society”.

A certain part of the books would use “The communication and coexistence between mystical and science” as a title to describe the society.

Obviously, it was an organization different from the traditional mystical organizations, at least it was the first mystical organization that Kieran saw which would advertise themselves.

However, the real goal of inviting him was not so different from the other common mystical individuals who had their eyes on him.

It was an obvious invitation, be it detaining Hoskin or delivering the letter to Teresa, every move they took was to invite Kieran to Yuda State University.

Dandon Church’s influence and forces in Edland City were much bigger than they imagined, Graven didn’t even have the chance to make their move, or rather they weren’t even bold enough to do so.

The reason behind it though, Kieran could only relate to the bounty reward from Elder Council.

Even though Hoskin went there to investigate one of the victims of the Winchester explosion case, Professor Harondentte, Kieran was certain that within Graven Society, there might be only a handful of people who knew about the unknown yet valuable [Dien Stone].

Humans were all selfish. When a valuable item was placed in front of their eyes, they would try to take it for their own and not share it with others.

Similar to Donna the bar owner, not only did she blow up her own bar, she even used her own “death” to plot against him just to get her hands on the [Dien Stone].

In the end, Donna couldn’t escape her death.

If Donna would have ditched the thought of acquiring the [Dien Stone] and directly disclosed the news to the public, Kieran would be the one who ended up dead.

Because the hidden traces within the Winchester’s explosion case would emerge following the appearance of the [Dien Stone], the intentional people would latch on to the crucial point from there, thus going after him.

Kieran never doubted that there was a truly smart person in the world, just like he never doubted the saying “knowledge is priceless”. Otherwise, he wouldn’t still know nothing about the [Dien Stone] after going through all sorts of mystical realm related books and records.

It must be some hidden knowledge that was isolated from the public!

Kieran was helpless against it, his current identity and position had already limited his viable methods but this trip to Yuda State University was an opportunity for him.

The leftovers from Professor Harondentte might very well hold some information related to the [Dien Stone], despite the odds being slim, it was better than none.

Kieran’s mood was lifted a lot when he thought about the possible clue. He was quite anticipating the [Dien Stone] himself.

“Is there really a mystical realm?”

Teresa finally opened her mouth after giving the letter to Kieran and focusing on driving.

Her tone had an indescribable weight to it.

Kieran adjusted his posture and turned his gaze at the side of Teresa’s face from behind.

Although he couldn’t see Teresa’s entire face, half of her face was already smeared with nervousness and anxiety towards the unknown.

“En.” Kieran nodded and was concluding the wordings in his mind.

“As an amnesia patient, it might sound weird for me to say but I think the world is so big and been through many years of changes, some weird and bizarre things appearing here and there is a normal occurrence. Just like those fighters that possessed inhuman strength, from the eyes of the regular people, they were monsters.”

“Teresa, if you can accept the existence of the fighters, then the mystical realm is also something that ought to happen. After all, their borderline isn’t as distinct as the regular folks but only a very vague line stands between. All you need is to slightly take the effort to step forward and you can see a whole new world.”

Kieran tried to deliver his thoughts in a comforting way.

“If there wasn’t a dead body that suddenly sat up, raised its hand and plunged it into its stomach, pulling out the white letter which should have been tainted by blood, I think it would be easier for me to take the step out,” Teresa said.

“What an awful experience that is. It really is a delivering method that requires special marking!”

Kieran sighed when he pictured the scene.

“So…” Teresa wanted to add on something but when a road blockade appeared in front of the road, she shut her mouth and stopped the car steadily beside the road.

Before she or Kieran went down to ask what happened, the worker who set up the blockade came over.

“I’m sorry, the road in front has collapsed. There’s no way for you guys to move through here within these few days!” The worker with the neon uniform said after knocking at the car window.

“Collapsed? This road was restored six months ago, wasn’t it? What a bunch of maggots!”

Teresa cursed a little when she clearly saw the collapsed part of the road in front, she continued asking, “We are heading to Yuda State University, is there any detour we can take to reach the place?”

“There is another route that leads to a small town which can lead you to your destination but the road is quite narrow and hard to drive through. You’ll need to be careful if you pass by there.” ( )

The worker then returned to his duties after explaining.

Teresa further rolled down the car window quickly and took a torchlight from the dashboard, shedding light over the route where the worker pointed.

The torchlight’s brightness revealed a bumpy small path in her sight.

Even though the road wasn’t that smooth, what other choices did the duo have?

Teresa turned the car and went up to the small route.

Kieran in the backseat was looking into the darkness even the car light couldn’t penetrate.

His mouth corner lifted up without control and revealed a cold smile.