The Devil's Cage

Combined with Kieran’s gaze, [Light of Fear] was like a rising tide beating the figures, causing their bodies to tremble on the verge of breaking.

Suddenly, a crystal bone appeared in the hand of their leader. His suffering expression seemed to have triggered the crystal bone contraption, providing a mental barrier for the group.

When the leader had accepted this surveillance mission, he had expected the assistant of the strongest shaman on the West Coast and God of Earth to be very powerful, but not to such an outrageous extent.

Not only had he single-handedly swept away all the invading East Coast mystics, but he had even been able to spot them under their secret disguising spell!

This was supposed to be a routine surveillance mission, yet the leader had to waste a precious magical item. This made him extremely depressed, but it was preferable to losing his own life.

"Retreat!" the leader said clearly.

The previous scene had indicated that Kieran had abilities far more powerful than they had imagined. Staying there longer would not do them any good.

The leader seemed to have underestimated Kieran’s speed in Devil form though.

Although [Devil Transformation] enlarged Kieran’s physique, it did not diminish his speed or nimbleness. On the contrary, because of the [All attributes +3] effect, Kieran was now even faster than he was in his human form.

The dark red greatsword whipped up a hot blast, tearing the air before him. The blast was aimed towards the retreating figures, engulfing them completely.

The leader’s expression became ugly. Seeing it and experiencing it himself were two different things. He realized that his men did not stand a chance against the dark red greatsword.

The flames burning on the sword’s body were enough to rob them of any resistance.

Fortunately, the leader was not within range.

His black mantle was rattling, even though there was no wind blowing. The black mantle that seemed to blend in with the night was brought to life, flying up from the leader’s body towards [Arrogant Word], which was enshrouded by burning flames.

The black mantle covered the red flames, a strange negative energy erupting from it, turning into a sight-blocking mist and spreading across the area.

Crack!

The sound of bones rattling could be heard within the mist. The next moment, pairs of ghastly blue flames were ignited.

White skeletal figures rushed out of the mist, throwing themselves at Kieran. Even though a mere touch from him would turn them into ashes, the skeletons still threw themselves at him in relentless waves.

There seemed to be no end to their numbers.

From Kieran’s point of view, the countless skeletons looked whiter than snow under the moonlight.

"The deceased? The Shepherd of Death?"

Kieran had a general guess about who they were, but this was no reason for him to stop.

Even though the two sides were supposed to meet on December 1st, it was the Shepherds who had broken their promise first. Because of Nikorei, the Shepherds were destined to be his enemies, not his friends.

Kieran chanted a jerky, strange incantation, ignoring the skeletons rushing at him as his strong magmar arm was lifted up. The flames around his arm were like fireworks spreading across the night. Sparks floated around and landed on the charred, slayed bodies of the East Coast mystics.

The sparks entered their bodies after landing on them.

The bodies did not wake up slowly like typical zombies. Instead, they were awakened in their most violent form.

One after the other, they started howling and standing up, facing their enemy in their most violent, infuriated mood.

The skeletons were both the deceased and the Shepherds controlling them.

The charred bodies used their most familiar attacks, unleashing them at their enemies.

As incantations were heard from the charred, disemboweled bodies, the leader, who had thought that he would get away alive, was shocked.

"How is this possible?"

The scene before him caused him to cry out in shock and fear.

He could clearly sense that this was no bluff, but real spells being casted from the charred bodies. Even the ripples around the casters looked familiar.

Kieran was just as shocked as he watched the bodies under his control.

[Blasphemous Whisper] was no simple body-controlling skill. It also granted the bodies fighting abilities.

The bodies Kieran had slashed in half, who had been melee soldiers before, had lost their original fighting abilities, but this was still enough.

After glancing at the controlled bodies with the simple thought "kill all our enemies", Kieran flapped his fiery wings, brushing all the incoming skeletons off and shaking the pieces of the black mantle away from [Arrogant Word]. Then he jumped up and glided towards the escaping figures.

Even though Kieran thought he could fly, he just glided. The feeling was still incredible...

In fact, Kieran had been struck with that same feeling when he had used [Flame Blast], [Blasphemous Whisper] and [Light of Fear].

"Is the fusion not thorough enough? Or does the fusion weaken their abilities? Maybe [Devil Transformation] has more potential than it seems?"

As those burning questions filled his mind, Kieran’s huge Devil form appeared before the escaping leader and his followers.

When they noticed the burning heat above their heads, their faces filled with despair.

The leader of the bunch was no exception. If anything, his despair was even greater.

He knew very well that these were enemies their organization had assumed they would be able to take down easily. They actually wanted to use this as a way to declare their return to the West Coast.

"Wrong! We were all wrong! But I’ll fix this mistake!" the leader muttered in despair, his expression quickly becoming twisted.

He crushed the crystal bone he had hidden in his chest to bits.

The crystal’s chilly, dense negative energy instantly turned into a burning, explosive force, getting infused into the leader’s body.

The couple of followers behind him noticed the changes on their leader.

Their faces were struck by panic, but they quickly made up their minds. They mimicked their leader, crushing the crystal bones on their chests.

A violent energy started to wreck their bodies as they all threw themselves at Kieran.

However…

Suddenly, a giant spider web was spun and dropped over them, trapping them inside as they stumbled to the ground.