The Devil's Cage

The light came in a sudden.

Pain followed like its shadow. Kieran was completely taken by surprise, he grunted heavily and even his face turned ugly.

"What's wrong?" Schmidt asked nervously.

It was the first time Schmidt saw Kieran being hurt since he knew him.

Out of instinct, Schmidt pulled out his gun and pointed at the approaching figure.

Schmidt wasn't hurt by the light, quite the contrary he even felt his spirit being lifted when the light shone on him but Kieran's condition told Schmidt what he must do.

Though, just as Schmidt was going to pull the trigger, Kieran's palm appeared on the gun and stopped him from firing.

"It's fine! I'm just not used to it yet." Kieran said.

Then he looked at the approaching figure with a not so friendly gaze.

He knew that he would eventually be troubled by holy energy, items of blessings and holy relics because of his [Body of Evil] but he didn't think it would be this troublesome.

Just like Kieran said, he wasn't receiving any actual damage, neither did his HP drop.

Based on his judgement, the light before him was not that strong but still even a weaker light energy made his body feel like it was being stung by needles and scalded by boiling water. The worse thing was the pain kept coming and it was the least pleasant feeling for him.

So, while Kieran warned himself in his heart to be careful of those existences that could bring harm to his [Body of Evil], he wasn't that fond of the quickly approaching overseer that he never met.

When Kieran finally saw the overseer's face, he could feel that his expression was all an act.

Whether was it the deep smile on his face or the seemingly interested glare from his eyes, every sign pointed towards an act that the overseer put up even though they lacked malicious intent.

"So these are the three remaining?" The overseer said.

The tall, muscular, and bare top examiner that shared the same temperament of a vicious beast then took a step forward to Kieran, looking down on him with his powerful gaze.

Although when the overseer was approaching, Kieran could sense that he was a pretty big guy, however when he stood before Kieran, it was only then that Kieran noticed that his physique had far exceeded his estimation.

Kieran was considered a tall person among the average height standard but the person before him was two heads taller than him. Kieran wasn't even at his chin and barely reached his chest.

As for his buff thighs and robust arms, they were enough to cause others to be awestruck.

Plus that terrifying beastly temperament, the overseer was more like a ferocious beast than a human, even if he was giving off a bright light around him and spoke like one.

"Smulder, don't get too close! He is…"

"Shut up! Nicil, your duties as an overseer are over, my trials are up next, you have no right to stick your finger and poke around in my affairs!"

"Now listen up you three! My trial is simple, all you three have to do go along the path before you. Whenever I am satisfied, you will pass the trial!"

A loud voice exploded from Smulder interrupted Nicil's words. Smulder then turned away from Nicil's angry gaze and provided the requirements of his trial to Kieran and the others.

While Smulder was talking, the wide hall they were in started to shift around in a precise manner.

Kroom Rooom Roooom!

After multiple loud noises from the walls, the left, right and the wall behind Kieran sunk into the ground and revealed three dark entrance behind.

"Pick the one you like!" Smulder pointed at the three entrance.

Souuu!

Just as Smulder's words subsided, Black Hound already jumped into the dark entrance in the left. Kieran frowned.

"He even has the plans to deal with the third trial?"

Obviously, Black Hound knew more than he imagined and it was not good news for him and Schmidt.

The easiest route was taken, all that was left was the more dangerous one and the most dangerous one, or maybe the remaining both routes were equally dangerous.

Kieran stared at the remaining route, giving his best effort to remove the pain from his body. He hoped to rely on his eyes and ears to provide him with a more accurate judgement on the route but everything was so obscure.

The darkness at the entrances blocked his sight and hearing all together, even if he had A rank Intuition, it was rendered useless at this moment. Even his instinct that he was proud of failed him this time.

Kieran looked at the route, regardless of which was it, it didn't strike him as dangerous.

"So… it all depends on luck now!"

Kieran took a deep breath over the method of relying solely on luck. He hated it the most, handing over his success or failure to fate.

Though he wouldn't mind taking the risk when he was forced to face an inevitable danger.

Kieran then turned to Smulder.

"Is give up an option?" Kieran asked.

Kieran couldn't escape this because of his main mission but Schmidt was different.

If it was possible, Kieran wished that Schmidt would not continue taking risk of his life.

"No!" Smulder replied with an iron voice, nailing his words down with his loud hammer.

Nicil beside seemed to be more agitated than ever, just as he wanted to utter his dissatisfaction, he felt Smulder's gaze pounding him. The worlds that he had on the tip of his tongue were swallowed back instantly.

Kieran saw the looks on their face, he knew in his gut that something wasn't right. There must be an option provided for the trial-goers to forfeit the trial, just that Smulder decided to go on with his decision denying that.

"Even until now they needed Schmidt to set a reminder for me? Could it be…"

Kieran's heart has a new guess about Schmidt's purpose.

"Who first?" Kieran then looked at Schmidt since he had an inkling in his heart.

"After you of course!"

Schmidt pretended to ponder upon the decision after he saw Kieran's hidden signal and he replied Kieran with a please gesture.

Although Kieran didn't spill out every guess he had about the Sanctuary trials to him, Schmidt was not an idiot. He could observe through his own eyes and realized something was wrong with the Sanctuary trials.

The trials were quite different than what Schmidt heard from Boller and on top of that, danger lurked at every corner of the trials.

Under such circumstances, Schmidt could only believe in Kieran.

Schmidt uttered out the hint that Kieran provided him without delay.

Kieran then stepped forth to the middle entrance right away.

After seeing Kieran's back disappear into the middle entrance, Schmidt purposely waited for another ten minutes before heading towards the right entrance step by step.

A couple breaths later, Schmidt's figure also disappeared from the big hall. All that was left were Smulder and Nicil staring at the three dark entrances.

"I don't think your arrangement will work! 2567 is much smarter than you think!" Nicil said.

He was not being sarcastic or mocking but also wasn't speaking in a polite manner either .

"So? My target was never 2567!" Smulder said without being concerned.

"WHAT!?" Nicil suffered a shock.

Then, a sudden realization made him raise his head in astonishment, trying to verify his guess, but just as he was brewing the thought, Smulder had already left the hall.