The Devil’s Cage

Kieran looked straight into Lady Calamity’s eyes, the Devil Flame in his hand continuing to burn.

 Roar after roar, it echoed in the mysterious space, the scorching hot temperature distorting the environment once more.

 Lady Calamity was afraid of the high temperature.

 She had no intellect but she had her instincts. Her instincts told her what she must do in front of such a threatening presence.

 A quick hesitation later, Lady Calamity chose to obey and sit down.

 “Very good,” Kieran nodded.

 Then he took a piece of contract out after Lady Calamity chose to comply.

 When the contract appeared, Lady Calamity twisted her body with unease, she even groaned slightly.

 “Quiet!” Kieran bellowed, slightly raising the hand with the burning Devil Flame.

 The flame swept over the top of Lady Calamity’s head.

 Lady Calamity instantly quieted down.

 “Do you want to live or… die?” Kieran asked calmly.

 The quiet Lady Calamity once again grew restless.

 Death is fair, no one can escape or neglect death, likewise looking death straight in the eye.

 Kieran, Lady Calamity, and everyone else were the same.

 In fact, if he had a choice, Kieran would want to resolve this in a more direct way, such as killing Lady Calamity, but then he thought of Broker and the Witch.

 Broker had always been cunning, Kieran wouldn’t believe that things would go smoothly after he grasped Broker’s ‘goal’. The smooth progress that he was having now must have some traps from Broker that he still couldn’t notice.

 Against Broker, Kieran could never be too careful.

 As for the Witch?

 A character that Broker spent all his efforts and turned his mind over to set up, would she be a simple Jane Doe?

 The answer was self-explanatory.

 Otherwise, Broker wouldn’t go to such an extent and choose a time where the Witch hadn’t grown into power to set up this many arrangements.

 Therefore, Kieran speculated that there must be something else on this Lady Calamity that he still hadn’t discovered, something that would only trigger with her death!

 Of course, forming a contract with her might also be a trigger, so just to be on the safe side…

 The one forming a contract with Lady Calamity wasn’t Kieran.

 As for who? Who else was better than the immortal follower to do the job?

 It would be the immortal and obedient follower.

 Therefore, on the host side of the contract, Kieran wrote Bloody Mary’s name.

 The final outcome was exactly as per Kieran’s expectations.

 After the Devil Flame roared onces more, Lady Calamity’s instinct told her to submit.

 Her name was written down on the contract.

 Then—BANG!

 Cat Bloody Mary was instantly disintegrated into powder.

 “It seems like brother made it,” said Sloth as he was ready to open the door in front of him.

 Gluttony had been waiting for a long time behind the door and when he saw Sloth come in, he eagerly pointed at the treasure behind him.

 Treasure? That’s right, treasure.

 The treasure here referred to the things behind the door, which were Edatine’s savings throughout the decades.

 Gluttony’s task was to consume all the treasures and convert all of them into energy to supply Kieran with the energy he needed.

 Now?

 It was time for Kieran to use the energy.

 “Go,” said Sloth as he caressed his little brother’s head.

 Gluttony cheerfully jumped into the treasures.

 Sloth then started to draw a spell formation on the ground.

 He wasn’t drawing with ink or other material, he was drawing the formation with his own blood!

 The spell formation was extremely complicated and delicate.

 It has the symbol of Dawn and also the symbol of Calamity, plus the aura of the Devil. It consisted of mostly contracts and orders.

 After he finished drawing the whole formation, Sloth added the words that appeared in Kieran’s [Trickery] divinity: Reply, Blessing, and Deceive Contract.

 When Gluttony started to digest the treasures wantonly, the words representing divinity lit up first, followed by the whole spell formation.

 An abundance of energy was channeled through the power of the contract, which was as substantial as the whole world, and gushed into Bloody Mary, or what was left of it. Bloody Mary couldn’t even maintain a steady form and was forced to revert to its spirit form after the damage it received.

 Right away, the ghostly Bloody Mary, who almost vanished, reappeared in its cat form.

 “I thought I was going to die for a second back there,” said cat Bloody Mary, and right after its voice subsided—

 BANG!

 Cat Bloody Mary was disintegrated once more into powder with an explosive bang, but it was able to reappear right away this time.

 Then…

 BANG! The disintegration process happened again and repeated itself for quite a while.

 The disintegration finally went away after the 60th time.

 It was not that the power that disintegrated Bloody Mary vanished, but Bloody Mary was able to adapt to the destructive power, it was able to sustain the explosive power and stop itself from being completely disintegrated, though a part of its body would still disappear without a sign and then regrow on its own.

 After the process was repeated for another 60 times, the disappearing body parts stopped too.

 Cat Bloody Mary clenched its teeth and sat down, exhausted.

 “Damn that bloody Broker! Damn that wretched Witch! Don’t you let me find the chance or I’ll return the favour a hundred thousand times! Or more than that!” grumbled Bloody Mary as it looked at Sloth with a grudgeful gaze. “You damn liar, you said you want me to do what I do best!”

 Bloody Mary was loud with its complaint.

 “Isn’t this what you are good at?” Sloth leaned back on the corridor wall and replied lazily.

 Bloody Mary got stunned for a second.

 That’s right, taking hits for the boss, being blamed for stuff that he did was what Bloody Mary did best.

 “Then why did you point at the others just now?” asked Bloody Mary.

 “I wanted to distract you because I’m not sure whether Broker or the Witch had any more backups that would allow them to notice all this in advance. Fortunately, they did not and that’s a relief.” Sloth then looked at Bloody Mary and asked with a smile, “Besides, don’t you feel a little stronger now?”

 “Of course! But I hope to be stronger in a much milder way! Not after being disintegrated hundreds of times!” Bloody Mary nodded at the fact that it became stronger, but even though it was a fact, the process was still unbearable. It really pained it to the core.

 Its whole body was disintegrated into powder and then parts of its body started to disappear without a sign!

 Until now, it still felt like there were countless needles poking its body.

 “The world of the grown ups isn’t that easy, but… if you are willing to sacrifice, you will be rewarded. Now then, please receive your reward—it’s what brother told me to tell you,” said Sloth.

 “What do you mean?” Bloody Mary was stunned, a bad feeling unknowingly rising from the bottom of its heart.

 “You didn’t think the whole Edatine palace had only this tiny bit of treasure right? Note that the treasures have accumulated since Edatine I. It never stopped until Edatine VI, that’s more than 200 years! The essence of the entire Northern Land is right here! Close your eyes and enjoy it.”

 Bang!

 Right after Sloth’s words faded, Bloody Mary exploded once more, but it didn’t disintegrate into powder. Its body engorged and then exploded!

 Its immortal traits then came into play, Bloody Mary reappearing. Then the same thing happened, engorging and exploding.

 Digestion was a very weird process. A good digestive system is envied by many, not all were as powerful as Gluttony.

 From a certain perspective, Bloody Mary, who was almost immortal, had the same traits too.

 Throughout its demon existence, it was the first time Bloody Mary felt full from eating. It also felt, for the first time, that it had overeaten and it was also the first time its body exploded because of eating too much.

 Then, the process repeated itself for more than a hundred times.

 When the dust finally settled, Bloody Mary instinctively remained in its cat form, covering its head with its paws and curling up its body in the corner.

 It looked helpless, weak, and pitiful, but a powerful aura was faintly emanating from its body.

 [Name: Bloody Mary]

 [Type: Superior Demon (Hetero-Form)]

 [Rarity: IV+]

 [Attack: IV+]

 [Defense: IV+]

 [Attribute: 1. Illusion; 2. Phantasm Body; 3. Hand Blade; 4. Blood Suck; 5. Quick Regeneration; 6. Demon Instinct; 7 Indomitable Will]

 [Effect: 1. Form Change; 2. Mystical Knowledge (Pro); 3. Noble Knowledge (Master) 4. Life of an Assassin (Musou)]

 [Prerequisite: Willingness to submit]

 [Remark: A Superior Demon that was born from the Blood Queen Tiara because of an accident. After consuming the Voodoo Pillar, it had reached the limits of a common demon but it wasn’t one to begin with, therefore it was smart enough to not simply fuse with those seemingly powerful things, all it did was choose those that benefited itself. After many times feeding it with rare items, it’s strength was elevated to new heights and surpassed its common peers. After you help it go through an important transformation, it is reborn into this world with a new powerful form]

 …

 [Illusion: Create Illusion that requires authentication no lower than III- Spirit, rank III Intuition (Failed once, target will suffer II- rank mental impact; Failed twice, target will suffer rank III+ mental impact). When there are multiple targets, Spirit and Intuition authentication will decrease based on the increased targets and when the targets had unstable emotions, authentications will increase.]

 [Phantasm Body: Transform body to phantasmal form, immune to physical attack, 30% damage mitigation against energy attack. +5 in Undercover]

 [Hand Blade: Hands are sharp as blades, attack rank +1 (Cannot exceed rank V)]

 [Blood Suck: Any single part of your body is able to consume the blood of living beings and parts of the soul to rapidly regenerate injuries and stamina, cleanse debuffs. Regeneration +5 when munching]

 [Quick Regeneration: Consume a little amount of Stamina to quickly regenerate HP; consume a very little amount to regenerate even limbs, including but not limited to the head.]

 [Demon Instinct: Only a very few demons possess this skill and Bloody Mary is different from them. It can not only clearly sense the emotions and thoughts of the living beings that is near to itself, it can also use a medium (including but not limited to mirrors and other miscellaneous items) to perform the same feat in long range (living beings includes but not limited to humans and when the sensing target is in an unstable state of mind, it can better perform this feat) It has very high chances to see through illusion, illusory realm too.]

 [Indomitable Will: Mary had been through too many in the past, but its tenacity (gifted by you) made it stronger by every defeat. What cannot kill it makes it stronger. Defense level +1 (unable to surpass rank V). Gains a +1 advantage against any Spirit authentication]

 …

 [Form Change: Able to change into anyone, things or living beings (possessed own abilities and a certain level of the target’s aura), the size of the transformed is no bigger than a large being (A blue whale is the limit of a large being); or change into a Blood Tiara (When contractor wears the Blood Tiara, able to choose 4 attribute from Bloody Mary as skills)]

 [Mystical Knowledge (Pro): Getting more and more skilled in all sorts of mystical knowledge, Mary can learn even more but it has to be given by you]

[Noble Knowledge (Master): Familiar with knowledge that nobles has to master, though Mary isn’t really interested in this]

 [Life of an assassin (Musou): These are the memories of when Mary was still human. It is able to acquire great benefits from it and is also extremely interesting too.]

 [Note 1: Slave Contract doesn’t requires point to summon]

 [Note 2: Strengthen Contract, even if it somehow broke free from Fantos Manuscript, it will still be your slave.]

 [Note 3: Solidify Contract, you spend a speechless amount of contract to solidify the bond between you and Mary.]

 [Note 4: Outstanding amount of contract, the amount of contracts that you spent on Mary had reached an outstanding level, the invisible power of contract had started to take form]

 …

 Through the power of the contracts, Kieran clearly sensed the changes in Bloody Mary.

 “Not bad, it’s more useful now,” commented Kieran.

 He then looked at Lady Calamity.

 Lady Calamity, who was enveloped by darkness before, had transformed into a black cat. Other than its unusual scarlet red eyes, there was nothing wrong with her.

 She looked no different from a cat, not a normal cat but cat Bloody Mary.

 Lady Calamity in her cat form had an obvious spirituality and a trace of remarkable aura.

 Kieran didn’t know whether it was the contract that caused the changes in her but he saw cat Lady Calamity kept nuzzling at his leg. She’d flip around occasionally, revealing her white fur tummy, so Kieran couldn’t help but bend down and caress her head.

 Then Kieran turned around to the exit and headed out.

 The cat followed by jumping up onto Kieran’s shoulder.

 Kieran didn’t stop her either.

 The two of them pushed the door open and disappeared beyond the exit.

 …

 Back at Lady Calamity’s temple…

 Bang!

 The Witch, in her mummified form, punched the wall fiercely.

 She confirmed that this was all a trap to purposely deceive her but it was already too late.

 Her opponent had taken and possessed her most important spoil.

 Her plan had failed, but… not entirely.

 She turned around and glanced over the sky.

 “I will remember you,” said the Witch before she disappeared into thin air.

 …

 “Aiayaya, how vigilant can you be? It’s really over at times,” Broker rubbed the center of his brows as if he seemed to have sensed something.

The plan was only half finished, but up until this point, he didn’t care that much anymore.

 This was a rare chance that he went through countless efforts to create.

 Inhaling deeply, Broker’s eyes instantly calmed down and looked determined. His voice then spread out in all directions in the secret base.

 “Siege the dome clock tower!”