The Devil's Cage

The cone-shaped flame burst out with tremendous power and torrential force, drowning the translucent figure wholly.

"Ling" might not be affected by Kana’s flaming fist but against the overwhelming burst of flames from [Burning Hand] with the buff from [Fiery Sulphur], the translucent figure of hers started to distort and twist. High pitched wails that could cause the "Fear" effect escaped from her mouth.

However, such wails were useless against the Powerful level flames.

The flames were burning hot, the tongues of the flames were devouring, demolishing everything within its grasp.

As for the real Kieran who appeared behind, his SSS+ Spirit allowed him to be immune to lower tiers of "Fear" effect.

Hassh Bammm!

The cloud of black birds took a hard turn back at "Ling" who was engulfed in flames as they almost devoured Tanya and Bloody Mary, the high demon.

The black birds gathered before "Ling" and hundreds of them formed a strange shield around her, granting her a slight window of breathing.

"Hahuuu, hahuuuu..."

"Fire? So even your frost power is a disguise?"

"Ling" became even more furious from the embarrassment while trying to take another breath.

A never before seen rage suddenly bloomed inside her soul, causing her phantasmal body to shake violently. A dash of odd color accompanied the rage from within, as the color got clearer, so did "Ling"’s phantasmal body, eventually materializing from her spirit form and started to swell up like a balloon.

"Ling" turned into a 2 meter tall, green-faced sharp-fanged monster with a head of disheveled long hair.

ROAR!

The monster let out a rageful roar. The blackbird shield around it burnt up instantly, forming lines of flames wrapping around the monster’s body and limbs like an ivy plant.

The flames were wriggling like a real snake, yet it didn’t lose the burning sensation. Quite the opposite, the flames around the monster were burning at an abnormal temperature, scorching the whole place together.

Even the air within started to distort, the floor panel beneath its leg even started to melt slightly.

"I am the king of the blazing flames! You little pesky..."

The fiend declared its title out loud while a looking down from high manner at Kieran, trying to contempt his existence because the fiend thought it was qualified to.

With that monstrous form, any Fiend Hunter rank huntsman was no match for a single strike from it; Kieran was no exception either.

So it thought and believed firmly.

When Kieran raised his left hand with that 1-meter diameter fireball and hurled towards its face, a disdainful look appeared on its green vicious face.

No flames mortal flame could hurt it!

However...

Kieran’s flames originated from his bloodline, even though he expressed the power through [Charles’s Fire], the true properties of the flames belonged to the devil’s power.

Dong, Dong, Dong!

Kieran’s heart was beating vigorously, he could feel the devil energy rumbling inside him.

It was because of the arrogance of his opponent, the ignorance of his opponent! The devil’s instinct wished to crush such a foolish opponent with raw power!

Such emotions filled Kieran’s heart. He calmly accepted all the thoughts from within.

Then, a scarlet swirling within the bright red flames appeared before his eyes.

His blood was flowing into the abyss.

His voice was roaring through every layer of hell.

His sword was conquering the heavens.

In the end, the scene before Kieran turned into flames.

The fragments of memories within his bloodline told him the name of the flame that he was wielding.

The Devil’s Flame!

KABOOOM!

As layers of memories from the bloodline faded from Kieran’s sight, the arrogant, disdainful fiend was still there before him, mocking, sneering at Kieran of what he was capable of.

Then, the ball of fire exploded on the fiend’s body upon contact, followed by an agonizing scream.

A moment ago, the fiend who was sneering and arrogant had its emotions replaced by fear.

Not only because the ball of fire hurt it, the flames from the ball of fire were expelling its own fiendish fire.

The fiendish fire around its body which possessed all sorts of abnormal powers couldn’t even withstand a single blow from Kieran, it was even consumed by the devil’s flame.

"How...How is this possible!?" The fiend questioned.

Right of the bat, a greedy thought appeared in its heart.

"Consume! Consume you! As long as I can consume you, I will become a true High Fiend!"

The fiend sensed the chaotic energy within the devil’s flame, an unknown source of greed appeared in its heart, amplifying its rampant manner, causing it to lose its mind.

It didn’t even care about the devil flame burning on its body, sucking away its life force, it threw itself towards Kieran.

Kieran reached out to his right hand calmly when he saw the fiend coming at him. Everything was as expected.

The fiend could remain in a sane condition most of the time but not so much during a real battle.

It didn’t really lose all of its intellect, more like a plummet of logical thinking and it acted according to instinct.

If that wasn’t the case, the fiend wouldn’t have returned to the scene and delete the evidence unnecessarily after it slaughtered the Fiend Hunter, because it couldn’t have done it under its battle form with lowered intellect.

For Kieran who had [Touch of Cardinal Sins], it was too easy for him to affect the fiend in such a condition.

Fuuuuu!

A ghastly blue cone breath burst out from his right hand, freezing the fiend that was jumping up in mid-air.

It was still jumping in mid-air and its expression was rageful and lively as ever, yet it didn’t alter the fate of being completely frozen and didn’t shake off the devil’s flame which was still burning under the layer of frost.

The devil’s flame wasn’t extinguished under the frost but quite the opposite, it burned even fiercer. The fiend’s body which was used as a combustion fuel was turned into a giant torch. Its swelled body dried up in an exponential rate, all its life force was burning away, reverting it to its translucent spirit form.

"Spare me, please! I will tell you everything! I was forced to do what I did! All I want is to live! I..."

Begging sounded relentlessly from the spirit but Kieran replied with another ball of [Charles’ Fire].

KABOOOOSH!

The ball exploded upon contact, creating a pillar of fire with at least 4 meters tall and 1-meter radius from the floor, engulfing the frosted spirit wholly.

[Flame Burst]!

When the flames finally went out, all that was left on the charred floor was the long-necked bloated jar and green glowing loot.

The translucent spirit was nowhere to be found.

Kieran picked up his own spoil of war and that jar which was bigger than he expected.

"The Jar of Sealing Fiends?"

Kieran guessed, his attention was shifted to the old well and after a slight checking; he jumped into the well in haste.

As for Tanya’s continuous calling for him, Kieran wouldn’t care even during normal times, let alone now. More so, the system did send him notifications, informing him he was going to leave the dungeon soon.

Would he delay the search of the dungeon boss’ lair just to talk to a native that was on his "try-to-keep-away" list?

His stingy Scrooge soul wouldn’t allow him to act as such.

What about the loot within the boss’ lair?

To be honest, Kieran wasn’t really sure about other times but this time around this dungeon boss struck a lot of confidence in him.

A simple theory was, the dungeon boss did so many things in Saint Brilliant High School just to obtain Jen’s body as its vessel and based on what Kieran mastered in the mystical art, it wasn’t an easy task for a soul or evil spirit trying to get a vessel in its spirit form, a lot of requirements and ingredients were needed.

Even if the current dungeon world was slightly different than the others, some rules of power remained, such as equivalent exchange!

Kieran couldn’t answer how much the cost a soul or evil spirit had to pay to get a vessel but he knew given such chance to any soul or evil spirit, they would willing to give it all up.

Right off the bat, Kieran verified his own guesses.

Colorful dazzles shone on his face of delight as he reached the end of the well.