The Devil’s Cage - Chapter 265

Chapter 265

He was incapable of taking any action .

This was what Kieran hated the most . Collateral beings that were incapable of action were always associated with despair and helplessness .

Despair and helplessness were like conjoined twins .

They crushed any seemingly hard mental defense and destroyed anything fragile . It was a way of life . Ambition and life itself would be non-existent if one had such cruel thoughts .

Kieran had experienced such despair and helplessness and tasted such destruction before .

While from someone else’s eyes, Kieran might have been holding on with laughable strength, like an ant trying to topple a giant tree, he succeeded in the end . He held on to that tree like vermin .

He had never given up before, so why would he now?

Kieran clenched his teeth, held his breath and screamed his lungs out .

"MOVE! F*CKING MOVE!"

His crystallized body started to shake a little . The fiery flames were burning even hotter .

Both the Creature of Desire and the devil that had come out of the heart noticed Kieran’s sudden change, but neither cared about his puny, ant-like struggle .

At that very moment, their only enemy was each other .

Whoever managed to win would be the master of Kieran’s body . As for the original master, either one could crush it once they took over his body .

Their eyes were shining with a rainbow-like glow . Suddenly, all the eyeballs were fired out like an array of stars towards the fiery devil .

A sulphuric stench and volcanic flames were blasted out of the devil’s wings .

Light and fire intertwined in an instant, their clash overwhelmed Kieran’s weak struggle, at least from the monster’s point of view . Kieran still insisted though .

The crystal started to splinter following his struggle, and the fiery flames scorched his flesh, burning not just his body, but his soul as well .

"Arrghh!"

His soul was twitching, causing excruciating pain to his body as he screamed in pain .

The green light was getting denser . It carried on its healing process, based on the system’s procedures .

It felt like an oasis in the middle of the desert, delivering water to Kieran, a traveller lost in the desert, and granting him strength little by little .

Kieran tried his best to turn around by crawling on the floor, but he hit his head on the ground hard . He knocked himself out, but kept urging himself to climb back up .

The [Knights of Dawn Body Tempering Art] was still operating in his body without a pause .

The puny strength Kieran had mustered up was getting stronger .

Kieran pushed his forehead against the ground, shrinking his body back bit by bit . His arched back was like a cooked shrimp, his movements forcing the crystals all over his body to crack again . The fiery flames took advantage of this to seep into Kieran’s lungs, burning the very last bit of oxygen inside them .

Suffocating pain rushed to Kieran’s brain . Blood was gushing out of his nostrils and the edges of his mouth, but before it could drip on the floor, it was turned into steam by the burning flames .

Kieran straightened his body and raised his head . Although his vigorous movements made him gush out a couple of mouthfuls of blood, the crystals around his neck were broken into pieces .

Still, this was not enough to stop him . Kieran raised his head, looking at the green light . He did not know where the light was coming from, but it was shining life energy on him .

When he raised his head, he saw thousands of evil eyes come from the Creature of Desire and the fiery devil figure .

Kieran lifted the edge of his mouth that hadn’t been crystallized into a small smirk . Then he tried to move harder, slowly raising his left hand up .

The instinctive raise of his hand was normally an easy feat, but under the circumstances, it took him a whole minute to achieve .

The black wristband on Kieran’s left wrist called [Primus Arm] became gloomy under the crystal’s light and the fiery flames . However, the faintly visible, scale-layered texture became extremely clear under the flames and crystal .

Kieran felt like he was watching a Colossal Crocodile struggle out of unwillingness .

Not only did [Primus Arm] make him feel like that, but even [Wild Soul], the huge rhino spirit that was getting scorched by the fiery flames, was struggling on its last breath .

Meanwhile, [Lionheart], the golden lion with the aura of a king, was staring at Kieran calmly . Its lips were moving a little, as if it was telling Kieran something .

The golden mane of the lion was fluttering as the animal tried to talk, but Kieran could not hear a word it said .

His vision was already blurred by the scorching heat . He was unsure whether he had just seen an illusion or not, but he still persisted in his actions .

[Primus Crunch]!

Instantly, a struggling Colossal Crocodile mirage formed around Kieran’s left hand . The crystals around his hand were splintered in a second, revealing his bloody, burned hand underneath . Even the burning flames were repelled away .

Kieran regained control of his left hand . While [Primus Crunch] was activated, he pressed his hand hard into his chest .

"STAY THE F*CK DOWN WHILE YOU’RE MESSING WITH MY BODY!" Kieran shouted out loud .

He reached with his hand inside his chest, grabbed both hearts and squeezed them hard together . A powerful, invisible energy wave was blasted away when the hearts were mashed .

Instantly, the two different hearts were fused together bit by bit .

The Colossal Crocodile mirage produced from Kieran’s left hand crunched and suppressed the energy around Kieran’s heart, which had once caused the crocodile to struggle in fear .

The ruthless crunch activated [Primus Greed] .

A steady flow of life energy kept diffusing into Kieran’s body .

The room started trembling lightly as the huge rhino mirage jumped around in delight .

The golden lion was staring upwards with its glorious, fluttering mane .

The Creature of Desire, which was right in the middle of the fight, froze hard in mid-air . Suddenly, thousands of evil eyes started to wither away .

The devil figure started to turn into stone, the flames around it getting quickly reduced to small lines of fire .

The withering Creature of Desire and petrified devil figure tilted their eyes down to Kieran, as if they were looking at an ant .

Kieran was not going to hide away from their astonished gazes . He returned their stare with a determined look of his own .

After a few seconds, he fell back to the ground and tried to maintain his posture .

He was exhausted . One could even say that he had landed one of his feet across the gate of death .

How could a human survive without a heart?

Kieran had no intention of dying, but he still chose the path that could potentially lead to his death . He believed that that green color with its rich life energy would save him .

If it wasn’t enough, he wouldn’t regret it though . It was still better than waiting for the winner of the fight between the two monsters to take over his body .

Kieran wasn’t hoping that the winner of the battle would spare his life once it occupied his body . He was not that naive .

"The abandoned child of time? How desperate is that? You were abandoned by the whole world . Even death would not do you any good… What will your choice be? Die a glorious death, or live a pitiful life?"

"I choose…"

Mere seconds before his death, Kieran’s mind, which was supposed to have passed out, heard a sonorous voice lingering inside, asking him the question that had once troubled him the most .

Kieran mustered up all his strength and moved his lips .

"I… I choose… death!"

No one was able to hear clearly what he had said, but it was still enough for Kieran to know his own choice .

It was enough .

The green light suddenly started shining even more brightly . It gathered above Kieran’s body and sucked Kieran up into mid-air, shrouding him completely .

The hearts that had been mashed to bits by Kieran’s own hand were recovering at exponential speed, but they were no longer two separate hearts .

The two hearts had been fused together into one!

The Creature of Desire and the devil figure were growling fiercely, taking their last breaths .

Amidst their growls, a dark red heart emitting a rainbow-like shine formed inside Kieran .

The heart beat once, and then a series of drum-like beats followed before it started beating rapidly .

The thunderous sound and the unpredictable corrupted aura were mixed together .

The aura of the seven sins- Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Rage, Envy and Pride- was radiated from Kieran’s body .

A scorching heat with a sulphuric smell and a chaotic, reckless aura was tangling with the seven sins, unwilling to fall behind .

The origin of the mixed aura was a warm, tenacious energy that was flowing slowly .

As the Creature of Desire and the devil figure turned into particles and disappeared into thin air, the flames and the crystals were gone as well .

Kieran was unconscious as he slowly floated down from mid-air with his new, intact body .

[Healing Completed!]

The mechanical voice signified the end of the process .