Chapter 654 - 61: Cage of Pain

Chapter 654: Chapter 61: Cage of Pain

"Impossible..." His voice was hoarse. "A mere Level 2 Life Form... How could he..."

But nothing was impossible.

Murphy was still there. The crimson sword light was still flying over Zlesko City. That was the most direct answer.

Leonardo had failed. He had attacked a second time, and he had still failed.

A Third-Level Wizard, a young master from the main branch of the Douglas Clan, had failed twice against the same Otherworld creature.

This was no longer about winning or losing a battle. This was a disgrace—a shame carved into his very bones, one that could only be washed away with blood.

Leonard scrambled up from the threshold, his deathly pale face still showing traces of fear. But he saw Leonardo’s expression, saw the furious rage burning in those emerald eyes.

’I can’t let the young master bear all this alone. If that Otherworld creature gets away, what will happen to me when they investigate this later?’

He swallowed hard and raised a hand, a faint blue light gathering in his palm.

"Young master, let me help you—"

"Get out!" Leonardo’s voice boomed like thunder in the room. The blue light that had just gathered was shattered by an invisible force. Leonard was sent flying backward, his back slamming hard against the corridor wall before he slid to the floor with a muffled grunt.

He clutched his chest, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t dare make a sound.

Sebastian stood motionless in the doorway, as if he hadn’t seen a thing.

Leonardo paid them no mind at all.

His gaze was fixed on the crimson sword light outside the window, which had already shrunk to a tiny dot. His chest heaved violently.

’Help? He needs help? A Third-Level Wizard needs help dealing with a Level 2 Life Form? If word of this got out, how could he, Leonardo Douglas, maintain his standing in the Imperial court? How could he ever hold his head high in his own clan again?’

’He would take back what he’d lost himself. He would drag that Otherworld creature down from the sky with his own two hands, using his own Law, fueled by his own shame.’

He raised his hands.

His fingers spread, palms facing the sky, aimed at the distant sword light.

The Pain Domains he had woven spread rapidly, converging on the sword light from all directions.

This was his third attack. It would also be his last.

There would be no next time.

This was the goal he had set for himself. This was his resolve, his will.

"Pain Cage."

His voice was soft, as if he were reciting a Spell, or perhaps calling out to an old friend.

As those two words slipped from his lips, the sky changed.

Walls rose from all directions. They were grayish-white and mottled, like ancient city walls eroded by a thousand years of time. The surfaces were covered in cracks, and from every fissure seeped a dark red light. It looked like wounds, like blood, like the deep-seated traumas buried in memory that would never heal.

The walls were closing in.

The wall from the east advanced westward; the wall from the west advanced eastward. From the south, the north, above, and below, six colossal walls materialized between heaven and earth, slowly converging on the crimson sword light at the center.

They moved with incredible speed, carrying an irresistible pressure, as if the entire world were shrinking, as if existence itself were squeezing out the being that did not belong.

The Mind Furnace roared in the depths of Murphy’s consciousness, nearly overloading. The cracks that had just healed shattered anew as all his processing power was poured into breaking the Law.

’He had to break out before the walls closed completely.’

However—

To the left, a wall had already risen.

To the right, a wall was extending.

Above, a wall pressed down from on high.

Below, a wall rose up from the ground.

There was no exit, no gap, none of the fluctuating intervals in the Law’s operation he had found before.

"Hahaha—" Leonardo’s hoarse, shrill laughter echoed from the window. "Run! Go on, run! You’re so good at running, aren’t you? You ran from my Domain, you ran from my Beam, and now? Where can you possibly run to now?"

His ten fingers slowly closed, and with every fraction they curled inward, the six walls advanced by the same measure.

"This is what you get for defying me! An Otherworld creature, a refugee without even Imperial status, thinks he’s worthy of acting tough in front of me? Worthy of injuring me?"

His voice grew louder and more frenzied.

"You thought you were so tough, didn’t you? You thought you could get away? What about now? Go on and run! RUN!"

Murphy’s sword light wheeled sharply in the air, darting east, west, south, north—but the walls were everywhere, like a shrinking sphere, sealing him tightly in the center.

He charged in one direction, and a wall met him head-on.

He turned to another, and a wall was already waiting.

The Mind Furnace was still running, but its every calculation, every analysis, every attempt, felt like struggling in quicksand—the harder he fought, the deeper he sank.

The grayish-white Energy surged from all sides, coiling around his sword, seeping into his will, and dragging him down from the air, bit by bit.

The cage grew smaller and smaller.

From a hundred meters across, to fifty, to twenty, to ten.

The grayish-white walls were now just a stone’s throw away. Murphy could see every pattern on them—they were Leonardo’s Law, the physical manifestation of "Pain."

The walls were engraved with dense runes, each one squirming slowly like countless writhing snakes, twisting and biting at one another, locking any creature that tried to escape firmly within.

Memories flowed within the dark red cracks—traces left behind by all the souls that had been trapped in this cage, all who had struggled in agony.

They were like insects sealed in amber, frozen in their final moments before death: twisted, curled up, mouths open in silent screams.

Leonardo’s laughter grew louder. His twisted face was filled with triumph and madness, his emerald eyes reflecting the shrinking cage and the crimson sword light trapped within. He was like a cat that had finally caught a mouse—not eager to kill it, but to toy with it, to humiliate it, to let his prey taste sufficient fear and despair first.

"You think you can get away? You think you can escape from my grasp? In your dreams!"

He looked down at the cage, a cruel smile playing on his lips.

"With the Pain Beam just now, your death would have been quick. But this Pain Cage is different—you’ll be trapped inside for a day, a month, a year, ten years."

"You will live, and keep on living, until all your memories are devoured by pain, until your very self is torn to shreds, until you become an empty shell, a true sword—a sword with no consciousness, no memory, and no pain."

"And then, I will hang you on my wall as a trophy, so everyone can see the price for offending the Douglas Clan."

His fingers snapped shut.

"Close."

In that instant, the six walls accelerated simultaneously, crashing toward the center from all directions.

Grayish-white wall collided with grayish-white wall, producing a deep, muffled boom, like a giant bell being struck. The soundwave reverberated over Zlesko City.

And then—

The sword light froze.

The crimson glow solidified in midair, like a frozen droplet of blood, like a firefly sealed in amber.

At the same time, Leonardo also froze.

His raised hands were locked in midair. The cruel smile on his lips hadn’t had time to fade. His emerald eyes, reflecting the cage, could no longer even blink.

Leonard, slumped against the corridor wall, remained in his pose of clutching his chest, the trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth suspended in place.

Sebastian stood in the doorway, his breath caught in his throat.

The entire corridor, the entire room, the entire sky—all of it had frozen solid.

Then, a voice rang out.

The voice was sweet, soft, and pleasant, yet as cold as a river in the dead of winter.

"Who dares touch my student?"