Chapter 55: Warlord Lupine

"Brave one. I have waited for you long enough."

As the deep voice spoke, nine little human-like iron statues conjured up from the ground.

They held up their swords and shields.

The air cracked around them, leaving a sharp cry of whistling slashes, and in a blink, Axe was surrounded by nine iron puppets.

Axe took two steps back. The cruel smile on his face widened as he muttered, "Damn, I am fucked up for real."

His ten razor-sharp metal nail blades gleamed under the dark, polished light of the Nightshade Gold statue.

Without a proper weapon, his own body had to become the blade.

The first iron puppet lunged, its heavy iron sword cutting a blinding arc toward his neck.

Axe pivoted sideways, the whistle of the blade grazing his cheek.

He countered instantly, slashing his right hand across the puppet’s arm joint. His fingernails screeched against the iron structure, leaving deep, ragged gouges.

But the puppet didn’t feel pain. It immediately rotated its torso, slamming its heavy iron shield straight into Axe’s ribs.

BANG.

Axe was thrown back several feet, his boots skidding heavily across the floor. Before he could regain his balance, three more puppets converged on him from different angles, their swords thrusting forward in a synchronized martial array.

"Tsk!" Axe clicked his tongue, throwing himself into a low sweep.

He kicked the ankle of the nearest puppet, attempting to unbalance it, but the machine was incredibly heavy, anchored by the dense Yang metal magnetic field of the cavern.

It barely budged.

However, the distraction gave Axe enough room to thrust his claws forward like a spear, impaling his metallic nails straight into the weak gap behind the puppet’s iron knee.

He pulled back with all his might, ripping out a chunk of internal gears.

The puppet collapsed to one knee, but the remaining eight instantly shifted their formation, closing the gap.

They moved like a rotating diagram.

Across the chamber, Oshan was screaming over the din of clashing metal, his voice distorted by the searing heat. "Axe! Watch the floor! The liquid is rising!"

Axe glanced down during a split-second lull.

The Molten Blood Iridium flowing through the cracks was bubbling, expanding rapidly like a rising tide.

The space he had to maneuver was shrinking by the second.

The iron puppets pressed their advantage, using their shields to drive Axe backward, forcing his steps toward the platform where the massive general statue stood.

He parried a downward slash with his crossed forearms. The sheer force was vibrating through his bones.

Another puppet thrust its sword from the side, tearing a deep line across Axe’s thigh.

Blood welled out.

But the moment it dripped onto the floor, the array underneath flared with an intense, golden light.

The trap had gathered enough blood.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Axe’s boots erupted with columns of blinding, golden light. Thick bars of solid spiritual energy shot up from the ironstone plate, interlocking instantly above his head.

A golden cage.

Axe slammed his fists against the glowing bars, his sharp nail blades sparking against the barrier.

It didn’t break.

The nine iron puppets stopped their assault, retreating to the Blood Iridium pool, and instantly vanished underneath.

The puppets were gone, and so was the pool.

As if there had been no pool, no cracks, and no rising platform, only the Nightshade statue stood exactly the same as when they had first entered.

The only difference now was that there were two golden cages holding two grown men in utter humiliation.

"Fuck!" Oshan cursed.

"YOU! General, Emperor, or whatever you are! What kind of interest is this? A golden cage of all things?!" Axe shouted from inside.

"..."

The statue remained silent and still.

"If you’re going to lock me in a cage, general, at least face me like a man," Axe sneered, his metal claws scraping sharp sparks against the golden bars.

"Or are you only brave enough to fight when your prey is chained? Come down here and try to bend my knee yourself.

"..."

"Take my word, I will bend you so hard your ass will see the legend of sword art. Come on! Don’t stand stiff around. Get inside the cage already and lift your ass!"

Axe shouted again with a sneer and a flirtatious tone, flashing his middle finger up at the statue.

Oshan rolled his eyes at these shameless words. "Young hound, you are nastier than me."

Axe scoffed, "You jealous? You can’t bang a man. You don’t have the guts."

Oshan felt his ears were hurting more than his skin now.

Axe shifted his attention back to the statue.

"Oi, gutter mutt in the iron hole! You don’t have the guts to go outside, so you’re playing here alone? Ah! I see you’ve had that lonely ass empty for years—"

Before he could finish, a slimy gold liquid plastered his mouth and instantly solidified, cutting his words off completely.

"Do the younger generation nowadays have no shame?" a mechanical voice finally vibrated from inside the statue. "I want an heir. Prove yourself and get out of your own accord," the sound added.

"So, this really is an elder’s inheritance ground." Oshan’s eyes darkened with greed. He knew how valuable this could be. "How long have you been waiting?" he asked the statue.

"I don’t know. Last time I saw Mooney, she was slashing some void. And we were trapped here," the statue said without a care.

Hearing a familiar name, Axe’s body went rigid. ’Mooney?’ He wanted to ask, but his mouth was sealed.

He exchanged a puzzled glance with Oshan.

"You mean the Moon Goddess?" Oshan asked hesitantly.

"Oh! That little brat is now a Goddess? Interesting." The mechanical sound crackled with laughter.

Oshan fell into silence.

He didn’t know if the statue’s spirit was messing with them, or if it was truly an ancient being whose existence they couldn’t even imagine.

The cavern fell into a deathly silence.

Only Axe’s and Oshan’s labored breathing could be heard occasionally.

As Axe lay on the golden floor of the cage, his gaze fell on a blue gem engraved on top of the cage’s ring.

He kind of missed those blue gems—or maybe a pair of blue eyes that he never thought he would miss.

He took the communication stone out of his trouser pocket and rubbed its surface.

There was no news so far.

No news from Nox and Ugo either.

But he knew they were alive.

Because his heart said so.

He did not know how much time had passed inside, but he was continuously plotting how to deal with this cage.

Then, one day, the stone in his hand finally heated up, sending out a thin, almost inaudible sound.

"Sigh, it’s not working. Axe, Axe, you dumbass. Can you hear me?" The sound was followed by a thin fluctuation of energy.

Axe’s eyes snapped open.

He knew this energy.

He felt it every time he was close to Moon.

His fingers clutched the stone tightly, but the next second, he almost screamed out loud—or would have, if his mouth weren’t sealed.

A big, black armor-clad head was leaning right against his cage.

Two blood-red eyes were staring straight at his hand. Now that he could see it properly up close, those blood-red eyes were actually Bloody Moon Diamonds.

’Fuck the person who came up with this statue,’ Axe thought frantically.

"What is that?" The metallic sound rang out. It waited a moment but got no answer.

"You need to remove his seal to get an answer," Oshan’s weak voice came from behind the statue. "And we are hungry. At least give your prisoners food. Don’t you know basic manners, even for prisoners? You are a general, right?"

"We don’t have food." The statue didn’t feel any remorse at all.

However, the seal suddenly broke away from Axe’s mouth.

"Let me go, and I will give you what’s inside my hand. It is very interesting and precious," Axe started, faking a plot to buy time.

"I don’t need your trashy stone. I need the energy it was transmitting," the statue stated. "Also, I am Warlord Lupine."

Axe was sweating profusely on the inside. He didn’t want to know this statue’s name at all. He was swearing in his mind,

’Fuck! This old mutt wants my wife! I must hide him!’

But before he could even attempt to hide the stone, it was already in Warlord Lupine’s massive black hand.

The statue pressed the stone into its palm, instantly triggering the brilliant, blood-red alarm.