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Just as I was sure that this Black Blood Ant Nest would stubbornly resist to the bitter end, the rushing ant wave suddenly stopped. Their insect legs slowly backed away till there was a safe distance between them and the raging wall of flames.

“So it’s finally here.”

Based on their performance, I could roughly tell that the queen ant controlling them had finally arrived, and that conjecture was confirmed right away.

“Masterrr…the queen ant…arrivesss…”

“Why is it that you guys always wait til the situation is so dire before appearing?”

“…” Clearly my sublime questioning had just whooshed over her head and flew past the boundaries of her intellectual capacity. her only response was a confused stare, one that wasn’t entirely sure as to how to react.

In the midst of the Mother Black Ant’s dazed staring, another almost identical queen ant popped out from the other side of the flame wall and began wiggling its fat body towards us. As it pressed through the ant swarm, the surrounding ants all made way for it as if it was an actual emperor making an appearance.

“Baby, put out that wall of yours for now.”

“Alright, Mama.”

Mo Na obediently dispersed her magic, and I too retracted my Shadow Demon Guardian while lowering Mo Na who was still in my arms down onto the floor.

Right here. Right now. Our Mother Black Ant knew exactly what to do even without my guidance. She steadily made her way to face the opposing queen ant. In such a hostile environment, with both parties in a staring death match, neither wanted to be the first to break the ice. Yet just as I thought that this stalemate would continue, the entire ant swarm behind the queen ant suddenly moved. However, they had no intention of advancing, instead they retreated a small distance.

‘What are they planning?’

‘Either way, it looks like the two of them are starting to talk now.’

Because I couldn’t understand what either of them were saying, I could only guess the contents by looking at their body language. How should I put it… it didn’t seem good.

The opposing queen had already witnessed my Fallen Angel form, but it didn’t prostrate itself before me like Mother Black Ant did. In fact, it seemed almost distrustful, wary. It would often sneak a glance at me, and not a very friendly one at that.

After a long conversation, no consensus was reached. Finally, a garbled mess of chittering exploded in the air and the two queen ants broke off unhappily. Mother Black Ant made no further moves, merely returning to my side while the other queen ant seemed adamant on leading her pack away.

“A failure?”

“Failuree…Masterr…”

She was absolutely dejected right now. She seemed to have taken my words as a commandment of sorts that had to be fulfilled no matter what, yet reality showed how cruelly far it was from her intentions once more -the other queen ant had no intentions of serving me.

‘A failure then…no matter, not like I had ever expected things to be smooth sailing.’

While I might have wanted their loyalty, that didn’t mean I was about to let a bunch of blasted ants ignore me either. I certainly wasn’t planning on letting that queen ant wiggle her way out of this so nonchalantly either. Thus I released my Shadow Demon Guardian once more. It instantly appeared behind that queen ant, its arm forming into a rope that restricted a greater part of its body.

“Chit chit chit!!!”

The Black Blood Queen Ant wildly chittered. Not expecting such a move from me and not at all a match for the Shadow Demon Guardian, that was the only resistance it could offer. Unfortunately, it was a pointless one as well.

The ant swarm immediately rushed to the aid of their queen, but fortune wasn’t in their favor either. My precious Mo Na promptly erected a wall of flames in their path.

Once more, the ants began their suicidal charge, not at all afraid to risk the chance of being incinerated… all for the sake of rescuing their queen.

Even so, the Shadow Demon Guardian had no trouble at all as it forcefully dragged the queen ant before me, unceremoniously dumping her on the ground like a trash bag before retracting its shadowy rope arm.

Freshly freed from its bindings, it immediately turned around and fled without a second thought. However, before it could even take its second wiggle, it was once more bound up by the Shadow Demon Guardian… the same one that was clearly standing right behind her… did she not see it or was she just…dumb?

“I know you can understand me. Now, how about we have a chat?”

Regardless of how dumb I thought it was, I knew for certain that she understood the language of the Devils. I had the Shadow Demon Guardian release her once more as a way of asserting dominance. It was my way of saying, you can’t escape.

The Black Blood Queen Ant raised her head and stared right into me with her insect eyes, stubborning defying me with her silence. As our silent confrontation wore on, the other Black Blood Ants continued their frenzied charge, every one of them dead set on rescuing their queen. Yet just because their resolve was there, it didn’t mean their combat strength had increased. The same ants, who were afraid of fire and yet didn’t know how to circle around it, still continued rushing into the wall made of said fire… and then turned to ashes…

“In…vaderrr…”

When the casualties finally reached an intolerable level, the queen ant finally had no choice but to break her silence. Her voice was just as awful sounding as Mother Black Ant, and her Devil speak was just as bad. I could barely make out what she was saying.

‘Invader? Now that’s an interesting title…’ Regardless of what happened before, I was now the lawful inheritor of Sable Radiance, I was anointed by Lucifer’s clone after all. Since I’m now the master of this area, anyone who won’t serve me -those remaining factions out there- they were all targets of my rightful purging.

At least that was how it should be…

“Serve me, or die.”

I didn’t wish to waste any more words on her so I cut straight to the point.

“…no…Devil…Black Blood Antss…will not…enslaveee…”

The Black Blood Queen Ant’s resistance was strong, just like Mother Black Ant in the past. I wasn’t all that surprised by her display. I merely turned around to face the prostrated Mother Black Ant.

“If I kill her, can you control the rest of the ants?”

“Mother Black Ant…doesn’t…knowww…”

Having given me that uncertain answer, Mother Black Ant began explaining exactly what would happen should a Black Blood Queen Ant die.

According to her, the Black Blood Ants would normally scavenge for food outside the nest, offering everything that they could find to the queen ant. That food would then be partially redistributed back to them. This system was built on their servitude cemented along the lines of blood. Based on that, one could see the integral part a queen ant played in Black Blood Ant society.

Should the controlling queen ant suddenly perish, the remaining ants would fall into chaos, and this chaos would continue till a new queen ant appeared. Before that however, the chaotic ant nest would go through a tumultuous period of upheaval. Societal collapse… A sudden desire to meet their ant maker… In-fighting…

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While it had occurred to me before that the Mother Black Ant might not be able to control every Black Blood Ant we encountered, a thought which was just confirmed by her, I still brought her along anyway. The reason was twofold. First, I needed a method of communication. Second was, to be very frank here, I couldn’t be sure that the other Black Blood Ants would submit to me the same way that Mother Black Ant did just because I was a Fallen Angel.

“If you were to go over now, what would happen?”

“Mother Black Ant…doess…not know…”

‘So even she doesn’t know how they would react…’

Strictly speaking, every Black Blood Queen Ant had their own territory. And it wasn’t like we hadn’t encountered any other Black Blood Queen Ants’ nest prior to now. It was just that we didn’t have much chance to communicate then, seeing as they weren’t loyal to me and probably wouldn’t be in the mood to be so either. Before now, it had never occurred to me to learn much about them, resulting in my current lack of knowledge about their race.

“Try talking to them first, if they try to attack, I’ll burn them to a crisp with my Nether Flames.”

“Mother Black Ant…understandds…Masss..ter…”

Not one to disobey me ever, she began wriggling her way towards the countless horde of ants ahead of us. I gestured for the others to follow closely, maintaining a five meters distance between us and Mother Black Ant. With her decent crawling speed, the distance of 200 meters was easily covered in a moment.

“Chit chit chit~~~”

Upon seeing a foreign Black Blood Queen Ant appear before them, the horde of ant-like creatures responded with a strange chittering. While I might have been able to understand their strange language, I could see they were extremely excited, based on their waving feelers and agitated movements.

As per my command, Mother Black Ant tried to communicate with them, unfortunately that failed. The ant horde didn’t seem to understand her at all and were already swarming towards her. She knew she was clearly no match against their numbers, so her only option really was to retreat.

“Mama, let Mo Na handle it!”

Having flown to my side early on in Mother Black Ant’s attempted negotiations, Mo Na took the opportunity to act before I could, waving her adorable little hands in the air, calling forth a ten meter long wall of flames in front of Mother Black Ant.

It was a wall of immense heat, flames so hot that even the surroundings seemed to bend to its will. It was at a level that these ants could never resist. But still they charged fearlessly into the fiery abyss before them, on a journey with no return. Why? Because their brains were the size of an insect’s! That’s why. Had it been any other lifeform, they wouldn’t have done so. But not the Black Blood Ants, because they were on such a low level that their intelligence was basically that of an insect’s.

Faced with such a one-sided massacre, Mother Black Ant once again felt the sheer power we wielded, and that would only make her fear and respect me more. Prostrated like a supplicant, she dragged herself before me, head lowered as she seeked forgiveness.

“Master…Mother Black Ant…guilty…”

Her meaning was clear enough, but I never had any intention of blaming her to begin with. After all, she mentioned it before, she wasn’t entirely sure if she could even communicate with Black Blood Ants not under her. Thus I skipped straight to the point. “What did you tell them just now?”

“Mother Black Ant…saidd…meet…queeeen…ant…”

In other words, she stated her request but they just charged at her like flies attracted to a light…brainless…

Because the ant swarm had just fought with some Devils, there were a number of soldier ants mixed in the swarm. These mindless insects endlessly threw themselves to their deaths. If only they knew how to make a turn…that wall was only ten meters long after all…if they knew how to turn, they could easily route around it. Yet as facts would have it, they would rather die than curve in their ant path…

Just as the death toll was starting to reach for the heavens, a strange fluttering echoed in the air from the not too distant horizon. If I had to describe it, it was like the sound of a locust swarm closing in on us…the Black Blood General Ants…I could already see their winged silhouettes, each about 15 cm long, homing in on our location…

These ants were the last line of defense in a Black Blood Queen Ant’s arsenal. Each of them had at the very least the power of a One-star, with some of their elites even reaching Two-stars. Furthermore, because of their sheer numbers and ability to fly, they were a million times worse than locusts.

Thus a giant cloud of black came swarming towards us and right over the wall that Mo Na created.

Faced with an uncountable number of adversaries, those four Imp recruits were immediately scared limp, each scurrying to hide behind the nearest golem they could find. In all honesty, I wasn’t afraid of these ants. No matter how many came at me, I could simply activate my Nether Flames around me and burn them. However, I now had a more effective method of dealing with them.

I first grabbed hold of Mo Na, activating my Shadow Demon Guardian soon after hugging her. Born of my shadow, this guardian of mine was like a clone of myself. In some ways, it was even stronger than me, the main body…

As an ability I gained after evolving into a Fallen Angel, this was one of my favourite techniques. Reason being a simple one: it was convenient, fast, and it flew…

With that, the battle started, or rather the massacre.

Nether Flames wrapped around itself, the Shadow Demon Guardian charged right into the ant swarm. With just a mere touch of the flames, every flying ant was burnt to a crisp, dropping to the ground like a bunch of fried potstickers. The sight of blackened potstickers raining down from the heavens was truly a terrifying one. Yet what was even more terrifying was that before they could even land, these potstickers were all consumed by the Nether Flames they touched…returning once more to the earth…dust to dust…ashes to ashes… All that was left were their fragile souls which the Nether Flames left intact…

Because gravity really wasn’t an issue for a shadow, the Shadow Demon Guardian’s speed was unmatched. To its eyes, these flying Black Blood General Ants might as well have been crawling in the air, like a film being run at a tenth of its original speed. If I had to describe the scene, it was like Kirah riding the Gundamn Stryke Freedom against the lowest of the low, the Zahku…in all honesty, these Black Blood General Ants weren’t even better than an antique Ford…

Without taking five minutes, the skies were clean once more. The huskless soul rain came to a silent end as well.

Unlike the destruction faced by the Black Blood General Ants, those on the ground were still charging into the flame wall Mo Na summoned. Even though what they were doing was pointless from the very beginning, and came at great cost, they still endured on their anty path to destruction…

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It had to be said that whenever the Black Blood Queen Ant presented herself before me, it was always in a submissive pose. Even now, as she wriggled her way towards me, she did so in a grovelling manner, as if that was the only proper way to show her loyalty towards me.

“Master… Mother Black Ant…hass…felt…the presence…of her kind….” As the Black Blood Queen Ant finished her choppy statement, she turned towards the direction in which we were planning to leave for. “Therrre…”

‘Presence of her kind? So there’s a Black Blood Ant Nest nearby then? Probably.’

As if by providence, the direction she pointed coincidentally aligned with the direction in which the Devils who stole that Four-star’s corpse fled towards.

“What luck then, another reason we have to have a search in that direction.” I smiled before gesturing for her to lead the way. “Go on then, we have no time to lose.”

Yet we barely took a couple of steps before the high-pitched screams of Mo Na and Cinderel’s yelping came crashing in from behind us.

“AHH…what do you think you’re doing…die!”

“Woof woof woof!!!”

My head whipped around in an instant, stopping just in time to find Cinderel viciously gnawing at a Devil whose leg was barely two meters away from Mo Na. Closely following that, Mo Na instantly summoned forth a tiny bone spear that looked to be less than half a meter, and tossed it towards the Devil, penetrating two inches into his chest without any difficulty whatsoever.

That Devil was the first Devil the Shadow Demon Guardian dragged to me like a pile of trash, the Three-star Head Imp. Because it happened so suddenly, I had no way of discerning what actually happened between the three of them. Still, it surprised me that he actually provoked them simultaneously into attacking him.

Chest still pierced, the Head Imp briskly pulled out that spear, fresh red blood still dripping down its bony exterior. Grisly though the scene might be, such a wound wasn’t much for Devils. As long as it wasn’t a fatal wound, injuries rarely proved a hindrance for Devils. With a forceful kick of his leg, he threw aside the little Hellhound who was adamantly gnawing on his leg. With another stride forward, he took off in pursuit of Mo Na who was furiously beating her wings to try and take off.

Faced with such a situation, and as Mo Na’s father, there was only one thing I could do: side with my daughter. While I still wasn’t sure what sort was animosity both parties held towards each other, I summoned forth my Shadow Demon Guardian without any hesitation and set it against that audacious Head Imp who was still trying to attack my daughter.

In the blink of an eye, the Shadow Demon Guardian appeared behind the Head Imp, raised its right hand which had transformed into a black razor, and mercilessly swiped at the Devil’s neck… an instant decapitation…

Just like that the battle was over. Mo Na flapped her way around the now headless Head Imp and barrelled straight into my embrace. She desperately clung to me, chest heaving as she took in deep breaths after deep breaths, body slightly warm, a clear sign that the short skirmish before had thoroughly startled her.

“Mama, that bad Devil wanted to steal Mo Na’s gemstone…” She finally complained after a moment to calm down, launching soon after into a detailed account of what happened.

It turned out that the Head Imp was pretending all this while to be subservient since he realised he couldn’t beat us. He knew that, based on his prowess alone, he had no way to ever beat us and our golems. What sparked his rebellion just so happened to be those same golems. More accurately, it was the Gem of Authority which could control them.

Not too long ago, he witnessed Mo Na subjugating the battered golem while it was chasing after himself using the Gem of Authority- truth be told, even I couldn’t be too sure whether this Devil was really stupid or just pretending to be stupid; he actually guessed that the gemstone Mo Na had could be used to control the Abyssal Golems. And what truly made him think that his plan had a chance of success was that, while Mo Na was a Four-star Lust Demon, the melee strength of a Lust Demon was… famously bad. Every Devil knew that, amongst all the strains of the Seven Original Sins, the Lust Demons had the lowest melee ability…

As the old proverb went, the common man was innocent till the day he came upon a windfall, if one owned a priceless artifact but lacked the ability to safeguard it, being robbed was only to be expected.

Based on this incident, it was clear that Mo Na needed work on her close combat skills. For a Four-star Devil to lose to a mere Head Imp was just… As for Cinderel… she just had to keep being so bloody adorable, that’s all. Speaking of which, where’s Cinderel…

At the same time that Mo Na was explaining, I suddenly remembered that the Head Imp had sent our little black Hellhound flying with a kick of his leg. I immediately scanned the surroundings. It was then that Cinderel came up scampering up to me. I hurriedly stooped down to hug the little puppy who was busy woofing in a slightly pitiful but oh so adorable manner.

Still a little worried about the kick she suffered, I promptly rummaged through her fur to check for injuries. Thankfully, there were none.

“Cinderel was so brave just now, protecting your big sister like that.” I praised her while patting her on the head. I was immediately rewarded with the sight of her little Hellhound eyes closing in sheer bliss as she enjoyed my gentle pats.

With Cinderel safe and sound, I commanded the Shadow Demon Guardian to fetch the Head Imp’s soul before offering it up to Cinderel. Not one to stand on ceremony, she happily gulped down the soul. Having done that, she stretched her tiny paws and laid them on my chest before stretching out to give me a tender lick on my head… that was her way of showing gratitude.

“All right, all right, that’s enough for now, Cinderel.” I smiled as I declined her little face washing service. Placing the two little scamps on the floor, I continued, “We still have work to do so you two be good, got it?”

“Mhm, Mo Na’s will be good!”

“Woof!~”

The two kids then raced off towards that same battered golem; clearly they weren’t affected at all by that little scuffle.

‘No wonder they say that Devil kids are a brave lot…’

By now, no one should be stupid enough to try and steal Mo Na’s Gem of Authority, right? I emotionlessly swept my eyes across the remaining Imps, only to find that they were already tightly grasping at each other while shivering profusely. Sensing my gaze upon them, the four burly Large Imps instinctively shuddered.

‘Exactly how scared of death are you guys…’ Well, it wasn’t like they were scared without reason.

That Head Imp used to be one of them, and in the rulebook of Devils, the sin of one was the sin of many -all had to be punished equally… That was to say, if Devils even had a rulebook… On Earth, that was commonly known as collective punishment.

Strictly speaking, collective punishment wasn’t a concept amongst Devils. Basically, what they were really afraid of was being implicated in the wrath of another. It wasn’t uncommon for those of a superior status to kill those below him on a whim, especially if there existed a huge gap between the two, more so when the one being killed had no background whatsoever…

“Please…spare us…we didn’t know he would…would….” Under my withering gaze, their instincts immediately took over, forcing them to their knees as they begged.

Well, it wasn’t like they participated in that tiny rebellion, they probably didn’t know about it either. I wasn’t maniacal enough to vent my anger on them either.

“You may all rise, none of you took part in his betrayal so I’ll believe in your innocence, but don’t let there be another…or else…”

“…Yes…someone else tries to do that, we’ll kill that betrayer before you even lift a finger…”

Yet no matter how much they pleaded, I had no sympathy for their plight. The only reason I gave them a free pass this time was because of what I said earlier: I didn’t want to vent my anger on another. But if they ever dared to touch my precious daughter, let there be no doubt that I would grind their bones into dust.

“I don’t want a repeat of that again.”

“Yes…yes…”

They vigorously nodded their heads, knowing that they successfully escaped death this time around.

With the curtains lowered on this little drama, we proceeded onwards. Roughly ten minutes had passed like that when we spotted something out of blue as we climbed a tiny hill. Peering down from the top of the hill, we spotted a cluster of black dots a couple hundred meters away. The dots were all closely packed together like a black cloud as they crawled over six or so corpses…

“Master…same…kind…Mother Black Ant…”

What she meant was those were all Black Blood Ants. As for the corpses, they were without a doubt the corpses of Devils.

“Your kind eat meat as well?” Leaning forward, I took a closer look at distant ants busy dissecting the corpses of those Imps.

‘Were they planning to eat them? I thought they only ate minerals infused with mana?’

“Meat…we eat…meat…past…not…dare….”

Garbled though her words were, I roughly got the gist of it. They were probably omnivores by the looks of things. Naturally, they wouldn’t say no to meat either, it was just, as a slave race of Sable Radiance, it wasn’t all that appropriate to eat the meat of a Devil who was the master race…

Naturally, that ended when Lucifer decided to whisk away all the Devils in the kingdom. Yet the golem patrols remained, so for tens of thousands of years, there were no large-scale migrations into the former capital of Sable Radiance. In the eyes of the other Purgatory races, the empty capital was basically a death zone…

To be honest, those roving golems were probably not the only reason why the other races didn’t dare to act up. Another crucial reason was that the clone of Lucifer was still hibernating in the palace of the capital…that right there was a catastrophe-class entity. Exactly who would be so sick of living that they would try to disturb him? While not all the surviving creatures might know of Lucifer’s existence, surely there would be those who were strong enough to sense the existence of Lucifer’s clone, right… even stupidity had its limits.

“How about we pay them a visit, Mother Black Ant?” I pointed at the distant ant blob. “Can you control them?”

“No…they are not… Mother Black Ant’s…children…”

The queen ant unambiguously shot down that thought. By the looks of things, there was a major limit on the scale of her control, and that had directly to do with bloodlines.

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The Shadow Demon Guardian’s method of binding was, to say the least, extremely amusing. Its left arm would stretch out into a rope-like object before coiling itself around the five unconscious Devils, dragging the poor sods before me like a bunch of trash bags. However, what left me even more speechless was that, despite being dragged along by the Shadow Demon Guardian, ground viciously tearing into their unconscious forms, these unlucky Devils were still completely knocked out.

‘Seems like its methods are rather effective; a simple thwack and those low level Devils are all knocked out cold.’

Recalling my Shadow Demon Guardian, I gave the foremost Head Imp a kick of my bony right shoe that was neither too heavy nor too light. No response. I frowned a little. This time, I gathered a portion of my mana into the tip of my shoes and prodded his noggin, directly transferring the mana through the tip of my shoes into his brain like a spike.

Perhaps that prod was a little too forceful for him, but I had barely made contact with his head for a second before he leaped to his feet and out of his unconscious stupor. Eyes glazed over, he rubbed his aching head.

‘Looks like that idiot’s awake at last.’

A moment later, his lax shoulders stiffened up as he took up a wary stance against me.

“Who are you Devils?!”

“Idiot.” I chuckled scornfully at the Head Imp’s surprise. “Tell me, where did you all come from?”

“And why should I answer you?”

As expected, that Head Imp was truly a blind idiot. In this situation, where I was the chef’s knife to his live sashimi, he actually still had time to waste on such stupid questions. If I was a more violent fellow, much much more violent even, his head would already be torn off his shoulders.

Not one to waste more time on a brainless Devil, I continued my previous action of kicking their heads to wake them up. The other four Devils were all Large Imps, unlike the first, ones that seemed completely normal to my eyes.

A second later, when they were all awake, I repeated my question. “Tell me, where did you all come from?”

“We came from that direction…” One of the smarter looking Large Imps replied before pointing in the direction they came from. “That’s the place…”

‘Not the direction of the recruitment zone.’ I mused to myself as I gave the jittery Imps a thoughtful gaze. My lips curled into a fiendish smile. “Bring me there.” And that was the difference in power between us, because I was stronger, they had to listen, or die.

……

Mo Na seemed absolutely taken with the Gem of Authority I had given her, choosing to play with it whenever she had the chance to do so. Well, it wasn’t like I had any intention of taking it back so I left her to her devices.

As we marched onwards, Mo Na happily commanded the Abyssal Golem to follow behind us. Though the golem she commanded seemed battered on the surface, it was still a force to be reckoned with -at the very least, my current self couldn’t guarantee a solo victory against it. Perhaps it was fortunate then that its battered limbs didn’t have to travel far, seeing as we quickly arrived at the teleportation point with the guidance of those Imps.

The new teleportation point was a barren zone, its desolation only broken up by two nearby mounds that resembled the humps of camels. That was basically the landscape of the areas surrounding the old capital of Sable Radiance. The only nearest lava lake was the one we had at our safe zone. Perhaps that was why that lake was so unbelievably long.

Yet the landscape wasn’t just devoid of features, the surrounding areas were devoid of life as well, barring the Black Blood Ants; a side-effect of those roaming golems, no doubt. With no other lifeform to speak of, and no nearby lava lake either, scavenging for food was difficult for those Devils who just arrived at this teleportation point. It stood to reason that those who managed to survive under such arduous circumstances couldn’t be in the best of shapes either.

“You’re sure this is the place?” I asked, voice a little doubtful. Due to the lack of any Devils appearing in the area, I couldn’t bring myself to fully trust that this was the teleportation point in question. However, the more pressing issue was that Devils who teleported over would always have some variance in where they landed. That was why any confirmation would only apply to a small area.

Still, that shred of doubt was perhaps enough to terrify the Imps as they rushed to explain, “We went through the Prison of the Dead’s teleportation gate not too long ago, this was where we appeared… O beautiful and magnificent one…”

“Beautiful and magnificent?” I paused for a second, seemingly having just realised that my looks in the eyes of Devils could only belong to the category of an absolutely stunning woman… no, it wasn’t just Devils. As long as that race held a similar sense of beauty, they would immediately raise me to that pedestal with a mere thought… blast it all. What was even more mortifying was that I still couldn’t be sure what gender I was… a transexual? A trap?

‘Sweet heavens, what sort of creature should I even consider myself as… a genderless Origin Angel? No, you’re the Origin Angel, your whole family is an Origin Angel…’

“From now on, I had better not hear any mention of the word “beautiful”, or anything similar to it.”

Putting aside other matters, I truly was in a foul mood right now. Perhaps that was why my body seemed to be oozing the word “menacing” out of its every microscopic pore. That obvious show of hostility made the Imps instinctively retreat a step, not even daring to look up as they did so.

‘Bah, now’s not the time to be nitpicking on such matters, punishing them would be pointless as well. What’s more important is solving the problem in front of us.’

“Other than your own comrades, have you all seen any other Devils?”

“Our group was over ten strong when we teleported over. But because we ran into that big fellow….” Having said that, one of the Large Imps pointed a shaking finger at the battered golem standing right at the back of our group. Voice shaking unnaturally, “That thing was so powerful, we could only run…”

I gave the area a quick sweep. There were no corpses nearby to be found, which meant that were likely no casualties… Hold on, there was a trail of blood ahead, and some shredded flesh… the flesh of a Devil!

I immediately grasped the crux of the situation. “When that golem was chasing your group, did the rest split off into other directions?”

“Mhm… I think they did…” The Large Imp gave it a couple of seconds of thought before answering. “I seem to remember them running off in a different direction…”

Fine, at least some of them seemed to have grown a brain, probably because of the extra soul nourishment they got.

“We had a Four-star leader, he was a Flame Demon Child -very powerful- but even he couldn’t defeat that big fellow…”

Based on that Large Imp’s lacking explanation, I was able to somewhat piece together the situation then. The Four-star faced off against the battered golem -who still maintained the power of a Six-star despite its injuries. Naturally, in a fight between a Four-star and a Six-star, a punch was all it needed to flatten him. Which meant that the pile of flesh over there was most likely leftover by the now deceased Flame Demon Child. As for the rest of his body… the rest of those Devils probably snuck back later on. After all, the corpse of a Flame Demon Child was a massive source of nourishment for low level Devils like them; wasting all that would truly be a shame.

“They shouldn’t have made it far, we’ll follow them through the trail of blood.” Yet just as I was about to set off along the trail, the previously silent Black Blood Queen Ant suddenly stepped up to me…

(TL Note: The original chapter title was “Thinking of a chapter title is hard”.)

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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• Chapter 332: Your Whole Family is a *Bleep*
• Chapter 333: An Unexpected Betrayal
• Chapter 334: A Battle With No Declaration
• Chapter 335: A Stubborn Black Blood Queen Ant
• Chapter 336: Hurry Up and Cough Up the Rent!
• Chapter 337: Soul Ring
• Chapter 338: Big Sis?
• Chapter 339: No.6’s Scheme
• Chapter 340: That Will Teach You to Try and Steal Mo Na’s Mama
• Chapter 341: Chewing on the Scraps of My Bones
• Chapter 342: The Magical Exchange Array
• Chapter 343: The Opening Phase of Conquest
• Chapter 344: The Planning Phase
• Chapter 345: An Unavoidable Situation
• Chapter 346: An Official Declaration of Intent
• Chapter 347: Pursuit
• Chapter 348: Psychic Enthrallment
• Chapter 349: Persuading an Enemy to Surrender
• Chapter 350: Jeerah’s Scent
• Chapter 351: This Isn’t a Melon Competition, Thank You Very Much
• Chapter 352: First the Kid, Now the Parents…
• Chapter 353: A Temperamental Nightmare Steed
• Chapter 354: Precursor to War
• Chapter 355: A Chaotic Battlefield
• Chapter 356: There’s No Time For Explanations. Hop On!
• Chapter 357: Trump Card
• Chapter 358: Devil King Idol
• Chapter 359: A Smarter Golem
• Chapter 360: Restrictions
• Chapter 361: Mana Feathers
• Chapter 362: If Only I Was the Main Character in Some Novel
• Chapter 363: The Long Awaited Reinforcements are Cats and Dogs?
• Chapter 364: Meeting Meisian Again
• Chapter 365: Sometimes, The Simplest Solutions are Best
• Chapter 366: Cat Plays
• Chapter 367: I Declare Single!
• Chapter 368: In the End, We Still Have to Fight…
• Chapter 369: The Key to Winning is Not Fighting on Your Own Property
• Chapter 370: An Overlord
• Chapter 371: Bloodletting
• Chapter 372: A Reunion of Enemies
• Chapter 373: Meeting Sidarth Once More
• Chapter 374: An Invitation
• Chapter 375: A Giant Dog
• Chapter 376: Restrictions
• Chapter 377: An Agreement Reached
• Chapter 378: A Tile to Decide Victory
• Chapter 379: Meeting Up
• Chapter 380: Blood Netherite
• Chapter 381: An Unavoidable Fight
• Chapter 382: A Furious Charge
• Chapter 383: The Hellhound in the Crowd
• Chapter 384: A Chaotic Showdown of Three Clans
• Chapter 385: Overlord
• Chapter 386: You Guys Just Keep Talking Over There, Don’t Mind Me…
• Chapter 387: HOLD ON A SECOND!
• Chapter 388: A Duel? No. This is a Fight to the Death.
• Chapter 389: Mo Ning
• Chapter 390: Resonant Edge
• Chapter 391: Optical Illusion
• Chapter 392: I Just Got Myself a Mount
• Chapter 393: A Woman and Her Horse
• Chapter 394: Epilogue (1)
• Chapter 395: Epilogue (2)
• Chapter 396: Epilogue (3)
• Chapter 397: Epilogue (4)
• Chapter 398: Epilogue (Final)