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Regardless of whether or not this Umbra was lacking some mental faculties, his inaction was a boon to us. Jezsere made full use of this opportunity to press the Assassins harder, finishing the summoning array that much sooner.

The skulls of the Skeletons and Zombies we collected were arranged in a simple pentagram, after which I immediately stood before the array and began channelling my mana as Ferti’nier instructed.

“Direct your mana towards the array, your big sis will help you connect to Purgatory; the coordinates will be Sable Radiance. Your big sis will then send your aura across, and those who sense it should respond to the summons. However… the most you are able to summon are Four-stars…” Ferti’nier’s voice turned solemn at that point. “The offerings aren’t enough… so the amount won’t be many as well… and that’s factoring in your status as the Overlord of those coordinates…”

We have offerings, we just need to harvest them first. We can sustain our battles with more battles that way. As long as our lines do not collapse right away, I’m sure we will be able to overcome this trial. And if all else fails, I’ll pull out the Devil King Idol.

“I don’t suggest you do that.” For the first time ever, Ferti’nier unequivocally expressed her disapproval of my plan. “The Devil King Idol represents the status of a Devil King’s successor. At the same time, it also means that as long as you do not die, little brother, you will one day become a Devil King. To the Humans, you are an existence that must be exterminated as soon as possible.”

I… I’m trying to help them here! You’re saying I might end up being hunted down instead? Then what do you suggest I do?!

Sensing my frustration, Ferti’nier sternly cut me off, “don’t think too much about it now. Just focus on the summoning.”

Fine. This was my decision to begin with, it’s just time for me to take responsibility for it.

As more and more mana flowed into the array, the skulls making up the array started to glow red in their eye sockets, giving the entire pentagram a hellish look.

“By my name as the Overlord of Purgatory… heed my call… pass through the dimensions and arise… emissaries of the Apocalypse!”

As I continued chanting, Jezsere quickly released the souls we stuffed in a couple of Soulstones beforehand. Like a giant firefly, the Soul Flames swarmed out in a glaring blob. It tried to pull away from the summoning array at first, but it was promptly latched onto by the sinister aura spewing out from the array. Without any protection of their own, the Soul Flames were dragged into the flames, finally turning into the offerings needed to break down the barriers between dimensions.

“Devil…” Nicole bit down on her teeth, hand pressed hard against the hilt of her sword. Right now, every ounce of her Demon Hunter training was screaming at her not to team up with Devils. Her very being yearned for the opportunity to rend the summoning array asunder with her sword, but she knew she couldn’t do so. We needed those Devils to turn the tides, not just for our sake, but for the villagers as well.

“Sister Nicole…”

Sensing her unease, Neneth first thought was to try and comfort her, but the airhead that she was couldn’t find the words to do so.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Nicole answered with a sigh that released her bottled up frustrations at the same time. At the end of the day, she wasn’t a willful girl; she knew that in times of need, power wasn’t something that discriminated between right and wrong.

True to his words, Umbra did not try to interrupt us in the slightest as we summoned the Devils. He merely watched us with a bemused expression from a hundred meters away.

As more time passed by, a black dimensional rift, measuring up to three meters tall, opened up, allowing the first Devil to make its way out of the summoning array. It was a Large Imp that first appeared. Following that, more and more Devils began to spew forth, the majority being One-star, with a few Two-star Head Imps coming forth from time to time. It was only a few minutes later that the array finally began to dim. The rift sputtered in a last ditch attempt to stay open. A crimson Devil clad in flames stepped forth, barely squeezing itself through the closing rift -a Four-star Flame Demon Child!

With those thousand odd One-star Soul Flames, we managed to summon about 350 Devils… not bad. One Four-star, thirteen Three-stars while the rest are One-stars or Two-stars…

“Not bad indeed, but that’s only to be expected of our little brother. Being able to summon so many with just those low level offerings is something to be proud of.”

To that, I could only shake my head and smile grimly. After all, even this amount of Devils wasn’t going to be enough to hold off the Undead horde.

Thankfully, my gloominess was quickly dispelled by Ferti’nier. “Don’t worry, your big sis has already fixed the coordinates for Sable Radiance. You just have to feed the array more offerings and you will have an unending supply of Devils.”

You know… having Ferti’nier around really isn’t that bad. Now… if only she could stop stealing my food so I can level up faster…

“Heck no, your big sis has to work hard as well!”

I paid no attention to her objections, instead turning to that smug Vampire. “So, how about you tell us what you are here for?”

“Well aren’t you confident now?” Umbra smirked back at me. “Unfortunately, that’s nothing compared to my Undead army.”

“Oh? How about we try it out then?”

“No need, my goals are soon to be met?”

“What?”

I did not know what he meant by those words, but the moment I tried to ask, something happened…

Signal flares from the remaining three entrances of the village lit up the night sky simultaneously. They had all been attacked at the same time.

Blast, we don’t even have the manpower to take care of those three areas.

Soon after that, the six Assassins whom I had dispatched as scouts all came running back to report. However, I stopped them in their tracks with a quick glare; there was no need to report something so obvious at this point.

Umbra wasn’t likely to outright slaughter the villagers immediately. However, there was a high chance that he would use them as hostages to force us to comply. If he tried that, I would have to forcefully take Nicole away with me. As long as I had my hundred Assassins to cover us, there’s no way he could ever hope to stop us.

However, that wasn’t even the worst case scenario right now…

“There’s quite a number of villagers here, I see. Not bad at all.” Said Umbra as he looked intently behind us… The villagers who were previously hiding out in their homes were now slowly walking up to us. However, they didn’t do so willingly, but were forced to.

Three young looking Lycans each led a team of Undead towards us, herding the villages in our direction in the process. Every one of them had on a look of abject terror, with the children all wailing as they marched onwards. One of the older folk amongst them even fell to the ground because he wasn’t able to keep with their pace. He looked to be over seventy; definitely old in a setting like the Western Human Realms.

Being as scared as they were, none of the villagers tried to help him up at all. The bony whites of the Skeletons and their eerie green flames were an effective deterrent against anyone who even dared look in their direction. Just like that, the old man was trampled to death by the Undead…

Watching a shrivelled old man cry for help while his flesh splattered about had to be one of the most gruesome sights in this world. I had initially wanted to save him, but the moment I saw that first Undead step on him, I knew his fate was sealed.

I couldn’t bear to look at his wide, bloodshot eyes any longer. I turned to Umbra and yelled, “what are you trying to accomplish here?!”

Unlike me, Nicole was a lot more direct. She wasted no words at all, instead electing to draw her sword at the Vampire. However, the Vampire merely smiled in her direction and said, “if you dare to draw that sword, I dare to kill those villagers.”

“…” Her teeth had practically ground themselves to dust at this point. Unfortunately, it was a fact that they now had the entire village as their hostage and we couldn’t do anything about that.

I gently patted her on the shoulders, signalling for her not to act rashly. On my part, I shielded her eyes from the Vampire, standing between the two of them. “Why have you captured these innocent villagers? If it’s a fight you’re looking for, I am more than happy to oblige.”

“Hahaha. How amusing. Truly. Such an amusing sight to see an Occultist teaming up with Demon Hunters.” He sneered in our direction. “O how have you fallen.”

Naturally, he was referring to both Nicole and I, two diametrically opposed occupations somehow working together right now. Ironic, actually.

There were legally registered Occultists in the Western Human Realms. However, these Occultists often had the backing of the royal family or some major aristocratic family. The majority of those that did not had to endure strict surveillance and discrimination on a daily basis. What was even more egregious had to be that any punishment meted on them would be double that of an ordinary person’s. Thanks to that, most Occultists weren’t openly registered. And I was pleased to announce that I was one of them now… meaning anyone who took my head could turn it in for a reward.