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“Shade!”

“Devil, we meet again. If I hadn’t heard it from Warwraith myself, I wouldn’t have believed that you actually evolved into a Fallen Angel…” Shade eyed me with a hint of helplessness on his face. “Truthfully, I don’t want to fight you at all…”

“Are you stupid, Shade? That Devil isn’t even some reincarnation of a Devil King, she’s just immune to psychic attacks. “ The temperamental Nightmare Steed was the first to criticise Shade. “Are you sure you didn’t just exaggerate the facts to avoid being punished?”

“I don’t need you to believe me, I maintain my views either way.”

“Hah, so lying in order to shirk responsibility is part of your views as well?” Warsight pressed him further. “Once this matter is over, you can be sure I’ll report this matter to the clan leader. As for the outcome, heheheh… let’s see if you can still maintain that position of yours.”

“You wish to threaten my position? With what? You?”

“You…”

“That’s enough, how about both of you just step back for a moment, now’s not the time for argument. The most pressing issue is to deal with this Devil.” Shadowfall forcefully broke the two apart.

“Those are golems, aren’t they? I saw them once long ago, but those were all in bad condition…” Shade rolled his eyes at Warsight before changing the topic. “Their sturdiness is beyond what we can imagine, and we won’t gain anything by smashing them either. Their forte lies in their immense strength and invincible defenses- but they are slow.”

In order to prevent Warsight from stirring up more argument, Shadowfall immediately followed up with that conversation. “Then let’s combine our might and strike at the head.”

“Alright!” Warsight neighed loudly before leading off with a charge. Shade rolled his eyes towards Shadowfall. The two immediately broke off in opposite directions, circling around the golem ring in a bid to find some kind of weakness.

“What do we do?” Jeerah gripped down on my arms harder, her eyes quivering with unease. “There are three of them now… and who knows how many Warhorses as well… we’ll be fine, right?”

“I say, can you stop standing so close to me? We’re not even close with each other.”

The two deadly weapons she carried on her chest were simply too much for me. The way they pressed even harder against me now truly left me flustered when I least needed it.

“No!” She immediately answered without a second thought. “I don’t feel safe if you’re too far from me.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to stand so close either, it’s unsettling.”

“We’re all girls here, what’s there to be shy about?”

“I’m a male!”

Jeerah eyed me from top to toe. “Are you sure your head is screwed on right?”

“…”

With regards to my gender, I had no desire to argue any further on the matter. Thus I just shrugged her off my arm. “We were enemies not too long ago. Don’t tell me you are already so comfortable with me now?”

“Don’t go… don’t leave me behind…”

In the end, she clung even tighter to me. At this point, her entire body was hugging me. Her intoxicating scent came at me like a hammer, and I reflexively inhaled it due to our proximity, causing me to almost become enthralled.

Jeerah batted her eyes at me. Gone was that bewitching face of not too long ago. Instead, it was replaced by an endearing sort of weakness.

‘That face… wasn’t she acting like some sort of queen just now? Now she’s trying to act like a harmless bunny? I don’t even know how to make fun of this turn of events.”

“In that case, just sign the soul pact with me. As long as you’re my subordinate, I’ll definitely protect you.”

“Absolutely no!” Jeerah vehemently objected.

“Then what if I just toss you away right now?” I pretended to threaten her.

“Like heck you would. You’re too much of a nice Devil to hurt me.”

She really got me there -she even knew me better than I did. What was worse was that, after rejecting my soul pact so completely, she basically friendzoned me for life…
‘Fishcakes! Why did I have to get stuck with such a clingy Devil? And she seems to have seen through me as well…there’s no way I would ever throw her out there to feed a bunch of horses…that would be a waste of a perfectly fine bedwar… No, no. A subordinate. A perfectly legitimate relationship between a male superior and his female subordinate.’

‘So don’t you dare call me a nice guy!’

‘Also, I can see you smirking over there… at least be a little more professional in your acting!’

At the same time that those three Nightmare Steeds charged at me, the rest of the Warhorse herd had galloped to roughly five hundred meters in front of us. Based on their current speed, it would probably take them less than ten seconds to cover that distance and collide with my golems.

This time, the number of Warhorses who came were a lot more. Because the Winged Abyssal Golems guarded me too closely, my vision was currently obstructed by their massive bodies. I could only make out a thousand or so Warhorses from my position.

‘They actually gathered up such numbers in a short time… the Warhorse clan cannot be underestimated.’

“No. Now’s not the time for dallying around. I need to…’ Just as I was about to give the command for a counter offensive, my precious baby took the initiative to give the command instead. Even though now was clearly too late to set up any meaningful defense, it couldn’t hurt to at least try.

“You guys guard that side, and you guys guard there. I want an encirclement prepared right away, don’t let a single horse go… Don’t worry, Mama, Mo Na’s got this covered!”

Seeing as my precious daughter was so dependable, I decided to let her command then.

“Hah, as if you can even encircle us, don’t get ahead of yourself, Devil!”

Seeing that we were about to engage in our own battle preparations, Warsight suddenly gave up her offensive, instead turning her attention towards the Abyssal Golems. One of the golems took this opportunity to give her a forceful kick, and it fell over instead -all five meters of it!

The size of a Nightmare Steed was roughly comparable to the horses humans used to ride into battle, while my Abyssal Golems were at least five meters tall. Yet even with such a difference in mass aiding its attack, my golem actually lost!

Boom!

The golem that was knocked over by Warsight fell onto another golem with a deafening crash. And like a domino knocking into another, the second golem proceeded to knock over another, and that one knocked over another, and another…truly like dominoes.

“Hmph, there are no holes to exploit at all. In that case, how about a direct attack?!”

Never one for patience, Warsight had completely given up on an attrition battle with my Winged Abyssal Golems, instead choosing to focus on my Abyssal Golems. Who would have thought that temperamental Nightmare Steed would have such a flexible side to her…

Seeing that her attacks were effective against the Abyssal Golems, Shade and Shadowfall both gave up on trying to break through my defensive ring of Winged Abyssal Golems, choosing to go after my Abyssal Golems instead. Even though there were also Winged Abyssal Golems amongst the golems I gave to Mo Na, most of them were tasked with protecting Mo Na. There were simply not enough Winged Abyssal Golems to deal with an agile Eight-stars.

The three Nightmare Steeds proceeded to wreak havoc amongst my Abyssal Golems, weaving in and out between my scattered forces and throwing the odd attack or two. They had completely given up on their magicks, instead focusing entirely on brute strength. With their Eight-star strength, bullying a bunch of Six-star golems was basically child’s play. While the Nightmare Steeds weren’t exactly known for their brute strength amongst other Eight-stars, it didn’t matter that much when there was a two level gap.

“Blast it all, these golems are just too tough…” Warsight had already knocked over a dozen or so golems with her hooves of steel. Yet no matter how hard she kicked, she only managed to leave a small crack on their outer surface; their inner exoskeletons were basically unharmed.

“I did say that these golems had really strong defenses.” Shade said as he nimbly avoided a swipe from a Winged Abyssal Golem. He then galloped on to the calf of an Abyssal Golem, causing it to lose its balance immediately and knock into a neighboring Abyssal Golem who started shaking from the impact.

A flash of red and black later, that shaky golem came crashing down. As it fell forward, it so happened to knock into another golem that was just about to get up…

“Rather than complain, how about you two spend more time attacking instead?” Stomping down on the two golems, Shadowfall immediately stepped in to mediate between the two Nightmare Steeds, just in case they decided to start another argument. “Take care of our enemies first, then we can talk about that dispute between the two of you.”

“Hmph, what dispute?” Warsight scoffed before galloping off to find another target. “But you’re right, now’s not the time for petty arguments. Rather than a war of words, I rather a hotblooded clash of hooves! HAHAHA… have at me!” ¹

Shameless Self-promotion

If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.