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The Abyssal Golems were all stationed nearby and ready to strike at a moment’s notice. With that card in hand, my position was a lot more hardline this time.

“Regret? Hmph. I don’t even know how that word is spelt. How about you teach me then?” Before Meisian even had the chance to answer, Anmi had already answered for her. With another scoff, he continued, “How about you take a second to look around? You’re the one surrounded by the elders, not us! And you actually want to threaten us. How stupid can you be?”

‘Ah…I was just scolded by a moron…a moron actually scolded me…I’m such a disgrace to the Fallen Angels…still, if that silly couple won’t see reason, I might have to use force.’

‘But if I were to use force, things will just end up more complicated. Honestly, as long as force is involved, there will always be one side being oppressed. If it’s possible, I would rather recruit them willingly…without danger to myself, of course.’

“You guys are the ones who won’t believe me. In that case, I’ll just have to apologise for any offense I might cause in the future.”

There was no guarantee that she would relent even when forced, but at the very least, my safety would be guaranteed this way. Time for the direct method…

With no other choice available to me, I yelled in the direction of the city walls. “All my golems, assemble!”

As I said that, my still as a statue golems finally moved. The mere act of all seven hundred of my golems acting at once immediately caused the surroundings to quake. Still in the midst of their card game, the elder cats and their black cards started to tremble as well. Their eyes went wide as they finally awoke from their gambling stupor.

“What’s happening? An earthquake? Or is the volcano erupting?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. There’s no volcano near us that can erupt.”

“The shaking is so bad, I’m getting a little giddy here…”

“I don’t care how giddy you are, I’m about to win here and none of you better renege on the bet!”

“Bah, I’m done playing. My head hurts…”

“Me too… Masrow, how about we end this round…”

“What’s the meaning of this? Hey, why are you throwing away the cards? Pick them up and let’s continue playing! I’m about to win already…blast it all…you shameless cats…are you cats even gamblers?”

‘…The question is are you cats even normal?.’

“Tear down that wall! Hahaha, tear down that wall, quick!” Mo Na was more than familiar with the shaking caused by my golems moving, thus her confidence immediately surged. “Mama, call out that big golem as well, we can tear up the place while riding it!”

Naturally, the big golem she was talking about was the Devil King Idol. I was actually worried that the elder cats would suddenly attack us. After all, their combat strength was a fair bit higher than ours; if they were to launch an attack without warning, we would suffer greatly.

“Elders! Now’s not the time for games, the enemy is already at our gates!” Meisian couldn’t help but yell at her elders who were still busy messing around despite the current situation. “My castle is about to be destroyed. If that happens, you can forget about ever eating any Ashen Fur Mice or Meowberries!”

“Don’t worry, it won’t fall.” Masrow calmly eyed her, his face a picture of serenity. “Even if you don’t feed us, there’s still Gaiuz and Weiderly. What’s the worst that can happen? We just hop over to their camp and continue sponging off them.”

‘Continue sponging…For some reason, I have this sudden realisation that these elders are actually pretty self-aware…they’ve clearly resolved themselves to be leeches.’

“Elders, please make your move now…” Meisian selectively ignored the latter half of Masrow’s words. In a worried voice, she continued, “There’s a horde of strange monsters outside our city walls right now…I’m afraid the walls can’t handle them..”

“They won’t collapse, they are all built to last. Unless the enemy has the power of an Eight-star, there’s basically no chance of them even getting dama-”

Boom

Before Masrow could even finish saying the word damaged, a portion of the wall came crashing down. The nearby Purgatory Shadowcats immediately meowed with shock and began scattering. A number of cats who were originally stationed on the walls began jumping off the walls in alarm… so that’s what the saying, when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter, mean.

A burly arm, made entirely out of a reddish-black material, came piercing through a section of the wall. It tried grabbing around but to no avail. After a few seconds of doing so, it retracted back out of sight without its prize. Still, the fact was that the wall now had a gaping hole in it.

The city wall of the Purgatory Shadowcats was roughly ten meters tall, half the height of the Devil King Idol. The Abyssal Golems were all five meters or so while my Winged Abyssal Golems were seven meters tall; there was no way these normal golems could step over the wall. Only by bashing through the wall could they hope to find passage within.

While it was true that this wall of theirs could withstand up to an Eight-star’s attacks, but my Winged Abyssal Golems had the physical strength approaching that of an Eight-star’s. Not to mention that 102 of them were stationed outside right now…

Now that the city wall had a hole in it, it was only a matter of time before it became a honeycomb of holes and collapsed.

Boom, boom, boom, went the thunderous punches of seven hundred golems simultaneously bashing on a wall. The defenseless wall began to crack and expose its inhabitants within. From the looks of things, it was only a matter of seconds before it came crumbling down.

“Impossible…” The moment the first hole appeared, Masrow practically jumped out of his fur, eyes wide in shock. “Don’t tell me there’s an Eight-star outside right now?”

“I told you there were monsters outside!” She furiously glared at him but still left the uglier parts of what she wanted to say unsaid.

“I’ll go have a look myself.” Masrow leaped gracefully onto the city wall. As he stared ahead, his feline back stayed straight as an arrow, and his eyes sharp as one. It almost looked like he was ready to leap down and face off against the horde of golems arrayed before him.

A mere second later, he actually jumped off the city wall. With an elegant curve of his feline body, he did a somersault in the air and landed softly beyond the walls. Then…he came charging through one of the holes created by the golems. All that talk of cats climbing walls and dogs crawling through holes was basically non-existent at this point. “Why the heck are there so many…”

So what was he referring to when he said so many? Naturally, it was my golems. Over seven hundred golems gathering in a single spot wasn’t a sight one could simply laugh off. Did they think that being a savior was easy? If Masrow really dared to take even a step further, it would be the end of his cat life.

“I told you to apprehend them earlier…” When Meisian first received us, she already caught wind of my golems. Even though she didn’t know how powerful they were then, one could easily guess that they were no pushovers based on their sheer size.

“Now isn’t too late.” Masrow’s fast thinking was truly a marvel. He immediately grasped what was needed to save his feline skin right now. That was to hold us as hostages.

At the same time that I saw him charge through the hole, my left hand immediately grabbed the Gem of Authority hanging on my neck. My right hand grabbed my precious daughter. “Everyone, keep close. I’ll summon the Devil King Idol.”

“Get them!”

Masrow and the other elder cats immediately pounced on his command. Unfortunately for them, they were a tad too late. I had already seen through their intentions from the start and summoned forth my Devil King Idol, teleporting all of us into the safety of its dimensional pocket. The elder cats leapt at what they saw was us but ended up banging into the leg of the Devil King Idol instead.

In order to avoid maiming these cats, I had the idol stand perfectly still. It wasn’t like they could harm it anyway. As long as I threatened them again, they should give up quietly.

Only after banging my idol did those silly cats realise how sturdy this new golem was. Retreat immediately crept into their minds, but their pride didn’t allow them to just give up like that.

“It’s time we ended this farce.” My voice transmitted outwards through the idol. Without even waiting for those elders to react, I had my idol quickly stomp down on the ground with its right foot. This simple act was enough to send more tremors reverberating throughout the entire castle city, its strength nearly comparable to that of my seven hundred golems.

Where the idol treads, the earth shakes.

Being the closest to the idol, Masrow and his elders felt first hand how terrifying my idol’s true strength was. At its level of destructiveness, that simple stomp could have killed at least of them if I so wished.

“Not good…it’s an Eight-star…”

With how quickly the situation spiralled out of their control, the grand elder Masrow promptly turned tail and ran, the rest of his elders quickly following in his cat steps in a bid to escape from this no man’s land.

“Little Meisian…exactly who did you end up offending this time…we need to get out of here, quick! We can’t win.”

Masrow brought the elders to Meisian’s platform. Their intention was to grab the tiny cat king and quickly escape. However, she would have none of that. Even if her husband, Anmi, was clearly frightened stiff beside her, she still showed no sign of relenting.

“Escape? Never.” Meisian coldly swept her eyes over the frightened elder cats. Her lips curled into a disdainful scoff. “I already knew that I can’t depend on you cats, so I had the foresight to notify the Great Elder.”

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.

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Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, our party successfully made it out of the castle. Even though Meisian was still hot on our tails riding her Elemental Segregation Platform, its speed wasn’t comparable to ours at all. There were a few cats here and there who got in our way when they heard Meisian’s calls, but they were all promptly smacked away by Sasani and Sinmosa.

On average, the Purgatory Shadowcats were at the level of Two-stars to Three-stars. Four-stars was an elite, while five was a captain’s level. Once they reached Six-stars, they became an elder. Spearheading our escape were two Five-star Cerberuses, barring any interference from their Elders’ Consortium, nothing could really stand in our way.

For the most part, that held true all the way till we made it to the city gates. It was at that point that we finally met with the advance party of the Elders’ Consortium. There were two elders blocking our exit, along with seven other elders who surrounded us. These elders were roughly the size of a wolf dog, but based on the aura they emitted, those Five-stars we met before were nothing compared to them.

Besides their sizes being roughly equal, there was also another similarity shared by these nine cats, and that was the hand of black cards floating beside each of them. These cards were all completely black, made of a material that seemed neither like wood nor like stone. Even though their material wasn’t exactly clear, it was still obvious to the casual observer that they were hefty.

In the meantime, those dozen or so guardcats who were previously distracted by the Vengeful Soul finally caught up to us under the guidance of that larger guardcat captain.

“Esteemed Overlord, we’re here…” They casually greeted Meisian but were immediately snapped at by a moody Meisian. “What took you all so long?! Bunch of useless cats! What am I even feeding you all for?!”

One of the guardcats quietly mumbled to himself, “It’s not like the Ashen Fur Mice we eat are raised by you. Our Meowberries aren’t grown by you either…”

“What did you say?”

Hearing as sharp as her pointy ears, Meisian picked up on that poor guardcat’s griping. “I dare you to say that again!”

“…” With nowhere else to hide from her withering gaze, the guilty cat lowered his head and answered, “We were just saying, your Highness, the great Cat King, is absolutely right, we are all just a bunch of good-for-nothings…”

‘I completely understand if you look down on yourself, but why did you drag your companions down with you as well…’

The other guardcats immediately glared at him. “I mean I’m the good-for-nothing, I’m the useless one. My colleagues have nothing to do with this…”

“All useless! I swear you all will be the death of me!” Meisian immediately fired off a barrage of angry stares before praising the elders. “You lot should learn from the elders over there, one swipe of their cat paws and the enemy is caught!”

“I say, didn’t I tell you not to disturb us unless there’s something important, little Meisian?” As if he didn’t hear that praise at all, one of the elders blocking the exit plopped himself on the ground and gave Meisian a rueful stare. Then with a nod of his head, he sent one of the black cards flying down onto the ground. “A nine!”

“A nine right from the start! Do you even know how to play?” His companion rolled his eyes at him before eyeing his own cards. “Pass.” He sighed.

“A nine from the start…that’s definitely a bad hand…I’ll pass as well.” One of the elders surrounding us five meters away said, equally as exasperated by that cat’s opening move.

“Pass.”

“Pass.”

The next two elders passed their turn as well.

“A one.” The elder who threw down the one card sneered at the cat who threw down a nine. “Let’s see you throw out that cat card to beat my one!”

“There’s no need to wait for Masrow to throw out the card, I have a cat card that can beat you… None of you plan on throwing out another card, right? In that case, I’ll throw out a pair of threes, and if no one has a pair of fours…”

“Hold it.” The cat who threw out the nine at the start, also known as Masrow, interrupted his companion and said, “I have three eights here.” As he said that, three of the cards above him immediately flew down onto the ground, revealing the number eight carved in Devil language on each of them.

Having made sure the other cats had no moves to make, he threw out a straight of four, five and six. Then, with a happy wag of his tail, he declared, fully confident that victory was in paw, “I declare single!”

Declaring single meant that he only had one card left.

“Hey, whoever can answer that, better answer it now or the game’s over.”

“That’s right, that’s right. If you have a five six seven, you’d better play it now. Even a triple is fine, just stop Masrow. I swear it’s like he cheats every round, blast it.”

“He only has one card, if anyone can play right now, do it. There’s no way he can make a move after.”

With defeat so dangerously close to fur, the remaining elders erupted in debate, each calling for the other to play their cards right now and stop Masrow from winning.

Unfortunately, while the logic was sound, reality had a way of disagreeing. The remaining elders had no cards to play against his straight. Thus, with no one else to stop him confirmed, Masrow played his final card.

“Hahaha. If you don’t mind, gentlecats, I dare say that was an excellent game.” The moment that black card touched the ground, his victory was decided.

“Mama, are those big kitties alright in the head?”

“Daddy doesn’t know as well, sweetie…Daddy doesn’t know as well…”

Even though these cats clearly had us surrounded, none of them had any intention of attacking, instead continuing on with their game of cards in what had to be the strangest sight ever. While Mo Na wasn’t exactly very polite there, who even plays cards while surrounding an opponent?

“Elders, help us catch those Devils, quick!” The little cat, Meisian, used her dainty paw to point at us as she continued yelling, “The card games can wait, help us catch them first!”

Still lying listlessly on the platform, Anmi promptly chimed in as well, “Elders, please catch them!”

“We’ve already helped you surround them, just wait for us to finish another round first.” Without even batting an eyelid, Masrow proudly swept his eyes over the other elders. “So who had the most cards just now? Go shuffle the cards, come on now. Also, you better remember how many times you’ve lost to me. Don’t even think about getting out of this debt!”

‘Gamblers…these cats are all hardcore gamblers, I swear…’

“Meisian, since your elders aren’t in the mood to catch us, how about you let us go.” I diplomatically broached the subject once more. “We did help out you in the past, is it really alright just to flip out on us like that?”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Meisian vehemently glared at me. “I know you helped me out in the past, but you actually want my blood…there’s no way I’m giving that to you!”

“If that’s all he wants, just give it to him. He did help you, after all. Don’t be so stingy.” Masrow chided her in a matter-of-fact tone, then loudly declared with a flourish, “A pair of fives!”

‘Why do I get the feeling that the only reason he thinks she is stingy is because she interrupted their game…no wonder people always say not to mess with gamblers.’

“Grand Elder! If it’s just a bit of blood, who wouldn’t give it to him? But what he wants is all my blood…I’ll be dead if I give it to him!”

“Yes, but you still shouldn’t call us out for that. We’re busy.” Masrow yelled back without lifting his head. “A cat. If no one has a card to play, I’ll play a one.”

“What do you mean busy? Are you saying that my safety isn’t as important as your card game?!” Meisian was on the verge of exploding right now. Her eyes practically spat fire as she continued grilling Masrow. Unfortunately, he didn’t give two meowberries about her anger, instead fully directing his attention to his current game.

‘Really, can these cats be any less unreliable? Even their Overlord can’t control them, so what good are they? I swear, I’m starting to feel a little sorry for Meisian myself…’

Though I thought that, wasn’t I actually the pitiful one here? Being the one that was surrounded.

I continued speaking. “I never said I wanted all your blood. I just said I needed an entire Shadowcat’s worth of blood-”

“And how is that any different?!”

Finally, in what had to be my most exasperated voice ever, “I don’t have to draw it all at once, or I can just find your brothers for some blood.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

“Because you never gave me the chance to do so…”

‘I…if you won’t give me the chance to say my piece, then don’t blame me for being rough later.’

“Meisian, this is the last time I’m saying this, we only want to leave. If you will let us go, we can still have some amicable relationships in the future. But if you won’t… I just hope you won’t regret it.”

We were already at the city gates anyway and my golems were all waiting right outside. As long as I gave the order, they would immediately break through those gates and rescue us. Even if all the elders made their move, I could still summon my Devil King Idol and defend myself.
These golems of mine were definitely more powerful than those cats could imagine. Putting aside those 102 Winged Abyssal Golems, even my 625 Abyssal Golems were enough for her to drown on.

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.