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“Blast it all… strike together!”

Although Warsight had just been swatted away by my wing, her injuries weren’t too severe. Her ungraceful crash landing had definitely caused an impressive boom, but a wound of this degree merely required seconds for her to recover. With the flames of fury pushing her forward, Warsight rose to the skies once more. Her eyes held nothing of her comrades as she roared into the heavens before rushing right at the Devil King Idol -it was either her enemy died or she died.

Shade and Shadowfall eyed each other uneasily. They could already see the desire to retreat in each other’s eyes. More than a certain hotheaded Nightmare Steed, they could tell that it was highly unlikely that they would ever harm this golem.

“Should we leave?”

Having just witnessed the golem’s change not too long ago, Shade was in no state of mind to care about some frivolous bet he had with Warsight. With the strangeness it was exhibiting, clashing with it now wasn’t a wise move at all.

“Warsight is already fighting it, should we…” In the face of Shade’s sensible suggestion, it had to be said that Shadowfall truly considered accepting it for a second there. The situation right now wasn’t looking good for them at all. They had no way of harming the Devil King Idol, which meant that there was only retreat left as an option. The problem was that he simply couldn’t bear to leave Warsight behind…

As Warsight’s galloping silhouette rapidly disappeared into the distance, he sighed. “Let’s at least bring her back.”

“Okay.” Shade immediately agreed with that plan before rushing off towards the battlefield. “I’ll hold that golem back, you go in and grab her in the meantime.”

“Mhm.” Shadowfall nodded and rushed off as well.

‘Hahaha, bring it on! Now that our roles are reversed, let me show what cruel really means!’

Under my control, the Devil King Idol was nimbler than before, though not noticeably so. After all, its physical construct already sealed its fate as a lumbering giant. Its turning speed was still horrendous -that was a matter of physics, not an issue of piloting.

All I could do was to trick them, just as I did before, in order to get a decent hit in. However, now that they had a taste of my wing flap, they were a lot more alert to such antics. Even the furious Warsight wasn’t so mad that she would charge in mindlessly. Instead, she took a meticulous approach, circling around my golem while cautiously pressing forward.

The three Nightmare Steeds continued their coordinated attacks. Yet at the same time, they communicated between each other just as much. Basically, it boiled down to the two of them, Shadowfall and Shade, trying to persuade Warsight to retreat while she angrily insisted on getting revenge on that golem. Eventually, the two of them decided to help hold the golem down, most likely because they were afraid that any further provocation after that failed bet would make things worse. By galloping about the golem’s body and taking pot shots every now and then, they hoped to suppress the golem’s movements and create an opening for Warsight.

I did my best to strike them, but it was all for naught. The golem was just too slow. After their previous lessons, they knew to keep their guard up even if my golem seemed slow. However, my defenses were also too tough for them to break. Try as they might, their attacks left no mark on my golem at all. With how tough my Eight-star golem was, an Overlord’s strength would be needed to break its outer exoskeleton.

As for how strong an Overlord’s attack was, it had to be said that an Overlord wasn’t just defined by its strength. Every Overlord had a mysterious power known as Territory. This was a power founded on the basis of laws, laws of the universe, to be exact. Human experts at this tier were known as Sword Saints or Hierophants. In order to reach this revered tier, one had to first comprehend what a Territory was. Yet to someone who didn’t have a Territory, such powers were arcane, to say the least. After all, the laws of the universe weren’t something just anybody could learn.

My golem’s defense was at the level of such a master. That was why these Nightmare Steeds stood no chance in hell of ever breaking my golem’s outer exoskeleton.

This stalemate continued on. Perhaps it was because of the awkwardness caused by losing the bet to Shade, Warsight had no intention of talking to that horse right now, neither did she have any intention of letting my golem go either. No matter how much Shadowfall tried to persuade her, she vehemently rejected his pleas and continued attacking in vain.

At the same time, I was frustrated by my lack of progress against them. And not unexpectedly at all, this frustration ended up attracting the attention of a certain Devil.

Just as I was struggling in the midst of trying to figure a way to hit these horses, Ferti’nier came knocking on the door of my mind. “There’s no need to be sad, little brother. Didn’t your sister already explain to you that this golem can use skills?”

‘Skills… that’s right, this Devil King Idol can use skills. How could I forget something so important? In that case, time for my Shadow Guardian!’

Shadow Guardian!

Yet just as I was getting all excited about summoning forth a giant Shadow Guardian, nothing happened. Instead, all I got for my efforts was a swift kick from Shadowfall. Although his kick really didn’t do much against my golem, it still threw me off balance slightly.

In other words, whatever damage the golem took was still reflected back to me. Should that damage cross a certain threshold, I would feel its pain as well.

‘What the heck! Where’s my Shadow Guardian?!’

I flailed about wildly in a bid to chase away those pesky Nightmare Steeds. At the same time, I continued peppering Ferti’nier with questions.

Faced with a barrage of questions, Ferti’nier merely sneered. “It’s not like your sister ever said that all skills are usable. The Devil King Idol has some restrictions as well.

‘Restrictions?’

“Even though a pilot casts his skills through the Devil King Idol, there are still restrictions. There are special inherited skills privy only to the race of that Devil King Idol. Only by becoming a Devil King with his own kingdom will the god of Devils bestow this inheritance onto him. This inheritance is then passed on to the Devil King’s successors. Unfortunately for you, little brother, you aren’t the true successor of a Devil King, neither does this Devil King Idol belong to you.”

‘So what you’re saying is that I can’t activate any skills?’

“Well, not to that extent.” She knew I wasn’t in the best of moods right now so she didn’t beat around the bush either. “Actually, barring the special skills passed down from a Devil King, a Devil King Idol also comes with a set of basic skills you can employ. If you use them well, they might even serve you better than those special skills. It’s just that you will be lacking in variety during battle.”

‘Then hurry up and tell me about those skills already! Is it so fun to watch me get beat up?’

“”Yes, actually. It is rather fun to watch our little brother get beat up.” Having said that, she made sure to tack on this before I lost my temper, “Your sister’s old Devil King Idol was bestowed on her by the god of Lust Demons, the revered Asmodeus. So with regards to this Fallen Angel idol…”

‘So you don’t know as well then?’

“Ohohoh~~~will you look at time. Your sister just remembered that she still has to shower. Good luck, little brother, your sister is rooting for you!”

‘Hey! You’re trying to run away, aren’t you?! You’re definitely trying to run away!’

“Not at all, your sister is just trying to take a bath. But since little brother over here is in such a pitiful state, how about a little hint?”

“Even though our idols are different, and the resulting basic skills would be different as well, but all idols share the same activation method -instincts.”

Having left behind those words, she ran away…

‘Darn you, you don’t even have a body, why do you need to take a bath!? In the first place, us high level Devils all have a self-cleaning system… but don’t think for a second that I don’t want to take a bath either. There’s just no water at all!’

‘Anyway, back to the question at hand. Skills, skills, exactly how am I going to activate these skills of mine… and what the heck did she mean by instincts?’

I gave those three Nightmare Steeds another unhappy swat, but they refused to leave me alone, like flies drawn to candy. Every so often, they would charge in and give my golem a hefty kick before flying off. Even though they still weren’t able to damage my golem, it was still frustrating; I really wanted to end this annoying charade right now.

Unfortunately for me, this feeling of frustration ended up interfering with my golem. Not only did the Nightmare Steeds not suffer as a result of my anger, I ended up getting hit even more.

‘Can’t you three morons see that your attacks aren’t doing anything?! How many kicks has it been already?! If you can’t damage me, how about you three just scram!’

If curses ever had any effect, Shade and his companions would have most likely died a thousand times over already. Too bad for me, the situation never improved, and the beating merely got more frequent…

Even so, there was really nothing I could do, and that vexed me. I had no means of hitting them… unless I had some kind of long ranged ability.

Speaking of which, wasn’t there a certain game back on Earth where a certain humanoid robot attacked by firing out feather-like projectiles from its wings…

Putting aside whether or not feathers could actually accomplish something so unrealistic, that game did in fact feature such an attack.

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.