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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

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