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“Them?” Sidarth nonchalantly swept his eyes across the golem army. “They seem slow, are you sure they are even usable?” He narrowed his eyes as he emphasized that last point.

“Do you want to try them out then?”

Faced with that obvious challenge, Sidarth had only one answer to give. He immediately charged at one of the Winged Abyssal Golems and fired off his Raging Flame Charge without any warning. Unlike Sinmosa’s own version, his was several times stronger. As the flames roared around him, the air visibly warped from the sheer heat he generated.

In what felt like an instant, Sidarth crossed a distance of one hundred meters and crashed into the Winged Abyssal Golem only to have a big load of nothing happen… Other than Sidarth being tossed to the ground from the rebounding force of the collision, nothing else happened.

“Blast it.” The fact that an elder like him couldn’t even damage the golem had definitely frustrated him.

In fact, he wasted no time in launching another attack at the golem who had barely budged an inch till now. However, this time was no different from the first: failure.

With its defenses comparable to an Eight-star, could a Six-star Cerberus like Sidarth even leave a scratch on it? Clearly, not. Like an ant trying to topple an elephant…

Still, that didn’t deter him from throwing whatever he had at the still unharmed golem. A wave of furious clawing and bites later, the golem’s defenses still prevailed. His maniacal attacking might not have caused any damage to the golem, but it slowly began to change my opinion of him.

‘What the potato?! I’m still standing here. You actually dare to disrespect my golems right in front of my face?!’

Yet before I could give the command to teach this unruly dog a lesson, Mo Na had already taken the initiative. A clarion voice rang out from my side. “What are you standing there for? Attack!”

With Mo Na’s command, the golem finally acted. It suddenly lifted its left leg and kicked the offending dog away. However, its speed was just too slow. Coupled with the fact that Sidarth still hadn’t lost his senses, it didn’t take much for him to detect the golem’s hostility. With a twist of his body, he forcefully halted his charge and narrowly avoided the golem’s foot.

“You dare fight back?!”

At the same time that the golem’s leg flew past him, Sidarth took the opportunity to claw at it. Unfortunately, this achieved nothing.

“Uncle!” Perhaps it was because she noticed my increasingly foul mood, Sinmosa used this brief window to shout from afar at her uncle. “Come back, Uncle, those golems are far too tough, normal attacks won’t do much against them.”

“Tough? How tough?”

Thanks to her words, Sidarth now had the perfect excuse to stop. With his head somewhat cooled, he realised that any further attacks were pointless. Thus, he gave up and galloped away at his fastest speed possible to Sinmosa’s side after doing a completely unnecessary lap around the golem.

That lap was mainly to lord his speed superiority over the golem. When he approached the golem’s range, it instinctively threw out a punch at him but only ended up hitting his aftershadow. It was a brilliant move on his part. At the very least, this act managed to salvage some of the face he lost after that beating.

“That winged golem’s defenses are almost equal to an Eight-star’s. I once saw a Nightmare Steed strike it and fail to leave a mark…”

Sinmosa briefly recounted our fight with the Warhorses. When she finished, the old dog fell silent.

“So you’ve even met a Nightmare Steed, how did you all survive then…”

“We did bump into three Nightmare Steeds, but they couldn’t handle us. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that neither of us could…”

Sidarth looked into her eyes for a long while. Finally, he said, “If it wasn’t for the fact that I watched you grow up myself, I would’ve thought that you were lying. Based on the strength you all have right now, it should be impossible to escape from three Nightmare Steeds, unless…”

“Sidarth, bring our guests to me.” Before Sidarth could finish his sentence, a wizened voice boomed from the direction of the Hellhounds’ nest. The moment they heard this voice, all the Hellhounds present all prostrated themselves, as if they had just received a divine commandant.

“Understood, clan master.” Sidarth solemnly stood up then bowed in the direction of their nest. He then turned around and said, “Follow me, our clan master wishes to speak to you.”

“Clan master?” If that was the clan master, then he had to be very old. Furthermore, based on the reverent behavior Sidarth displayed, that clan master might even be an Overlord.

However, what made it even clearer that this clan master was an Overlord was the way it transmitted that message; it was similar to the Overlord of the Purgatory Shadowcats.

Seeing that I wasn’t responding, Sinmosa leaned into my ears and whispered, “The clan master is a Nine-star Overlord…”

‘So he is an Overlord…but what is he planning?’

Regardless of what he had in mind, I still had Lucifer’s clone on my side. That meant that these Overlords didn’t dare raise a finger against me. And since no Eight-star could break through the defenses of my Devil King Idol, I should be fine as long as I kept my guard up. However, just as a precaution, I decided to meet this clan master alone.

“Baby, Papa is going in for a while, he’ll be back soon.” I ruffled her little noggin then kissed her on the forehead. “Be good. Wait for Papa over here.”

“Mama, Mo Na wants to go as well.”

Ever the headstrong one, she immediately voiced her desire to come along, but this trip was too dangerous; I didn’t wish to put my little baby in danger so this was the decision I came to after long deliberation.

“Be good, Mo Na, Papa won’t take too long.”

“But, Mama… why must you go in alone?” She clung onto my thighs and looked up at me in confusion. “If Mama wants to go in, why not bring everyone along as well?”

‘Bring those golems into their nest? They will never allow it, and even if they did, that size of theirs…’ It had to be said that the nest of the Hellhounds was just enough for a Winged Abyssal Golem to enter. Such a cramped space wasn’t a good environment for battling at all.

As for why I had to meet this Overlord, the reasons were simple. I needed their cooperation to defeat the Warhorses, grab a Nightmare Steed Horn, then subjugate them. Even though the Hellhounds and Warhorses always had some friction between them, this was different. Once they chose to help, it was officially war. Details had to be ironed out, lest they ended up being the ones who had to bear the brunt of the Warhorses alone.

While I could just tell them that I had the strength to smash those blasted horses if not for their speed, this might lead them to think that I was just boasting. And even if I demonstrated my golems’ might to them, they might still hold some doubts. In such a case, I might end up in the same situation as when I visited the Purgatory Shadowcats. That was definitely not what I wanted. I wasn’t confident about taking on an Overlord, and there was the matter of Sinmosa’s feelings to consider as well.

“Baby, just wait for Papa here.” I gently hugged her then whispered, “Look after those golems.”

Even though my reminder wasn’t particularly explicit, my clever little girl could probably guess my meaning. And she did. Upon hearing that reminder, her eyes lit up. She broke into a grin then kissed me. “Got it, Mo Na will be good.”

‘Seems like she got the message. If I don’t come out after a long time, she will lead my golem army into their nest and cause a ruckus. Even without the Devil King Idol, my Seven-star Winged Abyssal Golems should be more than enough to give them a headache.’

“Jeerah, you stay behind as well. Help me look after Mo Na.”

“Got it, master, you be careful as well.” Jeerah smiled gently in my direction, clearly in agreement with my decision. “I’ll wait here quietly for your return.”

With that done, I nodded at Sinmosa then followed Sidarth towards the towering mountain ahead filled with a cave.

It was only me that ended up following Sidarth. The moment we stepped into the nest, the rest of the Hellhounds Sidarth brought along immediately surrounded Sinmosa, eager to chat with her and ask how she was doing, the very picture of a school flower and her suitors…too bad this school flower had already given birth to a daughter with her own brother…

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.