No.6 obediently followed in my footsteps, taking care to proceed only when I did and to stop when I did.
With me were Mo Na, Cinderal, the aforementioned No.6 and six other Winged Abyssal Golems, as we finally stepped into the Teleportation Zone. As expected, I found Sinmosa and Sasani standing guarding over the area. They weren’t alone, however, as I found roughly a hundred Devils squatting on the ground obediently, not daring to even to move a muscle under the couple’s watch eyes.
With how titanic my golems were, our arrival, heralded by thunderous footsteps that shook even the ground itself, had the unfortunate effect of stirring up the rabble who tried to escape while Sinmosa and Sasani trotted up to greet us. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for us, the intent of these ten or so Devils was quickly sussed out by the hawkeye Sasani. With a leap as swift as the wind, he easily caught up to the escapees just as they took their first steps out of the crowd. His three heads snapped down on two of the poor sods who weren’t quick enough to leave, after which he casually started gnawing on their heads… Just like that, two Large Imps were fatally relieved of two large chunks of flesh…
Sasani spat out the lifeless meat sacks in his mouth before galloping ahead, his sprinting speed nearly untouchable by ordinary Devils when he had a straight, clear road ahead. Like a deadly panther, he bore down on the remaining Devils before they even had the time to regret their foolishness.
At the end of the day, he was a Five-stars Cerberus; his speed wasn’t something any old Devil could hope to match.
A while later, the deed was done, no mercy whatsoever. Having done that, he gave the remaining Imps a placid stare with a chill so biting that they couldn’t help but shiver, just like a bunch of students who had just been given the evil eye by a teacher.
Just like that, this little hiccup was forcefully snuffed out and quickly smoothed out. Sasani gave a bunch of nearby cowering Devils a pointed glare. Seeing that, ten Big Imps promptly stepped out and obediently picked up the souls of the dead Imps before quietly lining up behind Sasani.
Once the souls were gathered up, Sasani trotted off to Sinmosa without glancing back for a second. As for those corpses…corpses! It was only then that I realized that there was a sizable pile of Devil corpses nearby, at least two hundred by my estimates. The corpses were all piled up in a miniature mountain. Judging from the bites and claw marks, their deaths were most likely the handiwork of those two ferocious hellhounds…or should I say, pawwork?
Having offered up the souls to Sinmosa, those Big Imps promptly carted off the dead bodies to the corpse pile without even being told to so… and that was how things were in Purgatory. Devils living there never hesitated to kill. Even the normally warm and welcoming Cerberus husband and wife had their dark side as well. The kindness they showed was only applicable to their own people. Should they enter into battle, they would instantly turn into bloodthirsty killing machines, carving a bloody swathe through their enemies without any hesitation.
“You’re here.” Seeing us arrive, Sinmosa was the first to trot forward to greet us in a respectful manner. “I thought you all would make it back sooner.”
“Bark bark bark~~” Cinderel immediately leapt towards her mama. As for her papa…she merely gave him a quick snort before burying her head into mama’s embrace.
‘Well, looks like Sasani just got the cold treatment again… who told him to be covered in that awful blood scent.’
Finally, after the Hellhound were done with their family time, I replied Sinmosa, “I have an interesting idea, I did a simple test on it just now over at the side of the lava lake.”
“Idea?” Sinmosa paused for second, then all three of her lips smiled. “What have you cooked up this time?”
“My original intention was to create some worm catching tools. Thanks to Nola, I managed to come to an agreement with the salamanders over that. We would be in charge of guarding the worms while they provide meat.” I sweeped my eyes over the imps nearby who were all frightened stiff. “In order to feed those idiots, I planned on heading back to the capital to create some tools…but there’s no need for that now.”
“Nola actually agreed to that?!” Sinmosa gave me a shocked look: “If it wasn’t for your massive size difference, I would have thought that both of you were…”
‘When did Sinmosa start talking like that exactly…’
However, I had to say that I was surprised Nola agreed as well, but Sinmosa would most likely be less surprised after hearing what I had to say next. “We’re not killing them, just letting them split up. Those that have, will be guarded by us. In their wild state, such an occurrence shouldn’t be rare at all. As long as they receive enough nutrients, recovering shouldn’t be an issue.”
“But the split worms don’t have a complete soul.”
Sinmosa was extremely family with my picky eating habits; no meat, only souls. Mo Na was the same as well. As everyone knew by now, a worm who had just split won’t be able to recover its soul so killing them at that point would result in only meat and unusable soul fragments.
“Well, I have my own plans regarding that.”
‘Speaking of souls, those devil souls just now… those two rascals must have had a bomb feasting on them…forget it, I’m not hungry now anyway, I have other things to tend to now.”
“Oh right, Sinmosa, these are the newcomers who popped up after No.3 left?”
“That’s right, a whole bunch of them appeared but we weren’t able to capture them all. Only a small portion ended up being captured, they aren’t very obedient either, trying to escape every so often…” Sinmosa frowned. “That’s why we had no choice but to kill some of them.”
“Mhm, troublemakers like them need to be punished a little.”
‘So that’s how they ended up with a mountain of corpses?’
In truth, I fully supported Sinmosa’s style of listen or die. Between devils, there really wasn’t any morals to speak of, if one refused to yield, there was only death.
While the end result was a lot of devils escaping, that was because No.3 left with the golems as well, seeing as he was the one with control rights anyway. The couple’s original aim was just to confirm the location of the teleportation zone and the rules surrounding it.
With regards to the frequency at which they appeared, they found that there was no set location or rule. Without the golems, it was impossible for them to capture all the imps too, even with their star level superiority.
In light of that, the result they showed me wasn’t all that great, but it was enough. Because all I really needed to ascertain was that there would be an unending supply of devils appearing, the rest was up to No.6.
Before setting up this recruitment point however, I needed to bring No.6 on a field trip back to the capital first.
“Sinmosa, can I trouble you to continue keeping watch over here? I will transfer temporary control rights over four Winged Abyssal Golems to you. If you meet any newcomers, they will do their best to help you. As for those who escaped already…we will deal with them once No.6 has returned.” I turned to her six eyes and earnestly said, “I’m starved on manpower, I really need you help now, so I’m counting on you.”
“Don’t worry, I know what to do.” Sinmosa gave me a hellhound smile. “In exchange, I’ll have to leave the babysitting of my daughter to you, alright?”
“That’s okay, I’ll treat her like my own.”
Just like that, we came to an understanding.
It was a rather strange thing really. Little Cinderel’s favourite devils were Sinmosa, Mo Na and me instead of her father. At times, she even seemed a little dismissive of him… ‘come to think of it, is Sasani really her father? It has been said that daughters tend to cling to their fathers like glue, but this pair…that so doesn’t describe them at all… don’t tell me there’s a Mr. Next Door Dog involved here?’
I inexplicably turned to look at the despondent Sasani and quietly mourned for him… ‘You’ve suffered, brother…everyone else has to deal with being cuckolded just once, but because you have three heads, you have to deal with it thrice.”
Naturally, I knew very well that Cinderel wasn’t spawned from the seed of Mr. Next Door Neighbor. After all, there was no such thing as a next door dog in the hellhound clan…
Having handed the control rights as planned, we set off once more. This time, it was a straight dash to the capital.
As for why I was so adamant about bringing No.6 back to the capital, there were a ton of reasons really.
Firstly, No.6 didn’t know where it was exactly so I had to teach him. It was a way of showing how much I valued him. Being my main base in Purgatory, and him being an important subordinate, it was only natural for him to familiarise himself with the capital.
Second, even though No.6 was a newcomer as well, he had signed a soul contract with me, thus he had my complete trust. All his future missions would only be of the critical sort. His main task now was to govern the recruitment zone and the construction of the safety zone. For me right now, these two tasks were of utmost importance.
Together, both of them provided a supply of troops and a supply of food. Without them, the enemy would only need a few troops to level my base. After all, how would we even persuade troops to join us without those two?
