With regards to extracting the blood of those giants, it was actually a rather simple process.
First, Sasani had the two devils, No.3 and Big 4, placed on the right and left of one of the Four-stars. There, laid a hole we had dug up prior and it was also there that we poured in the blood of the giants.
The entire process started with Sinmosa tearing apart the rocky exterior of those giants with her paws. From that gaping hole, flowed a viscous lava-like fluid that slowly covered the two injured devils. While the blood flow was kind of slow, it was only a matter of time before the hole became a bloody pool.
Initially, I assumed that the two of them would float to the top once we filled the hole with blood, but as I soon found out when the hole was filled, they didn’t.
“Are you sure they’ll be fine like that…can they even breathe…” Even devils had to breathe so this treatment method of Sinmosa was rather…concerning, not that I was doubting it’s efficacy.
“It will be fine. The blood contains the purest essence of those giants, by soaking them with one whole giant’s worth of blood, there’s no way they won’t evolve.” She confidently answered me.
“The two of them are Four-stars right now. If we were to dowse them with giant blood, they will forcefully evolve into Five-stars and become a new race of devil; gaining the respective clan name and abilities as well. In a sense, it’s a super evolution. Moreover, the blood of those giants contain a vast amount of pure energies. By soaking in that, they don’t need air, in fact, the pollutants in the air would probably affect the chances of evolving.”
‘She’s right! The two of them are now at an important threshold. For them to be receive such injuries and then such nourishment, is actually a blessing in some sense. By evolving, they are no longer ordinary devils but are instead a different race entirely!’
What were ordinary devils? Those were devils similar to No.3 and Big 4 in their Four-stars form. In other words, imps and Demon Childes. Looking at it from another point of view, devils like Mo Na and I weren’t ordinary at all, but were actually high level devils since we belonged to the Lust Demon branch. In this case, high level wasn’t actually referring to our stars level but rather to the fact that we possessed an innate advantage over our peers.
In the world of the devils, a lot of attention was paid to bloodlines and clans because the more prestigious one’s bloodline was, the more potential they held. For example, the aforementioned imps and Demon Childes were basically the most primal form of the devil form. To the devils with higher bloodlines, these low level devils were basically dogs, slaves. This was especially so for the Small Imps whose low strength level relegated them to the level of food.
That was why the jump from Four-stars to Five-stars was a unique one.
Either way, with one entire giant’s worth of blood to nourish them, No.3 and Big 4’s safety wasn’t something I needed to worry about for now. At this moment, I was more interested in Cinderel’s situation. According to that old dog, Sidarth, she wasn’t completely in the clear yet. Because of her premature birth, Cinderel required nourishment on a regular basis, at least until she reached Six-stars. Should she experience an energy deficiency in the meantime, her life might be endangered.
“How about we let Cinderel have some as well.” I gently ruffled the fur on the little black puppy’s head as she tumbled about with Mo Na. She was rather fond of me so my gesture was met with a tender lick of her tongue.
However, that suggestion was rejected by a shake of Sinmosa’s head. She had hesitated for quite a while before making that decision but in the end, she said this: “That’s not too good, is it? It’s your spoils after all…we didn’t contribute all that much. Escaping from that realm was entirely your work…”
“It’s fine, all this happened because of an accident in the first place. Besides, No.3 and Big 4 don’t require that much blood. Evolving too fast isn’t good for them after all. More importantly, aren’t we comrades? Also, you guys contributed as well, remember?”
To me, Sinmosa was a trusted companion…even though I had purposely hidden the fact about Ferti’nier from her…to be fair, it wouldn’t have made a difference even if I told her…and telling her that a Devil King’s soul was residing in me would be a little…absurd. Perhaps not telling her was actually the better choice, at the very least she wouldn’t think that I was trying to lie to her with some poor excuse about possession…
As for what she thought I was hiding…well, that was up to her imagination…my conscience was clear at least.
“Alright then, let’s just give her some from No.3 and Big 4’s giant.” Sinmosa gave her husband a brief look before saying that. In the end, their concern for their child convinced them to take up my offer. For parents like them, there was no way they would ever want their child to encounter any sort of danger. Besides, wasn’t the whole point of following me to find some nourishment for Cinderel in the first place?
“Hmm, should we give her a little more?”
“She’s still young, I’m not sure if her little body can even withstand that much so there’s no point feeding her more.” Sinmosa picked up Cinderel from my arms with her mouth and then lowered her gently onto the floor. “Besides, you said so yourself didn’t you? Evolving too fast isn’t a good thing.”
Back on the ground, Cinderel instinctively snuggled herself against Sinmosa, rubbing her little noggin against Sinmosa’s front paw while putting on a lovable expression.
“Oh right, how about you and Sasani have that Four-stars giant, if you’re lucky, the two of you might just evolve into Six-stars.”
“That…” She stared in shock at me. She probably never expected a devil to be so generous.
Truth be told however, I wasn’t being generous at all. I had a reason for offering up one of the giants. Back when Sasani was dragging No.3 and Big 4 to the giant, he gave me a rather unfriendly look. Even though it was only for the briefest of moments, I still noticed the strangeness in that gaze. Back then, I suspected that Sasani was thinking about killing me to steal all the giants for himself. However, that thought was quickly banished by a stern glare from Sinmosa.
Being a d*mned Siscon, a mere gaze from his sister was enough to shut him up. Naturally, he wouldn’t do anything else to upset her either. Even so, that look was scary enough to warn me about a certain fact; I should share some of the spoils with them.
First off, we were a team. No matter who contributed the most, the spoils should be shared amongst the entire team.
As Confucius once said, “Fear not poverty but ware inequality.” Just think about it for a second, recruiting for a treasure expedition was all fine and dandy what comes after it then? Internal strife, of course.
In fact, such a played out conflict was basically a part of film culture by now.
The situation we were in was basically like that. Being the strongest members of our team, Sinmosa and Sasani had to be given their share whether or not they contributed, else…well, our team wouldn’t last past the day. Leaving the team would probably be an alright outcome then, the worst case scenario would be that they ganged up on me instead…our strength levels weren’t equal after all…
However, all that was basically nothing but a guess on my part. But given how Sasani looked at me then…sharing the loot shouldn’t be a bad idea, right?
Faced with her hesitation, I earnestly looked the couple in all twelve of their eyes and said: “I said so didn’t I? We’re companions, no matter what, only unity and trust can take us further into the future. Honestly, I don’t care why you two decided to follow me, but as long as there are benefits to be distributed, I would definitely reserve a portion for you all, that you can be sure of.”
Without waiting for Sinmosa’s answer, Sasani furiously nodded his heads; because he wasn’t able to speak in the tongue of the devil, he had no other way to communicate with us. From the way he nodded however, I could tell that he probably wasn’t harboring any nefarious thoughts…for now at least.
“We do, in fact, need them…many thanks.”
Unlike No.3 and Big 4, the two of them weren’t in a comatose state so they could directly ingest the blood of the giants. Bringing Cinderel with them, they hopped onto the giant’s body and opened up a hole before…drilling themselves into it? ‘Are they planning to eat the giant from the inside?’
With that settled, I set aside the matter of those two Cerberuses for now and turned my attention to Mo Na who was currently staring at the last giant with wide eyes. “Mama, mama, Mo Na wants to eat that one! But those three big monsters don’t have any souls, how strange…”
Now that she mentioned that, I was a little puzzled as well. ‘Was it because of the fact they were part elementals that no souls came out of them? Did their souls enter their elemental cores upon death…did they even have cores? There’s no guarantee that their souls weren’t consumed by that Nightmare Steed either…after all, my soul was almost consumed while in my own dream realm…’
Truly, this world was a strange one, filled with all sorts of unknown mysteries and dangers waiting for me to stumble on. If I wasn’t careful enough, I might just slip up and end up battered on the streets somewhere with my bones shattered completely.
