“You may rise.”
Seeing that this fire had been stoked enough, I called out to No.6. His legs were trembling as he slowly stood up, head still lowered as if he was kneeling. His body most likely understood the meaning of the phrase ‘to serve a king is like serving a tiger’.
In truth, I was a lot scarier than that so-called king since I had a fragment of his soul. With just a single thought, I could make him wish that he was dead. No matter where he was, I could locate him through this fragment. In fact, I didn’t even have to go through all that trouble at all —I could just shatter that fragment thereby shattering his whole soul.
That was the true power and terror of a slave contract!
The following journey was decidedly solemn, barring the horsing around noises of Mo Na and Cinderel.
A short while later, we came upon the main gate of the palace. The moment No.6 laid eyes on the blackish-red Arc de Triomphe-esque gate, his face paled like he had just seen a ghost… Clearly, something about that gothic style severely stirred up his psyche.
“This is…” No.6 asked in an unsure voice. Yet even without me answering, he already had his answer. That’s right, this was the entrance of Sable Radiance’s palace, a massive gate that could fit even three Nolas!
What followed was like a journey through a dream for No.6. Despite being over 80 000 years old, there were no signs of decay as if time itself had been stopped.
I didn’t bring him down to the underground weapons factory, instead I had him wait in the garden alone. In the meantime, I brought Mo Na and Cinderel down to the factory where I had five hundred Abyssal Golems moved up to the garden.
“Master…”
Even though No.6 knew that they were allies, he could not help but retreat a couple of steps.
“Don’t worry. These are all the helpers I found for you, they will be in charge of constructing the safety zone. You can also have a portion of them handle your safety, since new devils will pop out every so often.” Having said that, I handed over two Authority Gems to him. “Here are two Authority Gems, tools you can use to control the golems with. You can also use these to gain control over the golems, one of them is for you, the other is for No.3, got it?”
“Understood, Master.”
As a matter of convenience and also a matter of precaution, I had Mo Na create a bone chain to secure the gems. That way even No.6, with no pockets whatsoever, could store the gems easily.
Naturally, I had my little baby create a bone necklace chain for my own gem as well. Just like that, I had a lovely red gemstone hung around my chest.
No.6’s hands shook with excitement as he received the chained gems. Being the intelligent imp that he was, he knew that this was the moment that he became one of my important subordinates. Truthfully, the reason why he managed to climb the ladder so quickly, other than the fact that he offered up his soul fragment willingly, was that I was lacking manpower right now. I really lacked manpower.
I had a mountain of matters that had to be settled urgently and those were matters that I couldn’t leave to a pair of muscles-for-brains like Big 4 and No.3. Based on the intelligence they displayed, I just couldn’t picture that ending well.
It was in such a situation that No.6 appeared, No.6 with his ability to handle such tasks independently. It could be said that he was my only choice right now…
After giving No.6 a brief rundown of the safety zone and the recruitment zone, I hastily sent him off, the faster the better.
The whole process of constructing the safety zone was epic in scale. From here to the lava lake, there was a straight line distance of three hundred li. Just hiking that distance was terrifying enough, let alone digging out a canal that was larger than normal and with a depth of at least twenty metres… Yet that was considered simple when compared to creating a recruitment zone. After all, digging that canal only required brute force. Once the start and end points were designated, it was just a matter of digging. There was no skill required at all, what required actual management was the recruitment zone.
It had to inspire awe and terror in the newcomer devils with just one glance, it had to portray an image of immense strength. Without a doubt, such a task wasn’t simple. Yet, with my lack of experience in building, all I could do was leave it to No.6, an imp who claims to have expertise in such matters.
Either way, everything was handed off now. All No.6 had to do was follow the guidelines I gave him and nothing major should go wrong.
Five hundred Abyssal Golems and another Eight Winged Abyssal Golems was a massive task force that should allow him to accomplish much on his own. As for how he went about it, that didn’t concern me at all, what I really cared about was the results.
According to my plan, the first step was to have No.3 stay behind to supervise the digging of the safety zone. Even though it was a boring task for him, it wasn’t particularly complex. All he had to do was be a little vigilant and guard against any Flame Devouring Fish incursion.
The devils who managed to escape previously could handled by Sinmosa and Sasani, along with some Abyssal Golems.
Because there were still damaged Abyssal Golems patrolling the vicinity of the royal capital, there were barely any lifeforms nearby. Anyone brainless enough to wander in was basically doomed to a fate of being squished by the Abyssal Golems for being an intruder. Based on that, it could be concluded that those escaped devils would have no way to procure food. Starved, they would have no choice but to kill each other…
‘I should find a chance to recall those golems…’
The strong fed on the weak, that was the law of nature. Yet amongst all the muscle-brained devils who came here, there were still a few smart ones. These unusual devils could serve as administrative officers for me, these were the devils I severely lacked in right now. Because of that, I wanted to avoid any unnecessary casualties as I endeavored to bring more devils under my wing.
Then, there was the issue of the recruitment zone. In all likelihood, it had to be built by devil hands; the golems would probably only be able to assist in tasks like stone cutting and delivery. The golems were incapable of tasks that required a deft hand; we clearly couldn’t expect a robot to build a home by itself after all… that was clearly impossible, for now anyway.
Regardless, all I wanted was results, the process didn’t matter. As for the matter of food… work had already begun on the safety zone so the number of worms should increase by the day. Given time, I was sure that their needs would be met by the increasing number of worms.
“Alright, that’s all I have for you now. You may leave first, if there’s anything urgent, you may find me here.”
I waved No.6 away as I said that. Without any question to ask, he obediently bowed to me before leaving.
“Hold up.”
A problem suddenly occurred to me so I called for No.6. Not daring to show any sign of impatience, No.6 turned around with head lowered as he quietly waited for my following command.
“If you meet any devil with unique talents in the future, I want them all singled out. Have No.3 send them over periodically…got it?”
“What kind of unique talents, Master?”
“For example, being unusually intelligent or strong, like being innately blessed with a Sin. As long as they have something that sets them apart from other devils, you can have No.3 send them over to me.”
“Understood, Master.”
“Alright, you may leave now.”
“Yes.”
Watching his tiny figure disappear, I heaved a sigh of relief. Regardless of how capable he actually was, he was the only devil I had right now that was able to manage or build. Hopefully he won’t disappoint me.
‘What to do next…’ My eyes instinctively turned to the two little scamps horsing around nearby. ‘That’s right, the next urgent task would be assembling more golems…there’s still a mountain of golem parts down below, they just need to be put together…probably…who knows. Either way, it’s not like I can give up on such a massive source of power.’
“Baby, come to Papa for a second.”
As of right now, Mo Na was busy teasing Cinderel who was tumbling about in a black plant. Upon hearing me call for her, the little scamp happily flew over to give me a hug. “Mama, Mo Na’s here!”
Her little sidekick, Cinderel, came scampering as well.
The fact that this little daughter of mine was so clingy was a point of pride for me.
On the surface, Mo Na seemed like an innocent and harmless little girl. In truth…I really wasn’t sure what was in her inherited memories. However, there was one thing I was sure of: she wasn’t as innocent as she seemed.
Most of the time, she enjoys teasing me and saying things that brought a blush to my cheeks; that bit of affection was real, no doubt whatsoever. Yet, there were also a lot of times where I just couldn’t figure what her adorable little head was thinking. Was she really going to push me down…that’s just…grea…no, no, that’s horrible. I don’t want to be that kind of Papa, absolutely not!
Lucifer’s clone left no clue as to the exact timing of the apocalypse so all I could do was strengthen myself to the best of my abilities. Regardless of who I helped in the end, I needed a certain level of strength. The golems were like powerful war machines, ones that I was deeply interested in mass producing in the upcoming days.
I bent down and ruffled my little baby’s hair and smiled. “We have a lot more work to do next. Sweetie, do you mind heading down to the factory to research the method of creating more golems?”
“Mama, Mo Na is really interested in that as well but she’s really hungry right now.” As she said that, she gave me the puppy dog look before rubbing her belly. “Cinderel is hungry too, right?”
