The Devil's Evolution Catalog Chapter 640

Published at 17th of August 2022 11:27:20 AM

It had to be said that whenever the Black Blood Queen Ant presented herself before me, it was always in a submissive pose. Even now, as she wriggled her way towards me, she did so in a grovelling manner, as if that was the only proper way to show her loyalty towards me.

“Master… Mother Black Ant…hass…felt…the presence…of her kind….” As the Black Blood Queen Ant finished her choppy statement, she turned towards the direction in which we were planning to leave for. “Therrre…”

'Presence of her kind? So there's a Black Blood Ant Nest nearby then? Probably.'

As if by providence, the direction she pointed coincidentally aligned with the direction in which the Devils who stole that Four-star's corpse fled towards.

“What luck then, another reason we have to have a search in that direction.” I smiled before gesturing for her to lead the way. “Go on then, we have no time to lose.”

Yet we barely took a couple of steps before the high-pitched screams of Mo Na and Cinderel's yelping came crashing in from behind us.

“AHH…what do you think you're doing…die!”

“Woof woof woof!!!”

My head whipped around in an instant, stopping just in time to find Cinderel viciously gnawing at a Devil whose leg was barely two meters away from Mo Na. Closely following that, Mo Na instantly summoned forth a tiny bone spear that looked to be less than half a meter, and tossed it towards the Devil, penetrating two inches into his chest without any difficulty whatsoever.

That Devil was the first Devil the Shadow Demon Guardian dragged to me like a pile of trash, the Three-star Head Imp. Because it happened so suddenly, I had no way of discerning what actually happened between the three of them. Still, it surprised me that he actually provoked them simultaneously into attacking him.

Chest still pierced, the Head Imp briskly pulled out that spear, fresh red blood still dripping down its bony exterior. Grisly though the scene might be, such a wound wasn't much for Devils. As long as it wasn't a fatal wound, injuries rarely proved a hindrance for Devils. With a forceful kick of his leg, he threw aside the little Hellhound who was adamantly gnawing on his leg. With another stride forward, he took off in pursuit of Mo Na who was furiously beating her wings to try and take off.

Faced with such a situation, and as Mo Na's father, there was only one thing I could do: side with my daughter. While I still wasn't sure what sort was animosity both parties held towards each other, I summoned forth my Shadow Demon Guardian without any hesitation and set it against that audacious Head Imp who was still trying to attack my daughter.

In the blink of an eye, the Shadow Demon Guardian appeared behind the Head Imp, raised its right hand which had transformed into a black razor, and mercilessly swiped at the Devil's neck… an instant decapitation…

Just like that the battle was over. Mo Na flapped her way around the now headless Head Imp and barrelled straight into my embrace. She desperately clung to me, chest heaving as she took in deep breaths after deep breaths, body slightly warm, a clear sign that the short skirmish before had thoroughly startled her.

“Mama, that bad Devil wanted to steal Mo Na's gemstone…” She finally complained after a moment to calm down, launching soon after into a detailed account of what happened.

It turned out that the Head Imp was pretending all this while to be subservient since he realised he couldn't beat us. He knew that, based on his prowess alone, he had no way to ever beat us and our golems. What sparked his rebellion just so happened to be those same golems. More accurately, it was the Gem of Authority which could control them.

Not too long ago, he witnessed Mo Na subjugating the battered golem while it was chasing after himself using the Gem of Authority- truth be told, even I couldn't be too sure whether this Devil was really stupid or just pretending to be stupid; he actually guessed that the gemstone Mo Na had could be used to control the Abyssal Golems. And what truly made him think that his plan had a chance of success was that, while Mo Na was a Four-star Lust Demon, the melee strength of a Lust Demon was… famously bad. Every Devil knew that, amongst all the strains of the Seven Original Sins, the Lust Demons had the lowest melee ability…

As the old proverb went, the common man was innocent till the day he came upon a windfall, if one owned a priceless artifact but lacked the ability to safeguard it, being robbed was only to be expected.

Based on this incident, it was clear that Mo Na needed work on her close combat skills. For a Four-star Devil to lose to a mere Head Imp was just… As for Cinderel… she just had to keep being so bloody adorable, that's all. Speaking of which, where's Cinderel…

At the same time that Mo Na was explaining, I suddenly remembered that the Head Imp had sent our little black Hellhound flying with a kick of his leg. I immediately scanned the surroundings. It was then that Cinderel came up scampering up to me. I hurriedly stooped down to hug the little puppy who was busy woofing in a slightly pitiful but oh so adorable manner.

Still a little worried about the kick she suffered, I promptly rummaged through her fur to check for injuries. Thankfully, there were none.

“Cinderel was so brave just now, protecting your big sister like that.” I praised her while patting her on the head. I was immediately rewarded with the sight of her little Hellhound eyes closing in sheer bliss as she enjoyed my gentle pats.

With Cinderel safe and sound, I commanded the Shadow Demon Guardian to fetch the Head Imp's soul before offering it up to Cinderel. Not one to stand on ceremony, she happily gulped down the soul. Having done that, she stretched her tiny paws and laid them on my chest before stretching out to give me a tender lick on my head… that was her way of showing gratitude.

“All right, all right, that's enough for now, Cinderel.” I smiled as I declined her little face washing service. Placing the two little scamps on the floor, I continued, “We still have work to do so you two be good, got it?”

“Mhm, Mo Na's will be good!”

“Woof!~”

The two kids then raced off towards that same battered golem; clearly they weren't affected at all by that little scuffle.

'No wonder they say that Devil kids are a brave lot…'

By now, no one should be stupid enough to try and steal Mo Na's Gem of Authority, right? I emotionlessly swept my eyes across the remaining Imps, only to find that they were already tightly grasping at each other while shivering profusely. Sensing my gaze upon them, the four burly Large Imps instinctively shuddered.

'Exactly how scared of death are you guys…' Well, it wasn't like they were scared without reason.

That Head Imp used to be one of them, and in the rulebook of Devils, the sin of one was the sin of many -all had to be punished equally… That was to say, if Devils even had a rulebook… On Earth, that was commonly known as collective punishment.

Strictly speaking, collective punishment wasn't a concept amongst Devils. Basically, what they were really afraid of was being implicated in the wrath of another. It wasn't uncommon for those of a superior status to kill those below him on a whim, especially if there existed a huge gap between the two, more so when the one being killed had no background whatsoever…

“Please…spare us…we didn't know he would…would….” Under my withering gaze, their instincts immediately took over, forcing them to their knees as they begged.

Well, it wasn't like they participated in that tiny rebellion, they probably didn't know about it either. I wasn't maniacal enough to vent my anger on them either.

“You may all rise, none of you took part in his betrayal so I'll believe in your innocence, but don't let there be another…or else…”

“…Yes…someone else tries to do that, we'll kill that betrayer before you even lift a finger…”

Yet no matter how much they pleaded, I had no sympathy for their plight. The only reason I gave them a free pass this time was because of what I said earlier: I didn't want to vent my anger on another. But if they ever dared to touch my precious daughter, let there be no doubt that I would grind their bones into dust.

“I don't want a repeat of that again.”

“Yes…yes…”

They vigorously nodded their heads, knowing that they successfully escaped death this time around.

With the curtains lowered on this little drama, we proceeded onwards. Roughly ten minutes had passed like that when we spotted something out of blue as we climbed a tiny hill. Peering down from the top of the hill, we spotted a cluster of black dots a couple hundred meters away. The dots were all closely packed together like a black cloud as they crawled over six or so corpses…

“Master…same…kind…Mother Black Ant…”

What she meant was those were all Black Blood Ants. As for the corpses, they were without a doubt the corpses of Devils.

“Your kind eat meat as well?” Leaning forward, I took a closer look at distant ants busy dissecting the corpses of those Imps.

'Were they planning to eat them? I thought they only ate minerals infused with mana?'

“Meat…we eat…meat…past…not…dare….”

Garbled though her words were, I roughly got the gist of it. They were probably omnivores by the looks of things. Naturally, they wouldn't say no to meat either, it was just, as a slave race of Sable Radiance, it wasn't all that appropriate to eat the meat of a Devil who was the master race…

Naturally, that ended when Lucifer decided to whisk away all the Devils in the kingdom. Yet the golem patrols remained, so for tens of thousands of years, there were no large-scale migrations into the former capital of Sable Radiance. In the eyes of the other Purgatory races, the empty capital was basically a death zone…

To be honest, those roving golems were probably not the only reason why the other races didn't dare to act up. Another crucial reason was that the clone of Lucifer was still hibernating in the palace of the capital…that right there was a catastrophe-class entity. Exactly who would be so sick of living that they would try to disturb him? While not all the surviving creatures might know of Lucifer's existence, surely there would be those who were strong enough to sense the existence of Lucifer's clone, right… even stupidity had its limits.

“How about we pay them a visit, Mother Black Ant?” I pointed at the distant ant blob. “Can you control them?”

“No…they are not… Mother Black Ant's…children…”

The queen ant unambiguously shot down that thought. By the looks of things, there was a major limit on the scale of her control, and that had directly to do with bloodlines. I have just found out that the company had previously purchased some beast corpses for research. They have now been turned into skeletal specimens for sale, but this is still good news for me.

They should have just approached me from the start – I can get those corpses up and running as if they were alive. The deep hibernation of their souls could prove problematic, though. The amount of sacrifices required might be excessive.

However, I'm confident the company will still agree. After all, I've earned them so much profit already. We're practically partners.

—– From: Karlston's Diaries

On the holographic screen, a group of ten or so skeletal beasts raced across the deliberately ancient streets of Southern Plains. Their bodies were as large as hover cars, and their heads seemed to contain a strange mote of green flame that danced about with the wind.

From a cursory glance, these skeletal beasts had the body of a wolf, forward-curving horns of a ram and the curved tail of a scorpion. However, unlike a normal scorpion, these monsters' tail ends seemed more like a spear than a sting. From the way they nimbly waved their tails about, one could only imagine the fearsome speed they could bring to bear in an attack.

One of the exosuit-clad policemen immediately took up a stance at the monster charging at him.

Armed with dual two-meter long blades, he first sliced clean the field in front of him, then activated the laser cannons in his wrists. Target locked, he fired off two blue beams right at the monster's head!

The powerful attack instantly melted a hole in the monster's skull, piercing right into the soul flame within and extinguishing it. Without the energy of that soul flame, the skeletal construct crumbled to ground.

Successful, that policeman heaved a sigh of relief.

He honestly thought the monster would be a tough foe, based solely on its appearance. Yet here it was, dead from just a single laser blast. Morale restored, even his limbs seemed lighter now.

These elite forces of the police force often worked in teams of five. However, today's exceptional circumstances had meant they could only spare three to a team.

These combat exosuits were nothing like the toys Mo Ke and the girls used in their games. These exosuits had the strength equivalent to a five-star fighter in the Western Human Realms. Depending on the pilot's skills, they might even exhibit the power of a six-star. However, if one were to take into account the sturdiness of the exosuits, such a fighter might not even be able to penetrate the armor of the suits, even if they were at the same star level.

(TL: The author used Nicole instead of girls. I'm assuming it's typo, but girls should be general enough to cover that either way.)

With practised ease, this team of three exosuit-wearing policemen quickly destroyed four of the skeletal beasts.

Yet just when it looked like the tides were in their favour, the remaining skeletal beasts suddenly sped up. Winds roaring behind them and ram horns glistening in the sunlight that seemed oddly cold right now, they charged fearlessly at the policemen!

Each exosuit came with its own assisted targeting system that would handle the actual firing, as long as the pilot was able to lock onto the target first. However, while these beasts might have been massive, their speeds were anything but slow. With a leap, they even managed to jump onto some of the lower roofs nearby and enact an instant encirclement around the policemen, all the while nimbly dodging the targeting system of the policemen.

Faced with such speedy foes, three of them simply weren't enough. Thankfully, their exosuits weren't slouches either. The moment one of the skeletal beasts lunged at them, the seasoned veterans that they were swiftly and in an orderly fashion dodged to the side.

Unfortunately, the skeletal beasts had the advantage of numbers on their side. It wasn't long before these three were suddenly set upon by another bunch of skeletal beasts.

The monsters lunged at the unsuspecting policemen, toppling them to the floor, claw and fang savagely tearing at the metallic exosuit, leaving a horrific gash behind.

Yet that wasn't the end of the policemen's woes either. Lest one forgot, these monsters still had a spearlike tailend, and these tails were not only swift, they easily punctured the armor of the exosuits!

With that, the curtains were lowered on the battle of these brave policemen, at the same time signalling the advent of new enemies…

“What are these monsters…” Shentu muttered aloud, unable to recognise their beastly nature due to their stunning skeletal appearance.

“They should be the skeletons of… Primal beasts. Scorpids, who specialise in frontal assaults and tail attacks. These beasts are stronger than their arachnid cousins…

Nalan had once spent time on the Primal planet. Back then, he had to slay countless Primal beasts just to stay alive everyday. There was no one more familiar with the shape of a scorpid than him.

“A scorpid? Primal beasts?” Shentu turned in shock to look at the colonel. “How did those bastards at Life Unbound even get such a monster's skeleton to move…”

Unthinkable! Was what he wanted to say. The ability to animate bones was practically in the realm of magic. Which it actually was. Unfortunately, the majority of Gaia's denizens had no way of knowing that.

Even now, the Federation still believed that it was the Life Unbound company who had engineered this disaster…

When the crisis first started, the Federation tried multiple times to contact the board of directors of Life Unbound. Unfortunately, the other party did not respond to them at all.

Even when they approached the family members of the directors, none of them seemed to know anything. In fact, they could not contact them either, as if they had been abandoned as well.

It was only now that some in the Federation were beginning to wonder if Life Unbound was simply an unfortunate victim themselves…

Yet just as the Chief of Police was lost in his shock, the entire police headquarters started to shake. So violent were the tremors that their otherwise sturdy headquarters seemed more like a house of cards, and that house was about to be smashed by a brat…

“What's going on?”

The ground below them continued to quake. The 231 meter tall, over fifty stories high skyscraper began to sway like a slender palm tree…

Within the command center, a number of staff members had already fallen off their seats and were now on the ground.

A second later, a giant skeleton clawed its way out of the ground near the police headquarters….

The giant skeleton was eighteen meters tall and had the appearance similar to a snake. There was that same signature green flames in its head, while its mouth sported a deadly rack of fangs. Its hands were clawed, and even its wrists had a swordlike weapon with serrated edges sticking out!

This was the equivalent of a seven-star, a Primal beast of the Disaster class, the Giant Sirenidae!

The skeletal giant sirenidae punched its head into the police headquarters, drilling through its sturdy exterior like soft soil, devastating its support infrastructure in seconds. Barely two minutes later, the entire building collapsed. There were no survivors in this tragedy. The Chief of Police, Shentu Congyang, was… killed in the line of duty…

Chapter end