‘Wait…what do you mean you won’t help him? Dog, you’re supposed to be that cat’s ally, why the fish should he do a one-on-one duel when he can do a two-on-one instead?!’
The Hellhound’s clan head showed no signs that he had the self-awareness required to charge into battle, instead he seemed more than happy to watch this show play out.
Yet just as that cat and horse duo was about to engage in all-out warfare, another wave of pressure stepped in and prevented the fight.
“So you’ve come.”
“I see you finally decided to show up.” The Overlord Purgatory Shadowcat bared his teeth at the newcomer Overlord Nightmare Steed. It was a shadowy Nightmare Steed unlike the first. “Enough playing around, my claws are itching for a fight.”
“This battle has lost its meaning, how about we have a talk instead?” Paying no attention at all to the cat’s provocative words, the shadowy Overlord Nightmare Steed surprised me when he suddenly spoke in Devil. “You all should know that, based on your current strength alone, it won’t be enough to defeat us. If we wish to, we can still run.”
“Hah, I’d like to see you try.” The Overlord Shadowcat was already sharpening his claws as he said that.
“There’s no need to try, you have no chance at all.” Having said that, he yelled into the distance before the cat could even respond. “Come out!”
‘Come out? Don’t tell me there are more hiding somewhere?’
My suspicions didn’t linger long as a mere second later, a flame blazed brightly over the horizon like it had just come alive, growing larger and larger by the second as it rapidly approached us. In barely the time it took to breath, it covered over a kilometer to reach us.
It was a fiery red Purgatory Warhorse with a massive body the size of an elephant. As it stood hovering there, it cast a shadow as large as a miniature mountain. Its muscles twitched with sheer explosive power and supernatural presence.
Whether it was its size or its presence, this was clearly a Nine-star that just entered the battlefield. In other words, the Purgatory Warhorses had three Overlords?!
“Who would have thought that you would actually make it this far…” Having not spoken up for a while now, the Hellhound clan head suddenly broke his silence upon the arrival of this newcomer. His eyes held a mixture of surprise and a tinge of resignation. “If I remember correctly, you’re only 173 years old this year.”
“174 now.” The giant Purgatory Warhorse sincerely looked the Hellhound in the eyes and said, “I’m grateful for the mercy you showed all those years ago.”
“174 and you’re already at this stage…”
That was why lying low for now was the best option. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately, this plan couldn’t keep up with the speed of this changing situation. Just as I decided to keep my head down, the subject suddenly turned towards me.
“You may all leave, I promise I won’t stop you.”
It was the shadowy Nightmare Steed who said that, yet the Purgatory Shadowcat Overlord had another plan in mind. “That big horse over there shouldn’t have been a Nine-star for long, his Territory isn’t even fully formed yet. At most, he’s half an Overlord. In a real fight, he might not be useful as you claim.”
“So what? As long as we siblings hold you and that old dog back, Warpeace can just simply hunt down the rest of your clan members.” The other Nightmare Steed took this opportunity to glare at the cat. “Let’s see how many of your cats can survive an Overlord’s pursuit.”
“You!”
With that simple statement, the other Nightmare Steed tore apart any sort of civilness we had, instantly angering that Purgatory Shadowcat to no end. Such an act of bullying the weak was truly reprehensible. But the Overlord cat knew to hold his tongue for now. That horse was right. The best they could hope for was that they could hold back both of the older Nightmare Steeds in a one-on-one fight, but that would leave that newcomer Nine-star to run amok.
Even with my Devil King Idol, there was no way I could fully stop that horse either.
In other words, it was now the time to talk peace. And that was where the problem came in. Strictly speaking, the Hellhounds and Purgatory Shadowcats were just here to help me. The one who truly started this war was me…
Both the Purgatory Shadowcat Overlord and the Hellhound Overlord knew that the Purgatory Warhorses had two Overlords. That was why they both came along secretly. They both wanted to destroy the Purgatory Warhorses, but as luck would have it, the Purgatory Warhorses were blessed with another Overlord!
That Overlord might have been new, but he was still an Overlord. If an Overlord wanted to attack a bunch of small fries like us, there really wasn’t much we could do.
However, such a situation would only force the two Overlords on our side to fight even harder. At that point, both of our sides had to pay a steep price. An Overlord or two might even die in the process.
In war, one could kill a thousand but you would lose eight hundred in the process. Unless the situation truly called for it, you wouldn’t want a fight to the death.
The corporal Nightmare Steed impatiently stomped on his hoof, then swept his blood-red eyes over us before finally resting on the Purgatory Shadowcat Overlord. “State your terms. What would it take to make you all leave?”
“Hmph. Whether or not we fight is not up to me.” The Purgatory Shadowcat unhappily harrumphed.
The Hellhound clan head shook his heads as well. “I’m not the main player in this either.”
“Not you two?” Seeing the two of them deny the role of the main actor, the shadowy Nightmare Steed was slightly taken aback. “You two are only Overlords of your clans here. Unless the two of you were willing to, who else can force your hands?”
The Purgatory Shadowcat sighed in resignation at that point. “I wouldn’t say force our hands, it’s just…”
“Just what?” The corporal Nightmare Steed asked.
The Purgatory Shadowcat and the Cerberus both kept quiet at that point. Instead, they simultaneously turned towards me, or more accurately, to face the Devil King Idol…