CHAPTER 457: ATTACK OF MO NING (1/2)

As the last of the chant filled the air, the bloody array swiftly burst into crimson flames, heating up the giant hall that once summoned me. Despite being in a cave, the flames danced about as if blown by a gust of wind. Yet this strangeness did not last long as the flames suddenly parted to reveal a black rift from which a blackened hoof emerged…

Unlike a normal horse’s hoof, the area above was covered in a tuft of reddish fur that seemed more like fire than fur. Next was to emerge was a black horse head. On the head itself was a bloody red mane that flowed majestically as it emerged from the darkness of the rift. Finally, the entire horse emerged. Red fur and the size of a normal horse… These were characteristics of a Nightmare Steed!

I had fought with a Nightmare Steed multiple times before so I knew full well how to identify one. But wasn’t I trying to summon Mo Ning?! She was a Purgatory Warhorse the last time I checked…did she die? How else was there a Nightmare Steed standing before me right now?

I really did not know if I should be happy or sad if my hunch was proved true. However, that conundrum didn’t last too long as I realised I was overthinking matters once again. If she were really dead, I would have sensed it through our pact. In other words… She evolved?!

Hold on… hasn’t it just been a week since I came to the Shadowhunter Clan… how is she already a Nightmare Steed?

“Dearest!”

The moment that black horse stepped out of the rift and laid eyes on me, she galloped towards me in a fit of excitement, calling out to me with that dreaded word.

Scram! I’m not your dearest! Blasted horse, I don’t want you anywhere near me!

Unfortunately, I needed her right now so I did not say that out loud. Blast… better keep a smile on…

“Don’t call me dearest!”

Or not…

“But… we already signed a pact…” She said with the downcast eyes of someone who had been wronged.

“Don’t bring up that pact too…” What are you looking all wronged for? Dang it, I should be the one who feels wronged.

Faced with such obedience however, it wouldn’t be right of me to stay angry, but I really wanted to… such a conundrum. In the end, I decided to turn the subject to something else before she had the chance to bring up any further talk of that pact.

“How has Mo Na been while I was gone these few days?”

“She’s doing well, but she doesn’t seem to like me too much.” As she said that, her tone seemed a little odd, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words to say it with.

“It’s all thanks to the pact I signed with dearest!”

The moment the subject was about her evolution, her eyes practically lit up as she went on and on about the whole process. Honestly, the whole reason was because of my noble lineage and that high level pact we signed. Thanks to that, she ended up receiving some unintentional benefits. Said benefits included the strengthening of the weaker party’s bloodlines. However, this strengthening had strict conditions attached to it. The bloodlines of both parties must have differed by at least three tiers before one side could be strengthened. Furthermore, the party being strengthened must have had a higher evolution available as well.

In Mo Ning’s case, the Nightmare Steed was the next evolution of a Purgatory Warhorse, so she naturally evolved into that form when her bloodline was strengthened. Now, if she were a Nightmare Steed to begin with… the strengthening might not have happened at all.

Naturally, that wasn’t to say that the Nightmare Steed was the peak of Mo Ning’s evolution either. That only applied to ordinary Purgatory Warhorses.

So I’m basically a walking miracle elixir then? Just one taste and you will see the effects right away? Horse breeders hate him! But this horse has never looked stronger since using this one little trick! Not like it matters though… you’re still a horse. Let’s see you try and turn into a human instead! If you can do that, I swear on my bottle of chili oil that I will engage in the act of fornication with you right away!

Naturally, I was not one to voice out something so hurtful to a horse…

“Master… master…” Came a timid little voice from behind me. Clearly, our resident timid bunny was startled by the sudden appearance of a black horse.

“There there… no need to cry. Mo Ning is my steed, she won’t hurt you.”

Being the timid girl that she was, her first instinct upon seeing a Nightmare Steed was to duck behind my back for cover. Her little head shrunk into her neck as she began shivering uncontrollably. If there was ever anything more pitiful looking than her, it hadn’t been invented yet. But that was what made her so endearing to me.

After a short session of comforting, along with Mo Ning standing harmlessly beside me, Jezsere finally conquered the fear in her heart and stuck her neck out. “Hell… hello. I’m Jezsere, the master’s… servant…”