After taking a mont to adapt to the sky—
Orsaga shifted his gaze toward the nearby demonic creatures. In his vision, everything within several dozen kiloters was clearly visible.
It didn't take long before he selected a lucky passerby as his target.
His airborne body imdiately changed course and flew straight toward the chosen prey.
Kro, a spider demon with the power level of a Lesser Demon, wasn't exactly strong, but within a radius of dozens of kiloters, he was one of the more capable ones. At that mont, he was hidden several ters beneath the surface, going about his daily routine of hunting.
Thanks to the fine hairs on his body, he could detect any creature walking on the surface within a few kiloters—even those as small as a fist.
He had already hunted three tis today and was feeling about 60% full.
Based on past experience, a herd of demon beasts would likely pass through this area soon. He decided to shift his position to avoid getting trampled.
Though large in size, those beasts were all made of hard bone.
Unless he was absolutely starving, he didn't like hunting such targets—they were dangerous and lacked edible flesh.
It was better to catch a few small ones. They didn't fill him up, but at least they tasted good.
As he pondered what kind of prey he might catch next, he suddenly sensed movent in the sky.
Curious, he tried to poke his head up to get a look.
But the next instant, he felt a surge of imnse force crashing down from above.
Danger!
Instinct scread a warning, and he reflexively tried to dodge to the side.
But before he could move any of his limbs, he saw a flaming claw appear right in front of his eyes.
With a searing wave of pain, he clearly felt his hard skull being pierced through.
And then—his soul was extracted and seized by the attacker…
Standing in the pit, Orsaga casually consud the soul.
As it dissolved, he began to extract the information he needed.
Before long, the spider demon's ager knowledge was fully absorbed into Orsaga's mind. Filtering out most of the useless junk, he got the details he wanted.
Abyss Layer 6,548,257: Lava Wasteland.
A world of eternal daylight.
This was the domain of Demon Lord Ignarok.
The entire realm was built atop a vast ocean of molten lava.
The so-called "ground" was nothing more than a layer of ash slowly accumulated over eons—the real foundation of this world was fire and magma.
Beyond that, thanks to the spider demon's mories, Orsaga also learned the location of this layer's central region.
The spider demon had never reached it himself.
According to others of similar rank, if one were to fly there at several tis the speed of sound, it would take roughly 1,344 hourglasses to reach.
Thinking for a mont, Orsaga lobbed a small fireball toward a distant point.
Boom!
A deep crater several ters wide exploded into existence.
"Sound travels at 967 ters per second."
Using the distance of the blast and the ti it took for the sound to reach him, Orsaga calculated the speed of sound in this layer of the Abyss.
He then compared the local asurent of ti and determined that one hourglass was equivalent to roughly three Earth hours.
At last, the true distance to the central region ford clearly in his mind.
"Not far. Worth checking out."
If he were still just a Lesser Demon, Orsaga might've hesitated, unsure if he could survive the trip.
But now that he had advanced to the rank of a High Demon, there was no need to overthink it. In most demon legions, he could easily qualify as a squad leader or equivalent. He was no longer scraping the bottom of the food chain, so there was little he needed to fear.
This was power he had forged through bloodshed—stacked atop the corpses of millions of other lifeforms.
Even if the system had helped him grow stronger, he had still proven that he wasn't just so waste.
Caution was fine—but fear was unnecessary.
Having made up his mind, his body silently lifted off the ground under the influence of anti-gravity.
He aligned himself toward his destination—and accelerated.
With a piercing whistle and a deafening sonic boom, he vanished from sight.
---
276 hourglasses later. (828 hours)
In the distance, towering structures pierced the sky.
Orsaga's heart stirred with anticipation.
This was the first ti he had seen the architectural creations of demons with his own eyes.
The mont he laid eyes on that city—even though it was only a vague silhouette—a complete ntal map of its entrances and exits ford automatically in his mind, as if so invisible force was guiding him.
He recognized it as a magical effect built into the structure itself—like a lighthouse guiding ships to harbor.
From his viewpoint, the size of the city was absolutely imnse—far beyond conventional standards. It was more like a gigantic kingdom than a city.
The width of the city walls was unknown; they extended far beyond the limits of his vision. The height alone exceeded ten thousand ters.
Constructed entirely from dark-red stone, the walls were covered in sharp spikes and stood tall over a vast sea of lava, like an insurmountable barrier.
Standing before it, Orsaga felt small for the first ti.
He had never seen such a magnificent creation.
A deeper sense of awe and expectation rose in his heart.
Several hourglasses later, he finally arrived at the city gate.
It was a massive structure made entirely of bleached white bones, easily several thousand ters tall. Above it hung a golden skull wreathed in black flas. Through its hollow eye sockets, one could see countless burning souls writhing within. Faint cries and howls echoed from inside.
"A divine skull?"
Sniffing the air, Orsaga confird from inherited mories that the skull had belonged to a god. As for which god specifically—he didn't have the experience to tell.
Still, for a Demon Lord to hang it there as a trophy, it had to have been a powerful one.
As for gods in general, Orsaga held no particular reverence or hatred.
In his view, gods were simply another class of high-level beings, like demons. With his current strength, he could easily play the role of a true demon god in many low-tier planes—wiping out nations and exterminating races.
So in his mind, gods were just powerful creatures. They weren't necessarily stronger than High Rank demons.
And this trophy of Demon Lord Ignarok's proved exactly that.
They might be awe-inspiring to mortals—but to demons, they were just another challenge.
As he approached, a powerful suppression descended from all directions.
Orsaga imdiately recognized it as a no-fly zone enchantnt—any creature without permission was forbidden from flying in the area.
So he folded his wings and landed, joining the other creatures walking on foot.
They weren't all demons. The variety of species was staggering—so were quietly on their way, while others followed the Abyss's crude law of nature: traveling while fighting.
After a while—
A towering bull-faced demon over ten ters tall, covered in pustules and wearing standard military armor, stepped up beside Orsaga.
The demon sized him up coldly, then said in a grim voice, "Entry fee."
His behavior wasn't much different from a toll collector in the mortal world.
"A High Demon—not as strong as ."
Orsaga instinctively compared the bull demon's strength to his own.
He glanced at another demon being charged nearby and saw that the toll was paid with a soul crystal.
Judging from its quality, Orsaga quickly estimated what he'd need.
He reached out behind him and casually grabbed a passing Lesser Demon, who imdiately exploded into a mist of blood. Orsaga then refined the remains into a fresh soul crystal.
Without sparing a glance at the shocked bystanders, he tossed the crystal to the toll collector.
"No change needed."
The bull-faced demon caught it, shot Orsaga a cold look, and tossed him a token before walking off to charge the next entrant—without saying a word about the demon that had just been casually slaughtered.
In a demon city, even if there were so rules similar to human society, it was still a city ruled by demons. Their chaotic nature and tendencies wouldn't change.
Fighting and killing were commonplace.
Unless it involved mass slaughter, large-scale riots, or destruction of infrastructure, the city guards rarely intervened.
Besides, the bull demon vaguely sensed that he probably couldn't beat this fla demon.
Still, that didn't stop him from acting tough. After all, just because you can't win doesn't an you can't posture—he was a public servant, after all.
Watching the demon leave, Orsaga burned the disgusting pus off the token with bloodfla—residue from the bull demon's leaking sores—and strolled casually into the city.
"It's massive…"
Gazing at the road, which was over a thousand ters wide, Orsaga couldn't help but gawk like a bumpkin.
Touching his chin, he thought to himself: 'When I beco an Abyss Prince one day, my fortress needs to be just as impressive. Gotta show off so grandeur at least.'
"So big…"
A voice behind him echoed the sa sentint.
Though the words were foreign, Orsaga's demonic language aptitude allowed him to understand.
He turned and saw a group of humans dressed in various outfits.
The speaker was a relatively young man.
Orsaga didn't care about who they were or what they were doing. He had no intention of ssing with them.
And he wasn't the only one. Even demons hungry for human souls weren't taking action.
That's because any human capable of reaching this deep into the Abyss was never weak—usually quite troubleso to deal with. So ironically, demons here rarely provoked them.
The humans themselves clearly understood this too. Although their faces showed so wariness, their deanor remained relaxed.
Still, the mont they noticed Orsaga's gaze sweeping over them, they imdiately grabbed their weapons, ready to fight.
After all, they had just seen him crush another demon like a chick at the city gate.
To them, Orsaga was a walking embodint of danger.
He didn't react to their hostility. After giving them a brief glance, he turned and walked away.
Watching his back disappear into the city, the group leader quietly exhaled.
His master had once told him:
"The more human-like a demon looks, the more dangerous it is."
And Orsaga's human-like features gave him a deep sense of unease.
He had no desire to fight soone like that.
"This damned place… Let's just finish the mission and get out."
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