Molten Wasteland

After getting used to flying in the sky for a while.

Orsaga turned his gaze toward the nearby monsters. Within dozens of kilometers, everything lay within his line of sight.

Before long, he picked out a lucky passerby.

His flying body immediately changed direction and headed straight for his target.

Kro was a Spider Demon with the strength of a Lower Demon. Though he was not particularly strong, within several dozen kilometers, he was still someone to be reckoned with. At that moment, he was hiding more than ten meters underground, carrying out his daily hunt.

Using the bristles on his body, he could detect every creature walking on the ground within several kilometers. Even if the target was only the size of a fist, it was no exception.

He had already completed three hunts today and felt about half full.

Based on past experience, a herd of Magic Beasts would soon pass nearby. He decided to shift to the side a little to avoid being trampled by them.

Those Magic Beasts were huge, but they were all hard bones.

Unless he was starving, he did not like hunting that sort of prey. They were dangerous and did not have much meat.

It was better to catch a few smaller ones. They might not fill his stomach, but at least they could satisfy his cravings!

Just as he let his thoughts wander and guessed what prey he might catch next, his mental senses detected movement in the sky.

A little surprised, he tried to stick his head out to take a look.

The next moment, he felt a powerful impact directly above him.

Danger!

A fierce warning surged up from instinct, and he reflexively tried to dodge to the side!

But before he could move his many limbs, he saw a flaming claw appear before his eyes.

Along with a sharp pain, he clearly felt his hard skull being pierced through.

His soul was also pulled out and seized in the other party's hand...

Standing in the deep pit, Orsaga casually swallowed Kro's soul.

He began extracting the information he needed from it.

Before long, Kro's meager knowledge entered Orsaga's mind. After discarding a large amount of meaningless junk, he obtained the information he needed.

Layer 6548257 of the Bottomless Abyss, the Molten Wasteland.

A world without Night.

This was the territory of Demon Lord Karto.

The entire world was built atop a sea of flowing magma.

The so-called land on the surface was merely residue formed by dust accumulating over countless years. Magma and flame were the true mainstays of this world!

Furthermore, based on Kro's memories, Orsaga also learned where the central region of this layer of the abyss was located.

It was a place that this Spider Demon had never reached.

According to descriptions from other Lower Demons in his memories, traveling continuously at several times the speed of sound would take roughly 1,344 Hourglass Hours to reach it.

After thinking for a moment, Orsaga flicked a small fireball toward the distance.

Boom!

A large hole several meters deep appeared there.

The speed of sound is 967 meters per second.

Based on the distance of the explosion and the time it took for the sound to reach him, Orsaga calculated the speed of sound in this layer of the abyss.

He then compared their respective methods of measuring time and determined that one Hourglass Hour here was roughly equal to three hours on Earth.

Finally, the actual distance between him and the central region appeared in Orsaga's mind.

It's not far. I can go take a look.

If he only possessed the strength of a Lower Demon, Orsaga might have needed to consider whether he could reach that place. But now that he had advanced to a Middle Demon, he did not need to think so much. Even in most Demon Legions, his strength would naturally earn him a position like squad leader. In any case, he was no longer at the bottom of the food chain, so there was nothing he needed to worry about.

This was strength he had built through slaughter, piled up with millions of lives of every kind!

Even with the system's help, he had proven that he was no useless waste.

He could act cautiously, but there was no need to fear anything.

After making his decision, his body silently rose from the ground under the effect of antigravity.

He found the right direction and began accelerating!

Accompanied by a shrill howl and a deafening sonic boom, he vanished from the spot at high speed...

276 Hourglass Hours later.

Looking at the towering cluster of buildings in the distance, anticipation flashed through Orsaga's heart.

This was the first time he had seen a creation of demon civilization with his own eyes.

The moment he saw the city, even though he could only make out a vague outline, the detailed locations of its entrances and exits automatically surfaced in his mind, as if some force were guiding him forward.

He knew it was a magical effect inherent to the buildings, like a lighthouse guiding ships into port.

Within his sight, the scale of the city had far surpassed anything conventional. It was like a gigantic kingdom.

The width of the city walls was unknown. They stretched beyond the limits of his vision, and their height alone exceeded ten thousand meters!

The entire structure was made of dark-red stone and covered in countless spikes. It stood amid a vast sea of magma like an impassable barrier.

Standing before it, Orsaga felt a sense of smallness. He had never seen such a magnificent creation!

His anticipation for the city grew even stronger!

Several more Hourglass Hours later, he finally arrived at the city gate.

It was a gigantic gate built from countless piled bones, at least several thousand meters tall. Directly above the entrance hung a golden skull wreathed in Black Flame. Looking through its eye sockets, it seemed as though countless souls were burning within, and faint cries and wails could be heard.

The bones of a god?

Looking at the skull and sniffing the scent in the air, Orsaga identified it through his Inheritance Memory as belonging to a god. As for which god exactly, his knowledge was insufficient to tell.

But for a Demon Lord to hang it up as a display of honor, it was probably one of the stronger gods.

Orsaga was actually a little curious about these so-called gods.

In his view, as a group that stood alongside demons at the top of the Multiverse's food chain in countless legends, they should taste good and be rich in nutrients...

As for feelings of reverence or disgust, he had none. With his current strength, in many low-level planes, he could also act as a genuine demon god and slaughter nations and exterminate races. Therefore, he had no particular feelings toward these so-called gods. In his eyes, they were merely a kind of higher life-form whose strength might not surpass that of high-level demons.

And the trophy Demon Lord Karto had hung over the city gate proved this well.

They might be unattainable to ordinary people, but to demons, who were also Supernatural Creatures, they were nothing special.

As he drew near, feeling the suppressive force coming from all directions, Orsaga understood that the city's no-fly barrier was taking effect. No creature without permission was allowed to fly within this range, so he folded his wings and landed on the ground.

Like the other creatures, he began walking.

These creatures were not all demons. Their varieties were as diverse as flowers in bloom, with all sorts of strange things among them. Some merely traveled silently, while others followed the straightforward rules of the Bottomless Abyss more closely, fighting as they traveled.

After walking some distance.

A minotaur demon over ten meters tall and covered in pustules appeared beside Orsaga, dressed in standard armor.

The other party first examined Aersaga's appearance and aura before saying coldly, "Entry fee!"

His manner of operation was no different from a toll collector in the mortal world.

A Middle Demon. Not as strong as me.

Orsaga habitually compared the other party to himself first, then turned to look at the demons nearby who were also being charged entry fees. When he saw that one of them paid with a Soul Crystal, he roughly understood the value based on its quality.

So he casually reached behind himself. A passing Lower Demon instantly exploded into countless flecks of blood, which he gathered through the air into his hand and refined into a freshly made Soul Crystal.

Ignoring the onlookers around him who had taken several steps back, Orsaga casually tossed the item in his hand to the collector and said indifferently, "Keep the change."

After catching it, the minotaur demon gave Orsaga a cold look, casually threw him a token, then turned and left to collect fees from other beings.

He made no comment whatsoever about the demon who had been casually crushed to death.

Even though demon cities had some rules similar to those of human cities, demons were still their masters. Thus, their chaotic alignment and habits changed nothing. Killing one another was still perfectly normal. So long as it was not a large-scale massacre, a brawl, or damage to the city's buildings, city guards like them generally would not interfere.

Moreover, the minotaur demon could vaguely sense that he probably could not defeat the Flame Demon before him.

Though that did not stop him from giving Orsaga a nasty look. Not being able to win did not mean he could not act tough in front of him. What was wrong with a civil servant acting tough?

Watching the other party's departing back, Orsaga used Bloodflame to burn away the disgusting pus left on the token. It was filth that had flowed from the pustules on the demon's body. Only then did he unhurriedly enter the city...

It's really huge...

Looking at the road, which was over a thousand meters wide, Orsaga sighed like a country bumpkin.

Rubbing his chin, he felt that when he became an Abyss Lord in the future, he could not fall short in terms of his lair. At the very least, he could not lose in terms of presence.

"It's so huge..."

A similar remark reached his ears from behind.

Though he did not understand the other party's language, Orsaga still understood the words through a demon's talent for languages.

Turning around, he found several humans dressed in different styles.

The one who had spoken was a relatively young man among them.

Orsaga had no thoughts about their identities or intentions, nor did he particularly want to target them.

It was not just him. Even the demons who craved human souls were the same.

Because humans who could venture deep into the Bottomless Abyss possessed some ability no matter how weak they were, and they were generally troublesome. Thus, there were instead few demons here who would seek trouble with them.

The other party clearly understood this as well. Though their faces still held some vigilance, their behavior was relatively casual.

However, when they noticed Orsaga's gaze examining them, they immediately gripped their weapons and prepared for battle.

Just outside the city gate, they had personally seen Orsaga casually crush another demon to death as if wringing a chick's neck.

In their eyes, he was an unquestionably dangerous target!

Orsaga paid little attention to their hostility. He merely swept his gaze over them for several seconds before withdrawing it and turning away.

Watching him leave, the leader let out a slight breath. His master had once told him that the more human-like a demon was, the more dangerous it was. Orsaga's somewhat human-like face gave him a very unpleasant feeling, making him very unwilling to fight him.

This damned place. Let's finish the mission and get back as soon as possible...