All, One, Everything.

Chapter 22: Passage towards the Second Level of Hell

Preview: He felt endless joy struck him and felt that maybe things weren't as bad as it was. Perhaps there was no need for him to think too much about it and just enjoy the life he currently had.

The two greedily chomped on the remains of the hounds as their strengths increased by leaps and bounds. Eventually, their strength reached the ceiling of this strata and vaguely surpassed it.

The Little Sunflower especially gained a lot. Due to the desperate attempt of absorbing mana from the Underworld, it now had a new trump card in the arsenal.

What made the two surpass the supposed limit for level 1 Low-Rank demons was the meat of the Shadow Hound.

Although the meat of normal hounds who were either from the Second or Third Level also strengthened them greatly. The flesh and blood from the Shadow Hound was incomparable.

Especially the magic it contained in the muscles and bones. The Little Sunflower sucked most of the inner organs and content while the leftover was left to Pendra.

The remains of the Shadow Hound were still very hard to eat as even Pendra occasionally faced some challenges. But thankfully, due to it being dead, it had already lost control of its body and could only allow the two to eat him peacefully.

The duo spent half a month to finish all the remains, mostly due to the Shadow Hound. And in this half a month, the two surpassed the limit threshold of the demons from the First Level.

As they no longer had anything to do, and with their previous destination in mind. They quickly left the place of the battle and rushed towards the passage towards the Second Level of Hell.

Anywhere they passed became a no-man's land as all demons were devoured greedily. Even special places couldn't stop the two as they sped up.

The demons that managed to survive by not standing in their way noticed the obvious change in population. They began fighting for the unmanned territory while some slightly wise demons guessed the reason for this change.

They vaguely guessed that a demon on the verge of descending caused all of the changes and gave that demon a title - Storm!

As the duo got closer to the end of their journey, they witnessed something flash in the horizon. They immediately picked up their pace and sped up, resulting in countless demons to scramble out of their way.

Pendra glanced in the direction they were heading and in there stood a gigantic tree with its humongous roots sticking out and branches without a single leaf reaching for the ceiling of the endless underworld. It eerily stood there surrounded by the endless darkness of the underworld without any sign of living entities nearby. Ghastly winds blew past it producing creepy howls that resembled ghost cries.

As the duo got even closer, they noticed shining glows on the bald branches of the evil looking tree and upon looking closer, they noticed that star-like glows were actually butterflies. They were butterflies covered in green flames. Each flap of their wings makes their bodies flicker and twinkle like stars in the night sky. Ghostly winds echo in the surroundings and blow past the gigantic tree as the butterflies' flap their wings.

The duo went closer towards one of the humongous roots and looked up towards the tree. Both of them went slack with shock as they looked up.

The gigantic tree seems to have no end as they can only see the trunk extend continually upwards. The gigantic tree looked sinister and evil without leaves and the aura it exudes caused one to palpitate in fear.

Just one look and they almost lost their minds. They immediately lowered their heads and cautiously approached the area surrounding the tree - where darkness and filth reigned and only the glowing butterflies was the source of illumination in the surroundings.

The duo gradually got swept in the darkness and silence while looking for the path to the second level of Hell. Along the way, specks of light appear in their vision and immediately vanish as though they are just figments of imagination. The silence felt uncanny in such a rowdy place like Hell and the two felt like they were walking towards their eternal slumber, towards the mother of the endless silence, the embrace of death.

Time passed by as they gradually forgot their goals for coming here.

"..." Whispers echoed in the mind of the Sunflower as she went around the trunk. Looking around, it doesn't seem like anything is speaking, is it those weird butterflies? The Sunflower thought to herself. Again, as they were searching for the "Door" towards the Second level of Hell, murmurs kept sounding in her ears but she couldn't find the source so she ignored it.

Deep swirling darkness on a root showed up before the duo and the same thought appeared in their minds, "2nd Gate!". They immediately rushed enthusiastically as they could finally leave this eerie place! Even for them - the current strongest demons in the First Level of Hell - find this unnamed place creepy and strange and they couldn't wait to leave here as fast as possible.

As the Sunflower wrapped by the strange centipede entered the dark swirling vortex, the murmurs that were previously imperceptible suddenly became clear at this moment.

"Sunirae Flairune.. The child of dreams and madness..."