[3rd Circle of Hell]
*BOOM* *BOOM*
In a large stretch of land filled with cracked ground and molten lava, one young man was facing a large number of insects like monsters that continuously swarmed towards him.
His body was filled with wounds and his veins had a green tint, showing traces of poisoning. Some of those wounds were squirming as they tried to close but would continue to bleed as if something stopped the regeneration.
Enemies were surging all around him. There appeared to be no end to their numbers. When he killed one, ten more would follow. He was bitten, scratched, and poisoned again and again until there was nearly no part of his body that wasn’t in pain.
His face was gaunt, showing how tired he currently was. Each of his movements seemed to be extremely painful and he would grunt lightly whenever he received another attack.
The fight lasted for a few more minutes before all the monsters in the surroundings were finally dealt with.
*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*
Rough breathing, sweat covered brows, bloodied and battered body, shaking vision, and gradually weakening limbs...
There was nothing that he wished for more than sleeping and recuperation. However, he knew it wasn’t possible. He had to always keep his guard up. He had learned this lesson the hard way on the second day when nearly lost his arms.
*Swoosh!!*
‘Got you!’
His wariness was rewarded when what looked like a 3 meters long snake jumped out of nowhere toward his back with its maw wide open at sonic speed.
Sidestepping on instinct, Sol twirled and caught the snake with his hand before infusing mana in all his muscles.
“Arghh!!”
He tore the monster in two in the most brutal way possible. Once he was done, he threw aside the corpses of the monsters and continued to wait for a short while before releasing a sigh.
Blisters formed on his hands because of the acidic bloods and secretions that covered the body of those monsters, but he didn't care.
‘Well, I think I should be done with this floor tonight.’
Looking at his surroundings, he immediately crouched down and began to crawl in the cracks and the shadows. He completely erased his aura and seemingly vanished.
This was another point he learned the hard way. It seemed that he was kind of a delicacy for those monsters and they would swarm him if he didn’t control his power well.
It was only after he finally reached a carven smartly hidden just below a cliff that he allowed himself to rest. After all, this was a safe zone.
"Fuck!"
He cursed immediately once he was in the cave and completely out of danger. In fact, all he wanted to do was collapse and sleep.
"You shouldn't swear, Sol."
The young boy, Sol, looked up at Kiyohime who had been resting in the cavern and feasting.
His mouth watered at the sight of the well-cooked meat and immediately rushed towards the grilled meat but all he received was a small smack on his hands.
"Wash your hands first. Don't contaminate the food."
She waved to him and a ball of water covered his hands before twirling at high speed. After it evaporated in the air, his hands were spotless clean.
This time, Kiyohime didn't stop him when he rushed again for food.
"This is the meat of a cosmic cow. It is extremely good for reinforcing your vitality. Digest it fast and sleep after wiping away the blood. Let your body naturally expel all the poison and heal your wounds."
Sol was too far deep in to understand what she was saying. All he could focus on was chewing the delicious meat.
The seven circles could be divided into three great prisons. The 1st to 3rd circle only imprisoned the most ordinary.
When Sol had heard that he wouldn't have to fight Duke class there, he had been overjoyed. What could a bunch of fodder do against him?
He wished he could go back in time and smack his foolish past self. What they lacked in quality, they made up more than enough to hit in quantity.
On the first day of his fight, he discovered how wrong he was.
For one, the chaos spawn had very powerful bodies, making it hard to kill them.
As if it wasn't enough, there were hundreds, if not thousands of them. Every time he killed one, the other would attack him crazily.
Once he finished eating, Kiyohime began to mercilessly mock him.
"Heh, so in the end, it took you one week. Hahaha~! I thought you would finish it in a jiffy? I have been waiting for you since one week ago."
Sol coughed to hide his embarrassment. He has really been a little arrogant earlier. When he heard that there was no Duke level in the first three circles, he was sure that he could sweep through everything.
How wrong he had been…
After mocking him for a while, Kiyohime wiped off any amusement from her face, her tone becoming serious.
"Let this be a lesson for you. Never underestimate Chaos Spawn. I remember dragons that were devoured after being swarmed to death by them."
Sol could only nod in agreement. It wasn’t just their numbers either.
Be it their bodies that seemed resistant to magic, their strong attack, or the difficulties in using mana from the surroundings, Sol had never felt so stifled while fighting.
But, there was something that was nagging at him.
“Kiyo. There’s something I want to ask…In fact, two things.”
“Go on.”
“Firstly, the power of evolution of those spawns. Why does it seem like the devouring power of Gula?”
Sol had been in contact with both Nuwa and Milia. He knew more or less how they could <<devour>> energy and the like. Milia could increase her power temporarily by devouring while Nuwa could slowly increase her power permanently.
No matter how he looked at it, this was very similar to the chaos spawns. There were also those unsettling bloodshot demonic eyes filling Milia’s shadow.
But this wasn’t all.
“Secondly. I always thought the name Chaos Dragon sounded weird. Why did Tiamat, who works for Superbia, have a title related to the Chaos Goddess? When fighting those monsters, I found out that all of them seemed to have a weak resistance toward Mana and magic in general. If so, how strong would the resistance of a Duke level be? What about a King? Then…What about a demi-god?”
“...”
“...”
“You think the Sin Goddesses or at least the Divine Beasts of Sin are related to Chaos?”
“...”
Silence fell between them and the atmosphere seemed to grow heavy, until…
“Pfft! Hahahaha!”
Kiyohime bent down and exploded out of laughter, so much that tears even gathered at the corner of her eyes.
“*Wheeze* I mean…Hahaha. I have heard weird theories, but yours is truly one out of a kind.”
Calming down, Kiyohime shook her head, “Mother is known as the Chaos Dragon because her body indeed has a capacity similar to that chaos spawn. However, that's all. There's never been a chaos spawn who possessed full Immunity towards Magic like Blaze and Mother. Even your current resistance is way higher than anything even a demi-god ranked chaos spawn can hope to obtain.”
Sol nodded and relaxed, “You are right. I must have thought too much. It’s just that there are so many weird conspiracies around me. I am used to over analyzing everything.”
Sol laughed sheepishly as he apologized. “Could you get out, please? I need to change and wipe the blood out of my body. Though, I don’t mind if you want to stay.”
Kiyohime smiled and shook her head, completely nonplussed. “I will stand guard outside for you.”
“Thanks.”
Nodding to her, he turned around and began to disrobe. The smile on his face—vanished.
His speculations about Gula and Superbia had indeed been a little ridiculous. Then why…
‘Why did she not address the whole Goddesses and Divine Beasts of Sins when refuting my words?’
Lost in thought, he completely disrobed and looked at his filthy body.
It has been one week since the last time he bathed. Blood, guts, and other sketchy substances were covering him.
His wounds were healing at a faster rate than when he was fighting, but it was still pretty slowed down.
Taking the water from the basin Kiyohime had left for him, he began to carefully wipe away the filth from his body.
The moment the water came in contact with his body, it was as if he was resting in the most relaxing spa ever created.
All his muscles were screaming in pain and pleasure.
He continued to wipe his body, and his regeneration power seemed to be boosted greatly, even his stamina recovery increased.
'I need to rest.'
In the end, the best he could do was sleep now and recover faster.
'I wonder if he caught my hints.'
She thought a little but shrugged. She liked Sol quite a bit, but they weren't close enough for her to risk her life to reveal a secret that even most demigods didn't know.
Feeling the breathing of Sol slow down in the cave, Kiyohime showed a gentle smile.
'His curiosity aside, he is far better than I thought.'
Sol was far from being the fastest to complete the first three circles but, he was without a doubt the most careful one.
The young elite dragon who had been chosen to pass this test generally failed after being flustered by the unexpected difficulty or used their full dragon's body to tank all attack and rush down.
What they seemed to forget though, was that this has never been a competition. This wasn't about who was the fastest or who killed the most.
Because of this, Kiyohime saw Sol as the third person to perfectly understand the purpose of his training and act on it.
But this wasn't enough. In fact, this was just nothing but a warm up.
Once he woke up?
Then the real thing would wait for him.
