4 Chapter 4

I strode across a desolate plane of pitch-black sand in the Upper Abyss. The only things visible were the decaying husks of cacti that dotted the landscape and a singular volcano that stood solemnly at the center of the dark desert. Its top was covered in clouds, but occasional blasts of magma flew from the mountain and flowed down its sides. It was oppressively hot here in the desert. Even to me, as a demon, it was uncomfortably warm. I covered my face with a hand as the hurricane force winds picked up and blew whipped up another massive sandstorm that was common in this area of the abyss. 

I must have flown hundreds of kilometers away from where I had emerged into the abyss to find myself in this actual hellscape desert. The reason I didn't leave was due to the fact that hunting was good here. Worm demons and various burrowing monsters made this desert their home. They hunted from vibrations prey made on the sand above where they lay in wait. It was a perfect hunting strategy for the Upper Abyss, where the intelligence of most of its denizens was rudimentary, to say the least. However, for those of higher cognitive abilities like me, it allowed us to turn the hunters into the hunted. 

I hadn't been in the desert long, but I had already harvested a dozen souls, bringing my total up to 14. I continued marching across the dark landscape, suddenly feeling the telltale trembling that preceded every worm attack that I had dealt with so far. I jumped into the air and beat my wings, fighting against the storm to empower my jump. Wind and sand tore at me as I was suspended in the sand for a moment as the worm demon burst from the sand below me. Its small maw that was full of needle teeth emerged right under where I had jumped. It stopped for a moment, confusion taking over its underdeveloped mind as it couldn't comprehend where its prey went.

As gravity took hold of me again, I fell back toward the worm, brought my tail down hard, and plunged it deep into the worm's body. The creature thrashed about while impaled on my tail, but I tore into it with my claws and ended its struggle. I claimed its soul, then moved on once more, landing back on the sand and walking toward the mountain. I was fairly confident that there would be an altar at the base of the volcano, which was the location I was currently working toward since altars naturally attracted demons to them, which would make for a good soul-farming location. It would also give me easy access to other worlds once I am ready to venture into them.

I continued along, killing half a dozen more worm demons along the way to the mountain. I repeated the same strategy on all of them until I found myself closing in on the base of the mountain. The land around the volcano gradually shifted from sand to dark glass as the heat continued to rise. A bit of sweat actually formed on my demonic body, which I had previously thought impossible, as I continued toward the base of the volcano. Instead of worm demons, I began to encounter fire demons and monsters. I continued until I found a large area cared out of the base of the mountain, and just as I anticipated, that was where the altar was.

I walked into the mountain and felt the temperature begin to rise even more. I was beginning to be confused because ordinary lava doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to explain the temperature, but my question was answered when I saw the altar. The altar was placed at the end of a small jetty in the heart of the volcano. The rocks around the altar glowed red hot, and there was a large pool of roiling magma all around the altar, with only the small stone jetty providing a walkway to the altar. I guessed that the pool was part of a small offshoot from the real throat of the volcano, which led up to the top of the mountain.

However, it was neither the glowing hot rocks of the walls nor the pool of boiling magma. No, the heat came from the small black flowers growing on the walls and the dark lilypads on the pool of lava. Each flower burned with dark fire, which heated the air to an incredible degree. There was also the oppressive feeling of what had to be magical energy in the air. It seemed like this mountain provided the right conditions for abyssal flame plants to bloom. I doubted the plants here burned with the same heat and power that real Hellfire would burn with, but I was willing to bet that it was a method for flame demons to empower themselves and slowly develop their flames into true Hellfire over time. 

With my curiosity sated and the sweat literally evaporating off my body, I turned and made my way out of the massive chamber. It was the first example I had seen of true beauty in the abyss so far. Even the abyss had its own sort of dark beauty and allure. I opened my wings and flew up along a particularly sheer cliff on the mountain. Once I found a good spot with a large crack in the face of the cliff, I began to chip into the crack with my tail. Eventually, I opened up an area of the crack where I could easily fit into the area behind the crack and was surprised to find a small but cozy cave. It wasn't too big, but it was about the size of your typical living room and bedroom combined.

I immediately began to carve a bed into the stone wall, even though I found myself not really needing to sleep anymore. I didn't want to fall into a multiple-month-long sleep like Roy did, so I kept myself active. I also carved a small pit into the floor where I could cook any food that I caught. It didn't take me long to carve out my house, so once I was done with that, I made my way back out, jumped off the cliff, and flew back down toward the desert so that I could hunt some more demons and monsters. My goals were twofold, the first was to get enough souls for a body enhancement item, and the second was to go to another world and increase my magic power.

Once I had an appropriate amount of magic power, roughly 400, I could be promoted to a Middle-Rank demon. That would allow me to purify my bloodline and allow for me to specialize in the element of my bloodline. Technically I could crate magic abilities and skills before Middle Rank and change my bloodline to one I wanted manually, but I would leave that decision for the future. For now, I spread my wings and flew above the reflective glass and stone below me off into the desert to hunt for prey. 

To my great surprise, I found a demon out of the sands. The fact that there was a demon there didn't surprise me, but the fact that this demon had a weapon surprised me greatly. It held a rusted and chipped cleaver in one of its four arms as it seemed to be using a similar method to me when drawing out worm demons. I noticed that this demon was massive compared to me, nearly standing two and a half meters tall with a strong muscular build. This demon was clearly at the peak of low rank, meaning that I flew in the other direction, making my way in the opposite direction of the obviously dangerous threat. 

Some main characters of novels I read in my past life would have felt like cowards if they ran away from that demon, but I was not so foolish and suicidal. I didn't play this second life as a game where my honor meant more than my life and future. I am a demon after all, 'Honor? What's that?' I thought with a chuckle as I found an easier hunting ground that wasn't contested by another demon. I withdrew a large stone from my inventory and heaved it onto the sand below me. In an instant, the large impact of the rock, which the worms thought to be large prey, drew several to the surface. I withdrew my mace from my inventory and swooped low, bashing the demons into bloody pulps.

Once they were all dead and their broken bodies laid on the sand, I collected their souls and the rock before moving off to do it all again. I planned to do this for however long it took me to collect an appropriate level of souls that would allow me to create a powerful bodily enhancement item.

- - - - - Chapter End - - - - -

Two things:

1. I am planning to have the enhancement item be the Prototype Virus that Wesker had in the Resident Evil series, but if you have a better item in mind, suggest it.

2. Should I use some of the Castlevania chapters from before to repeat that world for a faster release rate? I would edit those chapters some for better flow and slightly different powers and events, but it would stay roughly the same. 

Or should I just write about an entirely different world and separate this story further from what it was before?