40 - Ixtra's Newfound Recklessness

I had asked the demons in the city what the winter screams were, and the lesser demons didn't know either.

However, the greater demons gave me some useful information. They said it came from the center of the 4th circle, but when I asked what it was in the center that caused the noise, they said this:

"There's a large pit there. In its depths is said to be a monster whose screams resound across the 4th circle. However, we don't know if that's true since anyone who's ever gone to check in the winter has died. When it's not winter, there's just a black mass in the pit."

Well, if anyone who went died, it seemed not too far from the truth. I wouldn't risk going myself, obviously.

I still remembered Ixtra saying if I died in Hell, it wouldn't be good for me.

Ixtra's summoning spell would be different now than when I first summoned him, so I'd have to find him manually.

Many might argue I should just leave him like he did me, but it was hard to forget a companion of over 150 years after all.

So like that, I headed out of my little cave abode I had made and cozily resided in for the past however many years and began my search for Ixtra. In the process, of course, I'd always remember to absorb more void mana everyday.

I also kept an eye out for void magic level techniques and information. Well, it'd be unlikely to find any in the 4th circlr, but it was worth it to keep an eye out.

***

Another 5 years later.

'45!'

That's how many greater demons Ixtra had killed by now.

As a greater demon himself, this was more than just an impressive amount.

However, he already knew what the result of this newest corpse would be.

After all, he was just doing this out of utter despair.

Merca had already helped him kill plenty of creatures at his own level, even above his level, back then.

He knew it wasn't enough just to feed. He needed an impetus for growth, beyond just raw energy or nutrition.

He needed his limits pushed.

That's part of what he hoped to achieve by fighting demons in Hell on his own, compared to when there was no pressure on him with Merca helping from the sidelines.

Actually, he felt it very weird at first. He had lived his whole life in lower circles. He'd never find a demon helping another demon out. However, in the human worlds, there was a mix of selfishness and kindness. It was unexpected for him.

Anyhow, now, he was alone again, purposefully, and 45 life or death fights in, and no evolution in sight. No 2nd Release.

Suddenly, he had a crazy thought.

'The only way to increase the pressure more is to go to a lower circle.'

He had currently gone down from the 4th to the 5th circle, which was also where he used to live.

Word had spread in the area among the many small and large gangs of demons that there was a ravenous greater demon fighting every other greater demon he could find at first sight.

Most greater demons ignored this.

After all, they were all greater demons. How strong could he be? Surely the rumors were exaggerated.

And even if they weren't, what were they supposed to do, run?

Well, it turns out running away was exactly what they should've done.

Ixtra grew up in the 7th circle. His bloodlust was a lot stronger than the demons of this layer. He had seen with his own eyes how the difference between victory and defeat between two evenly otherwise matched opponents often came down to who wanted to win more.

In the case of a life or death fight, whoever thought something as foolish as 'what if I run?' would be easy pickings.

That split second of thinking of the wrong thing would lead to a disadvantage that would stay until their death.

The only thing that should fill your mind when in a fight is how to most quickly kill the enemy.

And Ixtra's upbringing made him a master at this. The 5th circle greater demons were still one bit too complacent.

However, if he went down to the 6th circle, that would change. He wouldn't have that advantage anymore.

However, maybe that was what he needed.

Ixtra left and quickly flew to the edge of the circle.

This was where the passage to higher and lower circles was.

After a long time, he got there. He took breaks, of course. It didn't take him just a day or two to get there.

Looking at the large mass of pitch black void in the distance, Ixtra steeled his resolve and stepped out onto the air beyond the edge of the red, rocky ground.

Hell's circles were like large platforms, floating in the air. These rocky platforms were arranged like a tower, one above the other, except the lowest circle was filled with the strongest demons and the highest circle was the weakest.

Around these layered platforms of Hell was an aerial space lit up by large amounts of red mana wisps, and outside of that aerial space could be seen the void.

Indeed, every universe was different. In Hell, the void could be directly seen at the edge, unlike the realm that Merca died in, which had an illusion of an infinite sea at its edges.

The void around Hell wasn't like the void around Merca's old realm. Although he hadn't seen the void around that realm, if he had, it would have been empty, except for void mana.

However, the void around Hell was filled with void beasts.

One could see large behemoth shapes shifting around inside the void from the edge of Hell, hard to make out and threatening to enter and wreak havoc at any time.

However, they didn't. Ixtra didn't know if something was stopping them or if they truly didn't care.

Flying out to about a kilometer out into the aerial space, Ixtra dived straight down.

The circles were not all the same size, and the 6th circle was slightly larger than the 5th, so Ixtra went straight down but still landed on solid ground.

It was a soft landing. He crashed into the ground and immediately let his demonic energy propogate.

He wanted to draw someone here.

The 6th circle was where things really started getting brutal. If kingdoms fell apart by the 4th circle, leaving only gangs and city-states in the 4th and 5th circles, then the 6th circle was where even gangs became hard to find, as demons actively went on the hunt for each other regularly.

Soon, one appeared.

Before it reached Ixtra's position, so did another one.

They both reached a tacit agreement without words and teamed up to fight. Of course, the truce was arbitrary and easily breakable.

Ixtra also didn't back down. This was what he came down for.

Before, he had taken some items out of the treasury without permission. Merca hadn't noticed.

Now, he finally fully equipped himself and used them.

The shining white mythril armor looked out of place of his demonic, red and black form, but it did the job.

His aura, not the aura of a knight but the aura of a demon, instantly became much stronger, and the two approaching demons slowed down.

Equipment like that was rare. It introduced a lot of new variables.

How would they split it? Would they fight each other for all of it afterwards? The weaker one would lose, so they'd have to make sure they weren't more exhausted than the other. Could they even defeat Ixtra as he was now?

In the split second they spent thinking, Ixtra launched a full power strike at one of them.

Caught off guard, he didn't die, but he was immediately significantly injured.

Seeing this, the other demon tried to rush in to attack as well, but Ixtra blocked his attack and launched another one at half power towards the 1st demon.

The 1st demon wasn't very injured this time, but in the time he spent blocking, Ixtra had come up and placed his hand on the demon's back.

"[Draconic Severance]"

Spells weren't so well known amongst most demons in this era. Only some of the older demons, or the ones who had been summoned like Ixtra, knew of any high level ones.

[Draconic Severance] was a 10th circle spell that required direct touch. Upon contact, it would unleash a barrage of condensed, supremely powerful slashes into the other party's flesh.

This type of condensed attack at close range was the most dangerous.

The demon managed to block with his demonic energy before the slashes got to his heart, or rather, hearts, but there was now a horrible mass of flesh missing from his upper back, and even the bones underneath were somewhat scarred.

However, this wasn't enough to down a demon. Not even close.

The demon swung behind him with his arm, and Ixtra teleported in front of him the next moment.

Teleportation magic was also unknown to most demons, and they could only try to make up for it with raw speed.

Ixtra once again placed his hand on the demon, this time his head, and the pre-cast [Draconic Severance] began to rip the other party's head to shreds.

The demon punched forward, but Ixtra teleported away.

Rapidly healing, the demon looked at the other demon, but the 2nd demon looked startled and began to turn around.

A greater demon like them, but with a full set of equipment at their level, and he could even use high level magic?

Forget about it, he didn't want to die here today.

Ixtra also saw this and smiled terrifyingly, turning his full attention to the demon in front of him.

It was a one sided slaughter.

There was a moment where Ixtra got careless and suffered a minor blow, but the armor took the brunt of the damage.

This was actually worse than the attack hitting him directly, though, since it would be a hassle to repair the armor.

He had also studied arrays and runes and enchantment alongside Merca, since why not, so he could also repair the armor and weapons himself, but that didn't mean it wasn't an annoying process to do so.

Finally killing the demon, Ixtra devoured his form in one large bite.

Of course, not with his mouth but with his demonic energy.

Hurriedly flying about, Ixtra repeated this process endlessly, until one day, the news had spread and he was besieged.

Surrounding Ixtra were 100 greater demons, though only a couple of them were as strong as him.

Still, that was detrimental odds.

Nonetheless, Ixtra was floating in the middle of the encirclement without a single mark of fear.

Even though they had a clear numerical advantage, and it was truly overwhelming, some demons still showed some hesitation upon seeing this confidence.

That was the effect of such blatant disregard for one's life.

'My entire life I lived a cowardly existence. Yet I only ever got so strong. Less than 200 years with Merca and I obtained my 1st Release. Back then, I was too weak, so I had to hide. Now, I'll fight, and either I'll obtain my 2nd Release here...or I'll die trying!'