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{Chapter: 75: The City of Demons}
Despite all his power, Dex moved more cautiously as he approached.
This was not a place where lone travelers could afford arrogance.
---
Several hourglass hours later, Dex stood before the main city gate.
It was a monstrous creationâan archway fashioned entirely from polished bones, gleaming under the burning sky. The gate itself soared thousands of meters tall, a grotesque monument to slaughter.
At its pinnacle hung a colossal skull.
It burned with a black flame that gave off no heat, only a dreadful sense of despair. Through its hollow eye sockets, one could faintly see the flicker of countless damned souls trapped inside, writhing and screaming in endless torment.
A deep, resonating hum of mourning cries echoed out from it, washing over all who came near.
Dex narrowed his eyes, studying it carefully.
"Sacred bones," he realized, catching the faint whiff of divine residue lingering in the air.
Even without deep knowledge, he could sense itâthis was the skull of a god, or something very close to it. Stripped, broken, and displayed like a trophy by the demon lord who ruled this place.
However, he did not have enough knowledge to tell which god it was.
However, to be hanged by a [Demon Lord] as a display of honor, he must be a very powerful god.
Dex was actually a little curious about these so-called gods.
"Gods..." Dex mused.
In his opinion, as a group that stands at the top of the food chain in the multiverse like demons in countless legends, they should taste good and be nutritious...
He allowed himself a small grin at the thought.
"One day..." he promised silently.
As for the emotions of reverence and disgust, he did not have any. With his current strength, he could act as a genuine demon god in many low-level planes and carry out acts of slaughtering nations and exterminating clans. Therefore, he did not have any special emotions towards the so-called gods. In his view, they were just some higher creatures, and their strength might not exceed that of high-level demons.
The trophies hung on the city gate by the demon lord Karto also illustrate this point well.
They may be out of reach for ordinary people, but to demons, who are also extraordinary creatures, it is no different.
Still, the mere existence of this gate spoke volumes.
The demon lord, Karto, was no common tyrant. To slay a god and hang its remains above his city was a declaration to the entire multiverse:
"This is my domain. None are greater."
---
As Dex drew closer, he felt the oppressive weight of magic press down on him from all sides.
A no-fly zone.
The city itself actively suppressed flight within a certain radius, forcing even the proudest demons to land and walk the final distance.
Recognizing the effect, Dex folded his wings neatly behind him and descended.
His boots struck the cracked obsidian of the causeway leading to the gate, and he began to walk alongside a tide of other travelers.
They came in all formsâdemons, beasts, hybrids, slavesâeach trudging forward with grim purpose. Some lumbered in silence; others battled savagely as they marched, spilling blood as naturally as breathing.
In the Abyss, violence was a greeting as common as a handshake.
Dex ignored the skirmishes around him. His sharp senses stayed alert, ready to strike if any dared cross his path.
And sure enough, after a few hundred meters, a figure approached.
A towering demon, easily over ten meters tall appeared beside Dex.
Its face was that of a bull, complete with massive horns spiraling out to either side. Its body was a grotesque mass of swollen muscle and oozing sores, covered with pus.
The demon stopped directly in Dex's path, its small, piggish eyes scanning him up and down.
A cruel sneer tugged at its lips.
"Entry and exit fees!" it barked in a voice like grinding stones.
The mode of action was no different from that of a toll collector in the mortal worldâcold, efficient, and utterly without sympathy.
'Middle-level demon. Not as strong as me,' Dex assessed automatically, his sharp instincts flaring to life the moment the bull-faced creature approached.
He was always comparing, always evaluating. It was a habit carved into his soul across countless battles of brutal battlefields and ceaseless struggle. Before making any decision, he measured himself against those around him, as naturally as breathing.
Shifting his crimson gaze slightly, Dex noticed a demon not far away also being charged the entry fee. With a casual glance, he saw the creature obediently hand over a gleaming soul crystalâroughly polished but pure in essence. Dex immediately appraised its quality with an expert's eye. It was nothing special, but good enough to satisfy the gatekeepers.
A slow smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Without hesitation, Dex lazily extended his hand behind him, his movements so casual it seemed he was merely brushing away dust. In an instant, a passing [Lower-Level Demon]âa shriveled, hunched creature with ragged wingsâerupted in a grotesque explosion of blood and viscera. A crimson mist filled the air, and scattered fragments of bone and flesh rained down.
The bystanders recoiled with gasps and low growls, instinctively backing away several paces, their eyes wide with a mixture of fear and awe.
From the drifting blood foam, Dex easily drew out a shimmering essence. With a mere thought, he condensed it into a freshly baked soul crystal, pure and warm, as if it had only just been born from the fires of the Abyss itself.
Ignoring the horrified stares now boring into him from every direction, Dex casually tossed the crystal at the bull-faced toll collector with a flick of his wrist.
"No need to give change," Dex said, his voice dry and unconcerned, as if he were buying a loaf of bread rather than paying with the life of another being.
The bull-faced demon caught the crystal with a grunt, weighing it with a practiced hand. His crimson eyes narrowed slightly, scrutinizing Dex as if reassessing him.
Then, without a word, the demon tossed a token toward Dexâa slab of dark iron etched with blood-red glyphs, smeared with foul-smelling pus oozing from the boils that covered the demon's bloated body.
He turned away without ceremony, moving to the next traveler without even glancing back at the scene Dex had caused.
There was no outrage, no justice here.
In this brutal land, violence was as ordinary as breathing, and the strong were law.
Dex smirked slightly at the indifference. As expected. Even if they tried to imitate human cities, demons would never abandon their true nature.
Still, he wasn't about to walk into a city clutching a disgusting, pus-covered token.
With a wave of his hand, blood-red flames ignited at his fingertips, searing away the foul residue clinging to the metal. The token gleamed dully under the dark sky, finally worthy of being carried.
He tucked it into the folds of his tattered cloak and strode forward, crossing the threshold into the city proper.
---
The first thing that hit him was the sheer size of it all.
"It's really... massive," Dex muttered under his breath, unable to fully suppress the awe in his voice.
Before him stretched a road over a thousand meters wide, paved with slabs of volcanic obsidian, each piece bigger than a house. Gargantuan buildings towered into the sky like jagged black mountains, their spires crowned with flames, lightning, or swirling clouds of corruption.
Even the most common taverns and marketplaces here were larger than entire castles in the mortal world.
Dex sighed like a bumpkin.
Touching his chin, he felt that since. "I can't lose face in my future domain, Dex thought grimly, running a hand across his chin. If I'm going to become a [Lord of the Abyss], my lair needs to be even more grand than this."
He chuckled softly at the thought.
"It's so bigâŠ" a voice echoed faintly behind him, repeating his sentiment almost word for word.
Dex's sensitive ears caught it immediately, and although he didn't recognize the language, the meaning filtered into his mind naturallyâan instinctive gift of his demonic lineage.
Curious, he turned slightly to glance back.
A small group of humans had entered the city right after him.
There were four of them: two men, two women, all clad in distinctly different clothing that hinted at a mix of cultures and origins. Their gear was rugged but well-maintainedâadventurers, mercenaries, or perhaps something more clandestine.
The young man who had spoken was the closest to Dex's age in appearance, with short-cropped brown hair and a cautious expression. He stared up at the vast city with wide, awestruck eyes, clearly overwhelmed.
Dex had no idea about their identities or purpose, nor did he want to attack them.
It's not just him, but also the demons who long for human souls.
Because humans who can go deep into the abyss, no matter how weak they are, have some skills and are generally very troublesome, so there are no demons here that will trouble them.
The other party obviously understood this, so although he still looked a little vigilant, his behavior was relatively casual.
Dex's gaze swept over them briefly, noting the tense way they carried themselves, the way their hands hovered near their weapons.
They were already wary of himâand rightly so.
Only a few minutes ago, outside the gate, they had witnessed him crush another demon like it was nothing more than a fly. In their minds, he was a creature of unimaginable danger.
In their minds, this is an absolutely dangerous target!
As Dex's gaze lingered on them, the humans stiffened, their bodies taut with barely restrained fear. One of the women, a red-haired warrior with a battle-scarred shield, gripped her sword so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Dex merely tilted his head in amusement.
He turned away without a second thought and continued deeper into the city.
Behind him, the humans released a collective breath of relief, as if a storm cloud had passed by without striking.
The young leader wiped cold sweat from his brow, his hand still trembling slightly.
His master's words echoed in his mind: "Beware the ones who wear human faces, but radiate the scent of the abyss. They are the worst of demons."
The leader let out a sigh of relief. His master once told him that the more human-like a demon is, the more dangerous it is. Dex's somewhat human-like face gave him a very bad feeling, and he really didn't want to fight with him.
Staring after Dex's departing figure, the young man couldn't shake the feeling of standing in the presence of something far older, far more terrible than he could comprehend.
"This damn place," he muttered under his breath, "let's finish the mission and get the hell out of here⊠before we really piss something off."
*****
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