Chapter 689: The Nine Layers of Hell

After long discussions with the incarnation of the fallen monarch until the latter left hell, Donald turned his gaze away and swiftly arrived at the Palace of the King of Hell.
“Ashtimos, the great show is about to begin. Remember to play your role well!”
“I’ve been waiting for a long time!”
At these words, Ashtimos immediately stood up proudly from within the palace, gazing toward the outside of hell. Under the watchful eyes of both master and servant, time passed slowly, and soon a few days had gone by. For a true god, this short period was like just a few minutes for a mortal, so they wouldn’t lose patience.
On the eighth day, everything seemed normal until suddenly Donald’s expression changed as he sensed a powerful force erupting in the shallows of the abyss. The chaotic energy and violent fluctuations in the laws of space could be felt by all creatures in hell, even across two dimensions.
“It’s here!” said the King of Hell excitedly.
A massive surge of energy burst forth from the great crack in the middle of the Abyssal Plain on the first layer of the abyss, resembling a towering column of light reaching into the sky. With ease, as if a membrane were torn away on a maiden’s first night, it instantly pierced through the dimensional barrier between the fourth and highest layers of the abyss.
Taking advantage of this, the River of Darkness, which had already spread to more than half of the Abyssal Plain, quickly penetrated through the first, second, third, and fourth layers. Though only partial areas, with the River of Darkness’ immense power, these four layers would likely be fully connected soon.
With the active cooperation of the demon lord, even the will of the abyss couldn’t stop it. It should be noted that although the existence of the River of Darkness wouldn’t weaken the abyss’s control over its own power, it could exert a force second only to the abyss’s will within the abyss. Moreover, no one wanted another’s influence existing within their own body—especially since this influence was originally part of the abyss’s own plan, but someone else had taken it first and used it against them.
Thus, from the moment the River of Darkness appeared, the will of the abyss resisted its invasion with all its might. However, since the River of Darkness was recognized by the Multiverse and didn’t fundamentally conflict with the abyss, no matter how powerful the Abyss of Infinity was, it was still part of the Multiverse. Therefore, its resistance couldn’t be too strong and could only come from the will of the abyss itself.

As the River of Darkness penetrated the first four layers of the Abyss, making rapid progress, Donald immediately directed it to erode these four layers, especially the Fourth Layer—the Great Abyss. This massive pit, resembling giant pillars that ran through numerous layers of the Abyss, was undoubtedly the best route for him and the River of Darkness to invade the Abyss. If they could spread throughout the entire Great Abyss, traversing all layers of the Abyssal world would no longer be difficult!

Due to the chaotic and spiral-shaped nature of the Abyss, aside from the three major regions of shallow, middle, and deep layers, the Abyssal planes within each region were scattered and not arranged in a sequential order. The Great Abyss was thus the best path for the River of Darkness to penetrate the Abyssal world!

When this immense force erupted, penetrating the first four layers of the Abyss, several sizable fragments of space, driven by the shockwave of this force, surged upstream against the main flow of the River of Darkness, instantly breaking free from the Endless Abyss and heading toward Hell.

The Will of the Abyss emitted waves of fury. This situation was akin to the foolish plan that had once caused the upheaval in the Great Abyss, inflicting significant damage on the Abyss itself. And the culprit behind it had taken the opportunity to hide within these fragment planes, attempting to escape the Abyss—a betrayal utterly unforgivable to the Will of the Abyss.

So, as the force of the explosion gradually subsided, many powerful demons, inspired by the Will of the Abyss, pursued those drifting fragment planes.

Within the largest fragment of the Abyssal world that had broken away, Duke of Steel Dispat led a group of subordinates, constantly monitoring the movements in the Abyss behind them.

This collective escape from the Abyss was carried out under the secret orders of his master, the Fallen Monarch Mathius. Several demons from different domains and powerful demons with similar intentions joined forces to launch an attack on the Abyss.

By leveraging the power of an artifact’s self-destruction, they triggered the spatial forces of the Great Abyss Plane, instantly penetrating the first three layers and creating a passage.

Seizing this opportunity, they used the fragment planes formed by their respective domains to successfully break free from the Abyss’s control.

These powerful demons were headed for Hell, the realm opposed to the Abyss. They were all demons or other races who were not doing well in the Endless Abyss—some, like Dispat, were degenerate beings with their hearts elsewhere. Hell, a realm with bright prospects but still in its infancy, was perfect for their development.

The principle of “rather be a chicken’s head than an ox’s tail” holds true in any world, especially among those beings who have their own ideals for life and desire freedom. As a Dispat who has been fairly successful, this Iron Duke enjoys considerable influence among the non-demonic creatures of the Abyss, particularly among the human elves who have fallen from the main world. With just a slight encouragement from Dispat, many beings were swayed. Especially those who were doing particularly poorly decided to follow Dispat and take action. Time was of the essence; due to the urgency, some beings remained indecisive and might eventually choose to side with the Abyss, so Dispat didn’t give them much time to think. He immediately selected eight suitable candidates, most of whom were non-demonic beings—powerful Abyssal warriors between demi-gods and legends—who together launched this astonishing uprising. They activated a divine artifact provided by the Lord of Perdition to break through the Abyssal barrier and plunge fragments of other realms into Hell. This was a move meant to win the favor of the will of Hell. If they could successfully reach the Hell realm, they would surely receive great rewards, possibly even breaking through their current limits to achieve true immortality. However, escaping the Abyss’s wrathful punishment and the pursuit of those demonic warriors was the most critical challenge. Success or failure hinged on this. The eight former Abyssal warriors were somewhat anxious, but Dispat, the mastermind behind this plan, was full of confidence, clearly having backups, which also calmed the others somewhat. “Lord Dispat, could it be we have some powerful reinforcements?” asked one of the dark elf warriors. Dispat smiled lightly. “Just watch closely. Though the will of the Abyss is powerful, it is not all-knowing or all-powerful. Outside the Abyss, it can only rely on the strength of Abyssal creatures to achieve its goals. As long as we can enter the Hell realm and break free from the Abyss’s influence, even the will of the Abyss won’t be able to affect us!” Shortly after saying this, they saw a powerful presence approaching from behind. “Sure enough, they’re here!” The most prominent among the pursuers were several demi-god demons and three powerful beings at the level of demon lords, followed by thousands of formidable demons, the weakest of which were already at the level of golden great demons.

Seeing such pursuers, the faces of those former Abyssal powerhouses changed instantly. Looking at the fierce pursuers and then at the calm Dispat, no one spoke for a moment. Since they were uncontrolled fragments of dimensions, their drifting speed began to slow down once they lost the explosive force derived from the Abyss. With the deliberate push of several demi-god powerhouses, they were descending toward Hell. At this point, although Hell’s dimension was visible to the naked eye and seemed within reach, it was an illusion caused by its vastness. In reality, there was still at least tens of thousands of kilometers between them. Although these dimension fragments moved slowly in the void, describing their weight as “mountainous” would still be an understatement. Relying solely on the weakened strength of those demi-god powerhouses who had left the Abyss, it was quite difficult to push these fragments toward Hell. Yet they couldn’t abandon them either, as they were the offerings that would earn them rewards from Hell’s will. Without these contributions, even if they reached Hell, they would gain little benefit, just like in the Abyss. As the pursuers closed in, a beam of light—infinitesimally smaller than the dimension fragments but seemingly carrying the power of a world—was shot out. The Abyssal pursuers were instantly erased by this beam, including two demi-god demons and a newly risen god-level demon lord. This phenomenon terrified the remaining demon pursuers, who fled in panic. The beam ignored them and directly swept over the dimension fragments where Dispat and the others were, gathering those dozen or so fragments together and dragging them rapidly toward Hell. Roaring sounds of anger came from the Abyss, but they were useless. Soon, these dimension fragments came into contact with Hell’s vast dimension. Aside from the fragment occupied by Dispat and the others, the other dozen fragments, created by the detonation of artifacts, varied in size—ranging from a diameter of just over a dozen kilometers to a semi-dimensional realm as large as a kingdom. The fragment where Dispat was located was almost as large as a small material dimension, increasing the volume of Hell by about one-tenth. However, the beam did not immediately merge these fragments with Hell’s space. Instead, it merged the smaller fragments into pairs, eventually forming eight large semi-dimensional realms of high quality, which were stacked atop the original Hell dimension.

Including the original Hell Core Plane, Hell is now composed of nine planes from top to bottom. It stands opposite the Endless Abyss at the bottom of the lower realms. Although except for the largest and most complete layer at the very bottom, the others are still in their infancy and cannot compare to the vastness of the entire abyss, at least the power of just the few shallow abyss planes is no longer sufficient to pose an overwhelming threat to Hell!