Chapter 638: Fury of the Abyss (II)

On the other side of space, Oscar, who had successfully escaped to the Pale Kingdom and destroyed the natural passage between the two realms, had no idea what Donald was thinking. Frustrated and enraged by this failure, he vented his anger. Throughout his long reign as a demon lord, aside from being besieged by the four supreme gods and several true god-level enemies a thousand years ago, he had never been in such a predicament before. Yet, as the once supreme King of the Multiverse, he calmed down after venting his emotions and began to think about his next move.
According to him, Dorison was already fallen, and Layer 422 could not be taken for now. So, it would be better to take control of Layer 421 first to avoid any further surprises. The Pale Kingdom was originally a paradise for undead creatures, so it was even easier for Oscar, the king of the undead, to take control here than for ordinary demon lords.
Two days passed quickly after returning to the Howling Fortress. Aside from the defeated Oscar, no outsiders appeared, allowing Amps to smoothly take initial control of the entire Layer 422 realm.
“Congratulations!”
Seeing Amps’ strength increase slightly, Donald offered his congratulations.
Amps humbly said, “It’s all thanks to my master!”
Donald nodded in satisfaction and said, “Since you’ve successfully taken control of this realm, it can no longer be called Yenogu’s domain. We need to give Layer 422 a new, impressive name!”
Amps, somewhat overwhelmed, said, “It’s better if you come up with a name! I really can’t think of anything good.”
Donald didn’t hesitate. With a thought, he said, “How about calling it Hell? This place will be the destination and prison for the souls of sinners from the material realm after death. What do you think?”
“Hell? That’s a good name—more unique than the Pale Kingdom or the Death Wasteland!”
“Also, as the ruler of this realm, your name must change too. Your true name will be preserved, but from today onward, your new name will be Astimos, the King of Hell!”
Donald’s words filled Astimos—now truly Astimos—with excitement.
“I am the King of Hell…”
A demon’s greatest aspiration is to become a great demon lord, even someone like one of the Three Giants of the Abyss.

Ampos once possessed semi-divine powers in his early years. Shortly after becoming the lord of the eighth layer, he was defeated by his rivals’ schemes and became a plaything of the Spider Queen. After centuries of decline, he was forced to serve Donald, who was then still a mortal mage. From initial reluctance, he gradually became loyal, and now he obeys and revere Donald completely—the hardships he endured are beyond description to outsiders.

Now, he has finally achieved the status of a lord of an abyssal realm. Moreover, he is not one of those lowly demon lords at the semi-divine level; instead, he is a lord of an abyssal realm that governs a vast plane, with power reaching the peak of lower deities—a status that ranks him as an intermediate figure among the demon lords of various abyssal layers.

With the support of his master behind him, Astimos is confident in striving to reach the realm of demon monarchs like the Three Giants of the Abyss.

After establishing the plane’s title and the lord’s name, the entire 422nd layer seemed to come to life, as if it officially recognized its title and the existence of its lord.

“Now go and move this plane away from the Pale Kingdom. But not too far!”

Following Donald’s orders, the Abyssal Demon Forger immediately took action, moving the 422nd layer toward the middle depths of the abyss. Along the way, it passed by Layer 421, yet the King of the Undead surprisingly did not intervene.

About half a month later, Layer 422 was already above Layer 421, at a certain distance but not too far away.

Since it was moving within the abyssal orbits, although moving a plane required immense energy, it faced little resistance. This was because even the planes between the various layers of the abyss are not fixed.

The multiverse has a roughly tree-like structure. Due to the energy impacts from higher layers onto lower ones, the entire abyss at its base, like the roots, spins in a spiral at all times, similar to the vortex formed at the drain of a bathtub.

The abyss serves as the funnel of the entire multiverse, or rather, a waste disposal site. All negative, toxic, and impure energies generated in the universe settle from the upper and middle material planes to the bottomless abyss of the lower layers. After being filtered through this funnel, they become the purest forms of energy and are returned to the multiverse.

Thus, although the abyss is regarded as a cancer by most other layers, it is an indispensable part of the universe. Above the abyss lies the Netherworld, where demons are born from evil and chaotic soul fragments rejected by the Netherworld, carrying numerous impurities.

As powerful demon lords from the material plane and other dimensions occasionally lured or seized other lives, even conquering entire planes, the Abyss of Endlessness—originally meant as a dumping ground—grew increasingly larger, eventually becoming too vast to control. For various reasons, few abyssal lords were willing to move their own planes; not only did it consume too much of their strength, but the biggest issue was that if they became weak, their demons might rebel. Moreover, enemies might take advantage of their weakened strength to attack! Without Donald’s support, Astymos wouldn’t have expended so much energy on such a futile change. “Next, we’ll recruit demons and spread Oscar’s message!” At Donald’s signal, Astymos, as the lord of the Hell plane, opened a passage between Layer 422 and several other layers of the Abyss, recruiting a group of demons with modest strength but significant potential for growth. Most of these were demons who had not fared well in their original planes; they were nominally under the rule of those plane lords but were actually ignored by them. Once war broke out between a plane lord and another dimension, they would undoubtedly serve as perfect pawns. Thus, faced with the recruitment of a new demon lord—a powerful Abyssal Alchemist—they, being cunning and evil yet reverent of the strong, rarely refused. In their original planes, they were just insignificant pawns, but on Layer 422, they became direct subordinates of the lord, with a vast difference in status. At Donald’s suggestion, Astymos recruited mostly highly intelligent demons like horned demons and succubi, as well as a few smaller but powerful species such as ice demons and bone demons. Remarkably, due to Astymos’s status as an Abyssal Alchemist, he also attracted other demons from other Abyssal Alchemists’ domains. “Master! Everything is almost done. Shall we proceed to the next step?” Hearing Astymos’s report, Donald’s avatar spoke, “Then seal the plane now!” “Yes, master!”

Seeing Astymos look nervous, Donald smiled and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll help you later. I’ll remove all external obstacles—just focus on completing your own mission!”
Seeing Donald’s confident demeanor, Astymos’s emotions stabilized a bit.
But upon thinking about the insane plan he and his master were about to carry out, even though he had become a god-like, powerful Abyssal Lord and King of the Hell Realm, Astymos still couldn’t help feeling a mix of fear and excitement.
After Astymos took control of the Howling Fortress and sealed off the entire space of the Hell Realm, Donald first released a golden book-shaped shadow. Infinite divine light spread throughout the realm, completely blocking any spatial barriers inside or outside.
“Let’s begin!”
As soon as Donald spoke, Astymos nodded solemnly. Then, the entire 422nd layer of the realm suddenly trembled as if struck by an earthquake.
At the same time, all realms in the Infinite Abyss also shook collectively.
This was an extremely rare occurrence, immediately drawing the attention of the powerful demons. It usually only happened when some major event affecting the interests of the entire Abyss occurred.
For a moment, all the demon lords searched for the cause of the Abyss’s tremors.
Meanwhile, a piece of news caught the attention of many Abyssal lords and demon gods: the rumor that Oscar, the King of the Undead, hadn’t died and was about to return to the Abyss had been confirmed.
In the talkative world of the Abyss, once a secret was known by multiple beings, it could no longer be kept hidden. Although the lords in the nearby layers had united to try to suppress this news and gain maximum benefits from it, the news that Oscar had returned to the Abyss, killed the King of the Werewolves, Yenogu, and his once loyal subordinate, the King of the Ghouls, Doreson, absorbed their powers, and taken control of the Pale Kingdom on the 421st layer of the Abyss, still spread rapidly throughout the Abyss and even other realms in the main world.
This news made many powerful Abyssal beings focus on the area of the 421st layer, while the 422nd layer, the Hell Realm that actually caused these changes, received little attention. It was quietly beginning to drift away from the Abyss’s orbit, slowly moving upward.

Only the demons in a few nearby planes had heard that a new master had taken control of Plane 422, but none of them cared to pay attention to the fate of this lucky demon lord; they were all drawn to the astonishing news of Oscar’s return.