The sounds of strangulation—chains rattling, claws tearing at hair—echoed from the ceiling of an amethyst mountain. Above, trees jutted downward from the crystal roof, their branches draped with yellowish sheets of skin like hanging pages.
Purple-feathered creatures fluttered among them—birds without any clear racial distinction. Whatever they were, they were unmistakably the same species, marked by five wings and as many as eight eyes clustered across their faces.
They carried mutilated animals—crows, vultures, and other land creatures—skewering the corpses onto empty crystal branches. Blood seeped from the prey as the branches drained through the carcasses.
Feeding the trees' future parchment cycle.
The birds lifted off the branches, circling above while overlooking the thousands of young demons chained along the walls below.
Different kinds of demons were cradled like twisted newborns as they waited for the island to fully tip over. Insects in black and natural colors. Others in red, blue, or still pale white.
They all felt anticipation.
And joy.
…Well, most of them did.
Trembling. Uneven. Uncontrolled.
Those chained near a decapitated body shook violently. They didn't want to be next—to fall into its torturous grasp.
"C'mon," a raspy imitation of demonic speech whispered into the ears of a needle-spiked demon. The voice was muffled by strands of hair wrapped tightly around its face.
It hung from the ceiling—suspended—its severed head tethered by hair coiled around the red-skinned demon's body.
"I don't want to drag this out," Qiren said calmly as his face drew closer. "Torturing children isn't something I'm keen on."
His four eyes slid into a diagonal alignment—two on his forehead, the other pair opening along his cheeks.
"Just nod twice… and close your eyes~"
The demon stared at Qiren's sunken skin where eye sockets should have been—then at the two crimson pairs staring back at it. It trembled.
"Agree to the contract," Qiren continued softly, "and I'll let you go."
"You'll only have to forfeit every five souls you collect. Isn't that a steal~?"
The demon hesitated.
Then—slowly—it nodded once.
Twice.
Its eyes squeezed shut.
Beside it, the contract burned.
Azure fire licked across the parchment, reducing it to drifting ash as the terms took hold.
Qiren pulled back.
In truth, he could have taken the demon's soul right then—devoured it for short-term gain. The hunger was there. The temptation, constant.
But now that he possessed the authority to form contracts, something else had surfaced.
An instinct colder than hunger.
Calculation.
His inner businessman stirred.
These demons would eventually be released. They would descend to the first layer of the Abyss—the true playground of demons and monsters. A place far more dangerous than the nursery they were born into.
Survival would become harder.
Souls would be harder to collect.
Rather than consuming these demons for a short-term head start, Qiren chose to capitalize.
Every demon he could coerce, he turned into a scout.
Every scout became a steady stream of souls.
Piece by piece, contract by contract, he began laying the foundation of a network—one that would follow him into the first floor of the Abyss.
Qiren lingered a moment longer, his severed head still coiled among hair and demonic red flesh, eyes drifting across the chained masses below.
"…Ten," he murmured.
"In three hours, I've gotten ten contracts so far."
Some had resisted. Some had begged. Some had clenched their teeth and tried to endure the pain inflicted on them—until they realized he wouldn't stop until they complied.
It was a start.
His gaze shifted downward.
The cavern trembled.
At the far end of the vast cavity—where jagged crystal walls yawned open to the void beyond—light began to bleed inward.
Not fire.
Not flame.
But a slow, solemn glow.
A bridge was forming.
It emerged inch by inch from nothingness, solidifying as it advanced, as if reality itself were being persuaded to give way. Its surface gleamed like polished obsidian and pale gold, inscribed with flowing patterns reminiscent of ancient sigils—cloud motifs, rolling waves, and coiling beasts half-lost to time.
Along its edges hung lanterns.
Dozens of them.
Each swayed gently despite the absence of wind, warm amber light spilling into the abyssal cavern. Silk tassels fluttered beneath them, casting soft shadows over the crystal walls and the chained demons below.
The glow painted their faces in gold and shadow.
A path.
A summons.
"The bridge…" Qiren muttered. "So it's almost time."
The first passage.
The descent.
A low, instinctive murmur rippled through the chained juveniles as they noticed it too—fear, excitement, hunger, dread. The true Abyss was calling.
Qiren clicked his tongue softly.
"Can't be late."
His hair uncoiled from the demon it had bound and shot upward in a dozen hardened strands. They pierced into the amethyst ceiling with wet, cracking sounds, embedding deep into the brittle crystal.
With a sharp pull, his head reeled upward.
Strands retracted and re-anchored in rapid succession, dragging him across the inverted terrain like a spider reclaiming its web. Crystal shattered beneath each grip as he climbed—fast now, efficient.
His body came into view—still bound, still chained, seated among the others.
Qiren's hair lashed outward.
His head slammed cleanly back into place.
Flesh knit.
Sensation returned.
He exhaled slowly as his four eyes settled, rolling his neck once as if nothing unnatural had occurred.
Above him, the lantern-lit bridge continued to advance, nearly complete now.
Qiren smiled faintly.
"First floor," he whispered.
"And I'm going in with assets."
The chains shuddered.
A deep, grinding groan echoed through the amethyst mountain as ancient mechanisms awakened—stone shifting, crystal grinding against crystal. One by one, the bindings around the juveniles began to loosen.
Not break.
Lower.
Links slid through unseen anchors, pulling taut before descending in controlled increments. The demons hanging from the walls were guided downward rather than dropped, until their feet brushed solid ground for the first time since awakening.
Clank.
Clank.
Clank.
Chains detached, dissolving into broken links that sank into the crystal floor.
A hush spread through the cavern.
Then—
The bridge pulsed.
Lantern-light brightened, and the obsidian-and-gold path extended fully beyond the chamber.
An unspoken command settled over them.
Move.
The juveniles obeyed.
Demons of every shape and distortion stepped onto the bridge—chitin scraping, bones clicking, mist trailing from half-formed bodies. Some walked stiffly, unused to their limbs. Others moved with feral confidence, eyes fixed forward.
Qiren joined them, his steps unhurried.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the mountain began to open.
The cavern mouth yawned wide, crystal walls peeling apart like a broken shell.
Light—true, boundless light—flooded in.
They emerged.
The island was upside down.
Above them—no, below them—the vast underworld stretched endlessly. Far beneath the inverted island churned an ocean frozen mid-motion, its surface locked in blue fire.
The Blue Sea.
Waves of azure flame rolled without heat or sound, stretching farther than sight could reach. Currents of glowing blue light pulsed beneath its surface like veins in a living thing.
Every demon felt it.
The first law.
The punishment of the Endless Blue Sea—the road to the Azure Pit.
Fall into it, and eternity would not be kind.
The bridge rose gently, angling upward away from the island's jagged underside. As they walked, Qiren glanced back once, watching the amethyst mountain recede—its crystalline face scarred with claw marks from struggling hatchlings that had tried to climb upward.
He didn't know how many had succeeded.
Or how many had failed—how many bodies and souls had been lost to the Endless Blue Sea below.
GgRrrr—
A red-skinned demon—taller than the average 127–130 cm juveniles, standing closer to 151 cm—growled viciously. A savage scowl twisted its face. Its skin was burned in patches, pierced with puncture wounds. Its gaze locked onto Qiren as it charged, arms raised.
—!!!
The one-way crowd parted.
"So you're already trying to take me out, huh~?" Qiren laughed, reaching into his satchel and pulling out keratin beaks. "Come at me with all you've got."
He rushed forward, improvised blades aimed straight for his opponent's gut.
"GGRRRR—!"
The demon roared, claws swinging down.
Clink!!
The strike landed first—sheer brute strength slicing clean through one dagger.
"Iron Tread—Strike!!!"
Qiren's hair flared violently, shooting forward and piercing into the demon's forearm as he flooded the strands with Qi. They hardened instantly, taking on iron-like strength—just as they did when he detached them to form needles.
SWISH!
He drove his remaining dagger into the demon's throat.
"I told you I wasn't keen on killing children," Qiren said sternly, dragging the beak down toward an artery. "But I'm not afraid of setting an example for anyone planning to attack me next."
He ripped the blade free and stabbed straight into its left eye.
"GRRRAAAA—!!"
The demon screamed, clutching its face as flames ignited around its fists.
SWISH—SWISH!
Wild punches lashed out, but Qiren weaved through them effortlessly. His fingers dipped back into his pouch, grasping another beak. He spun it through his scarf of flames, igniting it before slashing across the demon's arm.
—!!!
The creature grunted as a burning wound carved into its other forearm.
"Do you know what happens when you lose sight in both eyes?" Qiren asked calmly, stabbing into its remaining eye.
"First, you go into shock. Your movements become erratic as you fight with limited vision and depth perception."
He slipped back as the demon lunged blindly, jaws snapping.
"You slow down. You hesitate."
Qiren darted around it.
"Turning too quickly disorients you—especially when you've already been hanging for hours. Bleeding. Exhausted."
He burst forward at full speed. Instinctively, the demon raised its arms to protect its face.
Stab.
"Oh—and I forgot to mention," Qiren whispered, driving the keratin dagger straight through its heart, "those who've recently gone blind tend to guard their eyes."
He didn't pull the blade out.
Instead, he struck its neck with the dagger in his left hand—cutting deeper this time—then kicked the demon backward and wiped the bloodied blade on his own wounded arm.
The demon choked on its blood.
Qiren stepped forward and stomped down on the dagger still embedded in its chest—
CrrRack.
The blade sank deeper.
His eyes darkened.
He didn't look away, staring into the demon's blood-filled sockets as it weakly clawed at his ankles. Its strength was already gone, consciousness slipping.
Crackle—
The sky rumbled. Dark clouds rolled across the horizon as the wind howled. Demons on the bridge looked up, recognizing the familiar storm brewing once more.
Qiren lifted his foot, a hint of melancholy flickering through his gaze.
The red demon stopped twitching.
Its soul tore free from its body.
Qiren caught it.
He turned toward the back row, where another demon he had tormented stood frozen—uncertain whether revenge was worth defying the soul contract forced upon it.
Rumble. Rumble.
Flash.