Chapter 990: Elemental Chaos |
The Demon Car continued traveling east. The more it advanced, the more Elemental Displays Kyle witnessed. Their density increased to an unnatural level.
'I'm not surprised that there are barely any regular plants, animals, or beasts,' Kyle thought as he looked around. 'How is normal life supposed to prosper in this environment?'
Normal animals and plants were very susceptible to natural catastrophes. A tornado could uproot and kill them. A tsunami could drown them. A wildfire could burn them.
Kyle looked at one of the more extreme examples.
There was a huge volcano that was constantly spitting out lava, which flowed down its slopes. Some of the lava touched another black mountain and turned into more obsidian, increasing the size of the black mountain. Another flow of magma directly traveled to a spewing geyser, creating clouds of steam that clouded the surroundings.
If there were an animal present, it would need to keep away from all of these dangerous spots, and even if it managed to accomplish that, it would starve. No plants could grow in such an environment, which meant there were no herbivores, which meant there were no carnivores.
The Elements were supposed to allow life to prosper. The warmth of fire stopped life from freezing. The presence of water was a necessity for life. Plants and animals needed sturdy ground. Air was necessary to breathe.
Yet, the intensity of the Elements was too great here. There were barely any warm or cool areas, only sweltering and freezing. Most of the water was either steam or ice, and when there was liquid water, it flowed in tremendous, fast, and powerful streams. Earthquakes were common, and most of the ground wasn't made of fertile earth but hard and unforgiving rocks. Lastly, there was a constant storm that mimicked the intensity of the greatest storms on Earth. These were not obstacles for high-level Mortals, strong beasts, or Seekers, but for regular life, this environment was deadly.
Due to the overabundance of Demons, one would think that the Abyss was filled with life, but that was not the case. It was mostly dead and chaotic.
'This is crazy,' he thought. 'With such dense Elemental Energy, there should be several powerful Law Wells, but there are none. I've seen a bunch of Level One Law Wells, but only a few Level Two Law Wells. Lastly, I've only seen a single Level Three Law Well.'
While looking at the world, Kyle could imagine what the Elemental Dimension looked like.
A powerful Elemental claimed supremacy in one area, and its prolonged presence created a Law Well. The powerful Elemental would keep consuming, and eventually, its composition would change, creating a more powerful Elemental. The Law Well would advance a level, and if this were a normal world, it would keep going like this until it reached an equilibrium of Energy gained and used.
But here...
Kyle imagined a more powerful Elemental from the east traveling towards the west as it couldn't keep up with the competition anymore. During its journey west, it consumed and destroyed all the other Elementals, including the one that had created the Law Well. Eventually, the Elemental reached the big barrier and died. The Law Well would vanish, and everything would return to chaos.
'The Elemental Dimension must be filled to the brim. It's like a pressure cooker.'
During his advance, Kyle also noticed countless Demons shooting past him. Most of them were weaker than the Demon Car, but there were also some that were stronger. Surprisingly, not a single one attacked them. It was almost like they didn't even notice the Demon Car.
"We haven't been attacked ever since we reached the Abyss," Kyle commented.
"That's normal," Sebastian said with a casual tone. "The Demons that get sent to the front lines mindlessly follow commands. In fact, there are only two possible sets of commands they receive, unless they're supposed to be spies."
"Both sets are actually very similar but with different priorities. The first set consists of two orders. One, fly towards the west and kill everything in the Mortal Realm. Two, kill everything that attacks you. The other set also has two orders. One, kill every human you feel like you should kill. Two, fly towards the west and kill everything in the Mortal Realm."
"The first set of orders is given to the vast majority of Demons. They're just there to put pressure on Humanity. The second set of orders is given to stronger Demons. Most of these stronger Demons are also Fighter Demons. The only real difference between the sets is the priority. Demons with the first set do not actively attack Seekers unless attacked first. Demons with the second set actively attack Seekers unless there are no Seekers present."
"None of these orders contain anything about Demons, which is why all of them are ignoring us," Sebastian explained.
"How often do Spears get attacked?" Kyle asked.
"Not as often as you might think," Sebastian answered. "The vast majority of Demons ignore us, Spears. Really powerful Demons also ignore us. They're supposed to kill Seekers on their level, and their instincts tell them that they're not supposed to kill weaker humans. They're still Divine Beasts, after all. Weaker Demons also ignore us since they know they can't kill us. The only attacks the Spears experience are by Demons at a similar level."
"That sounds too easy," Kyle answered. "Just by changing the orders a bit, the Demons could make it impossible for you to even enter the Abyss."
"Manny called it hope," Sebastian said. "He said the orders are specifically given in this way to give Humanity some hope. Only if Humanity feels like they can advance into the Abyss will they fight with their full potential. As long as you put a door in a cage, the imprisoned party will feel some hope. The door doesn't need to lead anywhere. You can put another wall right behind the door, but as long as the imprisoned party can see and experiment with the door, they're more likely to feel hope. At least, that's how Manny explained it. He said it's a weird psychological thing."
"That sounds pretty advanced," Kyle said with furrowed brows. "Is the Overseer this intelligent?"
"Manny isn't sure," Sebastian said with a shrug. "So much time has passed that a natural evolution of this dynamic could have feasibly taken place. If you have millions of years, and if you just keep experimenting, at some point, you can see what works and what doesn't, even if you don't know why it works."
"He also said it's possible that the Overseer has existed for much longer than Humanity thinks. It's possible that the Overseer messed up in the beginning by making the Demons too strong. So, they killed all the powerful humans, wiped their records, and waited until they grew powerful enough again."
Kyle sighed. 'Way too many unknowns.'
As they kept talking, the Demon Car kept going towards the east, and after some years, it finally saw something else.
Vegetation.
When Kyle saw that, he knew that they had reached their most important checkpoint.
These plants were connected to the Demons, and if any of them sensed a human, they would alert the Demons. These plants were the reason why Humanity could only travel to the actual Abyss via a frontal assault.
If they managed to get past these plants without being noticed, they would have accomplished something unprecedented.
Everything hinged on how the plants would react to the Demon Car.
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