Apathy 

Warning - since yesterday, I have been deliberating on whether or not to publish this chapter after all, this book doesn't have a 'dark' tag. but ehh... I've come to the realization that IDGAF. so umm... enjoy.

---

Nine beats later, in a vast room, countless Jackal demon corpses litter the ground. 

Cuniculus, standing in the center of the corpses, is holding down a struggling Jackal demon. The demon has a short stature, red fur, and green pupils. As the demon continues to struggle, purple blood trickles from its eyes, nose, and ears. 

Still holding down the jackal demon, Cuniculus watches coldly as his seed tries to implant itself into the soul of the jackal. 

Crack, crack, crunch 

Arrhhh… ahhh… rrrrr… 

Crack

Arrrhhhhhhh 

Raising a brow, Cuniculus tilts his head in confusion as he tries to comprehend why the demon's bones, skin, and muscles are being destroyed. 

The bleeding is understandable. With a foreign object entering the soul, the body will try to assimilate it. If assimilation fails, the body will attempt to expel it, even if that means pressuring blood out of the body, thus explaining the bleeding incident. After all, the seed was made using the structure of abominations as a reference. 

An Abomination is something the abyss itself has to put some effort into destroying. How could the defense mechanism of a demon below a demon general do anything to it? Even if it's not the real thing, wanting to expel it is nothing more than a pipe dream. 

Pop, splatter 

One of the demon's eyeballs suddenly explodes, sending blood and gooey substances strewing about.

Arghhh... Gurgle, Gurgle 

First was a sharp yelp of pain, then what followed was choking, as blood began to clog up the lungs of the demon. 

A few minutes later, after letting out a distorted soft whimper, life vanishes from the demon Jackal's remaining eye.

---

Pulling out a sheet of parchment and a blood quill, Cuniculus begins noting down his observations.

Date: Beat 7,653 since the 54th Layer

Time: 4 hours from the next beat

Subject: Binding the seed of return

Notes: Test subject No. 11,423,

It took 12 minutes for the seed to enter the soul, after 7 minutes of assimilation, its body began to enter the state of rejection. 

The subject first experienced pain, and then after 2 minutes, the subject's skin started to crack. 

Simultaneously the muscle fibers rupture, starting from the muscles located in the head. 

32 min from the start of the experiment, the organs swelled from the inside and finally popped. 

The subject died after 34 minutes of experimentation.

Result: Test #11,423 Failed

Achievements: 

Time for the seed to enter the soul- 17 minutes -> 12 minutes. 

Amount of bleeding- 6 Liters -> 1.7 Liters 

An unknown variable caused the body of the demon to react negatively, i.e. popping organs. 

---

Putting away the notes, cuniculus walks out of the room. After several twists and turns, he encounters a stairway leading underground. 

tap, tap, tap

Soft footsteps echo inside an underground prison. Numerous Jackel demons, around two thousand in total could be seen chained to the floor. 

The smell of blood and rotting flesh enters Cuniculus's nose as he gets closer to the demons. Opening the gate to the nearest cell, cuniculus casually destroys the chains of a nearby demon. 

Grrrr... Swoosh 

As soon as its chains are removed, the demon immediately pounces on Cuniculus, attempting to claw him in half. Unfortunately,

Crack 

with a crunching sound, the demon's claws break into pieces as it touches Cuniculus's skin. 

"Test subject No 11,424 please behave"

With that, Cuniculus grabs the demon by the throat and drags it toward the previous room for another round of experiments.

---

A man with muscular, well-toned arms could be seen chopping down trees in the periphery of a vast forest. Sweat could be seen trickling down the man's face. Wiping his forehead in exhaustion, Ryan turns around and tosses a storage pouch towards a boy of around 7 years old. "Help me store the logs and branches in this pouch."

Catching the pouch, James, previously sitting on a tree stump, jumps up with excitement and starts running around the clearing. The logs, each around seven meters tall and three meters in diameter, turns into translucent particles before entering the storage bag. 

Watching his son run around, a smile makes its way into Ryan's face. 

"Daddy!!! Daddy, I finished!!" Running up to his father, James stares at Ryan with an expecting beam on his face as if saying, 'Hurry up, praise me.' 

Chuckling, Ryan ruffles his son's hair. "Stupid brat, Well Done."

"I'm not a brat!!" glaring at Ryan, James sticks out his tongue, turns around, and starts running toward the city in the distance. 

With another soft chuckle, Ryan follows at a leisurely pace. 

Arriving at the city gate, James turns around only to see his father in the distance. "Daddy, you're so slow!!!" 

Hearing James's taunt in the distance, Ryan rolls his eyes and quickens his pace. 

The guards of Brown Wood City, dressed in shiny silver armor, stare at this scene in amusement. 

"Cheeky brat." Arriving at the gate, Ryan gives his son a gentle knock on the head. Then, from the storage pouch, he takes out both his and his son's proof of residency. Showing it to one of the guards, who in turn lets out a nod, the duo enters the city.

The city, filled with Myriad colors, glimmers with vitality. Numerous pedestrians wander the city, enter shops, or loiter about. Children of all ages could be seen running around. 

Seeing the look of yearning in James's eyes, Ryan gives his head another soft knock. "Go play with your friends, make sure you're back home before dark."

"Yeah!!!" Hearing his father's words, James lets out a joyous shout and joins the running children. 

Shaking his head Ryan makes his way toward Bazaar Alley, a place to sell and purchase common goods. 

Halfway towards his destination,

Tsshhhh, crack, crack

With the sound of tearing paper and shattering glass, dense cracks appear in the sky, giving off the illusion that the world is about to shatter. 

Oozing from between the cracks is a dark purple fog. Within a span of a few seconds, the fog spreads several kilometers. 

Crack, Crack, Crack

Under everyone's baffled gaze, the cracks continue to widen, until… 

Puchi 

An arm of massive proportions protrudes from the crack. 

Clench… 

Under everyone's horrified gazes the arm grabs the edges and pulls down, turning the crack into a wide tunnel. Staring into the tunnel, one can see an army of innumerable grotesque creatures staring back at them.

Their eyes tell a tale of unspoken madness, one of Bloodthirst, and longing for cruelty. 

Suddenly the arm vanishes, following its disappearance…

Boom, Boom, Boom 

Like a swarm, the creatures rush out of the tunnel. Craters of destruction are left behind in their wake. 

With the noise of destruction, everyone wakes up from their stupor. Panic settles in, the previously cheerful atmosphere now reverberates with cries of despair. 

Looking around, Ryan sees people either being torn to shreds or eaten alive. Suddenly, Ryan's pupils dilate, and a thought suddenly struck. "JAMES!!!!"

Running in the direction where the children were playing, Ryan dodges falling rubble while attempting to hide from the sight of the creatures. 

Perhaps by a stroke of luck, Ryan safely arrives at his destination only to find the corpses of several children decorating the ground. 

Trembling in fear, Ryan scans the corpses but lets out a nervous sigh of relief when James' body isn't found. 

"P… Perhaps he ran home to hide." 

Whispering to himself in mock comfort, Ryan was about to run toward his house when…

"Daddy!!!"

Hearing his son's voice behind him, Ryan quickly turns around. Fear and Relief appear on his face as he and his child run towards each other. 

Swoosh, Puchi 

Arggghh

A demon suddenly throws a door at Ryan. Under the demon's excited eyes, the door smashes Ryan's legs, turning them into a pile of mesh. 

"DAAAAAADDY!!!!!! 

James let out a horrified scream, running faster toward Ryan. 

Hmm… 

A look of confusion appears on the demon's face. Then, as if coming to a realization, the demon vanishes from its spot and reappears behind James.

"BASTARD F*CK YOU!!! NOOOOOO!! STOPP IT!!!"

With a blood-curdling yell, Ryan watches helplessly as the demon picks up James with one hand by the head and takes a big bite out of his arm. 

AHHHHHHHH…. 

"DADDY, IT HURTS!!!!"

"YOU BASTARD, YOU BASTARD, YOU BASTARD!!!"

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!

Staring down at the wailing human, A look of boredom appears in the eye of the demon. Using the little cub in its hands as a hammer, the demon smashes it at the head of the human. 

BOOM!!! 

Throwing away the pile of mesh, the demon scampers off, in search of another toy. 

—-

Inside a bright and beautiful palace, countless trees of immeasurable beauty let out intermittent shimmers. The trees form a forest so breathtaking one can become lost in reverie. 

Deep within the forest, a ghostly purple figure stares intently at the rock, giving the impression that the rock is so profound. Behind the figure, stands a 2 meter-tall ancient-looking pillar. On top of the pillar lies a purple Crystal ball. If one looks into the ball, one can see the scene of a man getting smashed to death with a single-armed child. 

Swoosh 

A man dressed in clown attire suddenly appears behind the figure, next to the clown is a baby on all fours. Around the neck of the baby is a dog collar labeled Pam. 

Reluctantly looking away from the rock, the ghostly figure turns towards the clown and asks in an annoyed tone, "Crudelitas the clown, the f*ck do you want! This better be important."

A disdainful smile appears on the clown's face. "Ohh… do you think you're some hotshot because you're now a demon king?"

"I've simply come to inform you to keep an eye out for a demon named Caeruleum Falco.' The Lord placed his mark on him, but suddenly the mark disappeared. By the way…" the clown pulls out a translucent crystal and crushes it. After crushing it a strange feeling envelopes the surroundings. "… this is what his soul signature feels like. He was previously in a small world in Finlay, but even after reducing that world to dust, we've been unable to find him. Now, all we could do is randomly search for him.

Hopefully, he isn't in Nirvana Fall, those winged maggots are annoying. 

By the way, I've been meaning to ask, I've seen you eat several times, as a ghost how is that possi…" 

WOULD YOU SHUT THE F*CK UP!!!

I'll look for that Falcon or whatever, now get lost!

"Tsk, quick to lose our temper, aren't we? So much for being apathetic." The clown lets out a disdainful smirk. "Bye Bye." 

With that, the clown and the baby vanish, returning the scene to its previous tranquility. 

Turning around, the ghostly figure was about to once again stare at the rock when suddenly, a hooded demon appeared with its head bowed down as it kneels on the dirt. 

"My king, world 246,789 will be conquered in seven hours. Once we acquire it, the 55th layer will form. How would you like me to proceed?"

"So, it's time huh? …Ready an army where the new layer will form. Once it forms ensure to take control of it." 

"What if the other kings make a move?"

Staring down at his ghostly hands, the demon replies, "If we get it, we get it. If we don't, we don't. A single layer won't do much in the grand scheme of things anyway. But if you manage to acquire it. You'll be in charge of managing the territory."

The kneeling demon trembles in excitement.

"I won't let down your trust my lord, I'll be sure to spread your emblem to every corner of the 55th layer. 

May all demons tremble before the might of the great demon king, Apathy.