[Zero] (2)

In the [Gap] of [Time]

A being stuck in that [Gap] was being gazed down by another existence that made it so that he would be stuck in the [Gap]. But, unbeknownst to the being himself, the [Gap] he believed to be stuck in had shattered way before, but he was oblivious of that fact, because he was unconscious at that time.

The "being" being Ivan while the "another existence" being the eye.

Ivan, who was now in the [Fifth World Of Hell] or the [Final World Of Hell], sat atop of a humanoid demon, which he had just hunted, with a strange profound aura surrounding him.

[Fifth World Of Hell] or [Final World Of Hell] was a planet that was similar to what were described in the stories from back on Earth, it had volcano bubbling mountains, some even oozing lava, with cliffs pouring blazing hot lava like waterfalls, darkened lands, lightless caves, random bubbling lava pools, cloudless night sky, with crimson moon that oozed extreme ominousness.

Whatever armour his body was adorned in before coming to [Hell] had worn out and had fallen apart, due to which he had used the skins of the demons he hunted to cover himself, which were bandages like, that covered his entire body except for his left arm, that still had its own armour, but it was topped off with a jawless skull of a demon, whose right horn seemed to have crumbled, which armoured his right shoulder.

The "bandages" covering him had turned pitch-black due to the dried up, thick blood with chunks of flesh and black-water, and the skin itself being dried up on it.

But still, his lower body, his genitals were covered with a dense hide of beast like demon's, for his own convenience.

He had shoulder length pitch-black hair, with not even mere sign of his shadow being seen on or around him, his black eyes glimmered like gems even on the dull, blazing lands of [Hell], with his expressionless expressions reflecting his pride and arrogance extremely clearly, as he sat like a sovereign even on a mere but 6 meter tall dead demon's , tattered and holes filled body, that showed sings of being hit by a dense blunt object, with nothing of the likes visible bring dropped in the surroundings.

A few steps away from him was a red-haired woman with well endowed figure, gazing at Ivan in lust, of course, in response to which Ivan promptly ignored her without even batting an eye at her aesthetics. Well, she, too, knew that she would be ignored, hence wasn't bothered it, as she was too used to it.

She had tentacle holes on her shoulder blades as another pair of tentacle limbs were sheathed into her body. She had a pair of "L"-shaped, slightly curved horns protruding out from her forehead, with a lustrous gait as she twirled sensually, trying to entice Ivan, as she couldn't voice for what she wanted with no vocal cords. Although she could use signs—which Ivan had taught her as an alternate—and could whimper, since he would ignore her thoroughly, it was useless.

She was a succubus, a demon of lust, whose target had strangely been fixated on Ivan, who instead had been ignoring her since her birth.

Suddenly, Zilla, the demoness of lust, let out a subtle beastly snarl, revealing her fanged teeth hidden under her plump, soft, lustrous lips, when she felt a demonic creature's presence approach them at a speed of sound.

Sensing the abrupt shift in her emotions, Ivan gazed back over his left shoulder and waited for his "dessert" to present itself. And as if to comply with his wish, a demonic creature did appear, carrying a dense trial of gusts of wind, that slammed against Ivan and Zilla.

BHOOOM-!

Ivan gazed at demonic creature without even blinking at the strong gust of wind that blew against his face, ignoring his hair and hided, armoured clothes that fluttered frantically.

The demon that had appeared in front of him was a 4-feet-tall demon, the kind which had become a regular sighting for Ivan, a set of "L"-shaped but slightly curved horns protruding out of its forehead, three eyes, with an eye in between the brow-less brows, molten hot lava pouring fanged, lipless mouth, four pairs of hands with spike-like bones protruding from its elbow—a set of hands protruded out of its shoulder blades, while another set protruded out of its waist—each holding a blazing, molten hot, different shaped, swords, double jointed pair of "Z"-shaped legs, a 3 meter tall, spiky backbone-like tail, a hunchback with spiky backbone, finger sized or bigger holes all-over its body, oozing molten hot lava.

"£&#@??§∆¶Ω♪₱¢≈‰" It spoke growlingly.

Was what it said. You could think it's too absurd for a [Demon] to announce itself before attacking, but it seemed that demons above a certain [Rank] were too egoistic, or, prideful, if you will.

Ivan's gaze darkened than it already was, as a subtle hint of crimson spread out from his black, vertical pupils, dyeing his irises crimson soon after, as his sclera darkened, making the prideful Asmdian flinch in fear, for a split second.

"____℅¥μ¶∆∞^©!"

It said and lunged at Ivan, whose calm gaze rippled in response.

As if a purple coloured droplet of colour was dropped into the water, purple colour washed off the crimson coloured irises as Ivan's gaze turned cold, shifting the blazing hot atmosphere around them into an artic one in an instant.

Ivan's, now, purple irises peered into the demon, who abruptly lost the burning embers of vengeance in its eyes, even as it continued to lunge itself at Ivan, who wasn't, in the least, bothered by the situation even though the demon he was facing was stronger than the "previous" Demon Kings that ruled the [Seven Deadly Sins].

Ivan's index finger flitted on the dead demon he sat on and soon he felt what he was looking for, it was a sharp end of the dead demon's broken arm bone, grazing his finger lightly against it, he placed his elbow over is knee, and turned to gaze down at his own hand, ignoring the dazed demon lunging at him behind his back and simply gazed at a black coloured blood droplet gather on his index finger as if in a trance.

At that moment, Ivan's ear perked up and he understood that the demon was only a few steps away, with Ivan already in its attack range, and following its bodily instincts, the dazed demon swung down four right arms at Ivan, intending to slice him apart.

At that instance, the droplet gathered on his index finger trickled down, off of his finger, as four different kinds of swords neared his temple, neck, chest, and waist, all while Zilla, continued on with her sensual, lust enticing acts, unbothered by the plight.

At that moment,

PLOP-!

Ivan's blood droplet dripping into the dead demon's dark purple blood resounded deafeningly in his consciousness....

SHING-!

SHIKK....!

After a subtle ripple,

A small, a few inches long, dense, intestine muscle-like, spike protruded out of the blazing, darkened grounds of [Hell], followed by another, but slightly longer spike, followed by another, and another,

And another,

And another....

By the next instance,

SHIKK-!!!!

Exactly 12, meters long spikes had pierced into the demon, that had its four swords centimetres away from reaching its target.

Its head, chest, four pairs of arms, and a pair of "Z"-shaped legs were thoroughly pierced through, halting even the minor moments of the now dead demon.

"Devour it." Ivan muttered indifferently, and the intestine muscle-like spikes blackened as lipless, white fanged teethes filled, small mouths were seen on the spikes,

CRUNCH-!

Crunching sounds of the muscle wrapped bones,

CRACK-!

Cracking sounds of the bones,

SHATTER-!

And shattering sounds of the bare bones, accompanied with the splashing and munching sounds sounding as the demon was being devoured behind him, Ivan gazed around [Hell] indifferently, counting seconds in mind, which had reached up to '7,572,258,509,765. 7,572,258,509,766.....' which was a total of 240,116 years and 4 days, since he left the [Unknown World] where his family resided.

In all those years, he remembered them everyday, every minute, every second, and suffered every moment he remembered them, their giggles and smiles, their acts of trying to hide their elated emotions when he praised them, her loving aesthetics, their happy, joy filled moments..... his heart clenched at every memory that flashed of them, as he missed them extremely dearly, of course, he just assumed that he missed and longed for them whenever his heart clenched because it was still an unnamed emotion to him, all while he had a bitter smile plastered on his face.

'....' With a soundless sigh, Ivan looked down, hiding his moist formed tear that welled up in his eyes.

Of course, he didn't believe that much [Time] had actually passed, it might even just be like that for him, as he, who didn't know of the fact that he wasn't really stuck in the [Gap] of [Time], assumed that his [Time] was just running in a different dimension.

And soon, his gaze shifted up.

Peering into the celestials, gazing at the being, who was gazing back at him, with the same indifference reflected in its gaze.

★

If you are curious about what Asmdian meant when he said that he would reunite with his Majesty in his death, then; I'll give you what you want.

A brief, I mean.

But, before that, let's start from the beginning.

[Hell] is a moniker given to the [Five Worlds Of Hell], which was as its name indicated, it was five worlds which was called [Hell] with all of them combined.

With the [First World Of Hell] being the lowest planet of all of [Hell]. There were [First World Of Hell], [Second World Of Hell], [Third World Of Hell], [Forth.....], and then [Fifth....], namely.

To reach the next world of [Hell] a mere droplet of blood is required to be dropped on the [Altar] in the [Tower Of Trails], upon which the world [Hell] recognises the concentration of [Demonic Energy] in the blood and teleports the being to the next world, where the demonic creature's stronger than the previous worlds reside.

Of course, you could cheat by using the droplet of another stronger creature of the current world, but with low sentient in the lower world, intelligent and stronger creatures in the next world, it wouldn't really matter, and the world [Hell], which is an endless cycle of gathering negative emotions and eating memories, would be more than happy to reincarnate a dead being once again, again, and again.

[Hell] would even create an exclusive loop of deaths and rebirths only for you, if you want to die so badly.

It was an extremely caring world.

[First World Of Hell] had extremely low numbers of sentient creatures, with their sentience and strength increase up to a minimum of 20% in the next world, and this phenomenon would continue as they, the creatures of [Hell], continue to, instinctively, strive to be the strongest being.

Ivan, who had been forcibly thrown into these worlds of [Hell], decided to let all hell break loose in [Hell].

With Ivan's sealed but newly gained power, [Chaos], which he utilised to the maximum, Ivan [Devoured] all demonic creature's in [First World Of Hell], except Zilla.

Every time he [Devoured] with [Chaos] he gained strength and the, previously stagnant magic power, increased in quality and quantity, which was a well welcomed news for Ivan, who was frustrated in the back of his mind about his stagnant magical strength.

But the most absurd fact about this was, wherever Ivan [Devoured] a demonic creature, their existences itself would have been [Devoured] as they didn't go through the [Hell]'s loop of rebirths.

This fact soon spread even among the [Fifth World Of Hell] where only demons ranked [Demon King Rank], the rulers of the [Seven Deadly Sins], or above existed, which naturally made them wary of his existence. But as Ivan continued to ascend to the next worlds of [Hell], demonic creatures became fanatic as they threw themselves at Ivan with the intention to get [Devoured].

Their belief being eternal, strength and lives being granted if they were to get [Devoured] by the "[Hunter] in [Hell]," which was just another title among many, with which they called Ivan.

Ivan also welcomed them all, just like he just did with Asmdian, and welcomingly [Devoured] them.

Ahem, now then, back to Ivan!