Chap 127-The Abyss Journey

 

“Hum, hum, hum~”

Alice is truly bewildered by the current situation.

Because she was being firmly held by Fira’s slender arms and dragged down into the deep, deep lower layer.

“Hey, Fira. Why do I have to go?”

“Gasp. Are you trying to abandon this maiden?! How could you, Alice! How could you ask someone as frail as this maiden to descend alone into a place as fearsome, dark, lonely, damp, and filthy as the Abyss of the lower layer!?”

“Hey, you’re a First-Class Overseer. Wouldn’t it be better for you to go alone?”

“Hwaaaa! How could you! I was so worried about Alice that I abandoned my work and rushed down to the lower layer!”

“No, sigh…”

Alice eventually gave up.

She had tried several times to escape from Fira, but Fira’s one-handed strength was far stronger than her own, even after undergoing the unification process with Gaia.

How could she be so strong?

Is she a monster?

Well, she is a monster.

Despite her appearance, Fira is a collection of descendants of Beelzebub—maggots—of unknown quantity.

It may be rude to her, but it cannot be denied that Fira is a terrifying being.

Wow, now that I see it, Fira even has butterfly wings.

No, are they fly wings instead of butterfly wings?

Fira’s fly wings, seen up close, are adorned with truly beautiful yet bizarre patterns that seem to drive one mad just by looking at them.

“How did I get dragged into this…?”

Originally, Alice was supposed to be checking the status of material production from various regions sent by Labor Party Representative Sabrina at this hour, and then planning the collapse simulation and reconstruction for the afternoon.

After that, she had to adjust the radio waves to broadcast programs filled with red ideology praising the greatness and sanctity of labor on the lower layer radio, and also prepare new residential areas for the Demonkind who were moving to the lower layer.

‘I have so much work to do…!’

But in reality, the lower layer runs just fine even without Alice.

Reconstruction and everything else are handled by 300 personalities cloned from Alice, each entering the mechanical tendrils, the lower layer’s main aqueducts, electrical wiring, and industrial production complexes, controlling the lower layer’s logistics production without any problems even in Alice’s absence.

The cloned personalities each think and judge on their own, so they can handle any unforeseen events or emergencies. On top of that, Labor Party Representative Sabrina is also working hard.

Sabrina may be the Labor Party Representative, but she is also the leader of the Demon and a Demonkind of the Baron class, handling a significant portion of the human administration that Alice cannot. And with just the presence of 50 dolls and the immortal girl Marlang, crime organizations can’t even breathe and are stuck at the bottom of the lower layer.

‘Wait? Now that I think about it, there’s no problem even without me…?’

【Did you just realize that, Human?】

‘…Should I just quit?’

【However, just the existence of the Governor-General itself makes the lower layer residents cultivate pride and self-esteem on their own, so don’t sulk. Human.】

‘I’m not sulking.’

“Sigh, I was in the middle of spreading red ideology in the lower layer…”

“That’s… I’m sorry.”

Anyway…

Having been physically captured by Fira, there seems to be no way out.

Alice knew that Fira had some affection for her.

Whether it’s genuine affection, or just wanting to play and hang out like a younger sister, she doesn’t know.

It could just be because she likes her appearance, or because she reminds her of the siblings Fira devoured in her painful childhood in the Dunhill Family, but even Fira, who usually seems playful, might be bringing Alice to the lower layer with some serious thought.

Above all, Fira is a First-Class Overseer.

A First-Class Overseer wouldn’t just take Alice, the Governor-General of the lower layer, to the depths as a joke.

“But is this really such a big deal? It’s just one maggot… no, should I say one person? Anyway, it’s just that Sebunia’s son or whatever has left the family.”

In fact, even for the Dunhill Family, the departure of a few maggots is not a big deal.

Even outside the Dunhill Family, the number of descendants of Beelzebub reaches hundreds of thousands, and normally, the family wouldn’t pay much attention even if a maggot who didn’t reach the realm of ‘masterpiece’ like Fira ran away from home.

‘But, if there exists a biological weapon that can artificially cause blood contamination, and some bastard, whether he’s the girl’s cousin or whatever, who ran away from the Dunhill Family has it, then this is no ordinary matter.’

Blood contamination spreads indiscriminately, and once it breaks out, at least the affected stratum must be incinerated.

And if it’s severe, it can infect the entire population living in the stratum and turn them into vampires, and if the number of vampires reaches a million, that in itself becomes a terrifying disaster.

One vampire is more terrifying than an average A-class monster, but if they reach a massive number, even the Ark would feel like its feet are suddenly on fire.

“And above all… there’s no way the mosquito bastards dwelling in the Abyss would let it go.”

“Mosquito bastards… are you talking about the True Ancestor?”

“Ah, I suppose Alice wouldn’t know. If a True Ancestor is discovered in the upper or middle layers, they are immediately killed, but the eyes of the Ark and the Overseers don’t reach the Abyss area located at the very bottom of the lower layer. If blood contamination breaks out properly, there’s a high possibility that the True Ancestor will come to harvest the fallen or take advantage of the pandemic to spread the disaster.”

Of course, the True Ancestor have intelligence beyond humans, so they don’t react to ordinary blood contamination unless it’s a proper opportunity.

However, if the True Ancestor are capriciously drawn to blood contamination and participate in the march of the dead, or if a proper blood contamination breaks out that attracts the attention of several True Ancestor, they will lift their heavy asses and become the masters of the contamination, directly commanding the vampires.

The vampires born from blood contamination will inherently obey and follow the True Ancestor, and they will begin to move systematically to spread the contamination according to the True Ancestor’s orders.

Although the True Ancestor do not want the extinction of humanity because they use humans as food, they are not happy with the situation where they have been pushed to the Abyss by the current Ark Central Administration.

Even if they don’t try to destroy humans, if there is an opportunity to slaughter and control the population like livestock, the True Ancestor will not miss it.

“If the fact that there is a biological weapon that can artificially trigger blood contamination becomes known… that’s definitely a big deal. The True Ancestor will be looking for it with their eyes wide open.”

“That’s right! I don’t want to die because of some cousin or fifth cousin of mine whose name I don’t even know!”

“Huh, why would you die? Fira is strong.”

Fira may look like a mischievous noble lady straight out of a manga, but she didn’t become a First-Class Overseer and the Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force for nothing.

Even Alice, who has absorbed Gaia and the True Ancestor Agatha, cannot guarantee victory in a head-on fight with Fira.

Even if a terribly serious blood contamination or disaster breaks out, it was unimaginable that Fira would die or be defeated.

However, Fira shook her head and said.

“That’s not the problem. If someone possesses a biological weapon that can artificially cause blood contamination, that in itself is a crime punishable by the extermination of the entire clan! And that clan includes me!”

“Oh… then is it a big deal?”

“Of course it’s a big deal!”

It’s not for nothing that Fira shouted ‘This is screwed!’

If Fira’s cousin or whoever, who has a biological weapon that can trigger blood contamination, is discovered by another Overseer or Administrator, the entire Dunhill Family will be executed for treason.

Of course, even if the Dunhill Family and its clan are massacred for treason, Fira, who has served as a First-Class Overseer and the Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force, would not be executed.

She would probably be spared the death penalty thanks to her contributions and achievements to the Ark.

However, it would be inevitable that dark clouds would gather in Fira’s bright and radiant future.

“I can’t let that shitty maggot bastard block my brilliant future!”

“…”

Alice had the words ‘Are you allowed to say that?’ rising to her throat, but she didn’t say it out loud because she had developed some sense of tact with her android body.

Well, for that reason… no, without any reason, Alice and Fira’s sudden journey began.

It’s called Find the Runaway Maggot Bastard!

A maggot bastard who, in all likelihood, has a weapon or some means to artificially induce blood contamination.

It’s not a formal request or order from the Ark Central Administration, so they can’t receive support funds or enforcement troops.

No, rather, they shouldn’t be seen by anyone.

From Fira’s perspective, she would prefer it if the hateful Dunhill Family and the family elders would just die, but in the process of their downfall, there was a high possibility that Fira’s bright future would be covered in dark shadows, so the process of tracking Sebunia’s son had to be carried out in secret.

It goes without saying that there is no reward.

There is no particular honor even if they succeed.

They just had to find the maggot quietly.

In this vast place.

So the two of them passed through the lower layer and went down into the endlessly deep corner.

They passed countless huge layer .

As the light of the Artificial Sun that Alice had built in the Caracas layer gradually faded, more than an hour had passed since they began their vertical descent.

‘…The air is getting more polluted as we go down.’

It’s not just that it’s dusty or stuffy.

Fira must have sensed it too, but it meant that the air was starting to smell strongly of rotting corpses.

There were countless reasons why humans or other species died, but almost no one here died of natural causes.

The bloody scent of someone torn to pieces and killed.

The smell of burning flesh of someone who was burned.

In this world, being stabbed to death by a human or a thug is a blessing.

“Alice, from here on out, it’s the Abyss.”

Humans from the middle and upper layers have no reason to come down to the lower layer.

But even in the lower layer, the real deal is the area called the Abyss.

This place was inhabited by all sorts of things, including monsters, non-humans, disasters, and True Ancestor. Various crimes, including gang warfare, drug trafficking, and territory disputes between criminal organizations in the Caracas Industrial layer, were cute compared to what happened in the Abyss.

“Wow.”

Alice, raising her head, realized why the Abyss was called the Abyss.

It was dark.

The whole world.

The floor, buildings, walls, ceiling, sky, pipes, streets.

Everything was black and dark.

The visibility was at most 5 meters.

In a world where everything was only darkness like the Abyss, even the light of the Artificial Sun that Alice had created lost its brilliance.

If there were no Artificial Sun, this place would truly be just darkness, unable to see even an inch ahead, like a deep Abyss.

“…There’s a lot of something.”

And those wriggling in the darkness slowly raised their heavy bodies from all directions.

Streets, sewers, buildings.

As Alice and Fira, outsiders, entered, the residents of the Abyss.

Those who were not welcomed in the human world began to drool as they discovered the outsiders.

Fira tore off the fly wings spread on her back with her bare hands and landed on the streets of the Abyss, and only then did she release the hand that had been holding Alice.

“There was a disaster called Magna Calliope in the Abyss.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a disaster that looks like a long, giant snake without eyes. I heard that it attacked when the Ark was being built, and it was only barely caught after the entire central force was deployed.”

Fira shrugged her shoulders and waved her hand in the darkness that covered the Abyss.

Then the darkness became a physical form and clung to Fira’s white fingers before disappearing.

“But after Magna Calliope died, its giant corpse was entirely vaporized and stuck to the lower layer as it is. They say this darkness is the corpse spores of the giant snake~”

“So it’s not dark for no reason. Are the spores blocking all the light from the Artificial Sun?”

As the two walked down the dark street, they slowly began to feel the presence of people around them.

Not the lower layer, but the real residents of the Abyss.

Monsters and non-humans slowly began to take an interest in Fira and Alice.

“Alice, I heard you became the Governor-General of the lower layer… can you light up this place too?”

“Well, I’ll have to try? To be honest, I did the Caracas layer by accident.”

“Hehe, that’s a good attitude. If possible, I wish you could make this whole place into an Artificial Sun and annihilate the corpse spores too…”

At that moment, Fira stopped walking.

“Fira? Why suddenly…”

[The celestial worm. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to such a humble place.]

“…!”

At that moment, Alice felt someone standing in front of her.

Not a human.

Its slender and long limbs were stretched out on the black floor, its height was about 3 meters, and it was a human-shaped monster with a face like a skeletal skull with sunken features.

[To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to such a humble place… Scrap metal and worm.]

The bizarre monster, whose name she didn’t know, looked straight down at Alice and Fira and spoke in a refined tone.

But Alice was quite tense, regardless of that.

‘I didn’t even notice it moving… no, even approaching.’

Alice’s more precise and sharp senses than a machine had failed to catch the presence in front of her.

Even though it was clearly right in front of her, she couldn’t see anything on the dark street.

But what was clear was that there was a being standing there who had effortlessly bypassed the senses of Alice’s android body.

‘…Was I almost killed just now?’

“Don’t worry. Alice, I’m here.”

“…”

Fira had somehow unfolded a fan and was looking up at the presence in front of her.

“Elder White. Jamel Kassim Sandria, your head is still as stiff as ever. It’s been a while since we met, but can’t you immediately offer me tea and refreshments? My friend and I have been descending for over an hour, and my throat is quite parched~”

[Maggot Lady. Are you aware that you gnawed on this neck bone, making it impossible for me to turn or move my head?]

“Ohohohot! You’re the only one who still calls me Maggot Lady and clings to life~”

At the same time as Fira’s words, something red rose from Elder White’s body.

That red thing was also a movement that completely escaped Alice’s senses for a moment.

Something like thin and faint tentacles similar to the human nervous system.

But there, crimson flowers were blooming like blood.

Not ordinary flowers.

It was unclean and ominous, even to call it magic or supernatural power.

Perhaps some kind of epidemic or destructive ray was about to be fired from there.

[Then tell me. Maggot Lady. What reason is there for ‘us’ not to devour your two corpses and tear apart your wombs to hang on the dark streets?]