Skyler took a long, deep breath and tried to float over the crimson Sea before him, only to find his elemental crystals had no Evol.
To make matters worse, he couldn't sense Evol in the air after entering the Gate of Hell.
Frustrated, he snapped at the voice urging him to move forward, his tone very grave.
"Where? Just where should I move when all I can see is a blood-red sea before me? And can't you see the Sea looks like it's boiling?"
He gasped as a drop of the churning, blood red water splashed onto his pants, instantly burning a clear, tiny hole through the fabric.
"Shit. I ain't moving forward!"
His words were resolute—far too resolute.
Unbeknownst, he would soon do the exact opposite of them, and on his own accord.
Perhaps the voice within his subconscious was too tired, or perhaps it had finished its task of guiding him for now. It just fell silent.
Even as a boat manned by a dark creature edged closer to Skyler, who was panicking inwardly and calling out to the voice in his subconscious, the voice remained quiet.
The boat stopped at the shoreline, and the demon's eyes scanned the man standing in front of him from head to toe with surprise—only to sneer in disgust moments later.
"Not an overseer. What is a living, breathing mortal doing in Hell? No, scratch that—how did you even find one of the Gates of Hell?"
The demon, clearly of higher rank than the others around who were drowning the souls of sinners—distinguished by his clean robes—rubbed his chin as Skyler remained silent.
If only he knew Skyler was silent because his mind told him it was the better option.
It was Skyler's first time in Hell—in this life, at least. So, he knew his tactic of spouting nonsense to get out of difficult situations might not work. That's why he wanted the demon to be the one to explain his arrival.
That way, he could just align himself with the demon's story without using too many brain cells. Very good and simple plan. Right?
Confusion grew in the demon's eyes with each passing moment of silence. Then, as if a sudden realization struck, he sneered.
"Are you one of those slaves bought to be the King's lovers? But I thought all of them were taken directly to the seventh layer of Hell. What are you doing in the first layer?"
Well, no one could really blame him for his wild imagination—no living being could ever enter Hell easily, especially with formidable gatekeepers standing guard at every gate.
Besides, the demon wasn't as powerful as the gatekeepers and couldn't feel the scent of Riruru or Skyler's souls. Its task was just to help the Overseers who brought souls to Hell safely cross the Sea of Blood if those souls were sentenced to the deeper layers.
Skyler's eyes flashed with relief. Good—the demon had come up with a plausible story for him. He still didn't agree to it, though.
No way would he accept being labeled as someone's lover—definitely not the King of Hell's lover. Not even if he were just lying.
"I think I'm lost."
Those were his words—quite misleading.
The demon frowned, his eyes narrowing sharply into slits as he stared at Skyler.
"Lost? Or were you trying to flee?"
Skyler blinked silently, as if he didn't even know the meaning of the word 'flee', leaving the demon speechless. What the hell?
The demon rubbed his eyes, unwilling to believe what he was seeing—a grown man acting clueless. Strange, to say the least.
He scratched his head. He wasn't exactly the sharpest around, so he really had no idea how to handle this strange mortal.
Ultimately, he stepped back on the small boat he stood, forcing a smile that twisted unpleasantly across his distorted face.
But it didn't matter—he shouldn't make a poor impression on someone who might one day become the King's bedwarmer.
The mortal was quite good-looking, too.
Who knows—he might end up securing a high position in Hell someday in the future.
The demon gestured to Skyler.
"Just hop on the boat. I will help you cross the Sea of Blood. This is the lowest layer of Hell, where the souls of those who harmed others out of anger are punished. To reach the deepest layer, meet the guardian of the next layer—they'll guide you from there."
Skyler stared suspiciously at the creaking wooden boat. Was it really safe to board it—let alone travel across the Sea of Blood in it? What if it broke apart in the middle? Still, clutching Riruru, he took a deep breath and stepped onto the boat. It groaned under his weight, making a very dangerous noise that almost convinced him it might topple over.
The demon, sensing his trouble, reached out a hand to help steady him on the boat.
But Skyler recoiled, sliding back toward the edge. No way in hell was he going to touch a demonic being—especially one wearing a twisted, sinister, wide smile on his face. He steadied himself on his own, causing the demon's eyebrow to twitch in irritation.
This weak mortal was really getting on his nerves. If not for the fact that he was one of the King's slaves, the demon might have already drowned him in the Sea of Blood.
The demon turned, and the wooden boat began moving on its own toward the far side of the churning sea—slowly but steadily.
The other shore lay far in the distance, so Skyler settled himself on the boat when he noticed how the water couldn't reach him.
After a minute, he even tried to strike up a conversation with the quiet demon, though his question was rather nonsensical.
"So, the souls punished in this layer… can they escape? There are so many of them, but the demons and dark beings so few."
The demon glanced back at him, clearly convinced—this man was a clueless fool.
"They can't. They are bound to this layer. The demons and dark beings are here only to torment them. Even if they vanished, no soul trapped here can escape—at least not until their punishment has run its course."
He smirked, kicking away a soul that tried to touch the boat, then hummed a melody, fully aware of how Skyler flinched behind him.
Obviously, he didn't realize the man wasn't actually scared—just startled. This was all new to him, after all. Skyler glanced at the souls drowning in the water and wondered how he had ruled over such a cruel place.
He'd probably made a mess of Hell.
Skyler shook his head at the thought, hiding the wicked smirk that spread across his lips.
A soul suddenly grabbed the edge of the boat, but when the demon turned back, he was genuinely startled to see Skyler prying the soul's fingers off the boat one by one—with an evil grin, looking just like a devil.
The demon snapped his head forward as Skyler raised his eyes and met his gaze. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead.
'What a crazy mortal. Smiling instead of fearing this place. He's truly not normal.'
He quickened the boat's pace, eager to finish the journey as soon as possible.
When he looked back again, his unease deepened. Unable to resist, he asked.
"Don't you feel any pity for them?"
"They are all sinners. Hell exists solely to punish them for their wrongdoings. Why should I waste pity on them?"
The demon sealed his lips shut, deciding silence was best. This man wasn't normal.
Hopefully, he wouldn't cause any problems for their King. After all, people like him had a knack for stirring up a lot of trouble.
The demon's suspicion was confirmed in no time when, on his third glance back, he saw Skyler poised to leap into the Sea of Blood.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
He shouted at the mortal in horror—but Skyler's gaze was wild, filled with panic. He looked at the demon with dilated eyes.
"That voice...! Can't you hear it? The one screaming it wants to die? Vanish?"
The demon was utterly baffled. There were countless souls drowning in the Sea—how, in all the layers of Hell, was he supposed to hear each and every one of their cries?
Before he could react, the man had already slipped off his jacket in one motion and put it gently in the corner of the boat. The demon lunged to stop him—but he was too late.
With a reckless leap, the King's bedwarmer dove straight into the churning Sea of Blood.
The surface exploded with a violent splash, rocking the boat dangerously. The demon dropped to his knees in utter disbelief.
"I'm doomed... completely doomed. If the King finds out I failed to guide the lost slave, he'll chop off my head and toss me into the Eternal Flames without a second thought!"
He gnawed on his nails, eyes fixed on the Sea as the mortal sank deeper and deeper—despite the countless souls clawing at him and the burning red water searing his flesh.
What truly stunned the demon, however, was that the man didn't die immediately.
The Sea of Blood was supposed to be one of the most lethal Sea for any living being.
"He is still alive..."
Skyler didn't look back. The voice that had remained silent within his subconscious all this time chuckled softly to itself, amused.
'And he said he wouldn't go forward. Just hearing her voice was enough to make him leap. Well, one of us did make a promise—that they would find this fragment of her, no matter which layer of Hell she's trapped in.'