After they crossed through the Grand Songster Pit, Gu Long and Iggwilv arrived at the 88th Layer of the Abyss called Gaping Maw. The Gaping Maw was the 88th level of the Abyss and the home of Demogorgon, Prince of Demons.

From what Iggwilv told him, Demogorgon was a very powerful Demon who reached Tier 11; he belonged to the ancient demons and was a very cunning one. The Gaping Maw was a vast continent covered in a jungle and surrounded by an equally vast ocean with brine flats.

Rising from the sea were twin towers, topped with enormous fanged skulls that marked the fortress Abysm, a labyrinth of dark and cold underwater caves.

"This place is surprisingly desolated..."

Gu Long commented from the side as they were observing one of the few cities in the 88th Layer Gaping Maw. While he wasn't keen on believing rumors, they were indeed true when Iggwilv retold him these rumors.

It seemed that Demon Prince Demogorgon had indeed joined the war among his fellow Demon Lords and Lords of Layers and was right now waging war on expanding his territory and influence.

Gu Long has discussed his predicament with Iggwilv, as they have built some kind of mutual trust between them, aside from the fact that they signed a very strict Geass that would prevent them from betraying each other...

In the end, Iggwilv told him about a few suitable places where he could make his breakthroughs and one of the best spots was actually in the Gaping Maw. Originally, Gu Long was rather reserved about this because it was the territory of a mighty Demon.

Gaping Maw contained one certain location that was very suitable for Gu Long's ascension because it was the tomb of the Demon God or, rather, ruins of it... nobody knew, but there was one thing certain: it was extremely dense with Demonic and Divine Aura.

That was something that Gu Long needed for his ascension to the Law Godhood because, as he was a Divine Demonic Dragon, he could make use of the abundant Demonic and Divine Aura to aid him in his ascension.

"Sometimes they are the truth... Demogorgon has smelled the opportunity and wants to spread his include and bring several more Layers of the Abyss into his fold, giving him a better chance to ascend to higher realms."

They entered the city that was bustling with demons; both of them were under the concealment of the Embers of Silence, to be sure.

There were countless subspecies of Demons in the city; most of them were in one way or another, related to the species of Demogorgon or major Demon Lords under the rule of the Demongorgon.

"The upper layers have only a few pinnacle powerhouses and I doubt that they would watch Demogrogon to get ahead of them or Father of All Devils forbid even reach to the higher realms of Exarchy..."

Demon cities were by one word... crude.

They were barbaric; most of the buildings were not even built by the demons themselves but rather by slaves from more advanced civilizations that the demons attacked, invaded or conquered and dragged them to the Abyss.

Here, they lived and died as slaves and toys to their demon masters. Obviously, slavery had a place of great importance in the society of the Abyss inhabitants.

Typically, only the slaves from different civilizations were skilled artisans, engineers and masters of some crafts.

"The one thing that I hate about adventuring in the Abyss are their cities... when I am out of supplies, aside from raw meat and blood, you can't buy here anything... not like these barbarians are even aware of things like soap or perfume."

Iggwilv was very often wandering into the depths of the Abyss, either due to her interest as Demonoligst, Archmage of Oerth, or in her endless quest to obtain power, always more and more power.

And very often, she was out of the resources she prepared for her trips, but in the Abyss, it was almost impossible to resupply most of the things that a fine lady like her needed to function normally.

"What would you await from barbarians like this? In the end, they evolved from the Fiends; in terms of intelligence and society, they are not much different."

Fiends of the Infinite Abyss Universe and Demons of the Endless Abyss were the same, even though the species were vastly different. But the mentality that the two species shared was exactly the same.

"How many Laws remained within the Gaping Maw now that Demogorgon is on his crusade?"

Gu Long asked as they were searching their way out of the city because the demon city was the same as the other ones. Nothing more than the combination of brutality, slavers or demons selling body parts or flesh from the killed slaves.

"Probably only a few; most of them have departed together with Demogorgon on the crusade. We were safe until we go around some more important places like Abysm or the capital of the Demogorgon's realm."

Gu Long nodded as they slowly continued their journey to the ruins of the Tomb of the Demon God that was killed on the 88th Layer of the Abyss. Demon rarely attained Godhood because the concept of "Demonic" and that of "Divine" were two exact polar opposites.

So those who became the so-called Demon Gods were rare individuals of peerless power and were also considered unique beings. If they were lucky, Gu Long wanted to take his chances and explore the area in hopes of finding the corpse; he could obtain a lot from it.

As he was a perfect hybrid representing the "Devil", "Dragon" and "God" racial aspects, begins of similar existence like him were the best source of nutrition for Gu Long.

Unfortunately, such begins were rare, and he managed to encounter only a few, whom he killed and devoured with the Devour.

Naturally, every single one brought him tremendous benefits and this time, he hoped to find a Demon God corpse on the levels of Laws; it wouldn't be then impossible to reach peak Tier 10 in a short time after Devouring it. 

***

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