Asura had very much been serious when he had said that he would carry Pietro on his back during the entire trip, the young human child had found out that Asura while easily annoyed, was not quite sensitive to the same things others would be. Pietro knew that he would have never accepted carrying others on his back while walking and running down hundreds of kilometers. For that was indeed how much ground they had covered. 

The landscape changed very quickly as they had gone past the large area of desert with floating mountains. Now the sand had disappeared to make place for rocky terrain. Pietro had been content with his position on Asura's back when he had seen just how sharp the rocks the demon was placing his feet on were. They looked sharp enough to completely sever his feet should he walk on them. 

That was one of the few reminders that as beautiful as it was, Hell had not stolen its reputation, it was indeed a terrible world. But Pietro could see beyond such things. He had died once already. Hell could look as fatal as it wanted, but he would still see the beauty of it all, and how calming the twin suns in the distance were. How strange it was, that he could gaze at them directly without destroying his eyes. Perhaps it had something to do with how somber Hell seemed even while in plain daylight. 

Was there something blocking out the light itself? He did not know, and as Asura continued to run across the land, Pietro allowed himself to stop focusing on what surrounded him, and instead get some sleep. It had been hours since they had left the temple and Pietro hadn't slept all that much, to begin with, and excitement had taken over him after hearing that he could leave the temple and explore Hell. It was still surreal to have such a positive response when it came to Hell, but his life had changed and he needed to adapt to it at some point. That was for another day, however. For now, he would sleep.

And he wouldn't do so for very long. At some point, maybe a few hours after Pietro had closed his eyes, Asura suddenly stopped. Pietro heard his voice and slowly reopened his heavy eyes. 

"Human...Am I dreaming or is that a wall?" The demon asked, with no small amount of awe in his tone. Quite strange for him to marvel at anything that had no link to violence, but sometimes it could happen, Pietro guessed. Anyway, it very much wasn't a dream. Pietro lifted his head, and his eyes widened. He lifted his head some more and now his mouth found itself agape.

"What...How!? Asura did you only see it now?" He turned around to look at his demon companion who lowered the human to the ground and let go of him.

"Wasn't really looking at anything in particular, I just ran." Asura shrugged the topic off and looked from left to right. Pietro found himself doing just that too and came to the same conclusion that Asura did, the wall in front of them seemed to stretch on forever. It had no ends, both in height and width. But more than that, Pietro noticed something else, and a primordial fear took ahold of him. 

He quickly turned on himself and try to discover something, anything. There was nothing in sight. They were plunged into complete darkness. Pietro had believed that the night had simply fallen. But that was not the case. 

"W-Where are we exactly? What did you do, Asura!?" He turned to look at his companion with some tears in the corners of his eyes. He had never been a big fan of darkness. No, in fact, he was terrified of the dark. And now, now....He found himself right where he would've never wanted to be. 

"Don't really know. I just ran and ran, and at some point, the suns went away." 

Pietro knew it might have been disrespectful to look at Asura with such anger, but he could not help himself. How had this idiot been running without looking around himself!? Who even did such a thing?

"Okay..Alright...It'll be alright. So there's a wall, and there's no light. Matter of fact, there's nothing around. Did you pass by...I don't know, anything on the way here? Surely you must have at least been looking forward while running, you weren't running while looking at your own feet, right!?" He asked with no small amount of despair in his trembling voice. 

Asura seemed to ponder the question for a second and, as though a lightbulb had lit in his head, he smiled and nodded his head. 

"Yeah, I did. I saw some people actually. They looked kinda weak, so I didn't approach them." The demon said. He was all smiles when he said it too. Pietro really wished he was strong enough to blow a hole through his obviously empty head. It wouldn't make him any less stupid, that was a certainty. 

Pietro ran a hand through his hair and sighed. That was a good answer, and at the same time, it was not.

"Are they friendly though? That's the question. This is a terrifying place, and yes I know it does not scare you, you don't have to say it!" Pietro shot Asura a glare as he saw the demon ready to interject. The smile the monster shot in answer was anything but reassuring, so Pietro quickly went on with what he had been saying. " So because it's a scary place, those might be scary people. But maybe not? You said they looked weak?" 

At this, Asura nodded his head once more. Pietro felt like they didn't have any other choice but to go meet these people. They had no idea where they were, and Pietro did not see any way to go past the immense wall they found. They couldn't even climb it, the abyss around them didn't allow for their eyes to see an end to the wall. Or maybe it wasn't even a wall? Many questions echoed in Pietro's mind, but he had to move on, he did not want to remain in this place for even a second.

"Alright, let's go meet them. Do you remember where you found them?" 

Without a word, Asura just started running in the opposite direction and Pietro furrowed his brows.

"What....ASURA! I can't run as fast as you, wait for me!" He yelled, but Asura did not, in fact, wait for him. 

Yet the young human was too scared to just stop, so he continued to run in the same direction for a few minutes. His ears perked up as he heard a scream in the distance. He could somewhat pinpoint where the scream came from and ran to his left. His breath had gotten shaky and he could feel the heat get to him, but he still ran. It was strange how hot it was in such an abyssal place. He would have expected the area to be fairly cold, but this was just one more mystery to add to the puzzle that Hell was. 

Pietro saw blood on the ground as he approached the area from which the screams came. Looking at the ground now, Pietro could see that they had gone back to sand once more, but this sand was dark blue. What an odd color, but so was the blood. It was too vibrant, too light. 

Pietro heard the sound of an impact a few meters away from him and his eyes darted in that direction, but he saw nothing. And then an object came flying by him at a velocity that assured him of the state he would've found himself in had that hit him. It was nearly too fast for his eyes to follow. More surprising even was what the object that came flying was.

A body! That's what it was. A body that had flown at speeds that should have left it broken, and yet it was fairly fine. That body moved, it lifted itself, and it twisted and turned as it did so. Whatever it was, it had sustained more damaged than Pietro first thought. In a horrid show that left Pietro with the desire to puke all his stomach held, the body seemed to heal itself by putting back all the bones and limbs in the right place. It was nauseating, more so than everything Pietro had seen since he had arrived in hell, and he had once seen the broken mess of a face a monk who had faced Asura was left with. 

He heard a familiar voice behind him and felt a heat similar to that of a fireplace. 

"You resisted that? How...How...." 

Asura walked calmly as his body slightly glowed red, yet his face looked anything but relaxed. He had a splitting grin, one Pietro did not think was even physically possible. Demons had vastly different bodies, he had burned that lesson in his mind, but this was still quite shocking. The elasticity of their bodies seemed to apply to their faces too. 

"How funny! You are interesting. You certainly are." 

The broken body finished its healing and Pietro squinted his eyes to try to decipher what it was. Surprisingly enough, it looked like a human, just as all demons supposedly did. At least this somewhat lessened Pietro's fears. However, the being was tall and impossibly skinny. It wore nothing but a long white robe stained with its own light-red blood. Its face was perhaps the most bizarre aspect of its appearance. It had the delicate face of a young woman, with a mouth full of razor-sharp and twisted teeth. Its face was greyish but quite pale and its cheeks were non-existent. Pietro could see the sides of its mouth, the interior that should not be exposed to the outside like it was here. Blood dripped out of those exposed corners, most likely a result of the beating it had gotten from Asura. 

The demon himself held no fear in the face of this alien being, but then again, what was Asura even scared of? He and Pietro were too different. And in this instant, it was a good thing. Pietro was all too happy to let Asura walk in front of him and handle the monster, the creature, whatever it was.

And yet, when it spoke, Pietro's whole face crunched up in immense confusion as he heard the softest of voices, and a hint of annoyance.

"Once again, why in Satan's name do you keep punching me!? You asked me where we were, and you didn't even let me answer!"