In the Underworld where the sun doesn't shine its rays but only the eternal darkness envelopes, in a remote corner where demons usually don't pass by, a small sprout grows unnoticed.
As days go by, the cycle of reincarnation and repentance has passed yet the sprout has still not fully grown. After 500 days, the sprout turned into a small seedling, with less than a finger-long stem, it radiated with strong vitality and luster in a place filled with death.
At first, it knew not of its name, birth, origin, or anything else. As if it just existed out of nowhere, an error in the system, a bug not patched? It has consciousness yet remains asleep. No ears nor eyes but can see and hear. A weird creature is slowly being nurtured... A nightmare for some and a blessing to others... The stem gradually grew and slowly, the leaves spread out, and finally, it bloomed! Unknowingly, another 500 days had passed in this gloomy and dark world.
As the flower bloomed, a strong light burst out from its petals. Making this dark and gloomy place experience something akin to the sun shining its light on the ground and blessing all living beings. But in this place that evil isn't even enough to describe, it can't be considered a "blessing" but rather, a sign of disaster. Although this light seemed like the light of hope at times of despair, it also brought with it a subsequent calamity.
"Light" is deemed as a curse, an evil object, an ominous omen, a sign of great disaster, and the continuation of the eternal war. The War of Light and Darkness. All the demons in all levels of hell saw the light shine on them and had different reactions. A lot of low-rank demons directly turned into ashes on the spot and some mid-rank demons went berserk and attacked whatever they saw. And some of the high-rank demons released waves of killing intent intending to find the source of this "Light". Somewhere in the lower levels of hell, creatures who have been in slumber gradually woke up and revealed thoughtful and meaningful expressions. Unknowingly, the entire Hell became unprecedently active at that moment.
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The ones preparing to descend further were startled as they looked up. Light filled their eyes as they were confused. They vaguely felt something. They felt it, and it was coming. Change was coming.
This feeling emerged in everyone’s hearts as some felt the urgency while others leaned back in their seats to watch the show. They were curious as to what caused this change. And as to whether they can take this opportunity to rise amidst the change.
Others stirred while others prepared to lunge forward. To welcome the New Era, to welcome another chaos befalling all creatures. Excitement filled their faces as they looked forward to the unknown.
But unbeknownst to all, a flower bloomed in a place they never would have expected, a place where even low-rank demons despise going to as it is usually only filled with inferior creatures that are not worth their time.
The sunflower swayed without the wind and slowly, the first thought was born in its mind- HUNGRY!! The sunflower unconsciously used its roots deeply burrowed in the ground to absorb the nutrients in hell, but as hell is- well, Hell, it does not have nutrients but only endless death and blood. And it was exactly these "Nutrients” that the sunflower sucked but found it insufficient so it started to extend its roots deeper and deeper to find more "Food". As the roots kept burrowing, it crashed into something soft but ignored it and pierced through, as it did, it noticed that the surrounding nutrients became increasingly abundant. The flower beamed with joy and started to suck happily.
The rocks underground served no protective cover for the poor fella about to meet his doom. And his demise did not wait any longer before a shriek echoed towards the omnipresent dirt underground.
“Shrieek? Shrieek?! SHRIEEK?!?!” A Demon worm happily digging underneath felt stinging pain out of nowhere and felt its strength going away. It tried struggling but to no avail, it only hastened its death and served as nourishment for the Demonic Sunflower’s roots.