Eisen swung his arms forward again and again, trying to swim through this slimy, rough, uncomfortable sludge that these numerous monsters were floating in, trying to viciously kill each other with every single breath they took.

The old man tried to evade them to the best of his abilities, but considering that these monsters could also swim through this sludge, and sometimes even quite a bit better than Eisen himself, he did have to kill quite a few of them, absorbing them through his Demonic Greatsword.

But for the most part, Eisen was trying to just get to that Demonic town as quickly as he could. He would be able to take a break there, clean himself up, and maybe even rest for the next before heading off to the next realm.

Eisen wasn't even halfway there, and he already felt mentally and even in part physically exhausted. He really wished that he would be able to just fly over here, but since the quest specifically said that he had to swim through this river, that wasn't actually a viable option for him.

'This is fine, if I can just manage to get a steady rythm going, I won't need to worry about anything...' Eisen thought to himself. He was the kind of person that would usually speak to himself audibly in a situation like this, but even Eisen wasn't careless enough to open his mouth at all in a situation like this. It was bad enough that the sludge was getting stuck in his nose and partially even his eyes.

The old man tried to at the very least keep his mouth shut as much as possible, because he really didn't want to accidentally swallow some of this slimy sludge. He didn't want to stoop that low, at least. And just as he was thinking that, a monster on his right side swung at the old man. It managed to cut a bit into Eisen's skin, even.

Not a lot, but just a small amount. It was a rather weak monster, honestly, and Eisen was able to kill it in just a single swing even while his arms were restricted here in this sludge. But that didn't matter at all in this situation. What did matter, however, was that Eisen now had an open wound, however small it may be, on his arm that was touching the sludge as Eisen was swimming through it.

And really, it was burning an incredible amount, and it seemed like the wound was immediately becoming infected and swelling up. Of course, this was not the case, but it was more than just slightly unpleasant. It hurt as if the wound had a septic infection that may end up killing Eisen if he wasn't careful.

He was even losing a little bit of health through this, but it luckily wasn't all that much, probably because hte wound itself wasn't all that big to begin with. But Eisen still had to somehow heal himself. And so, he summoned his item storage right above him, in the air of course, and had his elemental spirit push a small health pill into his mouth, so that the old man didn't have to touch it himself.

This seemed to help quite a bit, and Eisen stopped losing health although his arm didn't stop hurting anymore. Honestly, this challenge wouldn't have been an issue to Eisen just a few weeks ago when he didn't feel pain yet, but right now, it was more than just uncomfortable to him.

The old man tried to concentrate on swiming forward, making sure that no monsters were attacking him so that he wouldn't end up repeatedly feeling this stinging, burning pain all over his body.

But then, just as Eisen reached the halfway point between where he started and where his goal was, something else happened, and immediately Eisen felt his heart drop into his stomach. He felt incredibly dumb for even forgetting about this part of this realm. Eisen was probably just too distracted by the state of the river that he was able to see to really think about it.

In Dante's Inferno, the souls within the river styx could be split up into two factions. One, the 'Actively Wrathful', the ones that were here at the top of the river ripping each other apart in this swampy, foul sludge. And two, the ��Passively Wrathful'... the ones hiding underneath the surface of the 'water' in its deep darkness, unseen by anyone but themselves. For the most part, at least. Right now, Eisen realized their existence quite a bit, considering that it seemed like one of these 'Passively Wrathful' being was pulling on the old man's legs.

Since it took Eisen quite a lot to even keep himself afloat just like this, it was obvious that he would be unable to fight against this creature that was trying to pull him underneath the surface of the river.

The old man was pulled underneath the surface of the sludge with the worst possible timing. He was just about to take a breath of air, but now that he was here, that clearly wasn't possible anymore. Surprisingly, Eisen was actually abel to hold his eyes open and see what was going on here underwater. It was murky, sure, but it was still surprisingly clear. As if there was simply some sort of film on top of the river that made it so that you weren't able to see what was going on underneath the surface of the sludge.

It still hurt Eisen quite a bit to open his eyes though, considering the roughness of the sludge, but somehow he managed to keep his eyes open and soon saw the creature that was trying to pull him to the bottom of the river.

Immediately, Eisen tried to swing his blade at the single tentacle that was wrapped around both of his legs, although he wasn't able to exert enough force to cut through even half of the tentacle. The sword itself was helping Eisen out with this, of course, but that still didn't make it any easier for him.

He swung the sword to the side again, trying to repeatedly hack at the tentacles slung around his legs. Bit by bit, he managed to cut through them, and by the time he got rid of them fully it was already practically too late.

Other monsters had started clinging to Eisen to try and pull him down to the bottom of the river. Immediately, Eisen started to think about what he had to do. He summoned his item storage and once more had his elemental give him something from inside. But this time around, it was something more important than just a health pill or potion.

It was a mouth-piece that the old man quickly pressed against his lips to try and push it into his mouth without having to open it up at all. But in the end, it didn't matter. Once the small item was inside of the old man's mouth, he could already taste the disgusting sludge on his tongue. He nearly threw up, but Eisen was able to hold himself back for a few more moments.

With the item that he just put into his mouth, he was able to produce breathable air with which he could stop himself from dying for now. At least, he wouldn't end up drowning. It took Eisen a while to get rid of his momentary panick, but when he did, he immediately proceeded to slash his blade at the monsters grabbing onto his legs.

It was as if they had finally been given the chance to take out their wrath on someone, and were trying to drag Eisen down with them, quite literally. Limbs started to float around Eisen and the blood of the monsters slowly turned the water even harder to see through. But that wasn't what mattered right now.

Eisen activated his Draconic Demon King form. Not only did that make it harder for the monster to grab onto Eisen's legs, as they were a lot thicker all of a sudden, but he was able to exert a lot more bursting force with his wings.

He hadn't been using this form until now since it would usually make him a lot heavier and that simply wouldn't be worth it to just somewhat be able to use his wings up there, but right now it was important that Eisen could at least escape momentarily. That was really all that he needed.

And with a last slash at the grasping claws of the monsters, Eisen was able to escape and rush to the surface of the water again, deactivating his Demonic Transformation. He slightly shot out of the water and was able to quickly get all of the murky sludge out of his eyes using a piece of cloth.

Of course, he also grabbed another item from the item storage and used it to clean his mouth out, to make sure that none of the sludge was still sticking to his tongue or the roof of his mouth. He would taste this for the next few hours anyway, so he wanted to get rid of as much as absolutely possible.

"I hate this, I hate this..." The old man grumbled quietly to himself as he continued to swim, trying to push himself forward as quickly as absolutely possible. And at some point, Eisen even started pushing himself off of certain monsters to be able to proceed forward more quickly instead of having to swim the whole way.

And then finally, about one more hour later, Eisen reached the place where Satel was waiting for him, the other side of this truly enormous river.

The moment that he reached this side, Eisen created a pillar made out of his element with a bit of an overhang that he could stand underneath. He then grabbed a few simple mana crystals and turned them into a circular plate that he pressed onto the underside of the overhang before quickly enchanting it with a relatively simple enchantment.

He undressed and proceeded to burn up the pair of pants that he had been wearing, before activating the enchantment on the mana crystal plate above him. Clear, hot water poured down onto his body as Eisen proceeded to scrub himself clean more than thoroughly, until his skin even turned a bit red from just this action.

"...I think you can stop now, you got rid of it all..." Satel pointed out, but Eisen just turned his head and glared at the Devil, "Shut up. Just... shut up." The old man muttered quietly. He usually wasn't even particularly squeamish about this sort of thing, but in this case, even he couldn't help himself at all.