"This…"
Kim ShiHoon's body trembled. A terrible sight appeared in front of him.
The stone wall was in ruin, a huge pile of rocks was stacked on top of each other, and he could see another wall that had been torn apart.
The scene of destruction was grand enough to make him feel overwhelmed.
It was as if a natural disaster had happened.
Kim ShiHoon and the other Guardian members had their mouths open in surprise.
"G-Grace, what exactly happened?"
Gaia, who couldn't see anything, pulled Grace's sleeves.
Grace couldn’t bring herself to answer; she had her mouth closed.
"Haa! Haaa! Cough!"
Zhuge Xuan walked out from between the debris. He was in a bad state due to mana exhaustion, but it seemed like he hadn't suffered any major injuries.
"Guardian Zhuge Xuan!" Gaia shouted in an anxious voice.
Zhuge Xuan bowed while making a hard expression.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Gaia."
"A-are you okay?"
"Yes. I didn’t suffer any major injuries, but…"
Zhuge Xuan turned his head. You could see the canyon, which had crumbled as if an earthquake had happened.
He bit his lip.
"I wasn't able to protect… the Fissure Seeds."
"Ahh, but I'm glad to hear that you didn't get hurt."
Gaia sighed in relief. Kim ShiHoon walked toward Zhuge Xuan.
"What happened?
"…"
Zhuge Xuan didn't answer. He looked at Kim ShiHoon and KangWoo with sharp eyes.
"Where were you two?"
"Us?"
"If you're suspecting the two, there's no need to do that," Grace said while sighing.
"The timing was peculiar, so I know what you’re thinking, but these two were with us the whole time."
"Ah…"
Zhuge Xuan let out a short exclamation. He lowered his head while making a dark expression.
"I'm sorry. It's just that the timing in which Satan invaded the vault coincided with when they visited the vault, so I couldn't help but be suspicious of them."
Kim ShiHoon and KangWoo nodded.
Just like he said, it was understandable that he'd be suspicious.
"They aren't people who'd do something like that," Gaia said in a firm voice.
Once again, Zhuge Xuan lowered his head.
"Yes, Ms. Gaia. I'm going to remember that. I apologize to the two of you."
"No, I think your suspicion is understandable," KangWoo replied.
"Ahh. If we knew Satan was going to invade, we would've stayed in the vault a bit longer."
"It isn't your fault, Mr. KangWoo. This is something no one expected," Gaia replied to KangWoo.
He sighed as if he regretted not having been able to do anything.
He had a heavy expression.
'Yolo!'
But unlike his expression, he was celebrating on the inside.
'Things went better than expected.'
To be honest, he was worried that he'd moved too fast.
But Gaia and Grace dealt with the situation better than he expected.
Not only that, but it seemed like their trust in him increased after the incident.
'No. It definitely went up.'
After that incident, the possibility of 'Satan = KangWoo' had probably completely disappeared from Gaia's mind.
She probably never thought that in the first place, but that time, it was a bit different.
From then on, even if he did something suspicious, she would probably never imagine they were the same person.
That meant he could act a bit more comfortably from then on.
'Although I'm not Satan, of course.'
KangWoo nodded.
He was definitely another person. He wasn't Satan, someone evil who routinely did bad things.
If Satan was evil, KangWoo was justice—the one who would judge evil.
It was normal that they wouldn't be able to find a connection between him and someone like the Demon of Prophecy who wanted to destroy the world.
'What trash.'
The entire world had moved to gather the Fissure Seeds.
There had been many players who'd died while collecting the Fissure Seeds, and there were also many players who'd died while fighting Demon Cult members.
To think that he'd take away all of the Fissure Seeds they'd gathered through so much sacrifice.
Satan's evil deeds make him clench his teeth.
"Let's not forget…"
"Mr. KangWoo?"
"That relaxing can become the sharpest sword. It seems like Satan is always waiting for us to lower our guards… I don’t think we should forget this."
After hearing what he said, every Guardian member remained silent. Everyone clenched their fists as if it enraged them.
Then they relaxed.
He wasn't wrong.
They already knew there was a chance that the Demon Cult would try to ambush them due to the Fissure Seeds.
But they hadn't put any other security measures in place besides Zhuge Xuan's illusions.
"I'm sorry. This is all because of my lack—'
"It isn't only Ms. Gaia's responsibility. We all made mistakes."
"Ah."
"Everyone can make mistakes. What matters is that we get out of it. Although it's something everyone says, it's hard to actually do it."
KangWoo turned around. He touched the crumbling ruins.
"Satan is strong. We can't relax because he became weaker after crossing dimensions."
* * *
"You're right…"
Gaia nodded.
KangWoo turned around. There was one thing members of Guardian had to do in that situation.
"We must get stronger."
Everyone nodded at KangWoo's words. You could feel the determination and will to fight from them.
'Yes, we must get stronger.'
They'd definitely felt how strong Satan was after that incident.
They couldn't remain still.
'We have to get stronger.'
‘No matter what.’
KangWoo smiled.
* * *
A few days after the Satan incident, Zhuge Xuan and Grace focused on restoring the destroyed vault.
Since Satan had discovered its location, they couldn't keep the vault at the Grand Canyon.
But they were restoring it anyway because of the 'Guardian's Sword,' which worked as the vault’s defense mechanism.
Satan had messed it up, but they had restored it enough so they could use it again. If not, they wouldn't be able to use one of their most valuable defense mechanisms.
KangWoo and Kim ShiHoon didn't take part in repairing it for training reasons.
Kim ShiHoon went to the Middle East again with Cheon MooJin.
In the case of KangWoo…
"Should I start?"
There were more than a hundred stakes in front of him. He smiled in satisfaction while looking at the Fissure Seeds in front of him.
When he used one, the effect wasn't that big…
But he had hundreds of them at the moment.
It was normal for him to be excited.
"I'm not expecting that much. Let's just get to 123."
One stat of difference.
His Demonic Energy stat had surpassed 120, so even 1 stat made a huge difference.
"Good."
The preparations were done. It was about time to move into action.
KangWoo extended his hand toward the Fissure Seeds.
He absorbed the seeds into his body just as he'd learned from the Authority of Insight.
Whir-!
Black energy flew out of the Fissure Seeds. Although the amount was small, individually speaking, as hundreds gathered, they became an energy that couldn't be underestimated.
'One stat!'
KangWoo shouted from within and moved the energy toward his heart.
He could feel the black energy attacking the system sealing the Ten Thousand Demon Core.
Whom-!
The surface shook.
An explosive amount of Demonic Energy rose toward the sky.
Crack. The ground he was stepping on couldn't resist that huge energy, and it split.
An ecstatic power spread through his body.
Ting-
[The seal of the Ten Thousand Demon Core has become weaker.]
[Your Demonic Energy stat has increased by 3.]
"By three…?"
His mouth fell open.
He would've been happy with the increase of one, but to think that it would go up by three.
Although it felt good, he couldn't understand what had happened.
"What's going on?"
KangWoo closed his eyes. He analyzed the demonic energy inside his body. It wasn't hard to see the reason.
'Demonic energy came out from a deeper part.'
The demonic energy of the Ten Thousand Demon Core was separated into three categories: The surface, the depths, and…
'The Abyss.'
The deepest part of the Ten Thousand Demon Core.
He hadn't been able to control the demonic energy from the deepest part, even when he’d been in Hell.
"It seems like demonic energy from the deepest part has finally started to come out."
Until recently, only demonic energy from the surface part had flowed out, but a tiny bit of demonic energy from the deepest part had started to come out.
Of course, it wasn't complete. The demonic energy from the deepest part was only a portion of it.
'But…'
What was important was that it had started to come out.
"I should be able to face Balrog soon."
He smiled in satisfaction.
If only demonic energy from the surface had come out, that much growth should've taken him at least a couple of months.
Leaving great demons aside, he felt like he should soon be able to face Balrog or Lilith.
"It isn't enough yet."
KangWoo's eyes shone. If it were when he first arrived on Earth, he would've thought that much strength was more than enough.
To be honest, just having the strength of a great demon should’ve made him stronger than almost all beings on Earth.
But the situation had changed.
'Archdukes…'
There was a chance he might have to fight them.
If the archdukes appeared, with Earth's current strength, they wouldn't be able to beat them.
Numbers didn't matter in front of an archduke.
The only one who could face an archduke was another archduke.
Although players overall were getting stronger, if someone asked him if he thought that they would grow enough to be able to face an archduke, he would shake his head.
'Maybe Kim ShiHoon could.'
Among the players KangWoo had met, there wasn't any player who had the potential to face an archduke one day.
KangWoo clicked his tongue.
"It's too unbalanced."
It was something that happened because the gap between Earth's and Hell's power was too big.
Anyway, what KangWoo had to do was already decided.
'I must get strong enough to be able to face an archduke.'
There was a chance he also had to be wary of gods like Susanoo or Gaia, but the most urgent thing was the battle against the archdukes.
"After all, Satan has already been reborn."
The Demon of Prophecy, Satan.
In that situation, he was the opponent he had to be the wariest about.
Just taking into consideration that he'd invaded the Guardian's vault, it was obvious that he was already inside the Demon Cult.
No, it wasn't just being part of it. There was a chance he was the one controlling it from the shadows.
"Satan…"
He remembered the face of the demon he'd faced in the past in the 9th hell.
He naturally clenched his fists.
"I'll protect this world."
He overflowed with a sense of justice.
