'Ah.'
He felt as if rays of light had exploded through his hazy consciousness.
He felt as if the demonic energy he'd used to close the fissure was instantly refilled.
His body became full of energy.
'Good.'
He looked at both of his hands.
130 in a stat…
Every 10 stats, there was a huge difference, so its effect was different from before.
He hadn't absorbed the soul of a demon, so it wasn't that the passageway that led toward the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Demon Core had widened, but the absolute amount of demonic energy had increased so much that it couldn't be compared to before.
"D-Demon King?"
He felt Lilith looking at him in confusion.
He sighed after looking at her.
"First, return to your human form."
"But—"
"Lilith…" he said in a low voice.
He narrowed his eyes. That was as far as he was willing to take things with her.
"Don't make me say it twice."
"I'll do as you wish."
Lilith bowed her waist.
KangWoo smiled bitterly as he looked at her. He'd managed to extinguish the fire.
'Although the problem hasn't been fundamentally solved…'
Even though she'd followed his order, she still thought her original form was more beautiful. That meant that, unless she changed her thought process, she would return to her demon form again.
Lilith was a demon capable of doing anything if it was to seduce him.
He felt his head would turn blank if he thought about being surrounded by those horrible tentacles, but he had no mental capacity to think about that for the moment.
Squeak-
'Ugh.'
The sight of tentacles entering her skin was horrifying.
'Let's take this time to look at other things.'
While Lilith was returning to her original form, KangWoo took his eyes off her and checked his status window.
'Eight Awakening attribute…'
After absorbing demonic energy from the fissure, he'd reached 130 in a stat.
Thanks to that, he'd unlocked the eighth Awakening attribute, so he couldn't help but be excited about it.
[Eighth Awakening Attribute: Archduke Slayer (Rank: SS)]
Effect: You can use an archduke's soul and an archduke's Authority.
"This…"
KangWoo's eyes widened.
The explanation was short, but the content was shocking.
An archduke's Authority…
The strength of Satan and the other archdukes were in the 'Abyss'—the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Demon Core.
Even when he used to rule over the Hell of Nine Skies, he couldn't use the power within the Abyss.
'I can use an archduke's Authority.'
That meant he'd be able to do things he couldn't do while in Hell.
It was obvious that the tips of his mouth would go up.
'It seems like I can use the Reaper of Souls attribute on the archdukes.'
Being able to absorb the soul of an archduke was a possibility.
But seeing the new attribute, it seemed like he definitely could absorb the soul of an archduke with the Reaper of Souls.
'There's a chance that the soul of an archduke is related to the second condition for the Demonic Soul.'
Judging from the previous patterns… the Awakening attributes and the conditions for becoming a Demon God were related.
That's why the eighth Awakening attribute was definitely related to the second condition of the Demonic Soul.
'But…'
He frowned.
The eighth Awakening attribute was a mind-blowingly strong one.
He'd also obtained a hint to fulfill the 2nd condition.
'The problem was…'
The condition itself.
Even KangWoo couldn't help but be a bit overwhelmed at the thought of absorbing the soul of an archduke.
'In the first place, I don't even know if all the archdukes have been reborn.'
In the case of Lucifer, he knew he was reborn, but he was in another dimension, so he couldn't do anything about that.
"Hmm…"
He took a deep breath and kept thinking.
'It isn't that there's no way…'
He'd only been able to confirm that Lucifer had been reborn, so dragging him into the world wasn’t impossible.
In reality, he'd already planted the seeds.
Causing a stir between Satan's and Lucifer's forces…
'The problem is whether or not Lucifer would come to this world with that alone.
The chances of Lucifer invading Earth weren’t low.
There wasn't anything more tempting to a demon than the Sea of Demonic Energy Satan had gotten from the Demon King.
"An archduke, huh?"
That wasn't the only problem…
Even if Lucifer went to Earth, would he be able to beat him?
'I cannot be sure.'
It wasn't that he didn't have any chance, but still, he couldn't guarantee 100% that he'd win.
Even among the archdukes, Lucifer was one of the strongest along with Satan and Baal.
He was ranked 3rd, to be exact.
Baal was the strongest archduke; Satan and Lucifer were beneath him.
He would have trouble fighting Lucifer in a one-on-one battle at the moment.
'But…'
If Balrog and Lilith helped him, there was a chance.
"Hmm…"
He took a deep breath.
'There are too many variables.'
He didn't like that.
* * *
The chances of Lucifer arriving on Earth without his forces were very low. Not only that, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to face him in a three-one formation along with Balrog and Lilith.
'Then…'
He quickly began to think.
KangWoo's eyes shone sharply.
'I'm going to use the Demon Cult.'
He was trying to profit from the conflict between two different forces.
He’d make Lucifer and Satan's forces fight, and then he'd take that opportunity to cut off Lucifer's head.
'It's worth trying.'
The tips of his mouth went up.
Archduke… After learning through Balzac that Lucifer had been reborn, he subconsciously felt that he would have to face them soon.
'Tsk. This reminds me of when I was in Hell.'
The battle against the archdukes that had gone on for almost a thousand years…
The memories of that long war passed through his mind.
"My king, the transformation is complete."
He heard a beautiful voice.
KangWoo turned his head. There, he saw Lilith, who had returned to looking like Kurosaki Yurie.
'Ah, I'm happy.'
Just seeing that Lilith could return to looking like a human made him feel like a heavy burden had been lifted from him.
Of course, her not being able to return to her demonic form would be best, but he was happy with her being a human for the moment.
KangWoo sat on a nearby piece of wreckage.
"Tell me what happened after you infiltrated the Demon Cult."
The most important thing was how much she'd spread about his identity among the Demon Cult.
"I haven't been able to do anything significant because I was more focused on trying to recover my original body that you love so much; that's why I didn't have time to spread Demon King's name among the Demon Cult."
That was good news.
Lilith bowed and kept talking.
"I'm sorry for not being able to deal with things faster. I'm going to spread Demon King's name as quickly as…"
"Ah, about that. There are a few things I need to tell you."
KangWoo began to explain to her his relationship with the Demon Cult. He also told her about his current situation.
The more KangWoo's explanation went on, the paler her face became.
"I… I'm sorry, Demon King!"
She bowed down and slammed her forehead on the ground.
She kept talking with a teary voice.
"I… I didn't know about your intentions… and ended up giving information to the enemy…"
"Of course, I have no intention of letting this go unpunished."
Even though she hadn't known about his circumstances, Lilith's mistake was very grievous.
It was different from Balrog.
She'd spent quite some time on Earth and knew about KangWoo's existence and identity.
Despite that, she'd done things as she wished without considering his will, so he would have a hard time letting it go.
"I'm going to accept any punishment…" she said in a low voice while crying.
He sighed.
"Let's talk about this later on."
"I'll… definitely pay for this crime with my body…!"
"No."
"I'm going to return to my original body right now and offer myself…!"
"Don't."
"I'll put my name as the Succubus Queen on the line and—!"
"Please, don't."
KangWoo quickly stopped her from returning to her demon form.
He kept talking with a tired expression on his face.
"So, the Demon Cult doesn't know anything about my identity?"
"…"
There was silence.
Lilith hesitated while looking around anxiously, but soon she opened her mouth carefully.
"Well… I already began spreading the Book of Hell within the Demon Cult…"
"Book of Hell? What's that?"
"It's a book that contains information I wrote down about your thousand-year war with the archdukes since they still believe that the seven archdukes still rule over Hell."
"A book…"
The best way to make the Demon King known was to spread information about the battles that happened in the 9th hell between the archdukes and the Demon King.
After all, the one who had defeated the seven archdukes was the Demon King.
"I guess you couldn't distribute the book publicly."
"Yes. After all, they think of the archdukes as some sort of divine entities."
Then he still had a chance.
KangWoo's eyes shone sharply.
"Where is the book being distributed?"
"I heard that it's in the base of the Demon Cult that's in the middle-east."
"Oh."
She even gave him information about a Demon Cult base.
'This isn't bad…'
He'd thought Lilith's actions were just simple trolling that did nothing that harmed him.
But even with Guardians searching with all of their forces, they hadn't been able to find traces of the Demon Cult, so having obtained information about them was, by itself, a huge harvest.
'If I knew that things would turn out like this, I would have made her infiltrate a bit more.'
He thought that using her as a spy wasn't a bad idea.
But he soon shook his head.
'I guess that's going to be hard since Akiyama died.'
The reason why she'd been able to act so quickly was thanks to Akiyama.
Without him, she probably wouldn't have been able to move as quickly.
'First, I'll have to go to the Demon Cult's base in middle-east.'
It was worth visiting that place just to check how far the book had been distributed.
"Now that I think about it, what happened to Kurosaki Yurie?"
"Since I have gained control over her consciousness, she's asleep at the moment."
"Can you wake her up?"
"Yes, if my king orders it."
She nodded. It was good news that Lilith had control priority over the body.
He felt bad about Kurosaki Yurie, who had lost her body, but he didn't have the capability to think and care about the life of someone he didn't know.
'I'm already struggling with my own life.'
He wasn't Alec, so he didn't feel the need to live while caring about everyone's lives.
"What about Kurosaki Yurie's ability?"
"Her ability?"
"Yes. She has the ability to borrow a strength that belongs to another world."
"Hmm… I don't know about that. At least, I can't use that ability."
"So that's the ability of Kurosaki Yurie herself, huh?"
Lilith nodded.
KangWoo narrowed his eyes.
'This might be worth paying attention to.'
Although it wouldn’t be at the moment, there might come a time when he'd be able to use her ability well.
Before the Gaia System had weakened due to the Fissure Seeds, the Demon Cult had tried to summon Lilith through her.
It meant that, since the system had weakened even more, they could summon an archduke or a being even stronger than that if they used her ability properly.
'You poor thing.'
Thinking about Kurosaki Yurie, who'd unfairly lost her body to the Demon Cult, made him tear up.
Obviously, he'd try to wake her up and make sure she regained at least a bit of control over her body.
"As expected, people must live by helping each other up."
He stood up while nodding.
He wanted to help that innocent girl escape from the hands of the demons right away, but he couldn't do that at the moment.
'Should I go?'
She’d said the Demon Cult base was in the middle-east.
Going there was more urgent than anything else at the moment.
