[You rude bastard...!]
The Abyss wriggled.
The giant eye blinked.
'Woah.'
One couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
The size of the eye alone was a kilometer in diameter, so he couldn't even imagine how big the original body was.
'It seems like the eye isn't the real body.'
The Abyss covered the main body, and that's why it couldn't be seen, but its size was really huge.
It was so massive that it made a mountain look like a toddler’s toy.
It was a size that made one think of the titans, a race of giants that appeared in mythology.
'It doesn't matter.'
KangWoo laughed.
It didn't matter how big or strong the opponent was because that wasn't important.
[Human, it seems like you don't know your place.]
"Do you know your place?"
[What?]
KangWoo kept talking with a relaxed voice.
"To be honest, I don't know your situation. I don't know what you're planning and how it's going…"
He got close to the eye.
"But I know you won't be able to fulfill the plan if I'm not there."
[...]
The god remained silent.
The eye trembled a bit.
[You don't know anything...]
"That's what I told you. I don't know, but there's one thing I do know."
A giant energy pressured him.
He didn't feel fear—there was no way he'd be afraid.
"You need me, right?"
[...]
"You were with me from the beginning? You’re saying my falling to Hell and obtaining the Authority of Predation was because of your influence. There's no way you would have done something like that for no reason."
He laughed out loud.
"It also isn't hard to imagine what you want."
It was obvious.
The god’s reason for being asleep inside that endless Abyss…
There was no need to think about it too deeply.
It was like answering an exam question you already knew the answer to.
"You want to get out of here, right? I'm not sure why you're here, but you probably need me to get out of this place."
[...]
There was a heavy silence.
The demon god couldn't answer, and the giant eye trembled.
It felt an intense rage—rage that couldn't be resisted by someone who didn't have divinity poured out.
The Abyss wiggled.
Spears of demonic energy were created.
It wasn't tens or hundreds. Rather, there were hundreds of thousands, millions of spears.
A number that couldn't be counted.
The demonic energy spears flew toward KangWoo.
SLASH-!
His shoulder, arms, legs, waist, and all of his body were pierced by the spears.
Although it wasn't his real body and a fake one created by his mind, he could still feel immense pain.
It hurt enough to make him think he'd die if a spear hit him at a vital point.
But…
"What, is that all?"
He smirked.
He stood and looked at the Abyss.
His body had been messed up, but he didn't care.
He clicked his tongue while looking at the spears that had covered the Abyss.
"Keep shitting yourself. Is anything going to change if you create that many spears?"
He made a smile that made it look like he was making fun of the god.
What mattered wasn't strength.
It didn't matter how many spears there were.
What mattered were their positions.
Who was more desperate?
"Well, now it's clear."
He laughed out loud.
He looked at the Abyss—a being that you wouldn't be able to beat with pure strength.
He wasn't scared. He was more confident than when he faced Mamon.
"You can't kill me."
[You...]
An anger-filled voice left the giant eye.
The black eye increased in size.
[Why aren't you scared?] he asked in disbelief.
Up until then, every human that stood in front of him had trembled in fear.
No, it wasn't just humans.
There wasn't anyone who hadn’t trembled. Even the gods held their breaths in front of him.
[Do you know who—]
"I don't. How many times do I have to tell you?"
He kept talking while frowning.
"I don't know who you are. I don't care, so keep trying to act as important. I have no interest in you."
[...]
"Stop wriggling and make a choice."
He narrowed his eyes.
"You either send me back…"
He kept talking without hesitation.
"Or we die here together."
[...]
There was silence. The giant eye trembled.
KangWoo laughed.
It wasn't hard to imagine what choice he would make.
'You shouldn't have tried to use me.'
Countless demons had tried to use him before, but no one had succeeded.
It wasn't because he was strong—he would have died early on in the Hell of Nine Skies if he were simply strong.
'Everyone that tried to use me has died.'
He turned his head.
He could see the demon god hesitating.
He licked his lips.
He didn't like being unsure of things, but his uncertainty had faded.
'You're also going to become like that.'
He laughed at the unknown god.
* * *
He opened his eyes.
"It's a ceiling that I don't know..."
A ceiling he'd never seen before was above him.
He tried to get up.
"Ugh!!"
A huge pain covered his body.
KangWoo collapsed without being able to stand up.
"Demon King, you've finally woken up."
"I told you not to call me that..."
"Hoho, I'm sorry."
Lilith smiled brightly.
KangWoo looked around.
"Where are we?"
"It's Guardian’s Chinese base. The human Cheon MooJin prepared a private room."
"How many days has it been?"
"Hmm... It's been a week since the battle ended."
He frowned.
One week… He'd been asleep for quite some time.
"How are the losses?"
"769 Guardian forces died."
"There were fewer losses than expected."
He thought that at least a thousand people would die.
“The demons changed direction toward the branch's interior in the middle of the battle, which changed the tide."
"What about the results of the battle?"
"Very good. Uhm... Is it called level? I heard the average level of the players increased quite a lot. I also heard two that are at the level of world-rankers have appeared."
He nodded.
The demons had given them a huge amount of experience.
'If they didn’t grow this much, we'd be in trouble.'
He smiled.
"What about you?"
"Balrog has suffered huge damage because he blocked the demonic energy with his body."
"Hngh. Well, it's Balrog, so I guess it will be okay."
Balrog's natural healing capabilities were almost as impressive as the Authority of Regeneration.
If he hadn't died, there was no need to worry.
"The human Kim ShiHoon still hasn't regained consciousness. Among the people Mr. KangWoo knows, he's the one who suffered the most damage."
"..."
He frowned.
He tried to get up, but a huge pain made him collapse.
'This is why I didn't want to open the door.
Making the Ten Thousand Demon Core's energy his greatly increased his strength, but the recoil was too huge.
'I also saw a weird bastard.'
The unknown god that was inside the Abyss…
If the meeting with him hadn't gone well, he might have never been able to wake up.
'Well, anyways…'
He lay down.
He slowly raised his hand and gathered his thoughts.
There were many things he had to think about. The number of things he had to do had piled up, but the important thing was that he was back.
And…
'I ate Mamon.'
He was suffering from the recoil of opening the door, so he couldn't check how much strength he'd obtained after eating Mamon.
'I should open the status window.'
He'd eaten an archduke, so there was no way his stats wouldn't have gone up.
It was normal he'd be expectant about how much his Demonic Energy stat had increased.
He also became interested in Mamon's Authority which he hadn't been able to use until that point.
"Mr. KangWoo, there's something I need to report."
"Hmm."
KangWoo's hands stopped right before he could open his status window.
KangWoo considered telling her to wait for a bit.
He didn't think for long.
He stopped trying to open the status window and turned his head to Lilith.
'There's no point to it, even if I check it now.'
Because of the recoil from opening the door, he was struggling even to lift a finger.
Trying to check how strong he'd become in such a state was comedy itself.
"Yes."
"I heard Lucifer's forces clashed with the Demon Cult."
"Oh."
His eyes shone.
'So it finally happened.'
He had been waiting for that.
"How did you hear of it?"
"When Balrog ambushed them, that Yulia girl tried to make contact with another branch of the Demon Cult. I backtracked that communication record."
"Then, when we were ambushing the Demon Cult's branch, Lucifer's forces attacked another branch?"
"Yes."
"Ha..."
A fake laugh left him.
'Should I say we were lucky?'
It wasn't intended, but the timing ended up being incredible.
"You backtracked the communication, right?"
"Yes."
"Did you only find out what they said?"
"Fufu, no."
A deep smile appeared on Lilith's face. She walked toward KangWoo's bed and sat next to him.
"I investigated the command room and found the location of five branches. One of them seems like a huge branch with thousands of members."
"I see."
KangWoo smiled.
'As expected, she does an incredibly clean job.'
He hadn't told Lilith to investigate, but she'd concluded that, rather than attacking the interior of the Demon Cult's base with Balrog, finding clues about the Demon Cult would be better.
It was a perfect job.
He couldn't help but feel proud of her.
"Well done."
He touched Lilith's cheeks.
Lilith let out an exclamation and stuck herself closer to him.
"What should I do? Should I use Guardian soldiers to attack the other branches?"
"No."
He shook his head.
Since Lucifer's forces had become involved, there was no need to make Guardian move.
No, it was the opposite.
"Make contact with Lucifer's forces."
"Ah..."
"Tell them the location of the Demon Cult branches you've just discovered."
"Fufufu. Understood."
A deep smile appeared on Lilith's face.
She placed her cheeks on KangWoo's chest.
"I was worried because the King wasn't opening his eyes."
"That doesn't seem to be the case...'
"I was really worried. I made the soldiers protecting the King unconscious just to stay and protect the King's rest."
"Why did you do that?"
"Dear King…"
Lilith put her hands on his chest.
Green tentacles started to appear from her body.
"Wait, ugh...!"
One of the tentacles entered his mouth.
He couldn't lift a finger at the moment, so there was no way he'd be able to refuse Lilith's advances.
"This loneliness, this sadness, these wounds…"
"UGH!!"
Squeak. Squeak.
Tentacles surrounded his body.
He struggled desperately.
The night went on.
Another flower fell to the ground.
"UGH!! AG, IIK!"
‘Th-the tentacles are making me do it!’
