About ten thousand people were moving across the snowy peak.
They were Guardians—the last hope of humanity.
Elite players from all around the world were starting to move toward where they thought the main Demon Cult branch was located.
The closer they got to the war starting, the darker their expressions became.
They recalled their last battle against the Demon Cult in Tibet.
They'd underestimated the strength of demons, so they'd struggled a lot after facing reality.
It was true that they'd gotten stronger after constantly recovering lost territories, but still, the war felt different.
It was obvious. After all, they were moving to fight against the Demon of Prophecy—someone that was trying to destroy the world.
Thankfully, no one had deserted.
Lots of conversations were exchanged, and everyone was feeling a huge mix of emotions, but time still went on.
"Here's…"
"The Demon Cult Base."
The Guardians nervously looked at the tall mountain.
To be precise, it wasn't the main branch of the Demon Cult—it was just the place they thought the biggest branch was located in.
Regardless, after Satan gathered his strength and forces around the branch, it was as if it were the main one.
There were estimated to be more than ten thousand cultists within.
They had also probably summoned demons, so there was a chance that the Guardians would be facing much more than ten thousand individuals.
"Everyone, prepare for battle!" the young man standing in the front, Kim ShiHoon, shouted.
His voice spread over the surroundings via qi.
The Guardians nervously grabbed their weapons.
"A d-demon!" one of the Guardians that had long-range vision abilities shouted.
Everyone followed the Guardian’s finger.
'There's a disgusting amount of them,' KangWoo thought.
There were huge artificial doors located all around the mountain.
As one of the giant doors opened, tons of cultists and demons appeared.
'There's probably around twenty thousand.'
There were more demons than expected.
KangWoo frowned as he looked over them.
"GRRRR."
"KIIEEKK!!"
Demons that were interspersed among the cultists let out chilling battlecries.
There was a demon with tens of eyes, a demon with snake hair, and a demon with its internal organs spilling out of a gaping wound in its stomach.
It seemed like they'd chosen the creepiest-looking ones to stand at the front.
"Ugh."
"Wh-what's that…?"
"It wasn't that bad before."
The Guardians hesitated when they saw the horrific-looking demons.
"Wake up! Don't let their appearance frighten you!" Kim ShiHoon said in a firm voice.
That was easier said than done.
Sight influences most of the other senses, after all.
It was hard to stay calm when faced with such horrifying demons. Their appearance alone was nauseating.
On top of that…
"What's up with this smell?"
"Eek!"
"Bleh!"
The disturbance spread like a plague.
A horrible scent spread through the air—the odor of rotten pus.
It was hard to withstand, even for those who were used to fighting monsters.
"Wake up!"
BOOM.
Cheon MooJin stomped and shouted.
Light returned to the players’ eyes.
"Focus! Do you want your last moments to be filled with vomit?!"
The players gulped at Cheon MooJin's words.
"KIIEEKK!!"
"Wipe away the dirty servants of light!"
The cultists finally began moving.
A priest wearing black robes was controlling the demons.
KangWoo narrowed his eyes and looked at them.
'It seems like the Phases haven't appeared yet.'
None of the demons could be considered at the level of an archduke.
KangWoo wasn't at the front but at the rear.
His job wasn't to lead the battle.
His role was to face demons that reached the level of an archduke—demons that couldn’t be beaten with just numbers.
KangWoo looked at the battlefield.
"KUUOO!!"
BOOM-!!
A giant demon that was dozens of meters tall swung his club and screamed.
A magic circle shone where it swung its club, and a huge explosion blasted out.
Crack-!
BOOM-!
Something broke, and snow cascaded down in ever-increasing amounts.
It was an avalanche.
Kim ShiHoon raised his sword.
"Use the scrolls!!"
They'd already thought of such a tactic being used against them, and each of the Guardians used the scrolls that had been provided ahead of time, creating a defensive wall of fire around them.
"Agh!"
"D-damn it!!"
Of course, a few members were taken by the avalanche.
Kim ShiHoon stomped, sparing a glance at the soldiers buried beneath the snow.
"Advance!"
Kim ShiHoon's scream announced the start of the battle.
The players quickly began running up the snow-covered mountain.
The Demon Cult forces took out their weapons as if they'd been waiting for that.
The war started in earnest.
Slash-!
"Blue Dragon's Dance!"
Kim ShiHoon swung his sword while shouting the technique's name on purpose—it was a tactic they had prepared beforehand.
Dozens of sword energies spread from him and cut through the bodies of the demons.
As the picturesque young man annihilated demons, fighting spirit soared among Guardian forces.
"Kill them!!"
"Those dirty bastards!"
Raphael took a step forward, glared at the demons, and raised his hand.
Light began gathering around his hand, and a spear appeared.
"To those that have been tainted by darkness…"
BOOM. He aggressively stomped on the ground.
His eight wings extended outward.
"Let light judge them."
"Let light judge them!!!!"
The angels opened their wings and soared into the sky, rushing down toward the demons who were clashing with Guardian forces.
As angels and demons—two fundamentally opposing forces—clashed, the battle that could have come straight from a myth went on.
BOOM-!
Fwoosh-!
"AGH!!"
"DIIEE!"
The wounded began piling up on both sides.
* * *
Although the Demon Cult had the advantage in pure numbers, Guardian had someone that was much stronger than the demons.
Kim ShiHoon and the Celestial Wolf Troops cut a clean path through demon forces.
'He's doing a great job.'
KangWoo smiled in satisfaction as he looked at Kim ShiHoon.
The demons were being pushed back thanks to Kim ShiHoon and the Celestial Wolf Troops.
'If things go on like this…'
He licked his lips.
'They'll have no choice but to come out.'
Numbers didn't matter while fighting an archduke, but if two beings of archduke level fought and one of them had an army to back them up, that changed things.
It wasn't that archdukes were invincible.
Even if the attacks were weak and small, they couldn’t ignore the damage that would build up, and the archduke with the army would inevitably win.
They would definitely appear before their forces were wiped out.
"It should be about time they moved their heavy asses…"
Then…
He saw something strange.
KangWoo frowned.
"What are they doing…?"
He saw about 500 cultists that had thrown away the black robes and were wearing nothing.
They raised their hands into the sky while kneeling on the ground.
"Praise to the darkness!!"
"Let the light fall!!"
Their madness-filled voices spread through the battlefield, garnering the attention of Guardian forces, and…
Crack-!!
Their flesh tore apart, their intestines popped from their bodies, and their cranial fluid poured over the ground.
It was a horrible and disgusting scene.
Their corpses intertwined, and black demonic energy rose up.
The demonic energy from the 500 corpses gathered up, and a monster with a huge body appeared.
"GRAAARRR!!!!"
It was a monster with red skin.
KangWoo frowned.
"A barbatos."
It wasn't an ancient demonic monster like Halcyon that could think, but it was still a demonic monster from the 9th hell.
Usually, demonic monsters didn't leave their nests, but a barbatos was an exception—it was notorious for roaming around and attacking anything in sight.
"Fuck…"
A curse left KangWoo's mouth.
The barbatos had another characteristic as well…
'I'm really going to puke.'
Its body was made of corpses, and every time it moved, yellow pus poured down like a waterfall.
A horrible odor filled the battlefield.
"UGH!!!"
"Wh-what's that?"
"Ugh! BLEH!!"
'This…'
It was the wrong opponent.
The Guardians could hardly take the odor wafting from the horrific demonic monster they had never seen before.
On top of that, the 'physical specs' of a demonic monster were higher than a demon’s.
KangWoo spread his hand and pulled a golden sword from nothingness.
It was a bad opponent for him to stand still and just watch.
BOOM-
"What a disgusting monster."
It seemed like Raphael thought the same thing as KangWoo, and he took a step forward with his spear in hand.
An archangel emitting a white light joined the battlefield along with the apostle of the hero god that was emitting a golden light.
"Huh?"
"Woah!"
The Guardians’ eyes widened at the sudden appearance of light.
The faces of the Angels and Light Watchers brightened.
"To those that have been tainted by darkness…"
"To those that have been tainted by darkness…"
KangWoo and Raphael, two heroes, one with a golden light and another with a pure-white light, opened their mouths together.
"Let the light judge them!"
BOOM-!!
KangWoo stomped on the ground.
Raphael flew into the sky.
Del Lain crushed the barbatos's head, and the spear of light pierced its body.
The seemingly vigorous barbatos died instantly.
[So you finally appeared.]
A black fissure appeared from the barbatos’s corpse, and a curtain-like darkness poured out of it that had a red, floating mask at the end of it.
"Satan…"
KangWoo raised his sword.
"I came here to judge you."
[You motherfucker…! Haa… Haa!]
Satan's voice trembled after he saw KangWoo.
He was trying to calm down, but it was hard.
[Raphael!] Satan shouted.
[The human standing next to you is, in reality, the Demon King!]
Before Raphael could say anything, KangWoo spoke in a tired voice.
"Are you telling such lies again…?"
BOOM-!!
He stomped on the ground and glared at Satan.
"Satan!! Everyone knows about your wrongdoings!"
[What? You son of a…]
"I haven't forgotten! We haven't forgotten that you've killed the Guardian Alec!! You also killed Reinald, the descendant of Hero God Tyrion!!"
[Alec? Rei… What? Who are they?]
"You even bare your teeth against other demons, and you tried to fill the Sea of Demonic Energy with that terrible ambition of yours!!"
[Hey, no… You have the Sea of Demonic Energy…]
"You made Saint Ludwig fall and did a horrible thing that goes against the law of life!!"
[You crazy bastard!! Weren't you the one who made Ludwig fall?!] Satan screamed.
[I don't know who Alec and Reinald are!! I didn't even know that the Light Watchers were on Earth!! Raphael, listen!! Everything was planned by that—]
"Shut up, Satan!"
BOOM-!!!
The mountain shook at KangWoo's anger, and an intense golden light that made it seem as if the sun had descended on Earth spread.
The Light Watchers couldn't help but kneel at such a magnificent sight, and tears flowed from their eyes.
After starting to talk with the Guardians, they learned about KangWoo's real identity as an apostle of Hero God Tyrion—a light that eradicated darkness.
As if proving that, KangWoo's body was covered by a light that emanated with divine energy.
KangWoo raised Del Lain.
"How dare you insult me! How dare you doubt me?! How dare you judge me!!"
‘I'm justice!’
