[You son of a…]
Satan was at a loss for words due to his anger.
The darkness fluctuated.
He turned his face and looked at Raphael and the Light Watchers’ expressions.
'Damn.'
They didn't believe him at all; they were looking at KangWoo with confidence and trust.
[Ha…] Satan laughed in disbelief.
Gaining the trust of an angel was no easy task.
The angels were a race of stubborn and inflexible beings.
'How did he gain their trust?'
He couldn't understand it.
Raphael and his angels didn't have a positive opinion of the Guardians.
Their doubt had been eliminated due to the Demon King’s machinations, but that didn’t change the fact that they had been unable to protect Ludwig.
'Despite that…'
The Angels and Light Watchers were looking at KangWoo as if he were their partner.
No… If he exaggerated a bit, they seemed loyal to him.
Anyway, it didn't change the fact that it wasn't normal.
"SATAANN!!"
Raphael's eight wings extended.
Satan frowned.
'I guess there's nothing I can do about it.'
No matter what he did, he wouldn't be able to make Raphael doubt the Demon King instead of him.
Satan raised his hand, and the darkness fluctuated like a wave and took the form of a pitch-black sword in his hand.
Anger…
It was the Hell Equipment that represented him.
"Let Light judge them!"
Raphael threw his spear made of bright, white light.
Satan positioned the pitch-black sword and blocked the attack.
BOOM-!!!
Light and Dark clashed, and a huge impact shook the surroundings.
Crack.
An intense fight happened in the middle of the snowstorm, and the ferocity of their battle split the earth.
[That dumbass…!] Satan said in an anger-filled voice.
The dumb angel was being played by the Demon King, and just watching it was making him feel sick.
He pulled his arm back, and darkness gathered around the pitch-black sword.
He swung the sword upward.
Crack-!!!
* * *
The earth split even further, and darkness rose from the ground like a fountain.
Raphael spun his spear and blocked the darkness, and then they clashed once again.
An ear-tearing sound shook the battlefield.
[Haa.]
Satan's eyes were shining with madness.
Since things had come to that, he couldn't just keep dodging and receiving attacks—he needed to be more determined.
He had to renew his killing intent.
He looked at the Demon King wearing that disgusting mask while covered by a golden light.
- That's called anger.
He heard the Demon King's voice in his memories—how he laughed and made fun of him.
'How dare you…'
‘How dare he say something like that to the Archduke of Anger.’
Anger filled his body, his head heated up, and his body temperature rose as well.
Behind the red mask, Satan's pupils and iris turned black, and an elongated pupil appeared within his yellow eyes.
[Good,] he said in a voice filled with madness.
He gripped 'Anger' with both of his hands and pierced the surface of the Earth.
[Let's kill each other, Demon King.]
The crack in the ground widened even more, mounds of dirt scattered into the wind, and huge pillars of rock jutted from the crevice as if they were thorns.
Then…
WHOOM-
It sounded as if nature itself was screaming.
A second landslide began that quickly grew in size.
Bat-like wings unfurled, and he flew into the sky.
'Demon King…'
He looked at the Demon King with deep, sunken eyes, then he looked down at the giant black jewel gripped within his own hands.
It was a fragment of the Root of Evil that he’d brought with him.
'If I use this…’
There was a chance he could win if he used the Divinity within the Root of Evil.
Satan's eyes shone.
[Come!] he shouted as he raised his pitch-black sword.
* * *
"I’m not stupid enough to answer your challenge, you idiot."
KangWoo smirked.
'That bastard still has middle-school syndrome, huh?'
He crossed his arms and watched Raphael rushing toward Satan.
Satan and Raphael continued fighting.
KangWoo watched from a distance.
'Not yet.'
There was no reason for him to move yet.
Of course, collaborating with Raphael and fighting against Satan could be good because it was obvious that two-on-one was better than one-on-one.
"Still, this is better if I want to avoid getting hurt."
KangWoo laughed.
If he joined the fight, then he already knew who Satan would primarily target.
Satan's anger would obviously be directed toward him, and he would prioritize attacking him instead of Raphael.
If that happened…
He and Satan would be the only ones getting hurt.
'I cannot let that happen.'
Everything had to go as he wanted.
He had to consider the worst possibility that Satan might have become stronger than he had been in the Hell of Nine Skies and that there was a possibility of Satan severely wounding him if they fought.
'Also, there’s the possibility of Raphael betraying me.'
The chances of that happening were low.
Thanks to ‘Ruler of Demonic Energy’, Raphael hadn't been able to see the traces of demonic energy he'd hidden.
It didn't seem like he fully trusted him, but at least he didn't imagine he was actually a demon.
'Still… you never know.'
What if Raphael realized his identity in the middle of the battle?
What if he walked toward him while he was wounded?
As long as he was a demon and had the Sea of Demonic Energy inside him, he wouldn't be able to fully trust a demon.
'On top of that…'
He narrowed his eyes and remembered Satan shouting toward Raphael and him with confidence.
'He probably has something up his sleeve.'
He wouldn't be so confident if he didn't have a hidden card, and KangWoo wouldn’t allow himself to be the victim of that card.
If someone was to be the victim, it had to be Raphael.
"Come on, destroy each other."
KangWoo smiled.
None of the countless Authorities he had allowed him to see the future, so he had to take every possibility into consideration and…
'I have to do everything I can to ensure my victory.'
He didn't care who won the fight.
If Satan killed Raphael, that meant archangels were beings that couldn't be trusted.
If Raphael killed Satan, KangWoo could react to however Raphael acted after that.
It was the same when Lucifer fought against the Demon Cult.
He had no reason to move on his own.
'Solving everything with my own strength is stupid.'
It was something only a dumb person would do.
Maybe it would make sense if there was no other way, but more than half of it could be solved if he did nothing, so why would he make a useless effort?
'Should I come up with an excuse?'
There was a chance of Raphael asking him why he hadn’t helped in the fight against Satan, so he just had to be careful about that possible question.
Preparing for that wasn't that hard.
'There's Belphegor and that guy called Bloodseker, right?'
Although they hadn't appeared yet, he could use them.
"So…"
There was one thing he had to do.
'Authority of Fake Color.'
KangWoo used the Authority of Fake Color to create light sticks that he swung around in his hands.
'Play! Play!'
‘Raphael oppa!’
‘Satan oppa!’
'May anyone win!'
* * *
A spear of light followed him, and he swung his sword, letting out a wave of black demonic energy along the sword’s trajectory.
'Why?'
He let out a heavy breath.
Satan deflected Raphael's attack while making a confused expression.
Although he was fighting against Raphael, his mind was in another place.
'Why isn't he coming?'
The Demon King wasn't there.
He thought that the battle would take a two-on-one format, and he was expecting Raphael and the Demon King to attack him simultaneously, so obviously…
He'd prepared a strategy based on that.
'Why aren't you coming?'
BOOM-!
The pitch-black sword collided with the spear.
Satan pulled his hand back and swung his sword down, letting out more blades of demonic energy along the trajectory of ‘Anger’ that rained down.
'Authority of Extinction.'
Satan's Authority could annihilate anything it touched.
The Authority of Extinction was within the blades of demonic energy that were raining down.
"It's useless!"
Raphael pulled his spear back and, as if he were stepping on air, rushed forward and threw the spear.
Thousands of illusions appeared where the spear was going to fall.
No, they weren't illusions.
Thousands of spears made from light appeared in a circle.
BOOM-!!
The blades and spears clashed, and thunder shook the sky.
The huge impact swept everything away, and the dark clouds were blown away.
The sunlight shone down on them.
[Damn, damn it!] Curses left Satan's mouth.
His plan had been ruined.
He felt the Root of Evil he had placed inside him.
He needed to have both the Demon King and Raphael within its attack range, and he still couldn't fully control the power of the Root of Evil, so he didn't have many chances.
A trump card was called a trump card for a reason, after all. If he could freely use it, he would've done so at the beginning.
'Why…?'
KangWoo wasn't coming.
Although the battle against Raphael continued, no one appeared.
[Come, Demon King!!] he screamed.
[Fight with me!!]
Why was the Demon King not trying to finish him off after driving him into a corner?
He thought he was about to go crazy.
BOOM-!!
[Raphael! Where's the Demon King?!]
"You've lost your mind."
Raphael clicked his tongue.
Demon King?
What nonsense was that?
"Aren't you the Demon King?"
His eyes shone sharply.
The Demon of Prophecy that had the Sea of Demonic Energy inside him—someone who had 666 different Authorities…
If such a demon wasn't the Demon King, then who was the Demon King?
[Damn it! Oh KangWoo! Where's that son of a bitch?!]
"Did you think I would need a human to aid me in fighting you?”
Raphael laughed in disbelief.
He knew that the human Oh KangWoo had inherited the strength of Hero God Tyrion, but that didn't mean an archangel should expect a human’s help in fighting a demon.
"I'll avenge Ludwig's death with my own hands!" Raphael shouted.
[Fuck.]
Satan thought he was about to go crazy.
He didn't even know Ludwig's face.
'Where are you, Demon King?'
Satan quickly started to look for the Demon King.
At that moment, he saw an eye-catching light.
Between the crumbled rocks, in a place where he wouldn't catch anyone's attention, he noticed the Demon King watching them.
[Th-that son of a bitch…!]
He was waving neon light sticks and having fun while watching the fight.
He was just sitting in a safe place after inciting their fight.
[Y-you piece of trash… How dare you!!]
His anger had crossed the threshold.
Satan grabbed his own nape.
[Ugh.]
For a moment, his sight became blurry, and he felt that everything was spinning.
Satan's body collapsed.
