After Ten Millennia in Hell

Chapter 515 - Open (3)

Rumble—!

The earth shook as endless destruction ensued. Thousands of demons were obliterated with every swing from the right arm of a Titan sprouted from Bael's shoulder.

"Haaa, haaa."

However, no matter how many he killed...

"Fuck, fuck, fuck."

No matter how many he burst and mangled...

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!"

It did not end. As if he were trapped in a nightmare he couldn't wake from, the demons of the Abyss continued to charge at him without knowing death.

"WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY!!" Bael screamed as he restlessly swung his arm. "YOU... YOU'RE...!!!"

He gritted his teeth and glared at Oh Kang-Woo resentfully.

"NO LONGER... SPECIAL!"

Kang-Woo was abandoned by the Demon God, his creator. Hence, his life, desire, and existence were no longer special.

"SO WHY, WHY, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"

He should have become the same as how Bael used to be. He should have felt that his wretched life of crawling from the First to Ninth Hell had been meaningless. He should no longer be special.

"Why aren't you... breaking?"

Kang-Woo had opened the Third Door. He unleashed the Abyss by destroying the vessel that was himself. It was only natural that he would break; it was only natural that his consciousness would burn to a crisp and be taken over by the Demonic Sea the moment he unleashed the Abyss.

"WHY ARE YOU STILL STANDING?!"

Kang-Woo stood tall despite swaying as if he would collapse at any second... just like Balrog had.

"H-Hihi! Didn't you see with your own eyes what happened to that muscle pig?"

Kang-Woo walked forward in silence. He staggered as if he would fall at any moment, but he did not stop— he did not back down. He took one step forward at a time.

"S-Stay away from me!"

Bael took a step back as he convulsed, but he couldn't even retreat due to the countless number of demons charging at him from all directions.

"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" he shouted as he swung the Titan's arm.

Countless demons were wiped out from just a swing. Bael stared at Kang-Woo again and raised the Titan's right arm.

"I told you... TO STAY AWAY!!"

The colossal arm, several kilometers long, swung at Kang-Woo.

Thump.

However, Kang-Woo slightly raised his hand and blocked the Titan's arm.

"Huh?"

Bael's eyes widened. He stepped backward in disbelief. He would have understood it if Kang-Woo had regenerated after bursting into pieces from getting smashed by the arm, but he stopped the power of the Demon God head-on.

"How... did you...?" muttered Bael tremblingly.

"I told... you."

The sight of a man the size of a human blocking with one hand, the arm of a Titan that looked several hundred thousand times heavier than him, was highly unnatural.

"Your existence... and your life that constantly requires validation... is nothing."

Boom!

Kang-Woo added more strength to his arm. He dug his feet into the ground and gripped the Titan's arm tightly.

"Huup!"

He then lifted the Titan's arm.

"Wh-What the—?!" Bael shouted in shock.

It was as if an ant had lifted a human's arm. It was a sight so unbelievable that it looked like a comedy.

"Bael..." Kang-Woo smiled as he lifted the Titan's right arm. "I'm not special... because I had the Demon God."

It was because he was a monster with the desires of a human. It was because he desired the Demonic Sea despite being a vessel. It was because he never stopped. It was because of those things that he was standing here today.

Split.

Kang-Woo opened his mouth. At the same time, the flames that were wrapped around him spread like a tent.

Fwoosh—!

The gold and black Flames of Voracity danced and gathered in one place, creating a mouth large enough to devour the Titan's arm whole.

"Authority of Predation."

The Authority that he had ever since he fell into Hell— no, from the moment he was created by the Demon God as a vessel to hold the Demonic Sea, mixed with the Flames of Voracity.

"Ah..." Bael groaned.

He raised his head and looked up at the ferociously blazing mouth. The open mouth made of gold and black flames, large enough to devour a Titan's arm, reminded him of...

"A black... sun."

- A-Aaaahh.

Bael heard the Demon God's groans inside his head.

- I-It was never me.

The Demon God looked up at the black sun in terror.

- The Demon of Prophecy... the master of the Demonic Sea...

It had never been him, but the vessel he had created. It had been the pathetic puppet that should have been nothing.

Crunch—!!

The black sun ate Bael whole. The Titan of myths and the demon who accepted his power were devoured by the boundless Abyss.

The demons freed from the Abyss stopped moving once Bael was dead. An abnormal sense of silence fell on the battlefield that had been filled with screams and destruction. Kang-Woo staggered.

"Kang-Woo!!"

Just then, he heard a woman's voice— it was a woman with twelve bright wings on her back.

"Ah..." Kang-Woo slowly turned to the woman.

"A-Are you alright, Kang-Woo?!" yelled Han Seol-Ah as she approached the staggering Kang-Woo.

It was obvious from one look that he wasn't fine.

"Hey! O-Oh Kang-Woo! You're not dead, are you?!"

Cha Yeon-Joo was running to him as well behind Seol-Ah.

She supported the staggering Kang-Woo and asked, "That aside, what are these demons...?"

It was an army of evil so massive that it killed one's spirits just by seeing them. Yeon-Joo could tell that the demons were summoned by Kang-Woo from the fact that they weren't moving, but she felt like she was suffocating from the pressure nonetheless.

"These are... the demons that Master Kang-Woo has devoured until now," answered Lilith as she looked around. She did not recognize all of them, but she could see a few familiar faces. She smiled faintly and continued in relief, "I'm not sure what exactly happened, but... you won."

Lilith was well aware that this war would be decided by who between Bael and Kang-Woo would emerge victorious. Kang-Woo had defeated Bael, so it was no exaggeration to say that the war was over.

'At last...'

The long and desperate war had come to an end; it had lasted over ten millennia in Kang-Woo's perspective.

"Wait."

Just then, Yeon-Joo, who had been supporting Kang-Woo, saw someone collapsed on the ground. It was the corpse of a demon with bulging red muscles.

"Ah..." Yeon-Joo expressed grief.

Seol-Ah and Lilith looked in the direction that Yeon-Joo was looking at, and their expressions turned somber.

"Kang-Woo..." Seol-Ah muttered as she teared up.

Although she didn't know everything that Kang-Woo went through in Hell, she knew what Balrog meant to Kang-Woo just from their interactions.

Silence fell again. It was only natural after finding out one of their precious comrades died in the war.

"Kang-Woo..." Yeon-Joo slightly pulled away from Kang-Woo and grabbed his arms. She asked, "Are you okay?"

"A-Argh." Kang-Woo slowly raised his head and looked around with blank eyes. He tilted his head in wonder and asked, "Who... are you all?"

"What?" Yeon-Joo's eyes shook.

"A-Argh."

Kang-Woo pulled his hair and stepped backward. He could feel his consciousness burning away. He was getting taken over by the Abyss pouring out of the Door.

'Who...'

His vision was blurring. He was so dizzy that he felt like vomiting.

'Am I...?'

He looked around and only saw unfamiliar faces. People whom he had never met before were shouting things at him but he couldn't hear what they were saying. It did not feel real, as if he were looking through a screen.

"Bal...rog."

One name was clear in his mind as his consciousness was fading.

'Why?'

He did not remember why he could remember the name Balrog. He swayed and fell to his knees.

"M-Mr. Balrog is..." the woman with white wings on her back stammered.

Kang-Woo paid no attention to her.

"Ah."

He saw a corpse on the ground. It was the corpse of a demon covered in red muscles. The lifeless gaze of the corpse with no arms pointed at him.

"A-Aaaahh."

Tears flowed down Kang-Woo's cheeks but he did not understand why he was crying. Everything felt unfamiliar to him.

'I... I... I...'

He did not remember who or what he was. He felt like he was melting away.

"Kang-Woo!!"

"Hey! Oh Kang-Woo! Get a hold of yourself!!"

He could hear the women yelling at him, but he did not know who this Oh Kang-Woo they were yelling for, was.

Wriggle.

He was sinking into the deep darkness... toward the bottom of the endless Abyss.

'Ah...'

He reached upward to get out, but he did not know why he was reaching his arms out.

'I have to get out of here.'

He paddled his feet and twisted his body with everything he had. He did not know why but he had a feeling that he shouldn't melt away.

'I still have... something I need to...'

His consciousness was melting away. His vision flickered, his sense of reason was vaporized, and his intelligence was burning away.

'What did I need to do again?'

He did not remember.

'Balrog.'

That name was the only thing he could remember. Then, his consciousness vanished.

Grrrrrrrrk—!!

"K-Kang-Woo!!"

"Run, Seol-Ah!" Lilith shouted as she quickly grabbed Seol-Ah's shoulder.

"L-Let go! K-Kang-Woo is...!!"

"We have to get out of here first! Hurry!"

Lilith looked around in pallor. The millions of demons that seemed to have been summoned by Kang-Woo melted down and turned into black mucus. Black mucus poured out of the burning black sun above the sky.

"Ngh..."

It looked as if a hole was made in the sky, and a black waterfall was pouring out of it. Lilith bit her lip as chills ran down her spine.

"Master Kang-Woo..."

She raised her head anxiously. Black mucus flowed out from Kang-Woo's eyes as he stood blankly. No, it was not just the eyes. Black mucus poured out of his mouth, nose, and ears like blood. He was then completely immersed in the black mucus and disappeared... as if he had been devoured.

"N-No..."

Seol-Ah extended her arm in pallor. Lilith shut her eyes tightly and pulled Seol-Ah toward her. Her long black hair floated in the air as if they were alive.

"We have to run away."

"A-Aaaahh."

"Now!"

Lilith wrapped the blank-faced Yeon-Joo and Seol-Ah with her black hair and ran.

Grrrrrrrrrk—!!

A wave of black mucus then began to engulf everything in its path like a tsunami.