After Ten Millennia in Hell

"Kurgh!"

A giant wave of snow and dirt swept the Players away.

Kim Si-Hun quickly raised his sword and shouted hurriedly, "Use the second scroll!"

A translucent barrier surrounded the Players as they used their second scroll, but it wasn\'t as effective as the flame barrier that they had used first.

The translucent barrier was destroyed, and some Players were swept away by the avalanche.

"Shit!"

Si-Hun turned his head and saw that the second avalanche had just hit them. They\'d already used the flame barrier, so many people were wounded by the avalanche.

"He doesn\'t care about his subordinates in the slightest."

Si-Hun bit his lips.

Unlike with the first avalanche, it wasn\'t just the Guardians members who were affected by the second avalanche. The Demon Cultists who had no scrolls to protect themselves with ended up suffering more than Guardians.

Si-Hun watched the Demon Cultists get swept away by the falling dirt, rocks, and snow.

"ARGH!"

"H-Help me!!"

Then Si-Hun\'s eyes widened when he realized where the avalanche was heading.

"That\'s…"

It was the place where the rearguard of Guardians was. They were in charge of healing the wounded as well as commanding the forces.

Furthermore…

"Gaia…!"

That was where Gaia was.

Si-Hun fell into chaos, and his mind went blank.

- Get it together, man.

He heard Oh Kang-Woo\'s voice at that moment.

It wasn\'t his real voice; it was an illusion or Si-Hun trying to hypnotize himself.

Si-Hun took a deep breath and analyzed the situation calmly.

\'I have to stop it.\'

He had to stop the avalanche before it reached the rearguard.

\'But…\'

How could a human stand against a natural disaster?

There was a huge difference between causing a natural disaster and stopping it. An avalanche could be easily triggered with an explosion, but stopping one was almost impossible for a human—even if he had inherited the power of the Martial God.

"Kuh."

Si-Hun stomped on the ground.

\'Still, I have to do it.\'

He had to move instead of wasting time thinking that he couldn\'t do it.

\'Heavenly Dragon Rush.\'

He put more strength in his legs, as if he were squeezing out all the power that his body could give him, and chased the avalanche.

\'It\'s not moving very fast.\'

The farther down the mountain, the less steep it became. They\'d used the second set of scrolls to create a barrier that reduced the force of the avalanche considerably, so it was moving very slowly.

\'I can catch up to it.\'

The land fluctuated as if it were a wave.

Si-Hun stomped on the ground and spread both hands.

\'Sword Control.\'

The weapons of the Players who had died in combat floated in the air, serving as stepping stones for Si-Hun.

"Kuh."

He had never controlled so many swords at once before, and it felt like his brain was melting. The Qi within him started to run rampant.

\'I have to do it.\'

Si-Hun\'s eyes shone sharply.

If he didn\'t do it, the place where Gaia was would be engulfed by the avalanche.

Tap, tap!

He stepped on the swords and rushed through the air.

His head ached even more, and his vision blurred.

"A-Aaaaahh!!"

Si-Hun thought about the circulation of his Qi, the principle of Sword Control, and the mysteries of foot techniques.

- Calm down.

Then he heard Kang-Woo\'s voice again.

Si-Hun nodded and bit his lip until it bled.

Riiing.

[Proficiency of Heavenly Dragon Movement Technique has risen!]

A system message appeared, but he ignored it. He calmed his breathing as he rushed through the air.

Rumble—!

\'I caught up.\'

Si-Hun saw the demon corpses get mangled and burst open after being engulfed by the wave of dirt and rocks.

\'I need to get even more ahead.\'

He had to get in front of the avalanche\'s path.

Si-Hun sped through the air even more swiftly.

Suddenly, there was nothing he could step on to go further; he had run out of swords to step on.

\'Then….\'

He looked down at the wave of dirt and rocks and stepped on it. The huge pressure in the dirt sucked his leg in.

"Huup."

Si-Hun took a deep breath and focused his Qi on his legs.

\'I have to read it.\'

He felt the flow of the dirt with his feet. Then he stepped on an area that was a bit more solid.

Running on a wave of dirt was far more dangerous than running on water. Nevertheless, Si-Hun ran along the wave of dirt.

Tap.

"Haaa, haaa," Si-Hun panted heavily.

He finally ran ahead of the avalanche and reached a narrow passage. The Guardians rearguard was just past that.

\'I will protect them, no matter the cost.\'

He raised his sword.

Whoom!

A pure-white sword appeared in his hands. Si-Hun held the sword in front of him as he prepared himself. He raised the sword over his head and focused his Qi.

Then…

[You must be Kim Si-Hun.]

A demon sitting in a wheelchair appeared in front of him.

Si-Hun\'s expression crumpled in exasperation.

\'Shit.\'

The situation wasn\'t good. He did not have the capacity to focus on the demon that had suddenly appeared.

[Tsk, tsk. You are so frantic. Do you not get tired?]

Belphegor, the demon with purple skin who was sitting in a wheelchair, snickered. He yawned.

[In any case, I heard the demon king cares for you deeply.]

Belphegor spread his hand, casting out dense demonic energy in the form of a net. It engulfed Si-Hun.

"Kuh!"

Si-Hun grunted.

\'Shit!\'

Anxiety swept over him.

If he didn\'t stop the avalanche, the rearguard would be destroyed. However, if he tried to stop it, he would get killed by that demon. It was the worst possible scenario.

"Hyung!"

Si-Hun closed his eyes, and Kang-Woo\'s face came to his mind amid the disastrous situation.

Wham!

[Hm?]

A giant hand grabbed the net made of demonic energy.

Rip. The net was torn apart.

"Balrog…?" Si-Hun uttered.

[You seem to be in a predicament,] Balrog said with a smile.

A thrilling sensation swept through Si-Hun. At that moment, even Balrog\'s hideous appearance looked cool to him.

"Who is—"

[Oh, that dickhead in the chair over there is Belphegor. He is a sorry excuse of a prince of Hell.]

Belphegor grimaced and retorted, [What? Dickhead? You son of a—]

Balrog patted Si-Hun\'s shoulder and said, [I will take him. You do what you have to do.]

Si-Hun thought about it for a moment before nodding. "I\'ll leave it to you, Balrog."

His timing had been messed up by the demon prince\'s interference. To stop the avalanche, Si-Hun needed to go further down to where the rearguard had been placed.

He turned and rushed down the mountain.

[Now, then…]

Balrog turned to face Belphegor.

Crack, crack.

He cracked his fingers as he clenched his hands into fists.

Then Balrog curled up one of the corners of his mouth and said, [Let us begin.]

* * *

"You must be the demon king."

"Hm?"

Kang-Woo heard a voice from behind while he was waving the light sticks. He slowly turned around.

He saw someone who was wrapped in blood-stained bandages and carrying a rusted saber, which had blood-colored demonic energy swirling around it.

"Ah, you must be Crimson Fiend, right?" Kang-Woo asked with a smirk.

Crimson Fiend, the monster wrapped in blood-stained bandages, nodded and answered, "Correct."

"Dayum, you look absolutely savage. Is the rusted sword some sort of shtick?"

"What?"

"Shiiiet, that\'s pretty cool. You\'re giving off an \'I don\'t rely on weapons\' vibe. I like it," Kang-Woo expressed while nodding.

He liked the dreary atmosphere the rusted sword gave off that one couldn\'t get from an extremely sharp sword.

"Hah." Crimson Fiend feigned laughter. "You are crazier than what I\'ve heard."

"That\'s not a very nice thing to say to someone you\'re meeting for the first time. Do you know me? Hm? What a rude piece of shit, calling someone crazy as soon as you meet them," Kang-Woo rebuked with a frown.

Crimson Fiend\'s eyes filled with anger. He gripped his rusty sword while feigning laughter again.

"It seems words will not get through to you."

"Shouldn\'t you at least say something resembling a proper conversation before you say that? You literally only said \'Correct.\' and \'What?\' after your first line. And then you say that words won\'t get through to me? That\'s just not fair, is it?" Kang-Woo remarked as if he was actually frustrated.

Crimson Fiend gripped his sword tighter.

\'This is the demon king?\'

He couldn\'t believe it.

A demon king should be more dignified and serious. After meeting the being that terrified both Satan and Belphegor for himself, Crimson Fiend\'s disappointment was immeasurable, and his day was ruined.

\'He is no different from the worthless scoundrels of the Hao Society.\'

The demon king spoke casually, and he also cursed a lot. Rather than a demon king, he seemed like a gangster.

Crimson Fiend looked at Kang-Woo in disappointment and said, "I had high hopes for you after hearing that you had reached the pinnacle of demons with a human body…"

"Oh, right. Speaking of a human body, I\'m curious." Kang-Woo crossed his arms. "You\'re human too, right?"

He knew very little about Aernor, and much less about Huan. He didn\'t even know if it was a place where humans lived.

\'He looks human, at least,\' Kang-Woo thought.

Crimson Fiend was covered in bandages, so Kang-Woo couldn\'t be sure.

The tips of Crimson Fiend\'s mouth went up as he replied, "Yes. To be precise, I was human."

Bam. He drove his rusty saber into the ground.

"But not anymore. I studied the demonic arts for a thousand years to go beyond the limits of a human." Crimson Fiend made a cunning smile. "I doubt you could even imagine the pain I had to go through to get this demonic body under my full control for a thousand years."

From what he\'d heard, the demon king had accepted the power of demons without paying any price due to a power known as the Authority of Predation.

To Crimson Fiend, who had trained for a thousand years to perfect his demonic art, he felt it was simply unfair.

\'The same goes for the princes of Hell,\' he thought.

They had been born with great power without having to pay any price for it; they had been born to become rulers. There was nothing more unfair than that.

"There is a limit to power obtained with no effort. I will prove that to you right here and now," Crimson Fiend declared and drew out his demonic energy.

The princes of Hell had warned him many times about the demon king, but he could not acknowledge their warning to be true.

\'There is no way someone born human can use demonic energy better than me.\'

He\'d invested a thousand years into learning how to control demonic energy. There was no way that he would lose if he were to fight against someone who had also been born a human—at least, that was what he thought.

"A thousand years?" Kang-Woo smirked. "That\'s not even worth a comparison."

He got up and raised his hands, summoning a double-edged sword made of hellfire.

"You\'re not ready yet."