After Ten Millennia in Hell

Raphael got up.

\'Yeah! Well done, Raphael!\'

Oh Kang-Woo nodded.

"Lord Raphael is right. Satan himself has admitted that he is the Demon of Prophecy."

Kang-Woo recalled how Satan had admitted that he had indeed done everything that had happened. At the time, Satan had been laughing like a madman, his eyes gleaming with lunacy.

Who would try to doubt that Satan was the Demon of Prophecy after seeing something like that?

"N-N… No. Satan… is not… the Demon of… Prophecy," Gaia said with difficulty.

Kim Si-Hun grabbed her shoulders and shouted, "Y-You must be mistaken! Th-There is no way that monster isn\'t the Demon of Prophecy…!"

In the great war that had occurred in Russia, Raphael had suffered a critical wound, and even Kang-Woo had almost lost his life. Even after that, they hadn\'t been able to kill Satan. They hadn\'t been able to beat him.

That demon, full of wrath and madness, was surely hiding somewhere even now as he planned the world\'s destruction.

\'But…\'

After all that, Satan wasn\'t the Demon of Prophecy?

"There is no way…"

Si-Hun lowered his head. A huge sense of powerlessness weighed on him.

Gaia arduously reached out to Si-Hun and embraced him.

"I-I am sorry, my… child. I have made you shoulder too big of a burden," Gaia said in a sorrowful voice. She then continued in fear, "B-But Satan is… not the Demon… of Prophecy. He was not the… Demon of Prophecy that S-Seraph and… I… saw."

Raphael calmed himself down and asked, "If Satan is not the Demon of Prophecy, then who is?!"

"I-I do not… know."

Gaia shook her head.

Raphael frowned, and so did Kang-Woo and Si-Hun.

"Did you not just say that you once saw the Demon of Prophecy?" Si-Hun asked her as if he were trying to refute her.

"I-It is hard… to explain in detail. H-His darkness was too big… f-for us to fully confirm his identity."

"Then there is a chance Satan could be the Demon of—"

"N-No." Gaia firmly shook her head. She continued while panting heavily, "I did not… see the darkness of the Abyss… from… h-him."

"Are you saying that the black gem that he had taken out at the end was not the darkness of the Abyss?"

"Th-The power possessed by the Demon of Prophecy is much greater… I-It cannot even begin to compare to that."

"…"

There was a heavy silence.

Their minds went blank from the unfathomable scale of events.

Gaia trembled.

"M-My children. B-Be careful of the Demon… of Prophecy. The monster… of the Abyss will…"

The light surrounding Gaia started to fade. Then, Gaia, who was sitting in the wheelchair, collapsed to the side.

"Gaia!"

Si-Hun quickly ran toward her and grabbed her before she could fall to the ground.

"Si… Hun…?" Gaia asked, her face paling. She was trembling as if she were about to pass out at any moment.

"Wh-What happened…?"

"Rest for now. I will explain it to you later," Si-Hun said in a low voice, holding her in his arms.

Gaia closed her eyes.

"…"

Silence fell once again.

Raphael grabbed his forehead as if his head hurt.

"Just what in the world…"

He seemed to have fallen into a state of chaos.

"Lord Raphael, are there any other demons that you can think of who could be the Demon of Prophecy?" Kang-Woo asked.

"…"

Raphael remained silent and dodged Kang-Woo\'s gaze. After Kang-Woo saw that Raphael was avoiding looking at him on purpose, Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone.

"You do have one in mind."

"… I cannot say," Raphael said in a firm voice. "It is something that Lord Michael presides over. Forget about it, human."

"…"

Kang-Woo was about to say something but didn\'t. He narrowed his eyes.

"Haaa… What to do now?" Raphael mumbled and sighed.

"What we have to do has not changed," Kang-Woo answered in a firm voice.

It didn\'t matter who the Demon of Prophecy was. In the end, there was only one thing they could and needed to do.

"We must find Satan," Kang-Woo said with certainty.

\'We won\'t get anywhere if we don\'t find Satan.\'

He recalled Satan, who had been wrapped in the horrifying demonic energy known as the Abyss.

"Even if he is not the Demon of Prophecy, seeing how he can control demonic energy from the Abyss, I am sure he has some connection to the Demon of Prophecy."

"… You have a point."

Raphael nodded.

Although the number of mountains that they needed to climb over had increased, what they had to do was clear: they had to scale the mountains one by one and eliminate the evil in front of them.

\'To do that…\'

Raphael narrowed his eyes. He looked at Si-Hun, Kang-Woo, and his subordinates working busily in the fortress.

To eradicate evil…

For light to win…

\'It does not matter what we have to sacrifice.\'

"… We will support you all as much as we can."

"Thank you very much."

Kang-Woo bowed. Receiving the angels\' assistance was crucial to opposing a powerful demon like Satan.

He asked, "Have you found any clues regarding Satan?"

"I have been recuperating due to my injuries while building our fortress, so we have not been able to find anything yet. We will have to start now."

"Come to think of it, Ludwig had mentioned that he had been tracking Lucifer. What happened with that?"

"Well…" Raphael sighed. "Lucifer has not been any different. He has abandoned his forces and completely hidden himself."

"Is there a chance"—Kang-Woo gulped—"that Lucifer is the Demon of Prophecy?"

"…"

Raphael remained silent. He seemed troubled, but after a while, he ended up shaking his head.

"Lucifer does indeed possess Divinity, but… it is not him. I have fought against him before, so I can tell. He does not have the Demonic Sea."

"…"

He seemed certain of it. There was nothing to be said because, after all, Raphael was the one who\'d fought the most against Lucifer.

Kang-Woo said, "We will go back for now. We will contact you as soon as we get any information regarding Satan."

"Please."

Raphael nodded.

Si-Hun held Gaia.

"… Let\'s go." Kang-Woo turned away. His steps were heavy.

* * *

Wham!

"Fuuuuuck!!!"

Kang-Woo smashed the wall. Even though he hadn\'t used demonic energy, a hole was formed in the sturdy wall.

"Shit, shit, shit!!"

Aggressive curses flowed from his mouth. He frowned.

\'That fucking troll!!\'

Just thinking about Gaia put him in a fit of rage. She had thrown a wrench in his perfectly crafted work.

"Haaa…" he sighed deeply. He recalled all the bullshit she had spouted while stammering.

\'That useless bitch.\'

He had been wondering how she would resolve the crisis that she had put Earth in after being unable to protect Earth, but she had obstructed him in a completely unexpected way.

\'After everything I\'ve done.\'

He had put so much effort into exposing Satan\'s identity and his unjust actions for the whole world to see.

\'But…\'

It had all turned into smoke.

Thanks to the revelation of god or whatever, the stable tower he\'d built had collapsed in the blink of an eye.

"The Demon of Prophecy…"

The demon destined to destroy the world… the being that all gods say had to be stopped.

Kang-Woo clenched his hair.

\'If it\'s not Satan, then who could it be?\'

One thing was for sure, it was not him. There was no way it could possibly be him. It was only logical—he was the Warrior of Light whom the God of Heroes had chosen. He wasn\'t in some B-list novel that would aim for that kind of shitty cliche.

\'Yeah, there\'s no way.\'

It didn\'t matter how much Kang-Woo thought about it—he wasn\'t the Demon of Prophecy. It was not even a question, considering everything he\'d done up until this point. He had always been at the forefront of killing demons.

Why had he massacred them as if he were a starving beast?

\'To protect the world, obviously.\'

It had been to exact the judgment of light on those tainted by evil.

Who was the one who had exposed all of the evildoings of Satan and dismantled the Demon Cult?

It was him, Kang-Woo. The possibility of him being the Demon of Prophecy was…

\'Nonexistent.\'

There was surely someone else—a demon who had been cleverly ridiculing the gods while having the entire world at the palm of his hand.

"If it isn\'t even Lucifer, then who…?"

Who was the Demon of Prophecy?

A sense of loss weighed down on him. He couldn\'t help but sigh.

Just then…

Clack.

The door opened, and a woman with long black hair entered.

"Is something wrong, Master Kang-Woo?" Lilith asked in a worried voice.

Kang-Woo shook his head and sat on a giant couch. After separating from Si-Hun and Gaia, he had gone to Balrog\'s house. He\'d bought and reformed an entire building to ensure Balrog could live comfortably in it.

"… It\'s nothing. More importantly, where\'s Balrog?"

"I asked him to investigate something in the Middle East for me."

"The Middle East?" Kang-Woo asked while tilting his head.

Lilith nodded.

"Yes. It is for the investigation regarding Kalgia, which you had asked me to do last time."

"Ah."

He remembered.

Kalgia… the Demon Cult\'s last remaining Aspect of Evil—the black mage who hadn\'t appeared in the war.

"Have you found him?"

"There is a place that seems likely, so I asked Balrog to investigate. This is only my assumption, but… I am almost sure Kalgia is there."

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone.

There was no way to solve the bad news from Gaia, but this wasn\'t bad news.

\'I\'ll feel more relieved if I wipe out the Demon Cult first.\'

He could think about the Demon of Prophecy and Satan later.

"Should I tell Balrog to bring Kalgia\'s head?" Lilith asked.

"Mm… wait." Kang-Woo fell into thought. "Have him pull out once he confirms the location."

"Are you thinking of killing him yourself?"

"No."

He shook his head. There was something he\'d come up with regarding Kalgia.

"Si-Hun will kill Kalgia."

It was about time he gave something to do to the protagonist, who had barely appeared in the story lately.