After Ten Millennia in Hell

Kaaagh, ptooey.

Oh Kang-Woo spat out the vomit that had gathered in his mouth. Although he\'d healed his wounds with the Authority of Regeneration, he could still feel the pain.

"It hurts so fucking much."

He was used to pain, but it was still hard to withstand. It was worse than being shredded by a giant blender.

Kang-Woo shook his head.

\'This is exactly why I didn\'t want to do this.\'

One of the reasons was that it was dangerous, but decisively, it hurt too much.

He was still trembling in pain.

[Good job.]

Balrog walked toward him and gave him a bottle of water.

Kang-Woo reached out to grab it, but his hands were trembling so much that he couldn\'t.

Balrog held the back of Kang-Woo\'s head with his muscular hand. He smiled with his hideous face.

[I will help you.]

"Fuck off."

[Hahaha. There is no need to be embarrassed.]

"No, f—"

[Alright! Come into my arms and—]

"Arghh! S-Son of a bitch! You smell like… Urpp."

[Oh, come to think of it, your vomit did not seem to have fully washed off.]

"What? You f… W-Wash it off right now!"

Kang-Woo struggled, and Balrog smiled at him.

[I am fine.]

"So what?"

[It is a reward in our line of work.]

"The fuck are you talking about?"

He twisted his body and was barely able to free himself from Balrog. He couldn\'t walk properly, so he rolled on the ground. His head ended up hitting something—Echidna\'s leg.

"…"

"Oh, Echidna? Please help me. Get me away from the muscle pig," Kang-Woo said while making a tired expression.

Then… something transparent fell on his cheeks. With his mouth closed, Kang-Woo looked up at Echidna.

Transparent tears were flowing down her cheeks.

"…"

"Sniff, sniff… sniff."

Echidna\'s shoulders were trembling.

Kang-Woo sighed.

\'I mean…\'

He had expected this to happen. He\'d tried to remain as calm as possible and even joked a bit, but there was no way she wasn\'t shocked after seeing the molting process.

"Kang-Woo, Kang-Woo, Kang-Woo…"

Echidna hugged Kang-Woo and rubbed her head against his chest.

He smiled bitterly and patted Echidna\'s head.

"M-Master Kang-Woo. Wh-What was…"

Even Halcyon was trembling.

"Th-That was… m-molting?"

"Yeah."

He nodded.

Molting was a sub-technique of opening the Doors that involved intentionally letting the Ten Thousand Demon Core run wild and attain great power.

\'I guess it\'s a bit weird to call it a technique.\'

Molting was like a failed version of opening the Doors. There was absolutely no merit in molting, a technique close to self-harm.

While trying to use it effectively, he discovered a new effect…

While struggling on the borderline of life and death, he had awakened a state of non-self. In martial arts terms, it would be similar to intentionally creating the conditions for reaching enlightenment.

\'The only problem is that there\'s a chance I could die.\'

He didn\'t know if he was just lucky or if he was just tenacious, but he had survived up to this point despite having used it multiple times.

\'Although it hurts like hell.\'

No matter how much he used it, he couldn\'t get used to the pain.

Kang-Woo shook his head.

"This is… training?" Echidna asked while bawling her eyes out.

Kang-Woo smiled bitterly. It was definitely hard to see it as training.

\'But still, there\'s nothing I can do about it.\'

Normal training was meaningless for him.

Of course, he could slowly improve his demonic energy control by using the Authorities of the princes of Hell or by merging it with other Authorities.

\'But that would take too much time.\'

If he did that, it would take him several years until he was able to absorb Belphegor\'s demonic energy.

If the only price to pay for getting stronger was pain… he was willing to withstand as much pain as he needed.

"Well, it hurts a lot, but it gets easier to handle over t—"

"Don\'t lie!" Echidna said, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"…"

She recalled how Kang-Woo had been twisting in pain as if having a seizure and how he was shedding tears while screaming.

Just pain?

Pain was everything.

Humans cried even if a knife slightly cut their skin, so there was no imagining the level of determination one needed to have to use molting despite knowing all the pain he would have to endure.

Echidna cried while hugging Kang-Woo.

- Hm! I\'ve been training a lot too.

She felt ashamed of how confidently she\'d said that.

"Kang-Woo…"

Echidna touched Kang-Woo\'s cheeks. She couldn\'t even imagine how much it must have hurt.

She recalled Balrog\'s words: "This is the road the King has walked."

Echidna at least knew more about Kang-Woo\'s past than Han Seol-Ah.

She knew how he\'d gone from the First to the Ninth Hell despite having been born with a human body and how he\'d declared war against the seven princes of Hell, rewriting the history of the Nine Hells and turning it upside down.

"I-I… didn\'t know."

Tears dripped from Echidna\'s eyes. She just knew the usual Kang-Woo and how strong, confident, and clever he was.

That\'s why, obviously…

"I never imagined you… to have lived… like this…"

She thought that Kang-Woo would have easily defeated any demon of the Ninth Hell or a prince of Hell with a smile on his face. She had thought that he had won without any sort of danger or pain, but…

"Sniff, waaaaaaahh!"

His road had been neither one of dominance nor of glory. He hadn\'t fought enemies in a cool way like an anime protagonist. It was miserable and shameful.

He had pitifully struggled to survive while trying his absolute best to survive and to protect whatever he had in his hands.

That\'s how he\'d lived.

"I\'m sorry… I\'m… sorry."

She wasn\'t sure what she was sorry for, but for some reason, guilt weighed down on her. She felt as if she\'d acted childishly without knowing his hard past and how much he\'d struggled in pain.

"Haaa."

Kang-Woo sighed and glared at Balrog.

\'This is why I didn\'t want her to come.\'

It was true that he\'d lived a wretched life, but he did not want to emphasize it or have people pity him for it.

\'The road the king has walked? Bullshit.\'

He was annoyed at Balrog for inflating his past for no reason. It just made Kang-Woo look like some boomer who was lecturing the young about everything he had gone through in life.

"You should\'ve just listened when I told you not to come…"

Kang-Woo patted Echidna\'s back and smiled. To be honest, it didn\'t feel bad. There was no way that it would feel bad to have someone worry about you.

"I can move a bit now."

Kang-Woo got up and rotated his waist around.

The lingering pain had disappeared.

\'Right then…\'

He closed his eyes and checked his body. He lightly drew out his demonic energy. His expression brightened.

\'Its effect is as great as always.\'

High risk, high return.

Since he\'d put his life as a guarantee, the reward wasn\'t bad. He could feel that the demonic energy flowing through his body had become much more docile than before.

\'But…\'

Tsk.

He clicked his tongue.

\'It\'s not good enough.\'

He couldn\'t absorb Belphegor\'s demonic energy yet.

\'A few more times and I should be good.\'

His demonic energy control had improved more than expected, likely because of how much it had already somehow improved from lying in bed for ten days straight at home.

\'Man, I wish it could just get boosted from a good night\'s sleep like back then.\'

If he did, he wouldn\'t need to perform such a shitshow.

"Balrog, let\'s go again."

[… Are you still not satisfied?]

"I have to do it a few more times."

He needed to raise his control to the point that he could effortlessly open the Doors.

\'There\'s no better technique than that in worst-case scenarios.\'

Opening the Doors gave one an enormous amount of benefits in exchange for putting one\'s life as collateral. He could wipe out most enemies easily just by opening the First Door.

"N-No!" Halcyon quickly approached him and shook his head. "Y-You\'re going to do that again?!"

"Once isn\'t enough."

Kang-Woo probably had to do it two to five times.

\'Urgh, just thinking about it makes me feel like shit.\'

He didn\'t even want to imagine doing that shitshow of crying and pissing five whole times.

No, honestly…

\'I\'m scared as fuck.\'

He trembled. He tried to act as if he was fine, but there was no way he was. Just thinking about enduring that insane agony and searing pain was enough for him to hurl.

Not only that, molting was not a safe training method. Although he might be able to handle the pain, if he was unlucky, there was a chance he could die.

"N-No! I-I\'ll do better! S-So…"

Halcyon bawled his eyes out, and so did Echidna. Kang-Woo put his hand on his forehead, seeing the sight that he had expected.

Halcyon extended his nails.

"I-If you\'re really going to do it, th-then I will also feel your pain!"

\'The hell are you talking about?\'

"U-Urghh!"

"Holy fuck!"

Kang-Woo quickly stopped Halcyon from harming himself. Halcyon had deeply stabbed his leg with his sharp nails.

\'Jesus Christ.\'

There was no need to do something so insane.

Kang-Woo looked at Halcyon in disbelief.

"Urgh! P-Please… don\'t h-hurt yourself."

"Haaa."

Kang-Woo didn\'t know what to do.

As Kang-Woo sighed, Balrog walked toward him.

[How about you do it a few days later, my king?]

"… A few days?"

[Yes. I will not try to stop you, but I believe there is no need to be in such a rush when we are not in any immediate danger.]

"Hmm, but still…"

[If you do it right away, you may lose focus.]

Kang-Woo remained tight-lipped.

It made sense.

\'Well, rather than hurrying things and dying, I guess playing it safe is better.\'

Bauli was not showing signs of crawling out of the Abyss of the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

Since he\'d decided to train while putting his life in danger, it would be better to ensure his body was in perfect condition, at the very least.

"Okay. Then let\'s do it once every three days."

He could practice Satan\'s Authority, which he hadn\'t gotten to do yet, while he rested.

[Fuuu.]

Balrog sighed in relief and looked at Kang-Woo.

"We\'ve lost far too much." Kang-Woo\'s words echoed in Balrog\'s head, and a bitter taste went through his mouth.

\'One day, once everything is over… I hope you achieve happiness.\'

Balrog made a bitter smile as he felt tears coming to his eyes.

* * *

"Fuuu, fuuu."

He had completed his fifth molting. Due to some delays, he had managed to molt five times in twenty days.

"Done."

Kang-Woo smiled. He could feel that his demonic energy had risen beyond recognition. He picked up the gem containing Belphegor\'s demonic energy.

Crunch.

He ate it.

Riiing.

[You have eaten the Prince of Sloth, Belphegor.]

[Activating the Trait \'Reaper of Souls.\']

[Activating the Trait \'Prince Slayer.\']

[You can now use Prince Belphegor\'s \'Authority of Stillness.\']

\'Nice.\'

A smile appeared on Kang-Woo\'s face.

[Demonic Energy has risen to 154.]

His Demonic Energy stat, which had been stagnant for a while, had also risen.

\'It only went up by four even when I ate a prince of Hell.\'

Still, it had risen. And the biggest gain was…

[Raising the rank of Trait \'Ruler of Demonic Energy\' to SSS in accordance with the improved demonic energy control.]

[Demonic energy can now be converted to sacred power on top of mana.]

[Demonic energy can now be used from a distance. However, its effectiveness decreases dramatically the further the distance.]

\'Shiiiet.\'

He clenched his fists.

It was an unexpected gain. He could now exude as much golden sacred power as he wanted, just like how an apostle of Tirion, God of Heroes, should.

And he was able to use demonic energy from a distance.

\'That\'s the best thing.\'

To put it simply, he could now use Authorities that could only be used from the body, such as the Authority of Blades, from a distance.

\'Meaning, I\'ll also be able to use Inferno from a distance.\'

He could even use a powerful technique he\'d made by combining the Authority of a prince of Hell and the Authority of Blades from a distance.

\'And…\'

Kang-Woo extended his hand toward a lizard on a rock twenty meters away.

As he emitted demonic energy and centered it around the lizard, a huge amount of demonic energy started to come out of the lizard. The lizard looked almost like a demonic dragon that had lived for thousands of years.

Kang-Woo converted his own demonic energy into sacred power, and he started to exude golden light. From the outside, it looked as if a warrior of light was fighting an evil demonic dragon.

"I can use this."

Kang-Woo made a thick smile.

There was no need to even think about where to use it.

He wasn\'t a swindler. As always, he was walking the path of justice and light. He could confidently look into the sky and say he wasn\'t ashamed of anything he had done, but…

"Man, I shouldn\'t be acting like this."

Laughs kept leaking out.

"It\'s so fucking nice."

For some reason, his heart was beating faster.

"Huehuehuehuehuehue."