After Ten Millennia in Hell

"Grrk! Grrrrk!"

Growls could be heard coming from within the darkness.

Splat, splat.

Dozens of Undead were limping, leaving behind bloody footprints. Their skin was rotten, their eyes dull, their lips pale.

"…"

A boy with hair as blue as the clear sky stood in the hallway in front of the Undead, his lips pursed.

"Grrrk!!"

Seeing a living being, the Undead growled and bared their teeth. Saliva ran down between their yellow teeth.

Rush!

As if they hadn\'t just been limping, the horde sprinted across the hallway at immense speed. The boy grimaced and stepped forward. Although dozens of Undead were rushing toward him, there was no fear on his face.

"Argo • La • Fulmine," he cast in a low voice.

Crackle.

Blue lightning gathered in the palm of his hand.

"S W E E P !" he spit out.

Crackle!!

Blue lightning filled the hallway like a wave, the walls of the fortress burning black.

"Grrrk?!"

In the blink of an eye, the blue electricity engulfed the Undead. Thousands of lightning bolts turned the Undead into black ash, scattering them into dust.

"…"

The young man remained tight-lipped after defeating dozens of Undead with just one attack. Despite displaying power fitting for a god, he still wore an expression that couldn\'t be more sorrowful.

"Raphael…" Uriel, the blue-haired boy, mumbled in a sad voice. He collapsed in the darkness-filled hallway and looked down at his hands.

\'I killed my comrade with my own hands.\'

A friend with whom he had gone through countless battles…

"Shit, shit…"

Weeping echoed through the hallway. His obsession with affection and yearning for relationships ate away at him.

\'…\'

He did not even feel danger from his obsession; he simply wanted to let his instincts and yearning take him away.

"Kuh."

Uriel bit his lip and lowered his head.

Would he have still been in this state if his loyal subordinates were present?

There was no way to know.

"… It\'s a pointless thought."

Sant\'Angelo had ended up using a lot of resources because he had rushed his crossing into Earth. Hundreds of upper angels had collapsed because of how much sacred power they\'d used to form the Gate to send just him, so it would probably take at least a month for his entire army to arrive.

"You must be Uriel, the one who was newly given the seat of archangel."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Tsk, considering your stature resembles that of a human… you must have some human blood mixed within you."

"So what? Isn\'t that the same for that crazy bitch Gabriel?"

"There is no need to be so irritated. I did not say that to discriminate against you. No, there is no need for discrimination between those who eradicate evil together."

"…"

"My name is Raphael, child."

"You son of a bitch!"

It was hard to say their first meeting was a good one, but…

"Fuuu. I am quite tired. Are you okay, child?"

"Shut up."

… After they had gone through countless battles and went against the rise of the Evil God they had become like brothers.

"…"

Uriel closed his eyes. An irresistible storm of emotions raged within him. He slowly raised his trembling hands… the very hands that had killed his friend…

Tap.

"What are you doing here?"

"…!"

Uriel quickly got up.

Crackle!

Blue lightning rose, and he turned his head toward the voice.

"Ah…"

It was the young man with sharp eyes, the one who had thrown himself in harm\'s way to save him after Uriel had almost been deceived by the fallen Raphael.

"… How is your injury?"

"It has become much better thanks to you, Lord Uriel."

Oh Kang-Woo smiled.

Uriel felt relieved, but that was only for a short while.

"Why are you here? I believe I clearly said that I would be the one to purify the fortress and collect the corpses of the angels," Uriel said in a sharp voice.

"…"

"If you came here to express your sympathy, then screw off. I might look like this, but I\'ve lived more than a hundred times longer than you."

"If I may, how old are you?" Kang-Woo asked.

"In human years, I should be around three thousand years old. I\'m not exactly sure since I\'ve never kept track."

Kang-Woo shrugged and smirked. He ignored Uriel\'s words and slowly walked toward him and sat next to him.

Uriel narrowed his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Is age that important?"

"… What?"

"Did you know that most of a human\'s mental development is done during their teenage years? Basically, if you\'re a moron during those years, you\'ll stay one for the rest of your life."

"… What are you trying to say?"

"I am saying that age and mental maturity are not related."

"Hah, big words from a human that can barely live a hundred years. I\'ve lived for three thou—"

"Even if"—Kang-Woo interjected, causing Uriel to flinch—"you\'ve lived for ten millennia, things that hurt still hurt. You still have a hard time, and you suffer. Even if you can put a plug in so that the flow doesn\'t leak, you cannot stop the flow itself."

"…"

"Do you think it is cool to pretend everything is ok? Do you find it amazing when one is able to suppress their emotions even when their parents or friends have died?"

"That\'s…"

"It\'s okay to cry when you want to."

"…"

There was a heavy silence.

There wasn\'t any conversation; time just flowed.

An hour passed, and Uriel slowly opened his mouth.

"To be honest, we didn\'t really get along that well."

Kang-Woo listened without a word.

Uriel said, "The body of an angel subconsciously brings about obsessions. It forcibly makes angels obsess over something so that their minds don\'t break down over the passage of time."

"…"

"Raphael\'s obsession was to kill all those tainted by evil."

"Interesting. I thought all angels were like that."

"Only Raphael\'s retainers are like that. Although demons are our mortal enemies, there aren\'t many angels who are that desperate to kill all demons."

Anyway, Uriel kept talking.

"We fought practically every single day… I even had to save him a few times because he jumped straight into enemy lines, unable to control his instincts… He was a real son of a bitch."

Uriel lowered his head, transparent tears gathered around his eyes, and his shoulders trembled. He clenched his fists and spoke in a shaky voice: "But still… he shouldn\'t have died like that. He didn\'t fight for thousands of years to suffer such a death…"

"…"

Kang-Woo didn\'t say anything and just kept listening to Uriel.

\'Fuck.\'

He didn\'t outwardly show it, but his thoughts were in quite a state of disarray at that moment.

\'Maybe I shouldn\'t have come.\'

To think he was there to console someone who\'d killed his comrade because of a plan he\'d executed. Even if he didn\'t mind feeling guilty, this was a bit too big of a hurdle to jump over.

Being unable to bear seeing Uriel cry in silence, Kang-Woo stood up. "Wait here for a moment."

"… What?"

Without replying, Kang-Woo turned away, went back to the Hall of Protection, and then to his house. He called over Han Seol-Ah, who had been chatting with Echidna, and…

"… What\'s this?" Uriel asked.

"It\'s a food from Earth called kimchi stew."

Uriel laughed in disbelief as he looked at the steaming pot. "Sorry, but angels don\'t need to eat to—"

"I know."

Kang-Woo put down the kimchi stew in front of Uriel and then took out a bowl of rice he\'d brought along with it.

"But you can still eat, right?"

"…"

"Eating always makes you feel better when you\'re depressed."

Uriel looked at Kang-Woo in disbelief and then laughed—he couldn\'t help but laugh at the nonsensical situation. He poorly grabbed the chopsticks Kang-Woo gave him and tried the kimchi stew.

"…"

He couldn\'t taste much flavor; all he could feel was that it was hot.

Kang-Woo, who was eating next to him, said, "I know that angels don\'t have very developed taste buds."

"Then why did you prepare this?"

"Isn\'t it at least better than curling up and crying?"

"… You said it\'s okay to cry when you want to."

"That\'s different. After all, you\'re not suppressing it."

Kang-Woo laughed lightly and started to eat the kimchi stew.

Uriel looked at him and smirked.

"Yeah…"

To be honest, it wasn\'t a bad feeling.

Angels didn\'t have any opportunities to gather and eat.

\'If I focus, I can taste it.\'

Their taste buds weren\'t developed because they barely used them, but it wasn\'t as if they lacked the sense of taste.

As he concentrated on the food inside his mouth, he could taste its sour and savory flavor.

\'It\'s… good.\'

Uriel\'s eyes widened at the taste he\'d never experienced before.

"It\'s better than I thou—Hm?"

Munch, munch.

While he was focusing on the taste, the kimchi stew was already almost gone.

"What the f…"

"What\'s the matter?"

"Why did you eat it all?!"

"First come, first serve."

"I thought you wanted to eat together to cheer me up!"

"I mean, you can barely even taste it, so what\'s the point?"

"You son of a bitch!!"

Uriel got angry and quickly moved his hands to put what little remained of the kimchi stew on top of the rice.

\'…\'

Before he noticed, a smile had been drawn on Uriel\'s face. He looked at Kang-Woo, who was voraciously eating the kimchi stew.

Uriel ate a spoonful of rice covered with kimchi stew, and a warm sensation that he had never experienced before spread through him.

* * *

"So this is where you gathered the bodies."

Kang-Woo looked at the corpses neatly placed outside the fortress.

Shalgiel and the angels who had been turned into Chimeras by the fallen Raphael had been saved thanks to Kang-Woo and Uriel.

Kang-Woo turned to Uriel and asked, "What are you going to do with the bodies?"

"After the fortress is purified, I\'m going to cremate them."

"Cremate?"

"Yeah. We cremate angels when they die so that they can return to the light."

Kang-Woo nodded. He felt like the right time had come.

\'Right, then…\'

It was time for him to fulfill his second objective.

"How about you leave that to me?"

"To you?"

"I learned how to honor the death of great heroes from Lord Tirion. It\'s similar to the process of cremation. We use mana to burn the bodies."

"…"

Uriel remained silent and stared at Kang-Woo. Kang-Woo was the apostle of Tirion, God of Heroes, and one of Earth\'s protectors. His consideration moved Uriel.

"R-Really? Then I\'ll leave it to you."

If he had learned it from Tirion, then it was worth trusting. Although Tyrion was a lower god, his conviction and sense of justice were worthy of praise.

"Thank you."

Kang-Woo smiled.

\'Yes!!\'

Although he didn\'t show it, he wanted to dance from joy. There was only one reason why he wanted to send off Shalgiel and the other angels.

\'I cannot let their sacred power go to waste.\'

He smiled and used the Authority of Predation. Of course, he had converted the demonic energy to \'mana.\'

Crunch, crunch.

Golden energy poured from his hand and covered the angels\' corpses.

Riiing.

[Sacred Power has risen to 113.]

The body turned to dust and scattered with the joyous message chimes.

Of course, it only looked that way, and their bodies were actually being eaten.

\'But what does the truth matter?\'

A smile crept onto his face.

That was right, the truth had never been important.

\'It\'s fine as long as it looks like the truth.\'

Kang-Woo used the Authority of Predation on over a hundred corpses.

[Sacred Power has risen to 118.]

\'Like I thought, it gets harder to raise the higher it gets.\'

Either way, it did go up.

Kang-Woo nodded while making a satisfied expression.

\'Right, then, I should bid the kid farewell.\'

He had now fulfilled both of his objectives, so it was time to go back.

\'Darliiiiiiing! Here I come!\'

Since that was over with, his life would become far more relaxing.

Kang-Woo turned to Uriel, a smile on his face.

"And that\'s that."

"Th-Thanks."

"Not at all. Although it was only for a short time, they were also my comrades."

"Ah…"

At the word comrades, Uriel\'s expression brightened.

Kang-Woo continued while smiling, "In that case, I will be excusing mys—"

"Wh-What?"

\'Hm?\'

Uriel became extremely bewildered as soon as Kang-Woo mentioned that he would be leaving.

"Is something wrong?" Kang-Woo asked.

\'What\'s up with this kid? What\'s the matter now?\'

"N-No, well…"

Uriel shifted uneasily while averting Kang-Woo\'s gaze. He pouted and said in a low voice, "Y-You\'re going back already…?"

"…"

\'Wha?\'

"S-Stay a bit longer! Ah! That\'s it! Help me purify the fortress!!"

\'You said you were gonna do that by yourself.\'

Uriel trotted to Kang-Woo and pulled his arm.

He could feel Uriel\'s will to not let him go. No, rather than will… it felt more like \'obsession.\'

\'What the fuck?\'

Kang-Woo\'s mouth fell open.

\'What the hell is happening?\'

Something had gone wrong.