After Ten Millennia in Hell

"Haaa," Kang-Woo sighed in exhaustion while sprawled out on the couch. He\'d been so busy that he hadn\'t had time to properly sleep in nearly a week.

\'I\'m missing out.\'

He frowned as he remembered how his demonic energy control improved just from sleeping with Han Seol-Ah.

Although it did not rise unconditionally, it still rose far more than when he trained for a whole day to raise it, so it was beneficial for him to sleep with Seol-Ah every day.

"I mean…"

Kang-Woo smiled. Annoying things had happened one after another, but he had gained a lot out of them.

\'First, I was able to filter out the stagnant water within Guardians.\'

To him, Guardians was like a hound. Although it might not be able to kill the enemy, it could at least bite their leg to buy enough time for him. Considering that the success rate of hunting a boar lowered to below half if you hunted without a hound, managing Guardians well was important.

\'And…\'

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone. He thought about the demon with black wings, Lucis.

\'This is really big.\'

He still wasn\'t sure why Lucis—or, to be more precise, his father Lucifer—had black wings. Lucifer had been ruling as a prince of Hell since before Kang-Woo had even arrived in Hell. Regardless, what mattered was that Lucis\'s wings were exactly the same as the ones that fallen angels had. It was also a huge plus that Lucis, who was a half-breed between demon and human, was indistinguishable from angels.

\'There might be angels who recognize his face, so I should modify it a little.\'

He\'d heard from Raphael that only Michael had ever seen Rakiel\'s face, meaning that even if he made Lucis act as Rakiel, no one would be able to tell.

\'Rakiel Coin to the moon!\'

Kang-Woo couldn\'t help but smile.

The bad thing about the Satan Coin was the fact that Kang-Woo and Satan existed simultaneously in the same place, which made it very restricting.

Although he could create a fake body with the Authority of Cloning, it could only do extremely simple tasks, to the point that one would immediately be able to tell that it was a fake once someone picked a fight with it.

\'But if I brainwash Lucis into being Rakiel…\'

That meant both Kang-Woo and Rakiel could be in the same place. Not only that, it would not affect Kang-Woo in the slightest even if Lucis was found out to not be Rakiel.

\'It\'s an immortal coin.\'

It was a perfect coin that couldn\'t fail. Even if it did fail, it wouldn\'t affect him at all, so there was no reason for him not to cheer.

\'But of course, this brat is a bit too weak to play the role of Rakiel properly.\'

Kang-Woo could somewhat compensate for that by controlling demonic energy from a distance, just like he\'d done during the incident with Raphael. Since Lucis was at least as strong as a low-ranking prince of Hell, Lucis would be able to fight far better than Kang-Woo\'s clone.

\'And most importantly…\'

Kang-Woo looked toward the kitchen.

"I\'m so glad nothing bad happened, Lilith," Seol-Ah said.

"Hoho. Thank you for worrying about me."

"Not at all. I wanted to help save you as well, but Kang-Woo left without saying a word…"

"I\'m happy enough knowing that the king treasures me so deeply."

"Oh, come to think of it, when you were kidnapped, Kang-Woo was…"

He saw Lilith, in the form of Kurosaki Yurie, chatting with Seol-Ah. Although it was just a normal kitchen, the two women sitting and chatting radiated such a gorgeous aura that the scene felt as if it were straight from the front cover of a magazine.

He couldn\'t help but clench his fists in delight. He felt as if he were about to cry.

\'Fuck yeah… This is it. This is the life.\'

The best thing he had received from the past few incidents was undoubtedly that he\'d been freed from the tentacles that had traumatized him for such a long time. Just that alone was incredible enough.

"Kang-Woo, are you crying?" Echidna, who\'d been watching TV while sitting on his lap, tilted her head.

Kang-Woo silently patted Echidna\'s head as he smiled. He was filled with an inexplicable sense of joy.

"It\'s getting late, so I will get going. Oh, right. I placed the report regarding Lucis in your room earlier."

"Okay, thanks." Kang-Woo smiled brightly and waved.

Lilith smiled back at him and bowed.

"Fufu. Your room was also a little messy, so I tidied it up."

"Mm. Was it that messy?"

"Just a little." Lilith turned to Seol-Ah and winked.

Kang-Woo tilted his head but paid it no mind.

\'They seem to be on the same wavelength about something.\'

They had been getting very close recently, so it wouldn\'t be weird if they shared things he wasn\'t aware of.

"I will see you tomorrow." Lilith opened the front door and walked out.

Kang-Woo checked the time—it was 11:00 p.m. It was still too early to fall asleep, but he really wanted to relieve all the fatigue that he had accumulated in the past week.

\'There\'s also the demonic energy control issue.\'

He wasn\'t sure how strong Lucifer would become through the trial, so he had to become as strong as possible. Besides molting, sleeping with Seol-Ah was the fastest way to improve his demonic energy control.

"Seol-Ah."

"Yes, Kang-Woo?" Seol-Ah walked toward him while making a kind smile as if she knew exactly what he wanted. "Shall we sleep together tonight?"

"Yeah."

"Fufu. Just a moment. I\'ll go wash up." Seol-Ah went to take a shower while humming.

Kang-Woo gulped and went into his room first.

The report Lilith had mentioned was on his desk, and the room had been tidied up like a hotel room.

"… Right, then."

Kang-Woo poured a little bit of demonic energy into a black crystal orb at the corner of his desk—it was the communication crystal orb that Lucis had sent him. It had originally been for two-way communication, but he had modified it to be able to record videos.

\'It\'s been bothering me for a while.\'

Kang-Woo wanted to check what happened whenever he slept with Seol-Ah.

Things that he couldn\'t understand always happened. For example, his clothes were always partly taken off, and there were marks on his chest and thighs, among other weird things.

\'It\'s also weird that I don\'t remember anything whenever I sleep with Seol-Ah.\'

He would usually be very sensitive to anything that happened even when he was asleep, but he had absolutely no memory of anything during the time that he was asleep with Seol-Ah for some reason.

\'I also have to figure out why my demonic energy control improves.\'

As long as he figured that out, he\'d be able to apply it to his usual training routine. Kang-Woo put the crystal orb on \'record\' mode and placed it on the table.

Clack.

"I\'m back, Kang-Woo."

The door opened, and Seol-Ah entered in her pajamas. She\'d just taken a shower, so her slightly wet hair and red cheeks gave off an alluring air.

"Ahem," Kang-Woo coughed.

"I heard that you\'ve been very busy recently… Are you feeling okay?" Seol-Ah asked in a worried voice while putting her hand on top of his.

"Well, nothing\'s wrong in particular. My body actually doesn\'t require sleep."

"But aren\'t you still tired?"

"That\'s inevitable."

Although he was physically fine, he couldn\'t do anything about psychological fatigue. He was keeping the Ten Thousand Demon Core in check at all times, so psychological fatigue would only keep piling up.

Although sleep wasn\'t mandatory, he needed it to some extent.

"… I\'m worried." Seol-Ah laid her head on his shoulder and gripped his hand tighter.

Kang-Woo felt a warm and comfortable sensation spread from his hand to his entire body.

\'Darliiiiiiiing!\'

Kang-Woo held back his desire to scream. He wanted to hug her and jump, but the air was too serious for him to do something like that.

\'Still, darling is the best.\'

It was difficult to feel the same comfort and warmth from anyone else but her. Kang-Woo frantically forced down the ascending corners of his mouth and embraced her with one hand.

"Don\'t worry. I\'m not working hard enough to the point that I\'d break down."

"Still…" Seol-Ah pinched Kang-Woo\'s thighs while slightly pouting. "You\'ve barely been home lately. Do you have any idea how lonely Echidna has been?"

"Only Echidna?"

"Ngh… W-Well…" Seol-Ah blushed.

Kang-Woo laughed and then gave her a light kiss on the lips. The air around them was so sweet that he felt as if he were receiving death threats from men all over the world.

"Let\'s go to bed."

"Okay." Seol-Ah\'s eyes shone. She snorted in excitement and then spread her arms out wide. "Alright, come here."

"Ahem. It\'s a bit embarrassing every time, so why don\'t we just—"

"Now," she said in a firm voice as if she wouldn\'t take no for an answer.

Kang-Woo ended up lying in bed in her arms.

\'Ah.\'

An inexplicably soft and warm sensation spread through his body. Though he couldn\'t even remember his childhood, it was as if a deeply imprinted loneliness was being healed.

\'I\'m getting sleepy again.\'

Kang-Woo felt his eyelids become heavier as if he had taken sleeping pills. Before he fell asleep, he looked toward the crystal orb lying on the table.

\'Tomorrow…\'

He would come to know everything.

* * *

"Urghhh…"

After he woke up the next morning, Kang-Woo checked his body first.

\'Like I thought.\'

His clothes were loosened, and there were red marks around his chest.

\'My demonic energy control has also gone up.\'

As he closed his eyes and focused, he could feel that his control had improved.

"Good."

Kang-Woo grabbed the crystal on the table and activated it by pouring a small amount of demonic energy into it.

- Fufu. You\'re already asleep.

He could see himself sleeping in Seol-Ah\'s arms.

- How cute.

Seol-Ah softly giggled as she patted his head.

"Ahem."

Kang-Woo focused on the video while blushing.

\'Right then, let\'s see what happens…\'

Right as he was getting nervous…

- Yawn.

\'Hm?\'

Seol-Ah yawned, and then she closed her eyes. All that could be heard were the sounds of breathing.

\'What?\'

That was it?

Kang-Woo watched the video with a strange sense of disappointment.

Thirty minutes later…

Whoom.

Twelve faint wings appeared on Seol-Ah\'s back. At the same time, demonic energy leaked out of Kang-Woo\'s body.

The demonic energy and the light from her back intertwined in the air.

\'I guess it really was because of Seraph\'s energy.\'

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone as he watched the demonic energy and the white light intertwine.

"Hmm. Seraph\'s energy is the more active one."

The demonic energy did not move an inch as if it were asleep, whereas the white light moved busily as if it were coveting the black demonic energy.

Pop, pop.

The ripples from the energy disheveled his clothes, and red marks appeared around his body.

"So this is why the red marks appeared."

His clothes seemed to loosen when his energy entangled with Seraph\'s.

The white light that had been swirling around the demonic energy focused on a specific part of it, as if it were attacking a weak point. The black demonic energy started to get sucked into the white light. As if it were resisting the white light\'s attack, the black demonic energy huddled up and then drooped lifelessly. It then retreated back into Kang-Woo\'s body.

\'What the hell happened?\'

Regardless of how many times he watched it, he couldn\'t understand why the two energies clashed.

\'At the very least, it\'s clear that my demonic energy control rose due to my power intermingling with Seraph\'s.\'

The power within Seol-Ah was that of the Celestial Goddess. He still wasn\'t sure why Seraph\'s soul had entered her, but Kang-Woo couldn\'t deny that the god possessed power beyond his imagination. It was possible that his control had forcibly risen so that it wouldn\'t be devoured by that power.

\'It\'s similar to how molting instinctively raises my demonic energy control to keep me alive.\'

It could be considered \'casual\' molting.

"In any case, it\'s a huge plus."

There could possibly be side effects, but he had not felt any so far, and it did not risk his life like molting did.

\'I don\'t think I\'d be able to use this for training, though.\'

But if his demonic energy control could improve just by sleeping with Seol-Ah, there was no reason not to do it. Demonic energy control was absolutely necessary for him since he possessed a ticking time bomb, the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

"Well, that was barely anything."

To be honest…

\'I was hoping that maybe something a bit dirty was going on…\'

He had been ignoring it since he wasn\'t sure if the kind and gentle Seol-Ah would do such a thing, but since he was a man, he had been having dirty thoughts.

"Tsk."

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue in a strange sense of disappointment.

* * *

"Oh, Lilith?" While Kang-Woo was watching the recording in his bedroom, Seol-Ah called Lilith. "Yes, I did as you said. I wouldn\'t have known if you hadn\'t told me."

- We aren\'t strangers anymore, so we should help each other out. It caught my attention while I was cleaning the room.

Lilith\'s voice came out through the smartphone.

Seol-Ah asked in worry, "But what if he finds ou—"

- No need to worry.

Lilith giggled and continued.

- Doctoring footage is my specialty.