After Ten Millennia in Hell

"Grrr…"

It turned out that Fujimoto Ryoma hadn't lied. The area surrounding Sapporo Station was full of demonic beasts.

Kang-Woo's group still hadn't seen anyone who belonged to the Demon Cult. However, the demonic beasts weren't fighting with each other despite not having intelligence, so they were probably being controlled by someone.

"What are you going to do?" Cha Yeon-Joo whispered in Kang-Woo's ear.

It tickled.

Kang-Woo used the Authority of Silence.

"Sound won't leak anymore, so you don't need to talk like that," he replied.

"Ngh...! Wh-What? Are you saying that it's unpleasant?! I find it unpleasant too!" Yeon-Joo shouted while blushing.

Kang-Woo smirked.

Then he turned his head toward Jang Hyun-Jae and said, "Once we receive the signal, we will do a frontal assault. Are you okay with that?"

"Hmm. The goal is to cause confusion, so that seems to be the best way," Hyun-Jae answered with a nod after thinking about it for a while.

It was risky, but he couldn't deny that it was the most effective way.

"Seol-Ah, when the signal comes, buff everyone and follow us from behind. You don't need to overwork yourself with healing; just focus on buffing us."

"Okay, Kang-Woo."

"Yeon-Joo and Echidna, you guys are in charge of ranged support while protecting Seol-Ah. The rest of us will charge at the enemies. Oh, Captain Jang, what weapon do you use?"

"I use a hwando[1]."

"Then you must be a melee warrior class. You can charge along with us."

"…"

Kang-Woo briefed them on the plan in an instant.

Hyun-Jae, who had his role as the leader taken away, looked at Kang-Woo weirdly while thinking, 'I heard he was exceptional, but...'

The most impressive thing he had heard about Player Oh Kang-Woo was that he'd defeated Yeon-Joo in a sparring match. He'd also heard that Kang-Woo was the one behind the El Cuero hunt and the person who had resolved the Isu Station incident.

When Hyun-Jae first heard about Kang-Woo, he simply thought that he was a Player gifted in fighting.

'I guess that wasn't everything.'

Not even a day had passed since Hyun-Jae met Kang-Woo for the first time, but he quickly realized that Kang-Woo wasn't simply a strong Player. Kang-Woo was level-headed and extremely quick-witted. He had excellent judgment and was good at taking action. Additionally, he had a charisma that made others follow him.

'He'll make it big.'

The fact that Hyun-Jae was following Kang-Woo's orders even though he had led the Hwarang Corps for many years was proof of that. Hyun-Jae was glad that someone like Kang-Woo had appeared right when the world was struggling with monsters and the Demon Cult.

Vrrrr!

That sense of relief only lasted for a short while though. It ended when Hyun-Jae's receiver began vibrating.

A weird sound rang out in the distance, and the demonic beasts turned in that direction.

"...I knew it," Kang-Woo mumbled after seeing the demonic beasts' movements.

The Demon Cult was not stupid. Only a few demonic beasts moved toward the source of the sound, the north exit. It seemed like they were already prepared for a feint tactic.

However…

'They probably have no idea that the ones ambushing them from behind would be us,' Kang-Woo thought.

Leaving Ryoma aside, the average level of the rest of the Japanese Players wasn't high. They had Ranker-level Players like Kurosaki Yurie, but they didn't have as many Players like that as Korea.

So, even if the Demon Cult was prepared for a feint tactic, it was unlikely they'd imagined the possibility that Korean Players would take part in it. No, even if they'd imagined it, it made no difference.

'Because I'm here.'

Kang-Woo raised his right hand. He merged the Authority of Freezing and the Authority of Iron Axes.

'Leviathan.'

An axe that emitted chilling energy appeared in his hand.

The Demon Cult could have expected reinforcements, but they probably would never have imagined that there would be someone as strong as a World Ranker among the reinforcements.

Kang-Woo wasn't very well known for how powerful he was, but that was because he'd tried his best to remain anonymous. An invisible threat was far more terrifying than a visible one.

"Get ready," Kang-Woo said quietly.

The rest nodded and took their weapons out. Han Seol-Ah proceeded to cast buff magic, while Echidna let out a snort and prepared a wide-area magic.

"Curtain of Light," Seol-Ah said.

Riiing.

[Boosting Physical Defense and Magical Defense by 300.]

[Applying an intermediate health recovery buff.]

Considering Seol-Ah's level, the effects of the wide-area buff weren't bad at all. After all, receiving a boost of 300 in Physical and Magical Defense was equivalent to having equipped Unique-grade gear.

Nevertheless, that wasn't the buff that Kang-Woo wanted.

"Please use the Grace of Light that you cast on me last time," Kang-Woo requested.

"Oh, okay, Kang-Woo! But Grace of Light is a single-target buff and doesn't last very long..." Seol-Ah replied.

"It's okay."

Kang-Woo had assumed that a buff that boosted a stat by an absolute value wouldn't last very long.

Seol-Ah cast a new spell, and her hands were wrapped in light.

"Grace of Light!"

Riiing.

[You have received the Grace of Light.]

[Boosting Physical Defense and Magic Defense by 300, and Demonic Energy by 3.]

'I knew it. The buff effect is better than before,' Kang-Woo thought.

His Demonic Energy stat had been boosted to 106. Kang-Woo smiled in satisfaction upon feeling the explosive amount of demonic energy inside him.

If his stats were low, he wouldn't have seen such great results with an increase of only three points in the stat. However, his stat value was at the level of World Ranker's, so he profited a lot from increasing his stat by an absolute value.

"Begin," Kang-Woo said.

"Dark Swarm!" Echidna's clear voice rang out.

Black smoke spread throughout the area. The skin of the demonic beasts melted upon being touched by the smoke, and a horrible stench filled the air.

Clatter!

Then Yeon-Joo's red chains enveloped a wide area, mercilessly slashing the demonic beasts.

Kang-Woo stood up. With a stomp, he charged toward the demonic beasts. He jumped into the air and swung Leviathan downward, unleashing a terrifyingly frigid energy. After being frozen by the energy, the demonic beasts in the area shattered.

"Haap!"

“Here we go!”

Baek Hwa-Yeon, Hyun-Jae, and Goo Hyun-Mo took their weapons out and ran toward the north exit.

The demonic beasts were stronger than the ones that had appeared during the Isu Station incident, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the Players facing them now were among Korea's strongest.

Slam! Crack!!

"Kiieekk!!" a demonic beast that was almost three meters tall screamed in pain.

It was a Demon Golem, a demonic beast that inhabited the Second Hell along with Buers.

Various other demonic beasts that inhabited the Hells ranging from the First to the Third were guarding the exit.

Kang-Woo couldn't understand how the Demon Cult had managed to summon and control them. He'd known since seeing Baek Kang-Hyun fuse with a demon that the Demon Cult was far more knowledgeable than him about summoning and controlling beings of Hell, but this scene further confirmed it.

'But that isn't important.'

Nevertheless, it didn't matter if the demonic beasts in front of them had been summoned from Hell, created by planting a demonic crystal inside a monster, or even if they had been created by exposing a person to demonic energy. There was only one thing Kang-Woo had to do, and he didn't have the capacity to care about anything else.

"Kiieekk!"

A scrawny demonic beast that looked like a zombie or a mummy came running toward him. Kang-Woo threw Leviathan. The rotating axe, which was emitting freezing energy, smashed through the head of the scrawny demonic beast.

Then Kang-Woo raised his hands and used the Authority of Hellfire. As he lowered his hands, the Hellfire spread in the shape of a fan. He turned 180 degrees, pulled his right fist back, and lowered his posture. Kang-Woo focused the Authority of Spallation on his fist, and the demonic energy on his fist took on the shape of a wedge.

A Demon Golem ran toward Kang-Woo, and he punched it. His fist smashed a massive hole into the Demon Golem's chest, causing it to collapse.

Flare!

"Graaaahhhh!!"

"Waaahhhh! Wh-What the hell?!" Hyun-Mo shouted.

Hot air brushed past his cheeks. He turned his head around and saw a dog with three heads glaring at him.

It was a Cerberus, a demonic beast that inhabited the Third Hell. However, it was as strong as a demonic beast inhabiting the Fifth Hell, if not stronger.

'They even have a Cerberus under their control…?' Kang-Woo thought.

It was the demonic beast he'd wanted to summon at first. Of course, since he had summoned Echidna, a Cerberus looked like a mere mutt with three heads at this point.

"Haap!"

Hyun-Jae fended off the Cerberus. There wasn't even a need for Hwa-Yeon or Hyun-Mo to join in.

A Cerberus was a powerful demonic beast, but it wasn't as strong as Hyun-Jae, who was one of the strongest Rankers.

Fwoosh!

"Grrr!"

The problem was that there wasn't one but three Cerberuses. Hwa-Yeon and Yeon-Joo each had to fight one, which slowed their momentum a bit.

"Keep the formation here!" Kang-Woo shouted.

"K-Kang-Woo!" Seol-Ah exclaimed.

After leaving a command, Kang-Woo charged into the exit by himself.

It would be far safer to charge into the exit after gradually clearing out the demonic beasts, but the situation was urgent.

'What's taking that Fujimoto guy so long?' Kang-Woo wondered.

He looked around. His group had caused more than enough chaos and confusion. They had killed most of the demonic beasts defending the north exit, and the forces that had been involved in the diversion were retreating to regroup.

Boom!

At that moment, a strong wind blew past him. It was so strong that it seemed like a typhoon.

'Fujimoto.'

Kang-Woo had heard that Ryoma mainly used wind magic while wielding the Eye of Susanoo. Ryoma had most likely caused the sudden typhoon.

Assuming that was the case, Kang-Woo moved to join Ryoma, but an annoying amount of demonic beasts charged toward him. After wiping them out, he saw stairs that led upstairs.

'They should be on the top floor.'

He wasn't in a tall building. The top floor was probably the third or fourth floor. If it was only that tall, he could get to it just by jumping; he didn't need to use the Authority of the Sky.

Kang-Woo proceeded to load power into his legs.

“...Huh?"

At that moment, he sensed something was off. He had an unpleasant feeling as if he'd seen a misaligned cog in a machine.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes and looked around, and he soon realized the source of the unpleasant feeling.

'I don't see any Demon Cultists.'

He had not seen a single Demon Cultist on the way here or when he went up the stairs. From what he could see from the bottom floor, there were none on the top floor either.

That was strange. If the summoning ritual was so important, there should've been many people guarding it. It wasn't enough with just demonic beasts. Even if they hadn't been expecting intruders, there was no way that they would not appear now, considering he had caused an ungodly amount of noise.

Then he saw Ryoma heading up to the top floor while fighting against demonic beasts.

'What if the ritual isn't taking place on the top floor?'

There was a chance that could be the case. Of course, Kang-Woo's guess could be wrong. Maybe they weren't showing themselves because they needed as many people as possible for the summoning ritual.

'Fujimoto is going to the top floor anyway.'

Nevertheless, since he had Ryoma as insurance to deal with the Demon Cultists if they were on the top floor, Kang-Woo looked around the area once more. Judging by the sheer number of demonic beasts around here, this truly seemed like the place where the summoning would take place. Moreover, there was demonic energy spread throughout the entire station.

"In that case..."

His thoughts were brief, and his actions swift. Kang-Woo clenched his hand into a fist and merged the Authority of Titanic Might and the Authority of Waves.

'Skybreaker.'

Great power gathered around his fist.

It was a simple process of elimination.

'If they're not above...'

The only other possibility was underground.

Kang-Woo raised his fist and smashed it down with all his might.

Boom!! Rumble!!!

The floor was destroyed, and he fell underground, landing in a dark subway tunnel.

"Kurgh! Wh-Who are you?!" a Demon Cultist in a red demon mask said to Kang-Woo.

'Bingo.'

Kang-Woo stomped on the floor.

1. A hwando is a traditional Korean single-edged sword. ☜