After Ten Millennia in Hell

Kim Si-Hun\'s body trembled. A terrible sight was in front of him.

A collapsed rock wall, a massive pile of rubble, and a torn partition wall.

The amazing work of nature that he had seen this morning had become a horrible sight of destruction. It was as if a natural disaster had happened.

Si-Hun and the other Guardian members had their mouths agape in shock.

"G-Grace, what exactly happened?" Gaia, who was blind, pulled Grace McCubbin\'s sleeve.

Grace couldn\'t bring herself to answer; she had her mouth closed.

"Huff! Hurgh! Cough!"

Zhuge Xian walked out of the debris. He had fallen into mana exhaustion, but at a glance, it seemed he hadn\'t suffered any major injuries.

"Protector Zhuge Xian!" Gaia shouted in an anxious voice.

Xian bowed while making a hard expression.

"… I\'m sorry, Madam Gaia."

"A-Are you okay?"

"Yes. I wasn\'t injured, but…"

Zhuge Xian turned his head. The canyon had collapsed as if an earthquake had occurred.

He bit his lip.

"I wasn\'t able to protect… the Rift Seeds."

"Haaa, but I\'m glad to hear that you\'re not hurt."

Gaia sighed in relief. Si-Hun walked toward Zhuge Xian.

"What in the world happened?

"…"

Zhuge Xian didn\'t answer. He glared at Si-Hun and Oh Kang-Woo.

"Where have you two been?"

"Us?"

"If you\'re suspecting these two, there\'s no need," Grace said while sighing. "I understand what you\'re thinking, considering the timing, but they\'ve been with us the whole time."

"Ah…"

Zhuge Xian let out a short exclamation. He lowered his head while making a dark expression.

"I\'m sorry. It\'s just that the timing in which Satan invaded the vault coincided with when you two visited the vault, so I couldn\'t help but be suspicious of you."

Si-Hun and Kang-Woo nodded.

Just like he said, it was understandable that he\'d be suspicious, considering the timing of the attack.

"They wouldn\'t do something like that," Gaia said in a firm voice.

Once again, Zhuge Xian lowered his head.

"I understand, Madam Gaia. I will keep that in mind. I apologize to the two of you."

"No, your suspicion is valid," Kang-Woo replied. "Haaa. If we knew Satan was going to invade, we would\'ve stayed in the vault a bit longer."

"It isn\'t your fault, Kang-Woo. No one could have expected anything like this to happen," Gaia replied to Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo sighed as if he regretted not having been able to do anything.

He had a heavy expression.

\'Yolo!\'

But unlike his expression, he was celebrating on the inside.

\'It went more smoothly than I\'d expected.\'

To be honest, he was worried that he\'d taken action too fast, but Gaia and Grace dealt with the situation better than he had expected. Rather, he felt like their trust in him had gone up dramatically after the incident.

\'No, it definitely did.\'

After this incident, the possibility of Kang-Woo being Satan had likely completely disappeared from Gaia\'s mind. She had probably never thought that in the first place, but now, it was a bit different. From now on, even if he did something suspicious, she would never imagine Kang-Woo and Satan to be one and the same.

That meant he could act a bit more freely from now on.

\'Although I\'m most certainly not Satan.\'

Kang-Woo nodded repeatedly. He was definitely unrelated to Satan, a wicked being who only committed evil.

If Satan was evil, then Kang-Woo was the justice that judged evil.

It was only natural that they wouldn\'t be able to find a connection between him and someone like the Demon of Prophecy, who wanted to destroy the world.

\'What a piece of trash.\'

The entire world had taken action to collect the Rift Seeds.

There had been many Players who\'d died during the process, and there were also many Players who\'d died while fighting Demon Cultists.

To think that Satan would take away all the Rift Seeds that had been collected through all that sacrifice… Satan\'s evil deeds made Kang-Woo grind his teeth in anger.

"We shouldn\'t forget."

"Kang-Woo…?"

"We should never forget… that carelessness is a greater weapon than any other and that Satan will use that weapon against us at the slightest of opportunities."

After hearing what he said, every Guardians member remained silent. Everyone clenched their fists in frustration.

Carelessness.

He wasn\'t wrong. They had already known there was a chance that the Demon Cult would track the Rift Seeds and attack, but they hadn\'t put any other security measures in place besides Zhuge Xian\'s sorcery.

Gaia said, "I\'m sorry. This is all because of my lack of—"

"It isn\'t only your responsibility, Gaia. We have all made mistakes."

"Ah."

"Everyone can make mistakes. What matters is that we learn from it. It\'s a very common phrase, but it\'s hard to put into practice." Kang-Woo turned around. He patted the pile of debris. "Satan is strong. We can\'t relax just because he became weaker after crossing dimensions."

"… You\'re right."

Gaia nodded.

Kang-Woo turned around. There was one thing members of Guardians had to do in this situation.

"We have to get stronger."

Everyone nodded at Kang-Woo\'s words. Their determination and will to fight could be felt.

\'Yup, we sure gotta get stronger.\'

They\'d definitely realized how powerful Satan was after this incident.

They couldn\'t remain still.

\'We sure gotta.\'

Whatever it took.

Kang-Woo smiled.

* * *

A few days after the Satan incident, Zhuge Xian and Grace focused on restoring the destroyed vault.

Since Satan had discovered its location, they couldn\'t keep the vault at the Grand Canyon, but they were restoring it anyway to retrieve the Sword of Protection, the vault\'s defense mechanism.

It had been damaged after Satan\'s attack, but it wasn\'t damaged to the point that they couldn\'t repair it. They couldn\'t afford to leave behind one of their most valuable defense mechanisms.

Kang-Woo and Si-Hun didn\'t take part in the retrieval for training reasons.

Si-Hun went to the Middle East again with Tian Wuchen.

As for Kang-Woo…

"Let\'s begin."

There were more than a hundred black stakes in front of him. He smiled in satisfaction while looking down at the Rift Seeds in front of him.

He had not been able to gain much after just using one, but he had over a hundred of them at the moment. It was normal for him to be excited.

"I\'m not expecting that much. Let\'s just get to 123."

One stat point.

His Demonic Energy stat had surpassed 120, so even one stat point made a huge difference.

"Alright."

The preparations were done. It was about time to begin.

Kang-Woo extended his hand toward the Rift Seeds. He absorbed the seeds into his body just as he\'d learned using the Authority of Insight.

Whir!

Black energy flew out of the Rift Seeds. Although the amount was small individually, the energy became significantly thicker after over a hundred of them were gathered together.

\'Just one stat point!\'

Kang-Woo shouted from within and guided the energy toward his heart. He could feel the black energy attacking the system sealing the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

Rumble!

The ground shook.

An explosive amount of black demonic energy soared toward the sky.

Crack. The ground he was standing on couldn\'t resist the massive energy, and split.

An ecstatic power spread throughout his body.

Riiing.

[The seal of the Ten Thousand Demon Core has weakened.]

[Demonic Energy has risen by 3.]

"Three…?"

His mouth fell open. He would\'ve been happy with an increase of one, but to think that it would rise by three… Although he was happy, he couldn\'t understand it either.

"What happened?"

Kang-Woo lightly closed his eyes. He analyzed the demonic energy inside his body and very quickly found the reason.

\'Demonic energy from the deep end had been released.\'

The demonic energy of the Ten Thousand Demon Core was separated into three layers. The shallow end, the deep end, and…

\'The Abyss.\'

The deepest area of the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

He hadn\'t been able to control the demonic energy from the Abyss, even when he\'d been in Hell.

"Demonic energy from the deep end is finally also being released."

Until recently, only demonic energy from the shallow end had flowed out, but a tiny bit of demonic energy from the deep end had been released as well.

Of course, it wasn\'t purely from the deep end; it only made up a portion of the demonic energy released.

\'But…\'

The fact that it had been released was what mattered.

"Just a little more, and I should be able to face Balrog."

He smiled in satisfaction. He had made enough progress, and it would have taken months if only demonic energy from the shallow end had been released.

Forget archdemons; he felt like he would soon be on the same level as Balrog and Lilith.

"It\'s still not enough."

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone. If it were when he first arrived on Earth, he would\'ve thought that this much strength was more than enough.

To be honest, barely anyone on Earth would be a match for him as long as he was as powerful as an archdemon.

But the situation had changed.

\'The princes of Hell.\'

There was a chance he would have to fight them. If even one of the princes of Hell appeared, Earth would be no match for them with their current level of strength.

Numbers were meaningless before a prince of Hell. The only one who could face a prince was another prince.

Although Players overall were getting stronger, if someone asked him if he thought that they would grow enough to be able to face a prince of Hell, he would naturally shake his head.

\'Maybe Si-Hun could.\'

Among the Players Kang-Woo had met, there wasn\'t any Player besides Si-Hun who had the potential to face a prince of Hell one day.

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue.

"It\'s too unbalanced."

The gap in the average power level of Earth and Hell was far too big.

Anyway, what Kang-Woo had to do was already decided.

\'I have to get strong enough to be able to face a prince of Hell.\'

Although he also had to take into account the divine realm where gods like Susanoo and Gaia resided and the celestial realm that he had only heard about, the battle against the princes of Hell was top priority.

"After all, Satan has already been revived."

The Demon of Prophecy, Satan.

In that situation, he was the opponent he had to be the wariest about.

Just taking into consideration that he\'d invaded the vault of Guardians, it was obvious that he was already a member of the Demon Cult.

No, rather than just being a member, there was a chance he was the one controlling it from the shadows.

"Satan."

He recalled the powerful demon he\'d faced in the Ninth Hell in the past.

He naturally clenched his fists.

"I\'ll protect this world."

He overflowed with a sense of justice.