After Ten Millennia in Hell

Doomguard walked toward Oh Kang-Woo with a cheerful smile on his face.

Kang-Woo frowned.

'Move your face away, man.'

Doomguard was muscular and over five meters tall. On top of that, he had a face that really fit the name demon. Seeing Doomguard smile like that was like looking at a scene from a horror film.

"Yeah… How has it been for you guys?"

[Haha! Hell's always the same. Hmm, if I had to say, I'd say that the demonic beasts have been wandering around a bit more than before.]

"Demonic beasts?"

[Yes. Ancient demonic beasts like Halcyon are expanding their territories.]

Ancient demonic beasts referred to demonic beasts that had gained intelligence, such as Halcyon, Bul-Kathos, and Ouroboros.

They had demarcated their own territories in the Ninth Hell and almost never left them.

"The ancient demonic beasts have started to take action?"

[Yes. Lord Balrog is investigating the exact cause.]

"Hmm."

Kang-Woo nodded as if he wasn't that interested.

'Are they after my vacancy?'

He thought about it for a while but soon shook his head. Either way, it was a matter of the Nine Hells. He was already busy enough thinking about matters on Earth.

Vaal Zahak stepped forward and shouted, [Wh-What are you doing, Lord Doomguard?! Please bring death to that weak and lowly hum—]

Doomguard's expression crumpled.

Fwoosh!

Crack!

[Kurgh?!]

Vaal Zahak fell to the ground after being punched.

[Weak and lowly human? Watch your mouth, bones. This person is my master and the Lord of Hell.]

[L-Lord of Hell?]

Vaal Zahak looked at Kang-Woo, his mouth wide open. His teeth clacked together as if he couldn't believe it.

[Hmm?]

At that moment, Doomguard's expression hardened. His body started to become hazy.

"What's wrong?"

[It seems the summoning duration is up.]

Doomguard turned around while making a disappointed expression.

[I will be off then, my king! I will let Lord Balrog know that you're doing well~!]

Doomguard waved his hand while laughing.

Although Doomguard was a charismatic leader in front of his subordinates, he was known for acting cute like a well-behaved dog in front of Kang-Woo, his master. He was so flippant and did not have an ounce of dignity that Balrog had criticized him a few times.

"Tell him never to come find me," Kang-Woo said in a serious tone.

Doomguard bowed and disappeared through the Rift from which he had appeared.

"…"

There was a heavy silence.

Vaal Zahak moved his yellow lights for eyes in all directions while trying to understand what was going on. He frantically thought about the relationship between the human in front of him and the being from Hell he'd summoned through the Blood of the Evil God.

No, there was no need to think about it too deeply. After all, that being from Hell had called the human the demon king.

Then he had only one choice left…

Vaal Zahak slowly walked toward Kang-Woo. Considering how the situation was playing out, he wasn't stupid enough to not know what he had to do.

[Ooohhh!! Almighty Demon King!]

'What the hell's up with him?'

Vaal Zahak's attitude had visibly changed.

Vaal Zahak knelt down and pounded his head against the ground.

[I knew from the moment I laid eyes upon you that you were the master of the demon realm!]

'But you didn't.'

[How could I, such a lowly creature, not recognize the energy of the absolute being that rules over all demons?]

'But you didn't.'

[How could I dare to brandish a weapon against the master of the demon realm? Please look. I am so bare-handed that my hands don't even have skin.]

'You don't even use a weapon in the first place. You think you can pull the wool over my eyes?'

Vaal Zahak's attitude reminded him of what had happened with Jo Deok-Hyun back in the Andras Guild.

Kang-Woo couldn't help but laugh after seeing how Vaal Zahak's attitude had changed after realizing he was the Lord of the Nine Hells.

[To think you'd accept me as your Familiar!! I, Vaal Zahak, am so moved that I am about to shed tears!]

'Stop shitting yourself.'

He obviously couldn't shed tears because he was a skeleton.

Riiing.

[The fidelity of your summoned beast has increased.]

[You can now use forced commands. However, extreme commands such as suicide are impossible.]

Message windows popped up.

Leaving the process aside, it seemed that Vaal Zahak had completely submitted to him.

"Well… Sure, I guess."

Kang-Woo held his forehead.

"Huff. Huff. What happened, Kang-Woo?"

Echidna, who had been fighting the Death Knights, turned her head in confusion.

The twelve Death Knights Vaal Zahak had summoned were kneeling on one knee toward Kang-Woo.

"… I took care of the problem," he said while making an uncomfortable expression.

Just taking into consideration that Vaal Zahak had completely submitted to him, the problem had indeed been resolved.

'But more importantly…'

There was something more important than Vaal Zahak at the moment.

"How did you summon a being from the Nine Hells?"

"Nine Hells? Oh… Are you talking about the demon realm?"

It seemed that, on the continent of Aernor, they referred to the Nine Hells as the demon realm.

'So that means…'

Kang-Woo stroked his chin.

It didn't matter what name they used.

'The Nine Hells is not only connected to Earth but also to the continent of Aernor.'

There was a chance it was also connected to numerous other worlds.

In the first place, if every world was completely segregated from one another, there wouldn't be an entity like the Gaia System that prevented otherworldly invasions.

Kang-Woo nodded and said, "So, you can summon beings from the demon realm?"

If that was the case, he didn't need to wait for the Demon Cult to summon demons. The problem would be solved just by having Vaal Zahak summon them.

[Oh… No, I cannot.]

Vaal Zahak shook his head.

[The reason I was able to summon the being from the demon realm was thanks to the artifact known as the Blood of the Evil God. I cannot dare to summon a being from the demon realm without the artifact's help.]

"Tsk."

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue in disappointment.

He thought that, instead of roaming around searching for prey to hunt, he'd be able to live a stable and comfortable life farming demons, but things in life never went as he wished.

"Who's this Evil God?"

[Evil God Lucifer. He is the root of all evil in the continent of Aernor.]

"… Lucifer?"

Lucifer of Pride.

It was the name of one of the seven princes of Hell, who had lost against Kang-Woo.

'Could it be a coincidence?'

A short thought crossed his mind. He shook his head. There was no way it was a coincidence.

'How was he revived?'

Numerous possibilities crossed his mind.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes.

'It's not like it's impossible.'

Kang-Woo had not completely killed the princes. Their souls had fled into the Hell Armaments. If their souls were intact and the Hell Armaments still existed, it wouldn't be impossible for them to be revived.

Kang-Woo had used the seven Hell Armaments to return to Earth.

If one of the Hell Armaments had found its way into the continent of Aernor in the same way he'd returned to Earth…

'There's a chance that Lucifer was revived in Aernor and came to be known as the Evil God.'

Just like Earth, Aernor's forces were weak compared to the Nine Hells.

Kang-Woo could tell just from the fact that Vaal Zahak was called a demon king and how much he worshiped the demon realm.

If Lucifer had been revived in a world like that, Kang-Woo had no doubt he would be considered a godlike being.

'But…'

There was still an unanswered question.

"You said that Lucifer was the root of all evil, right?"

[That is correct.]

"Since when has he been in the continent of Aernor?"

[I do not know either, except that it was a very long time ago…]

"Hmm."

Kang-Woo frowned.

'The timeline is weird.'

It had been only half a year since Kang-Woo had returned to Earth.

Even if a Hell Armament had found its way into Aernor, the timeline didn't match.

"…"

He kept thinking, although not for too long. The result was already there. He was, at the moment, just trying to understand the process that led to this result.

'The timeline got tangled.'

He wasn't sure if it was an issue on Aernor's end or if the Hell Armament itself had gone back in time much further than the point Kang-Woo had traveled to.

The only thing he was sure of was that the timelines between the dimensions were not synchronized.

'The Nine Hells is also connected to the current world, a world ten millennia behind the Nine Hells' point in time.'

The demons from the Ninth Hell knew of Kang-Woo's existence, meaning that Earth had been connected to the Nine Hells ten millennia in the future when Kang-Woo was active.

From that alone, it was obvious that the timeline had gotten entangled.

"Damn."

His mind was in jumbles. Kang-Woo leaned his back against a tree and organized the information inside his head.

'The timeline entanglement isn't important right now.'

The important thing was that Lucifer had been revived, and he also needed to consider the possibility that the other princes had also been revived.

"… Wait."

Kang-Woo was thinking about it with a troubled expression when his eyes suddenly shone.

'Wouldn't I be able to absorb the souls of the princes now?'

With his new Trait Reaper of Souls, he could possibly get his hands on the souls of the seven princes of Hell, which he had been unable to devour with the Authority of Predation.

'I'll have to gather more information first.'

He still didn't know if all the princes had been revived or if it was just Lucifer. Besides, Lucifer did not exist on Earth.

He couldn't stay indolent, but it wasn't like he had no time to waste.

"Then, where in Aernor is Lucifer right now?" he asked the bowing Vaal Zahak.

Vaal Zahak raised his head. [I do not know either.]

"I see."

Kang-Woo nodded. Even if Vaal Zahak knew where Lucifer was, since Kang-Woo had no way to cross into Aernor, there was nothing he could do.

'Also, if Lucifer has recovered his old strength…'

With Kang-Woo's current strength, he would be no match for Lucifer.

'I'll have to take the worst possible outcome into account.'

He had to consider the possibility of battling the princes.

'My agenda remains unchanged.'

He just had to keep doing what he'd been doing until now. He had to keep devouring and getting stronger. He had to recover his old strength from when he used to rule over the Nine Hells.

'No.'

Kang-Woo clenched his fists.

After awakening as a player, a new desire ignited in him.

A domain he hadn't been able to reach even in the past…

The desire to reach that domain burned his throat.

'Slow down.'

He quelled his burning desire. He had to refrain from rushing. Rushing only bred mistakes.

Kang-Woo slowly opened his mouth. He had another question before going back.

"But why was Lucifer unable to rule over Aernor?"

The princes of Hell were strong. Taking into consideration the average strength of the people that lived there, there probably wasn't anyone capable of stopping him.

He should have ruled or perished, one or the other.

"Kang-Woo, that's because of the archangels from the celestial realm," Echidna said. Because Kang-Woo kept only asking Vaal Zahak questions, Echidna sulked and pulled on Kang-Woo's clothes.

Kang-Woo tilted his head.

"Archangels?"

"Yeah. This is from ancient mythology, but I read that archangels descended from the celestial realm to prevent the rise of the Evil God."

"The celestial realm, huh…?"

Since the Nine Hells existed, it was understandable that a world opposite to it existed.

"Do angels still exist in the continent of Aernor?"

Echidna shook her head.

"No. After the war against the Evil God, they all disappeared. After that, the Evil God also vanished into thin air."

"I see."

It seemed that Kang-Woo wouldn't need to take angels into account. Since Lucifer was in hiding, Kang-Woo had some time.

'I more or less understand.'

It would be better if he heard the rest of the information while going back to Korea.

"Let's go back. Oh, Vaal Zahak, do you have any magic that lets you conceal yourself?"

Vaal Zahak looked like a white skeleton.

[Of course! I, Vaal Zahak, can melt down into the shadows and rule over the darkne—]

Crack.

[Gyaaaa!! M-My skull!!!]

Vaal Zahak screamed. It seemed he could still feel pain.

"Vaal Zahak, I told you not to talk like that earlier."

[I-I understand.]

Kang-Woo turned around. Suddenly, he clapped his hands together as if he'd remembered something. After discovering that Vaal Zahak could feel pain, he had begun to wonder about something.

"Oh, right. Can you eat?"

[Eat… you say?]

"Yeah. It doesn't look like you can, though."

[Oh. I don't need sustenance, but I can eat. If food enters this area here, I can break it down from within.]

Vaal Zahak pointed to a black space in his throat.

Kang-Woo's eyes shone.

"Oh, then do you also have a sense of taste?"

[My sense of taste is poorer than that of a human, but… I can still taste. Why are you suddenly asking me this?]

Vaal Zahak tilted his head in confusion.

Kang-Woo smirked and put his arm on his shoulder.

"Let's go."

[Go where…?]

"To get some kimchi stew."

[What is kimchi stew?] Vaal Zahak asked, his eye sockets shining with a yellow light.

Kang-Woo patted his shoulder.

"You'll find out soon enough, man."