After Ten Millennia in Hell

Side Story Chapter 135 - Thousand-Year War (8)

“Ah—”

Oh Kang-Woo’s brain froze. He could barely comprehend what he had just heard. His heart was pounding like crazy.

“Satan...?”

One of the seven princes of Hell, the demon of Wrath.

“Why is Satan...”

Kang-Woo stepped backward. He did not even need to compare his strength against the enemy’s. He would undoubtedly die if he were to fight against Satan. He had no chance of victory.

[I have come in search of you.]

Satan raised his arm shrouded in darkness and pointed at Kang-Woo. His voice echoed directly throughout Kang-Woo’s head instead of sound waves entering the ears.

“In search... of me?”

[Yes,] Satan replied and nodded.

Kang-Woo bit his lip. It didn’t matter why Satan was here for him. What mattered was that Satan was here.

“Haaa, haaa,” Kang-Woo panted heavily. He did not have to think long before he turned to scream to the Halves, “RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!”

“S-Sir Kang-Woo!”

“Wh-What’s going on?!”

“SHUT THE HELL UP AND RUN RIGHT NOW!!!”

Kang-Woo pushed the Halves who were still disoriented from the chaos. The Halves soon turned around and began to run to the back of the cave. Kang-Woo also ran behind them.

“Zepar!! Where’s the emergency exit?!”

He had once heard from Zepar that he had created an emergency exit just in case.

“Over there!!”

“Hurry!!!”

Kang-Woo looked back as he frantically ran. He didn’t know if Satan had no intention of chasing them or was just full of leisure, but Satan was simply standing still and staring at Kang-Woo.

“SHIT!!!”

Kang-Woo’s thoughts were so entangled that he could barely think.

‘That’s a prince of Hell?’

He understood why Balrog had been so lost for words when he learned of Kang-Woo's goal. A prince of Hell was the essence of calamity.

‘I can’t win.’

Kang-Woo could instinctively tell even if he didn’t want to. The princes of Hell couldn’t be defeated. They were not born to be defeated. They were born to rule as absolute entities.

‘I was trying to fight demons like that?’

Kang-Woo could only call himself insane for daring to try such a thing. He could only imagine how much Balrog mocked him in his head. His blazing fury and desire to return to Earth were extinguished in a flash from the moment he came face-to-face with a prince of Hell.

“Haaa! Haaa! Th-This way!” Zepar shouted, pointing at a hole he had dug at the end of the cave.

“Get in!!!”

“Wh-What about y—”

“I’ll get in once everyone does, so just get the fuck in there!!”

Kang-Woo pushed Fel, who was staring anxiously at him, into the hole. The Halves went in one after another.

“Huff, huff.”

Kang-Woo looked back as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Satan was still nowhere in sight.

‘Hurry, hurry, hurry!’

Anxiety was burning him from the inside.

“We’re all out!” Zepar said from inside the hole.

Kang-Woo also crawled into the hole and came out to a terrain filled with tall sharp rocks.

“This way!” Zepar shouted as he pointed at an escape route he had made at the opposite side of the cave entrance.

Kang-Woo followed after the Halves and came out of the windy escape route.

“—Huh?”

“So, this is where you were.”

However, they came across another demon. He had eight black wings on his back, skin so pale and lips so blue that one would think he was dead. His prideful eyes gazed at Kang-Woo.

“Lucifer...?” Zepar said in pallor.

Lucifer, the prince of Pride— yet another prince of Hell had appeared after Satan.

“Wh-Why...?”

Kang-Woo couldn't understand why two of the princes of Hell were in one place when it was a rarity to meet one even after millennia in the Ninth Hell.

“Hmm, are you the human named Oh Kang-Woo?” Lucifer slightly raised his head and looked down arrogantly at Kang-Woo. His eyes carried an unconcealed sense of disappointment. “I bothered to come all the way here after hearing you were on the same path as Bael, but... what a disappointment.”

He frowned as he stared at the trembling Kang-Woo.

“Fuck...”

Kang-Woo’s teeth clacked noisily due to the pressure crushing him.

‘Pull yourself together.’

It was not the time to be frozen in fear. He needed to move to survive. Kang-Woo looked around and quickly raised his right arm.

‘Authority of Shattering Air.’

A sphere of demonic energy was shot at a tall rock wall.

Rumble—!

Countless rocks plummeted toward Lucifer.

“RUN!!!”

Kang-Woo did not expect a prince of Hell to die from such a meaningless attack. He turned to run in the opposite direction as soon as the rocks fell.

“Haaa, haaa!! S-Sir Kang-Woo.”

Fel was panting heavily as she staggered, about to collapse at any second. Kang-Woo grabbed her and ran like crazy.

“Huff, huff!”

Kang-Woo would never get tired after running only this much but the psychological pressure of being chased by princes of Hell drastically drained his stamina.

‘Please, please...!’

He continued to run as he prayed to God despite never believing such an entity existed since he fell into Hell. They escaped the rocky region and saw a plain of red sand— no, to be more exact, the army of demons covering the plain of red sand.

“Oh, is that the rumored human?”

“Puhihihihi!! The hell? I was expecting someone like Bael but it’s just a human with some demonic energy.” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

A demon in a wheelchair made of white bones and a morbidly obese demon were cackling as they stared at Kang-Woo.

“Belphegor... and Mammon...?”

Zepar dumbfoundedly stared at the two demons at the army’s vanguard. They were Belphegor, prince of Sloth, and Mammon, prince of Greed. Two of the seven princes of Hell who ruled the Ninth Hell were in one place— no, it wasn’t just two.

[Hmph. I expected you bastards to be here as well.]

Step, step.

Satan leisurely appeared from the right.

“Satan aside... Belphegor and Mammon, huh? Looks like you maggots joined forces.”

Flutter!

Lucifer flew toward them from the left and frowned at Belphegor and Mammon.

“Puhihihi!! How could we hope to stand against the oh-so high and mighty Satan and Lucifer if we don’t join forces?”

“I don’t like it, but it makes sense to join forces in a situation like this.”

Mammon and Belphegor smiled nastily and glared at Satan and Lucifer.

“...”

Kang-Woo was simply frozen, unable to even think of running away. No, it was better to say he knew there was no point in running away.

“Four... princes?” he mumbled, flabbergasted.

Four of the seven princes of Hell, the beings standing at the pinnacle of the Ninth Hell, were in one place.

“Why...?”

His legs shook uncontrollably and he could barely breathe. He pinched his cheek like an idiot because of how unrealistic things were but the nightmare before him did not disappear.

[That aside, you sure have brought a lot.]

Satan looked around at the army of demons behind Belphegor and Mammon, as well as Lucifer, who was standing alone.

“So have you,” replied Lucifer as he smirked and glared at Satan.

Thousands of demons flew down from between the tall rock upshoots and landed behind Lucifer.

[Hmm. I guess I can’t fool a prince’s eyes.]

Satan nodded and spread out the darkness surrounding him. Satan’s army rose from the ground covered in darkness resembling black ink. The armies of the four princes gathered in the vast plain.

[Now, then.] Satan leisurely turned, his eyes gleaming at Kang-Woo— to be more exact, at the Halves around Kang-Woo. [Why don’t we eliminate the half-baked filth so that we can talk in peace?]

“W-Wait a—”

Satan suddenly vanished before Kang-Woo could stop him, and appeared behind a little demon trembling in pallor. It was a little demon with three branches growing all over him. Satan softly placed his hand over the little demon’s head.

“H-Huh? M-My body...”

Crack, crack.

The little demon stepped backward as he looked down at the spiderweb-like cracks forming on his body. Tears flowed down his cheeks.

“P-Please... save me,” the little demon said as he stared at Kang-Woo. He reached out toward Kang-Woo and muttered, “I don’t want to d—”

Shatter—!!

The little demon was broken into tiny pieces from his fingers throughout his body.

“Yes, that human is all we need.”

Lucifer nodded and snapped his finger, forming black balls the size of a ping-pong ball in midair. They were shot at the Halves’ chests.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

“I-IT HURTS!! IT HUUUUURTS!!”

The Halves hit by the black ball were crushed as they were sucked into the ball as if it were a black hole.

“A-Arghh.”

Kang-Woo bit his lip as he bore witness to the slaughter. It was so overwhelming that he could only watch as the Halves were brutally murdered. The princes of Hell were so powerful that he couldn’t even think of doing something.

“I-I have to... run,” he mumbled without realizing it.

He had been running this whole time but he meant it differently.

“I-I have to use this chance... to r-run.”

He needed to use the Halves as bait to run away.

“Haaa, haaa.”

If he missed his chance to run— he would die.

“KYAAAAAAAAHHH!!”

“S-SIR KANG-WOO!!!”

“PLEASE SAVE US!!!”

The Halves’ screams echoed inside his head. They desperately pleaded for Kang-Woo’s help as they were brutally killed by Satan and Lucifer.

‘Fuck that.’

He had no way of saving them in this situation. One would have to be crazy to face the princes of Hell. Kang-Woo ignored the Halves’ screams and turned around, getting ready to leave as soon as possible before all the Halves were killed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Just then, a red giant fell from the sky like a meteor.

“Huh...?”

Kang-Woo turned to look back in shock. Balrog was leisurely cracking his knuckles as he stood in Satan and Lucifer’s way.

“Is slaughtering Halves all you came here to do as princes of Hell?” Balrog clicked his tongue mockingly. “The title of the seven princes of Hell sure has been dragged through the mud.”

Balrog smiled widely, baring his sharp teeth.