Chapter 22: Demon Followers (1)

'They're a cult full of weirdos, huh?'

KangWoo had disguised himself as an offering and infiltrated the Guild. He opened his eyes narrowly and looked at the Andras Guild members gathered around the altar.

As Jo DeokHyun entered the room, the Guild members started to praise him. It didn't matter how you looked at them, they definitely looked like a cult full of weird fanatics.

'And then...'

KangWoo could feel the state of their bodies.

The body of a human with demonic energy would start to become more like a demon's.

Except for his mind, KangWoo's body was more like a demon's than a human's.

'Although there's a difference in the percentage, it seems like they're all in the process of becoming fiends.'

Now he finally understood why they were acting in such weird ways.

The body of a demon was constantly craving to fulfill desires—it was similar to an animal that was in heat.

Since it had been long since KangWoo had become a demon, he could control his desires, but that wasn't the case for those people.

Among them, there probably wasn't anyone who was sane.

'How are they able to receive demonic energy?'

He could safely absorb demonic energy thanks to his Authority of Predation.

But normally, demonic energy was lethal for humans, so if you received it carelessly, your soul and body could get eroded by the demonic energy and collapse.

'I should first wait for them to do the ceremony.'

KangWoo stayed still, pretending he had lost consciousness.

"Prepare the mana stones."

"Yes!"

At Jo DeokHyun's orders, the man opened the safe under the altar.

There were thousands of mana stones inside of the safe.

'What are they trying to do?'

The ceremony began at the same time that KangWoo's questions deepened.

Jo DeokHyun hit the floor with a dark brown cane and began casting a spell.

The mana inside the mana stones flew out to somewhere, and a small crack appeared in the air.

"...!"

KangWoo's body trembled as he saw the crack.

Thick demonic energy started to come out from the crack.

'What's happening?'

He was very used to the demonic energy coming from the crack.

'How are they calling demonic energy from the Hell of Nine Skies?'

There was no way to know the answer.

He wasn't sure how they had opened a crack with the available information.

Jo DeokHyun made the demonic energy coming out from the crack move toward KangWoo's body.

'Huh?'

Demonic energy entered KangWoo.

He naturally used the Authority of Predation and absorbed all of the demonic energy flowing into him.

Ting-

[Your Demonic Energy stat has increased by 1.]

'Huh?'

He wasn't expecting that to happen.

KangWoo kept absorbing the demonic energy coming out from the crack.

'Sweet.'

From the moment they made the demonic energy flow into the offering's body, KangWoo understood what they were trying to do.

They were waiting for the moment when a person's body and soul collapsed because of the absorbed demonic energy.

'I'm not sure how they plan to absorb the demonic energy after that.'

Anyway, that wasn't important to him.

Because to him, that demonic energy was like honey rather than poison.

Ting-

Ting-

Ting-

As the ceremony continued, he could hear the clear sound of a bell spreading through his ear.

'Going up!'

Demonic energy that surpassed the amount he had absorbed after using Predation on a hundred lizardmen entered his body.

As demonic energy flowed to his body as if it were water, the corners of KangWoo's mouth went up.

"What's happening?"

Jo DeokHyun finally realized that something was off.

"Why isn't it stopping?"

'Don't stop.'

"W-wait."

'A little bit more.'

"S-stop!!"

'Don't stop!'

"Stop it!"

'Just one more stat!'

Jo DeokHyun's scream filled with urgency and KangWoo's internal scream intertwined.

But all good things come to an end.

As the mana stones maintaining the crack lost all their mana, the crack naturally disappeared.

While leaving behind the disappointment, KangWoo slowly stood up.

He more or less understood what the ceremony consisted of, and now it was time to hear the detailed information from Jo DeokHyun.

"What? Can't you do it one more time?"

"Ah, aah."

Jo DeokHyun's body trembled.

* * *

He was confused about why that young man was perfectly okay after receiving so much demonic energy.

The only thing that he was sure of was that, because of him, all of the mana stones he'd bought by using all the resources of the Andras guild were no longer useful.

And after blowing out so many mana stones, he hadn't been able to get anything in exchange.

"N-no."

All those mana stones he'd bought by spending all the resources of the Andras guild were supposed to give eternal life.

Recently, the Hwarang Squad had been following them more closely, so he wasn't sure how long it would take him to gather so many mana stones again.

"NOOOO!"

Jo DeokHyun's scream spread through the room.

He directed his angry gaze toward KangWoo.

"YOOUU!!!"

Jo DeokHyun pointed to him with his cane, and a bullet made of demonic energy came out of his dark brown cane.

KangWoo easily dodged the demonic energy bullet.

Boom-!

The demonic energy bullet hit the wall and exploded while making a loud noise.

After seeing the explosion, KangWoo looked at Jo DeokHyun with great interest.

'Not bad.'

Was it because of the demonic energy? Or was it because of Jo DeokHyun's power as a player? He kept shooting bullets made of demonic energy without taking a break.

The mana bullets that were shot at KangWoo changed trajectory mid-flight and targeted his back.

'Authority of Iron Wall.'

Demonic energy poured out of his body and covered him as if it were an armor.

Jo DeokHyun's mana bullets ricocheted off the demonic energy armor.

'It's definitely more comfortable now that I have more demonic energy.'

After reaching the third awakening, he'd gained access to quite a huge amount of demonic energy.

It was a huge achievement considering that it hadn't been a week since he'd returned to Earth.

KangWoo looked satisfied while feeling the demonic energy run through his body.

"Y-you can control demonic energy?"

Jo DeokHyun was surprised after seeing the person they used as an offering control the demonic energy very naturally.

That couldn't be happening.

No, that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Eek!"

Jo DeokHyun waved his cane with a nervous expression.

He fired a large amount of demonic energy toward KangWoo.

"What are you doing?! Attack him!"

He turned his head around and shouted to the other guild members.

After hearing Jo DeokHyun's orders, each of the eight guild members took out their weapons and charged toward KangWoo.

KangWoo smirked after looking at the Andras Guild members charging toward him.

'What can a bunch of guys who can't even control demonic energy do?'

There was no way they would be able to beat him.

Slam-! Stomp-!

"Argh!"

"Coff!"

KangWoo swiped away the members of Andras Guild just like a wolf who'd run into a flock of sheep.

They tried to stab KangWoo with their weapons but failed because they couldn't pierce the armor made of demonic energy.

Since the defense was perfect, he just had to concentrate on attacking.

KangWoo used the Authority of Iron Wall and the Authority of the Blade simultaneously.

'This is consuming quite a bit of demonic energy.'

Using two Authorities simultaneously was a bit too much for him at the moment, even after the increase in available demonic energy.

'I should try to end this as fast as possible.'

While thinking that, KangWoo began moving.

He had no issue fighting against multiple opponents simultaneously.

In the Hell of Nine Skies, before meeting Balrog, he'd spent most of the time fighting alone. He was more used to fighting against multiple opponents simultaneously than doing a one vs. one fight.

Smash-! Slash-!

"Argh! My, my arm!!"

"M-my legs!!"

While fighting against multiple opponents, killing them wasn't the most important thing.

—Your priority had to be dealing fatal damage that would take them out of the fight.

The agonized members of the Andras Guild that were on the floor would interfere with the movements of their allies, and that would give KangWoo the space to move comfortably.

Stab-! Crack-!

"Argh!"

One of the members of Andras Guild was targetting his back. KangWoo stabbed him in the shoulder and then twisted the blade.

As he did that, the blade broke the bones of the man's shoulders, and a horrible scream came out of his mouth.

"Four."

He was able to beat half of the enemies in just three minutes.

If things went on like that, all eight members of the Andras guild would soon be defeated.

"Move away! You bunch of useless idiots!"

At that moment, Jo DeokHyun raised his voice.

At his orders, the other four members moved back.

After moving away, they looked at Jo DeokHyun with hopeful eyes.

"He's finally going to use that."

"If it's the power of the guild leader..."

While the guild members were looking at him expectantly, Jo DeokHyun walked to the front.

"Take a look! This is the flame that burns life, the Authority of Hellfire!"

Full of confidence, Jo DeokHyun extended one arm.

In his hands, a black flame that was the size of the palm of his hands appeared.

"Ha..."

KangWoo let out a smirk after looking at the hellfire in Jo DeokHyun's hand.

"You call that the Authority of Hellfire?"

Nonsense...

That wasn't a hellfire created with an Authority.

A hellfire created with an Authority felt like a starving demon rather than looking like a hot fire.

The fire that was created by Jo DeokHyun, although it looked similar to the real one, was just a crappy fire.

"Hahaha. I'm not sure how you learned to control demonic energy, but you won't be able to beat this Auth—"

Fwoosh-!!

Before Jo DeokHyun could finish his sentence, black flames appeared on top of KangWoo's hands.

The hellfire, which was bigger than a person's entire upper half, emitted strong demonic energy and wriggled.

Comparatively, Jo DeokHyun's flames, which were the size of the palms of his hands, looked crappy.

"Huh...?"

Jo DeokHyun looked dumbfounded at the hellfire that was on top of KangWoo's hands.

'This shouldn't be happening.'

It was then that he realized that something had gone wrong.