Chapter 500: Advent (1)

"Hahahaha!"

A bright laughter echoed. One of the demons on the ground behind Doomguard split in half.

"I thought I'd hidden myself pretty well... I guess I can't fool you, my lord Demon King."

A demon with hands made of sharp saw blades showed himself. He was wearing a formal suit with his hair neatly swept back, a rare sight to see for a demon. Arakyle, the commander of the Despair Corps, bowed courteously.

"Of course, I would. After all, we were family," Oh Kang-Woo said in a deep tone.

The word family sounded awkward to him despite saying it himself.

"Family... yes, we sure were. Such a word doesn't suit demons, but you were different, my king."

Arakyle chuckled. The Demon King was ruthless to his enemies but treated the demons whom he accepted as his retainer like family.

"You were the closest thing to what a demon should be... as well as the one furthest from it," mentioned Arakyle as if reminiscing.

He had met Kang-Woo about three hundred years ago when Kang-Woo defeated a prince of Hell for the first time.

"We went through... so much together."

Arakyle had fought together and shared victories with Kang-Woo. They emerged victorious against the forces of the seven princes of Hell and earned the right to rule Hell.

"It is truly an honor to see you again, my king."

Arakyle bowed courteously.

Kang-Woo lowered his head with deeply sunken eyes. He carefully laid the dead Doomguard on the ground.

He closed Doomguard's eyes and replied, "Yeah, it's good to see you too. Though I never expected our reunion to happen by you stabbing me in the back like this."

"Hahaha. I didn't expect things to end up this way either."

Arakyle tapped on the ground with his saw blade hands.

"Arakyle, you bastard..."

Balrog glared at Arakyle fiercely, clenching his fists as if he were about to charge at him at any second.

"Wait." Kang-Woo stopped Balrog and slowly walked forward. He stared at Arakyle and asked, "Lemme ask you something."

"You have but to ask." Arakyle lowered his head with a smile.

"Why?" Kang-Woo asked in a deep tone.

"Hahaha!!" Arakyle burst into laughter and stared at Doomguard on the ground. "If you are referring to why I killed Doomguard..." He clicked his tongue. "It is because he continued to refuse my proposal."

"Proposal?"

"Yes," Arakyle answered as he spread his arms widely. "My proposal to betray you and join Bael's army."

"..."

"No, no. I misspoke. Betray isn't the right word... You can't call it a betrayal." Arakyle shook his head and cackled. "Isn't it only natural for demons to pursue their desires?"

Desire was no different from instinct for demons; it allowed them to be demons and for them to stay as one. Desire was everything to them.

"ARAKYYYYYYYYYLE!!!"

Boom!

The surroundings shook as Balrog unleashed a roar. He clenched his fists and charged at Arakyle.

Clank, clank.

Black armor began to wrap around him.

Tssssssss—!!

White steam poured out from the armor's gaps and Balrog flapped his wings from within the steam. Arakyle raised his saw blade hand.

Clang—!!!

Balrog's fist and Arakyle's saw blade clashed, causing a thunderous sound of clashing metal to echo.

"Huup!" Balrog inhaled and added more strength to his fist. His red muscles swelled as if they would explode. His eyes were filled with rage as he exclaimed, "You... You dare... betray our king?!"

To Balrog, betraying Kang-Woo was a capital crime, regardless of the reason.

Boom! Crash!

Balrog swung his fists madly, each swing making sounds similar to cannon fire.

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN...?!"

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Arakyle blocked every single one of Balrog's punches. The gaps between the saw blades widened little by little with every clash.

"EVERYTHING OUR KING HAS DONE FOR US?!!"

Crash—!

Balrog interlocked his fingers and swung down his fists with his entire weight behind them.

Clang—!

Arakyle's saw blade bent sideways. Balrog pulled his right leg back and lowered his stance. He twisted his torso and raised his right fist high.

"Sky..." He used the torque to swing his fist down. "Breaker!!"

Balrog used one of the few techniques that he learned from Kang-Woo. A punch that could obliterate even a giant mountain smashed into Arakyle. However...

"Haha. You have changed quite a bit as well in the time I haven't seen you, Lord Balrog. Was a whip not your weapon of choice?"

Arakyle had taken Balrog's punch straight on his chest. Balrog's fist was easily blown back by the invisible power around Arakyle.

"This is..."

Balrog frowned aggressively. He knew what the power wrapped around Arakyle was all too well.

"But in the end..." Arakyle smirked. "You are but a pathetic fly without Deific Essence."

He cackled as he swung down his saw blade hand. The demonic energy wrapped around the blade was infused with Divinity.

Slash!!

"Gah!"

Balrog jumped back in shock, but the saw blade easily slashed through his black armor and formed a large wound across his chest. Black blood poured out like a fountain. Balrog tumbled across the ground as he clenched his chest.

"Kurgh...!" Balrog bit his lip aggressively.

'Deific Essence again...?'

He clenched his fist wrapped with the black armor. Simply having Deific Essence created an insurmountable gap between those with and without it. Balrog gritted his teeth.

- Come to think of it, you haven't awakened Deific Essence yet, have you?

Kim Si-Hun's words from when they were heading to the Frozen Temple popped into his head.

Balrog grimaced fiercely. He knew that Si-Hun's words had not been to mock him, but...

"Shit, shit, shit!!"

Bang!

Balrog smashed his fists into the ground.

"Huff, huff."

More black blood poured out as the wound on his chest widened. Balrog looked down at his blood.

'There is a way.'

His new ability, Overlord Armor, grew stronger using his blood as the energy source. In other words, he got stronger the more he bled.

'If that's the case.'

There was a way to fight on par against those with Deific Essence, albeit temporarily.

'But...'

Hesitation filled Balrog's eyes. He clenched his fists anxiously.

"What's wrong?" Arakyle asked mockingly. "Did you realize that you can't do anything just by shouting pledges of loyalty?"

Balrog's expression hardened.

Arakyle, drunk on power, continued elatedly, "Loyalty won't get you anywhere. You can't get anything with just conviction and willpower." He raised his saw blade hands high. "Only desire, the instinct of demons as well as what allows us to exist, completes us."

Arakyle laughed as his shoulders moved up and down. The Deific Essence, which he acquired after making a deal with Amon, fired him up.

He turned to Kang-Woo and asked, "Wouldn't you agree, my king?"

Kang-Woo stared at Arakyle in silence. The Deific Essence he could feel from Arakyle was as powerful as that of Tai Wuji and Gaia.

"Haaa," he sighed deeply.

'There's no way Arakyle awakened Deific Essence on his own.'

Hence, there was only one answer.

'He became an incarnation.'

Kang-Woo wasn't sure whether Arakyle became Bael's incarnation or an incarnation of one of the outer gods cooperating with Bael, but he was sure that Arakyle had gained power incomparable to his past self.

'So... this was your plan, Bael.'

Uniting the Ninth Hell was meaningless by itself. Since the gods were freed from the restrictions of the Law of Titans and could now manifest into the physical realm, the demons also needed Deific Essence to fight evenly against them.

'I knew he would prepare countermeasures against Deific Essence, but I never thought one of them would be to grant Deific Essence to one of my former subordinates.'

"Hah," Kang-Woo chuckled, covering his face with one hand. "For fuck's sake, you sure say some badass shit."

'Only desire completes demons; how badass is that?'

"To put it simply, you betrayed me because Bael's ass you were sucking was so sweet, right?"

Arakyle had packaged the reason for his betrayal to be something grandiose, but it was overly simple when unraveled.

"Hmm. Your choice of words is as vulgar as always."

Arakyle glared at Kang-Woo.

"Of course it is. You know how I am," said Kang-Woo.

Arakyle replied quietly, "I sure do. You were always like this."

The memories he had with Kang-Woo flashed before his eyes. He recalled the wretched war and the battles they fought together to bring the seven princes of Hell down.

"Aaaahh, they were truly wonderful memories." Arakyle trembled with a bright smile. "But..."

That was the end of it. His master had changed once they conquered the Ninth Hell.

"You no longer desired," Arakyle stated as he looked at Kang-Woo in disgust.

Yes; once the Demon King devoured every prince of Hell, he chose to lay down everything and go back to Earth.

"In that moment, you lost your reason to exist as a demon."

Demons were born to desire; it allowed them to exist and was what completed them. However, the Demon King, who had the entire Ninth Hell in his hands, gave up on desiring. The Demon King filled with enough madness to devour everything in the world, whom Arakyle remembered, ceased to exist after the battle against Bael.

'Demons need a new king.'

They did not need a king with no desire. They needed a new king filled with unending desire.

'Yes, Lord Bael... the demon made purely of desire... is fit to be our new king.'

Arakyle smiled widely and raised his saw blade hand.

"Demon King," he said to Kang-Woo as if making a declaration. "Your era is over."