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Balrog got up and glared at Oh Kang-Woo.

[No,] he said in a firm voice he hadn\'t used until then.

Balrog bit his lip.

[Not… molting.]

"Balrog."

[You promised!]

Balrog stomped on the ground.

Crack.

The floor couldn\'t withstand the impact and cracked.

[You promised me that you would never do it again!!]

The atmosphere of the room suddenly became cold.

Echidna and Halcyon flinched.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes.

"Are you refusing to obey my order?"

[…]

There was silence. Balrog clenched his fists and trembled.

[There has to be another way.]

"There isn\'t. That\'s why I\'m doing it."

[The situation is not that urgent.]

"It\'s not, but we don\'t have all the time in the world either."

[You have already become far stronger than when you were in Hell.]

"And so have my enemies."

[…]

Balrog closed his eyes.

[... It is dangerous.]

"I know."

Kang-Woo smirked.

Balrog once again stomped on the ground.

[Then why?! Why are you trying to molt?!]

"Balrog."

Kang-Woo\'s eyes sank deep, and he opened his mouth. He spoke in a voice tinged with sadness. An emotion he\'d been suppressing leaked out through his words.

"We\'ve lost far too much."

[…]

"I refuse to lose anything else," he calmly said.

Balrog frowned and clenched his fists.

Lilith walked toward Balrog.

"Give up, Balrog. You know how stubborn our king is."

[... Are you fine with this?]

"Hohoho."

Lilith smiled widely; a chilling bloodlust leaked out of her.

"Of course… not," she said reluctantly.

[…]

Lilith\'s hands were trembling a bit, and it looked as if she were about to cry at any moment.

Balrog sighed.

[I understand. When are you planning to do it?]

"Right now."

Since he\'d decided to use it, there was no reason to push it back any further.

[Where…?]

"Remember where we sparred before? Let\'s do it there."

[That place is too dangerous. How about… where that Guardians secret vault used to be?]

"The Grand Canyon?"

[Yes. Let us do it there.]

"Ngh. It\'s a bit of a hassle since we have to go through the Hall of Protection."

[Even so, that is the safest place.]

Kang-Woo nodded.

"Okay."

[In that case, I will make the preparations.]

Balrog turned away. He took Lilith with her to go around the house and collect things.

"Kang-Woo." Echidna trotted over to him and pulled on his clothes. "What\'s molting?"

"I-I would also like to kn-know." Halcyon furiously nodded next to her.

Kang-Woo answered with a troubled expression, "It\'s… a form of training."

"Training?"

"Yup. It\'s the fastest way to improve my demonic energy control."

Echidna\'s anxious eyes calmed down after hearing the word training.

"Can I come watch you train too, Kang-Woo?" she asked, her eyes shining.

"No." Kang-Woo firmly shook his head.

Echidna flinched.

He patted her head and continued, "Seol-Ah is alone in the house. Echidna and Halcyon, go home today and stay with her."

"... Okay." Echidna couldn\'t insist any further, and she nodded.

Just then…

[How about you take them with you since it has become like this?]

"... Balrog."

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shone sharply.

Balrog continued calmly, [The little dragon and Halcyon are now your retainers. They have the right to know.]

"The right to know, my ass? You think I don\'t know what you\'re trying to do?"

[Of course, I still wish for you to change your mind, but you know it is not good to hide this from your retainers.]

"What isn\'t good? Having them join us is completely meaningl—"

[It is not meaningless.] Balrog shook his head. [The little dragon is strong enough to use dragon tongue magic, and Halcyon is stronger than me.]

"Hah, trying to use logic, are you?"

[You know that it is the right decision to prepare for possible variables.]

"…"

Kang-Woo was at a loss for words.

"... Fuck."

He didn\'t want to admit it, but Balrog was right.

Kang-Woo became significantly weaker right after molting. To cover all bases, taking Echidna and Halcyon with him was the correct choice.

[Not just that, taking only me would bring about discord among the retainers.]

That was also right.

One of the most important things when managing subordinates was to never favor any in particular. If he only took Balrog, then Echidna and Halcyon would obviously feel a sense of alienation. Perhaps discord was a bit excessive, but it would at least sow the seeds for it.

[Do you want to see the king train?]

"Yeah, I wanna see!"

"I-I would like to s-see it as well."

[You heard them.]

Echidna and Halcyon nodded.

Kang-Woo shook his head.

"... Do as you please."

He gave up and just turned around.

Balrog smirked and spoke to them.

[In that case, you guys help us prepare as well.]

"What should we prepare?"

[Changes of clothes, lots of water, and towels to dry off the body.]

"…?"

Echidna couldn\'t understand why they needed things like that to train, but she nodded.

As Halcyon, Echidna, and Balrog moved together, they quickly finished their preparations.

"Then, let\'s go."

Kang-Woo activated the gate that led to the Hall of Protection, intending to use the gate within the Hall of Protection to travel to the Grand Canyon.

"I feel like I\'ve been coming here pretty often," Kang-Woo mumbled while looking at the canyon.

There weren\'t many people in the area, so he often used it for training.

As he slowly began to walk, Echidna followed him.

"Kang-Woo, I\'ve been training a lot. I can use five dragon tongue magics now. That\'s more than what an adult dragon can do," she said, like a child who wanted to be praised.

Kang-Woo smirked and patted her head.

"Good job. Oh, it looks like you\'ve gotten taller too."

"Hm! I\'m gonna be as fat as Seol-Ah soon too."

"Uhh… Mm."

"I asked Seol-Ah how she managed to get so fat, but she got angry at me…"

"Don\'t say things like that from now on."

His kimchi stew was on the line.

After begging Echidna, Kang-Woo started to walk.

Halcyon grabbed Kang-Woo\'s other arm.

\'What do you want?\'

"M-Master Kang-Woo. I-I\'ve also been training!"

\'Don\'t lie.\'

Demonic beasts didn\'t train. No, to be more precise, there was really no point in them training. Their physical specs were so incredible that they were already at their peak, so there was no point in them doing physical training.

As Kang-Woo looked at him in disbelief, he began to flap his wings.

"B-bridal training! I\'ve been doing bridal training!"

\'You aren\'t a bride.\'

"M-Marriage! That\'s the only thing left!"

\'There\'s still that thing between your legs.\'

Kang-Woo\'s eyes shook uneasily.

[Enough chit-chat.]

Balrog grabbed Halcyon and Echidna by their napes and dragged them back.

"... Wh-what are you doing?"

Halcyon\'s eyes shone sharply. He exuded intense bloodlust.

"I-I had just m-managed to talk to Master Kang-Woo a-after so long…"

He ground his teeth and flapped his wings in annoyance.

"D-Don\'t bother m-me, or I-I\'ll blow your h-head off."

It seemed as if Halcyon wasn\'t joking. He had even taken out his claws.

[You are a being a bother to the king,] Balrog calmly said.

"…"

As Kang-Woo was mentioned, Halcyon remained silent.

"N-not fair…"

He bit his lip in frustration.

Kang-Woo looked around.

"This place should be okay."

[... We should go a little deeper.]

"What, you wanna burrow into the rock or something? This is enough."

Nobody else was nearby, after all.

They could not feel the presence of even the smallest organism around them within this narrow canyon. Kang-Woo went into a small cave within the rock and took a deep breath.

"I\'ll be counting on you."

[Yes, my king.]

Balrog stood in front of the cave and readied a bucket of water, clean clothes, and towels.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

[... You will see,] Balrog firmly said. [Our job is to make sure no one touches the king until the molting is over.]

"Then are we gonna be protecting Kang-Woo?"

Echidna\'s eyes shone. He was always protecting her, so she seemed quite interested in protecting him.

Balrog slowly nodded.

[You can begin.]

"... Okay."

Kang-Woo was about to say something to Echidna and Halcyon, but he sighed and nodded.

He suddenly recalled his conversation with Han Seol-Ah.

"Why not? I-I also want to know more about you, Kang-Woo."

"Because you\'ll pity me."

"What?"

"If I tell you, you\'ll pity me."

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue.

"Fuck."

He cursed and began taking off his clothes.

"Hm! Hm!"

"G-Gasp! P-Picture! I must take a picture!"

The audience was noisy.

Kang-Woo threw all of his clothes besides his boxers to the side.

\'Is this some sort of humiliation play?\'

He saw the two girls looking at him with intense eyes and smirked.

\'Right, then…\'

He closed his eyes and summoned forth his demonic energy… and more… and even more. Then…

"Cough!"

His body bent like a bow, his head hurt, and his sight became blurry. The demonic energy he had drawn out to his utmost limit began to run amok. A giant, endless black sea appeared before him. Three doors were stopping that giant sea. It was the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

He walked toward one of the Doors and slightly opened it.

Rumble!!

"Kang-Woo…?"

The canyon shook.

Kang-Woo bit his lip so hard that his teeth tore his skin.

The demonic energy that had been like a calm river stream had become like rapids and was tearing him apart. And…

"BLEEEEEEEEGHH!!"

He vomited black blood as an unfathomable agony dominated his mind.

Crack! Crunch!

His bones twisted and broke, visibly piercing his skin. His blood vessels tangled as his muscles exploded.

A huge amount of blood poured out of him.

"A-Arrgghh."

He trembled and extended his arm as if trying to grab the air. His fingers bent backwards. His skin was turned inside out as if he were molting.

"A-Aaaaaaaaaaahh!!"

An ungodly amount of pain spread through him, and he twisted and screamed.

\'I have to… control it.\'

The demonic energy was tearing apart his entire body.

He\'d slightly opened a Door of the Ten Thousand Demon Core intentionally to forcibly create a situation that made him break past his limits.

If he couldn\'t go beyond this limit… if he couldn\'t control this rampant demonic energy…

He would die.

"Kargh, argh, kurgh!"

His body shook as if he were about to have a seizure, and his tongue hung from his mouth. He soiled himself in his pain and wet the ground. He vomited and spat out all his teeth.

This was probably how a person would turn out if they were put in a microwave.

Blood poured everywhere as his body was torn apart.

"Fu…ck."

It hurt.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.

He couldn\'t think of anything else besides that it hurt. It was as if only pain existed in the world—it was all he could feel. To free himself from that pain, he crawled on the floor disgustingly.

"A-Argh."

A tear dripped from his eyes. His consciousness was fading, his vision distorting.

Balrog\'s, Echidna\'s, and Halcyon\'s faces were swirling together as if various paint colors were getting mixed.

Only pain existed in his world.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!"

He screamed and tensed his body.

While his consciousness became governed by pain, a certain thought crossed his mind.

To survive, he instinctively controlled his demonic energy.

He entered a state of non-self. He suppressed his demonic energy little by little, as if disentangling a horribly tangled ball of yarn.

As if smoothing a tangled thread, he slowly began to regain control of the demonic energy.

One step at a time…

Forward…

And forward…

* * *

"K-Kang-Woo!!!"

"Master Kang-Woo!!"

The two tried to approach Kang-Woo, their faces pale.

[Stop.]

Balrog stood in their way.

"Y-you…! H-How could you say that when he\'s in that state?!"

Halcyon bared his claws and teeth.

Echidna collapsed to the floor while trembling.

[If you touch the king right now, he will die.]

Halcyon stopped moving at Balrog\'s words.

"Wh-What\'s h-happening?"

It was nothing like training. Even self-harming didn\'t look this horrid.

"Th-This is… molting?"

Balrog calmly nodded.

[Molting is the act of forcibly bringing about a state of non-self by intentionally making one\'s demonic energy run rampant.]

"Isn\'t that dangerous…?"

[It is like turning your body inside out, so of course it is. In the worst-case scenario, he could die. Even if he survives, he has to endure the worst amount of pain that an organism can possibly experience.]

"Wh-Why would he go so far…?"

[The king said it himself.]

Balrog made a bitter smile.

[To never lose anything ever again.]

"…"

Balrog turned and saw Kang-Woo crawling on the floor and screaming. Kang-Woo soon lost consciousness.

[Come to think of it, the two of you do not know the road the king had walked in Hell, do you?]

"…"

[It was neither one of dominance nor one of glory.]

Balrog approached the collapsed Kang-Woo and picked him up. A long trace of black blood and excrement had been made behind him.

[That road…]

Balrog grabbed a water bucket and poured it on Kang-Woo.

The blood and excrement were washed from his body, flowing down the path Kang-Woo had crawled.

[That foul and wretched road filled with filth is…]

The place the water flowed over looked like a road.

[... The road the King has walked.]

There was a breathtakingly heavy silence.

"Bal…rog…"

At that moment, Kang-Woo, who had been unconscious in Balrog\'s arms, opened his eyes with difficulty.

[Please rest, my king.]

"A-Arrgghh."

Kang-Woo grabbed Balrog\'s shoulders with shaking hands. As if gathering the last remaining strength he had, he opened his mouth. He wanted to tell him this at the very least: "That\'s… cringe… cough!"

[M-my king! Are you saying that you are hurting so much to the point that you are cringing?!]

"No, I\'m saying you\'re crin…"

[I know what you are trying to say, my king. My heart is hurting… just as much as you.]

"Son of a… that\'s not… saying… Fuck… cringe… what the fuck… is a road filled with filth…"

Kang-Woo\'s body trembled.

"BLEEEEEEEEEEGHHH!!"

[Urrrrggghhh.]

He vomited in Balrog\'s face and passed out.