After Ten Millennia in Hell

He summoned as much demonic energy as he could to attack Oh Kang-Woo.

Mammon formed a giant tsunami of fire. The ground split further, and red magma poured out from the cracks. A vortex of heat covered the surroundings.

Yet…

Gurgle, gurgle.

Kang-Woo's burning body melted into black mucus, and countless mouths appeared within it.

[E-Eek!]

Mammon trembled in terror.

Trauma that had been deeply engraved in his mind resurfaced. The fear that hadn't disappeared even after a thousand years swept over him.

The countless mouths were grinding their teeth eagerly.

Kang-Woo didn't look like a human anymore. No, he didn't even look like a living organism.

[S-Stay away!!]

Mammon took a step back. He knew what the appearance of those mouths meant.

[W-Wait! I-I was wrong!]

He shook his head. Mammon knew better than anyone else that it was already too late. The nightmare had returned. His flesh was being chewed away. The flames that encompassed him and the barrier of demonic energy were both meaningless.

Mammon looked at his arm, which was being covered by the black mucus. The small mouths in the mucus were devouring his flesh. They were nightmarish mouths that consumed everything without leaving a trace.

Considering the time and effort he had spent on Earth to restore his body, it was obvious that Mammon would be afraid. There was only one way to separate the mouths that had already latched on to his body.

He frowned and burned off his own arm.

FWOOSH.

[Shit! Shit! Shit!] Mammon cursed aggressively.

His characteristic laugh could no longer be heard.

The black mucus that had spread all over the floor started to move toward him again.

Mammon fell backward and rolled away. His body, which was closer to being a ball of fat, rolled just like a ball.

It was a foolish spectacle though. He wasn't even rolling particularly fast.

He was the strongest among the princes of Hell in terms of firepower, but his agility fell behind even that of a regular demon due to his obesity.

The black mucus caught up to him instantly.

[G-Get away!]

Mammon, who was still rolling backward, grabbed an object that had fallen to the ground.

It was a yellow sphere that was about 1.5 meters in diameter—Mammon's Hell Armament, Greed. Kang-Woo had destroyed one side of the armament when he broke out of it, but its overwhelming power hadn't disappeared.

Mammon grabbed Greed and created a wall of flames.

TSSS!

[H-Hihihihi!]

It blocked the approaching black mucus.

Mammon snickered.

'I stopped it.'

His Hell Armament, a weapon that could be called the essence of the Nine Hells, was still as powerful as ever.

[H-Hihihi!]

Crazed laughter emerged from his mouth.

'He's definitely become weaker,' Mammon thought.

In the past, after the battle with Balrog, Mammon had once faced the demon king when he was in the form of the black mucus.

Back then, the black mucus had been voluminous enough to cover the entire sky. However, Mammon could certainly put up a fight against it at its current size.

Hope appeared in his eyes.

Tss! Tss!

[Hihihi! It's useless!]

He laughed loudly like a villain who was protected behind bulletproof glass.

Then, the black mucus stopped pouring toward the wall.

'D-Did it work?'

Mammon peeked out of the wall to take a glimpse at Kang-Woo.

[...Huh?]

Gurgle, gurgle.

The black mucus was gathering in one place.

Ten meters…

Five meters…

Three meters…

One meter…

The black mucus was shrinking.

A chilling fear ran down Mammon's back. He couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.

[Wh-What's going on?]

He hadn't seen anything like this back when he fought against the demon king in Hell.

The black mucus was being compressed to a single point. Compared to its size, the demonic energy it possessed was getting absurdly powerful.

An enormous amount of demonic energy was running wild like how demonic energy burst out of Rifts.

[E-Eek!]

Mammon swung Greed, and the fire spread as if he'd swung a fan. The flames covered the black mucus, which disappeared without leaving a trace.

[Huh?]

He looked around in confusion.

[Wh-What? Did it disappear?]

Mammon walked forward while flinching.

He couldn't see the black mucus. It was as if it had been burned away by the flames of Greed.

[H-Hihihi?]

Mammon looked around in confusion.

Right then…

[Lord Mammon!]

[O-Oohhh Prince Mammon!]

[You have finally awoken!]

A group of around thirty demons approached him.

[Hihi. Who are you guys?] Mammon asked while frowning.

[We are demons of the Eighth Hell. After being summoned here, we have been waiting for you to be revived!]

[…]

[R-Right now, we are at a disadvantage in the battle against the humans, so… we have come to ask for your assistance.]

[Puhihi.] Mammon turned his head and waved his hands to show that he wasn't interested. [Screw off. That is not important right now.]

He bent down and searched the ground thoroughly.

'I-Is he really dead?'

It wasn't impossible. Kang-Woo had taken a direct blow from the flames of the Hell Armament.

The Hell Armaments had been created by gathering the essence of the Nine Hells. A direct blow from such a weapon was able to annihilate even the soul of a prince of Hell if it were to receive the attack without any defense to reduce the damage. So, it was plausible that a weakened demon king might have been annihilated by the attack.

[H-Hihihihi!]

The tips of Mammon's mouth went up.

[Puhihihihihihihihihihi!!]

Laughter filled with madness flowed out of his mouth.

Mammon lowered his body while grabbing his huge belly and shrugged excitedly.

[Hihihihihihihi! That's what you get for putting on all those airs! Hihi! Why did I fight you, you ask? Because you've gotten weak as fuck!]

Mammon waddled while laughing excessively as if to wash away the fear that he had felt toward the demon king. The joy of overcoming the risk of death was incomparable with anything else.

'Should I slaughter some humans to celebrate?'

He'd ignored them because it was a hassle, but he was willing to endure it now.

[L-Lord Mammon?]

The mouths of the demons looking at him widened in shock.

Mammon tilted his head and said, [Puhi. What?]

[U-Umm…]

[Your face…]

[Hm?]

Mammon touched his face in confusion. Black blood was pouring out from his fat nose. It was coming out from his ears, eyes, and mouth too.

[Wh-What the hell is this?]

Mammon anxiously touched all over his body.

Crack! Crunch!

[Aaarrrggghhh!!]

Immense pain swept through him as black blood spewed out from his fatty flesh. His shoulders, chest, arms, waist, groin, thighs, legs, and feet… Black blood poured out of them like a waterfall.

[E-Eek!]

Mammon looked down at the black blood spilling out of him. He was trembling from the pain.

[N-No,] he mumbled frantically.

What was on the floor wasn't his blood. No, it wasn't blood in the first place.

It was…

[ARRGGHH!]

The pain was enough to make him go crazy.

The black mucus that poured out from Mammon spread out across the floor. It covered a radius of not just ten to twenty meters but five hundred meters.

[Wh-What the hell is this?!]

[Argh! M-My legs!!]

[R-Run…]

Chaos ensued.

It looked as if the night sky had covered the ground. Mouths appeared from the darkness and began to devour every demon nearby.

Horrible screams rang out with the sounds of flesh being chewed and bones being broken.

[A-Aaarrghh!] Mammon screamed. [Wh-Why don't you die?! Why, why!!]

He recalled the face of the monster laughing at him.

Mammon raised Greed in a frenzy. A wall of yellow flames protected him.

[H-Hihihi! This is a Hell Armament, you motherfucker!!]

The only thing he could rely on right now was the transcendental weapon known as the Hell Armament.

Gurgle.

The darkness covering the floor moved and stretched out from the ground like tentacles.

The darkness infused with the Authority of Titanic Might whipped the flames, and the darkness infused with the Authority of Waves struck the flames. Then the darkness infused with the Authority of Slashing penetrated the flames.

Blades, Haste, the Sky, Blindness, Fear, the Beholder, Rage, Waves, Invulnerability, Dark Spears, Pitfall, Iron Axes, Slashing, Collapse, Cloning, Freezing, Hellfire, Sealing, Insight, Protection, the Watcher, Language, Subordination, Shadows, Temptation, Regeneration, Explosion, Dolls, Electricity, Invigoration, Decay, Spallation…

Authorities that a single being could not and should not possess stormed the surroundings while being used simultaneously and at random.

Rumble—!

The earth shook, and the entire mountain started to sink. It was a natural disaster, a cataclysm—something that went beyond the bounds of a living being…

Hundreds of Authorities activated simultaneously within five hundred meters of where the darkness was spreading from.

The ground disintegrated, and lightning struck. Invisible waves blew away a demon's two arms, and black blades sliced off their legs.

A nightmare that made the Nine Hells look like peaceful heaven ensued.

[A-Aaahhhh.]

Mammon opened his mouth, but he couldn't even form a sentence.

The flame wall that he'd created with Greed had already been torn away. He just stood still without being able to do anything. The other demons were in the same state.

[A-Aahhh.]

In that moment, the demons remembered the fear they had felt under the rule of the demon king and how humiliated they had felt while being forced to hide on the outskirts of Hell.

[H-Hihihihi.] Mammon laughed as if he'd lost his mind. [Hihihihihihihihihihihi!!]

"Why did you do it?"

He remembered what the demon king had asked him.

"Why did you fight me?"

Mammon couldn't truly answer that question. There was no way he could.

[Satan.]

The enormous demon trembled pitifully and thought of Satan, who was far north, under the land of ice.

[We were wrong.]

The thousands of years they'd spent on Earth… After all that time they had spent without the demon king, they'd forgotten one thing. No, they had always known it, but they had tried to ignore it.

[That monster…]

The demon of demons, the Hell of Hells, the predator of predators…

[We can't defeat it.]

Crush!

The darkness, which spanned over five hundred meters wide, compressed instantly and devoured Mammon's gigantic body.

This was Mammon's second defeat. As for the next round… it didn't exist.