After Ten Millennia in Hell

She was one of Oh Kang-Woo's most loyal subordinates along with Balrog when Kang-Woo was in Hell.

If Balrog was said to be as strong as the seven princes, then Lilith was said to be capable of annihilating their armies with all sorts of illusions and restricting abilities.

Illusion and mind-control magic…

Lilith was stronger than Kang-Woo, who possessed Authorities, in those two fields. Since she was also very intelligent, she was the one in charge of managing the demon king's army.

And…

Officially, she was Kang-Woo's wife.

'Fuck.'

When Kang-Woo appeared in the Ninth Hell and was growing his forces alongside Balrog, he was once ambushed by Prince Satan, and half of his forces ended up dead.

The princes were so powerful to the point that they weren't able to kill each other, and Kang-Woo had been driven to the brink of defeat after losing half of his forces.

The one who had saved him was Lilith, who had the title of being the most beautiful woman in Hell.

'Most beautiful woman, my ass.'

Thinking about those tentacles made him curse.

Lilith, who was struggling because of Prince Asmodeus's tiresome proposals, had joined forces with Kang-Woo, who had, at the time, declared war on all seven princes.

From Kang-Woo's point of view, Lilith's beauty was incomprehensible, but she could seduce any demon.

Thanks to the demons following her, Kang-Woo's forces became even bigger than before Satan's assault. Thanks to her, he overcame the crisis and kept battling against the princes.

After that, she started to have strong feelings for him while fighting alongside Kang-Woo when facing the princes.

The demons that followed her wanted her love to bear fruit, and because of that, Kang-Woo was forced to marry her as a formality.

Since most of Kang-Woo's forces followed Lilith as much as they did him, he couldn't ignore their wishes.

'Damn.'

Thinking about his life after marriage gave him chills.

Lilith had tried to sneak into his chambers every single night, and he had to desperately escape from her tentacles. Those horrible days had come to an end when he was able to put an end to the war and return to Earth.

'I refuse to go back to those days.'

He clenched his fists.

No, Lilith being summoned now could bring a worse result than those days.

Kang-Woo was not strong enough to escape from Lilith at the moment. Although he'd grown at a faster pace than anyone else, he still wasn't as strong as demons like Balrog or Lilith.

If Lilith was summoned to Earth, he could be devoured by her.

'How could they possibly be able to summon Lilith?'

Kang-Woo couldn't understand it.

It wasn't as simple as moving on to summoning a demon from the Ninth Hell since they had managed to summon Oriax from the Seventh Hell and Amdusias from the Eighth Hell.

Lilith was one of the most powerful demons in the Ninth Hell. She couldn't be compared to beings like Oriax or Amdusias.

'Has the Gaia System weakened that much?'

It was a desperate situation, and it was worse than he had initially thought. If archdemons like Lilith appeared on Earth in bulk, the current state of humanity wouldn't be able to handle them.

"You have a strong sense of justice, just like Hwa-Yeon mentioned."

Jang Hyun-Jae smiled with satisfaction. It seemed like he'd misunderstood Kang-Woo's shout.

Cha Yeon-Joo looked at Kang-Woo suspiciously as if asking him why he was so desperate.

Kang-Woo didn't answer. There were more pressing matters at hand than being misunderstood.

"… Please tell us more about Japan's current situation," Kang-Woo asked in a low voice.

Hyun-Jae had mentioned that Japan was in such a bad state that they had even asked for Korea's help.

Kang-Woo thought that he might be able to gain a hint about the situation from his explanation.

"Fuuu. Please keep this strictly confidential."

Hyun-Jae sighed. He individually looked at Yeon-Joo, Baek Hwa-Yeon, Goo Hyun-Mo, and Kang-Woo. The four of them nodded.

"The Demon Cult has kidnapped Kurosaki Yurie."

"Kurosaki Yurie?"

It was the first time Kang-Woo had heard that name. Except for him, the faces of the other three people turned pale after they heard the name.

"K-Kurosaki Yurie?!"

"Are you serious, old man?"

"… Please explain."

Kang-Woo lightly poked Yeon-Joo's side.

Yeon-Joo looked at him as if she was baffled that he really didn't know. She bit her lips.

"The Miko of the Heavens. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she's currently the mental pillar of the Japanese."

"Oh, interesting. But why is she the mental pillar instead of Fujimoto Ryoma?"

"There are many reasons, but… first off, her social status is no joke."

"Her social status?"

Yeon-Joo nodded.

"She's the emperor's granddaughter."

"…"

The emperor was more like a position of symbolic value in Japan and had almost no real influence.

No, in the modern era, one could say that even its symbolic value was disappearing. But for the past five years, after Japan's situation quickly changed, the position of that very symbol massively rose in importance.

Japan had suffered far more damage than Korea had during the Day of Calamity five years ago.

There was one reason for that… the SS-rank gate that opened in Hokkaido.

The strong monsters that had appeared from that Gate had almost destroyed the entire country. The situation improved after Players appeared, but despite that, Hokkaido was still a deserted prefecture.

In such a crisis, the hopes of the Japanese turned to the emperor, who had been nothing but a symbol. The people hoped for the imperial family to turn the situation around somehow.

And then, Kurosaki Yurie, the emperor's granddaughter, stepped up.

She was able to prevent the worst situation. She had not only asked for help from foreign Players but had also not held back on the support given to Japanese Players.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Japan would not exist today if it hadn't been for Kurosaki Yurie.

The people of the country worshiped her to the point that some even protested for the old emperor to step down and for Kurosaki Yurie to take his place.

Yeon-Joo's "mental pillar" was the correct way to describe her.

"Hmm… Is that why she came to be known as the Miko of the Heavens?" asked Kang-Woo.

"Oh, that's because of her ability. Although she isn't a World Ranker like Fujimoto Ryoma, she's still quite strong."

"What's her ability?"

"She… can summon the souls of the gods in Japanese mythology into her body."

"…"

Kang-Woo's eyes narrowed.

Summoning gods into one's body was an ability so incredible that it wouldn't be weird if it were stronger than the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

Yeon-Joo continued to explain, "I don't know the details either, but I think she can only bring out a portion of the gods' powers."

That was obvious.

If she could bring out their full powers, she would've become the world's strongest instead of a World Ranker.

"I've also heard that Fujimoto Ryoma's Eye of Susanoo was made with Kurosaki Yurie's ability to summon the gods."

"Hmm…" Kang-Woo groaned. He turned to Hyun-Jae. "Have they found out why the Miko of the Heavens was kidnapped?"

"No, they haven't. Why would they take such a huge risk to kidnap her…? I can only guess that it has something to do with the demon summoning."

"…"

Kang-Woo remained silent. He closed his eyes and thought about it.

There were many possibilities. What he had to do now was to deduce the Demon Cult's actions from the information that he had been given.

'There must have been a reason.'

They wouldn't have kidnapped her for no reason; her position was far too high to take that risk.

'Maybe to simply use her as a sacrifice?'

Kang-Woo shook his head. If they were just going to use her as a sacrifice for the summoning, they wouldn't have gone out of their way to kidnap her.

'The ability to possess the power of the Gods.'

Kang-Woo focused on her abilities.

If the Demon Cult had a reason to kidnap Kurosaki Yurie, it most definitely had to do with that ability.

"The gods of mythology…" Kang-Woo mumbled in a low voice.

He felt as if he was about to grasp something. Just then, the names of the seven princes of Hell, such as Satan and Lucifer, came to mind.

Kang-Woo's eyes shone.

"I see."

He finally understood.

He thought of a question that he had had ever since he had been in Hell.

When he had first heard about the seven princes, he was surprised because their names were almost identical to the names of the demons associated with the seven deadly sins.

Lucifer, Satan, Bael, Leviathan, Belphegor, Mammon, Asmodeus.

Those were all names he already knew.

As he thought about it calmly, it made no sense.

If the Nine Hells were in a completely different dimension than Earth, such a thing would be impossible.

'If such names were transmitted to other worlds as myths…'

It could be hypothesized that beings in mythology were beings of worlds other than Earth. If the gods in Japanese mythology were also beings of another dimension, the ability of Kurosaki Yurie could be defined as:

'The ability to summon the powers of extra-dimensional beings.'

The pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together.

If that was the case, he could somewhat understand what he couldn't initially grasp about how the Demon Cult could possibly summon Lilith.

'The Gaia System hasn't been weakened to that extent.'

It wasn't like the Gaia System had become so weak that the Demon Cult could summon Lilith, an archdemon from the Ninth hell.

The Demon Cult had realized the truth of Kurosaki Yurie's abilities and were trying to use them to summon Lilith.

"Let's go to Japan right away."

Kang-Woo stood up.

Since Kurosaki Yurie had already been kidnapped, it was now a race against time. They had to save her as soon as possible and stop the summoning.

"… You're awfully enthusiastic today. Okay, I'll gather my guild members," Yeon-Joo remarked.

"No, you'll have to go alone." Kang-Woo turned to Hyun-Jae for confirmation. "Am I right?"

"Hah… You're more impressive than what I've heard."

"… What are you guys talking about?" Yeon-Joo asked.

"The Japanese government is desperately trying to hide that the Miko of the Heavens has been kidnapped. At the very least, they'll announce it after she is rescued."

Considering Japan's current state, people would panic if they heard that the Miko of the Heavens had been kidnapped.

"We can't ask for large-scale support. If Japan could do that, they wouldn't have tried to gather people in such a secretive way."

The more people there were, the faster the rumor would spread.

"How many people can we bring at most?" Kang-Woo asked Hyun-Jae.

"Seven."

"Then I guess we can take two more including the people in this room."

If that was the case, he had a good candidate.

"Let's set out in 30 minutes. Is there a plane ready?"

"It's on standby at the airport."

"The airport is too far. Let's ask Echidna."

"Echidna…?"

Yeon-Joo's and Hwa-Yeon's faces turned pale after hearing Echidna's name. Hwa-Yeon gave a quick explanation to the confused Hyun-Jae.

"… Your summoned beast is a dragon?"

He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Kang-Woo ignored his question and took out his smartphone. They didn't have much time.

"I'll call her immediately, so wait for me in front of the base in about 30 minutes."

"W-Wait. Are you saying that while even knowing where we have to go?"

"I would guess Hokkaido. Sapporo, to be exact, since that's where I heard the SS-rank Gate is," Kang-Woo concisely answered Hyun-Jae, who was bewildered. It wasn't hard to guess where the Demon Cult was planning to summon an archdemon of the Ninth Hell.

"… Hah," Hyun-Jae laughed lifelessly.

Kang-Woo was right.