"Prepare everything."

"Myking…"

After hearing his firm voice, Balrog lowered his head while making a sad expression.

'But if this is what the demon king wishes…'

Because he had sworn eternal loyalty to him, he had to follow his wishes.

"Balrog, are you going to make me say it twice?"

"I'm sorry…"

Balrog bowed and ordered the soldiers to bring out the items KangWoo was talking about.

The items he’d asked them to prepare were equipment that had belonged to the seven demon archdukes.

Each of the items had the strength of the Hell of Nine Skies inside them. It was said that if you managed to gather all seven of them, you could obtain such power that you would even be able to twist the boundaries between dimensions and time.

After killing Baal a little while ago, he had managed to collect all of the equipment, and it was all lined up neatly in front of him.

"The preparations are complete."

"Okay."

KangWoo slowly stood up from the throne and walked toward the seven pieces of equipment with different shapes and colors.

The seven items that had the strength of the Hell of Nine Skies were interacting with each other and increasing the demonic power inside each of them.

'If I put the demonic power that I absorbed into them…'

It was possible to forcibly open a dimensional rift.

"Oof."

A short sigh came out of KangWoo's mouth.

He couldn't believe that he was finally about to return to Earth.

'Finally…'

He was going back.

A huge amount of demonic energy flowed from his body to the equipment.

He had devoured hundreds of thousands of demons through the Authority of Predation.

He had so much demonic energy inside of him that he wouldn't be exaggerating if he said that the Hell of Nine Skies itself was inside his body.

Ten Thousand Demon Core…

It was the phrase KangWoo used to describe the giant ball of demonic energy inside his body.

He thought it was an appropriate name since there weren't many famous demons that he hadn't devoured.

The demonic energy that came from the 'Ten Thousand Demon Core' started interacting with the seven pieces of equipment.

A rift was formed in the space, and a gate appeared in front of him.

'I can finally return to Earth.'

Remnants of the memories from Earth came back to his mind.

Even after ten thousand years, he hadn't been able to forget about his home.

It wasn't like he had a family waiting for him. He didn't have a partner with whom he had promised to spend the rest of his life.

But…

'It's still going to be better than this place.'

—The Hells that didn't have anything to eat or any form of entertainment.

He was willing to do anything to be able to get away from that place where there was only blood and slaughter.

'I also need to regulate the time.'

He had no intentions of returning to an Earth where ten thousand years had passed.

After ten thousand years, there probably weren't many of the things he missed from Earth.

'Maybe kimchi jjigae has disappeared.'

He didn't even want to think about an Earth without kimchi jjigae.

He wanted to return to the past, the Earth from before he arrived in the Hells.

Thankfully, he could also regulate the time by using the weapons of the seven archdukes.

"Then I'll be going."

"Myking…"

After hearing his determined words, Balrog lowered his head while making a sad expression.

Tears dripped from all 18 of Lilith’s eyes while she opened her long mouth.

"Sniff, are you really going to abandon me?"

"Don't cry."

'It looks scary.'

The sight of Lilith crying looked like a scene that would probably appear in a horror movie.

It seemed like she’d misunderstood his words. She shouted while her tentacles were trembling.

"Oh! Your kind words moved Lilith! I feel like your kind words will make my heart explode!"

After saying that, one of the tentacles in Lilith's chest exploded, and yellow pus came out of it.'Oh, my God.'

"My king! My love!"

'Don't get close to me.'

"Ah, Lilith wants to follow his majesty!"

'Stay away.'

After watching Lilith get close to him while being covered in yellow pus, he threw himself into the dimensional rift.

"Myking! Lilith will follow you there, no matter what happens!"

While hearing the chilling shout coming from behind, a weird sensation covered KangWoo's body.

'Let's not meet each other again.'

While raising his middle finger toward Lilith, no, the Hells that had made him suffer for ten thousand years, KangWoo tried to regulate the time inside the dimensional rift.

'It isn't easy.'

Controlling an absolute entity such as time was a difficult task, even for him.

KangWoo was trying to adjust the time settings to be as similar to the period when he fell into the Hells as possible.

'I'm okay with a difference of around 10 or 20 years.'

Because he was born an orphan, there wasn't a past he wanted to change or a future he wanted to go to.

He was okay as long as some of the Earth he remembered was still there.

* * *

"Ugh…!"

As he finished setting up the time, a strong force sucked him in.

KangWoo closed his eyes as he was pulled by a force he couldn't resist.

- A crack in the nucleus has been detected.

- Activating the Dimensional Defense Mechanism 'Gaia System.'

- Fail. Fail.

- The strength that the crack in the nucleus has is too strong.

- All interdimensional defense mechanisms are focused on the crack in the nucleus. The Gaia system enters an overloaded state.

- Fail. Fail.

- The crack in the nucleus is too strong. It's impossible to eliminate. Trying to seal it.

- It's impossible to eliminate. Starting seal process.

- Fail. Fail.

- The crack in the nucleus is too strong. It's impossible to seal completely.

- Applying a limiting seal on the intruder.

'What is it saying?'

KangWoo frowned while hearing a voice in his ears.

But his thoughts didn't last long.

'Ah…'

He lost consciousness while he felt that the world was being distorted.

* * *

"Ugh…!"

He felt an intense pain weighing on his body.

He was struggling to even move a finger.

After coming back to his senses, KangWoo opened his eyes while groaning.

'Where am I?'

The first thing he saw was a dense forest.

The light shining through the thick bushes tickled KangWoo’s cheecks.

"Oof…"

KangWoo stood up while taking a deep breath. The pain that was spreading through his body made him feel dizzy.

'First I need to check my status.'

He needed to know what had happened to his body.

[Opening the Status Window.]

"Eh?"

As he thought he should check out his current status, a blue window opened in front of his eyes.

KangWoo frowned after something unexpected happened. He looked at the blue status window in front of him.

[Status Window]

Player: Oh KangWooLevel: 1 [1st Awakening]

st Awakening Attribute: Authority of Predation (Rank: ???) * Most of the characteristics of the Authority are sealed.

Strength: 8

Agility: 9

Vitality: 7

Magic Power: 0

Demonic Energy (Unique Stat): 12

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 7

"What's this…?"

It was a status window that reminded him of the games he used to play a long time ago before falling into the Hells.

KangWoo frowned at the phenomenon he couldn't get a grasp on.

'Most of the strength of Predation has been sealed?'

Authority of Predation…

It was the only strength he had when he’d fallen into the Hells, and it was also the power that made him the ruler of the Hell of Nine Skies.

His 'Ten Thousand Demon Core,' which you could say was the entirety of his strength, was sleeping inside the Authority.

The moment he read that the strength he had accumulated for ten thousand years had been sealed, he started to feel anxious.

"Oof."

KangWoo took a deep breath and tried to calm down.

Being anxious because something unexpected happened would make things worse.

'Calm down.'

The most important thing was checking out his current status.

KangWoo tried to bring out the strength of his 'Ten Thousand Demon Core,' which had the demonic energy of hundreds of thousands of demons.

'It isn't moving.'

More precisely, he could only move a tiny bit of his demonic energy at his own will.

—An amount of demonic energy that was almost nothing compared to the limitless amount of demonic energy he had in the 'Ten Thousand Demon Core.'

"I'm probably going to have trouble using my Authority," KangWoo said while frowning.

Among demons, a few others had a special Authority similar to his 'Predation.'

Among the hundred thousand demons he had devoured, only 666 had a special Authority.

Except for the ones the seven archdukes used to have, he could use the rest.

Each Authority had a different demonic energy requirement, but to be able to use an Authority, you needed quite a lot of demonic energy.

With the amount of demonic energy he currently had access to, there were more Authorities he couldn't use than ones he could.

'With my current demonic energy, I'll probably even struggle with the Authority of the Blade.'

The demon Sabnak used to have the 'Authority of the Blade.'

It was an Authority that allowed you to pull out from your body a blade made of demonic energy.

'But it isn't a good Authority.'

With enough demonic energy, there were ways in which he could use the Authority of the Blade effectively, but with his current level of demonic energy, that was something hard to do.

KangWoo focused on his left hand and used the Authority of the Blade.

He opened his left hand, and a sharp blade that emitted a dark light came out of it.

He felt the demonic energy he had inside him leaving his body.

'It's hard getting used to it.'

It was hard going from having unlimited demonic energy to being limited. Now he couldn't freely use the Authorities he had access to as he had done before.

"Anyway, it seems like what this status window says is true…"

He didn't know why his Authority had been sealed, but it was true that he couldn't use all the demonic energy he had stored inside the 'Ten Thousand Demon Core.'

That meant that the 'status window' in front of him showed exactly his current state.

"Am I really inside a game…?"

At that point, the thought of whether it was really Earth started making KangWoo feel a bit anxious.

"Kiik, kiik!"

He suddenly heard an unpleasant sound similar to the one made by scratching an iron.

KangWoo turned his head around in the direction of the sound.

"Dammit."

He angrily frowned upon finding out who had made such an unpleasant sound.

—It was a creature with green skin and sharp teeth that barely reached his chest.

It was as ugly as one of the monsters that roamed around 1st Hell.

On the Earth that he knew, there weren't monsters like that one.

"Isn't this Earth…?" KangWoo murmured in a desperate tone.

He couldn't even let out a fake laugh at the thought that the place he had come to after ten thousand years of suffering may not have been Earth.

"Kiieekk!!"

Upon seeing KangWoo, the green monsters charged toward him.