Chapter 22: Demon Worshipers (1)

Rewinding a little…

Oh Kang-Woo had disguised himself as a sacrifice and infiltrated the Andras Guild.

'What a group of freaks.'

With narrowly opened eyes, Kang-Woo watched the Andras Guild members gathered around the altar. When Jo Deok-Hyun entered the room, the guild members started to praise him. There was no doubt that they seemed like a cult of religious fanatics.

'And…'

Kang-Woo could sense the state of their bodies.

A human body became more like that of a demon the more demonic energy one took in. Except for his mind, Kang-Woo's body was already more like a demon's than a human's.

'Although there's a difference in the percentage, it seems like they're all in the process of becoming Demonoids.'

Kang-Woo finally understood why they were acting so crazy. The body of a demon was constantly craving to fulfill its desires, similar to an animal constantly in heat. It had been long since Kang-Woo had become part demon, so he could control his desires, but that wasn't the case for these people. There probably wasn't anyone among them who was sane.

'How did they manage to accept demonic energy?'

Kang-Woo could safely absorb demonic energy thanks to his Authority of Predation. However, demonic energy was normally lethal for humans. If a human accepted demonic energy recklessly, it could invade their soul and body and break them down completely.

'I should wait for them to do the ritual first.'

Kang-Woo pretended he had lost consciousness and lay still on the altar as he watched the ritual take place.

"Prepare the mana stones."

"Yes, sir!"

At Deok-Hyun's command, a man opened the safe under the altar. There were thousands of mana stones inside the safe.

'What are they trying to do?'

Kang-Woo became more curious when the ritual started. Deok-Hyun hit the floor with a dark brown cane and began casting a spell. The mana inside the mana stones flew out, and a small Rift appeared in the air.

"…!" Kang-Woo trembled upon seeing the Rift.

Dense demonic energy started to flow out from it.

'What the hell?'

He was very used to the demonic energy flowing out of the Rift.

'How are they calling demonic energy from the Nine Hells?'

There was no way to know how they had opened a Rift with only the few clues he had.

Deok-Hyun directed the demonic energy coming from the Rift into Kang-Woo's body.

'Huh?'

As the demonic energy entered Kang-Woo, he naturally used the Authority of Predation and absorbed all of the demonic energy flowing into him.

Riiing.

[Demonic Energy has risen by 1.]

'Well, well.'

He hadn't expected such a jackpot. Kang-Woo kept absorbing the demonic energy coming to him from the Rift.

'Sweet.'

From the moment the Andras Guild members directed the demonic energy to flow into the sacrifice's body, Kang-Woo understood what they were trying to do. They were using the sacrifice to take the damage—the breakdown of the human soul and body that occurred when a human accepted demonic energy in its pure form.

'I'm not sure how they plan to absorb the demonic energy after that.'

Anyway, that wasn't important to him. Because to him, that demonic energy was like honey rather than poison.

Riiing.

Riiing.

Riiing.

As the ritual continued, Kang-Woo heard the clear sound of a bell repeatedly ringing in his ear.

'It just keeps rising!'

The amount of demonic energy that entered his body surpassed what he had absorbed after using Predation on a hundred Lizardmen.

With the demonic energy flowing into his body like an endless stream of water, the corners of Kang-Woo's mouth curled up.

"What's happening?"

Kang-Woo heard the confused voice of Deok-Hyun, who had finally realized that something was off.

"Why isn't it stopping?"

'Don't you dare stop,'

Kang-Woo thought.

"W-Wait."

'A little bit more.'

"S-Stop!!"

'Don't stop!'

"I said stop!"

'Just one more stat point!'

Deok-Hyun's urgent scream and Kang-Woo's internal scream intertwined.

Nevertheless, all good things come to an end. The mana stones maintaining the Rift lost all their mana, and the Rift naturally disappeared.

Putting aside his disappointment, Kang-Woo slowly stood up. He more or less understood what the ritual was, and now it was time to hear the details from Deok-Hyun.

"What? You can't do it again?" Kang-Woo asked.

"A-Aaahhh." Deok-Hyun trembled.

He was confused about why that young man was perfectly fine after taking in so much demonic energy. The only thing that Deok-Hyun was sure of was that, because of that young man, all of the mana stones he'd bought with the Andras Guild's entire fortune had gone down the drain. He hadn't been able to get anything in return even after using up so many mana stones.

"N-No," Deok-Hyun uttered.

All those mana stones he'd gathered by using the full force of the Andras Guild had been valuable resources that were supposed to let him break free from the cycle of life and grant him eternal life.

The Hwarang Corps had been on the lookout for the Andras Guild lately, so he wasn't sure how many more years it would take him to gather that many mana stones again.

"NOOOO!" Deok-Hyun's scream spread through the room.

He directed his angry gaze toward Kang-Woo. "YOOUU!!!"

Deok-Hyun pointed his cane at Kang-Woo, and a bullet made of demonic energy shot out from it. However, Kang-Woo easily dodged the demonic energy bullet.

Boom!

The demonic energy bullet hit the wall and exploded with a loud noise.

After seeing that, Kang-Woo looked at Deok-Hyun with great interest.

'Not bad.'

Was it because of the demonic energy or because of Deok-Hyun's power as a Player? Somehow, he kept shooting bullets made of demonic energy without rest.

Then, the demonic energy bullets that were shot toward Kang-Woo's front suddenly changed trajectory mid-flight and targeted his back instead.

'Authority of Invulnerability.'

Demonic energy poured out of Kang-Woo's body and enveloped him as if it were armor. With the demonic energy armor, Deok-Hyun's bullets simply ricocheted off Kang-Woo.

'It's definitely more comfortable now that I have more demonic energy.'

After getting his Third Awakening, he'd gained access to a huge amount of demonic energy. It was a huge achievement considering that it hadn't even been a week since he'd returned to Earth.

Kang-Woo circulated the demonic energy around his body in satisfaction.

"Y-You can use demonic energy?" Deok-Hyun asked in shock.

He was surprised to see the person that they'd brought in to use as a sacrifice control demonic energy so naturally.

That couldn't be happening. No, that definitely wasn't supposed to happen.

"Arghh!" Deok-Hyun uttered.

He waved his cane nervously and fired a large amount of demonic energy toward Kang-Woo.

Deok-Hyun turned and shouted to the other guild members, "What are you all doing?! Attack him!"

After hearing Deok-Hyun's command, each of the eight guild members took out their weapons and charged toward Kang-Woo.

Nevertheless, Kang-Woo smirked when he saw the Andras Guild members charging toward him.

'What can a bunch of guys who can't even use demonic energy do?'

There was no way they would be able to beat him.

Slam! Stomp!

"Argh!"

"Kurgh!"

Kang-Woo began to massacre the members of Andras Guild like a wolf who'd run into a flock of sheep. They tried to stab Kang-Woo with their weapons but failed because they couldn't pierce his demonic energy armor.

Kang-Woo's defense was impregnable, so he just had to concentrate on offense. He used the Authority of Invulnerability and the Authority of Blades simultaneously.

'This is taking a lot of demonic energy to maintain.'

Using two Authorities simultaneously was still a bit too much for him, even after the explosive rise in his demonic energy.

'I should try to end this as quickly as possible.'

While thinking that, Kang-Woo began moving. He had no issue fighting against multiple opponents simultaneously.

In the Nine Hells, he'd spent most of the time fighting alone before he met Balrog. So, he was more used to fighting against multiple opponents simultaneously than fighting one on one.

Smash! Slash!

"Argh! M-My arm!!"

"M-My leg!!"

Killing the opponent wasn't the most important thing when fighting against multiple opponents. It was better to deal enough damage to incapacitate them completely.

The agonized members of the Andras Guild lying on the floor would interfere with the movements of their allies, and that would give Kang-Woo the leeway to fight more comfortably.

Stab! Crush!

"ARRRGH!"

One of the members of the Andras Guild had targeted Kang-Woo's back. Kang-Woo stabbed him in the shoulder and twisted the blade. As he did that, the blade shattered the man's shoulder blade, and a horrible scream came out of his mouth.

'Four.'

Kang-Woo was able to beat half of the enemies before even three minutes had passed by. If things went on like that, all eight members of the Andras guild would soon be defeated.

At that moment, Deok-Hyun raised his voice and said, "Move! Useless idiots!"

The other four members moved back and looked at Deok-Hyun with hopeful eyes.

"He's finally going to use that."

"If it's the power of the guildmaster…"

Deok-Hyun walked to the front. "Take a look! This is the flame that burns life itself, the Authority of Hellfire!"

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Full of confidence, Deok-Hyun extended one arm, and a black flame that was the size of his palm appeared in his hand.

"Hah…" Kang-Woo let out a smirk. "You call that the Authority of Hellfire?"

'Nonsense…'

That wasn't hellfire that was created with an Authority. Hellfire that was created with an Authority felt more like a starving demon than just a hot flame. The hellfire that Deok-Hyun had produced looked similar to the real thing, but it was actually just a crude imitation.

"Hahaha. I'm not sure how you can use demonic energy, but you won't stand a chance against this Auth—"

Fwoosh!!

Before Deok-Hyun could finish his sentence, black flames appeared in Kang-Woo's hand. The writhing hellfire, which was bigger than a person's entire torso, emitted strong demonic energy. Comparatively, Deok-Hyun's flame, which was the size of his palm, looked pathetic.

"…Huh?" Deok-Hyun looked dumbfounded upon seeing the hellfire burning from Kang-Woo's hand.

'This can't be happening,'

Deok-Hyun thought.

It was then that he realized that something had gone wrong.