Chapter 297 - Lost Octopus (4)

"See, Lady Lilith?! He admitted himself that he's Satan!" Lucis shouted energetically.

The demon king had died, so in his perspective, it was as if the lover of his crush had died. Lucis would obviously think of it as a chance of his lifetime. Consoling Lilith, who was in a sense of loss due to the demon king's death and Satan's deception, would drastically raise his chances that love would bloom between them.

"Shut up! The demon king is Satan? That is complete nonsense!!" Lilith screamed.

She glared at Lucis, and her green tentacles explosively expanded. She was instantly freed from the darkness restraining her, and the tears flowing down her cheeks had disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place.

Kang-Woo lowered his head and narrowed his eyes. The tears flowing down his cheeks had also completely disappeared.

'I knew it.'

Kang-Woo sighed and got up. With that, everything had become clear.

"Haaa," Kang-Woo sighed and slowly walked forward.

"Kuh!"

Lucis blocked his path.

Crackle!

Black lightning poured out from the end of his spear.

"Stop right th—"

Kang-Woo launched forward before Lucis could even finish his sentence. He was so fast that it looked as if his body had extended in a long line.

Wham!!

"Kurgghhh!!"

Kang-Woo punched Lucis right in the face, sending him flying without even giving him a chance to use the spear covered in dancing black lightning.

"Cough! Cough!"

Lucis helplessly rolled across the ground before quickly standing again.

"Shit!"

He extended both arms forward, and a black sphere crackling with lightning gathered in both of his hands.

"I will protect…"

His eight wings spread wide open.

Rumble.

The entire space filled with darkness shook.

"… Lady Lilith!!" Lucis said in a tone filled with powerful will.

From the way he was speaking, it almost seemed as if he were a protagonist trying to save the captured heroine.

What should be coming out of Kang-Woo's mouth was coming from Lucis instead.

"Bullshit." Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and slowly raised his hand.

He exerted perfect control over the Ten Thousand Demon Core's demonic energy after molting five times while risking his life and sleeping with Han Seol-Ah.

"Inferno," he said.

The Authority of Blaze of the Prince of Greed, Mammon, merged with the Authority of Blades.

FWOOSH!!

A sword burning with yellow flames appeared in Kang-Woo's hand.

"Wh-What the—" Lucis's expression hardened.

He could feel an immense heat emanating from the yellow sword. The heat was so intense that it seemed to be distorting the space around it.

"That's…"

His eyes widened. Lucifer had told him about the different Authorities possessed by the princes of Hell to the point that Lucis was sick of it. Among them was the Prince of Greed, Mammon. Lucis had heard that, in terms of firepower, Mammon could overpower even the high-ranking princes of Hell.

"Why… why would you have Mammon's…"

He couldn't understand it. A prince's Authority was their own unique power, and not even the almighty demon king could control them, but…

"Wh-What? How…"

Lucis was looking at the yellow sword burning in Kang-Woo's hand. He couldn't breathe. Although he was dozens of meters away, his skin was burning.

"Satan, h-how are you able to use the Authority of Blaze?!" Lucis cried out.

Kang-Woo smirked and gripped Inferno tighter.

"It isn't just the Authority of Blaze."

"… What?" Lucis asked back while narrowing his eyes at the absurdity.

"I wouldn't be able to keep such a neat shape with just the Authority of Blaze. It's absolute trash in terms of the amount of demonic energy it guzzles."

Kang-Woo looked at Inferno in satisfaction.

Thanks to his improved control over demonic energy, he was able to perfectly merge the Authorities of the princes with other regular Authorities.

It was something he couldn't have even imagined when he was still in the Nine Hells. He recalled molting several times to be able to use the Authorities of the princes of Hell.

'I guess I really have gotten stronger.'

He had not felt it since it had been a while since he had fought at full power, but facing Lucis allowed him to feel the overwhelming difference between them.

'I'm not sure how he managed to get stronger, though.'

Lucis's eight wings were not for decoration. Kang-Woo wasn't sure what sorts of trials he'd gone through, but he'd most certainly become stronger. But of course, Lucis was still several levels weaker than Raphael and Uriel. He was only about as strong as Belphegor, one of the weaker princes of Hell.

Still, considering how long Belphegor had ruled in the Ninth Hell, Lucis's growth was impressive.

Kang-Woo slowly walked toward Lucis with Inferno in his hand.

Lucis desperately shot black spheres at Kang-Woo. If they were not in a dimensional crack right now, the barrage of attacks would have leveled the entire area in a radius several hundred meters wide.

'I can't believe it feels so trivial.'

Kang-Woo had still been able to face Belphegor on his own during his days in the Ninth Hell, but it had been nowhere near as simple.

'It feels like… I'm fighting a little kid.'

He had never imagined a day would come when he would be able to overpower an absolute being like a prince of Hell.

His heart beat faster, and his blood was boiling.

The primal instinct of all animals to get stronger brought him intense pleasure. Kang-Woo smirked. The feeling of omnipotence… the unending thrill of having the entire world under his foot fired him up.

"Twilight."

Just like Uriel, he spoke and materialized an image in his head. It was of a giant blaze engulfing the world whole. In the past, it would've just been imagination, but he could tell that he had now earned the 'freedom' to make that imagination a reality.

Whoosh.

He lightly swung Inferno. He had not used any martial art techniques like Kim Si-Hun. It had simply just been a haphazard slash.

FWOOSH!!!

The compressed flames tore apart space itself along the trajectory of the swing. A yellow crack was formed in the air as if space itself had been injured, and an enormous amount of flames spewed out of it.

The flames devoured the hundreds of black spheres being shot at Kang-Woo, and they began to burn the dimensional crack itself.

As if the sun were setting over the horizon, the world was dyed in twilight.

"Gaaaaahh!!" Lucis screamed.

The flames filled the space with an unbearable heat that made it feel as if the entire world were burning.

Riiing.

[You have learned 'Twilight,' a derivative skill of 'Inferno.']

[Your proficiency in 'Inferno' has reached its maximum limit.]

[Raising the rank of 'Inferno' from SS to SS+.]

'Oh, what's this now?'

It was an unexpected harvest. His irritation from having been trolled by a brat died down a little.

"Kuh! Kurgh!"

Lucis was rolling on the ground as his skin was burning.

'He'll die at this rate.'

Kang-Woo dismissed Inferno. It didn't matter to him if Lucis died or not, but he still had things he wanted to ask him. He walked toward Lucis, who was huddled up on the ground. Almost half of him had turned into ash after being directly hit by Inferno.

"Tsk."

Kang-Woo used the Authority of Blades to cut his finger and make himself bleed. He then let the blood flow into Lucis's mouth to treat Lucis's destroyed body with the Authority of Regeneration.

The singed areas bubbled up and his body was restored.

"My king!"

Lilith ran toward him while shedding tears. She wrapped Kang-Woo in her tentacles and smiled brightly.

"I knew you would come to save m—"

"Lilith," he said in a low voice.

Lilith, sensing his rage, flinched.

"Yes? Wh-What is the matter, my king?"

He glared at her, his mouth shut tight.

Lilith gradually averted her eyes from his gaze.

"Why did you do that?" he asked while biting his lip.

"I am not quite sure what you m—"

"Why… did you do that?" Kang-Woo reached out and grabbed her shoulders. His hands were trembling.

"…"

"That brat has certainly become incomparably stronger than before. I'm sure you wouldn't have stood a chance against him in a head-on battle since he's become almost as strong as a prince of Hell."

Lilith's combat prowess was nothing special. Saying it bluntly, she was weak. If she were up against Shalgiel, she would just barely come out victorious after a fierce battle. It was impossible for her to beat Lucis, who had become as powerful as a prince of Hell.

"But"—Kang-Woo glared at her fiercely—"you could've escaped."

"…"

She was capable of running from even Asmodeus, so there was no way she couldn't have been able to run from an immature brat drunk on his own power.

"…"

"…"

There was a moment of heavy silence. Lilith, her head lowered, shed tears.

"But…" She slowly raised her head as she wept. "You… have never smiled like that at me."

"… What?"

"For the hundreds of years that I've been devoted only to you… after everything that I have done only while thinking of you…!" Lilith shouted. "Not once… not even once… have you smiled at me like the way you do at Seol-Ah."

"…"

Kang-Woo's mouth fell open.

'What kind of shitty melodrama is this?'

He felt as if he'd become the protagonist of a morning TV drama. He was surging with rage from the thought that she had willingly been captured by the enemy for a reason like that.

Lilith was lucky that it had been Lucis. If it had been someone like Asmodeus, she would never have been able to come back to Kang-Woo. It had been far too reckless of her. No, leaving everything aside, her actions had crossed the line.

"What the f—"

"Sniff… Sniff."

His aggressive curse was cut off. He could tell from Lilith's trembling shoulders how afraid she was right now.

"…"

Lilith was not an idiot. She knew how dangerous her actions had been and that she had crossed the line, but the reason she had willingly surrendered to Lucis to get Kang-Woo's love and attention had to have been because she had been that desperate.

"You… have never smiled like that to me," Lilith's voice echoed in his mind.

Kang-Woo closed his eyes.

It was fine even if it was a cheap melodrama or a morning TV drama. He still tried his best to understand Lilith's childish and cringey line.

The man whom she had loved for hundreds of years and pledged vows of love with, albeit for political reasons, had suddenly accepted someone else as his lover. Despite that, she understood and loved him. She had even given the woman who had taken her place as his lover advice on what would make him happy.

She had also taken on an ungodly amount of work to be of help to him and taken on all the annoying and difficult work that he didn't want to do. Despite all that, he still did not give her even an ounce of interest and only paid attention to his new lover. Not only had he been having an affair right in front of her, but he was even rubbing salt into her wounds.

'Oh, fuck.' Kang-Woo's eyes widened. 'I'm a fucking scumbag.'

Forget the kidnapping scheme; he would have literally nothing to say even if she were to stab him in the stomach multiple times with a kitchen knife.

Of course, Lilith was also to blame for not believing him when he had clearly said hundreds of times that her human form was more beautiful, but it was understandable when he considered her position. No one would believe it when someone told them that they looked hideous and the form that they considered to be worse than a cockroach was way more beautiful.

Even a person who had been told they were beautiful for merely decades would say that was nonsense, but Lilith had been around demons who told her that she was beautiful for hundreds of thousands of years. It would obviously be hard to believe even if the man she loved said it.

"I didn't hope for much." Lilith made a sad smile and grabbed Kang-Woo's hands, which were placed on her shoulders.

"…"

"Just once… even for a moment…" Her tears poured down her cheeks and dropped on the back of Kang-Woo's hands. "I want you to smile at me like you do at Seol-Ah."

"…"

Kang-Woo kept his mouth shut. He had wanted to question her about this incident, but he couldn't bring himself to after thinking about her circumstances. Rather, he felt as if he was to blame.

'But still…'

He felt that he should say this, at the very least.

"Just"—he embraced Lilith—"don't ever…"

His hands were trembling. He recalled the unbearable feelings that he had felt when he first heard that she had disappeared.

"Do anything like this again."

"Ah…" A short exclamation left Lilith's mouth.

She could feel from his trembling hands how much he had been worried about her.

"I-I apologize. I just…" Lilith squirmed.

Only now had it dawned on her what she had done. She had basically betrayed the king whom she loved more than anything.

"I know," Kang-Woo said.

He stroked Lilith's head. His hands were covered in sticky mucus, but at this moment, he couldn't care less about the hideous tentacles and the pus. Thinking about everything he had done to her so far, it was not even worth considering.

Kang-Woo grabbed Lilith's cheeks and lifted her head. He made a bright smile.

"A-Aaaahh." Lilith trembled.

The smile she had yearned for so much was being directed at her. Shivers spread through her entire body.

"My king… My king… Sniff."

Her surging passion caused her to put more strength into the tentacles embracing Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo watched her cry in silence.

He was overwhelmed by the guilt of not giving her something so simple as a smile, which had driven her to such desperation. Her hideous appearance was nothing but an excuse. In terms of appearance, Kang-Woo looked like a fish to her, but she had loved him devotedly for hundreds of years despite it.

'I just… never tried to understand her even once.'

He had never cared about how she felt when she looked at him and how much she loved him. He had never once looked at the woman named Lilith beneath the hideous appearance.

"Lilith."

Kang-Woo took a deep breath. To be honest, he still found the stench disgusting, and the tentacles covering her body were as hideous as ever. But… that was not all there was to her.

"Ah…"

He grabbed Lilith's chin. Her eighteen eyes widened, and she trembled. Kang-Woo slowly tilted his head. For the first time in hundreds of years, without being forced in any way, he kissed her first.