After Ten Millennia in Hell

“Bael...” The collapsed Lucifer looked up at the boy with shaking eyes.

The boy known as Bael hummed as he smiled widely. “I’m surprised you’re still here. I thought you would’ve run away a long time ago.”

Lucifer remained silent.

He had thought about running away, but...

“I...”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You have to get your son back, right? That’s why you’re not moving from where the heart is.” The boy nodded as if he understood completely. “Hihi, you should’ve educated your son better. You sure are having a hard time because of a moronic son like that.”

“Shut... up.”

Lucifer glared at Bael as he bit his lip and gripped what remained of his arm that Bael ripped off with his mouth. Black blood was pouring out of the arm.

“Bael... What are you trying to do?”

“Hm?” Bael tilted his head innocently. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sure you know what this place is!”

“Hihi, of course I do. Why would I not when I went out of my way to corrupt the World Tree to find this place?”

“Then...!”

“You see...” Bael hummed and continued, “I’m just trying to take back what’s mine.”

“What?” Lucifer’s eyes widened. “Take back... what’s yours?”

“Yeah. This is...” Bael slowly pointed at the forest being consumed by the red sand. “All mine.”

Silence fell.

Lucifer stared at Bael as if he couldn’t understand.

‘What... is he talking about?’

If what Bael was talking about was what Lucifer was thinking of, then...

‘No, that’s impossible.’

Lucifer shook his head, trying to shoo away his horrifying thought.

“Man~ That aside, it sure has been a while, hasn’t it?”

Bael smiled as he stretched. Anyone else would be stupefied if they saw Bael’s pure and innocent smile, but Bael was simply smiling from a demon’s perspective.

“The war... Yeah, I’ve barely seen you since th—”

“Bael,” Lucifer interjected. “I will ask you again. Why... have you come to see me? What are you trying to do?”

“Hm? I just told you, didn’t I?”

“That absurd nonsense does not count as an answer!” Lucifer shouted fiercely.

“Hmm.” Bael clicked his tongue in disappointment and slowly raised his hand. A suffocatingly colossal amount of demonic energy flowed out from him. “Too bad. I wanted to chat a little more.”

“You...”

Lucifer’s expression hardened; he could easily tell what Bael was about to do.

“Kuh!”

Lucifer quickly got up and extended his remaining hand at Bael, shooting black lightning at him.

“Heh.” Bael smiled and swallowed his saliva.

Crackle—!!

Bael lightly waved his hand. Black sparks flew around him and easily deflected Lucifer’s attack.

“You’ve changed quite a lot from before,” Bael remarked as he smiled widely.

He lightly charged forward, disappearing as if he had assimilated with nature.

Grip!

“Gasp.”

Bael appeared in front of Lucifer and grabbed his head before Lucifer had even realized it.

“I wonder if it’s because of your Deific Essence? You look more... yes, far more...” Bael’s mouth widened like a snake preparing to swallow its prey. He continued, “Delicious.”

Crunch!

“Kurgh!”

Lucifer quickly jumped back, Bael’s mouth just barely grazing his shoulder. The protection made from his Top-rank Deific Essence was made obsolete, and a large lump of flesh was torn off.

“Baaaaaaaaael!” Lucifer shouted as he stomped his feet.

He spread his black wings that looked like those of a fallen angel; unlike before, he now possessed twelve wings, black lightning crackling between them.

“Hihi.” Bael giggled as he stared at the storm of lightning. He hummed and spread out his arms. “Like I had thought, you’ve become more delicious.”

Bael’s body split from head to groin and countless teeth sprouted from in between. The black lightning vanished before it could even reach Bael.

‘No.’ Lucifer shook his head in pallor. It had not vanished. ‘It was... eaten.’

Lucifer’s mind fell into chaos. The question of how echoed within his head over and over again.

‘Where did he get such power?’

Lucifer stared at Bael in astonishment. Bael had always been powerful. No, that was not the right word to describe him.

‘He was special.’

Bael was a completely different being from normal demons. Demons were born with power; some demons were destined to be princes of Hell, others were destined to be archdemons, and so on. There were some minute differences as they grew, but none of them were able to escape from the destiny given to them.

‘But...’

Bael was different. To be more exact, those two were different. Both Bael and the Demon King started from the First Hell and managed to reach the Ninth Hell, a feat that no demon had managed to pull off.

‘Though it can’t be called a miracle anymore.’

The thought that demons could not grow beyond the power they were born with was now outdated; even Lucifer had far surpassed his past self. It was thanks to Deific Essence, which allowed demons to overcome their innate limits.

‘But even so...’

Lucifer bit his lip. Even though Bael had acquired Deific Essence like himself, this much of a gap in their strength was unreal.

“How did you... become so powerful?” Lucifer asked.

“Hm?” Bael smiled and boasted like a child giving away the answer for a riddle, “Because I managed to get my hands on one of the three, obviously.”

“What?”

Lucifer remained silent. He was easily able to figure out what Bael was referring to.

“You...” Lucifer stared at Bael incomprehensibly. “... Ate a Demonic Origin.”

The Demonic Origin was a portion of the Demon God’s corpse, which had been split into three after he had fallen at the hands of the gods.

“Hihihi! They belonged to me from the very beginning!”

Bael burst into laughter as he grabbed his stomach. Seeing that, Lucifer finally realized why Bael had come to see him and what he was trying to do.

“Hah,” Lucifer feigned laughter. “Are you perhaps... trying to devour the Demon King?”

“Huh? How did you know?” Bael stared at Lucifer wide-eyed as if he was genuinely surprised.

“Pfft!” Lucifer lowered his head and burst into laughter. “Bwahahahahaha!! You’re going to devour the Demon King? That monster?” He looked at Bael as if mocking him and remarked firmly, “Have you forgotten, Bael? About who he is and what happened to us in the war against him? About how logic-defying that monster born from the Demonic Sea is? You say you’ll devour the Demon King? Don’t make me laugh, Bael. That monster... is not someone you can handle. No, none of us can. He is... a living apocalypse.”

The expression of the giggling Bael suddenly hardened. “I... can’t handle him, you say?”

The pure and innocent face of the boy crumpled. Bael grabbed Lucifer by the collar.

“Me? Me?! ME?!!” Bael yelled madly as he tightened his grip on Lucifer’s collar. “I... can’t... handle him, you say?!”

“Kurgh! Urgh...” Lucifer grunted as immense power weighed down on him.

“Say that again, Lucifer. Try saying that again. Huh?” Bael asked as he brought his torn mouth closer to Lucifer.

Lucifer adjusted his neck position to breathe and said firmly without hesitation, “Yeah. You... can’t handle the Demon King.”

Bael’s expression hardened even more as Lucifer was still being firm even in this situation. He then tilted his head as if could not understand.

“Why? I’ve become far stronger than before.”

“So what?”

“Man, I sure was fooled by him at the time. How could I not have when he begged me to accept him as my underling as he crawled around and even licked my feet?”

“So what?”

“He caught me off guard that time, but it’s different now. It’s my turn this time, okay? Do you understand?”

“So what?” Lucifer chuckled nonsensically and asked in genuine incomprehension, “What does any of that matter?”

“...”

“You know just as well as me, don’t you, Bael? Did you not see him with your own eyes in your final battle against him? You cannot kill that monster. There is no way that you can. As long as he possesses the Demonic Sea... He will not die, no matter what you do to him.”

“In that case—”

“In that case, what? That monster has survived even after being torn apart by the dimensional wall. He has come back alive after being driven to death thousands of times!” Lucifer trembled as if he did not even want to imagine it and bit his lip. “You... cannot handle that monster.”

Emotion vanished from Bael’s face. “Heh.”

Bael smiled once again and his eyes filled with madness returned to their blank state.

“We’ll see... if I really can’t handle him.”

Bael giggled as if something had broken inside him. Hearing that laugh sent shivers down Lucifer’s spine.

‘This is bad.’

Bael was not normal at the moment. It was not hard to tell what would happen to Lucifer if he stayed captured by Bael.

‘I have to run.’

Lucifer’s eyes shone as he bit his lip. He could not afford to die here.

‘Lucis...’

Lucifer closed his eyes and spread his twelve wings at once.

Crackle—!!

An immense lightning storm raged.

‘As long as I can get away from this crazy bastard’s grasp...’

There was no other being that was of any threat to him. He was sure that he would be able to find his son, who had fallen to Lilith’s temptations, one day.

“Huh?” Bael expressed confusion as he came to his senses after thinking deeply about something. “Where are you going?”

He frowned and grabbed one of Lucifer’s wings.

‘Now!’

Lucifer closed his eyes and twisted his body. The wing that Bael had grabbed was ripped off entirely.

“Gaaaaaaaahhh!”

Immense pain stormed within him, but he could not afford to waste the opportunity he had barely managed to acquire.

Boom!

Lucifer quickly leaped forward and flapped his wings to fly forward without even getting a chance to get a hold of himself. Then...

Slam!

“The hell?”

“K-Kang-Woo! Are you alright?!”

Lucifer bumped into someone as he was flying straight forward.

“Kurgh!” Lucifer was blown backward.

‘What was that?’

Whether it be trees, rocks, or monsters, there was no way that anything would be able to stop his full-power charge.

‘Who the hell...’

Lucifer looked up as he grimaced.

“A-Aaaahh.” Unending despair entered his eyes. “N-No...” He stepped back as he trembled and screamed desperately, “NOOOOOOOO!!!”

“Lucifer?”

The Demon King was right in front of him.

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