After Ten Millennia in Hell

Side Story Chapter 139 - Thousand-Year War (12)

“What the...?”

The black mucus splattered all over the ground gathered. It then split, revealing yellow eyes.

“He’s... alive?”

Lucifer stepped backward, unable to understand. A demon’s regenerative capabilities far surpassed those of other lifeforms. A prince of Hell could regenerate their limbs in a few minutes. However, not even a prince of Hell could survive after their heads exploded.

“Argh!! Gahh!!! AAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

Just then, Lucifer heard screams. He turned to the source of the sound and saw Belphegor writhing in pain on the ground.

“Wh-What the hell?!! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?!!”

Mouths the size of fingernails appeared from the black mucus that had splattered on Belphegor’s arm after he destroyed the human’s head and feasted on Belphegor’s flesh.

“GET OFF!! GET THE FUCK OFF!!!”

Belphegor used Sloth to tear off the mouths devouring his arm but the mouths were stuck to his skin by the sharp teeth; not even a Hell Armament could scratch them out. Rather, the mouths began to bite into Belphegor’s arm even more ferociously.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAACCCKKK!!!”

Belphegor struggled as the extreme pain shooting from his arm spread throughout his body. He transformed Sloth into a knife, stuck it into his armpit, and cut off his arm.

“Huff, huff, huff!!!”

The excruciating pain vanished only after he severed his arm. The pain of severing his arm remained but it was nothing compared to the pain of getting devoured by those mouths.

“What in the...”

Lucifer turned around in shock.

Splat, splat.

The human, whose head was back to normal before they realized it, slowly walked toward them, viscous fluid splashing with each step.

“Kuh!”

Lucifer spread his eight wings wide and extended his arms.

Whoooom!!

Black spheres the size of basketballs appeared around him. The black hole spheres that sucked and pulverized everything in its path fired at the human.

Crack—!!!

The human was ground up inside the black hole.

Wriggle.

“No way...!”

However, the pieces of the human’s flesh wriggled and gathered again. The human regained his original shape in a matter of seconds.

“Puhihi!! What about this?!”

Mammon also attacked with the Authority of Blaze. Flames that could devour the world alive burned the human.

“Puhi! However persistent your regenerative powers are, you won’t be able to regenerate if there’s nothing left of you!” Mammon laughed as his fat jiggled. “Puhihi! That was a rather tenacious human.”

He couldn’t believe a human could come back completely fine even after getting their head blown off and their body pulverized. No, such a creature couldn’t even be called human.

“Mammon...”

Lucifer raised his hand in pallor.

“Puhi?”

“Behind you...”

“What’s behind m—”

Split.

A mouth opened unnaturally wide and bit off a large part of Mammon’s fatty right nape.

“GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!!!” Mammon screeched with his eyes rolled back.

Pain so excruciating that he had never felt before spread from his right nape throughout his body.

“GYAAAAHHH!! IT HURTS!! IT HUUUUUUUURTS!!!”

It was so bad that his mind went blank; he had no leeway to consider his reputation or pride as a prince of Hell.

“P-Prince Mammon!!!”

Mammon’s retainers who had been standing by quickly ran to him and tried to pull off the mouth biting into Mammon’s nape.

Crunch—!!

“ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!”

“M-MY AAAAAAAAAAAAARMMM!!!”

The black mucus on Mammon’s nape bubbled up and produced more mouths, making it look like a giant slime with mouths all over it. The retainers who tried to pull off the black mucus from Mammon were also eaten.

“D-Don’t touch that monster!! Just cut off Mammon’s nape!!” shouted the panting Belphegor as he was clenching his severed stump.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!”

“KURGH!! ARGHHH!!!”

Mammon’s retainers carved out Mammon’s nape instead of trying to remove the black mucus directly.

Splat!

Despite cutting out a considerably large portion of flesh, Mammon’s neck was not severed thanks to how much fat tissue he had.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!” Mammon panted heavily as he clenched his nape spewing blood.

Belphegor was right. The moment the monster bit him, he was struck by pain so excruciating that it destroyed his thought process.

“Wh-What the hell is this thing?!”

Mammon stepped backward in pallor.

Wriggle.

The black mucus gathered to take human form again. Mammon was sure he had burned the human to the point that not even ashes remained but the human was still alive.

“Why... are you... so... surprised?” Oh Kang-Woo asked choppily. His yellow eyes gleamed as he stared at the princes of Hell. “You’re... the ones... who said... it.”

He smiled, the corners of his mouth reaching his earlobes like the kuchisake-onna, sharp teeth shining from between his lips. The princes of Hell were likely not aware of the folklore but they instinctively felt fear from seeing the human’s mouth splitting open horrifyingly.

“The only... right... the weak... possess is... to suffer.”

At this moment, the weak ones here were none other than the princes of Hell who ruled over the Ninth Hell.

“Now, then.”

If the weak only deserved to suffer, the strong had the right to relish in their suffering.

“Let’s... play.”

Wriggle—!

The black mucus splattered on the ground like ink and squirmed as it rose, turning into a black tidal wave. Countless hideous and abnormally split mouths appeared from the black wave engulfing everything in its path.

[A-Aaaahh.]

Red tongues covered in drool and teeth as sharp as those of beasts were floating in the black wave.

WRIGGLE—!!!

The black tsunami raged toward the princes of Hell.

“That’s...”

“...”

[...]

The princes of Hell exchanged glances with each other.

“R—” They all screamed in fear simultaneously, “RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!”

Belphegor jumped on Sloth after turning into its wheelchair form. Lucifer flew into the sky with his eight black wings. Satan melted into his shroud of darkness and ran away as if sliding on the ground.

“W-WAIT!!! D-DON’T LEAVE ME!!!”

As for Mammon, he ran as he frantically moved his fat-riddled legs. The destructive capability of his Authority was top-class even among the princes of Hell but his mobility was by far the worst among them. The speed at which he was running was slower than the black tsunami coming at him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

The tsunami reached right behind Mammon’s jiggling asscheeks. At this rate, he would be engulfed by the black wave—

“TH-THE PRINCE OF GREED COMMANDS YOU!!!” Mammon shouted at his retainers who were running alongside him. “S-STOP THAT MONSTER—!!!”

“P-Prince Mammon!!”

“N-No!! M-My body’s moving on its own!!”

“Arrrggghhhh!!!”

Crunch—!!!

Mammon’s subordinates suddenly turned around and threw themselves into the black wave. The sound of bones breaking and screams echoed. The wave slowed down slightly.

“Huff! Huff!”

Mammon chased after the princes who ran away ahead of him with all his might.

“Huh...?”

He managed to find them much easier than he had expected.

[N-No.]

“This can’t be...”

“Shit!!! Wh-What in the world is going on?!”

Satan, Belphegor, and Lucifer were in a panic, not moving an inch. Mammon soon found out why they were stopped.

“Where... are you... going?”

Inside a black tsunami so tall that it could cover the entire sky was a human— no, monster smiling with the corners of its mouth torn widely.

“Let’s... play a... little more.”

A black wave, covering kilometers of terrain, was closing in on the princes in a dome shape so they couldn’t run or fly away.

[Shit!!] Satan looked around in pallor but couldn’t find anywhere to run. [N-No—]

“A-Arghh.”

The moment the black tsunami riddled with mouths was about to engulf the princes, it stopped in its tracks.

“A-Aaahh. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

The monster inside the black mucus pulled on his hair as he writhed in agony.

[N-Now’s our chance!!]

The princes did not miss the opportunity and escaped from the part of the black wave that had yet to close.

“AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

They got further away from the roaring monster.

***

“Mmrghh...”

Balrog opened his eyes. He could still feel intense pain from his wounds that had not been healed yet. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Kurgh!” he grimaced as he stood up. “What in the...”

He looked around to see piles of demon corpses that had been torn apart by something sharp. He couldn’t tell because they were mangled so badly but they seemed to be the princes’ retainers.

“What in the world happened?”

Balrog remembered Kang-Woo declaring that he would become king but nothing after that. He thought he had faintly heard the princes’ screams.

‘Did that human... defeat the princes?’

He had no idea but it was possible. After all, the demonic energy inside that human far surpassed even that of the princes of Hell.

‘But he said he couldn’t control it.’

Balrog wondered if the human somehow found a way to control the demonic energy amidst the crisis. Balrog walked as he looked around.

“Gahh!! Urgh!!! Arrgghhh!!!”

He found Kang-Woo writhing in pain among the pile of countless demon corpses.

‘That... doesn’t seem to be the case.’

If the human had found a way to control the boundless demonic energy, he wouldn’t be in that state.

“A-Arrghhh!!!”

“...”

Kang-Woo was in a state so wretched that not even Balrog, who had lived through countless battlefields, could bear to look at him.

Crunch!! Split, crack!!

Kang-Woo’s skin split, his flesh and muscles contorted, and his bones broke. His eyeballs and intestines were squashed like a pulp and flowed out of him. Balrog was fine with seeing that but the issue was that the human was still alive in that wretched state.

“GAAAAAAAHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

His injuries went through a cycle of regeneration and destruction. To make a comparison, it was like turning a rubber doll inside out to carve out its insides, running it through a mixer, and gluing it back together. Kang-Woo's desperate screams sent chills down Balrog’s back.

“...”

Balrog picked up Kang-Woo in silence. He placed him inside a small cave in a rock wall that had formed from the battle and stood in front of the entrance. Kang-Woo’s screams echoed endlessly inside the cave.

“Ah...”

Something fell from the sky— something white and cold that didn’t match the burning red sky.

“Snow...”

Snow in Hell was extremely rare as well as highly lethal.

Sizzle—!

Snow in Hell contained acid so powerful that it could melt a demon’s flesh. Most demons hid in caves or some sort of shade to avoid snow whenever it fell.

“...”

Balrog blocked the entrance of the tiny cave with his five-meter stature. The flesh-melting snow piled on him.

Sizzle—!

Smoke rose as Balrog’s skin melted but it was alright— he wouldn’t die from something like this.

“AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!”

The screams inside the cave did not stop.

“You said you would become king, correct?”

Balrog recalled Kang-Woo’s declaration to the princes of Hell as he blocked the snowfall, which was getting heavier, with his body. He smiled.

‘If you will become king... then I, Balrog, will become your shield.’

The remnant who was unable to protect his master made a new vow— one that would not waver even in a wretched war that lasted a thousand years.

“Victory... to my king.”