The Demon Abyss
Yoon Sang-hyuk sat back in his chair in a relaxed sprawl, watching Creatin and Arnin dance around each other with absurd energy.
Every time they moved, the forces around them seemed to move with them. They were trading sharp attacks with weapons in hand, but rather than a sparring match or a duel, it felt more like a performance of whirling steps and flashing blades.
"Wow, the skeleton turned into a Death Knight in one shot."
As Ibrahmut spoke, he felt the murderous look turned on him and let out an awkward laugh.
"Ah, haha. I wasn't saying that for Valender hyung-nim's ears. I'm just saying, that's all. Sang-hyuk hyung-nim, I honestly don't have anything to say except that you're amazing."
Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled with obvious satisfaction.
The Beolmo-se-su he had attempted with more than a little challenge had succeeded perfectly. No, the result was even better than he had expected in the first place.
Creatin and Arnin, having finished their match, approached and bowed their heads.
"The sparring is finished."
There was no need to report every little thing. But after the procedure, the two of them treated Yoon Sang-hyuk as though he were some god seated before them. To them, Yoon Sang-hyuk was a greater being than Baal, the ruler of the Demon Realm.
"When you go back, are you going to challenge the seat of a Demon Lord?"
"I don't think we'll do it right away."
"And why not?"
Arnin hesitated for a moment at Yoon Sang-hyuk's question, then answered.
"If we challenge a Demon Lord's seat right now, then we would probably have to challenge people who are connected to you, Sang-hyuk-nim. We plan to wait until they rise higher in rank."
It was a consideration meant for Yoon Sang-hyuk's sake, in their own way. Yoon Sang-hyuk wore a teasing expression.
"If you didn't wait and challenged them right now, are you confident you could beat them?"
Creatin and Arnin smiled meaningfully. It was an expression of confidence in their own current strength.
"Oh? That's pretty arrogant of you. Those brothers aren't likely to be as easy as you think."
"We don't know exactly how strong they are. We only know that, right now, we feel confident we could beat anyone."
"Belief in yourself is important. But remember that too much confidence always brings trouble."
"Yes, Sang-hyuk-nim."
Even as Yoon Sang-hyuk saw it, Creatin and Arnin had already surpassed Zephyr and his brothers by a wide margin. They had staked their lives on becoming stronger, and in the end, they had gained that strength. If Zephyr and his two brothers fought these two right now, the pair before him would win overwhelmingly.
It was power he had granted them himself, so he knew exactly how much it was worth.
The Zephyr brothers were not weak. These two had simply become too strong. In truth, from Yoon Sang-hyuk's perspective, the Zephyr brothers, Jerome excluded, had acquired their strength a little too comfortably. And strength gained too easily always came with limits.
"We won't be the ones to drag them down from their seats as Demon Lords."
"That's up to you. All right, let's set out again. The destination is right in front of us."
* * *
There was nothing around them but darkness.
And yet, strangely enough, it was not difficult to make out the objects nearby. Walking through the pure dark energy that filled the world, Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a note of admiration.
"I honestly didn't expect it to be this much."
At last, the group had entered the Abyss of the Void. Just from the name, he had expected a huge cavern or a hole bored deep into the earth, but reality was very different.
Like any other place in the Demon Realm, they had been walking across a vast wasteland when, all at once, they felt as though they had crossed some boundary and found themselves inside the Abyss of the Void. The moment they crossed that threshold, they understood naturally that this was the interior of the Abyss of the Void.
No ground, no sky, only the pure flow of dark energy. If this was not the Abyss of the Void, what place in the world could possibly be?
"Can you even tell where anything is? Hyung-nim, is it actually possible to find anyone in here?"
"How would I know something you don't? If we just keep walking like this, won't Satan come to us on his own?"
"Aren't you trying to take the easy way out a little too much?"
"Please, I'd love it if the situation were easy enough for that to be possible."
In a place filled with nothing but dark energy, it was hard not to wonder whether they could find anyone at all. All they could do was walk without a destination and hope that, eventually, they would meet him.
"So there is something even hyung-nim can't do."
"This isn't a matter of me being unable to do it. Even if a god from the Celestial Realm came here, it would be the same."
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a snort as he spoke.
For someone who could now even cut down gods, those were strange words to be saying.
"I thought hyung-nim could do anything."
Yoon Sang-hyuk, still smiling faintly, let the smile fade.
"Anything?"
He repeated Ibrahmut's words and looked around. Then he simply sat down where he was.
"Yeah. Anything. Nothing is more foolish than thinking something can't be done before you've even tried."
It was what he always said to the members of the Masked Mercenary Group.
- Why are you giving up without even trying?
"Might as well try it, I suppose."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"I didn't say anything."
Yoon Sang-hyuk closed his eyes and gave himself over to the surrounding energy. He had been feeling the pure dark energy radiating from the Abyss of the Void for quite some time, so it was not strange at all.
He let his consciousness sink into the dark energy. It spread slowly, like ink dropped into water. If there were any living beings or structures, the ripple of his awareness would reveal them.
His consciousness spread farther and farther out. But he still felt nothing.
Just when he could no longer even tell how much time had passed, Yoon Sang-hyuk cut off the flow of his awareness.
"Is it difficult?"
At Valender von Graus's question, Yoon Sang-hyuk opened his eyes and answered with a deep sigh instead.
"Can't you think about it the other way around?"
"The other way? What do you mean?"
"We could keep trying to find Satan as though he's hiding here, but on the other hand, couldn't we make him come looking for us?"
"Satan comes looking for us? Ah! There was that way too."
Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a short exclamation of delight and closed his eyes again.
Once more, he sent his consciousness outward on the surrounding dark energy, pushing it far away. After extending it to the limit of what he could control, he whispered,
"Tell Satan that the Masked Lord has come."
* * *
Within the darkness, a darkness deeper than darkness opened its eyes. That darkness twisted. The darkness was laughing. It flashed sharply and spat out dark energy.
"...Who is it?"
Swish-
The darkness rippled, and the sound of metal being dragged across the ground echoed faintly.
"Baal?"
Within that darkness, the existence deeper than darkness spoke Baal's name.
"At this level of power, it can only be Baal. He's grown impressively. But for what reason has he come all the way to the Abyss of the Void?"
Satan, the being deeper than darkness, muttered to himself.
"But..."
The energy carried by the ripple felt a little strange. It was not pure dark energy. Very familiar forces were mixed in with it. He could feel the power of the gods who had fought a war with the Demon Realm over the fate of the Celestial Realm, and he could also feel the energy of the humans who had stood with those gods against the Demon Realm.
"Someone who possesses such pure dark energy also has divine power and human power together?"
Satan read the energy carried by the ripple with perfect accuracy.
"It isn't Baal. But that only makes it less sensible."
Who in the Demon Realm, if not Baal, could hold such power?
"A mutation?"
Satan murmured as he thought of the gods and divine beings he had captured during the war with the Celestial Realm that he himself had started. But he quickly shook his head in skepticism.
"Those energies can't be contained in a single body."
Even as he said it, he realized his own words made no logical sense. Hadn't he already confirmed that there was a being in this place who possessed all of them in one body?
This level of power was not something even he, in his prime before Baal stole his throne, had possessed.
"No, I still haven't obtained that kind of power, even after spending all those endless years here."
Satan's current strength had already long ago surpassed the level he had reached when he was first imprisoned in the Abyss of the Void. He simply had not acted on it. If he were to leave the Abyss of the Void and march on the Demon King's Castle right now, he was certain he could reclaim his former glory.
There was only one reason Satan did not leave the Abyss of the Void.
He wanted to see the ultimate end of what strength could become.
When he was first trapped in the Abyss of the Void, he had been able to see how pitiful he truly was. Even when his loyal subordinate Demon Lords, trapped there with him, were one by one disappearing into nothing, Satan had remained intoxicated by the pure power of dark energy. Before long, left alone, he had continued to hunger after that energy. In that way, he had kept growing stronger without ceasing.
He did not know how much time had passed since his imprisonment, nor how strong he had become. There was no point of comparison.
And yet someone had entered the Abyss of the Void, a place he had thought no one would ever come looking for.
"Who in the world is it?"
He could not find the answer, no matter how hard he thought about who could possess divine power, dark energy, and human energy all in one body.
Clatter-clatter-clatter-
Wrapped in chains so long that he could not tell where they began or ended, Satan rose to his feet.
For the first time since being imprisoned in the Abyss of the Void and making it his own domain, Satan took a step forward.
* * *
"He's coming."
"Who is coming? Don't tell me it's him?"
"Yes."
Ibrahmut shuddered.
Among the group, he was the only one who had seen Satan with his own eyes.
"But are you really going to fight him?"
"Of course. If not, why would we have come all the way here?"
Ibrahmut let out an awkward laugh, realizing even he thought it was a foolish question.
The Satan Ibrahmut knew was a terrifying existence, one whose very pressure alone was enough to inspire fear. The first time he had seen the Demon King Satan, he had thought of death. So he had followed every order without complaint. Before him, neither the pride of being the first balrog nor the honor of being the Lord of Flame mattered.
That was Satan.
"You're scared?"
"Scared? Who's scared? I'm Ibrahmut. The first balrog, the Lord of Flame, is me."
"Then are you scared or not?"
"Who's... "
Ibrahmut had been about to bark back, but he shut his mouth when he saw Yoon Sang-hyuk's grin.
"Hey. Do you know why little dogs bark like mad when they see a big dog? It's because they're scared. They're barking at it, begging it not to come near them. Right now you look exactly like a little dog barking at a big dog."
"Why do you have to compare me to a dog?"
"Because it's a fitting comparison."
Yoon Sang-hyuk draped an arm over Ibrahmut's shoulder.
"Don't be scared."
"I'm not scared..."
He tightened the arm around Ibrahmut's shoulder and pulled him closer.
"You've got me, don't you?"
"What does that mean?"
"I'm your hyung. The Masked Lord is your hyung. So don't be scared. Satan, Baal, the Chief God, whoever comes, don't be scared."
Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled brightly.
"You're my little brother."