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Chapter 448 - You Don’t Control Me

Lilith recalled Kang-Woo’s screams. She could not think of a rebuttal to his words. Numbers were indeed meaningless against Bael; that had already been proven during the war to decide the supreme overlord of the Nine Hells in the past. She had made most of Bael’s forces betray him with her exceptional illusion magic, but it ended up being meaningless. That was the kind of being Bael was.

‘No one but Master Kang-Woo is a match for him.’

She knew all too well that Kim Si-Hun, Gaia, Balrog, or Han Seol-Ah would not be able to handle Bael. No, they would only become a nuisance for Kang-Woo.

‘In the end, there’s no other way to face Bael than for Master Kang-Woo to become stronger than him.’

There was just one way for Kang-Woo to get stronger: to eat without regard for good or evil, friend or foe.

‘That’s why...’

Lilith smiled sorrowfully and looked down at the shaking Kang-Woo in her arms. She couldn’t begin to imagine how cornered he must have felt and the weight crushing him.

‘Poor thing.’

Lilith hugged Kang-Woo tighter like he was a precious treasure.

“You’ll win,” she said.

“...”

“If you’re the Master Kang-Woo that I know, you’ll come out on top in the end.”

“That’s—”

“Yes, I know. Someone might die in the process. You might lose someone you cherish, like you had back in the Nine Hells. But...” Lilith smiled brightly. “I know you’ll be able to overcome it.”

“No. You’re wrong.”

Kang-Woo bit his lip. The dead did not return. There was no way to regain what one had lost. Victory meant nothing if everything he had disappeared as a result.

“I... don’t wanna lose anything else.”

Kang-Woo lowered his head and wept pitifully.

“Hohoho,” Lilith laughed with her mouth covered. She swept Kang-Woo’s hair back and kissed him. “I won’t say anything stupid like I’ll stay with you even in death, but I can at least tell you this.” She stared at Kang-Woo, her eyes willed with certainty. “Even if I were to die... I will be happy. As long as I’m with you... As long as I have the memories of the times I have spent with you, I’m sure that I can stay smiling even in the face of death.”

Kang-Woo’s eyes shook as he panted heavily. “No.”

Die with a smile? What kind of bullshit was that?

“Don’t you dare die without my permission.”

“Oh, my heart skipped a beat there.”

Lilith slightly blushed. She wrapped her arms around Kang-Woo’s neck and leaned down to kiss Kang-Woo again.

‘I feel bad for Seol-Ah, but I can’t hold back my bursting emotions,’ she thought.

“If you won’t let me die, then...” Lilith placed her hand on Kang-Woo’s cheek. She brought her face close to Kang-Woo’s face until their noses almost touched and whispered, “Please win.”

Whatever Kang-Woo did, even if he were to devour everything, even if the entire world were to curse and resent him, Lilith would follow him to the very end.

“If you can’t afford to lose a single time...”

“...”

“Just don’t lose. Simple, isn’t it?” Lilith said leisurely as if it was only natural for her king to able to do it.

“Hah,” Kang-Woo chuckled and asked dumbfoundedly, “Shouldn’t you be telling me that it’s okay for me to lose or that you’ll help me shoulder the weight?”

“My, did you want something like that? Hohoho, but it’s a fact that no one but you can face Bael and that our lives are in your hands.” Lilith laughed brightly and stared at Kang-Woo with deeply sunken eyes. She continued, “So, please win.”

If it was Kang-Woo, her beloved king, he would win for sure even if his opponent was a god, an unknown otherworldly entity, or even Bael.

Kang-Woo remained silent. Forget unloading some of the weight on his shoulders, Lilith was adding even more.

“Pfft.”

The pressure on his shoulders lessened for some reason.

‘Just don’t lose, huh?’

“You make it... sound so easy,” Kang-Woo remarked.

He couldn’t help but laugh as he shrugged.

‘Yeah, it was so simple.’

If he had always ended up coming out on top every single time, he just needed to do the same this time as well.

‘Without losing anything.’

He would win by a landslide.

“Haha, for fuck’s sake.”

Kang-Woo burst into laughter with his hand on his face. He felt like an idiot for being crushed by the weight on his shoulders all this time.

‘I just don’t have to lose, right?’

If that was the case, there was something he needed to do first.

“I’ll be right back,” he said.

“Master Kang-Woo?”

Kang-Woo turned away from Lilith, who was tilting her head in confusion, and closed his eyes to reach the black sea within the Ten Thousand Demon Core.

‘I’ll beat the shit out of this motherfucker first.’

The black sea, an infinite darkness, was drowning the three Doors that kept it at bay. There was no need to think deeply about what was trying to take over the Ten Thousand Demon Core and Kang-Woo himself.

‘Desire.’

It was the entity that those who possessed demonic energy inevitably had to face. It was the source of demonic energy itself.

“A-arghh.”

Kang-Woo trembled as intense hunger and thirst burned him alive.

Fwoosh.

The flames blazed fiercely. The gold and black flames were made only out of Kang-Woo’s desire to eat.

“Haaa, haaa,” he panted heavily.

His desire was boiling to the point that he could barely hold it back. His mind felt hazy and his vision looked as if static was filling it. His sense of reason was getting devoured and his sanity was getting burnt to a crisp. Everything in the world was falling apart. It was being vaporized by flames. The only thing left among the ashes was his desire.

- More, more, more, more.

His desire shouted as if it had not had enough. The powerful impulse to devour everything in the world was taking over Kang-Woo’s mind. He slowly raised his head within the unfathomable sense of desire.

‘It was you.’

The entity that had been trying to take control of him by taking advantage of his weakened mindset was the flames of desire— his Deific Essence of Voracity.

‘I knew something was off.’

Thinking back on it, there were several irregularities. He would never do what he had done even if he had been cornered by stress and the pressure of needing to get stronger.

“It wasn’t like you, my king.”

Yes. It wasn’t like him. He didn’t care about good or evil. He paid no mind to ethics and trampled on a concept as trivial as morals. That did not change in the past or the present. He killed anyone who got in his way and even those whom he thought would in the future. If he needed something, he would do whatever it took to get his hands on it. Lilith knew very well what kind of person Kang-Woo was but she still judged that his actions until now had not been like him.

‘It must’ve been because I was getting eaten by this thing.’

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes and stared at the blazing flames. The Flames of Voracity was formed only by his desire to eat; it was filled with his thirst and hunger. He had been controlled by his own Deific Essence this entire time.

‘So this is why I was so desperate to acquire Transcendent-rank Deific Essence.’

He could finally understand the situation somewhat.

‘But since when?’

Kang-Woo searched back on his memories. It did not take long for him to find out when he had begun to change due to the Deific Essence of Voracity’s control over him.

‘Right after I lost to Bael.’

Kang-Woo chuckled. “This fucking body of mine is so goddamn popular.”

Not just Bauli, but even his Deific Essence of Voracity was coveting his body. It was trying to devour Kang-Woo through the Flames of Voracvity by making him succumb to his desire.

Fwoosh—!!

Enormous flames easily over thousands of meters tall, large enough to devour the entire world, charged at Kang-Woo.

Bounce!

“Grrrk, grrrk!”

Just then, Slushy appeared in Kang-Woo’s consciousness. It stood between Kang-Woo and the flames, glaring at the flames fiercely.

“Grrrk! Grrrrrrrk!”

It opened its mouth threateningly and kept the flames in check.

Kang-Woo smirked. “The hell, man? Took you long enough to crawl out.”

“Grrrk, grrrk...”

Slushy flinched and looked at Kang-Woo as if he was wronged. Kang-Woo snickered and lightly tapped Slushy’s glistening skin.

Splosh, splosh.

“Stop acting all tough and stay behind me.”

“Grrrk?”

Kang-Woo grabbed Slushy by the head and threw him back.

“Grrrk!!”

Slushy bounced backward as he rolled.

“Now, then.”

Kang-Woo raised his head to see a burning black sea. This was probably how it would look if one set fire to a sea of gasoline. He could feel the intense heat burning him despite this being a world in his consciousness. The giant pillar of fire made of desire opened its mouth and swallowed Kang-Woo.

Tsssss—!

His skin burned and his blood evaporated. Intense hunger and thirst distorted his senses. His sense of reason was being ground away as his sanity was devoured.

- It’s not enough.

Kang-Woo heard a voice.

- It’s not enough, is it? More, more, more, more. We need to move forward. We need to climb even higher, somewhere no one will ever reach. You know as well, don’t you? You—

“For fuck’s sake, you talk too much.” Kang-Woo cut off the voice echoing in his head and spat on the ground. “Hey.”

Kang-Woo stared at the Flames of Voracity eating away at him.

“Know your fucking place.”

He couldn’t believe that he, none other than the Demon King himself, was trying to be controlled.

“You don’t control me.”

Desire was an undefiable instinct for a demon; all demons acted on their desire and were controlled by it. However, that was only in the case of a regular demon.

“I reign above you.”

Kang-Woo was the pinnacle of all demons.

He, who had trampled on the Demon God and became the master of the Demonic Sea, said in a low tone, “Kneel, you son of a bitch.”

He commanded the colossal flames that had swallowed him whole.