After Ten Millennia in Hell-Chapter 68Epilogue - Interlude - Open

The giant door was wrapped in red chains. Highly concentrated demonic energy seeped out from under the door.

‘What... is that?’

Oh Kang-Hyun was left confused by the sudden appearance of the Door. He turned to Jeon Yeong-Woong, wondering if he had created it.

“Huh?”

Yeong-Woong was standing completely still.

“What the...?”

It was not only Yeong-Woong but Kim Si-Ah, Kang-Hee, and even the grotesque fly army— everything was frozen in place as if it were a paused video.

‘What’s happening?’

Kang-Hyun narrowed his eyes and stared at the black door before him. He did not know what it was, but he was sure it was causing this abnormal phenomenon.

“I should... examine it.”

Nothing would change even if he stood still. He took a deep breath and cautiously walked toward the door covered in red chains. He slowly reached for the door and—

“AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

It hurt as much as bubbling liquid metal was poured into his blood vessels, or sharp blades making countless cuts all over him. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.

‘A-Arrghh. Ack.”

No, this couldn’t even be described as painful. It was the condensation of all the pain in the world. The pain was endless.

“D-Dad. M-M-Mom...!” Kang-Hyun shouted as tears and snot covered his face.

He squirmed on the ground like an insect whose legs were ripped out.

“Hurgh... Please... Please help... Waaahh. I-It hurts so much.”

The boy bawled his eyes out as he cried for help. He wished for someone to appear and end the excruciating pain. He desperately wished for it.

“Huff... Huff!”

However, the frozen world did not move. The paused video did not resume. He felt like he was sinking into a dark, bottomless sea.

“BLEEEEEEEEGHHH!”

Kang-Hyun clenched the ground and vomited. The kimbap his mother had made for him had turned into vomit and wet the ground.

“I-I don’t want this.”

He stood up staggeringly and crawled away from the Door on all fours as if running away. He needed to get as far away from that Door as possible.

“You do not need the likes of demonic energy to become strong.”

Just then, Uncle Balrog’s words popped into his head.

“Fear. To become stronger... you must overcome the fear lying dormant inside you.”

“Hah,” Kang-Hyun scoffed.

It was absurd— how was he supposed to overcome this?

“E-Even Uncle Balrog would run away in fear from this Door.”

It was not a matter of mental fortitude— no one could stand before fear that ate away at one’s soul, the essence of life.

‘I’ll just stay like this. Yeah, it’s not like this frozen world will continue for eternity. I’m sure time will resume over time.’

“Then...”

‘What will happen once it resumes?’

“...”

Kang-Hyun turned around and looked up at Yeong-Woong and the two girls in his clutches.

‘What will happen to them once time resumes?’

“I’ll spare the one you choose.”

Yeong-Woong had told him to choose one to save.

“There’s no way I could choose.”

Kang-Hee or Si-Ah— his little sister or childhood friend. They were both irreplaceable in his life. He could never choose who was more important or who to kill or save.

“I-It’s okay. I gave the teacher Dad’s and Uncle Si-Hun’s numbers.”

Additionally, the park had been filled with Guardians members as if they had been waiting here from the beginning. Even if Kang-Hyun didn’t choose, he was sure someone would come to save them— just like what happened at the resort, as always. Yes, someone else would—

“Can I ask you something, son?”

Kang-Hyun suddenly recalled what his father had asked him.

‘He asked me... how much I was willing to sacrifice for my loved ones. What did I tell him again? Oh, yes. I told him I was willing to sacrifice everything.’

“Hah... Haha.”

Thinking back on it now, he couldn’t have been more arrogant.

‘I’m just a brat who knows nothing of the world.’

He was just a brat who had curled up into a ball just because he was in pain and was desperately waiting for someone to give him a helping hand. He didn’t understand what he was thinking to say he was willing to sacrifice everything.

“...”

Kang-Hyun stood up, staggering. He forcibly moved his frozen legs and stood before the Door again. His hands and legs shook uncontrollably. He knew that no matter how mature he acted, he was but a brat who wasn’t even ten years old yet. No one would criticize him even if he abandoned his little sister and childhood friend in this situation. Rather, they might console him, sympathizing with how hard it must have been to make that decision.

“At least... Mother surely would.”

Kang-Hyun smiled bitterly. It had always been like this. He would make excuses for his lack of talent compared to his sisters, saying he was half-human. He always waited one step behind everyone else, hoping someone else would step forward.

“I’m sick of it.”

He would climb higher... beyond anyone’s imagination.

“Huuu,” he took a deep breath.

Clunk.

He grabbed the door handle.

Clatter.

“Ah...”

The red chains wrapped around the door loosened and wrapped around Kang-Hyun instead. The blood-red chains dyed black as if black ink was poured on it.

“...”

He instinctively realized the key for opening the door as if being struck by lightning.

“Ye who pass me...”

To the city of grief.

***

“Alright, hurry up and choose who you will save!” Yeong-Woong shouted as he raised the two girls higher.

He looked down at Kang-Hyun, shaking as if begging for forgiveness, and was filled with ecstasy.

‘Yes, this is it!’

He couldn’t be happier at the sight of Kang-Hyun, who had forced him to taste unforgettable humiliation, trembling powerlessly before him. Yeong-Woong smirked nastily and brought the two girls down on the ground.

“Haha. I was joking, man. What kind of hero takes hostages?”

The honor student’s little sister was a different story but it would be far too big of a waste to use Si-Ah as a hostage. It was simply to deal psychological damage to Kang-Hyun.

“A hero needs to be fair, don’t you think?”

Whoooom!

He raised his arms over his head and created a giant psychokinetic ball, ten times bigger than the ones he had been creating. Its power also dwarfed that of the smaller ones.

“Die, motherfucker.”

Rumble—!

The psychokinetic ball shot at Kang-Hyun with a thunderous boom. It made contact with the collapsed Kang-Hyun when—

Poof!

The powerful attack which looked as if it could tear apart the world popped like a balloon and disappeared.

“Huh?” Yeong-Woong narrowed his eyes incomprehensibly. “What the hell just—”

Sounds of metal echoed in the surroundings before Yeong-Woong could finish his question.

Clatter—!

Jet-black chains shot out of the crouching Kang-Hyun’s back, floating in the air as if they were alive.

“What are...”

Yeong-Woong froze as he stared at the black chains sprouting from Kang-Hyun’s back.

“Are those... wings?”

They resembled the wings of a demon.

“Haaa,” Kang-Hyun exhaled as he slowly stood up while staggering.

Golden irises gleamed within the darkness. The jet-black chain wings flapped and hundreds of chains shot toward Yeong-Woong.

“Kurgh!”

Yeong-Woong quickly jumped backward and formed a wall of flies.

Crunch—!

“ARGHHH!”

However, the wall of flies was instantly torn apart and the chains wrapped around Yeong-Woong’s arms. His arms were crushed as if they were placed under a hydraulic press.

“I-It hurts! IT HUUUUUUUURTS!!!” Yeong-Woong screamed, his face covered in tears and snot.

Crunch, munch.

The chains wrapping his arms were eating his arms.

“Wh-What the hell?! What the hell are these?!”

Yeong-Woong stumbled backward in pallor. The pain of getting his arms devoured spread throughout him but the fear of needing to get out of here took control of his mind.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”

The light from the stigmata brightened and millions of flies surrounded Kang-Hyun like a cloud. The flies infused with the energy of disease stuck to him.

“What an annoyance...”

Kang-Hyun waved his hands around to shoo away the flies. A massive wave of chains sprouted from the ground with just that simple motion and devoured the millions of flies.

“Hah,” Kang-Hyun couldn’t help but chuckle at the overwhelming sight.

He finally understood what his father meant when he told him he shouldn’t imitate Uncle Si-Hun’s swordsmanship.

‘It’s not that I shouldn’t imitate it.’

There was just no need for him to. However strong a rapid river was, it couldn’t match a tsunami.

“A-Aaaahh.” Yeong-Woong, his arms bleeding profusely, looked up at Kang-Hyun in fear. “K-Kang-Hyun! I-I’m sorry! Please—”

“Please, what?”

Kang-Hyun walked toward Yeong-Woong and grabbed him by the neck. Yeong-Woong frantically shook his head.

“C-Calm down! You’re not going to kill me, are you? Huh? Th-That’s murder! You’ll rot in jail for the rest of your li—”

Crack.

Kang-Hyun broke Yeong-Woong’s neck before he could finish his pleas.

“It’s okay.”

He threw away Yeong-Woong’s corpse like trash and smiled.

“At my age, I won’t go to jail even if I kill someone.”