After Ten Millennia in Hell

Chapter 161 - What's 1000 Minus 7?

[Phenex!]

[What the…]

Malphas and Halphas were lost for words as they watched Phenex's body twitch after his head exploded. They couldn't believe what they'd just seen.

[Phenex, are you messing with me right now because I almost lost to a human?!] Halphas asked in anger.

It had been because he'd let his guard down, but the fact he had almost lost against the retainer of Gaia didn't change. There was no worse humiliation for a loyal servant of their great master, Evil God Lucifer.

Saying that Halphas had almost lost because the enemy was one of Gaia's retainers had merely been an excuse. After all, the three demons were also retainers of the Evil God Lucifer in a sense.

Furthermore, Gaia was practically half-dead because she had not been able to properly manage the system that she was in charge of. It made no sense that they would lose against a retainer of a half-dead god.

[Phenex! Stop fucking around and get up! This isn't the time!] Malphas yelled.

He thought the same thing as Halphas.

Demons were far superior to humans from birth, so to them, this was as if a tiger had been killed by a single punch from a cat. There was no way they would be able to accept the reality of the situation.

[Phenex?]

However, there was no answer. Phenex wasn't moving at all after getting hit by the human who had appeared out of nowhere.

[Phenex! I told you to stop fucking around!] Malphas frowned and approached Phenex.

"Hey," the human, who had stepped on Phenex, said upon shifting his gaze to Malphas, "I told you to shut up."

Then Kang-Woo checked the state that Kim Si-Hun was in. Si-Hun hadn't healed completely, but he was no longer in critical condition. Considering Si-Hun's regenerative capabilities, he would probably fully recover on his own without further treatment.

"Hyung-nim..."

"Go to sleep. We'll talk later."

Kang-Woo laid Si-Hun down on the ground and exercised his right to forcibly command his Familiar. Si-Hun closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately.

When Kang-Woo heard Si-Hun breathing normally, he sighed in relief, "Haaa."

He felt much better now that Si-Hun was no longer in a critical state.

Kang-Woo took a deep breath.

Even though he was feeling relieved, he couldn't fully control his demonic energy, which was running wild. A potent impulse boiled from within him.

'Calm down,' he told himself.

He covered his face with his hands to block his vision. Then he slowly opened his eyes and once again saw the demons who had put Si-Hun in that critical state.

Kang-Woo's mind was ablaze with a cold fire. A cold fire was a paradox, but there was no other way to explain how he was feeling right now.

"Shit! Fuck!"

He couldn't help but curse.

Countless thoughts ran through his mind, and at the center of it all was Si-Hun.

"Motherfucker!!" Kang-Woo cursed again.

He gritted his teeth. It was the first time he had felt like this ever since he returned to Earth.

Kang-Woo hadn't felt so irritated since his battle with Prince Mammon in Hell—when over half of Balrog's body turned into ash and disappeared.

'Yeah.'

He wasn’t angry; he was just irritated by what was going on. He was so irritated that he couldn't take it anymore.

'In that case…'

Kang-Woo looked at the demons that were approaching him. There was only one way to get rid of this irritation.

[Hm?]

Malphas, who was approaching Kang-Woo, frowned as he looked into Kang-Woo’s eyes.

He couldn't see Kang-Woo's face because he was wearing a mask, but his eyes were visible.

'A demon...?' Malphas thought.

Black sclerae[1] with yellow irises—this was a characteristic that most demons had. There were some rare cases when a demon's white sclerae would turn black upon feeling extreme excitement or rage.

'Lord Lucifer said that was how Satan was.'

Malphas had heard from Lucifer that Satan, the Prince of Wrath, had white eyes that turned black in battle. He had also told them to run away without turning back if Satan's eyes were black when they managed to encounter him.

'Could this man be Satan?'

Malphas shook his head. There was no way that was true.

There were other demons besides Satan with that special characteristic. It was just that there were extremely few of them.

[Hm.]

In any case, it was hard to think of the person before him as a human. Leaving the yellow irises aside, Malphas had never seen a human with black sclerae.

[Are you really a human?] Malphas asked.

There was no answer.

Malphas clicked his tongue. Since the man refused to answer, Malphas would just force it out of him.

Malphas extended his right arm, and dozens of black spheres appeared.

"..."

Kang-Woo silently gazed at Malphas and slowly walked toward him.

Malphas shot dozens of black spheres at Kang-Woo.

Tap.

However, Kang-Woo merely flicked his finger, and a wave of demonic energy deflected the black spheres, driving them away from him. Malphas was astonished by that sight.

Kang-Woo took a step forward, and demonic energy surged within him. As demonic energy gathered around his heart, he formed a passage that led into the depths of the Ten Thousand Demon Core, the infinite sea of demonic energy.

He shivered as an enormous amount of demonic energy flowed out from the core and into his body.

[Wh-What the…]

Kang-Woo took a step forward. He suddenly disappeared as if he had disintegrated and then reappeared right in front of Malphas. Malphas quickly raised his arms, but Kang-Woo grabbed them and ripped them off.

Crunch!

[AARRGGHH!!]

Horrible pain spread throughout Malphas' body, and black blood sprayed out from the stumps of his severed arms.

Malphas clenched his teeth and stood up. A black sphere about the size of a fist appeared in front of his chest. He used the power that their master, Evil God Lucifer had bestowed on them, and the black sphere grew in size.

The word ‘destruction’ was perfect to describe the black sphere, which sucked in everything around it. The enormous pulling force of the black sphere tried to drag Kang-Woo into the sphere.

Kang-Woo did not resist its pulling force. Instead, he reached out and touched the black sphere.

Seeing that, Malphas smiled.

Tap.

[Huh?]

Nevertheless, nothing happened.

Kang-Woo was touching the black sphere, but his hand was not getting mangled, nor was he getting sucked into it.

CRACK!

[H-Huh? Wh-Wha—]

Rather, the black sphere was being devoured by the black smoke emerging from Kang-Woo's hand.

Malphas's face turned pale. The power that Lucifer had granted to him was quickly disappearing.

[What did you do?!] he shouted anxiously.

Malphas couldn't help but think that something was wrong. A subconscious fear—the fear that prey felt toward a predator—took hold of him.

[Th-This can't be happening!!] he shouted like a madman.

Malphas turned and retreated.

'I must gain some distance first.'

He, Halphas, and Phenex specialized in ranged attacks. Distancing themselves and using powerful demonic energy bullets was how they fought. Maintaining a distance was vital in giving them the advantage.

However…

[Huh?]

Malphas' eyes quivered and widened as if he'd seen something unbelievable.

He'd done his best to create distance and backed off hundreds of meters in just a second, but…

"I told you to stand still, didn't I?" the man said.

He was still right in front of Malphas. It was like Malphas was having a nightmare.

The man was so close that Malphas could even hear his breath.

[E-Eek!]

Malphas pivoted to try and get away, but Kang-Woo reached out and grabbed both of Malphas' legs.

Crunch!

[AARRGGHH!!!]

Kang-Woo crushed Malphas' legs with the weight and pressure of a gigantic press. Then he twisted his hands as if squeezing a mop head dry.

Malphas's skin tore and burst open, spraying black blood into the air. Black smoke leaked from Kang-Woo's hands, which were still holding onto Malphas's legs, and entered Malphas' wounds.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

[Wh-What are you d—Argh! ARRGGHH!! S-Stop!!]

A tremendous amount of pain shot through Malphas' body. He fell to the ground and trembled. His eyes rolled back, and bubbles frothed from his mouth.

He'd lived many years as an immortal being but had never felt pain like this before. It was as if hundreds of thousands of insects were devouring his flesh from the inside out. He never thought he'd ever experience being devoured in such a vivid way.

[Bastard!!] Halphas yelled as he quickly ran over.

He grabbed what remained of his arm that Si-Hun had severed and launched a black sphere.

"Wait your turn," Kang-Woo said.

He flicked the black sphere back to Halphas with his finger.

[Arrgghh!]

Halphas was unable to dodge his own attack due to the wound he'd received while fighting Si-Hun. He collapsed right after being hit with the black sphere.

Kang-Woo's eyes then focused back on Malphas.

[S-Stop!! P-Please!!]

The black smoke that was devouring Malphas spread throughout his body through his blood vessels. He spasmed all over like he was being electrocuted. No, he wouldn't have felt this much pain if it were just from electrocution.

The immense pain made Malphas lose his composure. Even his loyalty toward Lucifer had no meaning at that moment.

[I-I'm sorry!! AARRGGHH!! S-STOP!!]

Tears dripped from his eyes. He didn't have the capacity to keep his pride anymore.

Then, the excruciating pain suddenly stopped. It was as if Malphas' desperate screams had reached the man.

"What's one thousand minus seven[2]?"

[What? Wh-What does that m—AARRGGHH!!]

"I won't ask you this many times." Kang-Woo looked at Malphas with deep, sunken eyes. "What's one thousand minus seven?"

[993!! It's 993!]

"Well done."

The tips of Kang-Woo's mouth went up. He cracked his index finger, and the Authority of Predation within Malphas took a bite of his flesh.

[Gaaaahhhh!!]

A horrible scream spread through the area.

It had only bitten off a fingernail's worth of flesh, but the Authority of Predation amplified the pain that Malphas felt. His body started to spasm again.

"Next."

[ARRGGHH! S-Stop!! Please!!]

"Keep going."

[986! Arrgghh!!]

"Next."

[979!]

The number gradually decreased. Every time Malphas said a number, the Authority of Predation took a bite of his flesh.

It was a method of torture Kang-Woo had seen in a manga before he’d fallen into Hell. The manga had claimed that making a person continuously subtract down from a large number would keep their brain running, amplifying their fear and pain.

"Next."

[419!]

This method turned out to be very effective.

Demons did not have processing capabilities that were particularly superior than that of humans. They were just overwhelmingly more powerful than humans.

[6...]

The counting finally ended. Saliva was leaking out of Malphas' mouth, and he was about to lose consciousness.

Kang-Woo grabbed Malphas' head and brought it close to his own.

"You've had enough practice, right?"

[What…?]

"Now this is where the fun begins."

A madness that Malphas had never seen or felt before weighed down on him.

Kang-Woo said slowly, "Function P(x)=0 has seven distinct roots, and function Q(x)=0 has nine distinct roots. Set A = {(x,y) | P(x)Q(y)=0; Q(x)P(y)=0; x,y∈ℝ} is an infinite set, and B is a subset of A defined as B = {(x,y) | (x,y)∈A; x=y}. If n(B) is the number of elements in set B, n(B) varies depending on P(x) and Q(x). Find the maximum value of n(B).”[3]

[What?]

"Solve it."

[No, wait. What does that even—AARRGGHH!!] Malphas screamed in agony.

Kang-Woo smiled.

"Do you get it, Malphas?"

'This is just a brief taste of Korea's level of mathematics.'

1. The white part of an eye. ☜

2. This is a reference to a manga/anime called Tokyo Ghoul. A ghoul named Jason asks his victims to keep subtracting seven from one thousand while he tortures them to keep their minds running so that they don’t go insane. ☜

3. Solve this and you won’t be tortured :D ☜