Kang Woo turned to Denji. His eyes had were pitch-black. And within that darkness, his pupils glowed a sharp, unnatural crimson .
"…Make it fast," Kang Woo said coldly.
Denji, didn't have a dumb reply. He just nodded sharply.
He revved his chainsaw arms once more. "Hang in there, Power…"
And then he attacked. Denji lunged, his chainsaws carving deep into the Bat Devil's flesh—but now with surgical precision. He sliced methodically, tearing through its belly in wide, brutal arcs.
Blood sprayed across the street. The creature screeched and flailed, but it was too weak to resist now.
And then— A final slash ripped across its abdomen.
Denji dropped to his knees, digging through the gory mess with bare hands.
"C'mon… c'mon…"
He found her. Power , coated in blood and acid, her arms tightly wrapped around a small birdcage… and inside, barely breathing, was Meowy.
Denji's eyes went wide with relief. "Power!"
He pulled her up into his arms, trembling. "I gotcha… I gotcha, you crazy blood psycho…"
Power was limp in his grasp, her breathing faint, blood clinging to her clothes and hair. But then—thump—Denji's chainsaw retracted, his body returning to human form. He leaned down and kissed her. Right on the lips.
Power's eyes opened slowly. Deadpan. Blank.
"…Why are you rescuing me?" she mumbled. "I betrayed you, Denji."
Denji gave a dumb grin, wiping sweat and blood from his forehead. "You said I could kiss your lips if I rescued you, right? Well—I rescued you. Now I kissed you."
Power stared at him. Then let out a tired, annoyed sigh. "…What a very stupid man you are."
Denji pumped his fist in triumph, turning toward the empty street like a victorious idiot.
"YOSSSSAAAA! NOW I FINALLY GOT A GI—"
His sentence was cut short.
A leech-like tendril burst out and bit clean through Denji's left arm, ripping it off at the shoulder in one grotesque snap. Blood sprayed. The Leech Devil slithered forward, its grotesque, pale body hissing as it swallowed Denji's arm whole.
"AGGHHH—Kang Woo! A little he—!"
But Kang Woo wasn't looking at him. His eyes were locked on something else.
Amidst the scattered viscera of the Bat Devil's remains, a small, folded object had slipped free—a half-digested newspaper,.
Kang Woo knelt and retrieved it with one gloved hand, brow furrowing.
The headline was barely legible beneath dried blood:
"K-559 SEVASTOPOL SUBMARINE LOST — 2012 INCIDENT OFFICIALLY DENIED BY AMERICAN DEFENSE. LOCATION STILL UNKNOWN."
He stared at the paper.
Eyes narrowing. Sevastopol… Soviet. 2012. Suppressed. Sunk. Still unknown.
Kang Woo's mind snapped back to countless rogue operations he had witnessed—things birthed from secrets the world tried to bury.
And now, standing above the corpse of a devil, holding a decades-old report about a missing Soviet sub, he whispered to himself: "…Is this world hiding a rogue AI?"
Then a slow grin crept onto his face.
And isn't this perfect? We were looking for a quantum intelligence to anchor the Kaisergesang. But the world's already grown its own. The Entity. Their version of it.
Kang Woo stood fully, mind racing, when the ground behind him rumbled.
The Leech Devil , slithered forward again, shrieking with rage. Its twisted mouth widened—about to launch another Attack directly at him.
But before it could , A single, sharp snap echoed across the air.
Aki stepped forward with his hand raised, forming the familiar canine seal. "Kon."
A thunderous crunch shook the air as the Fox Devil's head manifested , its fanged maw clamping down hard on the Leech Devil mid-charge.
The Leech Devil let out a strangled howl—cut short as its body vanished into the beast's jaws.
Then, something strange happened. The Fox Devil didn't swallow immediately. The Fox Devil's deep voice echoed through the spiritual haze:
"…Tell the Noble One that I've served you well."
Aki blinked. "There's Kang Woo," he said, gesturing to the man calmly watching from beside the corpses. "Shouldn't you tell him yourself?"
The Fox Devil hesitated. "I do not dare," it said gravely. "The Noble One's mind is… unprec—"
Kang Woo cut in, coolly. "You've done well, Fox Devil," . "Your insolence when we first met… is forgiven."
The Fox Devil's massive jaws twitched. Just as it was about to finish the swallow It gagged.
From its throat, something began to clink against its fangs.
Then—spew. With a wet, metallic heave, the Fox Devil spit a mass from its jaws and dropped it onto the street in front of Kang Woo. Slick with devil blood and bile, two halves of a cruciform key lay tangled in steaming viscera.
Kang Woo's eyes sharpened. "…Fox Devil. Did you swallow the Leech Devil whole?"
"There is some part," the Fox Devil rumbled, uneasy, "I have left in my mouth…"
Kang Woo's gaze turned firm. "Spit. It. Out. Now."
The Fox Devil's monstrous jaw wrenched open with a strained growl — and out dropped the severed head of the Leech Devil,.
Kang Woo His right hand snapped outward — a ripple of dark sovereignty pulsing from his palm.
"Black King's Authority: 1st spirit ."
A shadow formed over the corpse — and with a violent surge of black mana, a twisted, writhing soul erupted from the remains like smoke given shape. It screamed, distorted and confused.
"W-what is this?! Am I not… in he—"
A chain snapped tight around the spirit's throat.
Kang Woo's Blade of Chaos whirled through the air, its infernal chain binding the soul mid-air with torturous speed. The barbed links crackled with hellfire and seared into the Leech Devil's spectral form, forcing it to bow — like a puppet being strangled by a god.
"Start talking," Kang Woo said, his eyes dark and merciless. In his other hand, he raised the two halves of the cruciform key —
"Where did you get this?"
The chains tightened, dragging out a wail that split the air like glass.
"I-It wasn't mine!" the soul screeched. "I-I swallowed a man two days ago! Some foreigner! He had the key on him! I just wanted to taste what human fear was like!"
Kang Woo's eyes narrowed. "What man?"
The Leech Devil whimpered. "I-I don't know! He wasn't from here! I smelled war on him! Metal and oil! He… he kept mumbling about 'the Sevastopol' — said there's a ghost in the machine!"
The soul's voice cracked, hysteria rising. "He said… the ship is alive!"
Kang Woo stood motionless. A Soviet submarine… a cruciform key… a rogue AI…
So the Entity really exists in this world, he thought. But why hasn't it gone berserk yet?
In Mission Impossible, Sevastopol holds its original source code. If the Entity is still dormant, then the ship core must still be intact….
And now… Kang Woo held both keys — conjoined at the center, forming a perfect cruciform.
He stepped forward, lowering his voice like a judge delivering a sentence.
"Where's the other guy? The one who was with him."
The Leech Devil's soul stiffened. "W-What?"
Kang Woo's voice dropped further, cold and sharp.
"The other guy. Who was with him. WHERE?"
"I don't know!" the Leech Devil shrieked. "I swear! I only ate one! I didn't see anyone else! Please—have mercy!"
But Kang Woo's hand lifted, fingers curling. "Hellblaze."
The black flame burst forth — roaring up the chains — and devoured the soul whole..
Behind him, unnoticed until now, Himeno and Arai stood silently — both having watched the scene unfold with equal parts awe and unease.
Himeno crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. "…I'll admit," she said at last, nodding toward the gleaming cruciform key in Kang Woo's hand, "that thing does look like a pretty good necklace. Wonder if he's secretly into jewels."
Arai blinked. "That's Kang Woo, " His voice lowered instinctively. "I've heard the rumours, but seeing him in action… it's different. Like… no one really understands what he is.."
Aki narrowed his eyes, watching Kang Woo from across the ruined street. still staring down at the key in his hand.
"It's strange," Aki murmured. "Kang Woo never shows interest in anything. But now… he's holding that crucified object like his entire life depends on it."
Himeno tapped her chin with a sly grin. "That's why," she said, "we need to get him drunk."
Aki blinked. as he gaze himeno in confuse
Himeno said brightly "Make him spill everything, One bottle of sake, and boom — we get the secrets of the world . And maybe where he hides that glowing motorbike, too."
Arai muttered, "Or we end up making a catastrophe open at our office."
Himeno shrugged, still smirking. " Trust me it's worth to try ."
Kang Woo eyes slowly swept over the ruined street, the half-collapsed buildings . But his mind was elsewhere.
It's already begun, he thought. His lips didn't move, but the gears in his head were sharp, calculating.
The first bluff worked… or at least, it didn't fail. I made it seem like I knew about "the other guy." That should be enough bait. If the Entity is out there… it'll notice.
His gaze rose toward a nearby telephone pole. On it, a security camera blinked with a red light—recording. Another one, on the side of a nearby building. Only two.
That was the problem. Only two cameras had remained trained on him.
Not every surveillance system in the city. or every traffic lens or satellite feed. Just… two.
That meant something. Pros: either the Entity doesn't care about me. Maybe it doesn't see me as a threat, even with all this power I wield. Or… it's simply not mature yet. If this is 2019, then the Entity may still be gathering information. Still learning
His eyes narrowed, the cruciform key still tight in his hand.
Cons… He exhaled slowly through his nose. If the Entity's not strong yet, then dragging it into my Kaisergesang is pointless. I'll only restore a portion of my intelligence—not enough to reclaim the brilliance I had during my early years as the Demon King of Hell . That's… annoying.
Then came the familiar voice—calm, cold, mechanical. "Master."
It was Mikhail, speaking to him through a tight telepathic link. "I will handle the Entity. I will make sure it ripens for your Kaisergesang. Also—permission to borrow a portion of Nightmare."
Kang Woo's response was immediate, . "Granted.."
Without further ceremony, the Eye of Mikhail detached itself from the back of Kang Woo's left palm—peeling away from his flesh like a living seal. It hovered briefly behind him, a twitching orb of bio-mechanical precision, then zipped downward into the nearest sewer grate with a quiet plunk—vanishing from human sight.
Within the damp, rotting underbelly of Tokyo's sewers, the Eye of Mikhail pulsed once—and unfurled.
Branch-like protrusions twisted from its core, thin as wires, jointed like spider limbs. They stabbed into the concrete, lifting the orb high like a grotesque arachnid with a single glaring eye. A sealed sac on its underside began to quiver and open—releasing a slow, writhing drip of black sludge.
Nightmare. Or rather, a portion of it—slime infused with the essence of a Demonic Construct , gifted only to Kang Woo and his dominions.
The slime crawled forth with purpose, forming an interface that bonded with the eye's limbs. The Eye of Mikhail's single pupil dilated with cold cognition as it activated a new protocol. Its directive was simple..
Locate the lost Sevastopol. Modify the Podkova Drive.
And awaken the dormant ghost. So that the Entity—when the ritual begins—will be mature enough… to die.
The ruined streets of Tokyo stretched out in silence, winds rustling through broken signs and crumbling neon. Kang Woo stood there, still holding the complete cruciform key in one hand, its metal cold against his fingers.
If Mikhail's already moving, he thought, then nothing stands in the way… unless it's another God-tier being. But even then, Mikhail doesn't lose easily.
He narrowed his eyes at the key. Do I even need this? Mikhail can break through anything… even the Sevastopol's black box if needed.