The Art of the Deal (with Demons)

"Those... those absolute beasts!" Edager shuddered with disgust as he stared at the paladins of the Archisus Church. They were infamous even among the denizens of the Demon Realm. The paladins of the Archisus Church—lunatics whose eyes rolled back in sheer madness the moment they encountered evil!

"How can people who claim to worship a god behave like wild beasts of the frozen wastes?!"

"Grrr! Grrrrr!"

"..."

Tae-hyun watched the Archisus paladins with a deeply conflicted expression. It was certainly reassuring to have such powerful allies, but...

'Do they really have to act like complete psychopaths?'

"!"

By experiencing the past, he had reclaimed ancient skills that had long been lost to the Archisus Church. It was an incredibly valuable reward he hadn't anticipated, but...

'Wait, it's great and all, but aren't both of these Berserk skills?'

Having witnessed the terrifying sight of the ancient paladins' eyes rolling back into their heads, Tae-hyun couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Did this mean the paladins of his modern church were going to start running around like absolute lunatics now too?

'Even so, do we really have to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lose our minds just to get a power boost?'

While Tae-hyun was lost in thought, the Archisus paladins launched their assault.

"Kill the demons!"

"KILL THE DEMONS!"

A deafening roar shook the cavern. With terrifying ferocity, the Archisus paladins threw themselves into the fray.

The Archisus paladins pooled their strength and charged in unison. It was a coordinated group charge skill typically reserved for pure knights, but paladins were inherently a shameless class. Since they were a hybrid of priest and knight, they could pull off almost anything.

Crash! The impact was devastating. Edager, who had been locked in a tight struggle of power with the priests of the Phytos Church, was instantly blown away.

"Cough...! Protect me, you worthless demons!"

Edager frantically waved his hand. True to his reputation as a summoning specialist, a massive portal tore open, and a horde of demons poured out to form a defensive wall in front of him.

Even Tae-hyun, who was famous for his reckless combat style, didn't fight in such a brainless manner.

"Guide! Why are you just standing there?!"

"Are you seriously asking me that right now?"

"Explosive Leap! Archisus's Charge!"

Tae-hyun immediately lunged forward, grabbed the paladins sinking into the swamp, and triggered Archisus's Charge.

"We appreciate the gesture, Guide, but shouldn't you have used this time to land another hit on the enemy?!"

"...Just shut your mouths."

Getting lectured by the very people he had just saved was a truly novel experience. Shaking his head, Tae-hyun focused on the raid alongside the rescued paladins.

"Archisus's Blessing! Archisus's Divine Territory!"

"Th-That is...!"

"As expected of the Guide!"

The Archisus paladins gasped in awe as the Authority skill unfolded. A high-level Authority of the Archisus Church—something ordinary believers could never dream of wielding—was radiating from Tae-hyun's hands. He truly was the chosen champion of Lord Archisus!

Rumbleeeee!

Deeply moved by the divine Authority Tae-hyun had displayed, the paladins unleashed an absolutely insane chain of skill combos. Even Tae-hyun, who was watching from the sidelines, was left utterly speechless!

'What the... are these guys all Paladin Commanders or something?'

In the era Tae-hyun came from, one had to be at least a Paladin Commander to use skills of that caliber. Yet here in the Ancient Empire, a few ordinary paladins could just link hands, scream, and unleash those high-tier skills like they were nothing.

...The Ancient Empire was truly a terrifying place!

"Those... those absolute lunatics, seriously...!" Edager muttered, his voice trembling with horror.

There were many reasons why the demons of the Demon Realm avoided the Archisus Church like the plague. They were cruel, uncompromising, and filled with a toxic brand of madness, but above all...

...it was their fanatical faith that allowed them to summon their god's power at a moment's notice, over and over again.

The Ancient Empire was an era where the gods had only recently departed, meaning remnants of divine power still lingered throughout the world. The NPCs of the Archisus Church were incredibly adept at channeling these residual forces.

"Fine! You Archisus bastards! Today, you win!" Sensing his imminent defeat, Edager shouted with a proud, defiant posture.

A mighty demon duke did not grovel, even in defeat. Even if his physical form perished here today, he would simply reform in the Demon Realm, recover his strength, and return. And when he did, he would exact his revenge through far more cunning and insidious means!

"Rip him apart!"

"Kill him!"

"Grind him to dust!"

"..."

Edager's face paled. The Archisus paladins were terrifying enough to make even a demon duke regret his life choices! Just as they were about to tear him limb from limb, however, Tae-hyun intervened.

"Stop!"

"Huh?!"

"Guide...! Did you... did you take a bribe from this demon?!"

"Silence! How dare you say such a thing! Do you take the Guide for one of those greedy Phytos priests?!"

"I-I am deeply sorry! How could I have doubted... Please, execute me! No, I shall slit my own throat right now!"

"...Just stop it, all of you."

Tae-hyun sighed, looking utterly exhausted. When he had first arrived in this era, he had thought, 'Wow, the Archisus Church is so prosperous here. I'm so jealous. I wish our Valley was even a tenth of this.' But now...

...after spending some actual time with them, he realized they were incredibly exhausting. They were nothing but hot-blooded, hyper-religious psychopaths!

"The reason I'm stopping you is because your current approach is fundamentally flawed."

"Could it be...!" Edager gasped, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Do you actually possess a sense of honor?" He was slightly touched. Instead of being brutally torn into dozens of pieces, was this man going to grant him a clean, swift execution? To think a man of honor existed within the Archisus Church...

"If you kill a demon, where does it go?"

"They return to the Demon Realm."

"And what do they do once they recover their strength there?"

"They invade the continent all over again."

"Exactly! So, what must we do to break this endless cycle?"

"Shouldn't we shred them into the finest possible pieces so it takes them as long as possible to reform?" Edager shuddered in horror. These absolute psychopaths!

"No, you fools," Tae-hyun corrected. "We capture them alive and seal them here so they can never return to the Demon Realm in the first place."

"!"

The Archisus paladins gasped, their eyes widening in realization. To think such a brilliant method existed! Because their immediate instinct upon seeing a demon was to rip, shred, and pulverize, the concept of capturing one had never even crossed their minds.

"Think about the benefits of sealing a demon," Tae-hyun lectured. "First, we can constantly extract mana from him. It's a source of clean, eco-friendly energy that doesn't require any expensive ores or reagents."

"Heavens, what a revolutionary idea!"

"Is it truly possible to harvest mana from a living demon?!"

"Of course. And I happen to know exactly how to do it." Tae-hyun had learned the blueprints for a mana extraction device from the Dwarves long ago. The paladins nodded, their faces flushed with admiration.

"Furthermore, if we ever find ourselves in battle, we can use him as a meat shield. We can also use him as bait to lure in other demons. And if we ever need intelligence on the Demon Realm? We can just torture him whenever we please."

"Oh, Lord Archisus!" The paladins frantically pulled out parchment and began taking notes, their faces glowing with absolute reverence.

'Wait. Did I just overstep?' Tae-hyun froze. His only objective was to prevent the downfall of the Karbanog Church, yet here he was, actively reshaping the entire doctrine of the Archisus Church. When tampering with the past, even the slightest ripple could completely alter the future. A hasty intervention like this could trigger butterfly effects he couldn't possibly predict.

'...Well, it should be fine, right? The Archisus Church fell to ruin in the future anyway.'

"Alright, I think that covers the basics."

"We shall capture him immediately, sever his limbs, chop off his head, and lock him away!"

"If you chop off his head, he'll die."

"Then we shall sever everything except his head! Charge!"

"You absolute psychopaths!" Edager shrieked in terror. He had briefly held onto the hope that Tae-hyun was the only sane person in the room, but it turned out this man was the most deranged of them all!

"Seize him! Lock him in a cage so we can milk him for resources for the rest of eternity!"

"Archisus's Curse!" Tae-hyun declared, unleashing his Authority skill to bind Edager in place. Edager thrashed and resisted with all his might, but he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stood no chance against a horde of paladins supercharged by the divine grace of Archisus.

*Thud!* "Bring me a cage sturdy enough to seal him!" Tae-hyun barked.

"What kind of materials do you require, Guide?"

"We are currently standing inside the temple of the Phytos Church. I'm sure they won't mind if we 'borrow' a few of their sacred treasures!"

"Wait, that's a bit..." one of the Phytos priests stammered.

"Do you have a death wish?" a paladin growled, drawing his blade.

"...On second thought, it seems perfectly fine." The Phytos priests had initially tried to protest, but the moment cold steel pressed against their throats, they wisely changed their tune. The sheer, unhinged aura of the Archisus paladins was simply too terrifying to oppose.

"Guide! Here is an Adamantium sealing chest those Phytos hypocrites were keeping!"

"And here is a mana prison currently sealing a Red Dragon's ruby!"

"We also found a crown encrusted with a Celestial Core!"

"Why on earth do they even have stuff like that...? Bring it all over!" Tae-hyun ordered. The wealth accumulated by the ancient Phytos Church was truly staggering. Having extorted citizens, royalty, and even demons alike, their treasury was packed with unimaginable luxuries. The Phytos priests looked on, tears streaming down their faces.

"Aigoo! Please, spare that one, my lord! Do you have any idea how many of our devout believers we had to swindle just to purchase that ruby?!"

"To seal the power of that ruby, we had to scrape together every single speck of gold in this temple! We even had to melt down our sacred blacksmithing hammers!"

"...I know my church is crazy, but you guys are on a whole different level of corrupt, aren't you?" Tae-hyun muttered, utterly dumbfounded. Even if the Ancient Empire was historically known as an era of corruption and debauchery, these priests were pushing it. The Phytos Church NPCs of the far future always boasted about how 'glorious and devout' their ancestors were, but this was just pathetic.

'Huh?' Tae-hyun blinked in surprise at the unexpected notification. He was actually a Duke of the Demon Realm?

"This pathetic, scruffy-looking guy is supposed to be a Demon Duke?"

"How dare you insult me?! Me, the great Summoning Duke Edager?!"

"No, seriously... shouldn't a Demon Duke be, I don't know, a lot stronger than this?"

'Ah... that makes sense.' The era of the Ancient Empire was a time of constant demonic incursions. Consequently, it was also an era where demons were constantly beaten to a pulp and driven back. Even a mighty Demon Duke suffered a massive stat penalty when crossing over to the human realm, and if he kept getting repeatedly thrashed on top of that, it was only natural he'd end up looking this pathetic.

"You dare mock me?! I will remember your name, mortal! Never forget the wrath of Edager! Your descendants, and your descendants' descendants, shall pay the ultimate price for this humiliation! If you fear their suffering, bow before me this instant and—*Aaaaaaargh! Gaaaaah!*"

"Shut your filthy mouth, you demonic scum!"

"I'll separate your jaw from your skull!"

The enraged Archisus paladins immediately began pummeling him with their fists. Only after turning Edager's face into a bruised mess did they turn back to Tae-hyun, looking incredibly apologetic.

"Guide! We are so sorry! Our hands just moved on their own!"

"We shall atone for this insolence with our lives!"

"No, no. You did great. You can keep doing that."

"?!"