Sanctuary of the Deceiver

"I'm seriously going to make you quit this game..." Lee Se-yeon said, her voice dripping with absolute ice.

Before she could take another step, Jehas came running over, waving his hands frantically. "Wait! Lee Se-yeon! We were wrong!"

"Right. So you admit your mistake and you're ready to die?"

"N-No! Please! Let's calm down and talk! I admit my sister was a bit out of line!"

"A bit?"

"A... a lot?"

Jehas felt incredibly wronged even as he spoke. Did his sister, Ehas, really speak that rudely? Honestly, when Lee Se-yeon missed Kim Tae-hyun earlier, Ehas had sneered, 'And she calls herself the world's greatest Necromancer. She couldn't even catch a single player.' But was that really worth turning an entire city upside down and wiping out their party?

Of course, some hot-tempered, trash-talking rankers were far worse, but Lee Se-yeon was supposed to be the dignified, professional type. That was why Ehas had dared to say it in the first place.

"If she was incredibly rude, then she deserves to die," Se-yeon said coldly. "I'm sorry for 'boasting' about being the world's greatest Necromancer. I might have missed Kim Tae-hyun, but I can certainly show you how easily I can crush the likes of you."

But the siblings didn't know. Even Lee Se-yeon had days when she was in a terrible mood! And they had chosen that exact moment to scratch her pride and run.

"Lee Se-yeon! Please! Just forgive us this once!" Jehas begged on his hands and knees.

It was humiliating, dirty, and infuriating, but he had no choice. At their level, the penalty for a single death was catastrophic. He would do anything to avoid dying. This humiliation was a cheap price to pay.

Even if we wanted to run, we couldn't...

Lalgrgal had suddenly vanished back underground, but the surrounding city was already completely devastated. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. And Lee Se-yeon was not a foolish player who would let them slip away. She had positioned her summons everywhere, ready to counter-spell the moment they tried to cast magic.

Flawless.

They had only heard rumors of how strong Lee Se-yeon was, but facing her in person made them realize the terrifying reality of her power. The wall of the Rank 1 player! Her skill distribution, casting speed, combinations, control, reading the opponent, and strategic planning—everything was utterly overwhelming. They had prided themselves on being high-ranking mages, but that pride was now shattered into dust.

"It's not entirely impossible to forgive you."

Jehas's eyes lit up at Se-yeon's words.

"Kneel and put your heads to the ground."

"Y-You can't be serious..."

"Die, then."

Jehas made a face like he had swallowed a bug, then hissed to Ehas, "Kneel!"

"Are you insane?!"

"Do you want to die instead?"

"...Ugh! She is seriously the most vicious ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠woman alive!"

"Hey! She can hear you! Keep it in your head!" Jehas hurried his sister, terrified she would ruin their only chance at survival.

Thud.

Jehas and Ehas knelt, pressing their foreheads flat against the dirt. Absolute humiliation.

"Fine. I'll let you off with this," Lee Se-yeon said, nodding.

Now that her head was cooling down, she realized she had gone a bit too far. No matter how annoying the sibling rankers were, there was no need to vent all the frustration she had accumulated from Kim Tae-hyun onto them.

"Unni, we can't just let them go after they dared to insult you," Se-yeon's companion chimed in.

"Should we take their items? I doubt they have anything I actually need."

Jehas and Ehas bristled inwardly. Her words basically meant, 'What could trash like you possibly have that's worth my time?'

"No, let's put them to work. They should still be useful. You know, that."

"Ah. That?"

It was a contract item in Pan-On. While there were many contract items that penalized players for breaking agreements, the penalty of this particular contract was notoriously vicious.

"A week?"

"It has to be at least thirty days, Unni. A week is too easy. It wouldn't even cover the cost of the contract scroll."

"I don't really want to drag them around for a whole week, though."

"Then two weeks?"

"Let's go with two weeks."

"..."

"..."

Ehas and Jehas felt a deep, ominous dread. What on earth were they planning?

Passing through the underground passage, they emerged into a massive temple. It was a sanctuary so vast it was hard to believe it was underground.

The temple was cluttered with giant glass tubes, unidentified corpses, and pools of various toxic fluids. It looked exactly like the laboratory of a mad wizard. To make matters worse, the water draining from above had contaminated everything even further.

"Flame of Altar Purification!" Crawford cast his fire magic.

It wasn't just a simple fire spell; it was a powerful purification magic designed to cleanse poison and other contaminants.

Phew. Thank goodness the water drained a bit.

Unlike the flooded passages they had just crawled through, the water in this sanctuary only came up to their waists. At this level, fire magic was perfectly viable.

"Ah. It's definitely better to purify this place," Crawford muttered.

Tae-hyun nodded at Crawford. Tae-hyun had been continuously dodging the toxic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠miasma with his Successful Evade alerts, but the other party members weren't so lucky.

"Hold on. I'll purify everything for you—"

"Sadik's Flame!"

Whoosh!

"..."

"...all..." Crawford trailed off.

"Ah, sorry. I was in a hurry, so I lent a hand."

"R-Right." Crawford was utterly dumbfounded.

Of course, Tae-hyun's fire-related authorities were incredibly clunky and primitive compared to Crawford's refined fire magic. As a true Pyromancer specialist, Crawford possessed a vast arsenal of area-of-effect spells like Flame Tempest and Meteor, as well as single-target spells like Chain Fire Arrow.

In contrast, all Tae-hyun could do was set something on fire and watch it burn, thinking, 'Wow, that's burning nicely!' He could control the flames to a basic degree or throw a simple fire arrow, but advanced techniques were completely out of his reach.

However, there was one area where Tae-hyun completely outclassed him: Holy power.

Sadiq was, after all, a god. There was no way his divine flame would lose in raw purification power.

Unaware of this, Crawford stumbled back, his face pale with shock. This... this makes no sense... I lost... even in fire magic?

Meanwhile, Tae-hyun scanned the sanctuary. They had to plunder this place as quickly as possible and escape before Lalgrgal returned. But how were they going to sweep through a temple this massive?

"What should we look for?" Alcott asked.

"Do the demons know?" Cain added.

"W-We don't really know what Lalgrgal was doing here either..." the demons stammered.

The demons panicked, and Alcott and Cain hovered around, not knowing where to start. Seeing this, Tae-hyun reached a simple conclusion.

"If we steal everything, what we need is bound to be in there."

"!!"

"I brought this guy along just for this." Tae-hyun pulled out Towang-i.

Towang-i, who had been thoroughly annoyed by being stuffed inside the inventory while they swam through the filthy water, let out an angry growl.

Karung!

"Haha. Yes, yes. You want to eat already?"

Karreung!

"My, my. To think you're this hungry. My apologies."

"I don't think it's hungry..." Alcott muttered.

"More importantly, why a rabbit?" Crawford stared at Towang-i with bewildered eyes.

"It doesn't matter what kind of rabbit it is! Everyone, move! Shove absolutely everything you can grab into its mouth! You demons! What are you standing around for? Do you want me to activate your explosive collars?!"

"No, sir!"

The demons scrambled. Though they had no idea what they were looking for, they began grabbing every single item in the sanctuary by the armful and running back.

Karrrrrr!

Towang-i shrieked as the demons began dumping items down its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠throat indiscriminately.

"Here! Take this!"

"Good! Keep them coming!"

Karung!

"Lord Archisus, is it complaining about something?" one of the demons asked.

"It's saying it loves it and wants more."

"Ah, I see!"

"We will work harder!"

The demons felt a strange sense of accomplishment seeing Towang-i "happy." They scavenged contaminated items from every corner and hurled them into the rabbit's mouth.

By the way, what is this place?

Tae-hyun's eyes widened. A Sanctuary of Archisus?!

Because the Archisus Church had once collapsed completely, its sanctuaries often popped up unexpectedly in hidden or forgotten locations. Still, to think the place Lalgrgal had occupied was a Sanctuary of Archisus.

No, it actually makes sense.

Lalgrgal was a subordinate of Adad, the gatekeeper demon's master. And Adad was a demon who definitely held a massive grudge against Tae-hyun.

Quiet.

If it was a demon like that, occupying a Sanctuary of Archisus made perfect sense! It allowed them to exact revenge on Archisus while plotting their own schemes.

Borrowed Archisus's power?

That was highly plausible. The toxic plague was so vile that even the mages of the Erangs Kingdom Magic Tower couldn't find a cure. Creating such a poison would have been impossible with ordinary power. Even if Lalgrgal was a high-ranking demon serving as Adad's lieutenant, creating something from nothing was no easy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feat.

That bastard! Tae-hyun fumed with rage.

Carbanog patted his shoulder in consolation.

To think he stole such a magnificent poison first!

If Tae-hyun had been able to manufacture such a poison using Archisus's power, managing the nobles of the Atali Kingdom would have been ten times easier!

Step 1: Summon all the nobles to the palace.

Step 2: Serve them dinner.

Step 3: Persuasion complete!

Sigh... what a waste. To think I missed out on such a goldmine...

This is it.

In the center of a corner stood a massive totem.

It was drenched in demon blood, and as if that weren't enough, nails made of demon bones were driven deep into it. On top of that...

It was painfully obvious how much the demons had feared this totem. There was only one thing they would seal this desperately.

Tae-hyun pulled out the bone nails and began burning away the demon blood. Purification!

After some time, the surface of the totem, once obscured by demon blood, was revealed, emitting a brilliant light.

"?"

Both Tae-hyun and Carbanog were stunned. Before they could even grasp what the Holy War quest feature was, a bizarre Authority skill caught their eye first.

Wait, did something go wrong here...?

Tsk... Tae-hyun clicked his tongue.

Well, it's not like I have time to worry about it anyway.

Behind him, the demons and the rest of the party were wrapping up their looting. The once-cluttered temple now looked as clean as if a professional moving company had swept through. The demons weren't called demons for nothing; they had even scavenged the random items Lalgrgal had discarded on the floor and stuffed them into Towang-i.

Lingering here won't change the skill anyway... Time to get out.

Tae-hyun's greatest strength was his quick decision-making. Other players would have clung to this dungeon, obsessed with their class quest, thinking, 'If I search a bit more, maybe I'll find something else!'

But Tae-hyun made a cold, calculated judgment.

"Pack it up! We're running!"

Once you've eaten, you run. Even if there was no antidote in this pile of loot, there was nothing he could do. That would just be bad luck!