Ch.134Deal

# 134. The Deal

“Hah…”

The church’s symbol collapsing right before our arrival had an impact that was too strong.

“This is a mess.”

If the impact had only broken our morale, I wouldn’t have been cursing continuously.

The upper part of the church building, including its symbol, had collapsed toward us, and along with the pile of debris, the aggro of monsters that looked like demon minions was drawn to us.

And right before our arrival, too!

*Kikikikikik-*

*Fresh prey-*

*Khehehehehek-*

*Burn them- Let’s burn them all-*

*Screams-! Sweet screams-!*

“The nomadic group—”

“I’ll help. Kaen. Go back and join your people.”

“Captain!”

“Stay together somewhere safe. I’ll find you when this is over. Go. Hurry!”

“…Kuk!”

While the monsters were spouting nonsense at us, Rahan, whom I thought would go check on his subordinates since we were almost at our destination, preemptively offered to help us.

‘Is he acting this way because of Danya? I’m not sure.’

If that was the case, I figured there was no harm in taking advantage of it as I gave orders to the raid members who were preparing to respond.

“Surround them with magic power and take their heads off in one go! Otherwise, they’ll regenerate!”

In reality, it was advice for Rahan. Our raid members had dealt with demon minions countless times before.

So, despite the grandiose name “demon minions,” to our raid members, they were just “trash mobs” that didn’t even need my specific instructions on how to kill them. Just slightly tougher and stronger trash mobs.

As I expected, it soon turned into a massacre.

“Die!”

A blood-stained axe not only split the head of a monster with a flaming head in half but also cleaved through its torso.

“[Light!]”

Seyeon used a skill from her gacha-obtained longsword to blind the monsters in an area effect, causing them to briefly stiffen, and as soon as the stiffening wore off, she used ‘Holy Shield’ to draw aggro, making it easier for the raid members to deal damage again.

“Freezing – Blossom – Explosion!”

“Mollang-ah!”

Subin threw an ice flower bomb at the monsters that had conveniently clustered together, shattering or freezing them, and Sister Yehyun’s spirit followed up by swinging compressed water to shatter them before they could regenerate.

And just in case, Arang and Danya were scanning the surroundings and confirming kills.

Anyone could see it was a perfect response.

Rahan, who was fighting near Yuri in a similar style, nodded his head after seeing our performance.

“Indeed, skills worthy of those who boast they can defeat demons.”

“These are nothing compared to real demons.”

“Is that so.”

“Will you continue to help?”

“Yes.”

Rahan was slicing through the demon minions with pure physical prowess. I decided to think of him as another Yuri.

‘If there are demon minions, it means a demon is nearby too…’

After we had roughly cleared out all the visible monsters, the raid members were taking a short break, drinking potions, when I heard a very faint noise from inside the church ruins ahead.

‘Are they trying to break through because the entrance is blocked while they’re holding out?’

Wouldn’t a blocked entrance actually be better for holding out? The small central church had survived despite the demon’s manifestation, partly because the demon hadn’t deliberately attacked it, but also thanks to the holy barrier that all churches would have…?

‘Ah. That must have collapsed.’

In that case, it wouldn’t be a holdout but just a tomb. I felt bad for the raid members who were taking a break, but I immediately ordered them to clear the church debris. Of course, I didn’t just give orders but helped directly.

“Nnnngh- Oppa! Can’t we just break this?”

“Hnnng-ha! No. If it collapses inward, we’re in trouble.”

“Nnnnngaaaah!”

The church debris was full of heavy stones. It was hot around us, the debris was heavy, we didn’t know when more enemies might appear, and we couldn’t break it for fear of causing further collapse…

– The symbol… must… stand!

– Hurry! Hurry… it!

– …blood! We must… it!

– …!! Someone! Someone… us!

As we cleared some debris, the faint noise became clearer. I asked Rahan for a favor.

“You can hear them, right?”

“Yes.”

“Could you shout to them? Tell them we’re here to rescue them, so they should stay calm.”

“I will.”

At my words, Rahan took a deep breath. I instinctively shouted to the raid members.

“Everyone cover your ears!”

Right after that.

“CHURCH-PEOPLE-LISTEN-“

“DO-NOT-WORRY-“

“WE-ARE-RESCUING-YOU-NOW-!”

His powerful voice shook the area, making the debris pile tremble and dust fly everywhere. There was a commotion inside as well, with clattering sounds indicating their surprise. The important thing was that we had communicated our situation to the church.

‘Now that they know we’ve cleared the monsters around the church, they shouldn’t do anything stupid.’

Another wave of demon minions came during our work, but they were quickly cut down, and after more effort than it took to deal with the monsters, we finally succeeded in clearing all the debris…

“Stand back!”

“What, what’s going on?”

“Hey! Step back this instant!”

To our surprise, someone who looked like a paladin and a high priest or bishop were extremely wary of us.

“We came to the church to cooperate in defeating the demon—”

“You wicked servants of the magic tower! Do you have any conscience? Do you lack even the minimum decency that humans should possess?”

“No, what’s with the sudden—”

“Such deception in front of a church where God is watching!”

What the hell is wrong with this guy, has he lost his mind?

After we saved them from being buried alive, they immediately accused us of not being human! It was so absurd I couldn’t even get angry.

But looking more carefully, I noticed that the gaze of that stubborn-looking priest and the seemingly inflexible paladin was subtly directed away from me.

“Ah.”

Subin, who had been floating ice chunks around to protect our group from the heat, belatedly canceled her magic, but…

‘I see.’

Considering that the magic tower was responsible for this disaster, from their perspective, we might have approached with suspicious intentions.

Whether moderates, hardliners, or adventurers who had just entered the city.

The church had never been on good terms with magicians to begin with, and Magikant was a place with a magic tower. Add to that the fact that it was the culprit behind the demon’s manifestation, and to the church people here, magicians of any kind were probably trash not worth associating with.

‘Tsk.’

I abandoned the idea of swiping the Fragment of Edenic. If we hadn’t met the church people at all, it might have been different, but we even had a mission that required entering the church.

‘Rahan won’t be of help either.’

Before things got any worse, I took out the Fragment of Edenic from my inventory.

The reaction was immediate.

“…That is!”

“If we were in league with those who summoned the demon, would we have gone through all this trouble to come here? With this important item?”

“Oh! Lady Laela! Lady Justitia!”

The church people who had been hostile to us just moments ago knelt down and bowed their heads toward me, or more precisely, toward the Fragment of Edenic.

I wanted to snap at them for wasting time in this urgent situation, but the Fragment of Edenic was a relic of what a god had bestowed upon a hero in ancient times.

To the clergy, it would be more important than anything else, so I waited patiently.

For about 10 seconds.

“Now do you believe we genuinely came to help?”

“That, the fragment of the holy sword!”

“Handle it with care!”

When I asked while waving the fragment around, they were greatly alarmed. They seemed afraid I might drop it.

Their reaction was truly amusing, but I had to ask.

“The demon. You need to defeat it. What are you doing here?”

“You seem like an outsider adventurer who just arrived without knowing the situation, but with this few people, there’s no way to defeat the demon! That demon isn’t just any ordinary demon, and besides the demon, there’s also a crazy magician who wants to burn down the entire city. If it were just the demon, maybe, but with only about ten people, holding out was the best we could do.”

“What if we cooperate? We’ve already defeated all the monsters nearby.”

“…”

“It’s not like you have a choice anyway. If things continue like this, you’ll just burn to death.”

The old priest and the paladin wore gloomy expressions. I waved the Fragment of Edenic again.

“Rahan.”

“I’m listening.”

“Is your belief that giving this fragment to the church will help defeat the demon… still valid?”

“…I don’t understand the complexities, but…”

Rahan sighed, which was rare for him.

“At least I’ve realized that things are quite different from what I expected.”

“Right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing much.”

As the paladin tried to join the conversation, I waved the Fragment of Edenic again and said:

“Let’s defeat the demon together. Then I’ll donate this fragment to you.”

“…How dare you.”

“How can you treat the holy sword as an object of bargaining!”

They cowered and held out, and I was willing to overlook that, and even gave them respect because they seemed to have some age and experience, but these cowards have the nerve to lecture me?

“If you don’t like it, I’ll just leave.”

You should do what’s befitting of clergy.

Take the hit.