The young templar threw up a hand to shield her face as another wave of raw magic shook the room. Dark magic coursed through the prison like a shockwave, sending tremors through the thick stone walls. Chains inscribed with light magic trailed down the hallway, reaching from the perimeter of the prison to where each chain was anchored by a vessel that served as a battery. The chains wound down the corridors to the center of the prison, where the templar bravely advanced towards. An unholy howl rang out from its dark bowels. The templar flinched, unable to stop the instinctive trembling that took over her body.

Joyce walked past her at a steady pace, looking entirely unbothered. She glanced at a cobweb in distaste and swatted away a spider. The swordsman stopped to check on the templar, giving her a glance of concern.

"You good there?" Spade asked. The templar nodded shakily, gazing at them in wonder. Kari was the best and bravest of the kingdom's templars, and she could barely get herself to inch forward past this point. Interdimensional warriors really were different, she thought to herself as she watched Joyce nudge a chain with her foot, looking a little bit bored.

"Y'all really like graffiti, huh?" Joyce said, nodding her head at the inscriptions on the walls. Kari blinked in surprise, fighting to steady her voice as she replied.

"These inscriptions tell the tale of the battle between our great hero Angor and the Demon King, and the cruel deeds of the demon army," Kari managed to say with an even tone, "They remind us of the danger that would come to pass if the demon king were to rise again."

Joyce glanced at her, looking unimpressed. "I'm not big on reading really tiny words," Joyce said. "What's the thirty-second summary? The guy in there doesn't seem strong enough to warrant all these jangly boys." Joyce pointed an accusing finger towards the center of the prison and then at the chains.

Kari gulped. Not too strong? Just how powerful was this mage that the monster in there seemed weak to her?

"Uh," Kari choked out. Spade patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"Take your time," he said encouragingly. "Not too long though, we have another appointment in two hours."

Kari sucked in a deep breath. "The demon king conquered nearly the entirety of the continent five hundred years ago," Kari said. The plaque at the entrance said as much, and Spade had stopped to read it, but Kari supposed that he couldn't be bothered to humor Joyce's questions when there was a templar there to do it for him.

"The demon king was vanquished by the great hero Angor, but the Great Sage said that the demon king's soul was not completely destroyed. They predicted that in five hundred years, the demon king would be reborn and rise again," Kari said, voice bitter with hatred. She nodded towards the center of the prison. "That was born on the five hundredth year anniversary and feeds off of dark magic in the atmosphere. The more it grew, the more powerful it became-"

"How do you know you got the right guy though?" Joyce cut in. "I've fought a few demon kings and this dude doesn't have the same vibe."

"Of course we have the right one!" Kari protested, cheeks flushing at the accusation. "We thoroughly exterminated the demon tribe over the last five hundred years, there are no longer any beings alive that use dark magic, and yet that thing was born with the ability to use it. Can't you sense how powerful it's become? We can't allow the demon king to rise again!"

"Ooh, extermination, huh," Joyce said in a mocking tone.

"Joyce," Spade cut her off, shaking his head slightly. Joyce rolled her eyes and proceeded forward. Kari turned to the swordsman, questions bubbling into her throat.

"Did the ministers not show you the Book of Angor?" Kari asked softly.

"Joyce hates reading," Spade said after a short pause. "She didn't read the book."

Kari stared at him in shock. "But-"

"If there's anything we need to know just sum it up for us," Spade said. "What's so important about the Book of Angor?"

"Well, everything," Kari said, fighting to keep the incredulous tone out of her voice. "It details the demon king's skills, you literally need it to survive your encounter." The whiplash she was getting between her initial impression and what the interdimensional warriors were turning out to be was giving her a headache.

"Does that mean Lady Joyce doesn't know the demon king's passive skills?" Kari asked, horror mounting in her chest as she realized what a death trap she'd volunteered for. Her footsteps ground to a halt. Kari silently cursed the ministers for letting them go in so unprepared.

"No," Joyce's voice rang out from down the hall. "I know exactly what I'm in for."

///////

Joyce did not, in fact, know what she was in for. But she wasn't about to admit as much in front of a templar that was growing closer and closer to a panic attack by the second. Instead of nicely explaining with a powerpoint presentation, the ministers had presented the three-hundred-page Book of Angor with reverence and insisted she read it. Joyce did not read it. Why did people always assume she could read? But once they did it got too messy to insist she couldn't. Sure, the book had cultural significance and all, but all those workers in the palace and no one could just give her a ten-minute rundown? People always assumed that mages were all scholarly and liked books, but the most powerful mage alive actually grew up on internet videos.

The corridor in the prison was needlessly long, and there were a truly unnecessary amount of chains. The fear of whatever they were keeping in there translated to a very high payout, so it wasn't like Joyce minded. Joyce activated her skill Descriptor, which was a skill that did exactly what it claimed to do, describing the target and whatever skills it had. A screen visible only to her showed up, with several icons on it. Joyce tapped on the green icon corresponding to Skills.

"Oh wow," she blurted out, as the screen began to list out the skillset in a mechanical voice only she could hear. The skills were basic as hell. Overlord, Dominance, Rallying Cry, Lava Burst, Hellfire, Teleportation, Evasion, Poison Immunity, and so the list went on. Nothing particularly interesting like the Lord of Dance skill she'd seen a few weeks ago, or Hero Seducer, which was funny but also didn't work on Joyce. The passive skills, however, were really annoying.

Infinite Recovery. No matter what damage was inflicted, the user would automatically recover immediately. It was a 10th-tier skill, so it could only be disabled if the user ran out of magic power. That wouldn't be so hard for Joyce to achieve, but the other skills made it more difficult.

Backup Magic Storage. Exactly what it sounded like. If the user ran out of magic power, the 16th-tier skill would replenish the magic from a backup power source stored in a pocket dimension. Joyce could forcefully disable that or keep inflicting damage until the magic ran out, but that would just activate Lama's Loop. That passive skill would automatically enable the user to regress to ten minutes before death if the user died after having Backup Magic Storage disabled. Resurrecting via Lama's Loop would then trigger the passive skill Backup Reset, which would reset the Backup Magic Storage and allow the user to activate Infinite Recovery.

In other words, it was an endless feedback loop unless Joyce killed the user without disabling Backup Magic Storage, which would still leave her stuck with an unkillable demon king with Infinite Recovery. There was a long list of other passive skills listed as Not Unlocked, and Joyce tuned them out.

The thing about a feedback loop like this was that it was too infallible, and that violated the principles of reality itself. While its unique components were all below 20th-tier, the combined effects would be equivalent to 40th-tier magic. Normally, a user could only unlock part of the skills in a feedback loop, and they would have to mix and match between sets of skills to achieve the desired effect, which wouldn't really boost the effect of their magic as much. The exception was if they tied their skills to an Oath of Death. The name was self-explanatory, but users had to swear to do or not to do something within the realm of plausible possibility and would die the second they betrayed their oath. This reduced the overly-OP nature of the feedback loop by adding external vulnerabilities. Joyce swiped back to the main menu and pressed the blue icon for Oaths and Pledges.

Oath of Glory, the mechanical voice said. In other words, strive to bring glory to those who swear loyalty to you or die. You didn't have to succeed, but you did have to keep trying. It was also inheritable, so if the demon king had a kid that poor sucker would've been born under the same oath. Currently inactive, the mechanical voice added helpfully after a long enough pause that Joyce nearly closed the screen in the meantime. Joyce blinked.

Not active? Then why was the feedback loop active? She tapped on the help button, and another screen popped up to take her question.

"Why is the feedback loop active?" Joyce demanded, ignoring Kari's questioning look.

Passive oath, Transcendental Protection currently active, the system replied. Passive oaths were those that applied to the user but were sworn by someone else.

"Whose passive oath?" Joyce asked.

Imperial Guards of the Demonic Army, the system said. It proceeded to list several names that Joyce ignored.

"Just tell me about the passive oath," Joyce said.

"What passive oath?" Kari asked from behind her.

"Be quiet, you're not relevant to this conversation," Joyce said to her, ignoring Spade's admonishing swat to her shoulder.

If the Demon King or the King's descendants are unable to defend themselves, the oath will enable the feedback loop to take effect regardless of time, place, or status of the Oath-takers. Cannot be applied retroactively.

Joyce waited patiently, hoping that the system would elaborate. It didn't.

"Elaborate. When would the Demon King be unable to defend himself?" Joyce demanded.

If the Demon King were reincarnated in a world without the Demon race, the system said. Joyce mulled the words over a bit and clicked back to the main menu. After a moment of contemplation, she clicked on the red icon for Overall Summary, listening as the system listed out the basic characteristics and attributes.

"Oh ok," Joyce said grimly.

"What's the matter?" Spade moved forward to check her expression.

Joyce looked at him and shook her head. "That guy in there, he's human."

"He's the Demon King's reincarnation!" Kari sputtered. "He's definitely not human!"

"Uh, he totally is??? His race is literally Human, it's pretty damn clear," Joyce said. Kari shook her head firmly.

"That's what it might say if you use an Inquiry skill," Kari said.

"Which I didn't," Joyce shot back.

"But it is written in the Book of Angor that even if the Demon King is reincarnated into the vessel of a human, the essence is still a demon!" Kari pressed on determinedly. "That's part of why they wrote the book in the first place, so we wouldn't fall for such mistakes. You would know if you had so much as bothered to look at it!"

"Well, I didn't," Joyce said. Kari's face flushed bright red. Joyce sighed and rolled her eyes, picking up her pace as she marched into the center of the prison. She had no patience left. It had been a long week, and whatever politeness and decency she was still capable of mustering was reserved for civilian interactions and not overpaid government goons.

She burst into the center of the prison, kicking open the door like a narcotics officer on a drug raid. Joyce stared in shock at the person in the center of the cell. The person was tied from head to toe in chains, visibly malnourished to near-starvation, and very, very small.

"Y'all've got a fucking child in here," Joyce said in shock. Spade entered the room, brisk footsteps slowing as he took in the sight. The young boy let out a wordless scream at their presence, magic coursing off his tiny frame in waves. Kari entered cautiously, looking at the boy with fearful eyes. The waves of magic nearly threw Kari against a wall, and Joyce begrudgingly threw up a shield for the templar. The kingdom was paying them, after all.

"This is fucked up," Joyce said to Spade. He didn't respond, walking towards the boy instead. The swordsman's aura intensified as he approached the boy, who screamed more as Spade got closer. Spade slowly squatted down and met the boy's terrified gaze in steady silence. After a long moment, Spade turned towards Kari. Oppressive killing intent filled the room, and Kari looked like she was having trouble breathing.

"Since when have you imprisoned him like this?" Spade asked. Joyce took a few steps to the side so he could intimidate Kari in peace.

"F-from seven years ago," Kari stuttered, gasping as Spade directed his glare at her.

"And how old was he?" Spade asked, voice deceptively gentle even as his killing intent grew stronger. Kari fell to her knees, sweat dripping down her face.

"P-p-please," Kari gasped. Spade looked down at her, expression unchanging. Joyce watched as the templar gasped for air. Even the boy had stopped screaming, watching the scene unfold with a look of frightened confusion. Joyce kicked Spade in the ankle.

"Yo, I don't think she can answer," Joyce pointed out. Spade nodded sagely, and the killing intent receded to a more bearable amount. Kari gulped in the air, shuddering as she let out a wheezing breath.

"Answer the question," Spade said. Kari flinched, hunching into herself and not daring to meet his eyes.

"T-three years old," Kari whispered. She turned a pleading look between Spade and Joyce. "We had to! His magic killed all the livestock within five miles when he was born, no matter what we tried, none of the light magic we used on him could contain his power! The Demon King-"

"That's bullshit," Spade snarled. He stepped away from her and turned to Joyce. "We're not doing this."

"Yeah nope," Joyce agreed, holding up her fingers in a peace sign. "We're out of here. What do you want to do with the kid?"

"You can't just walk away!" Kari cried out desperately. "You agreed to help us!"

"Not if it's like this, we won't," Joyce said. "I agreed to defeat a Demon King, not kill a ten-year-old. The fuck do you take me for?" Spade nodded in agreement.

"If you go back on your words, the entire Kingdom will be out for your heads," Kari looked between Joyce and Spade fearfully.

"You're threatening me?" Spade growled, stepping forward. Kari shrunk back on herself.

"N-no, but that was part of the contract!" Kari cried, holding her hands out in a pacifying gesture. "The contract you signed, it was in bold words at the top, don't you remember?"

Spade and Joyce exchanged an uneasy look. There had been something in bold on the contract. There had actually been several paragraphs in bold. Joyce glanced back at the boy and then back at Kari.

"I didn't fucking read it," Joyce chose to say. "You think I'm gonna read that shit?"

Kari gaped at her in shock. "You didn't read the contract for something this important?"

Joyce lifted her chin and looked down haughtily. "That's right."

Kari sighed and deflated a little. She grasped uselessly for words, opening her mouth several times but giving up and sighing instead. After a long moment of silence, Kari sighed again.

"Please, you must take care of this problem for us," Kari said in a pleading tone. "Get rid of the threat to our hard-won peace."

Joyce briefly ran over her options mentally before turning back to the boy covered in chains. Joyce tilted her head and snapped her fingers. The boy disappeared, empty chains clanging to the floor.

"There. Bam." Joyce turned back to Kari. "You happy now?"

Kari's eyes were wider than a stoned person's. "What the- how?!"

"The demon king's got a recovery loop that won't run out until he's out of magic, and he's got a lot. I threw him in my pocket dimension in a damage loop, and I've got way more power so he'll die eventually. It'll take too long to do it here, I've still got more appointments today," Joyce explained. That was a big fat lie but none of the mages in this world would be able to prove it. No matter how hard they looked, the demon king's reincarnation would simply no longer be in this dimension. After all, there were probably fewer than ten mages alive that could make undetectable pocket dimensions, and Joyce was the only one in this particular world right now. Kari looked visibly confused but nodded haltingly.

"I...see," Kari said. "We should probably report that."

"Yeah," Joyce said. "Tell them to teleport the money over, would you? We've gotta run for our three o'clock."