With the shield up, I couldn't get close to Paimon, aher could any of us. Nor could any of the ranged optioried- a crossbow, a lightning wand, a gun- nothing. Light and sound were making it through, though, and I found myself wishing that Mom had actually taught me that Death Laser spell she mentioned.

  "e on, man," I said, reag into my pocket and produg a pair of steel knuckles, whieeded just a touch of dimensional magic to get them to fit over my magigs, but then fit me absolutely perfectly. "You really think you stall us out, here?"

  "Stall, nothing," Paimon said from the ter of a ten foot radius spherical shield bubble. "I just need a minute or two to recharge." As he spoke, he strode towards Emily, still bound to the altar, and my breath hitched. No, no. "Now, what I think would hit the spht now is a willing sacrifice, don't you, little girl?"

  His eyes glowed bright red, and for a few moments, Emily's did, too.

  "That... sounds good..." Emily said, nodding slowly.

  "I'm going to beat you into mi," I growled, as Paimon she s holding Emily's wrists to the altar.

  "Aw, that's cute, the little redhead thinks he's Lysander," Paimon said, smirking as he put the ritual dagger in Emily's hands. "Now, go ahead, little girl. Bleed for me."

  "Okay," Emily said slowly, raising the knife in her right hand.

  "You're running oy, kid," Paimon said. "Maybe if you weren't so beat to shit, you'd stand a ce... or maybe not. But I am about to e bay full, undiluted pow-"

  The red light disappeared from Emily's eyes, and she pluhe bde deep into the ter of Paimon's belly, likely striking all sorts of vital ans. Paimon howled in agony as he stumbled back, the shield dropped, and as I rushed forward, all I could think was... it worked, it fug worked! Yeah, Paimon wasn't expeg it, and wasn't anywhere he top of his game, but it still worked! Ohhh, I am so fug gd I had that idea when I did.

  "So," I said, as Emily sat down in one of her room's folding chairs. "Given that it is possible for hypnosis and trandu to be doo people against their will... I suppose I should offer you an idea, which Volex will first firm or deny as a good idea."

  "Oh?" Volex and Emily said at the same time.

  "So, I was going to do the indu the hard way, which requires the trust and sent of the subject," I tinued. "Which, Emily, I am assuming I have from you, because you knew I nning to hypnotize you when you followed me upstairs and had verbally agreed to be subjected to such?"

  "Mhm," Emily said, nodding.

  "So, I think I , with your permission, impnt a few triggers and routines in your subscious ssh entranced mind that will make you, effectively, very difficult to hypnotize by aher than me. Is that... something you'd be ied in, as a safety measure? Actually, Volex, would that-"

  "That would work, and it's actually a very good idea," Volex said. "I say go for it, if Emily will let you."

  Emily wore a look of (truly adorable) determination on her face, and nodded.

  "Do it," Emily said firmly.

  "Alright, let's begin. Take a deep breath and hold it. Good. Now, let it go with a long sigh, and close your eyes and rex..."

  Of course, that idea wouldn't have occurred to me in the first pce were it not for why Emily wao join the Adventurer's Guild in the first pce...

  "...Alright," Emily said quietly. "I'll tell you."

  "I'm all ears," I said.

  "It's..." Emily trailed off, and then sighed. "...You see me as a shy, sweet girl, naive and i, pure in all ways, yet still undeniably and objectively beautiful. That's... that's iional. I was always going to be at least a little like that, but... I decided that I would lean into it, on purpose."

  "And... why would that be?"

  "I'm a trophy," Emily said simply. "To so many people, I'm a thing, and a desirable thing at that. There's... There's ing around that, not really. The elves talk about how they don't believe in gender roles, and how women are just as respected as men are, but the elves aren't in charge- humans are, and humans do believe in gender roles, and that isn't ging in my lifetime."

  "So..." I began, "...the Adventurer's Guild is a way to recim yency, and to prove that you're more than just an eborately-accessorized pair of breasts to be won by some lucky little pring?"

  "It's... It's not just that," Emily said. "It's... I don't know. I think I could talk myself into being okay with being a trophy to some Lord on the Surip, but Joseph, it's more than just that. There are a lot of people for whom the beautiful, i daughter of a powerful Duke isn't a trophy wife, but a material po. Bandits, demon cultists, blood mages, all sorts of vilins who really do try this sort of thing. It's because of them that I want to join the Adventurer's Guild."

  "So you be strong enough to thwart their pns, and protect everyone like you?" I asked.

  Emily shook her head. "That's what you're for. To be ho... I've wanted you as my Knight for a few years now, ever since I heard the name Napoleon Iro and learned he had a son my age. The reason I want to join the Adventurer's Guild is because I want to attract all these vilins to myself... so that I watch them die in agony as my brave, noble Knight, pure of heart, reduces their ambitions and plexities and cruelties to the simplicity of tor and broken bones, as he feeds them their owh."

  I blinked a few times as I processed what Emily had just said. She was joining the Adventure's Guild as bait for storybook vilins so that she could then watch me kill them. That was... Holy shit. There is something deeply wrong with this woman.

  If there was ohing I knew Emily wahat she had expressed to me with her own words out loud, it was this: she wao watch me beat this guy to death with my bare hands.

  And with my steel knuckles on... well. I wasn't gonhe oo deny her.

  My first blow took Paimht below the stab wound, spraying his profane ichor ay hand and forearm, and bending him over around my fist. My blow took Paimon in the jaw, and he crumpled to the stone floor, his arms ing up to try and protect his head from my fists as he nded on his back.

  So I punched him in the kidney instead, feeling his floating ribs splinter under my heavy fist, and relished the howl of pain that this wrenched out of him.

  Faith came in beside me, but rather than trying to nd her own blow, she simply grabbed him by the wrist, wreng one of his arms to the side, and giving me a clearer shot at his head for my blow. Talia caught on, and grabbed his other arm, and I simply straddled his chest, before beginning to rain down blows on him in ear.

  He struggled, bug like a wild stallion and howling with pain, trying to throw us off, but... He was exhausted. He had been weakened greatly by opening the portal, and Emily's misdire had taken even more out of him. There simply wasn't anythio him that would ge the fact that he was being pio the ground, both arms beirained by women who knew enough martial arts to put him in a pair of matg arm-bars, and who were finally in a situatiohey could do the move to pletion and break their oppo's arms.

  And sitting on top of him was aremely angry young man who, while perhaps not the stro even in peak dition- which he was nht now- did still have a half pound of hard and heavy iron on the end of each fist, and enough stamina to put them to work.

  Blow by blow, ch by siing ch, Paimon was reduced, was degraded, from a proud Demon King, a Living God of the Cruel Wastes of Hell, to a howling, screaming, bawling, and whimpering bag of tor and broken bones.

  There oint where he stopped screaming, when I crushed his windpipe, tired of the sound of his voice, and there oint where he stopped moving, but... Either that was when he simply gave up the fight and accepted death, or wheually died, I did not know. Perhaps one day, I would know these things, but right now, I had yet to sciously draw on so much as a sie of The Father's light, and I simply did not know at oint Paimon finally died.

  I only khat, whatever that time was, it happened before I decided the story was over, and I could finally, finally stop hitting him.

  And at that point...

  ...it was finally, at long st, all fug over.

  AnnouAs always, if you like Iro and wao keep making it, the best way to do that is to leave a ent, here or on my discord server.