Watching Beldia charge toward them in heavy steps, filthy and scorched from the blast, Kōichi and Kazuma did not retreat. Instead, they stepped forward in perfect sync.
The smiles on their faces could no longer be called mere arrogance. They were the pure, vicious smiles of hunters watching prey stumble straight into a trap.
"Kazuma, see that? That headless knight who calls himself the king of the Undead now looks like a burnt-up tin can." Kōichi stood with his hands on his hips, sounding as relaxed as if they were out on a picnic.
"I see it, Kōichi. And with that armor weighing him down, the way he runs makes him look like some giant metal duck." Kazuma pulled out a Holy Water spray he had bought from Wiz at half price and gave it a provocative little squirt into the air. "Hey, tin can over there, don't run so fast. You might fall apart."
"Grrrraaahhh! You damned humans! How dare you mock me like this!!"
Beldia trembled with rage. The head hanging from his left hand had gone bright red from fury, and even started puffing out little bursts of steam.
Kōichi turned to Aqua, who was already so excited she had started stretching in place.
"Aqua, see that giant moving bundle of EXP? Whether we get to drink top-shelf sparkling wine worth a hundred thousand Eris today, and whether you clear your name as the idiot Goddess in front of the whole city, all comes down to this one shot."
"No problem! Leave it to me!!"
Aqua abruptly stopped moving, and her expression instantly turned solemn and divine, though it would probably not last even three seconds. She raised her staff with the giant jewel set in it high above her head, and the ribbons behind her whipped wildly in the holy light.
"I am Aqua, Goddess of Water! The one true Goddess who governs all pure water and is worshipped by the Axis cultists! A mere Demon King's General like you can tremble before my purifying rain!!"
Kōichi and Kazuma silently retreated two steps in perfect understanding, and plugged their ears while they were at it.
"Sacred Create Water!!!"
At Aqua's shout, the gloomy clouds overhead were instantly pierced by a blue pillar of holy light.
Then, instead of rain, a terrifying torrent burst forth like a waterfall dam giving way, carrying pure energy powerful enough to purify any Undead. It spread in a wide fan as it crashed down on Beldia.
"Wh-what?! That amount of magic power... could you be...?!"
Beldia's floating head twisted in pure terror.
Splashhhhh—!!
The massive torrent of Holy Water swallowed Beldia whole in an instant.
His black heavy armor, which could normally withstand physical blows, now gave off a sizzling sound under the soaking Holy Water, as though it were being corroded.
In that instant, Beldia's once-agile movements became absurdly comical. Like a sunken ship stuffed full of lead, his legs sank deep into the mud softened by the water, and the giant sword in his hand became so heavy he could not even hold it steady. It slipped right out of his grasp and dropped into the muck.
"Glub... save... glub... my curse... it's disappearing..."
Beldia struggled desperately in the flood of Holy Water like a drowning beetle.
Watching this, Kōichi snapped his fingers at Kazuma.
"Kazuma, now! That idiot's head is about to get washed away. Go steal it. We're putting on a heroic beheading show for the whole city!"
"Heh heh, got it! Steal!!"
A sharp gleam flashed in Kazuma's eyes as he thrust out his right hand in a grabbing motion.
At that very instant, an intensely brilliant white light burst from Kazuma's hand.
It was the absolute-hit special effect of [Steal], triggered by his absurdly high Luck stat.
"Get over here, you tin can!!"
Kazuma let out an almost hysterical cackle.
Right before the eyes of the entire city, all watching through telescopes, Beldia's head, which had been hanging in midair spewing black smoke and roaring like mad, suddenly vanished into thin air. In the next moment, it abruptly appeared in Kazuma's arms.
Kazuma hugged the charred head tight like a rugby player clutching the ball. The force of it sent him skidding several meters across the muddy ground, kicking up a spectacular spray of Holy Water.
From the direction of the city walls came faint but thunderous cheers.
"Whoaaaa! There it is! Kazuma-sama's divine technique!"
"That was amazing! He actually snatched the General's head clean off!"
Hearing the cheers in the distance, Kazuma instantly got carried away.
The crafty, cautious look on his face was replaced at once by pure, unrestrained vanity. Hugging the head, he sprang to his feet, planted one foot on a chunk of ruined masonry beside him, and waved wildly toward the city walls. In his other hand, he held Beldia's helmet plume and bounced it up and down like he was showing off a trophy.
"See that?! That's the power of Team Kōichi! A mere Demon King's General is nothing more than a toy in my hands... wahahaha!"
"Hey! Kazuma! Let go of that thing! He's not all the way dead yet!" Kōichi shouted from behind, his eyelid twitching like crazy.
But at that exact moment, something unexpected happened.
Beldia's head, which Kazuma had practically been treating like a ball, had been jolted around so violently for so long that it triggered some kind of primal instinct born from sheer rage.
The charred head suddenly snapped its eyes open. Ghostly green flames ignited in its pupils, locking straight onto Kazuma's smug, triumphant face.
"You little punk... do you have any idea... who I am?!"
With a shrill screech, Beldia's head suddenly opened its mouth to an absurd degree, and a dense, blackened cloud of corrosive poison burst out along with the scream, hitting Kazuma square in the face.
"Waaaahhh! My eyes! My eyes! It stinks! It burns! Help me, Kōichi!!"
Kazuma let out a scream and leaped up like a cat with its tail stepped on. The head flew right out of his arms, tracing a perfect arc through the air before landing with amazing precision straight into the arms of Aqua, who had been standing there with her mouth hanging open, blankly watching the show.
Even worse, Beldia's huge headless body sensed where the head had gone and, despite the torrent of Holy Water crashing over it, charged toward Aqua and the head in her arms like a runaway steamroller. Even without its sword, it came barreling forward with fists still as heavy as iron.
"Huh? Huhhh?! Don't come over here! This rotten head is disgusting! Kōichi, save me!!"
Aqua clutched the head, which was currently trying to bite her nose, and went pale with fright. Tears burst from her eyes instantly. Then her foot slipped, and with a splash, she fell straight into the muddy swamp she had created herself.
Watching Aqua roll around with Beldia's head in her arms while that iron-tower of a body came stomping through the waves with overwhelming destructive force, Kōichi realized this was the final big moment of glory reserved in the script for the true hero.
With a sharp flourish, Kōichi snapped his hero's cape behind him, planted his foot, and shot across the muddy Holy Water swamp like an arrow loosed from a bow.
His movements were clean and decisive, and his eyes held the cold certainty of someone who had everything under control.
"Aqua, pass me the ball!!"
With a sharp shout, Kōichi closed in on Aqua. At the last instant, his body leaned back at an absurd angle, and he slid in with a spectacular, utterly physics-defying tackle.
Aqua was screaming her head off as Beldia's head bit down on her collar. Kōichi reached out with perfect timing, swatted the cursing, charred head free from her arms with his left hand, and flicked it up into the air.
"It's over, Beldia! Axel doesn't need a brainless landlord like you!"
Using the momentum of the slide, Kōichi twisted back to his feet, his right leg carving a perfect arc through the air. The sole of his shoe even seemed to trail a faint sacred blue glow from the friction.
Thump—!!
A dull yet crisp impact rang out across the wasteland.
Kōichi's foot struck Beldia square in the face. The General's head let out a terrified shriek and, like a baseball smashed with full force, shot off as a black meteor straight toward the far horizon.
"No... don't... aaaaaaahhh..."
Beldia's voice vanished into the sky along with his head.
The massive body that had been charging at Aqua instantly froze in place the moment it lost contact with the head.
It stood there comically with both fists raised, like a robot whose power had just been cut. Then it wobbled twice before crashing flat onto its back into the muddy pool of Holy Water with a thunderous boom, sending mud spraying a full meter into the air.
Silence.
Then, after that brief silence, an unprecedented roar of cheers erupted from the direction of Axel's city walls, loud enough to rip the roofs off houses.
"Kōichi-sama! Kōichi-sama!!!"
"My God! That golden right foot! Was that a miracle?!"
"Did you see that?! He didn't even look back. No, he didn't even look to see where the head landed. That was incredible!!"
Kōichi held his finishing pose after the kick, one hand pressing down on his cape. With his back to Aqua, still sobbing in the mud, and Kazuma, stumbling around with both hands over his eyes, he presented the spectators on the city wall with the image of a lone, invincible hero.
"Phew... Kazuma, make a note of this. I need to hold this pose for thirty seconds, until the artists finish sketching it," Kōichi muttered quietly to the air.
"Kōichi... ugh... I can't see anything... but judging from the noise, it sounds like you pulled it off again..." Kazuma crouched on the ground, rinsing out his eyes with water while grumbling resentfully.
"Waaahhh! Kōichi! That kick of yours almost hit my face! I want extra pay! I absolutely want extra pay!!"
Aqua crawled up out of the mud, covered from head to toe in muck and Holy Water, and lunged at him without a shred of dignity, trying to grab Kōichi's cape to wipe her face on it.