In that instant, the sky seemed to split apart.
Megumin raised her staff high. Her already glowing red eye now looked as if it was burning, and she began her final chant, staking the dignity of the Crimson Demon Clan on it.
"Blacker than black, darker than darkness, merge with my deep crimson! The time of awakening has come! Let the laws that have fallen into the realm of absurdity appear as formless distortion! Explosion!!!"
At the same time, Wiz, standing beside her, cast off her usual timidness.
Her deep magic surged through the air. She did not have Megumin's dramatic lines, but the icy chill and destructive intent of a Lich were even stronger.
"With this single strike, let everything come to rest... Explosion!!!"
Two crimson pillars of light powerful enough to wipe out the map converged on the horizon, instantly swallowing the charging Mobile Fortress Destroyer whole.
"BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!"
The deafening explosion shook the earth. A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and the violent shockwave kicked up a storm of sand and dust, even knocking the guards on Axel's city wall off balance.
Within that destructive white light, the greatest masterpiece of ancient civilization let out one final mournful shriek of shattering metal before breaking apart into countless flying pieces and a rain of fire.
The battle was over.
After releasing their magic, the two of them lost their strength almost at the same time and fell backward like puppets with their strings cut.
Although Kōichi's legs were weak from being drained, his survival instinct and a certain masculine reflex forced him to squeeze out the last of his strength. He stepped forward and caught the soft, fragrant shopkeeper firmly in his arms just as Wiz was about to hit the ground.
"Nice work, Wiz. You saved the town, and you saved all that unsold junk of yours too."
Kōichi panted, feeling Wiz's body in his arms, a little cold but strangely soft, and could not resist teasing her.
"Uu... K-Kōichi-san... Thank goodness..."
Wiz's face turned bright red. Even though her magic was exhausted, she still gave him a breathtaking smile of relief before shyly burying her face in Kōichi's chest.
On the other side...
"Oooooh! It blew up! It really blew up! We're rich! We're rich! That's ancient metal! Even one scrap of it could pay for a year's worth of booze, right?!"
Kazuma was staring at the scattered wreckage in the distance with shining eyes, his mind completely filled with thoughts of getting rich. He had totally forgotten the companion behind him who had just risked her life.
"Thud."
That was the crisp sound of flesh making intimate contact with grass.
Megumin, still holding the pose she had used to cast her magic, fell face-first into the dirt in a perfect spread-eagle. She even slid forward a few centimeters from the momentum, her slender little legs twitching weakly in the air.
"Heh... hehe... Explosion Magic... is the best..."
Megumin's muffled muttering came from the dirt.
"Hey! Kazuma, where the hell are you looking?! Megumin's been flattened like a pancake!"
Kōichi, still holding Wiz, could not help shouting at his money-crazed teammate.
"Huh? Ah! Megumin! Sorry, sorry, I was calculating the depreciation rate on that pile of scrap metal..."
Kazuma finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly tried to pull Megumin up. Instead, his foot slipped, and he landed right on Megumin's back, making the Crimson Demon Clan girl let out another miserable groan.
"Waaah! My magic! My divine power! My silky-smooth mana pool is completely empty!"
Aqua sat collapsed off to the side, wailing like a brat who had just had her toy stolen.
"Kōichi! Kazuma! You two vampires! Sadists! Scum! Give me back my mana! Buy me the most expensive red wine as compensation!!"
Farther away on the grass, Darkness was being rolled around by the aftershocks of the explosion while letting out spine-chilling, breathy moans.
"Ah... this is the feeling... being completely ignored by my companions amid the flames of destruction... being mercilessly ravaged by the aftershocks... Kōichi, you really do understand me... Hah... hah..."
Kōichi looked at this utterly chaotic band of heroes and sighed helplessly.
The town had been saved, but he had a feeling the problems that came next, such as that teleported nuclear core, might be even more of a headache than the Destroyer itself.
The smoke had not even cleared before Axel's adventurers, like a pack of hyenas catching the scent of meat, let out a roar ten times louder than the one they had made during the battle and charged toward the Destroyer's wreckage, waving all kinds of bizarre tools.
"Ooooh! That's Mithril Alloy! Mine! That's mine!"
"Don't touch that gear! I saw it first! You bastard, eat this clubbing!"
The solemn battlefield instantly turned into a giant bargain-sale brawl.
Kōichi held the still-limp Wiz in his arms and watched these people who would throw away their lives for money, the corner of his eye twitching.
Kazuma was already nowhere to be seen. He was probably mixed into the crowd, making a fortune with [Lurk] and [Steal].
"W-Wait for me! You greedy mortals! How dare you fight over loot in front of a Goddess!"
Aqua had been wailing over having her mana drained, but the moment she saw Eris flying everywhere, she instantly revived on the spot.
She lifted her soaked feather mantle and dove headfirst into the wreckage like a nimble white goose.
"Move! Move! The most valuable treasure obviously belongs to Aqua-sama, who has both beauty and wisdom! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"
Kōichi looked at Aqua's butt sticking up in the air and shook his head helplessly.
After about half an hour, the frenzied scavenging finally came to an end.
Kazuma came back looking thoroughly cursed, holding a few oil-covered precision bearings while still grumbling.
"Damn it, are those guys locusts or what? They didn't even leave me one screw! Kōichi, if you'd helped me hold them back just now, we could've at least traded for a full set of top-tier equipment!"
Just then, Aqua came running back with mud all over her face and her hair in a bird's nest, wearing a mysterious look of confidence that said she had done something incredible.
"Hah... hah... Look! Kōichi! Kazuma! You shortsighted mortals!" Aqua planted her hands on her hips and threw her head back in an outrageously smug laugh. "All that scrap metal may have been snatched away, but I found this! This is the ultimate treasure of the Destroyer, the most central, most mysterious object, the one that best represents the wisdom of ancient civilization!!"
Kōichi and Kazuma exchanged a look, then leaned in.
What Aqua carefully pulled out from her arms was... a battered notebook with a yellowing cover, even stained with some unknown coffee mark.
"A diary?"
Kōichi raised an eyebrow.
"Huh? This is all you brought back?!"
Kazuma completely broke down. He snatched the diary and flipped through a couple of pages, his face turning darker than the bottom of a pot.
"'Day 1: Since the government won't approve the funding, I had no choice but to use the remaining budget to buy tonkatsu donburi...' 'Day 10: The air conditioner in the core room broke. I want to die...' 'Day 30: I finally finished writing the automatic walking program. Now I can eat tonkatsu donburi while taking a walk...' Hey!! This is just the useless daily record of some shut-in researcher! Where's the valuable stuff?! Where are the ancient Magic Circle blueprints?! Where's the Coronatite refining method?!"
"Huh? But... But it looked really historical!" Aqua froze, her smug expression gradually crumbling as her eyes rapidly reddened. "I definitely saw it inside the fanciest box... Uuu... I even got stepped on several times by that bearded warrior to grab this thing... Waaaah! Kōichi! Kazuma! Those people stole my red wine! They stole my big house!!"
"So what are you even good for besides causing trouble, you idiot Goddess?!"
Kazuma slammed the diary onto the ground and stomped in frustration.
By then, Wiz had recovered a little strength. She rose from Kōichi's arms and awkwardly picked up the diary.
"Um... It may not have monetary value, but if we hand it over to the Kingdom's Archaeological Society, perhaps we could receive a small medal of honor or something..."
"Can a medal of honor buy tonkatsu donburi?!"
Kazuma roared.
Kōichi looked toward the distant city wall. He could already see the lord's guards rushing toward them with murderous intent, while from the direction of the mushroom cloud, a faint, miserable roar of rage seemed to echo.
"Alright, stop arguing."
Kōichi calmly clapped his hands, a decisive glint flashing in his eyes.
"Let's run before anyone connects that explosion to us. Aqua, stop crying and wipe your face. We're sneaking into the tavern as nameless heroes who saved the town without asking for anything in return. That way, if the lord starts investigating the manor explosion, we'll have an alibi!"