Just as Kazuma Satou's hands closed around Aqua's slender neck, ready to accomplish the great feat of slaying a Goddess, Kōichi suddenly cried out and slammed his hand down on the last page of the diary, nearly tearing the yellowed paper from the force.
"Wait! Kazuma! Don't strangle her yet! Look at this line!" Kōichi pointed to the self-mocking passage at the very end of the diary and read it aloud.
"'...Although the Mage-Killer is flawless, I still left one final failsafe. It's an electromagnetic rifle that converts magical power into ultra-high-frequency vibration waves. Since it looked too tacky, the Crimson Demon Clan rejected it for not being cool enough, so I tossed it into the alley behind the clothing store and used it as a clothesline pole. If some unlucky bastard ever needs it, remember to charge it first...'"
The air went dead silent again.
"A c-clothesline pole?!"
Kazuma Satou slowly let go of Aqua and froze as if he had been struck by lightning. In his mind, he saw the long, rusty iron rod they had examined yesterday in the alley behind the clothing store, the one with several pairs of middle-aged women's bloomers hanging from it.
"You're telling me the ultimate weapon that can save the world is that thing we were messing with yesterday?"
"Quit wasting time! Hey! You, mustache guy! Take us back to the clothing store right now!!"
Kōichi shouted at the villager outside the window, who had been just about to run away again.
"Oh? You're going to retrieve that ominous clothesline pole? Since this is to unveil the Crimson Demon Clan's ultimate decisive battle weapon, I'll make a special exception and take you back one more time!"
The mustached man, who had looked completely spineless moments ago, suddenly fired himself up again. With a flamboyant spin and a wave of his staff, he shouted, "Teleport!!"
White light flashed, and everyone returned once more to Crimson Demon Village, now reduced to a sea of flames.
Kōichi kicked open the half-collapsed back door of the clothing store and yanked down the iron pole with the wet laundry hanging from it. As the rust on the outside shook loose, it revealed a silver-white alloy rifle body with a sleek, near-futuristic design, along with an electronic display flashing red like mad.
"Warning: Energy level below 0.1%. Please connect to a power source."
A mechanical voice came from the iron pole.
"How are we supposed to use this thing?! Why does it only have a progress bar on it?!"
Kazuma swung the heavy iron rod around in a panic. In the distance, Sylvia had already spotted them and was charging over with a roar.
"Charge it! It says it needs charging!"
Kōichi grabbed Aqua and dragged her over as if she were an oversized portable power bank. "Aqua! Stop crying! Pour all your magic into it! I don't care how, just hurry!!"
"Waaahhh! You're all so mean! I'm a Goddess, not a battery!!"
Aqua sobbed loudly while stubbornly reaching out and gripping the rifle's handle with both hands. "Fine, if you want it that badly, take it all! Behold, Sacred High-Tier Magic Infusion!!"
Bzzzzzzzz!!!!
In an instant, a terrifying blue light burst from Aqua's body, so intense it nearly took their breath away, and surged wildly through her arms into the clothesline pole.
The once silver-white rifle body turned almost transparent. Dense sequences of runes lit up inside it like blood vessels, releasing a high-frequency hum loud enough to drown out Sylvia's roar.
The air around them began to warp, and the members of the Crimson Demon Clan all showed looks of terror.
"H-hey! What's with that energy fluctuation?!" The uncle, who had been calm just moments ago, backed away several steps. "Magic on that scale... it's like forcing an entire lake into a tiny bottle!"
"Huff... huff... I-I don't have anything left..."
Aqua's eyes rolled back, and she slumped limply into Kōichi's arms like a deflated balloon, as if her soul had flown off along with her magic.
By now, the rifle in Kōichi's hands was no longer just a clothesline pole.
Tiny arcs of blue Lightning coiled around it. The pressure it gave off was so overwhelming that even Sylvia, who had been charging straight at them, stopped in her tracks. For the first time, the red glow in her massive electronic eyes carried something like fear.
"W-what is that..."
Sylvia's voice trembled.
Kōichi felt the weight of the constantly vibrating clothesline pole in his hands. Sacred magic that seemed capable of tearing space itself apart was flowing through the rifle body and into his arm, making the space between his thumb and forefinger go numb.
He looked at Sylvia in the distance, shaken and uncertain enough to take an instinctive step back, and the corner of his mouth curled into an extremely villainous, show-off smirk. Then he casually tossed the blue-glowing rifle to the side.
"Kazuma! Catch! I'm leaving the recoil and aiming to you, lucky guy!"
Kōichi shoved his hands into his pockets and struck an absurdly cool pose amid the flames and rubble, then crooked his finger at Sylvia.
"Hey, busty mecha girl. You were acting pretty smug earlier, weren't you? Said you were going to turn us into a generator? Sorry, but we brought our own Goddess-brand overload generator. Now... are you ready to be scrapped?"
"You got it! Leave it to me!" Kazuma Satou caught the rifle with a roll and smoothly propped it on his shoulder, his eyes gleaming with sadistic excitement. "It may look like a clothesline pole, but as long as it can kill a pervert like you, it's a Holy Sword! Take this, Snipe!!"
Kazuma held his breath and pulled the trigger hard.
Click.
A crisp, hollow sound of metal striking metal.
There was no world-ending beam of light, and no deafening roar.
The rifle, which had been blazing with light a moment ago, flickered twice like a broken bulb, puffed out a cloud of black smoke, and died completely.
"Huh?" Kazuma froze, then frantically pulled the trigger again and again. "Hey! Fire already! It's clearly full of magic! Why isn't it working?! Does this thing need to warm up? Or does it have an anti-theft lock?!"
"Hahahaha! So it was nothing but a flashy toy!" Sylvia froze for a second, then burst into an even wilder laugh. Her massive steel body sprang into the air and came crashing down toward them like a meteor. "Since you're out of tricks, die!!"
"Protect Kōichi and Kazuma!!" The Crimson Demon Clan villagers who had just teleported back might have been cowards, but at that critical moment, they still displayed a shocking amount of chuunibyou fighting spirit.
Countless Advanced Magic spells rained down on Sylvia again, trying to halt her charge.
But before the Mage-Killer, those spells were still nothing more than tasty snacks.
As Sylvia absorbed the magic, her body grew even larger. Her enormous steel fist tore through the air with a shriek, moments away from crushing Kōichi's group into paste.
At that critical instant, Megumin, who had been standing silently at the rear, suddenly moved.
With a sharp flick of her hand, she hurled the black robe that symbolized her status as a member of the Crimson Demon Clan straight into the sea of flames.
Against the blazing fire, her small body radiated a suffocating pressure.
She slowly raised her right hand and gently brushed aside the eye patch covering her left eye. In that moment, her deep red eye seemed to flow with molten lava.
"Enough."
Megumin's voice was cold and clear, yet it rang across the chaotic battlefield like Death's whisper.
"Relying on strange machines, relying on comrades who run away... none of that is the romance of our Crimson Demon Clan. Kōichi, Kazuma, open your eyes and watch closely. There has only ever been one true ace."
As Megumin began to chant, the clouds across the entire sky suddenly started spinning and gathering, forming a gigantic funnel.
The magic Sylvia had drained from Crimson Demon Village was forcibly seized back by a will far more terrifying and domineering.
"Blacker than black, darker than darkness..."
Sylvia's charge stopped dead.
She stared in terror at the tiny girl chanting before her.
"H-hey... Magic on that scale... That little girl... Is she seriously going to unleash that here?!"
Kōichi watched the red particles of light rising all around them, then looked at Megumin's frail yet impossibly grand silhouette and swallowed hard.
"Kazuma, I'm thinking... is it too late for us to run?"
"Run, my ass! My legs have already given out!!" Kazuma Satou clutched the useless rifle, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
"With this as my crimson will, the time for awakening has come! Pierce the desolate boundary and become an intangible distortion!!"
At the tip of Megumin's staff, a crimson orb powerful enough to devour everything was expanding wildly.