As Megumin's final sky-shaking roar rang out, "[Explosion]!!" destructive energy powerful enough to reduce everything for miles around to scorched earth burst forth.
But the massive explosion they expected never detonated on Sylvia. The instant that raging deep-red magic touched the air, it was pulled as if by some powerful magnetic field, spinning wildly as it surged into the dead rifle in Kazuma Satou's arms.
"Huh? Huh? Huuuh?!" Megumin froze in place, still holding her staff out, completely dumbfounded. "My Explosion Magic... got eaten by that clothesline pole?!"
Bzzzzzzzz!!!!
Now infused with both sacred magic and Explosion Magic, the rifle was no longer just a weapon. It shook violently, emitting a high-frequency shriek so intense that even the gravel around it floated into the air.
Kazuma Satou was slammed by the terrifying recoil so hard that blood sprayed from the web of his hand. With a scream, he was forced flat onto the ground, bracing the stock against his shoulder for dear life while his legs carved two deep trenches through the mud.
"K-Kōichi! Help! This thing's gonna explode! It's sucking out my lifespan!!"
Kazuma's face was shaking so hard his cheeks rippled, and his eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets. "With how much power it has now... I think it could punch a hole straight through the planet!!"
Kōichi stared at the barrel, which had turned from silver-white to an eerie purple-gold. The pressure coming off it felt like standing before an ancient god, and even he couldn't help taking half a step back.
"Hang in there, Kazuma! You're the man with EX-class luck! Aim at that perverted Gundam and fire already!!"
Sylvia completely panicked.
Her proud Mage-Killer Core was now screaming in despair, its alarm reduced to a shrill wail.
As she stared at the pitch-black muzzle spewing an aura of destruction, Sylvia's massive mecha body actually twisted into an extremely feminine pose. She covered her chest with her enormous steel arms, her voice tinged with both seduction and pleading.
"W-wait! Kazuma-san! Can you really bring yourself to do it?" Sylvia's synthetic face somehow showed a pitiful, delicate expression. "Weren't you staring at my chest earlier? Didn't you say... this mature, voluptuous charm is the one thing you can't resist? Put down that rod, and I... I can let you experience something even more real and warmer than that dream from before. Are you really going to destroy all this softness with your own hands?"
Kazuma Satou froze.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto Sylvia's heaving chest. His fierce expression gradually went slack, and a suspicious clear liquid even trickled from the corner of his mouth. Then, as if remembering something, he clenched his teeth in frustration.
"Soft... real... big boobs..." Kazuma muttered. "They really are perfect, but the moment I remember you've got something on you that absolutely shouldn't be there, I just can't, dammit!"
"Don't worry! Kazuma-san, I can cut it off! I can become anything you like!" Seeing her chance, Sylvia twisted her snakelike steel waist even more aggressively. "Come into my arms... Let's create a new world together, a world with nothing but big boobs..."
"A new world with nothing but big boobs..."
The light slowly vanished from Kazuma's eyes, as if his soul had been sucked away by those two spheres.
As Sylvia kept swaying that sanity-draining metallic snake waist, unleashing the physical attack known as Ultimate Seduction, her huge electronic eyes suddenly narrowed and released two strange, deep-red beams.
It was Demon King's General-level mind control, [Charm Red Light]!
"Kazuma-san... come here... throw away that cold iron rod... come into my arms..."
Sylvia's voice now seemed to echo directly inside Kazuma Satou's mind.
Kazuma Satou, who had been gritting his teeth and holding on, went limp the instant the red light swept over him, as though all the bones had been pulled from his body.
His bloodshot eyes completely lost focus, and the fingers that had been gripping the trigger began to loosen little by little.
"Hehe... big boobs... doesn't matter if it gets cut off... as long as there are spheres..."
Kazuma Satou wore an utterly depraved, vacant grin, drool already dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the rifle.
"Hey!! Kazuma! You lust-blinded loser! Snap out of it!!"
Kōichi was so frantic he wanted to rush over and slap him, but the residual magic radiating from the purple-gold rifle was like an invisible wall. An ordinary person couldn't get anywhere near it.
Just as Sylvia's enormous steel foot was about to take advantage of the opening and crush everyone's skulls, and just as the rifle, charged to its limit, was about to self-destruct after losing control, a tiny red figure with twin ponytails shot out from the shadow of the ruins like a bolt of lightning.
No one saw where she came from. No one imagined that the little girl who had always been treated like a mascot would appear in the middle of this hellish battlefield.
It was Komekko!
Her small purplish-red eyes shone with something even more dangerous than Sylvia: the gleam of a top predator.
With one flying leap, she landed right on Kazuma Satou's stunned back. Her little hands precisely grabbed the rifle barrel, which was hot enough to roast sweet potatoes, and without the slightest hesitation, she slammed down on the trigger.
"Fire. For. Me!!"
BOOM——!!!!!!
In an instant, the night sky above Crimson Demon Village was dyed pure white-gold.
It was no longer a bullet or a beam. It was a light of judgment, formed from sacred magic and explosive energy, powerful enough to pierce causality itself.
Sylvia didn't even have time to scream. Within a fraction of a fraction of a second after touching the beam, the Mage-Killer body she was so proud of began to collapse from the atomic level, vaporizing before finally becoming a wisp of red smoke that vanished into the void.
The massive shockwave cleared the surrounding ruins in an instant, forming a smooth circular crater with a radius of a hundred meters.
And at the very center of the explosion, amid the ash and sparks raining from the sky, Komekko had not been blown away by the recoil as everyone expected.
She stood steadily beside the completely wrecked rifle, which was giving off wisps of smoke, one hand on her hip and the other expertly covering her left eye. Her cloak, which was actually just a rag she had picked up, snapped in the wind.
"Hmph... I am Komekko! Younger sister of Megumin, the Crimson Demon Clan's number one genius Arch-Wizard! And the ultimate little girl who will one day turn the Demon King's Generals into dinner and master the power of destruction!"
Komekko's declaration was clear, bright, and overflowing with chuunibyou energy. "Mere scrap metal, daring to interrupt my snack time? This is your doom!"
Dead silence fell over the area.
The Crimson Demon Clan villagers who had just teleported back stared with wide eyes, then erupted into thunderous cheers.
"Ooohhh! As expected of Megumin's little sister! That timing for stealing the kill, that pose, she's a model Crimson Demon Clan member!"
"That child... she's definitely going to grow into one hell of a big-shot demon!"
Megumin no longer cared that her magic was drained. She lay on the ground, tears of emotion streaming down her face.
"Komekko... have you finally, finally stepped onto this path of no return...? Your big sister is so proud!"
Kōichi looked at the little girl striking a pose in the aftershock of the explosion, then at Kazuma Satou, who was still sprawled on the ground beside her with his eyes rolled back from the mental shock and recoil. He couldn't help letting out a faint sigh.
"That's Crimson Demon Village for you. So this is the legendary... Komekko-and-rifle combo?"