Because he saw the glow of an Explosion spell hovering between my palms.
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“………………A draw. Yes, I see. Very good, Adventurer. I shall send you back to my castle first. Will that satisfy you?”
“’Fraid not. I told you not to turn that corner. ‘Just listen,’ I said, and ‘promise me you won’t get angry.’ Now that you’ve seen this, I can’t trust what you say anymore. What if you teleport me into a pit of lava? Then I’d die, and I wouldn’t even get anything out of it, right?”
The Demon King swallowed heavily, never taking his eyes off the glow in my hands. “Yes, you’re right. What should I do, then? You know that if you unleash that spell from such close range, you’re as good as dead. Even if you were at a safe distance, you’d bring this dungeon down on your own head. That’s why you didn’t use that spell before, isn’t it?!”
Well, more or less.
“Tell me, how is it that an Adventurer who can’t even use advanced magic can wield a far, far more powerful and complex spell like Explosion? What are you?”
“Good question. Gosh, even I’m not too sure sometimes. Like, am I…their guardian? Lover? Keeper? Master? Friend? Party member? Cohabitant? Man, none of those labels quite fits.”
I was really fretting, but the Demon King just kept looking at that light, sweating bullets.
“See, I know a girl who loves this spell. She uses it at least once a day, and I’m always there with her. Day after day after day after day, hearing the incantation and seeing the gestures, until even I picked them up.”
The light between my palms was getting so bright and hot, you’d think it would burn me. If I let my concentration slip for a moment, it would explode. I was pretty impressed to realize Megumin controlled something with this sort of power every single day.
“At point-blank range, a pathetic weakling like you would be incinerated without a trace. But I am the Demon King. Some Adventurer’s Explosion simply cannot defeat me in a single blast, you understand?”
“You sure about that, now that Aqua’s weakened you? It’d at least bring this dungeon down on your head—isn’t that what you said? You might survive the spell, but how about being buried alive?”
The Demon King went quiet again. I must have lost a lot of blood because I was feeling light-headed.
I need to get this over with.
“Do you not fear death?” the Demon King asked.
“Of course, I do,” I said. “I’m shaking in my boots. I’ve died a bunch of times already, and that only makes it worse.”
Yes, dying was scary. Frankly, I felt like I might burst into tears at any moment. The thought that I might not see any of the others ever again just about broke my heart. But…
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“If you simply allow me to die, I’ll take my enigmas with me to my grave, depriving humanity of the knowledge. Don’t you want to hear how I got my name? And why my army—”
“Nope. Don’t care.”
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But…
Those girls probably figured I’d manage something.
“………Cursed—”
The Demon King started to intone another spell, but I didn’t let him finish.
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“Exploooosion!!”
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I unleashed mine instead!
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My body felt light and floaty. It wasn’t very reassuring.
Come to think of it, I couldn’t see or hear anything. But I did feel like there was a voice calling me from a great distance.
I sort of, kind of turned toward it. Just by wishing to approach the voice, I found myself drifting toward it. It felt like floating, but, like, the way you would in a dream.
Whatever it was, it was a weird sensation.
As I headed in the direction I felt like I was being called from, I finally saw a bright light.
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“Welcome to the Great Beyond. I am Aqua, the goddess who shall guide you onto your new path. Kazuma Satou, you died on the lowest level of a dungeon. It can’t be easy for you to hear this, but your life is over.”
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✦ ✦ ✦
………
I was back in a room I was already thoroughly familiar with. I thought I’d drifted into the light, but for some reason, Aqua was there. And so was Eris, right beside her.
If Aqua was here… Did that mean I’d successfully defeated the Demon King? I was really curious to know what had happened after our battle. Had she been sent back here the moment I beat the bad guy?
“Hey, Aqua, what happened after I teleported away with the Demon King?” I asked, but she didn’t look up, didn’t make eye contact. For that matter, her bangs hid her face and made it impossible to see her expression.
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“You have…several choices.”
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She sounded like she was reading from a script.
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“You can be reborn as an infant in this world.”
“Hey, Aqua, before I make any choices, you’ve got to tell me what’s going on here. What happened to everyone? Hey! Look at a guy when he’s talking to you!”
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Aqua continued to ignore my attempts to interrogate her, going on robotically:
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“…Or you may be reborn as an infant in the peaceful land of Japan.”
“Listen to me, for crying out loud! I’m asking you what happened after I left! If you keep ignoring me, I’ll jam my fingers in your nose and make you look at me!”
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At last, Aqua raised her head. Her voice was shaking.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Or…you can live p-peacefully in Heaven, where you won’t have to deal with any un-un-m-manageable party members, or go deep into debt, or be arrested, or…or have anything else awful happen to you…!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Now her shoulders were shaking, too, and big, fat tears started to roll down her cheeks.
…Wow, she’s seriously ugly crying.
Eris placed a hand gently on Aqua’s heaving shoulder. Aqua buried her face in Eris’s chest and sniffled loudly.
Seeing Aqua like that, I found myself feeling oddly philosophical. The way she was reacting, I guess it meant I couldn’t come back to life anymore. I mean, I’d been ready for that. Couldn’t really complain now.
In fact, I’d thought it would make me more upset, but I found myself surprisingly calm. Was it because I’d done what I set out to do and then arrived at this point after accomplishing my goal?
My goal… My goal was to get her home, back here.