Chapter 25: The Legend Of This Crimson God!
Finally, it was over. The battle against former general Sylvia was the most challenging and terrifying thing that Yunyun had ever faced. There were a few points there where she thought for sure that she was going to die but somehow she'd managed to make it through with her life still intact. In fact, to her knowledge, no one other than Sylvia herself had died that night.
With the battle behind them, Yunyun and her future sister-in-law Elsie, and it felt weird to think about the fact that the demon girl was going to be her big sister hopefully sooner than later, made their way over to where the rest of the Crimson Demon Clan were waiting. Elsie had offered to give her a ride in her 'fire engine' but Yunyun was already too shaken up to want a ride in that infernal death machine at the moment. She didn't think that her stomach would be able to handle it. So, instead, they hiked up the mountainside to where the crowd was gathered.
The two girls were met with a roar of cheers as they came into sight, Yunyun's people celebrating their victory with the same bombastic energy that they did everything. Yunyun mostly tuned them out, though, only having eyes for where her father, best friend and her fiancé were all waiting next to the smoking remains of the ancient weapon, along with some of her old school friends as well.
"Yunyun, my precious, darling baby girl!" her father cried out to her as Yunyun ran up to him, not even feeling embarrassed as he wrapped his arms tightly around her and hoisted her up into the air like he used to do when she was younger. "You were fantastic out there!"
Yunyun couldn't even formulate a verbal response, just letting her tears flow as she hugged his neck so tightly she was practically strangling him.
"It seems that the Railgun wasn't meant to be fired twice in such quick succession," Keima commented beside them, his attention mostly focused on the smoking pile of scrap metal that had once been one of the ancient weapons guarded by her people. "Hopefull you never end up having to need that thing again."
"Keima!" Elsie managed to knock her brother clean off his feet with a flying tackle as Yunyun was set back on the ground, wiping away a tear with a smile on her face.
"Where the hell have you been?" Keima shouted at his sister angrily, though still managed to return her hug.
Elsie stiffened at that, pulling herself off of her brother and taking a few steps back. "Well…"
"Hey, guys, I think you might need to take a look at this!"
Yunyun and the others turned to where Megumin was standing with the help of their old classmates, Dodonko and Funifura, and pointing weakly down to the village. The future chieftess followed her direction and her eyes widened in horror at what she saw.
Sylvia's remains started to writhe and twist as if she was in terrible agony despite the fact that she should have been dead already, before finally busting into a geyser of thick, dark liquid. The purple goop bubbled and contorted in strange ways as it seemed to grow larger and larger, far exceeding the size that Sylvia had been even after absorbing the Mage-Killer.
"I WANT TO LIVE!" Sylvia's voice echoed through the valley as the rising torrent of fluid thickened into a jelly-like substance, a chaotic assortment of metal and flesh shifting in and out of its form.
"JOIN US!" a deeper, man's voice followed as a massive helmet emerged from the writhing mass, a single red glowing from behind its visor.
"I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE RETIRED!" another man's voice was accompanied by a white mask poking out from the other side, surrounded by feathers.
"I'M TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH ME!" a woman's voice shrieked as a pair of batlike wings grew out from it.
"I WILL LIVE!" Sylvia's naked form tore itself out from the top of the bubbling, gooey monstrosity, surrounded by a ring over massive yellow fangs, as she shouted to the heavens.
"What is that?" Someone shouted from behind Yunyun, many more voices rising up in confusion and panic.
"She's back from the dead?" Nerimaki shouted from nearby.
"Not just Sylvia," Yunyun's father said as he stepped forward, trying to put on a brave face but she could hear the nervousness in his voice. "That writhing mess is Hans the Deadly Poison Slime!"
"And that's General Verdia's helmet!" Megumin gasped.
"Is that White Robe's mask?" the headmaster of the Red Prison asked. "But no one's seen him in years!"
"Those are the Devil King's daughter's wings! I'd recognize them anywhere" Bukkororii stepped forward, most of the village's men nodding in agreement for some reason before Soketto struck him over the back of the head with her open hand for some reason.
The various limbs and headwear were sucked back into the slime before its toothy mouth clamped down around Sylvia, pulling her back in. The whole thing seemed to boil and swell, tentacle-like growths branching out from the main body and waving through the air chaotically.
"I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!" Sylvia's voice rang out again from the gurgling mass. "I REFUSE TO DIE!"
Yunyun retreated back into her metaphorical shell, pulling her arms close to her chest quaking as she took a step towards the comfort of her father. Sparing a glance around, she could see that many of the other Crimson Demons also seemed rather unsure of themselves.
"Do you think we should run now?" One voice rose from the crowd.
"Of course not!" Chief Hiropon shouted, turning to their people. "Just who the hell do you think we are? We're the Crimson Demons! We don't just run at the first sign of danger! We face it head-on and show danger who's boss! This may seem like the summer of our discontent but soon the hour of our victory will be here! Who's with me!"
All of the gathered Crimson Demons joined their chief in pumping their fists high into the air, except for Yunyun who continued to stand there shaking, and Megumin who had barely managed to flip herself over so that she was lying on her back instead of face down in the dirt.
"Now! Cursed Lightning!" Yunyun's father turned on his heel back towards the ever-growing slime engulfing their village and shot his hand out while the riled-up crowd behind him began to cast their own Advanced-level spells as well. Instead of the usual mighty bolt of black and purple lightning shooting forth from his fingers to electrify his enemy into submission, however, only a flicker of weak sparks shot from his fingertips before quickly dying off entirely. None of the other Arch Wizards saw any greater success, either.
Everyone, Yunyun included, turned to Keima and the blackened shaft of metal next to him.
"What?" he said defensively once he noticed that all eyes were on him.
"It would seem that the ancient weapon drained all of our mana to fire its second shot, not just the spells we had cast," Arue nodded satisfactorily. "Truly an impressive weapon, indeed. Worthy of our ancestors to pledge their lives to guarding it."
"Hah!" Megumin suddenly laughed. "That means all your magic combined was only a match for just one of my Explosions! Truly I am the greatest magical prodigy to ever live!"
"Seriously?" Keima muttered, mostly to himself. "We have an entire town's worth of the strongest mages in the country and not a single one of them can cast a spell right now. What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"Well, it would seem that we only have one option left to us at this point." Yunyun's dad closed his eyes and nodded, before turning back to the crowd. "Strategic retreat!"
The chief took off running as fast as his powerfully built legs could carry him, nearly the entire clan following suit. Soon, only Yunyun, Keima and Elsie were left standing on the hill, as well as Megumin lying on the ground and Komekko skipping around by her sister like nothing was wrong.
"Okay, looks like it's just us, now," Keima sighed in exasperation. "Can't say that I'm surprised. If this were a book, then we'd probably be the main characters… More like a badly written fanfic, really."
"A-are you sure that we can beat that thing?" Yunyun asked, walking up to her fiancé as his sister took her place by his side.
"Hell no," Keima shook his head. "But I don't think that we have a choice other than to- What the hell happened?!"
Keima's eyes widened with panic and Yunyun turned around to see what had him so shocked. The next thing she knew, she was grabbing onto his arm for dear life and stammering up a storm while she heard Elsie mutter something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'I want that'.
The writhing purple thing that had once been General Sylvia had continued shifting and contorting while they'd been distracted. Now, instead of a featureless purple blob of goo, it was a watery blue beast with hour armor-plated legs, a massive jaw full of sharp teeth that were all at least as large as a horse, a long, spear-like tail waving through the air behind it and a pair of massive wings sprawling through the air from its back. Even as they looked on in horror, Yunyun could hear Sylvia's voice laughing maniacally as her body emerged from the top of the slime beast's head, looking much like she had when fused with the Mage-Killer save for that her hair now appeared as if it was made of the same watery slime as what was now her lower half.
"So…" Keima said slowly. "Somehow, Sylvia returned."
"I MANAGED TO KEEP MY SOUL FROM MOVING ON!" Sylvia declared, turning her focus on them and starting to march forward. "AND NOW, I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!"
Yunyun wasn't sure that she had ever been so utterly terrified as she was in that moment, as the titanic hybrid monster made of at least five former Demon King Generals rushed towards them with killing intent in her harsh gaze, and was pretty sure that she was going to have to throw her underwear out after this in the unlikely situation that she made it out alive. Yet, Keima's firm hand rubbing against her back served to reassure her enough that she was able to stand her ground. If she was going to die at least she would do so with the man she loved.
"I wish Kazuma and the others were here," Keima said grimly.
"Because they'd be able to come up with a plan to stop her?" Yunyun tried to follow his line of thought.
"Because I'd rather have them here than us," he replied, before he and Yunyun turned to see Elsie stepping out in front of them and raising her hand out to the rampaging monster.
"Stop this madness at once, Sylvia!" she yelled and, to Yunyun and Keima's surprise, Sylvia actually slowed to a halt at her command. "There has to be a way that we can resolve this peacefully!"
"I'M TIRED OF ARGUI-" Sylvia suddenly cleared her throat. "I'm tired of arguing this with you!"
"So am I!" Elsie shouted back. "Revenge is stupid and nearly got you killed!"
"I know!" Sylvia snapped and… was she crying? "I don't even care about that anymore! All I could think about as I was getting dragged off to the afterlife was how much I wasted my life on such meaningless things! I put my work ahead of everything else and let any chances of a personal life or romance pass me by! But now I see how stupid I've been all this time! I want love! I want friends! I want people who will be there for me when I need them!"
"Then let us be those people!" Elsie spread her arms out wide as if offering the former general a hug.
As Sylvia seemed to actually be considering that offer, Keima let go of Yunyun, who was too stunned by this unexpected turn of events, and stepped towards his sister.
"Hey, Elsie," he whispered to her out of the corner of his mouth. "What are you doing?"
"What I learned from my big brother," she whispered back. "I'm on her route."
"What the hell do you mean, 'you're on her route'!"
"Trust me, I got this."
Keima looked like he was about to keep arguing but was cut off by deranged laughter as Sylvia swept back her watery hair and whipped her head back and cackled like a mad woman. Which, Yunyun supposed, she was.
"You know what, fine!" Sylvia said as she looked back down at them. "You've been the only one in years other than my soldiers who actually seems to give a damn about me. Why not- augh!"
Yunyun gasped and practically fell over as a pair of red arms suddenly reached out from the mass of slime below Sylvia and grabbed her before a demonic-looking woman pulled herself up out of it.
"Absolutely not!" a woman who Yunyun could only assume was the daughter of the Devil King, though scaled up to the same size as Sylvia, yelled furiously. "We're burning this stupid village to the ground and leaving nothing left of these mongrels that do nothing but constantly peep on me from their observatory but ash!"
Yunyun would have been more shocked by that accusation if she hadn't heard rumors of it before. Suddenly, the reactions that the Crimson Demon women had to the men recognizing her wings on site made sense.
"No!" A man rose up this time, angelic in appearance and with a white mask covering his face. He must have been the retired general known as White Robe. "We're tracking down that infernal lich and dragging her down to hell with us! In fact, why not go after all of our so-called comrades? I never should have let myself be seduced by their sinful ways!"
The helmet of the Dullahan Verdia emerged from inside the beast's mouth, one eye glowing red. "That girl with the pink tie looks cute! Let's have some fun with her, and the little demon girl!"
Yunyun felt panic seize her once again even as Keima stepped in front of her and held a defensive arm out as if protecting her from the infamous lecher.
"That's all a waste of time!" the mouth around Verdia's helmet spoke up in what must have been Hans' voice. "Those bastards who killed me should still be in Arcanletia! Let's head over there so that we can kill them and their little birdie, too. We can destroy the city while we're at it!"
"I said that I wanted to live and I meant that I want to live!"
As the five not-so-dead generals of the former Devil King's army began to bicker about what to do, Yunyun, Keima and Elsie gathered around to figure out what to do. Even Megumin managed to hobble over them using her staff and younger sister for support. It seemed that her significant increase in level and, more likely, some skill or two that Kazuma had forced her to take had significantly increased her recovery time.
"Okay, we need to come up with a plan while they're distracted," Keima whispered as the five of them huddled together. "They've got to have some kind of weakness, right?"
"Do you know what happens when a chimera is hit by an explosion?" Megumin asked smugly. "The same thing that happens to anything else!"
"There's no way that it would be that simple," Keima interjected.
"If only Mister Hoost was here," Komekko said. "I'm sure that he'd know what to do."
"Who?" Keima asked.
"Her imaginary friend," Megumin supplied. "She's been talking about him since shortly before I left the village."
"Hoost is not imagin'ry!" Komekko pouted. "He's my demon fam-ill-ee-ar!"
"Okay, well does anyone have any real plans?" Keima asked again. "Because I've got nothing."
Yunyun racked her brain, trying to come up with a solution. She felt like there was something obvious that she should be seeing but couldn't quite figure out what it was. But then her eyes settled on the purple raiment wrapped around Elsie's shoulders and she glanced over at the bickering monsters as something finally clicked.
"Wait a minute," she spoke up, causing everyone to turn their attention to her. Ah! Why did they have to do that? "Th-they're a-all merged together, r-right?"
"It looks that way," Keima nodded.
"Sylvia said that she had the power to absorb things into herself to make them a part of her," Elsie elaborated, making Yunyun wonder when the girl would have been told that. "She must have done that on the other generals while she was dying but something went wrong with the process so she wasn't able to fully absorb them."
Keima stared at his sister, who glared back at him defensively.
"What? I can be smart sometimes!"
Yunyun cleared her throat to try and get them back on focus and, ugh, why did she have to be the one doing this?
"B-b-but it l-looks like one of them is a demon and another is an angel, r-right?" she continued. "B-but demons and angels don't mix together, right? Like how Elsie caught fire when Aqua tried to heal her with holy magic?"
"Yeah, that's right," Elsie nodded and rubbed her hands along the silky raiment that Aqua had given her after accidentally destroying her original in that incident. "But I'm not weak to holy anymore, since I joined the Axis Order, and if that guy was a demon general, then he's probably like a fallen angel, or something, not a holy one."
"O-oh." Of course, she should have figured that out herself. This whole thing was stupid and she was wasting their time, and-
"Yunyun has a point, though," Keima said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Those generals are all completely different species and if they weren't properly absorbed by Sylvia's chimera abilities then they might not be properly compatible with each other. If we attack them where they all connect with a strong enough hit, then we may be able to split them apart."
With a goal in mind, it didn't take them long to finally come up with a plan of attack. It was risky but it was all they had. Yunyun could only pray that things would work out, which felt odd given that the Crimson Demons had never really had a god of their own. Then again, Yunyun did have the God of Conquest at her side, even if that was only a title.
For now.
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
While the Crimson Demons prided themselves on being the greatest Arch Wizards in the world, that was not entirely true. If they wanted to be, they could also be the greatest Crusaders, Arch Priests, Assassins or any other class they chose. It just so happens that they had all collectively agreed since the day of their founding that Arch Wizard was the best class and therefore the class that they would all commit themselves to. They were, simply put, better than everyone else on a fundamental level. While the fact that they were genetically altered superhumans created as soldiers for the Noise Kingdom before being deemed unsuitable for their original purpose due to their personalities had been lost to history, the results of it couldn't be denied and they had long since chalked it up to being literal descendants of former Devil Kings who had cast aside their evil ways and been erased from history by their successors.
Regardless of why the Crimson Demons were what they were, however, their self-proclaimed status as the best of the best left them with a tremendous sense of pride in themselves and their accomplishments that was at the root of their culture and eccentric mannerisms. That was why, as Chief Hiropon ran down the hill as fast as his powerfully built legs could carry him while his people followed his lead, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Rationally, he knew that there was nothing more that they could do to fight the Great Beast Sylvia. Their entire clan had used up their mana reserves to power the ancient weapon in order to destroy the Mage-Killer and, as strong as they were in hand-to-hand combat, there was absolutely no way that they could hope to take on an opponent that was, most likely, at a significantly higher weight-class than the Devil King himself had been. Without reaching the secret manatite reserves in the Forbidden Tomb aka the Red Prison's underground warehouse aka the school basement, there was simply nothing to do.
But rationality had never meant much to a Crimson Demon.
Hiropon skidded to a halt at the base of the hill just as he reached the trail leading up to the old schoolhouse, and turned to his people to do a quick headcount. As their chief, the safety and well-being of every Crimson Demon was his responsibility, after all, and it wouldn't do for him to lose one of his people in the midst of all this chaos.
"Is everyone here?" he called out.
The various replies he got seemed to point towards yes, so Hiropon nodded satisfactorily and turned back towards the school.
"Wait."
He then immediately turned around again to see the daughter of their clan's greatest actors and his recent part-time assistant, Arue, stepping out from the crowd with a concerned look on her face. Hiropon had always been fond of the girl, who had a deeper understanding of their people's culture than anyone of her generation including, unfortunately, his own daughter. In fact, if he had a son, Hiropon would have hoped that they could get together one day. Unfortunately, that hadn't been in the cards as even with their tremendous magical prowess, there was nothing that could be done to have prevented the complications that arose in his late wife's second pregnancy and-
'NO! Bad Hiropon! Put on a brave face for your people, you can cry later!'
"Yunyun, Megumin, Komekko and their friends from outside the village are missing," she said. "They must have stayed behind to face Sylvia alone."
Okay, never mind the brave face.
"My sweet baby girl!"
Hiropon's legs found new strength as he ran all the way back up the hill faster than he'd ever gone before. He'd lost far too much to let anything happen to his precious daughter. He barely even noticed the rest of his clan storming behind him as they rushed to the aid of Yunyun and her friends. What they found as they reached the hilltop where they had just unleashed the awesome might of the ancient weapon, however, was not what they expected to find at all.
There was no sign of the children and where the formless blob of poisonous slime had been now stood a monstrous, watery hydra of fallen Devil King Generals, the bodies sprouting from its back and gaping mouth all bickering and fighting with each other. Panic gripped Heropon's heart as he looked around frantically for his daughter and her friends, praying to any god that would listen that they were alright.
"What's that?"
The chief turned to where someone was pointing, finally noticing the giant red chariot circling the beast, a white arm-like attachment reaching up into the sky from its back. With the enhanced sight of a Crimson Demon, Hiropon could just make out two people standing atop the platform at the other end of it just before he finally heard their familiar voices.
"Generals of the Devil King's army!"
"Y-You're time in this world is over!"
"It is time that accept your fate and move on to the next life!"
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
Keima's knuckles were turning as white as the railing that he was holding onto for dear life as they raced laps around the perverted hydra of dead generals. He was standing atop the raised platform above Elsie's fire engine, which was extended up to its highest position. Yunyun was with him, practically wrapped in his arms in front of him as she clung tightly to Megumin's staff. Elsie, of course, was driving the infernal death machine while Megumin and Komekko were both safely inside as well. Only Keima and Yunyun would be risking themselves on this insane suicide mission. Despite that, though, he felt a strange feeling of calmness wash over him.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked the timid girl in front of him.
"Y-yes," she nodded, turning to him so that he could see the determination burning behind her crimson eyes. "L-let's do this!"
"Alright." Keima closed his eyes for a moment, preparing himself for what he was about to do. Once he was ready, he opened them again and shouted as loudly as he could. "Generals of the Devil King's army!"
The five fused monsters in question stopped their bickering and in-fighting to turn to the two Arch Wizards circling them atop the strange red vehicle, unlike anything any of them had seen before.
"Y-You're time in this world is over!" Yunyun continued the little speech that they had planned and rehearsed on the way there.
"It is time that accept your fate and move on to the next life!" Keima finished.
"How dare you try to order me around!" the Devil King's daughter yelled, finally taking her hands away from where she'd been trying to restrain Sylvia. The chimera, for her part, merely gave them a scrutinizing look as she tried to figure out what they were planning.
"Who doth though think you are?" White Robe demanded, prompting Keima to smirk.
"Who am I?" he parroted. "I am a shepherd of runaway souls, once tasked with finding the spirits of those who escaped from hell and returning them to where they belong! I am Keima Katsuragi, the God of Conquest!"
"And I am Yunyun, future chieftess of the Crimson Demons and betrothed of the God of Conquest!" the girl added. "On behalf of my people, whose village you have destroyed and whose lives you threaten, I shall defeat you!"
The mass of bodies turned as Elsie continued circling them, driving as fast as she could. As Keima suggested, a body of that size couldn't turn very fast and the number of clashing personalities vying for control just made their coordination even worse. So far, everything was going according to keikaku.
(*Keikaku means plan)
"Stay still, you little brats!" The armored head of Verdia shouted at them, rising up from Hans' mouth at the end of a tentacle that looked almost like a tongue based on its positioning.
Keima and Yunyun both took a step in opposite directions so that they could stand back to back, both raising an accusatory finger at the multiheaded monster before speaking in perfect unison. "We have seen the ending!"
A sudden roar of cheers and applause sounded from the nearby hill, nearly throwing both of them off balance. It seemed that the Crimson Demons had returned and witnessed their dramatic speech. Fortunately, this served to their advantage as it distracted the former generals, which would make the next part easier. Keima loved it when a plan came together.
Elsie finally came to a stop behind the slime monster's back now that all five of its heads were focused on the crown of Crimson Demons, allowing Keima and Yunyun to each grab hold of Megumin's staff and point it directly at their target, the spot where Sylvia, the Devil King's daughter and White Robe emerged.
"Though I have sworn to never use this spell again, fate has left me with no other choice," Keima began his chant, a spiral of sparkling stars pouring into the magical staff as arcane energy unlike anything that he had ever channeled before gathered. "I am the bone of my staff. Wood in my body and magic is my blood. I have conquered over a thousand hearts and have known death to be here this day. So, as you pray-"
"Light of Saber!"
"Explosion!"
The darkened sky and flash of light behind them were enough to alert their targets what was happening and Sylvia was the first to turn. Rather than do anything to stop the incoming attack, however, the growth chimera seemed to accept her fate, grabbing the devil and fallen angel beside her so that they were too busy struggling to react. So, as the combined magical energy of Keima and Yunyun's spells swirled together into a lance of explosive light, their attack aimed true, striking the monster at the point of convergence and unleashing enough magical force to utterly obliterate the bastardized chimera in a show of force so devastating that it would later be said that the explosion could be seen from the capital.
Both young Archmages had put everything they had into that attack and, much as Megumin did every time she cast her beloved spell, they collapsed as soon as it was over, unable to so much as stand. But that didn't matter. They had won. Nothing could have possibly survived that.
…Right?
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
The next thing Yunyun knew, she and Keima had been carried on the shoulders of the celebrating Crimson Demons to the Red Prison's dining hall where a massive feast was being held in honor of their victory. Or at least as massive as they could manage when they were limited to just the school's food stores, anyway. The village itself had been completely leveled.
But that was only a minor setback for the Crimson Demons, for whom that level of destruction was nothing new. What was new was how little of the damage had been caused by the Crimson Demons themselves.
"To our heroes!" her father raised a class of blood wine, which was not made with real blood, and everyone there of drinking age mimicked his gesture. Also a few that weren't. "To the God of Conquest, our next chief, and those who helped them!"
Normally, Yunyun would try to make herself seem as small as possible to try and avoid notice, noting being even remotely comfortable with this level of attention. However, at the moment she was too tired to put in the effort and just felt relieved to even be alive after everything that had happened. Plus, with her father on one side and her fiancé on the other, she felt far more comfortable and secure than usual. She felt like she could take on the world. Figuratively, of course. That would still have been way too much attention on her.
Speaking of her fiancé, this was prime snuggling time. Yunyun, leaned over and rested her head on Keima's shoulder, using the pretense of how tired they both were to get away with it. Shifting to look up at him, she even saw a spark of joy in his brilliant red eyes as he returned a relieved smile.
Wait… No, Keima's eyes were brown. It must have just been a trick of light that made her think for a moment that he had… But that was impossible. Only Crimson Demons had eyes like that and he wasn't one of them. At least not by blood, anyway. In a few short years, they would be wed and she'd go on to bear his children and at that point, he'd be a Crimson Demon in every way that mattered.
Yunyun started to daydream about the twelve kids that she would have with Keima but was soon pulled from her thoughts as Elsie stood up on Keima's other side, turning to leave.
"Where are you going?" Keima asked her, sounding utterly exhausted.
"Oh, uh…" Elsie glanced around nervously as she turned back to them, which seemed odd. "Nowhere, I was just… Just going to check up on my fire engine. She's been through a lot today, so want to make sure that everything's still running fine. You understand, right?"
"Fine, fine, just don't stay out too long," Keima said dismissively before she ran off in a hurry. "She's always been crazy about those things."
"But isn't her… fire truck… supposed to be a divine relic?" Yunyun asked, training her tired mind to remember what she'd been told of the odd, autonomous vehicle. "I thought it was supposed to be indestructible."
"She probably just forgot," Keima replied.
"Right," Yunyun nodded. "It'll probably be fine."
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
For as easy as it was for a growth chimera to absorb things into themselves, it was generally much harder for them to detach parts. Not impossible, though, and Sylvia was exceptionally powerful even for a member of her species. So, as soon as she'd realized that those kids were up too, not only did she make sure that the bastards trying to take over her body took the full force of the attack on died like the filth they were, but she also managed to sever herself from the rest of the amalgam that she'd inadvertently let herself become in her desperate bid to avoid moving on into the next life.
She'd been thrown clear by the blast and was badly burned it was nothing that she wouldn't be able to handle. Her injuries were already recovering nicely as she dragged herself along the forest floor by her elbows. She'd lost most of her collected menagerie of parts and been incredibly weakened as a result to the point where even back at her regular size it was still taking longer than usual to regrow her legs, which had only just gotten to her knees. But, that would only be a minor setback. Now that the whole world thought she was dead, she had all the time in the world to-
A scythe's blade sunk into the earth mere inches in front of Sylvia's outstretched hand, causing her to immediately freeze up. Her eyes widened in terror as she sat up on her still-growing shins to see the damned demon bitch smiling down at her.
"So, you realized I survived and came to finish me off?" Sylvia surmised, feeling nothing but quiet dejection. Had she really fought so hard just for this? To be killed off, alone, in the middle of nowhere by the girl she'd tried to exploit. "Fine, just get it over with."
Elsie leaned forward, getting close enough that Sylvia could feel her breath brushing gently against her face, before calmly placing a finger under Sylvia's chin and forcing her to make eye contact.
"You really haven't been paying attention, have you?" Elsie whispered softly as she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. "I'm not here to kill you, Sylvia. I'm here to make you mine."
Sylvia shuddered as the demon girl's lips suddenly pressed up against her own. Her first instinct was to struggle, to pull away, but then that impulse quickly melted away. When Elsie pulled back again, tears were running down the lonely chimera's cheeks and Sylvia reflexively pulled Elsie into an intense hug.
"There, there," Elsie whispered into her ear as she patted Sylvia's back reassuringly. "You're not alone anymore. I'm here for you."
Sylvia had spent her life surrounded by people who loved and were loved in turn by those around her. Until her brush with death, she'd never thought much of it. Love simply wasn't for her. Now that she was beginning to realize what she'd been missing out on, she could kick her old self for her stupidity. She didn't even care that the demon was probably just manipulating her. She needed this.
"Although, we may need to wait a while before letting the others know," Elsie said after Sylvia had finally gotten the tears out of her system and had pulled away again. "I'm sure that they'll accept you as a friend eventually but they'll probably need some time."
"That's fine," Sylvia replied, a knowing smirk crossing her lips. "After all, do you realize who you're talking to? I am Sylvia, the growth chimera. I can absorb anything I want into my body and take on any form I please from them. Just give me a few minutes in this forest, and I'll have the perfect disguise."
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
In the next exciting chapter of God's Blessing, God Knows: The Voyage of This Unlucky Caravan!
"Everyone, get behind me!" Darkness shouted and suddenly dashed forward to the head of the ground, sword gripped firmly in both hands. Only the three people who knew her noticed the drool running down from her mouth. "Let my body be your shield from this vile beast!"
This was not a side to Darkness that Kazuma was used to seeing from the shameless masochist he knew and he was beginning to think that maybe giving her proper weapon proficiencies and improving her accuracy may have been a mistake. Sub Darkness was bad enough, the world didn't need a Dom Darkness. A Domness, if you will.
"What'd you do that for!?" Aqua shouted, slapping Kazuma upside the head before noticing the dazed smile on Darkness' face.
Author's Notes: I knew pretty much from the beginning that I wanted Keima and Yunyun to use a combined Light of Saber/Explosion to finish off Sylvia's final form in front of a crowd of cheering Crimson Demons. It wasn't until I rewatched that scene in the movie for reference while writing this chapter that I realized how similar it was to how Megumin and Yunyun finish her off in canon, which left me with a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, I don't like following canon too closely since chances are you've all watched the anime and/or read the books (which I've finally gotten around to starting). On the other hand, Keima and Yunyun's Light of Saber/Explosion combo is going to come back in a different form later, so I needed to keep a version of it here. Hopefully, I managed to keep things interesting enough and this should be the last time that will be an issue. While our nominal heroes will be going to the capital after both halves of the party return home, things will have diverged enough by the time they get there that the story will be heading in a very different direction from that point on.
Also, Elsie's capture attempt has finally paid off! While I needed the kiss as part of the 'conquest' in the vein of Keima's back in their home series, I wasn't originally planning on having any sort of relationship between them after that other than as friends and master/servant, but now I'm toying with the idea of actually having them get together. However, that comes with unfortunate implications given that Elsie is mentally and physically a teenager while Sylvia is an adult, even if Elsie is actually the older of the two if you go by years. Though, in my defense, Sylvia chooses to look the way she does and is actually quite naive and emotionally immature, so I'm going to go ahead and run with the idea that she's comparatively much younger than she seems and actually closer to Elsie's apparent age. She's going to be spending most of her time disguised as a snake, anyway, and I think I'll make it so that on the rare instances we see her in humanoid form again, she'll take on the form of a teenager to match her new girlfriend.
I could go either way on it, though, so I'd like to get some reader input. Should I pair Elsie and Sylvia together or not, and why?