The Moment It Ended
Ruko's grip tightened as the last seconds of control burned away. His muscles screamed, his vision blurred at the edges, and the pressure insi.de his chest felt like it was trying to tear free.
Beldia struggled against him, curse energy flaring wildly, the Demon General finally abandoning composure in favor of brute force. The undead around them stirred again, sensing the shift, but none dared to interfere.
Whatever this was, it had become a duel neither side wanted interrupted.
"LET GO OF ME," Beldia roared, his presence cracking the ground beneath them.
"Not happening," Ruko growled back, teeth clenched. "You wanted me. You got me." Behind them, chaos tried to reassert itself. Aqua had dragged herself upright, shaking and furious, shouting incoherent threats at anything undead that twitched. Darkness lay sprawled nearby, armor wrecked but body still moving, laughing weakly every time debris shifted on top of her.
Kazuma crawled across the dirt with grim determination, one arm hooked around Megumin's shoulders, the other clutching a single mana potion like it was the last thing in the world that mattered.
Megumin's eyes were half-lidded, her breathing shallow. "Kazuma… is it time?" "Yeah," he said through clenched teeth. "It's time." He pressed the potion into her hand. She drank it without hesitation, coughed once, then forced herself upright, leaning heavily on her staff.
The mana surged through her, raw and overwhelming, burning through exhaustion and pain alike. Her smile was small but sharp. "I can do one more for sure, after that im kicking the bucket," she said. "The biggest one i'll ever greated."
Ruko felt it even before she began chanting. The air behind him shifted, magic condensing into something vast and terrifying. His instincts screamed at him to move, but he didn't. He couldn't. If he released Beldia now, the Demon General would escape the blast—or worse, turn it back on the town.
"NO NO GET AWAY—" Beldia snarled in panic, realizing too late what was happening. Ruko leaned closer, voice low. "This is where you lose, surprise mother fucker." Megumin raised her staff high, every last drop of mana pouring into the spell. Her voice rang out across the battlefield, clear and unwavering.
"EXPLOSION."
The world vanished. Light swallowed everything. Sound ceased to exist, replaced by pure force that tore through the field and shook Axel to its foundations. The blast obliterated the ground beneath Beldia, vaporized the remaining undead, and carved a massive crater where the Demon General stood.
Ruko was thrown backward like a ragdoll, his grip finally breaking as the Sealer snapped back into place with violent finality. He hit the ground hard, skidding across dirt and stone until his body stopped moving entirely.
Silence followed. Not the heavy, oppressive silence from before—but a stunned, empty quiet, like the world itself was checking whether it still existed. Smoke drifted upward from the crater. Bits of ash and glowing residue floated in the air, slowly fading. At the center, Beldia's presence unraveled, his form disintegrating piece by piece until nothing remained but scattered fragments of cursed energy that evaporated on contact with the air.
The Demon General was gone. For a long moment, no one moved. Then Aqua let out a shaky laugh. "Did… did we win?" Kazuma lay flat on his back, staring at the sky. "…I think we did."
Megumin collapsed immediately after, face-first into the dirt, staff clattering beside her. "This is my most beautiful one. Worth it," she mumbled faintly before going completely still. Darkness gave a thumbs-up from beneath a collapsed chunk of wall. "Glorious…"
Ruko didn't hear any of it. He lay on his back, staring up at the darkened sky, chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. His body felt heavy, unresponsive, like it no longer fully belonged to him. The backlash from the Sealer seal and Megumin explosion hit harder than anything he'd felt before, dragging him into a half-conscious state he couldn't fight.
And in that haze, he saw it again. A reflection of himself standing somewhere else—somewhere dark, vast, and wrong. His eyes were different there. Sharper. Older. Shadows clung to him like they recognized him. The feeling that followed wasn't fear. It was somehow a recognition. Who are you.
The thought sent a spike of panic through him. His heart raced, breath hitching as he tried to sit up—and failed.
"No," he whispered hoarsely. "Not now."
The vision shattered as footsteps rushed toward him.
Kazuma dropped to his knees beside Ruko, gripping his shoulder. "Hey. Hey, don't pass out now. You're not allowed to die after all that, well since you die again already and since you comeback alive."
Aqua stumbled over and immediately started chanting healing magic, her hands glowing as tears streamed down her face. "Don't you dare leave this on me! I already did enough!"
Warmth spread through Ruko's body, dulling the pain just enough for him to stay conscious. He exhaled slowly, forcing the panic back down where it belonged. Around them, Axel began to move again. Guards shouted orders, adventurers pulled themselves together, and townsfolk cautiously emerged from hiding. The damage was severe—walls cracked, buildings ruined, the battlefield torn apart—but the town still stood.
They had survived. No one noticed when Ruko's gaze drifted back toward the crater. At its edge, where Beldia had fully disintegrated, something remained. Nothing glowing. Nothing dramatic. Just a small, dark object resting quietly among the scorched earth, unnoticed in the chaos.
Ruko's fingers twitched faintly. Later, he thought. Recovery would come next. And so would answers.