Chapter 368

Kazuma looked at the visibly excited Megumin and Darkness, sighed helplessly, and nodded with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man.

"Yeah... Aqua really did summon me here as a hero."

He then gave them a brief explanation of how he had ended up in this world.

When Megumin learned that Aqua really was the legendary Goddess of Water, she stared blankly for a moment before turning toward Kazuma and giving him an enthusiastic thumbs-up, her expression filled with genuine admiration.

Darkness, meanwhile, seemed to be imagining something entirely different, because her excitement only grew stronger.

Once Kazuma finished telling his story, Megumin immediately turned her attention toward Haruto and Kagura.

"Haruto! Kagura!"

Her crimson eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"In that world of yours where chefs are so important, are there any cooks who use explosions to prepare food?"

"You know, like throwing the ingredients high into the air and blasting them with Explosion at exactly the right moment so they come down perfectly charred on the outside and tender inside! Wouldn’t that be incredibly cool?!"

Before Haruto could even answer, Darkness leaned forward as well, her eyes shining with an entirely different kind of expectation.

"Then... are the criminals in your world especially brutal? Do they tie people to pillars and whip them? Or chain them up in dungeons and refuse to feed them?"

Haruto’s mouth twitched.

For once, he genuinely had no idea how he was supposed to answer either of them.

He rubbed his forehead in resignation before suddenly getting an idea and clapping his hands.

"All right, all right, that’s enough questions. Even if I explained everything, you probably wouldn’t understand half of it."

Then he turned toward Megumin.

"Megumin, there’s nobody around here. Why don’t you just cast Explosion here?"

Megumin immediately shook her head, looking genuinely alarmed by the suggestion.

"No! Absolutely not! If we don’t get farther away from Axel, the guards will get angry with me again!"

"You said ’again,’ didn’t you?"

Kazuma immediately seized on the important part and narrowed his eyes at her.

"So you’ve already been firing Explosion near town?"

"U-Um..."

Megumin lowered her head in embarrassment and fidgeted with the hem of her clothes.

"I... may have cast one nearby before. The guards lectured me for an entire hour. I had to apologize forever before they finally let me go."

Darkness’s eyes lit up.

"The captain of the guards lectured you for an entire hour..."

"And in front of all those people too... That must have been so humiliating. So intense..."

Haruto chose not to comment.

Megumin’s refusal didn’t bother him anyway. He had successfully redirected the conversation, which was all he had really wanted.

He let Rapidash continue pulling the carriage farther away from Axel.

After another ten or fifteen minutes, the town had disappeared entirely from sight.

"This should be far enough."

Haruto gave Rapidash a light pat, signaling it to stop.

Rapidash let out a sharp neigh and came to a halt.

Megumin immediately perked up.

She grabbed her brand-new staff, practically leaped out of the carriage, planted her hands on her hips, and began scanning the surrounding landscape for a target worthy of Explosion.

"An empty field is boring... and those rocks are way too small..."

She muttered to herself, clearly dissatisfied.

Then her eyes suddenly lit up.

"Look!"

Megumin pointed excitedly toward a structure standing atop a distant hill.

"What’s that? An abandoned castle?"

Everyone followed her finger.

A ruined castle stood atop the hill in the distance.

Its walls were riddled with cracks and creeping vines, while one of the tall towers had already collapsed halfway.

Haruto stared at it in silence.

Deep within the castle, he could sense an extremely powerful and chilling undead presence.

There was no doubt about it.

This was the abandoned castle currently occupied by Beldia the Dullahan.

Haruto hadn’t even been directing Rapidash. He had simply let it choose the route on its own, yet somehow they had ended up here anyway.

And judging from the way Megumin’s eyes were shining, she had already decided that the castle was the perfect target for Explosion.

Haruto could only conclude that Beldia was destined to suffer through this particular calamity no matter what he did.

Kazuma frowned at the distant castle.

"That place looks seriously creepy. I’ve got a bad feeling there’s something inside."

"There’s an undead presence."

Aqua wrinkled her nose and stared at the castle with open disgust.

"Ugh. I hate that aura."

"Undead?!"

Far from becoming frightened, Megumin grew even more excited.

"Perfect! If it’s an abandoned castle occupied by undead, nobody can complain if I destroy it, right?"

"And I’d be exterminating evil undead at the same time! Two birds with one stone!"

Haruto merely smiled and said nothing.

Nobody objected, so Megumin drew a deep breath and gripped her staff with both hands.

The excitement gradually faded from her face, replaced by complete concentration.

Her crimson eyes, however, seemed to burn brighter than ever.

Megumin raised her staff high and pointed it toward the ruined castle atop the hill.

Then she began her chant.

"This is the flame of origins, and the flame that brings all things to an end."

"Past, present, and future—forbidden power that transcends all creation."

"O flames! I am the destroyer, the merciless one!"

"Now, with my blood and flesh, I shatter the ancient laws of the gods!"

"EXPLOSION!"

As Megumin chanted, multiple enormous magic circles appeared in layers above the distant castle.

The instant the final word left her lips—

BOOOOOOM!

A deafening blast shook the earth.

A towering mushroom cloud erupted from the abandoned castle, accompanied by a violent shockwave that remained clearly perceptible even from several hundred meters away.

After releasing the spell, Megumin immediately went limp.

All the strength drained from her body as she collapsed onto the ground.

Even then, she somehow found enough energy to turn her face toward the burning castle and smile in complete satisfaction.

"Burn... within the crimson flames..."

Haruto watched the distant fire gradually subside, then took out his Adventurer’s Card.

A new entry had appeared in the skill list.

Explosion.

Haruto touched it.

In an instant, an enormous volume of intricate knowledge flooded into his mind.

The circulation of mana.

The proper pronunciation and cadence of the chant.

The construction principles behind the enormous magic circles.

Every detail required to cast Explosion became completely clear to him in a single moment.

Haruto immediately felt the urge to try it himself.

He had just learned the spell, after all. Naturally, he wanted to see what it could do in his own hands.

As for a target...

His gaze settled on the still-smoking castle atop the hill.

It was almost too perfect.

Haruto took out his staff and aimed it toward the ruined fortress.

Multiple magic circles immediately appeared above the castle once again.

"This is the flame of origins, and the flame that brings all things to an end."

"Past, present, and future—forbidden power that transcends all creation."

"EXPLOSION!"

BOOOOOOM!

A second thunderous detonation tore across the landscape.

The already battered castle was struck once again, and under Haruto’s Explosion, most of what remained nearly collapsed into outright ruins.

Haruto checked the mana remaining inside his body and nodded with satisfaction.

The spell had been roughly comparable in power to Megumin’s Explosion.

Yet he had used less than one-fifth of his total mana.

If he cast it at full power, its destructive force should easily exceed Megumin’s by more than five times.

Still lying helplessly on the ground, Megumin struggled to raise her head.

With what little strength she had left, she gave Haruto a trembling thumbs-up.

"Excellent Explosion...!"

"Haruto! You really are someone chosen by Explosion!"

"Starting today, the two of us shall be Axel’s Explosion Duo! We can come here every day and blast this castle together!"

Haruto stared at her for a moment before firmly shaking his head.

"No."

Admittedly, casting Explosion had felt extremely satisfying.

But it was the sort of spell he was perfectly happy using only occasionally.

Besides, Haruto had never intended to remain in Axel for much longer.

Megumin looked devastated by his refusal, but she didn’t continue arguing.

She remained confident that someday, Haruto would finally understand the true glory of Explosion.