When the Sky Turns White
The battlefield outside the Crimson Demon Village was already half-destroyed. Broken houses. Burned stalls. Deep cracks spreading through the dirt streets. In the middle of it all—Ruko and Sylvia continued clashing like two storms colliding. Steel and body flashed. Her massive serpentine body slammed across the ground again, sending debris flying as her tail carved through the village road. Ruko dashed forward through the smoke. His sword slashed in rapid arcs. CLANG. CLANG. CLANG. Sparks exploded with every hit against Sylvia's armored scales. Still no damage. But the fight hadn't slowed. Both of them were moving faster now. Ruko ducked under another sweeping tail strike and slid across the ground before springing back to his feet. Sylvia laughed loudly. "You're still entertaining!" she said. Her tail whipped toward him again. Ruko blocked with his blade—CRACK. The impact shoved him back several meters. Pain shot through his chest again. Then—A voice whispered in his mind.
Yew: [30 seconds remaining on Dap Boost.]
Ruko's eyes narrowed. "Shit... so that's it. Thirty seconds." He exhaled slowly. "Alright, I know what to do," he muttered. Sylvia tilted her head. "Oh? Giving up?" Ruko smiled faintly. "Not exactly just about to do something spectacle?" His sword suddenly dissolved into liquid metal. Sylvia blinked. The Core Alloy reshaped instantly—flowing across his arms and forming heavy gauntlets around his fists. Sylvia laughed. "You switched weapons?" "Yeah and I'm gonna pound your sorry ass of face." "Oh... really? With a weapon that change form can't even bring a damage. If you surrender I'll treat you with the best thing you will ever feel!!" Ruko don't reply and stepped forward. "Let's try something different." Sylvia lunged again. Her tail struck downward. Ruko rushed directly toward her instead of dodging. That alone caught her off guard.
He slipped past the descending tail and grabbed her arm. Sylvia blinked. "What—" Ruko's gauntlet glowed faintly. "Got you bitch." The copied skill activated.
'Mana Drain'. The ability he had unconsciously copied from Kazuma began siphoning energy from Sylvia's body. Sylvia gasped. Her smile faltered. "Hey—!" Ruko grinned. Mana flowed violently into him. Her anti-magic field flickered. Sylvia jerked her arm back violently, but Ruko had already jumped away. The Core Alloy shifted again. Gauntlets melted. A short sword formed instantly in his hand. He dashed forward. And struck. Sword SLASH in close range. Another sword slash followed. SLASH. SLASH. SLASH. Dozens of quick, shallow strikes cut across Sylvia's body. Not deep. But everywhere. Like a thousand small blades. Her body began breaking apart piece by piece under the relentless barrage.
Sylvia screamed. Then—Silence. Her body collapsed. Pieces and blood scattered across the ruined street. Ruko stood breathing heavily covering in her masses of blood. The sword lowered slightly. "...Finally... Done with that bitch of a raper." Behind him, Kazuma peeked around the corner. "…Wait." Megumin blinked. "…Did he actually win?" For a moment—Nothing moved. Then something wet shifted inside the remains. The scattered pieces began melting together. Ruko's eyes widened slightly. The pieces fused. Expanded. Grew. The ground trembled violently. From the shifting mass emerged something far larger than before. Sylvia's Final Form. Blue luminescent slime pulsed across armored plating that fused grotesquely with parts of Beldia and Hans. Her voice echoed deeper now. "Oh… that hurt. ThathurtthathurtthathuetthathurtTHATHUURRRTT!!" Ruko stared upward. "…Mi bloodclat!? You've got to be fucking kidding."
Sylvia's massive limb slammed forward. The strike came too fast. CRITICAL IMPACT. It take Ruko by suprise in which the blow launched him through four houses. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. He finally crashed into the ground far down the street, carving a crater where he landed. Ruko barely managed to shift the Core Alloy into a shield in time when getting hit head on. Dust filled the air. Ruko lay still for a moment. Then he coughed blood. "…Yeah, fuck!" he rasped. "…That's bad and I'm losing so much blood and broken bones." Back near the battlefield, Kazuma shout out Sylvia and stepped forward. Two and a half minutes earlier—He had a talk with the girls if they're ready but no delay. They started to lose hope till Wiz and Vanir had arrived with the entire Crimson Demon crowd. Everyone had come. Kazuma rubbed his face. "…Alright." He looked toward Sylvia's monstrous form. "New plan." Megumin stared at him. "What are you thinking?" Kazuma smiled weakly. "Something incredibly stupid, even Ruko wiuld do the same."
He walked forward alone. Sylvia noticed him immediately. "Oh if it isn't my sweet darling Kazuma?" Kazuma raised both hands. "Wait." He approached slowly. "…You know," he said nervously, "I've been thinking." Sylvia leaned closer. "About what?" Kazuma smiled awkwardly. "About how amazing you are." Ruko—still climbing out of the crater—froze. "…Oh no." Kazuma kept talking. "You're powerful, beautiful… honestly kind of incredible." Sylvia giggled. "Flattery?" Kazuma stepped closer. "More like honesty and i love you." Then he jumped forward. And grabbed her. Sylvia laughed. "Ohh come to me my darling?" Her body began absorbing him immediately. Kazuma allowed it. "Oooohh we will rule this world with our power of love." "Hey!" he shouted back. "Anytime NOW!" At that moment—Sylvia's body lunged forward again and grabbed Ruko as well. Ruko blinked. "…eh... a Deja - VUUU!"
Megumin and Yunyun raised their staffs. "EXPLOSION!" Twin pillars of destructive magic blasted forward. But the massive Sylvia form endured. "WHAT YOU TRICK ME." "Yeah so what!" "Then we can die together and enjoy each other in the afterlife." Kazuma scream of misery while ruko is been hold by sylvia who been came out of nowhere. Then more magic poured into the attack. Wiz stepped forward. Vanir raised his hands. Every Crimson Demons in the village began channeling their mana. All of it flowed into Megumin and Yunyun. The explosion grew. Brighter. Hotter. And the three of them screamed by the burning hot of the explosion. Until the entire night turned white. BOOOOOOOOOOM. The blast vaporized everything at the center of the battlefield. Sylvia. Kazuma. Ruko. Gone.
When the light faded—Kazuma corps suddenly appeared again beside Aqua, coughing violently. In which she use resurrection to bring back Kazuma due to her seniority over the goddess Eris. "ACK—" Aqua slapped him. "Stop dying on me!" But Ruko didn't appear. Instead—There was only darkness. A silent black void stretched endlessly. Ruko stood alone inside it. He slowly turned. And saw the figure again. The same presence from before. The one who had screamed at me when we planned against Beldia. Ruko's breath tightened. The figure was closer now. Watching him. He stepped back. Or tried to. His body wouldn't move. For the first time since arriving in this world—Fear crawled through him. His body start to trembled effortlessly. "…What… are you?" The figure tilted its head. Ruko tried to run. He triead to scream form the top of his lungs. Nothing happened. His legs refused to move. His body giving out of pure underlying anguish of fear.
The silence grew heavier. Then—Everything vanished. Ruko's eyes snapped open and began to gasped of being in a endless dark void. His body began reconstructing piece by piece in a hidden space beneath the village ruins. Inside his mind—Yew's activated. [Return Mechanism Initiated. Regeneration Protocol: Return-by-Death.] But above ground—No one knew where he had gone.