Stepping out through Axel's gates, the midday sun poured over the plains, and as the breeze swept past, Kōichi once again felt that exquisite sense of total emptiness.
He even felt that all those days he'd spent wearing underwear had been a complete waste of life. Only now did he feel like a truly free man.
"Hey, Kōichi, could you stop walking around with that look like you've attained enlightenment? If the hand holding up your pants slips, our party's reputation is completely finished!"
Kazuma muttered from the side. He was currently carrying Aqua on his back because she was too drunk to walk straight, and he looked exhausted enough to keel over.
"Don't sweat the small stuff." Kōichi waved a hand, then glanced at Megumin, who had been puffing out her cheeks and staring fixedly at the horizon the whole time. "Megumin, what have you been grumbling about this whole time? The mansion we're heading to is over by the forest."
Megumin suddenly stopped. Her black cloak fluttered dramatically in the wind as she gazed longingly, with her eyepatch-covered eye, though it wasn't actually injured, at a huge abandoned castle standing out in the wilderness. Her voice was full of grievance.
"Kōichi! That exorcism quest is indoors, right? A cramped, gloomy place where even magic can't fully spread its wings is an insult to Explosion Magic itself! If you don't let me fire one at that wide-open target today, I swear my magic circuits are going to explode!"
Kōichi followed the direction she was pointing and looked over. The castle looked old, but it still gave off an imposing, almost suffocating sense of grandeur.
"Oh? That castle really does look like a perfect punching bag." Kōichi stroked his chin, completely unaware that it was actually the temporary residence of the Demon King's General, the Dullahan Beldia. "It's on the way anyway, so go let off some steam. Otherwise you'll just sulk later once we get inside the mansion."
"Really?! Kōichi, you really do understand art!"
Megumin's eyes instantly lit up red. She jumped excitedly, then immediately turned solemn and traced a complex arc through the air with her staff.
"Blacker than black, darker than darkness..."
That familiar chant, embarrassing enough to make anyone cringe, began.
"Ah... such overwhelming magic... this crushing pressure, like everything is about to be destroyed..." Darkness had already dropped to her knees, both hands gripping the grass tightly as she stared dreamily at the distant castle. "If that attack had landed on me... ngh! Just the aftershock alone is enough to make me..."
"Beautiful! Megumin! Louder! Hic!"
Still on Kazuma's back, Aqua waved the empty bottle around and cheered like she was at a fireworks show.
"[Explosion]!!!"
With Megumin's final sharp cry, a colossal pillar of fire erupted directly above the abandoned castle with an earth-shaking blast, so massive it looked like it could pierce the heavens.
A terrifying shockwave swept across the entire plain. Even from several kilometers away, they could feel the scorching heat in the air.
One corner of the castle crumbled into dust in the flames, and the deafening blast shook Kazuma so hard he nearly threw Aqua off his back.
A huge mushroom cloud billowed into the sky. Megumin collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, but her face was filled with utter satisfaction.
"Huff... huff... that was incredible. Kōichi, did you see that? The point of impact on that shot was absolutely perfect." Megumin lay on the grass, her voice weak but her expression glowing with life. "I've decided! From now on, that place will be my daily training ground! One shot a day, every day, until I flatten that castle completely!"
"Haha, now that's ambition, Megumin."
Kōichi looked at the still-smoking castle, completely oblivious to the furious metallic roar echoing out from deep inside it.
He simply found that explosion unbelievably refreshing. Even the breeze around his lower half somehow felt more rhythmic now.
Kazuma stared at the half-collapsed castle, his eyelid twitching wildly.
"Hey... Kōichi, even if it is an abandoned castle, are we really okay just blowing it up like that? What if there's some retired Demon King in there, or some bad-tempered hermit powerhouse..."
"What are you scared of, Kazuma? We're an elite party carrying a 300,000 Eris quest." Kōichi hoisted the exhausted Megumin over his shoulder like a sack of grain. "Come on! Before Aqua passes out completely and Darkness breaks beyond repair, let's get to that mansion and claim our money!"
At the end of a dark, oppressive forest, the legendary abandoned mansion finally revealed its menacing face.
Withered vines covered the gray-white stone walls, and the shattered windows looked like hollow eyes, fixed unblinkingly on Kōichi and his group of unwanted visitors.
"Huff... huff... finally here... Kōichi, I swear, when we get back, you'd better treat me to a huge meal. When Aqua gets drunk, she weighs at least three times more than usual!"
Kazuma threw the utterly wasted Aqua onto the stone steps in front of the mansion like a dead weight, then slumped down beside her without a shred of dignity, gasping for air.
Kōichi, on the other hand, looked far more composed.
With one hand supporting Megumin, who had basically become an accessory at this point, and the other still firmly gripping his waistband, he felt the cold draft from the forest brush across his lower half and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Kazuma, this is called training. Look at me. I'm carrying Megumin and still keeping all my senses sharp. The yin energy here is especially dense. When the wind blows through, it carries this faint icy touch. It's practically the highest-tier cooling service."
"That's not sharpness. That's your pervert senses going off like an alarm!"
Kazuma rolled his eyes, then looked up ahead.
The mansion's front door slowly creaked open on its own, without a breath of wind.
A thick stench of rot and a frigid aura of death hit us head-on.
"Ah... it's here! This ominous premonition... this feeling of countless cold, sinister eyes crawling all over my body!" Darkness had already worked herself into a frenzy. She drew her greatsword, yet her body kept twisting and squirming, and the flush on her face looked especially bizarre against the eerie backdrop. "Come on! Ghosts! Possess me, drain my life force, even make me a slave in this mansion for the rest of my life... ngh! Please, torment me as much as you like!"
"...Can somebody save me? Why am I even in a party with these people?"
Slung over Kōichi's shoulder, Megumin weakly muttered her complaint. She did not even have the strength to lift a finger now.
Just then, Aqua, who had been sprawled on the floor snoring, suddenly jerked upright.
Her eyes, reddened by alcohol, stared fixedly into the depths of the mansion. Her normally beautiful face was now twisted with anger, or maybe just because the booze had gone to her head.
"Hic! Who... who's making noise and disturbing this goddess's sleep?!" Aqua staggered to her feet, still clutching the empty bottle, and yelled at the floating white figures in the darkness. "You lowly Undead! How dare you give off that disgusting death aura in front of this goddess! Do you have any idea how expensive that bottle was?! Can you even afford to pay for it?!"
The Ghosts in the mansion were clearly frightened by the divine aura pouring off Aqua, an aura that not even her drunken state could conceal. Screaming, they tried to flee, but Aqua had no intention of letting them go.
"Don't run! Get back here! Take this... God Blow!! No, wait, Sacred Turn Undead!!"
Vomiting as she did, Aqua flailed her arms wildly, and a blinding blue light instantly flooded the entire hall.
What should have been a solemn, sacred exorcism ritual turned into something more like a high-pressure water cannon being fired everywhere in Aqua's hands.
"Waaaaah! Help! That blue-haired woman's gone insane!"
"Even her puke has purification properties! It burns! It hurts!"
The Ghosts let out miserable screams. Their gloomy mansion had been turned by Aqua into a gigantic car wash, with holy water and vomit splashing together all over the place.
Watching Aqua rampage in her drunken stupor, Kōichi could not help sighing in admiration.
"Her form is awful, but the efficiency really is incredible. Kazuma, look. She's got those Ghosts running all over the house. Aren't we earning this 300,000 Eris a little too easily?"
Kazuma looked at the wall Aqua had blasted apart with one punch, then at Darkness, who had tried to rush in and get possessed by a Ghost, only to be caught in Aqua's attack instead and was now blissfully rolling around on the floor. He let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Kōichi, have you noticed that compared to the Ghosts, our party looks way more like the gang of thugs here to tear this place down..."
At that moment, a low, furious roar suddenly came from deep inside the mansion, and a massive Elite Ghost in torn formal wear slowly emerged.
It stared at its home, now wrecked beyond recognition, and blood-red fury blazed in its eyes.