Faced with the abyssal gravity crashing down like a tidal wave, Aqua, who had been trembling behind Kōichi Hayashi just moments earlier, suddenly had a dangerously sacred fire blazing in her aqua-blue eyes the instant she heard the words "pre-dinner dessert."
"A mere Devil Duke from a lower-tier plane dares treat this Goddess as dessert? Your nerve is even bigger than those goat horns of yours!"
Aqua let out an imposing, and extremely vindictive, shout.
Her translucent feather mantle erupted with blinding light in the gloomy basement, forcibly pushing back the thick gravitational field pressing down on them.
She planted one hand on her hip and thrust the other toward the mass of black mist.
"Listen carefully! I am the Goddess worshipped by the Axis Order, Aqua, the Goddess of Water! Evil filth like you that reeks of expired natto should obediently let yourself be purified into clean toilet water! Sacred Highness Purification!!"
A pure white pillar of light several meters wide erupted from Aqua's fingertip.
Carrying terrifying sacred power strong enough to vaporize Undead in an instant, it slammed directly into the Devil Duke's phantom.
"Waaahhh! What is this magic?! What kind of ridiculous purifying power is this...? Could it really be that moronic Goddess?!"
The Devil's phantom let out a piercing scream.
Its once-solid black mist rapidly thinned beneath the pillar of holy light, dissolving like snow drenched in strong acid.
With Aqua unleashing her full power, the entire basement began shaking violently. Dust and chunks of stone rained from the ceiling.
The scale of the magical disturbance and tremors made it feel as though a massive bomb had exploded right in the center of the sleeping Royal Capital.
"What's going on?! Is this an earthquake?!"
A tremendous crash sounded from above as a door was kicked open.
The floor of the upstairs guest room could no longer withstand the impact and collapsed, leaving a huge hole.
Kazuma Satou, still wearing pajamas printed with underwear patterns, came crashing down through the opening, covered in dust and debris, and landed hard in a pile of rubble.
Immediately afterward, two more figures rushed toward the basement entrance.
"Over there! I can sense an incredibly evil presence, and... Aqua's headache-inducing magical fluctuations!"
Megumin clutched her staff tightly to her chest. Though she was not fully awake yet, her eyes were already glowing red with excitement at the prospect of a major spectacle.
"Kōichi Hayashi! Have you all been secretly experimenting with Explosion magic without me?!"
"That evil pressure... that suffocating gravity... H-Haah..."
Darkness followed closely behind.
She was fully armored, but her cheeks were suspiciously flushed. Both hands gripped her greatsword as she stood protectively in front of the others, though her voice carried an unmistakably unhealthy anticipation.
"Is it a Devil? A high-ranking Devil that captures female Knights and subjects them to all kinds of unspeakable humiliating rituals? Please make sure it comes after me first!"
"What took you people so long?!"
Kōichi Hayashi swung his staff and cast [Wind Barrier] to deflect the falling rubble while shouting at Kazuma, who had just scrambled up from the floor.
"Kazuma! Look at that fat pig of a lord! He's trying to use a Devil to kidnap Her Highness Iris! The evidence is right there on the altar!"
Kazuma rubbed his backside, glanced at Alderp cowering in the corner of the altar and desperately trying to hide his enormous body in the shadows, then looked at Aqua, who was frantically bombarding the Devil with purification magic.
He immediately understood the situation.
"You bastard! And here I was thinking you were one of us, but you were actually planning to keep all the good stuff to yourself?!"
Kazuma's face twisted into an extremely depraved expression as his right hand curled into a claw.
"Megumin, get your ultimate ready! Darkness, block that Devil's attacks! Kōichi, we'll flank him from both sides and grab that fat pig's pants... No, wait! Grab the evidence!"
Amid the deafening explosions of magic, Kōichi Hayashi's sharp senses picked up a rapid series of heavy metallic footsteps.
The rhythm was unmistakable.
A rigorously trained squad of Royal Guard Knights was approaching.
A sly gleam flashed through his eyes.
This was the perfect opportunity to nail Alderp to the pillar of shame once and for all.
"Aqua! Stop focusing only on attacking! Turn your Divine Radiance all the way up! Shine like a proper Goddess!"
Kōichi Hayashi blocked another piece of flying debris with his staff while shouting at Aqua, who was already drenched in sweat and wildly waving her staff.
"Claire and the others are almost here! If you want everyone in the Royal Capital to witness your glorious moment saving the world, then do it now! Light this gloomy basement up like the midday sun!"
"Huh?! Really?! Claire's coming? Those little girls who worship Eris are going to witness the majesty of this Goddess?!"
Aqua had already started panting from exhaustion.
But the moment she heard an audience was about to arrive, her vanity instantly transformed into seemingly limitless magical power.
"Watch closely! This is the true magnificence of Aqua-sama, Goddess of Water! Sacred Create Water... No, Divine High-Tier Holy Light!!"
BZZZ—!
A brilliant white light, so intense it was nearly transparent, instantly engulfed the entire basement.
Every corner of the previously dark and damp chamber was illuminated in perfect clarity.
Before such pure sacred power, the Devil Duke's phantom looked like a plastic bag tossed into an incinerator.
It let out one final, agonized scream before completely disintegrating.
At that exact moment, the already battered basement door was violently kicked open.
"Devil! Prepare to die... Huh?!"
Claire charged in first, her longsword held level before her and gleaming beneath the holy light.
But the demonic rampage she had expected to see was nowhere to be found.
Instead, the first thing that entered her vision was Aqua, radiating an untouchably sacred aura despite the incredibly smug look on her face.
And then...
Alderp.
He was kneeling before the shattered altar, tears streaming down his face beneath the direct glare of the holy light. His entire mass of flab trembled uncontrollably, while one hand desperately clutched a ring covered in blasphemous runes.
"L-Lord Alderp?!"
Claire's pupils contracted sharply.
She stared at the evil symbols covering the floor and smelled the sulfur still hanging heavily in the air.
Even someone as stubbornly straightforward as Claire immediately understood what had happened.
"You actually constructed an evil altar beneath your mansion... and colluded with Devils?! You traitor to the kingdom!"
"N-No! That's not what happened! Lady Claire, please listen to me! It was them! These despicable Adventurers controlled that Devil and framed me!"
Alderp shrieked in terror as he desperately tried to hide the ring inside the folds of fat around his waist.
"Come on, Lord Alderp. Are you really going to accuse the victims at a time like this?"
Kōichi Hayashi leisurely walked up to Alderp.
Under the watchful eyes of Claire and the gathered Knights, he gave the smile of a man who had already won.
"Lady Claire, you arrived at the perfect time. We were resting in our room when this evil magical presence woke us. Thanks to our Arch Priest Aqua risking her life to protect us, we managed to stop this conspiracy before the Devil could fully descend and abduct Her Highness Iris."
Kōichi Hayashi paused.
"As for the evidence... Kazuma, do it."
"Hehehe. I've been waiting for this! Steal!!"
Kazuma swept out his hand, which gleamed with a sinister light.
Snap.
A ring radiating a faint purple glow appeared in Kazuma's hand.
Along with it came...
A silk handkerchief embroidered with Her Highness Iris's portrait.
The entire basement instantly fell into deathly silence.
Claire's expression shifted from anger to shock, then from shock to overwhelming disgust and murderous intent.
She pointed the tip of her sword directly at Alderp's throat.
"Alderp... you hopeless, filthy, perverted traitor! Take him away! Take everything away!!"
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