“Explosion is the most powerful of magics. But it takes time to prepare in proportion to its power. | will need you to hold that toad at bay until | am ready.”

Aqua, the nowsated Megumin, and | had come to get some revenge on the Giant Toads.

We could see one of them far off across the field. It had noticed us and was coming closer. But we could also see other toads approaching from the opposite direction.

“Use your magic to target the one that’s farther away. As for the closer ones... well, here we go, Aqua. Time to get our payback. You keep telling me you used to be a—y’ know. Why don’t you show me what you can do?”

“What do you mean, used to be?! It’s present tense: | am a goddess! I’m just an Arch-priest for now!”

Megumin gave the self-proclaimed goddess a strange look as Aqua strangled me with tears flying from her eyes.

“A...goddess?”

“..l-is what she calls herself! Poor kid. Sometimes she just lets it slip, you know? Don’t pay her any attention.” As | spoke, Megumin looked sympathetically at Aqua.

The tearful Aqua made a fist and lunged desperately at the nearest frog.

“Whatever! | know Giant Toads are supposed to be resistant to physical attacks, but this time I’m going to show you what a goddess can do! Just you watch, Kazuma! | didn’t get my glory last time, but today—!”

With that, Aqua, who seemed to have learned nothing from her previous foray into a frog’s digestive system, ceased to move and stalled the Giant Toad in her own way.

Only a true goddess would sacrifice herself to buy her allies some time! That was when the air around Megumin began to tremble.

Even |, who didn’t know the first thing about magic, could see that what Megumin was cooking up was serious stuff. Her voice grew louder as she chanted the incantation, and a single bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.

“Behold! The most powerful magic known to mankind! This is truly the ultimate attack magic!”

The end of Megumin’s staff began to glow. The vast light condensed until it was tiny but piercingly bright. Megumin’s red eye glowed as she opened it wide.

“Explosion!

A single beam of light flew across the field. It raced from the end of her staff and enveloped the frog that was coming in our direction.

Then | saw the effect of this dire magic.

The frog burst into tiny pieces with a light bright enough to set your head spinning and a roar that shook the air. | planted my feet and covered my eyes against a shock wave that threatened to send me flying. When the smoke cleared, a twenty-meter-wide crater lay where the creature had been, speaking to the awesomeness of the blast.

“In-cred-ible! So this is magic...” At that moment, while | was admiring Megumin’s spell, a Giant Toad—perhaps awakened by the sound and the shock wave—crawled up from under the ground.

I'd been wondering how the toads survived in an area without rainfall or a major water source, but I’d never thought they might do it by living underground.

The toad was crawling out near Megumin but moving very slowly.

| just had to get her back far enough to prepare another explosion. “Megumin! Let’s fall back, then we can hit them agai—”

That was as far as | got before | saw Megumin...and stopped in my tracks. She had collapsed.

“M-my magic is utterly powerful, b-but it takes strength e-equal to its power... I’ve overexerted myself and w-will not be moving for a while... Oh, who could have known a toad would appear right near me? This is trouble. | shall be eaten. P-please help—Mfffgh?!”

| finished off the two toads Megumin and Aqua had immobilized. And so it was that we did actually kill five Giant Toads in three days...

Quest successful.