18 Chapter 18 Rock You Like An EXPLOSION! Arc Part 2

Schwanhild Report

Dear Honorable Mother, Twinkle Fai Schlagen

It is I, your daughter, Twinkle Fai Schwanhild. 

I EXORCISED A GREATER DEMON! OH MY LADY AQUA! THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE!

That is all I have to report for now, Honorable Mother.

I bid you well.

From your daughter, Twinkle Fai Schwanhild.

P.S. I did have the aid of my three new party members, the Noble Crusader Darkness, the Arch Wizard Megumin, and the Arch Wizard YunYun. Yes, those really are their names. There was also the Thief Chris from the Eris Church. There were also some non-party adventurer individuals. I suppose all mentioned deserve some bit of credit.

===x===

Throughout the Week

Hohst is a Greater Demon and a servant to the Goddess of Violence and Sloth, Wolbach.

And he was having the absolute worst week of his life.

It all started when he was the faint scent of his sealed master. "Faint" as in weak in power, not in presence. Hohst was sure she had left her seal in some capacity given the reports he heard from other demons. He suspected the reason her scent was faint was due to her powers having not full came back yet.

And so, the Greater Demon found himself heading toward a city called Axel, known as the Town of Beginners. Hohst suspected that this was actually Stickylightning Skunk shit.

When he first arrived near town he sensed a great power in combat next to it. When he arrived to inspect where the battle happened, the scene reminded him of his usual fights with monsters of equal measure, or an adventuring raid.

Hohst wondered if that power was within Axel, and if he should preemptively strike in case the city hid such great power, they would be too surprised by his appearance to respond.

Meeting two Crimson Demons, one of which looked like that brat he made a promise to, sealed the deal. The Crimson Demon girl he spoke to, well spoke at as she didn't seemed to have heard him in her terror, had a trance of his master's smell on her.

It was time to assault Axel.

===x===

"Demon!" Aqua shouted in rage.

"Wow, do all demons look this exact depiction of a stereotype in his world? I mean, I just thought it was a huge goblin, or an Oni. A giant leather skinned humanoid with wings and horns is way too on the nose." Michael commented.

Aqua and Michael were working along with the construction crew on repairing the damage the Sword 'controlled' Darkness fight had caused. All of a sudden, a giant monster appeared, and Aqua's demeanor turned into intense rage.

"Well, it's gonna look like a fried demon soon! Scared--"

"Wait!" Michael called out.

"Why did you stop me!?" Aqua called out in shock, yet the anger still in her tone.

"I wanna take a crack at it."

===x===

Hohst flew out of the forest heading toward Axel in quick time. If the great power he felt before, didn't appear then that was okay. He didn't really want to attack the town, only look for his master. People panicking wasn't his problem.

He noticed a man standing on the walls, eyes closed, humming something in concentration, while holding a bow with an arrow pulled back.

The man's eyes opened, and Hohst felt the great power, as the arrow was let loose.

"Did he think I, the great Hohst, can be taken down by the single arrow!?" Hohst roared at being looked down upon.

Then the arrow glowed red like it was heating up from the inside, before multiplying into...three arrows.

"As if that pathetic excuse of an Archer skill could manage to--"

The arrows struck, each with the force of an Explosion spell.

"GAAAAAAAAH!!"

===x===

Back on the walls, Aqua was laughing and pointingat a red faced Michael.

"Bwahahahaha, a minute a ago you were all like 'prepare to see the pinnacle of Elemental Magecraft from Hindu mythology, the Astras!'," Aqua said doing an impression of Michael trying to act cool. "And you made three. Three!" Aqua said holding up three fingers for emphasis. "And their power... I'm not Hindu Goddess or anywhere close to that pantheon, but even I could tell that was pitiful. Puuhehehehe."

"Look, Karna only showed it to me once, and it was at Babylonia, okay! Even with Record Magecraft, I didn't see it enough times to analyse it completely. I'm basically reverse engineering it without any help, beyond one example." Michael argued back, making an excuse to what the Water Goddess and Ex-Chaldean Master saw as poor performance. "Also I said I'm going to show you my first successful attempt. And it succeeded. The arrow multipled, and exploded. Technically it works as intended."

"Suuure, remind me again, what is the weakest version of the Agnito Mantra?" Aqua asked with a smug smile.

Michael muttered a number that was vastly more than he demonstrated, and with more destructive results.

The workers nearby watched in stunned confusion at the Dark Paladin's assault on the Greater Demon, then at his and his partner's reaction to that destruction being...weak?

===x===

Hohst had barely survived his first direct brush with the great power.

When the first arrow hit, Hohst used all his magical might try and run away from the next two. He succeeded, but the aftershock of the arrow's explosion, while pushed him again still added to his damage.

The Greater Demon decided that he would need to take his time, and plan how to sneak into the Beginner's Town.

===x===

It took far more subterfuge and patience than he was used to employing, but a few days later Hohst had managed to possess a lone adventurer, and had now entered the city.

While Hohst power was great, it would take an Arch Priest in order to excorise him out of this body if he was discovered. The fact that he was inhabiting a fat unattractive-looking adventurer, had most people actively trying to ignore him.

"Hey, you!" Hohst turned, looking confused at the angry voice addressing him. "I don't like your face! Scared Highness Exorcism!"

"GAAAAAAAH!" Hohst screamed as he was blasted out of the adventurer's body and town all together from the force of the spell.

===x===

"Good job, Aqua." Michael had said after catching up to her, when she ran off on her own all of a sudden.

Michael had felt a malevolent presence in Axel, and asked Aqua if she had a demon detecting spell. She didn't but she had a sense for them. Thus with a little spell teamwork, the duo found a general direction of where the demon was, and headed off.

"How did you know it was him?" Michael asked.

"No one that ugly could be anything, but someone possessed by a demon." Aqua replied with a firm nod. "Wait. His face is still the same. Fine! Guess I'll have to put more power into it! Scared--"

"Wait, wait, wait!" The fat adventurer pleaded.

"Aqua, I think that guy just naturally looks like that." Michael said, while placing a placating hand on Aqua's arm.

"Oh..." Aqua stopped, talking a closer looked at the adventurer to see that, that was true. "I'm sure your mother thought you were handsome." She tried cheer up the adventurer.

The fat adventurer ended up crying. After which, Michael consoled him and secretly pointed him in the direction of the Eris Church with some money, so they cam give him whatever magic medieval equivalent of therapy was.

"Alright, back to the grind." Michael said with a smile and walked back to the city walls.

"Michael, Michael?" Aqua said sweetly.

"Yes, Aqua." He answered with a fake pleasant tone. His "someone slacking off" senses were tingling.

"I just beat a Greater Demon, you know. That's a big deal." Aqua smiled. "Do I get a reward?"

"Yes," Aqua's eyes shined. "More work!" Her face fell, and her hopes shattered.

"Why!?" She cried out, tears in her eyes.

"Because we need to finish the community service hours as fast as possible, then pay off our debt, so fucking loan sharks or whatever don't come running after us!" Michael grinned back. He would never use loan sharks, and he wouldn't compare the guild's money collectors to loan sharks, but best kill the notion that Aqua should hold onto debt before it forms.

"Why not take just another loan to pay the first one?" Aqua said innocently.

"Well, it looks like it's time for another personal finance lessons!"

"NOOO!" Aqua screamed as she grabbed her head.

"With extra super exams!" Michael grinned and spread his arms wide.

"OH MY FOLLOWERS FROM THE AXIS CHURCH! LEND ME MONEY AND FREE ME FROM DEBT!" Aqua shouted throwing her arms in the air.

There was a beat, then silence, and there were just people looking at them awkwardly while shuffling away.

No one came to give Aqua free money.

===x===

"Megumin, we should look for Michael for this raid." Yunyun said to her friend and rival.

"Well, no one can find him, what can we do?" Megumin said back. "Besides, he probably sees something like a Greater Demon as not a worthy challenge."

"You know Michael isn't like that." Yunyun frowned. "We should just go to the construction site and ask him to join."

"Oh Yunyun, do you really think Michael, a Dark Paladin, would lower himself to do manual labor." Megumin shook her finger in a knowing manner.

"He literally told us, that's what he's doing." Yunyun pointed out the obvious.

"He he he, that's only to deter fools from finding him too easily. 'Construction work'?Clearly he mean that he's working on a secret lair. A new headquarter from which to show the world our true might!" Megumin said proudly. "And 'community service'? Obviously he's building an intelligence network!"

"How did you even get that from what he said? It's nowhere even close at all!" Yunyun shouted.

===x===

Hohst decided to take a few days to rest. It seems like Axel was way more defended and prepared for demonic attacks than anticipated.

It seems like the great power--a Dark Paladin as he saw from the fat adventurer's mind--and the Arch Priest didn't leave town much. So, Hohst decided to take his time to rest in a forest next to the city, and plan his next move.

Should be find and threaten that Crimson Demon girl, or try and get reinforcement to invade the city?

"There he is!"

Hohst heard the shout of an adventurer and saw a whole group of them, where going to his location. It was a Subjugation Raid.

"Very well," Hohst growled in frustration. "Even harmed and weaken, I can still take a hundred of you worthless fodder on!"

"YES!"

A blonde swordwoman dashed forward, jumping up to the front of the raid leaving everyone else behind, sans a silver haired Thief running in surprise, pride and a bit of panic to catch up.

"HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!" Darkness jumped slashed Hohst with a joyous smile.

===x===

"Phew, we're finally done for the day." Said Michael lean back to crack his spine in that please way of getting the kinks out.

In the past few days, Michael, Aqua and Darkness had finished fixing the damage Michael made, then went to work on finishing the other walls, and refurbishing another one. Michael smiled as he only had less than a day's worth of community hours left. Mostly because he had pulled Darkness and Aqua to work from dawn till midnight, with only an hour sprinkled in for rest and food to finish up the community service quickly.

Aqua's support spells ensured that they would wake up refreshed and back to 100% physically and mentally, so there is no harm. Well, spirit and motivation were another issue. Darkness loved the intense work hours, Aqua hated them, even if she spend quite a bit of them, just helping others with drinks and heal spells.

Maybe the idea of working 19 hours a day was just mentally exhausting for her, even when she recovers or isn't affected by it?

"Welp, one day left." Michael said, mostly to himself.

"What are you talking about? You got 64 hours left." Jo Foreman had been one of the people who Michael needed their stamp on his papers to show that he did work his penalty hours.

"WHAT!? Hell no, I calculated it, I have 20 hours left." Michael argued back.

"Oh yeah, you weren't here, but that Eris Church Official, Darkness's friend, that Thief girl, came and said Darkness was given a pardon by the Church. Covering up her debt and all. Said the demon situation needed all available help and all." Jo explained. "That's why the hours Darkness had left where put on you."

"That's bullshit!"

"I know, a Greater Demon coming to a Beginner's Town. Seriously, the world can be vicious and unexpected in what it can throw at you." Jo nodded in 'agreement'.

"Not that! I'm talking about that, that," Michael struggled to contain his anger. "That slimy, blonde bimbo, running-behind-your-back-to-dodge-responsibility little..."

===x===

In the east side of Axel, a shout can be hear reverberating around.

"DAARKNNNEAAAAAAASSS!!!"

===x===

"I got him!" Darkness said as she held the Greater Demon in a bear hug.

"LET GO!" Hohst had been hitting the Crusader using all his physical strength to no avail. "Fine then! Infer-AAAAAAAH!"

Hohst had began to draw on his magic to cast the highest level fire spell, only for a Scared Exorcism to hit him in the face.

"Today is the day you fall, demon!" Shouted Schwanhild, an uncharacteristic grin, unlike her usual attempt at stoicism, coming to her face in the heat of battle.

"Hey, Chris." Darkness shouted. "It kinda felt like I heard Michael just now. And he was angry!" Darkness grinned and shivered. "You think he might be mad that we left without telling him."

"Eww, you're feeling weird now. What the hell is wrong with you!? Get off me!" Hohst shouted feeling uncomfortable around the Crusader all of a sudden, even more than usual.

"I'm sure it's fine. Megumin, how's that spell coming!?" Chris cried out.

"It is done." Megumin had an aura of orange glowing around her as her signature spell was ready.

"This power..." Hohst recognized the spell. He tried to move again, but Darkness was a mountain, unmovable.

"Darkness, are you sure?" Megumin asked once more, even though this was the agreed upon plan.

"Yes! From the moment, I saw your Explosion I wanted to experience it myself. This time without any support magic, hit me with everything!" Darkness cried out with a wide grin.

"Hehehe, hahahaha, you crazy bastards." Despite the situation, Hohst found himself smiling, and shaking his head. "If I was in a good condition, I might have endured this spell. But that guy on the wall hit me with three of them right from the get go. Then when I sneaked into town by possessing a random schmuck that weird woman appeared from nowhere, hitting me with a hell of an Exorcism spell. And right afterwards, this attack. A day wasn't enough to recover." Hohst stared up into the light. "With this life lost, my contract with Lady Wolbach, and I will be free. I wonder if that will manage to summon me one day." The Greater Demon reminisced accepting his end.

"If that's your wish," Megumin wasn't sure if she was addressing Darkness or Hohst. "Then the sublime pleasure of annihilation!"

"Honestly," Hohst sighed at his situation and it's absurdity. "What the hell's with the people of this town!?"

"EXPLOSION!"

Hohst and Darkness were engulfed in the fire light.

===x===

A Week Later

"Finally, I'm back, baby! Penalty free!" Michael exclaimed as he pushed the guild's door open.

"Hell yeah! Woohoo! Who know working overtime meant you made so much money! BARKEEP!" Aqua shouted as she walked in with Michael, with equal enthusiasm. The barkeep actually knowing Aqua, nodded and prepared her drink right away.

The silence that greeted the duo broke their stride.

"Michael, Michael?" Aqua whispered.

"Yes, Aqua?"

"Why is everyone glaring at us? No, glaring at you." Aqua noted with surprising insight.

"I dunno, but I know it's something stupid." Michael and Aqua headed to their party's table, and greeted everyone else. "Hey everyone. Schwanhild, Yunyun, Megumin." He greeted everyone with a smile. "Darkness." Then greeted the Crusader with a monotone neutral look.

"Hmmph! The cold shoulder isn't bad either."

"So, other than the Labor Traitor Crusader over here, what have you guys been up to?" Michael said to the group, while ignoring the shivering and moan Darkness next to him.

"He he he, do you want me to tell you of my great and terrible deeds. Then prepared to be entrance as I tell you the tale of--" Megumin spoke dramatically, starting to tell the story of their last quest.

"We best a Greater Demon!" Yunyun cut off Megumin in her excitement to tell Michael.

"Hey!" Megumin pouted furiously. "I was about to tell that story, how dare you?" Megumin grabbed and shook Yunyun's shoulders, who tried to calm the Explosion Mage down.

"Indeed it was quite the battle of will and valor." Even Schwanhild seemed more...mellow today.

As the group started to chat about what the did in the past week, Michael started to form a picture on what happened, and the current reaction to him.

So my reputation took another dive. Without any input from me at all. Or rather that's the reason why? Michael mentally sighed. At least I can start working on clearing my debt then start working on getting that house--

No sooner had he finished the thought, that the guild's door burst open.

Please god no. Don't let this be about me. Not today. Michael closed his eyes and sighed. Michael looked toward the deity next to him, to see her on her fifth tankard. Oh yeah, the only god close to me is getting drunk. Silly me, gods never answered my prayers before, why would they start now?

Michael let out a self-depreciating laugh and waited.

"ARE YOU HERE, LADY AQUAAAA?"

"Oh god, no." Megumin's eye's widened.

As if through lolicon tracking senses, the Axis Priest Cecily instantly locked eyes on Megumin's table. Also Aqua was there too.

 

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