Spirit of Explosion – Konosuba

The world was in ruins. Piles of ransacked buildings filled with moss blanketed the area. War between the demon army and magical girls resulted in mass catastrophe which brought humanity near its extinction.

Atop a stone platform that stuck out amidst the ruins, stood a black-haired girl, wearing an eyepatch and cape atop her casual clothing. She brandished her staff, which were about as tall as herself, striking a pose towards the incoming onslaught of monsters. Beside her, another young girl with large chest and homely appearance laid prone all battered up; corpses of various demons could be seen all around.

The tattered girl gazed upon her eyepatch-wearing friend, saying: "Megumin...do not listen to the Incubator. At all costs...don't make a contract with it."

To her friend's response, Megumin sighed "It's you who don't understand, Yunyun. You have come from another timeline so many times just to save me, but from the very beginning, I love explosion magic. If the contract makes me able to cast explosion, no matter how hefty the price—it's all worth it!"

That's when Yunyun sniffled...she coughed up blood with all the sudden urge to burst out screaming "I love you, Megumin...if you weren't here, who would be my rival? You are my one and only, precious friend."

"I shall become the spirit of explosion magic." said Megumin with utter confidence, "I'll forever be by your side when you practice explosion, live by the explosion and die with explosion."

The boob magician stifled at the words 'die with explosion' as if it meant literally.

"No, Megumin...don't."

"Muttering double negatives means that you approve of my action. Fare the well, Yunyun—you're truly a good friend."

She wanted to respond 'what kind of logic was that?' though blood filled her throat, making it hard to even say anything. In the distance, the roaring of enormous monster waves could be heard.

"Emperor Zell." Megumin muttered to a small chicken who flew from the distance and perched atop her shoulder, not saying anything back (it's just a chicken what did you expect) but a powerful surge of mana burst forth upon it, and from that sign, the eyepatch girl could somehow communicate with it.

"I understand, I shall made a contract. Thanks to Yunyun's valiant efforts of rescuing me from all those different timelines (although ended up failing anyway) I pledge myself to become the spirit of explosion to wipe out traces of demons from this world."

With those proceeding words, a warm red glow enveloped her entire body and all the debris from the ground began to flew towards the sky. The atmosphere around her changed as her staff underwent a transformation into a pink-colored pole with enormous crimson jewel etched in its head. The staff emanated a monstrous energy capable of eclipsing the entire heaven and earth and sunder everything beneath the sun without leaving any traces.

"Contract complete." Emperor Zell responded in a mechanical voice.

Megumin didn't say anything and made incantation gesture with her hands. A crimson magical circle appeared beneath her feet. She muttered the magic words which would cause even the most chuuni people to cringe.

Yunyun hung her head in despair, she muttered—did I fail again? No matter how hard she tried forcing her body to move, all that resulted was more coughing of blood and fading consciousness. She began to wonder—was this kind of development her fault to begin with? Was it wrong for her to desire a timeline where she and Megumin could live happily forever? Was she not strong enough to change fate, for the sake of their happiness?

"I was wrong...in the first place...I shouldn't force myself onto her...I shouldn't have interfered with her fate..."

The eyepatch girl's shouts were like a final nail in the coffin for her.

"Explosion!"

The next thing she realized was a luminous light covering her eyes, as everything: the ruins, the monsters, even Megumin and herself were wrapped inside the light.

She lapsed into a state of unconsciousness after that, but what awaited her was yet...another timeline, which would continue endlessly until she finally gave up.

...

As for Megumin, she found herself drifting amidst the starry skies; she could see the sun in one direction and the moon itself at the other. When she looked at the planet in front of her—there's only countless planetary debris floating around.

How much time had passed since then? She realized, upon casting it for the first time—she lost her consciousness for quite long. Dreams about her family and friends, with them achieving a happy ending played in her subconscious mind.

Upon encountering what actually happened, her soul broke.

Countless streams of souls were floating from the planet's wreckage to various locations within outer space. In place of what used to be the planet's nucleus, there was a big magical circle which projected the shape of a giant cross.

Out of blue, a melancholic piano song played; accompanied by a female vocalist singing in a somber tone.

"It all returns to nothing

I've just keep tumbling down

Tumbling down

Tumbling down..."

As the song proceed forth, the planetary debris began vanishing into thin air, leaving behind fragments of light which dispersed like those souls. The song was akin to a requiem for the planet before it finally descended onto the graves of open space.

A strange feeling assaulted Megumin as the debris was gone from her sight. Staring at the vast emptiness in front of her caused despair to well up from her mind.

Gone, everything was gone. The song was a perfect representation that she had screwed up.

She sped onto the moon, which upon closer inspection appear to be greatly fractured. Like a broken glass ball about to be split into many parts upon receiving significant damage.

The eyepatch girl began to think; was it wrong after all—to love explosion? Though, it didn't matter anymore. Her friends and family were all gone, that magic was the only thing remained. She continued casting explosion as her insanity and loneliness piled up. With each spell she cast, worlds were destroyed and she was able to return to that dreamlike, blissful state.

It eventually came to a point where the once starry sky was reduced to a void. The only thing present was the girl; ever unchanging. Of course, a very long time had passed. Clutching deeply in the passion for explosion magic, Megumin was barely able to maintain herself from breaking down.

She stared at the void for who knows how long, replaying all the majestic detonations occurring in her mind. Like when the array of planets in the Outer Rim went to explosive chain reactions. She also replayed all the things occurring in the history of earth, starting from the gunpowder era. Those cannons from ships, atomic bombs and even the visage of a suicide bomber wanting to turn himself into fireworks.

"Aloha snackba-"

"Megumin! I finally found you."

Before she could say the words to incite another explosion, the annoyance she hadn't felt for such a while had came back. It was Yunyun, wearing an angel outfit that seemingly didn't suit her. Megumin often thought since her boobs were so big and boobs were evil, she should have worn the devil ones instead.

"I realize, after going through so many timelines, I have finally found you! Please, let us go together to a new place...it's not pleasant here."

"Yunyun, don't. There's nothing that could save me now, just to satisfy my selfish desires...I-"

"It's not your fault. The incubator had planned this from the beginning. They wanted to destroy the entire universe and themselves without dirtying their hands."

"...even so! I couldn't forgive myself from indulging in my own desires...I should have made myself perish..."

"Listen there, Megumin. Erasing your existence like that wouldn't solve anything. I know what you did was bad, but with your powers, there is always a way to make amends."

There were two kinds of ultimate explosions, the one that made to erase all existence and the ones that created life. When Yunyun referred to the later, Megumin exclaimed.

"The big bang? Can I really do that?"

"Believe in your spirit of explosion and create a new universe."

"That sounds like pain, with a loner like you of all people?"

"Hey!"

"I guess I didn't hate it after all, being with you is much better than staring at the vast blackness of universe, who wouldn't give such amusing reactions..."

"I'm not sure if I should be happy for that...so, Megumin, do you want to be my friend once more?"

"It's not like I have a choice isn't it? I have grown tired of this lonely universe."

Yunyun simply nodded with a bright smile, before they finally shook hands.

An unknown time had passed before an enormous explosion echoed within the vast space. The ones which gave birth towards the new Universe. Megumin and Yunyun nurtured the world for a very long time before it finally settled down.

Megumin had a motive of restoring things back since she screwed up, and Yunyun's attempts to save the eyepatch girl across the timeline eventually made her power-up so much she ended up destroying her universe. Now that their job was done, they planned to forget their entire memories and just reincarnate as a human in a different dimension.

They ended up being born in the village of Crimson Magic, in a world ruled by Goddess Eris.

Megumin, who decided to forget her affection to explosion before her reincarnation, ended up remembering it when a young woman she helped; cast such a beautiful spell which resulted in havoc.

...but seeing as she would flop after casting a single spell of that kind, maybe if she actually remembered everything—she'd probably feel relieved knowing there's much less a chance of her destroying the entire world.

Well, who knows.

Fin.