Saying farewells was all well and good, but we also needed to actually get out of there. As to how we’d do that, I frankly had no idea.

We clambered over the ruined door and ran from the enormous throne room as the sound of fighting steadily grew quieter behind us.

The doors of the trial chambers were still open, and we picked one at random to run away through.

“Where the hell do we go?!” I yelled.

“Fucked if I know! Just keep moving!” Saki ran out a few steps ahead of us, but kept to our pace. On the other side of the trial chamber, Maxwell was still stood by the four doors.

“Humans, I’m surprised to find you ali-“

“No time to talk, this place is gonna come down!” Yelled Saki at the demon. He watched us confusedly for a moment, before nonchalantly following behind us.

The second trial chamber was still a mess after the explosion that claimed the Director’s life, but we had no time to stop and take in the sights. We kept running without slowing for a single moment, eventually returning to the first trial chamber, where Laplace had seemingly already recovered from his injuries.

“It seems negotiations didn’t pan ou-“

“No shit! Get moving!”

Laplace’s response to Saki’s abruptness was much the same as Maxwell’s, seemingly following us more out of curiosity than anything else.

We bolted out of the trial chamber and through the long corridor, eventually bursting through the front door of the palace.

“Comrades, you’ve retur-“

“Yeah, good to see you, now move it!”

We dragged Kyouma and the twins along with us as we crossed the drawbridge away from the palace. The gate guard that we had left them with made some feeble attempt to stop us, but Maxwell simply picked him up by the scruff of his neck and carried him along behind us.

No sooner than we had crossed the bridge, a white light engulfed our vision, followed by a deafening roar and a shockwave that sent all of us spiralling on the ground. When my eyesight returned, I looked up just in time to see a slab of castle wall larger than my body fall towards my head. There was no way I could move: my body’s energy was utterly exhausted, and the shockwave had practically paralysed me to boot. I was an inch from an unceremonious death.

“Barrier!”

With her last remaining magic, Sunao erected a magical barrier between us and the falling debris. Small bits simply slid off or shattered on impact, but the massive piece careening towards me showed no signs of stopping.

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The barrier and debris shattered in tandem, the enormous slab reduced to small rocks and fine dust. I covered my face, the skin on my arms cut to shreds by the falling rocks.

I held my breath to avoid breathing in the mound of rock dust falling atop me. By the time the hail stopped and I moved my arms from my face, I was covered head to toe in black dust. A quick look around told me that nobody else fared significantly better. Every single person around me was covered in some amount of rock and dust from the shattered debris.

“Is everyone okay?” The first to clamber to her feet was Saki, brushing the debris off herself and looking around to make sure we were all safe.

“I’m okay. Jus- argh- stings like a bitch…”

I stood up and looked around us. The entire area had been decimated by bits of the castle that had been launched away in the explosion. The part where we lay was the least destroyed, despite looking like the sight of a firebombing.

Everybody else slowly got to their feet and did the same as me, observing the calamity that surrounded us. Everyone except Nao, who was barely clinging to consciousness

You saved us… with the absolute last bit of power she had.” Mai looked down at Nao with a melancholic look. This was the second time in less than a day that Nao had pushed herself to collapse through exhaustion to protect us.

“N-no… not quite the last…” she was just responsive enough to croak that out.

Saki and I hoisted her from the floor and brushed her down, before lifting her onto Saki’s back.

Despite the disaster we had just been through, somehow the four of us had escaped with little more than cuts and bruises. And we weren’t the only ones.

“Comrades, it’s good to see you alive and well. Now, might I enquire as to what in god’s name that was?” Asked Kyouma, putting down her too-long wizards robes to rid herself of dust.

“Flame… they…” the words refused to leave my mouth. I was still filled with self resentment for my failure to avert such a tragedy.

“Flame… sacrificed themselves. They sealed Baal away, but at the cost of their own souls.” Saki explained what I failed to, though her tone was as solemn as mine.

“Dammit!” I punched an enormous piece of debris out of frustration. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this… dammit… dammit all…”

We were supposed to bring them back. We were supposed to give them back the lives the Director had taken from them. What good was being a “hero” if we couldn’t save one group of misguided girls?

Kagami…

“You all need to see this.”

My thoughts were cut off by the blunt words of Suzume, who was staring back in the direction of the ruined castle. We all followed her gaze, and observed a haunting sight.

The castle had been reduced almost entirely to rubble, with nothing but a handful of outer walls still standing. And in the centre of it all, floating a dozen metres above the ground and encased in what appeared to be an enormous diamond of ice, was Baal Zebul, stuck in suspended animation. His arms were outstretched at his sides, the rest of his body upright.

“Woah…” muttered Saki

“I-Is that…” squeaked Nao

“Yeah…” replied Mai. “That’s them. The souls of the girls who sacrificed themselves for us.

Despite looking like little more than a giant block of ice, it was obvious upon first sight what we were looking at. The seal that was keeping Baal Zebul locked away. The seal that contained their souls. Her soul.

“They really did it…” said Saki. “They really saved our world. The world that they seemed to hate so much. They gave their lives for it.”

Tears welled up in Saki’s eyes, and I felt the same in mine. Pyrrhic though it was, it was a victory. The only victory that truly mattered. We failed, but we had also won. All because of a selfless decision made at the very end by those we had set out to save.