"Since it's already begun… let's finish this quickly."
"You all stay here and watch the show. Leave the rest to me."
"The battle will be over in no time."
With those words, Izumi strode straight toward the exit.
Rias and the others hurriedly followed, clearly alarmed.
"W-wait, Izumi-kun!"
"Don't tell me you're planning to attack them all by yourself?"
"That's way too dangerous!"
"You do realize Riser brought his entire peerage with him, right!?"
Even though they had asked Izumi to act as external support, Rias had never planned on sitting around being a cheerleader.
But Izumi was clearly intending to make them exactly that—spectators who shouted "ganbatte!" from the sidelines.
And that was unacceptable.
Why had they trained so hard? Why had they endured all those grueling sessions?
If Izumi handled everything alone, wouldn't that effort be meaningless?
And what about all the times Izumi had taken advantage of them during training—what were those even for?
Izumi glanced at them with a sidelong, dismissive look.
"Who said I was going to charge in? Just watch from here."
He didn't bother with further explanations.
The faster this was over, the faster he could get back to playing games with Asia.
Relaxing with her, eating grapes, watching anime—that was far more appealing than dealing with this mess.
Still grumbling internally, Izumi left the clubroom and walked toward the roof of the old school building.
Rias and the others froze for a moment in confusion.
Why the roof?
The three who stayed behind watched him through the screen inside the Occult Research Club room.
When Izumi reached the rooftop, his figure was simultaneously broadcast to every devil in the Underworld.
The screen was split in two—one feed showing Izumi, the other showing Riser and his group.
Riser's team couldn't see Izumi yet; they were still discussing battle plans, paying no attention to the broadcast.
At that very moment, the phoenix-haired devil was strategizing how to capture Izumi.
He never imagined Izumi intended to wipe them out in a single strike.
Standing atop the old school building, Izumi gazed toward the distant student council building.
A faint, amused smile tugged at his lips.
"You're still discussing strategies?"
"Tsk."
"Perfect. I'll break your barrier all at once."
A black longbow materialized in his hand.
In the next instant, blue mana spiraled in his right palm, forming a familiar drill-shaped sword.
He nocked the projection onto the bowstring, eyes turning cold.
Every devil watching the broadcast felt their breath catch.
Izumi took aim—straight at the building housing Riser and his peerage.
Red mana surged around him, dyeing the entire rooftop in crimson light.
Down below, Riser felt a sudden jolt of dread.
A terrible intuition clawed up his spine.
He glanced toward the window—and there, far away, he saw Izumi.
Their eyes met.
When he saw Izumi draw the bowstring, Riser's expression twisted.
"Not good!"
"Scatter! Everyone scatter! He's aiming at us!"
In his mind, Izumi must have been targeting a single member of the peerage.
Izumi watched Riser's panicked scrambling with contempt.
Then—he released the string.
Mana erupted.
The drill sword shot forward like a blazing comet, leaving a trail of azure flame in its wake.
It pierced straight into the student council building.
Izumi whispered a single phrase:
"Broken Phantasm."
Inside the room, Riser felt the surge of murderous heat.
"Defensive magic! NOW!"
Magic circles flared one after another.
And then—the weapon detonated.
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion swallowed the entire building, rising into the sky as a miniature mushroom cloud.
Rias and the others were stunned speechless.
"What… what was that…?"
"A-a nuclear blast…!?"
Even Megumi and the other human girls were dumbfounded—they understood exactly what a mushroom cloud symbolized.
All the devils watching were petrified.
The cloud was smaller than a real nuke, yes—but the impact was overwhelming.
Anyone who had ever seen footage of Earth's atomic tests felt the same primal fear clawing back up their spine.
If Izumi had projected a speaker and played one of those nuclear explosion theme songs from his past life, the scene would've been even more perfect.
Izumi observed the flames in the distance, eyebrows rising slightly.
"…Didn't wipe them all out?"
"Interesting."
"So it's the Phoenix bloodline."
Even amid the inferno, he could sense two life signatures flickering back to existence.
Riser—and Ravel.
Both members of the Phoenix family.
Both blessed with the power of rebirth.
They had undoubtedly been killed by the first blast.
But their bloodline forced them back to life.
"If one shot's not enough… then let's try a few more."
A maniac grin curled across Izumi's face.
"Fufufufu… yes. Art is an explosion."
Behind him, several weapons materialized at once.
He fired them simultaneously.
Each one streaked across the sky like a falling star—
and each one exploded.
Mushroom clouds blossomed one after another.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The shockwaves were so massive that even the old school building trembled.
Rias's protective barriers shattered instantly, the blast flinging all of them into the wall.
Izumi, in full explosion mode, didn't care if his own side got collateral damage.
Every viewer of the broadcast stared, dumbstruck.
The entire school grounds had become a sea of flames.
From above, the view was hellish—nothing but firestorms and rising pillars of smoke.
Nobody had expected Izumi to be this ruthless.
One blast wasn't enough—he casually added several dozen more.
For the Phoenix heir, this day would leave a lifelong trauma.
Every time he remembered these explosions, he would undoubtedly tremble.
How many times had they died inside that inferno?
Only they knew—and they would never forget.