ugh erena and emeralda despairing from it is already rough but seeing victinias like that right after is pretty gutwrenching. i get why masaru has been trying to keep at least appearing as tough as he can, if he broke down openly too it would probably crush everyone around him : (.
did not expect it to be a freakin powder/dust explosion. actually pretty smart since a more normal type of explosion could do more scattering from the blast than it will, since in theory the entire area IS the explosion instead.. still sad but quite the epic boom, megumin would be proud.
btw unrelated but people who consider donating please google comicdom and what was going on with it first.