I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Ritual (4)

What was he looking at right now?

Garce doubted his eyes as he stared at the massive head that had fallen right before him.

Just a moment ago, it was the Great Devil, a being whose mere presence inspired terror.

The demon, simply by standing still, had frozen Garce and everyone else in fear.

No one could oppose the Great Devil. The only way to survive was to submit to the demon.

That's why, except for themselves, who sided with the Great Devil, the rest were as good as dead.

Even if Silia and the squad members survived Garce, they would still wind up in the palm of the Great Devil's hand.

But then...

"What is this...?"

Even the dark mages who'd been fighting froze at the sight of the Great Devil's face.

The intelligence squad, who were fighting those dark mages, as well as Silia and Louis's squad members, all fell silent.

"What the hell is this?"

At that moment, someone crawled up from below the cliff and spoke.

"That's the big damn head of the Great Devil bastard you all worshipped so much."

The one who appeared was Louis, his body covered with scales and fur in various places.

He walked on two legs like a human, but his appearance was so inhuman that it horrified nearly everyone.

"Y-You... don't tell me..."

Crunch!-

A dark mage muttered something, only to have his upper body disappear.

With a single swing of his arm, Louis had obliterated him. Then, clutching his head as if dizzy, Louis spoke to Silia.

"Could you use a spell for me, please?"

"Huh? Oh—yes...!"

Because everyone was so stunned, Silia spaced out for a moment before activating a spell.

Usually, that spell would cause pain to soldiers, but Louis breathed a sigh of relief instead, looking calm and relaxed.

"Thank you. If not for you, I might've ended up doing that to elder sister and my squad members, too."

Louis said this while pointing at the dark mage he'd just cut in half.

As Louis's body reverted to human form, Silia asked,

"How fiercely were you fighting to end up like that?"

"Don't ask. That guy was so crazy, I ended up using strength I never use. I thought I'd lose my mind."

If you stayed as a monster too long, you'd really become one. But Louis had managed to keep to his time limit.

Thanks to that, he could calm down with only the usual amount of spell support.

And right away, he took stock of the situation around him.

Garce was incapacitated, and the Great Devil's head had been cut off.

Like a king being taken in chess, the enemy collectively lost all will to fight, their weapons clattering to the ground.

"I won't show mercy."

Regardless, Louis vaporized the upper halves of their bodies just the same.

Heads and torsos disappeared one after another, leaving the remaining bodies icy corpses as they collapsed.

"What are you waiting for? You guys get going too."

He said to his squad members.

Making eye contact with Louis, who had just been a monster, the squad members hurried to act.

So, Louis and the squad quickly dispatched the rest of the enemies.

Because Louis moved without pause, not a single one escaped—all were completely eradicated.

In the end, all enemies were gone, with only one person remaining.

"How... could this happen...?"

Garce wore a vacant, devastated expression.

It started with losing to those weaker than himself, and now the being called the Great Devil had lost his head, too.

"What, can't believe it?"

In front of Garce's eyes, Louis appeared.

Garce looked at him as if seeing something incomprehensible.

"Are you...human?"

Garce had seen Louis's monstrous form with his own eyes.

And it was easy to realize the Great Devil had been beheaded by Louis.

"To be honest, it'd be a stretch to call me human."

Beings that defied common sense were always called one thing.

"You monster...!"

The boy labeled a monster flashed a crooked grin as he looked down at Garce on the ground.

"That's right. Your little brother made the same face."

"What?!"

Garce's eyes widened in a flash.

"You... you know where my brother is, don't you?"

"Yeah. I know. It must be that guy, right?"

Louis, though he didn't want to remember, recalled that day for a brief moment.

That bandit leader who laughed as he stabbed Louis's parents to death.

Louis still remembered his scent.

"No wonder—I noticed you smelled a lot like him, too."

From the start, when he first saw Garce here, Louis had sensed it.

That Garce had some connection to that guy.

Once he smelled the same scent from both, there was no way they were unrelated.

"Say it! Where is my brother?!"

Garce's eyes split wide as he screamed.

His chest was bleeding, but he didn't seem to care at all.

"For the record, I never forget the smell of someone whose blood I swallow."

"Stop with the nonsense and answer me!"

Garce, thinking Louis was trying to change the subject, grew angrier.

But he was mistaken.

"Among the ones I consumed, there was one who smelled just like you."

"What...?"

Upon hearing this, the fire in Garce's rage was instantly snuffed out by cold.

"Don't tell me...!"

He understood exactly what Louis meant.

With that, all the pride he had collapsed inside, and Louis said to Garce,

"He's in here. Your brother."

As Louis pointed at his stomach, Garce felt total certainty.

That certainty became a rage that even melted his chill, forcing him to his feet.

"How dare you!!"

Despite his injured body, Garce forced himself up and swung his sword.

He put all his might into the blow, but Louis was curiously unharmed.

In a blink, Louis grabbed Garce's sword arm.

"Gyaaaaaaaa!!"

Having tried to attack, Garce only lost an arm—he howled in pain.

Louis, scowling fiercely, told him,

"What are you so mad about? The one who burned down my domain and killed my parents was your brother."

"That's because... your father committed a grave crime... arghhhh!!"

Garce screamed again mid-sentence.

Louis had stomped on his remaining arm, breaking it.

"What a load of crap. As someone directly under the Imperial Court, you surely know that's bull, don't you?"

Even if he didn't know, it was something he could easily confirm with a little investigation.

Those with high enough rank had just declared Louis's father a criminal without proper reason.

"You just made my family criminals by force. Isn't that right?"

"Aaargh!!"

"So your brother torched our peaceful domain and killed my parents. You get what I'm saying?"

As Louis stomped harder, Garce wailed even more, tears spilling from his eyes.

But he still tried to speak with multiple excuses.

"There... there was no choice. For the noble Crown Prince... such a sacrifice was nothing..."

Garce and his brother—they'd once had their lives saved by the Crown Prince.

After the demonic war, some areas had become permanent hellscapes; the two had survived one.

The Crown Prince not only rescued them but gave them strength, so naturally, they revered him as a savior.

But...

"Oh, so it's okay to sacrifice anyone for that precious Crown Prince? Is that it?"

Louis snorted and pointed at the Great Devil Palmon's severed head.

"But what now? That demon's ended up like that. That's the demon the Crown Prince contracted with, right?"

His contracted demon was dead.

What would happen to the Crown Prince, who gained magic power through that contract?

"No..."

It was all too obvious, and a tremor ran through Garce's pupils.

Louis grabbed Garce's head and looked at Silia.

Silia understood at a glance what his eyes meant, and nodded. Louis nodded back in response.

"I got so hungry after using my strength just now. Would you do me the favor of letting me eat you?"

Louis said with a sinister smile to Garce.

Knowing it was like receiving a death sentence, Garce shook his head desperately, trying to resist.

"St-stop...!"

"Why? Isn't this what your beloved brother always did? The only difference is the shape."

"No!"

"That's right! I'll let you meet your brother. In my stomach."

"Save meee!!!"

As Louis opened his mouth, Silia quickly covered her eyes and shielded the squad members.

Crunch!-

After a chilling noise sounded and a few minutes passed, things quieted.

When they looked again, Garce was gone.

It was clear what Louis had done, but Silia didn't bother to say anything.

"Is it over?"

"Yes. The brothers are probably having an emotional reunion inside right about now."

"......"

That answer made Silia a bit dizzy, but she was simply grateful everyone survived.

Now, only the matter of what to do with the unconscious 7th Legion soldiers remained.

"Why are those people sleeping for so long?"

"Seriously. It was so loud and chaotic, too."

Even as the sword echo and thunderous booms continued, they remained unmoving.

At this point, you'd think they were dead—and some actually had died from getting caught up in it.

"It's probably the dark magic's effect. Since it was a bizarre ritual to offer sacrifices to the demon, the aftereffects must be severe."

"If it weren't for the young master, we'd probably be lying knocked out like that too. Really, thank you!"

Victor expressed brief but genuine thanks.

"But I really thought we were going to die! We're not going to get involved in something like this again, right?"

Simon shivered as he remembered Garce from earlier.

"Yeah. We were way too weak."

Rio agreed as well. Her arm still trembled from the aftereffects of that fight.

"If the young master hadn't shown up in time..."

If the young master had failed to kill the Great Devil, what would have happened?

Thanks to the stampede, they already realized they couldn't always rely on Louis.

But so what, even after realizing that?

The fact that she still didn't have enough strength to protect herself hadn't changed, so Rio couldn't look up.

"There's no need to rush so much."

Louis, patting Rio's head comfortingly, said,

"For your level, you all did well enough."

He looked over the bodies strewn on the ground.

The squad members' contribution was part of finishing them off, after all.

And, considering they survived this long in the 7th Legion, that was nothing to take lightly.

"Surviving a high-level dungeon like beginners who just started out is a huge achievement."

"High-level dungeon?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Realizing she'd just been complimented, Rio smiled, raising her head.

Just then, as Louis was feeling proud of Rio, he remembered something he'd forgotten.

"By the way, where's Lord Alber?"

"You mean that guy who got stabbed? He wasn't around from the moment we started fighting."

"Right! And after the young master fell off the cliff with the demon, we didn't see him anymore."

Did he use the chaos to escape?

It was frustrating, but it couldn't be helped.

"What should we do?"

"It's fine. We'll meet again soon enough."

Lord Alber was also an enemy of Louis's parents.

Silia asked with concern, but Louis remained surprisingly calm.

Judging by the confident look on his face, there was no need to worry.

"Young master! Young master!"

Just then, Rio, standing in front of Palmon's head, called out to Louis.

"How did demon blood taste?"

"What are you planning?"

Rio looked at Palmon's head with sparkling eyes and said,

"Can I try it, too?"

She looked like she wanted to taste it right now—like a kid begging for a treat.

"Do as you like."

Knowing well the traits of a bloodsword user, Louis gave her permission with a nod.

Rio, looking as innocent as ever, was about to put her mouth to the head when Pram came running and stopped her.

"You idiot! What if something happens to you after drinking that?"

"But the young master said it's fine."

"Even so, you shouldn't eat anything that looks demonic when you have no idea what it might do!"

Pram's concerns were understandable.

It was as risky as eating unknown plants and animals in an unexplored wilderness.

Of course, for a bloodsword who handled blood, that didn't apply—but Pram didn't know that.

"I don't care, I want to try."

"You dolt! Please, just calm down a little—ow!"

Pushed by Rio, Pram bumped into Palmon's head.

It was a trivial mishap, like hitting a wall by accident.

"Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Ow-ow-ow... huh?"

As Rio apologized and Pram stood up again, the supposedly dead Palmon's eyes began to glimmer with a sinister glare.

Is it coming back to life? Rio and the squad members tensed up, on edge.

Noticing something was off, Louis moved fast and smashed a fist into the head.

Crack!

"Eek!"

With a single punch from Louis, the huge head shattered into pieces.

As the shards flew her way, Pram panicked, and Rio looked tearful at not having had a taste yet.

But destroying the head didn't end it.

Where it had been now floated a translucent something, hovering in the air like a ghost.

It shot toward Pram in an instant.

"No! Stay away!"

Pram shrieked in terror, but the thing already entered her body.

"Huh?"

And then Pram felt a strange sensation.

Some odd energy was swirling inside her.

Seeing this, Louis's eyes widened.

"Young master, what's happening to me?"

"Pram, just calm down and hold this for a second."

Thinking it might be trouble, Louis handed Pram a sword lying on the ground.

"Me? Hold it?"

Trusting Louis's instincts, Pram took the sword without question.

The part she touched quickly began to rot and crumble.

"Wha—?"

"Just as I thought."

Now Louis was sure of it.

Pram had changed jobs to the 'evil' route, too.

All because of the Great Devil's power as a medium.

***

A month had passed since they survived the ordeal at the ruin.

Louis and the squad members were back at Paruzan Fortress, enjoying their ordinary daily life.

Though it was normal here for screams to ring out and monsters to attack, spilling blood every day, it was still just routine.

Amidst this ordinary life, good news arrived: new recruits had joined.

"N-Nice to meet you..."

Alber Bisted, once head of a noble house, now stood nervously in Silia's unit's quarters, bowing awkwardly.

"Welcome~"

Louis greeted Alber cheerfully,

as if he had already known this would happen.