I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 131 : Elf Village (3)

Elf Village (3)

With the exception of a small group, all forces guarding the elf village had been completely annihilated.

The intruders killed every elf that tried to attack them.

Even when the elves grouped together, the intruders were simply unstoppable, and that made them a disaster of unimaginable proportions for the elves, who had lived in peace their entire lives.

No matter how much they fought back, seeing their kin return as corpses was like watching ants rush into a typhoon.

"We... lost."

No matter how rare the species, elves were ultimately people too.

When you want to flee from a calamity but there's truly nowhere to run, in the end, you submit.

Just as ancient people, believing calamities were the wrath of the gods, offered live sacrifices in a desperate bid to stop them—it was an instinct for survival.

"Ah..."

The elders were stunned speechless, staring at the bodies of elf soldiers strewn across the village floor.

In truth, they hadn't fallen so easily just because they were weak.

It was simply because they couldn't use magic power inside the elf village—if they had fought outside, they'd be among the best, wielding powerful aura and magic.

Had magic power been usable, it would've been normal for the elves to have the upper hand.

It was never a matter of incompetence. They just happened to meet the wrong opponent.

"Do you feel wronged?"

Looking at the elders, lost in despair before the corpses of their kin, Louis spoke.

"I'll say it again: you started it first."

Every combatant in the elf village was either dead or rendered incapable of fighting.

The elves, who had lost all will to fight, had no choice but to kneel, like people whose capital city had been seized by invaders.

"Imperial dogs...!"

"How dare you! Do you even know where you are?"

"The Holy Nation won't forgive you for this!"

Though they spoke their resignation in subdued whispers, Louis's ears caught every word.

Fwoosh—

Louis snatched a soldier's spear and threw it at one of the whispering elves.

As the elf's head flew off from the thrown spear, the other elves recoiled in horror.

"Eeek!!"

"Go ahead, try whispering again. I'll make you all end up the same way."

Could a mere human really hear their whispers?

The elves felt uneasy, but had to keep their mouths shut for survival.

"Hey, girl! Why aren't you obeying our orders!"

Yet, the elves' hostility remained, so there were still those who resisted.

"You ate our fruit too, so you should listen to us!"

One of the elders shouted loudly at Rio.

Up until now, every human who ate the fruit given by the elves ended up as their puppets.

That was why the laborers forced to work by the elves couldn't escape.

"Rio, are you going to listen to that man?"

But the moment Louis spoke to Rio, she looked straight at him, then cheerfully clung to his side.

"No! I'll only listen to the young master!"

"......"

The elders were dumbfounded by Rio's behavior.

She was completely ignoring the power of the fruit that forced any human who ate it to obey the elves.

"So it doesn't matter if the others die!"

The elders began thinking about the cause.

Even if her magic power had returned, such immunity should have been impossible.

But looking at Rio clinging to Louis, the elders realized something—it was that the girl's affection for the young master was so strong that even their brainwashing couldn't overcome it.

"This is insane..."

Since they'd never seen this before, the elders were appalled.

These intruders completely trampled on their common sense like insects.

"Hey, Louis!"

Just then, Kelian threw a potion toward Louis.

"Give that to Rio to drink. She'll go back to normal after that."

Louis handed the potion to Rio and spoke.

"Rio, drink this."

"What is it?"

"Just give it a try."

Tilting her head, Rio soon brightened up.

"Okay!"

Now, as long as it was the young master's order, Rio would follow without question.

She drank the potion right away.

"Huh?"

In that moment, Rio dropped the bottle and looked dazed.

Seeing that something seemed wrong, Louis asked,

"What's the matter?"

"That's normal. The others who drank the potion just before reacted the same way."

There were many others besides Rio who'd been under the influence of the fruit.

They were people who'd immigrated here and, having been tricked by the elves, ended up as slaves.

Kelian had just finished handing out the potion to help them come back to their senses.

"Soon, she'll be back to normal."

"That's a relief."

There's an antidote wherever there's poison.

The elves had a medicine with properties opposite of the fruit prepared in advance.

No elves remained who could oppose Louis now.

If they wanted to live, they had to obey his commands—but hostile glares continued to follow him.

"How dare you...!"

A few elf children glared venomously at Louis.

"My mom and dad!"

Among the slain elf soldiers Louis killed were the parents of some children.

Having lost their parents, the children inevitably held a grudge.

"I'll get revenge! I'll get revenge for sure!"

The child expressed rage in a manner straight out of a comic book.

"What did my mom and dad ever do to deserve that?!"

The words alone showed they had no understanding of their own wrongdoing.

It was the same for the other elves.

Most of them empathized with the child's outburst.

[Wrongdoing? There's a lot.]

Just before the scene could devolve into chaos, Silia appeared and blocked the child's path.

[Not just your parents—all of you here.]

But Silia's voice was strange.

It sounded like someone else's, yet at the same time, not unfamiliar.

"What did we do!"

"You're the ones who invaded!"

The surrounding elves protested loudly, but Silia glared at them with a ferocity that silenced them.

"Gasp...!"

"Huh...?"

The protesting elves immediately shut up, as if their very cells were suppressing their anger against their will.

'Ah, I see.'

Louis, observing this, realized what state Silia was in.

"Are you very angry, great mage?"

"What?"

With that, the elders' eyes opened wide.

"No way..."

"Mirianne?!"

A legendary mage who resurrected the fallen elves by her own power.

To elves, her name was one of a god. The elders couldn't help but be shocked.

"Hey, old men. Have you thought about how we got our magic power back?"

"......"

Thinking back, they still hadn't found an answer.

They'd come up with hypotheses, but all of them were impossible—unless, as the intruders said, the Great Mage herself had returned.

"N-no way, right? Please tell me that was a joke."

Sensing it instinctively, one of the elders backed away.

Mirianne, now residing within Silia's body, approached that elder and placed her hand on his head.

"Huh?"

Something was conveyed from her hand into the elder's mind.

As the one who had once brought the elves back to life, Mirianne had the authority to control the entire race.

That authority could be exercised even in her disembodied state.

"Ah... Aaaaaagh!!"

What she passed into the elder's mind was Mirianne's own magic power.

The elves instinctively recognized her by that magic alone.

It meant she could command them all just by releasing her magic power.

"G, great mage... Mirianne! We bow before you!!"

At the moment the elder submitted, Mirianne released her magic power through Silia's hand.

All the elves who felt that magic were struck with terror.

"M-Mirianne!"

"Eeek!!"

Everyone except Louis and his companions fell to their knees and pressed their heads to the ground in front of her.

"Elder Sister... is she really the Great Mage from the stories?"

Then, the child who had been furious moments before looked up with hope.

"Then please punish those people! The ones who killed our mom and dad!"

The elves longed for the punishment of Louis and his group for the crime of harming the innocent. But...

[Punish them? By what right?]

Mirianne's expression twisted with venom.

[You have no right to speak of judgment. You trash!]

Her reply chilled the elves seeking vengeance along with the child.

[Do you really not understand what you've done wrong? I know everything!]

Being one with the World Tree, Mirianne could see all the events in the world.

She knew why the World Tree became a dead tree, knew the elves deceived others and used them as slaves—everything.

[I let you live because I wanted you to live normal lives. I didn't save you so you could turn into this kind of trash.]

"Trash? We just... urk!"

As the pointless excuses began, the elves all clutched at their throats in sudden pain.

[You've come to take your own atrocities for granted.]

As someone who could decide the fate of the elves, Mirianne declared,

[If you think it's so natural, then you should also experience it firsthand.]

. . .

No elf dared touch Mirianne.

Beyond strength, it was the 'perception magic' she had cast on the elves during her lifetime.

Planting her presence deep within the very cells of their race made them instinctively recognize her.

It also served as proof that she managed the race herself.

If danger befell those under the spell, she would know and could respond immediately.

Mirianne had put great effort into protecting the elves.

Nothing felt more empty to her than the moment all of it was for nothing.

"You look like you're in a bad mood."

Now able to control the elves by releasing her magic power, Mirianne wore an empty expression as she sat at the edge of a cliff.

[How do you think it feels when the tower of stones you've built over ages comes tumbling down?]

Mirianne spoke her feelings as she gazed at the sunset before her.

Even though the matter was resolved, it still felt unresolved, and a sigh escaped her lips.

[Still, I'm glad I could stop it, even now. Without you, they would've used my name as a shield and kept repeating the same crimes for the rest of their lives. In that sense, I'm truly grateful to you all.]

"To be honest, we didn't expect the Great Mage would possess Elder sister Silia's body so freely, either."

It was one thing for Frederick to cling to Silia's body, but this was on a whole different level of possession.

Somehow, both of them stuck to Silia's body, but no one knew how this was even possible.

[What a strange fate this is.]

At that, Mirianne's expression brightened.

[Do you know humans can't use magic power without their original body?]

"That's just common sense."

[Right. So under normal circumstances, I shouldn't be able to release magic power.]

Then how had she used magic power through Silia's body?

[But if you borrow a body very close to your original one, you can use it. Even if only your thoughts remain, like that fool Frederick, if you enter a similar body you can manage.]

"A similar body?"

Did that mean Silia's body was similar to both Frederick's and Mirianne's?

[The very fact that I could inhabit her body is proof. This simply isn't possible without some underlying connection, unless you want to risk your very existence.]

If you borrowed a body that didn't match your soul, disasters would follow.

But realizing that the body did match, Louis's eyes went wide.

"Then... could it be—"

[You must have heard that I caused an incident with Frederick in the past? Looks like you've figured it out.]

She smiled a little sadly.

[Yes. This girl is the descendant of me and that fool.]