I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 18 : Elder Sister! (3)

Elder Sister! (3)

"If you don't want to end up like that, get lost now."

Louis pointed to Jake's neck, which he had dropped to the floor, as he spoke.

Seeing this, the three followers rushed at Louis in anger.

"You little brat!"

They thought it was just a stroke of luck that a kid had managed to land a surprise slash.

Especially since the one who'd been cut was Jake, their outstanding comrade, there was no way they could let Louis live.

"Wait a second!"

At that moment, Armon tried to stop the followers. He could sense something from Louis, who had just dispatched Jake.

Despite his young age, he showed no hesitation in beheading a man—a chilling composure.

His expression was relaxed, even as multiple people rushed him.

There was something unsettling about this boy, who was anything but ordinary.

"What?"

The followers belatedly heeded Armon's shout and stopped.

But it was already too late. Louis' sword, tracing a crescent arc, had horizontally sliced through their bodies.

*Swish!*

With that, all of the followers had been dealt with.

These were the ones essential for collecting and transporting offerings to the archdemon.

After all the trouble to train and gather them, everything was undone by these two individuals.

Grinding his teeth in bubbling rage, Armon glared.

"You bastards...!"

True to the name of demon, his eyes turned red and his face twisted grotesquely.

Louis, exhaling sharply, replied,

"Told you, you should've left quietly when I gave you the chance."

*Clang!!*

In an instant, Armon's sword clashed with Louis's.

Fueled by great fury, Armon's blade was considerably heavy.

With a single swing, it gave the illusion that attacks were coming from multiple directions.

That kind of speed left so many afterimages, but Louis dodged them all with superhuman reflexes.

"You monkey!"

Armon wreathed his sword with a black aura.

The slash he released in that state had great range, enough to cut through someone ten meters away in a flash.

With the speed and movement unchanged, he would be hard to approach.

Yet Louis ignored the distance and closed in lightly.

No matter how long the slashing arc, Louis brushed off every attack and quickly closed the gap, threatening Armon.

"Gah!"

Armon took a wound to the chest from Louis's blade as he got close.

Louis was disappointed that the wound was more minor than he'd expected.

"You dodged that?"

In fact, Armon had pulled back just before getting cut.

That move had lessened the injury by retreating in time.

What if his dodge had been even a moment late?

"Ugh...!"

Although the wound was regenerating, Armon dropped to his knees.

Silia, who had been quietly observing the fight, couldn't hide her shock.

Although she'd been hindered by poison and a hostage, that demon was the one who had defeated her.

He was certainly not someone your average soldier could handle.

But Louis showed composure even against such an opponent.

His sword forms may have been a mess, but his outstanding physical abilities made up for everything.

Unlike knights who relied on honed technique, Louis simply blocked and dodged.

He had the brute strength to deflect enemy blades and the reflexes to sidestep attacks.

'Is that really a mere soldier...?'

She recalled what Kelian had said before they had headed out.

That Louis had understood his sword speed.

She'd thought it was impossible when she first heard it.

But seeing him now, she had to change her mind.

And she recalled that Kelian had asked her to recognize Louis's potential.

Now she understood why.

Moreover, Louis was a child.

Seeing him display such power despite his age made Silia think,

'Is he a monster?'

Coincidentally, Armon was having almost the same thought.

Why, in the middle of smoothly gathering sacrifices, had he run into such a monster?

What sin had he committed to deserve this?

"Don't get in my way!"

Armon, his wound now regenerated, stood up again.

He could not fall here yet.

He had to survive until he gained recognition from the archdemon.

Fueled by that one thought, Armon poured all his strength into his sword.

The already long blade grew even longer and thicker.

Its power was as great as, or even greater than, what had broken Silia's sword earlier.

He must kill this foe. Armon swung, putting everything he had into it.

*Crack!*

At the sound of something breaking, Armon flashed a triumphant grin, but then immediately sank into despair.

"What?"

It was his own sword, not his enemy's, that was broken.

That slash, which had easily cut through Silia's sword, was matched and destroyed by a normal blade.

No matter how he thought about it, it was strange.

Other than the handcuffs, there was nothing special about this brat.

Not even an aura on the sword.

Why then?

"How...?"

Did this make sense?

Even mediocre opponents were split if they so much as touched his slash.

"This is nothing compared to those lizard scales I fought the other time."

"What?"

"Still, you should be glad. Unlike it, you'll get an easier death."

"What are you talking about?"

Dismayed, Armon retreated anxiously.

The fact that, as a demon, he could feel fear sent Armon into shock.

"It means it's over."

"Shut up!!"

Armon, desperate, threw a punch.

With a black aura similar to an aura wrapped around his hand, the power was considerable.

Louis's face jerked slightly at the punch, but that was all.

He turned his head back to the front with hardly any sign of injury.

"Die!!"

Armon kept throwing the same punches in a row, but Louis let him.

Blows that could put a hole in steel left Louis unfazed.

He didn't even blink, showed no pain, and there wasn't even a scratch.

In that moment, blood splashed on Louis's face.

But it wasn't because his face was wounded.

Louis, who had been taking the blows calmly, had swung his sword and severed Armon's wrist.

"Gyaaaaah!!"

"See? I told you it was over."

When Armon toppled over screaming, Louis approached, gripping his sword in both hands.

Sensing extreme danger, Armon glanced to the side, where the boy Jake had taken hostage was lying.

Fixating on the child, Armon instantly grabbed him.

Holding the fragment of his broken sword to the boy's neck, he succeeded in taking a hostage, even though he only had one hand left.

Armon shouted frantically, almost in appeal.

"Don't move!! You don't want this brat to die, do you?"

A hostage scenario just like Jake had tried.

Louis paused for a moment and then snorted.

"Whether it's the underling or the guy ordering him, your level of dirty tricks is exactly the same."

"Shut up and drop your weapon! And stay still!"

"Ah, you want me to drop my weapon?"

"Yes!"

Now that he was losing, Armon screamed wildly, using whatever methods he could.

Louis, a bit incredulous, decided to comply.

"Alright."

*Shwing!*

"Huh?"

Armon was dumbfounded.

Just as Louis threw his sword with all his might, the shoulder threatening the hostage with a blade fragment was suddenly gone.

The arm still clutching the broken sword fell to the floor, freeing the captive child.

"You bastard... I told you to drop your weapon... Why did you throw it!!"

The sword, flying at supersonic speed, blew away his shoulder in a flash.

It was as if a cannon had been fired by hand.

Louis, as if it was nothing, remarked,

"I did drop it, didn't I?"

Any problem with that?

Seeing Louis's expression, Armon couldn't speak. After all, Louis had simply done what was asked.

"No, wait...! I'm not done yet...."

*Crunch!*

Armon, scrambling backward, never finished his sentence.

Louis swung with both hands and took his head off.

With that, the chaotic atmosphere subsided.

The demon, who had run amok with his sword, and his followers were utterly annihilated.

Louis, who had accomplished this, approached Silia and asked,

"Can you stand?"

Louis was concerned about his precious sponsor's(?) well-being.

Judging by her heartbeat, her life didn't seem to be in danger.

Even after being poisoned and stabbed, she managed to stay conscious.

She hadn't been given that deputy-commander spot for nothing.

"No, I think I need to rest a bit."

Having watched the fight from beginning to end, Silia murmured in awe.

Then, Louis suddenly began rifling through the followers' corpses.

He sniffed around like a dog.

Just as Silia was wondering what he was doing, he pulled a vial from Jake's corpse.

Louis handed it to Silia.

"It's an antidote. If you want to recover quickly, you should take it."

"How did you find this?"

"I have a good nose."

What's with this nonsense... But still, it did look like an antidote.

It matched the color of the antidotes issued in the corps.

Silia gulped it down in one go and asked,

"Don't you need any?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why! You took the poison too!"

Louis had ingested the poison like Silia. Surely he would need an antidote, too?

"And how are you moving so fine? It's hard for me even to stand right now."

Silia had managed to weaken the poison only by activating her immune system with magic power.

But Louis was moving as if nothing was wrong, without any such measures.

Was he even human?

"I don't need it."

"Why not?"

"I already digested the poison."

"...."

Once again, Silia was speechless at his absurd reply.

He had taken down the demon on his own and was completely unaffected by poison.

What on earth was he?

"Haaa...."

The more she thought, the dizzier she felt, so Silia closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.

Then Louis sat down beside her and asked,

"But Elder Sister, you're a bit surprising. If you hadn't worried so much about hostages, this wouldn't have happened to you."

"Is it so strange for a knight to care about civilian lives?"

"Usually, yes, but not the 7th Legion, right? Isn't that a unit where all the soldiers and officers are crazy?"

Louis recalled the behaviors of Kelton and Odun from the expedition.

Could there even be any humanity left in people who treated their subordinates' lives like disposable rags?

"If it had been another officer, don't you think they'd have cut down the hostage too?"

"Then what about you? You're just a criminal dragged in by the 7th Legion, but you didn't go for the hostage either."

Louis had aimed precisely at Armon's arm without harming the hostage.

In that sense, he wasn't actually different from Silia, who hadn't ignored the hostage by choice.

"Now that you mention it, you're right."

"But thanks to what happened, I think I've figured out one thing."

Having watched all of Louis's fighting, Silia spoke up.

"How you managed to survive alone from that expedition."

At first, she thought he'd just been lucky.

But that wasn't it.

Everyone else had died or been left crippled and suicidal—only Louis had come out unscathed. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Now, with this, it all made sense. But even so, questions remained.

"But that strength isn't something a boy your age should have."

"...."

"How did you get so strong?"

He ate poison without trouble, survived slash attacks imbued with magic power, and found whatever he needed with his acute senses.

"Are you really human?"

Faced with Silia's relentless questioning, Louis understood her reaction. So he answered.

"I want to find that out too. That's why I'm going to Zodiac—to find information about my strength."

In other words, even he didn't know the answer to that.

So Silia decided to shelve her questions for now.

"So, elder sister. When should we set out?"

At Louis's question, Silia glared at him.

"I told you not to call me Elder Sister!"

"Why not?"

"You can't call an officer that!"

Did he want to get tortured again? After being abandoned in the carriage, why hadn't he come to his senses yet?

"The major was happy when I called him big bro, though."

"What?"

What nonsense now?

"So let's get along, elder sister."

"...."

Her temper rising, Silia silently raised her arm.

When the hand marked with an inscription rose, Louis looked momentarily pleased.

"Great, that's it."

"...?"

But instead, Silia withdrew her hand and, looking exhausted, spoke.

"By the way, what were those things anyway?"

The idea that a demon and his followers would be lurking around such a small domain bothered her.

If kidnappings of guests at inns were happening so boldly, there was certainly some problem with the domain itself.

.

.

.

The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Silia met the lord.

Her status as a corps officer allowed her an easy audience.

Lloyd Dext. He was a young man who had become lord at a very early age.

Rumor said he had assassinated his own father to seize the position.

If that was true, it meant there were deep problems in the domain.

So Silia got straight to the point.

"Do you know about these people?"

Silia tossed the heads of Armon and Jake onto the table in front of him.

Although Louis had killed them, it looked as though Silia had done the deed.

Louis beside her didn't care. What mattered was Lord Lloyd's response.

"Thank you so much!"

The young lord bowed his head in front of the two.

Clearly, the demon and his followers hadn't been in collusion with the lord.

The pair heard the full story from the lord.

Apparently, Armon the demon had kidnapped the previous lord, his father, and Lloyd had been forced to cooperate to save him.

"What kind of orders did they give you?"

"Well..."

Collecting sacrifices, apparently.

That was why they disguised themselves as innkeepers and tried to kidnap guests.

The live human sacrifices were used for making some magitech device.

"They used people alive...?"

"Yes. I heard they're taking that device to the Zodiac competition."

Silia clicked her tongue at this news.

According to further explanations, Armon the demon was closely connected to a higher-ranking household.

The device created with human sacrifices was to be used by that family.

"What kind of household?"

Now that Armon was dead, there was no more reason to hesitate.

The lord answered with pride.

"Bisted family."

At that moment, the most surprised person was Louis.

It was the name of the family that had set loose bandits and destroyed the domain where he'd lived for twelve years.