I Obtained the Final Boss' Power

Chapter 69 : Her Highness the Princess (5)

Her Highness the Princess (5)

"What the hell are you?"

Lapleon rose to his feet, baring his hostility.

He couldn't be in a good mood when someone suddenly showed up to interfere while he was busy trying to escape.

"I caught the scent of demonkin and came looking, and here you are."

Louis looked at Lapleon, who had fallen in front of him, with indifference.

Lapleon, however, couldn't understand what he meant by 'scent'.

What did he mean by catching a scent?

More importantly, how did this guy find this place?

He could explain the black-haired girl, who looked like the Hero, by saying she tracked the Princess.

But this one had found this place without even tailing anyone.

'No, more than that....'

He was a kid, too.

He seemed about the same age as that girl from before.

"Are you a soldier of the 7th Legion?"

Looking closely, his face seemed very familiar.

If he was among the 7th Legion soldiers sent to the capital, Lapleon had already investigated them in advance.

He recognized him as one of those soldiers.

"You knew me already?"

"Damn it! I thought I was almost there... but now I'm being cornered like this!"

Blood dripped from the arm that had been severed by that female knight.

No matter how tightly he gripped it, he couldn't stop the bleeding, and it only brought more pain.

The plan to eliminate the prophesied Hero was already ruined at this point.

Too many forces were against him, and he'd lost his arm as well—there was no way to continue.

Escaping right now was the rational option. He'd just remove any obstacles in the process.

"Die!!"

Lapleon transformed both arms into Diamond Body.

At the same time, diamond Body gathered at the end of his severed right arm, forming a pointed shape.

In an instant, he turned the lost limb into an awl and swung it.

Louis ducked his head to avoid the awl sweeping horizontally at him.

As he dodged, Louis figured out the principle behind Diamond Body.

A special aura enveloped Lapleon's entire body, hardening his flesh.

Simply applying aura like that was almost impossible.

That didn't mean Lapleon was some overwhelmingly Proficient either.

Just seeing how he swung his weapon, Louis could judge his skill level.

So, there was only one answer.

"You're a special physique."

It wasn't just aura being wrapped around a weapon and swung.

There are sometimes people in this world who can use aura in strange ways.

For example, by surrounding their sword with aura, it naturally takes on fire or ice attributes.

No need to look far; someone with such a special physique was near Louis as well.

Namely, Rio.

"Shut up and die!"

With no room for more words, Lapleon swung his arm-turned-awl.

Every time Louis dodged that attack, the thick wall behind him split open.

It was a threatening onslaught, but Louis wasn't hit at all, so Lapleon only increased his speed.

'What is this?'

Why can't I land a single hit?

Sure, I'm swinging in a hurry, so my accuracy is worse than usual.

But even accounting for that, does this make sense? The opponent is just a kid.

"You're really trying, huh."

"...!!"

At that moment, Lapleon's eyes flew wide open.

Louis, wearing a bored expression, had caught the awl.

"Judging by the scent, looks like that got chopped off by Elder sister Silia. Just give up."

Louis spoke with a sincere note of concern.

"Even that elder sister couldn't cut through my scales, no matter how hard she tried."

"Don't talk nonsense!!"

Lapleon, raging, punched Louis, sending him flying into a wall.

Finally landing a hit, he immediately closed the gap and thrust the awl at Louis.

He then followed up with a simultaneous flurry of punches and awl strikes.

"Kraaaaaaah!!"

With a loud yell, he landed over fifty blows per second in a storm of attacks.

Each strike was all-out, and the toll was not trivial.

I must kill him—and survive.

Driven by that one desperate urge, Lapleon gave it everything he had, yet soon his face twisted in horror.

"Die! Die, I said!!"

Before he knew it, he'd thrown over a thousand hits.

He'd long since lost count of the blows.

But the brat in front of him still didn't die.

Even being stabbed by the awl, not only did it not pierce him, it didn't even leave a mark.

It was unbelievable.

It was bizarre.

A moment that made the frenzy and ferocity of his screams from moments ago seem meaningless.

"Why... why won't you die...!!"

At last, Lapleon's stamina hit its limit, and he stopped the assault.

Gasping for breath, he recoiled once more.

"What... is that!"

Louis's torso, revealed through his shredded shirt, was covered with something incredibly sturdy.

It resembled dragon scales—something a human body should never grow.

And on those scales, fur sprouted.

Louis introduced it as if showing off.

"It's a nanomachine, you punk."

Nano... what?

"What's that?"

"It's a thing. Tough as hell."

Something that only shows up in a certain game.

"Don't have anything else to show off?"

Louis taunted him, and Lapleon shuddered.

He no longer had the strength to throw another punch.

The arm that had formed the awl reverted to its original form, as if he'd spent all his strength.

In the end, Lapleon pulled out the bead he'd used to escape Silia earlier.

It was meant for emergencies—and this was one.

He dropped it to the ground and it shattered, releasing a thick smoke.

In less than a second, the smoke spread, clouding vision everywhere.

Taking advantage, Lapleon darted toward the exit.

"Where are you going?"

"Huh?"

But Louis instantly cut off Lapleon's escape, blocking his path.

He then kicked him in the stomach, slamming him into the wall.

"Urk!"

As Lapleon toppled over, he thought: This is impossible.

How did he find me in all this smoke where I can't even see?

"Was your final move just to run away?"

Lapleon looked up at Louis as he approached him.

He'd used too much strength; his legs wouldn't move.

Even if he could, would he really be able to escape?

Lapleon felt the terror of a cornered rat.

No matter what he did, he realized he couldn't survive; his eyes trembled under the pressure.

"Still, your flurry was worth seeing. If I hadn't had my scales on, it might have been dangerous."

Muttering, Louis added,

"Killing me won't solve a thing. Our kin can take over this capital at any time."

He wasn't bluffing. There were already demonkin installed within the royal palace disguised as knights.

However...

"Are you talking about the ones you hid in the capital? If you mean them, I already filtered them all out earlier."

"What?"

"There were about forty of them hiding."

The number Louis gave was exact.

Even if they had a weakness, their disguises were otherwise perfect.

But he'd found all forty, without missing a single one?

All in one day?

"You're lying. How could you...."

They were ones who'd given everything to assassinate the Hero.

The ones who'd vowed to risk their own necks to take out the Hero now amounted to nothing in an instant.

"Just what are you...."

"...."

"Could it be, are you... the prophesied Hero?"

It was just a guess.

At first, that black-haired girl seemed like the likely candidate, but now his thinking had changed.

Now that he remembered, the Princess had said that girl wasn't the Hero.

He'd dismissed it at first, but thinking back, it felt odd.

"Hero?"

So who was the Hero? Louis replied to the question.

"There isn't one."

"What?"

"There used to be, but not anymore."

Suddenly, the playfulness vanished from Louis's expression.

The eyes that had always been relaxed now sharpened like a blade.

"What are you saying...."

"Just what I said. Thanks to you, the Hero is dead. Satisfied now?"

"...."

Lapleon doubted his ears.

Louis vaguely knew the purpose of the demonkin in this world—

Namely, to eliminate the Hero of prophecy.

In other words, they were persistent villains obsessively targeting player characters.

"The Hero... is really gone?"

For a split second: if that was true...

"You people have been wasting your time all along."

Lapleon could say nothing more.

The convictions he and his kin had harbored were all meaningless from the very start.

"Congratulations."

Louis said coldly, raising his foot.

CRACK!-

"So, die."

He brought his foot crashing down, bursting Lapleon's head.

Like a water balloon, red liquid sprayed everywhere.

"Hey, Louis!!"

Just then, Klein came running from down the corridor.

"Haah... haah... What are you thinking, running off on your own like that?"

Using his body didn't suit Klein—a mage—so he arrived panting.

Seeing Klein arrive so late made Louis grumble.

"What took you so long?"

"You're one to talk after ditching me! How was I supposed to get around in this maze without a tracking magitech device?"

After complaining a bit, Klein looked at Lapleon's corpse and asked,

"Did you take care of this?"

"He was a demonkin officer—not quite deputy-commander level, but close."

Louis examined the severed arm of the corpse and added,

"And on the way here, I caught a scent—looks like our people already had a fight here."

"They found this place before us?"

Those who should have been with Silia in the capital were here?

Louis wondered about it, too.

Louis hastily ran in the direction of the scent, and Klein followed him.

It was unmistakably the scent of Silia and Rio.

No one else could detect it, but to Louis, it felt like a trail.

Following it, he eventually found Silia and Rio.

"Louis? And the mage too."

Silia met their eyes, surprised.

She was sitting on the floor, and an utterly battered Rio lay across her thigh.

"Why are you here?"

"Same to you—why are you two here?"

They quickly exchanged explanations about what had happened.

First, Louis explained his side—

"You sensed demonkin in the palace and traced that to the source?"

"That source was right here. A demonkin tried to escape, so I just dealt with him."

He told her about fighting with the demonkin who could transform his body into Diamond Body.

With Louis's senses almost like sensors, it seemed perfectly plausible.

"In contrast, we...."

Silia then explained her side.

Rio, who had been accompanying her, suddenly left her side, and she'd followed her here.

"Why did Rio even violate the deputy-commander's orders to come here?"

"I told you to watch your squad members properly."

When Klein chided her, Silia bowed her head in apology.

"And the other squad members?"

"They came with us, but I was too fast, so they fell behind. They'll be waiting outside."

"Did you forget they're 7th Legion soldiers? What if something happens while they're separated?"

"Don't worry. I'm tracking them with a magitech device."

Silia showed a small slate-shaped tracking device.

With that, there was little risk of losing squad members.

Still, splitting up for too long was dangerous.

"Ah...."

At that moment, Rio, who'd been lying down, stirred her lips.

She appeared to have suffered serious internal injuries from an intense battle moments ago.

Her wounds were healing more slowly than usual.

"We need to get her to a hospital quickly. Looks like she really pushed herself this time."

"Then take care of the squad members as well on the way."

Rio, who'd been resting on Silia's lap, ended up piggybacked onto Louis.

As they exited the underground passage, Louis asked Rio,

"Why did you suddenly leave the deputy-commander's side?"

According to Silia, Rio had spotted someone suspicious and followed them.

If that person was demonkin, it made sense.

Still, she'd ended up going somewhere outside Silia's authority.

Did she really have to go that far to track the suspicious person?

"Young master...."

That's when Rio, eyes closed on Louis's back, spoke.

"I... did my best...."

Rio, exhausted, could barely manage the words.

"Yeah, you brat."

"Praise me... I want to be carried like this forever."

"What are you proud of, running off on your own."

Still, he couldn't deny she'd put up a good fight against the demonkin.

At least that much made him feel proud of her.

"I protected... the blood of the high one...."

"What?"

"I did well...."

With those words, Rio fell into a peaceful sleep.

Meanwhile, Silia and Klein, who had remained on the scene, divided up their tasks.

"I'll go call the security force. With this many demonkin, we can't let it go."

"So I'm staying here, huh... But just who did Rio spot to come all the way... huh?"

Klein stopped talking mid-sentence, suddenly struck by astonishment.

He'd spotted something that shocked him.

"T-that person...!"

Besides the demonkin, another person lay collapsed on the floor.

"That child...."

It was the girl Rio had been protecting.

Fortunately, there was no critical danger—she had merely fainted.

"Yes. That's Her Highness, the Princess."

Silia, having been surprised once already, spoke with a slightly accustomed tone.

As a former official knight, she recognized the faces of the royal family.

Both of them realized just what Rio had achieved this time.