A Wild Last Boss Appeared! Volume 2, page 13
“We’re at our limit! Enough already! Why is it always us who get treated this way?!”
“Yeah! It makes no sense!”
“Pick up your weapons! Teach them what it feels like to be stolen from! Who cares about that ‘king’?! We’ll take this country from them and make it our own!”
The descendants of angels, filled with the intent to kill, shouted in unison as they grouped up and advanced.
Male or female, young or old—none of that mattered. If they didn’t act now, they wouldn’t be able to protect what they needed to. If they didn’t take, they would be taken from.
There was no longer any thought nor desire for peace. All that these people had were a couple hundred years’ worth of accumulated resentment and anger.
＊ ＊
...Oh boy. This is no good.
I was currently looking down on Gjallarhorn from a height only some high-level heaven-winged would be able to reach, lost as to what to do next.
Ahh, yeah. I guess I should say that things have finally gotten started?
Someone’s attack on the white town was the spark that had sent everyone on that side on a rampage, and in order to oppose that, everyone on the black side had gone berserk as well.
I’d be willing to bet this is Jupiter’s doing, though.
To be honest, I felt his timing was too perfect. There was no doubt that he somehow knew that Libra was absent, and that was why he’d attacked. At the same time, I didn’t believe that he’d managed that on his own.
From what I could see, all the citizens on both sides had been affected by the “Berserk” status ailment. “Berserk” was a status ailment that caused one to lose their sense of reason and enter a state of being controlled by anger. In exchange for their attack power being doubled, they were only able to use standard attacks. It was a truly annoying ailment.
But I didn’t know of any skill that could spread this ailment at such a large scale. If there were, it would be a spell. And it wouldn’t be from the wood element, but the moon element. So, Jupiter, who should’ve been wood-aligned, should not have been able to use it.
Could it be? Could the moon element of the Seven Luminaries be here, too?
At any rate, I should go back down and talk about this with Aries.
I descended towards the ground once more and entered Aries’ room from the window.
Inside, I found Aries deep in thought, making an expression like he was pondering something especially difficult.
“Hey, Aries?”
“Ye-eep?!”
Aries seemed to have been really deep in thought. When I called out to him, Aries jumped like a foot into the air.
To be able to sink that deep into thought even with all this ruckus? Just how carefree is he? I suppose that’s just a sheep for you.
“Why are you so surprised? We have been examining the situation from the air. They are all affected by Berserk. It seems like there is someone else here who wants to crush this country other than that devilfolk, Jupiter.”
“I...see.”
“For now, We will attempt to find that devilfolk man. What will you do?”
“...May I ask you a question before that, Miss Lufas?”
While I was considering what sort of action to take next, Aries turned to face me with a serious expression for some reason. Judging from his expression, he was worrying about something or other.
I decided that I should at least listen to what he wanted to ask.
“It is fine. Speak.”
“Thank you. That’s...uhhh... Supposing that one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars were involved in all of this... What would you do, Miss Lufas? This is assuming that they’re doing this out of loyalty for you.”
“We would stop them even if We have to punch them back to their senses, of course. Then We would praise them afterwards. Loyalty is a fine thing, but We do not wish to see a country destroyed.”
I have no idea why he asked that... No, wait. Is one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars actually involved? At any rate, Aries’ expression got a lot calmer when I answered, as if his worries were all solved.
Huh? Wait, is there really another one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars here?
“Thank you, Miss Lufas. Thanks to you, I know what I must do.”
“Hey, wait a second, Aries. Could there really be...?”
“It’ll be fine. Just leave it to me! I’ll go give him a good punch and stop him!” Aries sounded cheerful, and he left in a hurry without even listening to what I had to say.
Ah, one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars is totally involved.
I hurried to give chase, but the roads were filled with Berserk heaven-winged. They were all in the way, and I couldn’t tell where Aries had gone. I had totally lost sight of him.
“...! Agh, such a handful!”
I didn’t like admitting it, but Aries was on the weaker side among the Twelve Heavenly Stars. Put bluntly, if he were to fight against the other members, he would lose to pretty much all of them.
If Libra were the one going off, I wouldn’t have to worry about her since she’d win straight out against over half of the Twelve Heavenly Stars. In fact, I’d have to worry about whomever she was fighting. But Aries was different. If his opponent were Leon the “Lion” or someone like that, Aries would be in serious trouble. And he’d still lose against most of the others, too.
Considering the ability to spread the Berserk status, the member of the Twelve Heavenly Stars this time would have to be... Aigokeros. He was one of the better opponents to be matched up against, but Aigokeros would still be a little much for Aries to handle.
“Aries... Don’t be rash!”
This country can come afterwards. I feel sorry for Merak, but taking care of my own is more important to me.
＊ ＊
Looking down at the country that was being taken over by confusion, pandemonium, and madness, Jupiter laughed, satisfied.
An accident occurred in the middle when Lufas Maphaahl stopped by the country, but everything still turned out fine somehow. Now, the country is finished. All that’s left is to have Aigokeros continue to agitate everyone, and the people of this country will probably just kill each other.
It’s too bad I can’t kill Merak, but I can just find a chance to do that in the future. At any rate, he’s now a king without a country. There’s no doubt the opportunities to kill him will only increase from now on.
Not to mention, there’s still the chance that Aigokeros will just go on to kill Merak now. After all, he’s one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars... He’s more than strong enough to kill Merak in his weakened state.
“At any rate, my role in this is done. Now then, I need to hurry up and leave before that piece of junk comes back—”
“—Before who comes back?”
“!?!”
As soon as Jupiter heard the voice behind him, he started preparing for a fight.
There was no way he wouldn’t know that voice. There was no mistaking it. After all, that was the very voice of the one Jupiter most feared at the moment—the one he never wanted to meet.
Jupiter turned around, and his expectations were not betrayed even if he’d wanted them to be. There, he saw an inorganic girl dressed as a maid. She was one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars under the Great Conqueror, Lufas. She was the one with the greatest power of annihilation—the constellation of the Scales.
—She was Libra of the Scales, one of the Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars.
“Wh-Why...?!”
Why is she back? Jupiter only barely managed to shove that question back down his throat.
That golem shouldn’t have been able to come back for twenty minutes. I know I took some time moving around and inciting this war, but I should still have had some time. So why is this thing here?!
There was only one reason Jupiter could think of.
Damn that Venus. She failed, didn’t she...!! She might have been exposed, or something unexpected might have happened.
Jupiter didn’t know why Libra was back so early. But what he did know was that his plans here had now completely failed, all because he couldn’t avoid encountering this killer maid for a second time.
“Jupiter, one of the devilfolk’s Seven Luminaries. I have already grasped all of your fighting habits, data, and your alignment in the previous battle. If we were to engage in battle now, your chances of victory would be lower than 0.02%... I strongly suggest that you surrender. I will warn you that if you do not comply, there is a 48% probability that you will end up losing one of your limbs.”
On top of everything, there’s this, too.
This golem learns all of her opponent’s habits and weaknesses during battle, and it all carries over to the next fight. In other words, if you fight her even once, the same tactics won’t work a second time. No, they’ll probably still work. But she’ll definitely have prepared a countermeasure.
Jupiter’s elemental matchup with her was the worst. He was clearly disadvantaged in levels, and Libra had learned from their previous fight on top of that.
This situation was the worst thing that could have happened to Jupiter.
“GODDAMMIIIIITTTT!!”
Jupiter accelerated using wind magic, tracing impossible trajectories in the air. He was using his extremely agile flight ability with wind, which had shaken off Libra once before.
However, Libra’s gaze moved ahead of Jupiter himself, as if she already knew where he was going to go.
“I have already seen that.”
A streak of light then flashed from Libra’s eyes, piercing through Jupiter’s shoulder.
“Gah?!”
“Target enemy: offensive ability down 15%. Reaction speed: down 20% due to pain. Continuing attack.”
Libra continued on to the next attack without a moment’s delay, targeting Jupiter, who was groaning in pain. She pulled a machine gun from the usual unknown space in her body and fired wildly!
Jupiter reacted and tried to dodge, but all the bullets she fired followed after him.
“Wha—!?!”
“These are homing bullets that my master prepared for me. You will not escape them.”
The bullets chased him at high speed. That in itself was fine. The homing bullets used by the Archer’s higher class, the Gunner, may have been rare in this day and age, but several did exist. But the bullets had been made by the Great Conqueror and were used by one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars. Their speed, accuracy, and power were all on another level.
The bullets grazed his clothes, pierced his arms and legs, and robbed him of his power to fight.
Even so, Jupiter managed to make the sudden decision to cloak himself in wind, causing a tornado and deflecting all the bullets.
Jupiter managed to gain a moment’s respite. But the sight of Libra charging into the tornado from straight above right afterwards caused his expression to freeze on his face.
“I predicted that, too.”
Libra had an iron fist, literally. She used her incredible strength to swing down a fist made of steel at Jupiter.
Reacting in an instant, Jupiter blew himself away with his own wind, and Libra’s fist just barely grazed his cheek.
...It should have just grazed me.
But Jupiter flew towards the ground right afterwards, as if he was a meteor.
Assaulted by a tremendous impact and pain through his cheek, Jupiter busted through houses. All failed to stop him as he continued to slide along the ground, gouging it out for several tens of meters before finally, miserably, coming to a stop.
I should have dodged that punch. It should have just grazed me. But it still carried all this power. And I took all this damage.
Jupiter turned pale and started imagining the worst.
...If I hadn’t managed to dodge that, my entire head would have been pulped.
“I will warn you once more. With that attack, your reaction speed has gone down a further 11%, and your current chances of victory have lowered to 0.00072%. I strongly advise you to cease any further resistance and surrender immediately.”
Libra’s declaration was entirely devoid of emotion. There was no mercy, no compassion, not even any anger towards her enemy.
To Jupiter, that was scarier than anything else in the world at the moment.
＊ ＊
“Miss Lufas!”
As I was running and trying to dodge the crowd, Dina jumped out from the side of the road. She should have teleported away with Libra. They must have finished organizing my equipment. However, Libra was nowhere to be seen.
I matched her speed and asked her about it. “Dina, that was quick. What happened to Libra?”
“If you’re looking for Libra, she flew off somewhere as soon as we got back. It seems she sensed Jupiter.”
After hearing my suspicions confirmed, I nodded.
Just as I feared. Jupiter was pulling the strings behind everything that had happened tonight. He was making his final move.
But unfortunately for him, Libra had come back. If Libra was already on it, then there was no need for me to do anything on that front at any rate. Right now, I needed to do something about Aries and the other member of the Twelve Heavenly Stars he was trying to punch into compliance.
“Where’s Aries?”
“He went off somewhere without heeding our calls to stop. It seems that one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars is involved in all this.”
“One of the Twelve Heavenly Stars...?”
Dina and I jumped onto a roof. Then, we continued to leap around, looking for Aries.
“It depends on the opponent, but facing off against one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars is dangerous for Aries. We must go and stop the fight.”
“Understood. I’ll help.”
We continued jumping here and there, searching for Aries.
Aggh, I’m terrible at searching and hunting for stuff. It’s times like these that I start to feel jealous of beastfolk.
＊ ＊
Jupiter ran. He escaped through the complicated maze of buildings, attempting to evade Libra’s gaze by traveling through back alleyways.
I need to get to someplace smaller, narrower! A place where I won’t be found!
However, Libra cut him off. Buildings were destroyed as she descended and landed in front of him. And without delay, she fired! Several hundreds or even thousands of bullets zipped through the urban area accompanied by a clamorous, thunderous sound.
“Dammit!”
Jupiter ran and jumped into a house, looking almost as if he fell into it.
I just need to hide! I need to hide and regroup.
Out of breath, Jupiter continued to run before reaching a cabinet and grabbing the handle. However, Libra broke through the wall the next moment, scattering pieces of the cabinet everywhere.
“Graaggh!!”
Jupiter attempted to unleash wind magic. But Libra was faster, and she swung her left arm upwards. That was when Jupiter lost all feeling past his elbow, and his arm fell to the floor.
Her blade of light flashed. Libra had completely predicted Jupiter’s counterattack and cut off his arm instead.
“Warning. Your attack power has lowered a further 39%. Your chances of winning are currently—”
“Fuck!! Fuck!!”
Jupiter started to run once more, even while bleeding profusely from his arm’s stump.
No good. Fighting’s no use. I can’t win against that.
Our worlds are completely different. That thing’s strength is on a whole other level. That thing... That thing’s a monster!
However, Jupiter had confidence in his speed as well as his maneuverability.
I can just run. I can run, and then make another plan. There’s no need for me to deal with that ridiculous killer doll. Anyway, I just need to run.
Jupiter flew out of one house and into another.
However, Libra stood elegantly at the entrance of Jupiter’s new hiding place as if she’d been waiting a long while for him. She even bowed in greeting.
“Warning. The probability of you succeeding in your escape is...”
“W-WWAAAAAHH!!”
Jupiter ran once again. He moved through the urban landscape, parting the sea of people he’d driven to madness, and dove into another house. He ran down a hallway and into a living room.
There in the living room he found Libra sitting, relaxed.
“Warning: the probability of you succeeding to escape is lower than 1%. It is strongly recommended that you surr—”
“GODDAMMIIIIIIIIT!!”
Jupiter ran, turned, jumped, parted crowds, and once again entered another house.
I managed to run away like this before. I used this maze-like town structure and got away. So I’ll be fine this time, too, Jupiter continued to tell himself.
He silenced his surroundings with wind magic, making it so Libra wouldn’t even be able to hear him breathe.
“*Huff* ... *Huff* ...”
While breathing heavily, Jupiter ripped his clothes and wrapped a strip around his shoulder.
Do I have any healing items...? No, I didn’t bring any. Jupiter had prioritized being as light and as fast as possible, so he had left all his tools and equipment.
Jupiter leaned back onto a wall and concentrated warily on the window.
...There she is! That doll’s walking just outside! Go! Go away! Don’t you dare look over here!
Libra stopped in place for a while, but she eventually moved on.
I’m all right. She hasn’t noticed me. It doesn’t seem she’s noticed what I’m doing, either.
Jupiter’s heart beat annoyingly fast. He felt sticky with sweat.
One second... No movement.
Two seconds... The house is still quiet.
Three seconds... No change from before.
After reflexively leaking out a sigh of relief, Jupiter relaxed.
—The next instant, two arms burst out of the wall Jupiter was leaning against and hands closed around his neck.
“Ghaghh! ...Agh...!”
“Using wind magic to silence your surroundings is meaningless. The fact that a town in the midst of this big an uproar has a spot that is unnaturally quiet tells me exactly where you are.”
An emotionless voice eerily reverberated through Jupiter’s eardrums, and Libra’s constriction grew tighter. While he foamed at the mouth, Jupiter’s mind was consumed by fear.
