I Obtained the Final Boss' Power-Chapter 2 : Forced Conscription (2)

Forced Conscription (2)
The carriage carrying Louis was rattling along a rough road.
The destination was known as the demon realm, so the journey itself was anything but ordinary.
Since they were heading toward such a dangerous place, called the demon realm, the road was bound to be perilous.
Several prisoners being dragged along died every time they encountered a landslide.
Of course, the merchants didn't care at all.
'I have nowhere left to go.'
Louis, one of those prisoners, thought to himself.
Overnight, the family that had raised him was annihilated.
Even his only parents in this world, into which he had reincarnated, were gone.
'Not that I can run around looking for the culprit right away.'
The bandits, the ones who could be considered the culprits, were already dead.
Louis's mind replayed the memory of his parents' death.
The bandits who had burned down the domain—those guys were all dead. By his own hand, no less.
'It's hard to believe.'
But it was none other than Louis who killed them.
He remembered it clearly—the sight of himself transforming into a monster and killing those men.
'What the heck was that?'
Louis's head pounded at the thought of such a transformation happening to his body.
'And didn't someone call it the Chaos Dragon?'
One of the bandits had said it just before being killed by Louis. He had definitely called him the Chaos Dragon.
The Chaos Dragon, the final boss of this game.
In the world's setting, it was known as an ancient, almost legendary monster.
It was said to have appeared once in the past, and there were even records of its appearance preserved in drawings.
Louis had seen those illustrated books a few times himself.
'Such a famous monster—no wonder the bandits recognized it.'
A monster that wielded all kinds of power and controlled multiple natural attributes.
To people in this world, it was as prominent as the Azure Dragon or Vermilion Bird of the four guardians.
'So, what's the real problem?'
Why had he turned into such a monster?
It was unbelievable enough to make him almost forget the shock of losing his parents and domain.
'The boss isn't even available in the game yet...'
The Chaos Dragon hadn't even shown up as an in-game boss.
The only thing known was that, within the story, 'This guy's the final boss!' had been widely revealed.
Just the disclosed lore proved it was a true monster.
'It wielded five elements freely, had the strongest body in the world, possessed transcendent senses, and supposedly destroyed a kingdom that spanned half the continent just by rampaging around?'
The more he thought about the Chaos Dragon's lore, the more his head throbbed.
In a single moment, he had lost his home, been framed as a criminal, and suddenly transformed into a monster.
'No, more than that... who the hell were those bastards?'
Louis recalled the bandits who had left him homeless.
Since his home was a domain ruled by a lord, it was odd that it could be destroyed by mere bandits.
That meant those bandits were quite strong; at that level, they couldn't even be considered regular bandits.
They were essentially mercenaries disguised as bandits—mercenaries hired by someone.
In short, there must be a real culprit behind all this.
'But who is it?'
One question only led to more questions. With such an endless series of unresolved mysteries, Louis wore a drowsy expression.
'Not that any of this even matters.'
Understanding everything wouldn't change anything. Louis was being hauled off to a danger zone in this carriage.
The 7th Legion, famous as a place where soldiers were sacrificed like pawns.
That would be Louis's new home—his new grave. The others in the cage were all headed for the same fate.
"Where are you hiding food?!"
At that moment, a young man locked in the same cell tried to snatch some snacks from a little girl.
"These are mine! I snuck them out from home!"
The girl protested, insisting they were hers, and clung to them tightly.
Apparently, she'd been carrying those snacks in her pocket since before being locked up.
"Shut up and give them here!"
But the child was powerless and lost her snacks. She even got slapped and tumbled over in the process.
"Oww!"
On closer inspection, the girl was someone from his own domain. Was her name Pram?
She got into so much trouble that even his parents remembered her name and face.
"Listen up, all of you! We're the ones who've been in this cell the longest, so that makes us your seniors! Got it?"
"We?"
On closer look, there was another youth beside the first—smaller, but with a similar face.
"If you're hiding food, pay up to me and my little brother," the smaller one declared. He seemed timid compared to his outspoken hyung.
"Otherwise, you'll end up like this girl!"
And just as the young man tried to stomp on the girl named Pram, a stone suddenly hit him.
She had been saved by Louis, who had thrown a pebble lying on the cell floor.
"Oww!"
The youth who tried to stomp the girl looked at Louis, who'd just thrown the stone.
"Did you throw that?"
The youth approached with a vicious look, but Louis just smirked and stood up. He interrupted for two reasons.
First, because that young man was harassing someone from his own domain.
"Hey, do you want this?"
Second, because Louis was also hiding food.
"That!"
Louis took out a snack he'd always been given by the attendants and showed it off.
The youth lunged, but Louis easily dodged.
"Hand it over!"
The youth shouted, but Louis replied with a playful smile.
"Why should I?"
"I told you before! We're seniors!"
"Getting caught as a criminal isn't exactly an honor, is it? You're all about to die anyway—what's this about being seniors?"
"What?"
The young man's face turned bright red as Louis added, "Want me to dig you a grave first?"
"You bastard!!"
The youth swung his fist, but Louis stayed relaxed—he did have a knack for fighting.
He'd even defeated a noble in a sword training match before.
Was it at some noble gathering?
The guy had picked a fight, and Louis accepted the challenge.
Thanks to regular lessons from the mansion's knights, victory had been easy.
'With training like that, guys like these are nothing.'
Louis easily dodged the punch and was about to subdue the youth.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Louis's mind went hazy. Not because he was hit—but because, even as he subdued the youth, something went wrong.
"Wait a second."
Blood was smeared on Louis's hand. Lying on the ground was the youth with a smashed-in face.
"AAARRGH!!"
The youth's brother and the other prisoners began to scream. That wasn't what Louis had meant to do.
"D-Don't come near me! Stay away!"
Stranger still—Louis's body wouldn't listen. He felt a strange, irrational urge to do the same to the others, to beat them to death. There was no reason—just instinct.
He remembered feeling the same way when his domain burned—the urge to kill everything in sight.
Once again, Louis was overtaken by those instincts, his eyes becoming those of something inhuman as he nearly attacked another prisoner.
"What do you think you're doing!!"
At that moment, the merchants shouted; at the same time, electricity ran through Louis's body.
Merchants who leapt off the carriage in alarm reached for the bars to check on the commotion.
It was some mysterious spell to keep the prisoners in check. That was what stopped Louis.
"Damn it! A top-shelf one just got killed!"
Angry, the merchants glared at Louis as they stared at the youth's corpse.
"You wretched brat!!"
They activated the spell again, even more fiercely. The other prisoners cried out in agony, but for Louis, it was different.
He was paralyzed, but instead of pain, his mind felt clearer. Just a moment ago, in a frenzy, the spell suddenly brought him back to his senses.
"Huh?"
Regaining his wits, Louis sat down in confusion. The savage urge that had seized him vanished the moment the spell was cast.
"Stop messing around and behave! Or I'll kill you!"
The merchant stomped on Louis several times before returning to the carriage.
When the horses started moving and the carriage shook, Louis regained his composure.
Something was strange. Not only had he calmed down—but why didn't the torture spell hurt him at all?
"Ugh!"
That wasn't all.
Suddenly, his ears hurt—and his nose, eyes, tongue, and head—every sensory part of his body was in pain.
But soon, his ears picked up strange sounds.
"Is that kid nuts?"
"Don't get close. We'll end up dead, too."
"He's definitely getting sent to an even worse place than us."
"The 7th Legion is the 7th Legion wherever you go. We all just die the same."
Prisoners whispered from nearby.
"The strong one died—we were going to boast to the legion. What now?"
"If we say he died in an accident, maybe they'll understand?"
Even the faint murmurs of the merchants inside the carriage came through clear as day—something ordinary people couldn't possibly hear.
"I'll never forgive him... he killed my brother..."
Even the muttering of the youth's brother, who'd just lost him, reached Louis's ears.
He realized then—this pain wasn't just some illness.
His ears, nose, eyes, and mouth—every sense grew sharper. The hyper-awareness overwhelmed him for a moment.
Clunk!
The carriage stopped abruptly, jolting him and causing another stab of pain.
"Damn it, another landslide."
The merchant muttered, looking at the pile of rocks blocking the road.
"What do we do?"
"What else?"
At the driver's question, the merchant got out and opened the barred door at the back.
"Out, all of you!"
Simple solution: make the prisoners solve every problem on the road.
The merchants and soldiers drove the prisoners to clear the rocks without a care.
"Urgh!"
When one prisoner groaned at the weight of a particularly big boulder, the merchant snapped.
"Quit dragging your feet!"
"AAAAAGH!!"
At a wave of the merchant's hand, the prisoner screamed, a spell lighting up in the merchant's grip—the very reason the prisoners couldn't escape.
'I must've been hit with that, too.'
Louis flinched as he watched. He'd experienced it himself, but instead of pain, he felt clearer-headed.
If his body was changing this much due to having turned into a monster, then maybe...
"You, don't waste time! Start with that huge boulder!"
The merchant barked another threat.
Terrified, the prisoners swarmed the boulder that looked four times the size of the carriage.
They all grabbed hold and strained to move it.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
Even the slightest shift in the boulder sent more stones tumbling from the mountain.
The prisoners tried to flee, and Louis also tried to get out of the way.
'Ah!'
At that moment, another wave of pain hit—Louis's enhanced hearing caught the full sound of the rocks tumbling down.
It made him pause for just a second—just long enough for someone to shove him.
"This is for my brother!"
It was the youth whose brother had just died. He kicked Louis into the path of the landslide.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
A young prisoner was completely buried by the avalanche. Some prisoners looked on in shock, others with blank expressions.
"Kehahaha! Serves him right!!"
The one who had kicked him cackled with satisfaction.
"Another one bites the dust."
The young boy's entire body was buried beneath the massive rocks.
For someone so small, his bones and flesh would have been torn apart.
The merchant looked disappointed by the loss of another "sacrifice".
Rumble!
Suddenly, a loud noise came from the rock pile.
To everyone's shock—including the merchant—the child supposedly buried under the rocks emerged without a scratch.
"Get over here, you bastard."
Pushing away bits of rubble, Louis beckoned the bigger prisoner who had shoved him.
"Huh??"
The accused prisoner staggered back in horror.
Thoughts raced: Why is he alive after being crushed?
Why is he calling for me?
Is he going to kill me like he did my brother?
"Eeeek!!"
Instinctively, the prisoner tried to run, but it was too late.
"I said get over here, punk."
Suddenly, Louis was at his shoulder—he'd crossed the distance in a flash.
Crack!!
A sickening sound of bones breaking echoed out. Louis's hand was once again stained with blood, and a corpse lay at his feet.
"That bastard!!"
The furious merchants cast their spell again. Louis's behavior clearly incurred their wrath, but Louis had his reasons.
'Doesn't hurt~'
Feigning unconsciousness, Louis slumped over. The merchants stopped the spell.
"He's out cold."
"What is he, anyway?"
They were worried—though Louis had collapsed, he hadn't screamed.
"This one's weird—should we just leave him?"
"Are you nuts? We already lost the strong one—what if we lose another one, too?"
Reluctant to lose another valuable prisoner, the merchants tossed Louis back into the barred cell.
"We'll just bring this one along instead. Did you see him come out unharmed after being buried by rocks?"
Louis had broken through the massive pile effortlessly during his escape, even shattering the stones—which allowed the carriage to continue on.
They didn't know what he was, but he was certainly something extraordinary.
He'd make a fine special product to replace the youth who'd just died.
. . .
Pretending to be unconscious, Louis took the opportunity to rest his eyes.
He now possessed the physical ability to escape the bars, and resistance to the torture spell.
He could have broken out of the cage right away, but he didn't.
When he killed the prisoner who'd shoved him, Louis had definitely felt it—the sensation of losing himself to a monstrous rage.
Yet the moment the merchants cast their spell, he could calm down.
What tortured others kept him from running amok, bringing him peace—strange as it was.
'The rampage is the issue.'
What disaster might result if he transformed again, like the last time?
The torture spell that seemed to suppress it was his only lifeline, so he meekly allowed himself to be transported.
"Where am I?"
Louis opened his eyes and sat up.
Moments ago, he'd been on a landslide-stricken hillside, but now he was somewhere else—a wide field reminiscent of a training ground, surrounded by others who had also been dragged here as criminals.
"Welcome, you trash!!"
A booming voice rang out. At the front, on what looked like a dais, stood a knight.
"I am Odun, a special officer of this fortress! From today, this Paruzan Fortress will be your new home! And, at the same time, your grave."
At Odun's declaration, the prisoners began to murmur.
"Seems you're not getting the picture."
Odun raised a hand, revealing a symbol drawn on his palm.
"Doesn't matter."
The symbol began to glow.
"You'll understand soon enough!"
At this shout, the prisoners began screaming in agony. The earsplitting shrieks made Louis cover his ears.
"Hahahahaha! Louder—scream louder!!"
Odun took great delight in their tortured cries, not realizing—
'Should I pretend to be in pain?'
—among the entire crowd, he was the only boy pretending to suffer.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
The intro is quite dark...
But, it seems the succeeding chapters will be a bit lighter...
At the moment, MC still doesn't know that the duke is the reason his parents got killed...
I'm guessing he'll rampage once he learns the truth...
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】