A Wild Last Boss Appeared! - Epilogue 7

“You know, when I really think about it… I don’t actually have a unique skill, do I?”

That was a statement so belated it came out of nowhere one day from Ruphas.

Among the Imperial Thirteen Stars who served under her, every single one of them possessed a unique skill—except for Leon, the sole exception.

Aries, for example, had Mesarthim, a contact-based damage skill. Despite being called “contact” damage, it was a highly versatile ability that could take the form of fireballs, flamethrowers, and more. He also had an ace up his sleeve unlocked at level 1000: Hamal, which dealt damage equal to half of the opponent’s maximum HP.

Libra wielded Brachium, a fixed-damage attack that ignored defense and never missed. Upon becoming Libra GA, she could upgrade it to Brachium Overflow, multiplying the damage output significantly.

Aigokeros the Goat, had Deneb Algedi, an attack that dealt incurable damage, and at level 1000, he could activate his trump card: an enormous form achieved by absorbing mana. This transformation was known as Alshat, though its name was never revealed in past battles, so its presence remained obscure.

Scorpius had Shaula—an eternal poison.

Virgo had Vindemiatrix—which erased mana.

Taurus had Aldebaran—a one-hit skill that destroyed the opponent’s skill.

Karkinos had Acubens—a counterattack that returned double the damage.

Pollux’s Argonautai was a well-known cheat-tier skill. It summoned the dead with their full capabilities intact from when they were alive—an absolutely broken ability.

Orm had Ouroboros, which could reverse time as a trump card. 

Dina, meanwhile, had so many unique skills they couldn’t even be listed.

Others included Sagittarius with guaranteed hits, Aquarius with perfect evasion, and Pisces with possession skills—each and every one wielded an ability that bent the rules.

And yet, Ruphas—the one who stood at the pinnacle above all of them—didn’t actually have any skill that could be called her own.

That’s not to say she had nothing like it.

For example, her alchemy-based skills like “One Who Shakes the Earth” and “One-Eyed Hero” were original skills that fused mana with alchemy, and in practice could be considered exclusive to her. However, those were merely alchemy skills using mana as an ingredient—any sufficiently advanced alchemist could theoretically use the base skills.

It was like having the skill “Cooking,” and using it to make an original dish—say, a mind-shattering curry made with meat from a Thulu beast. Sure, the sanity-blasting curry might be Ruphas’ original recipe, but the foundational “Cooking” skill was usable by anyone. That’s the kind of situation it was.

The limit-breaking “Alkaid” wasn’t unique either, since Benetnasch could use it too. In the first place, it was just about breaking through one’s limits. It wasn’t even a proper skill.

“Solar Flare” was just a regular spell. Her go-to moves like “Sword of Winter” or “Meteor Kick” were simply high-tier skills.

Thinking it over like this, it seemed strange that all her subordinates had such incredible skills, yet their leader—herself—had none. That was what Ruphas found herself pondering.

A remarkably belated concern, to be sure. And so, Ruphas decided to bring her dilemma to her reliable strategist, Dina.

“…Do you really need one?”

And the result of that was this icy response. Dina looked at Ruphas with a face that clearly said, “What is she even talking about?”

Her expression conveyed everything: unique skills or not, someone like Ruphas didn’t need such things in the first place.

“You’re faster and stronger just using normal attacks anyway, aren’t you, Miss Ruphas?”

“Well…yes, that’s true.”

If you had overwhelming power, then skills were unnecessary. That’s something Leon always said—but the one who truly embodied that muscle-brained philosophy the most was none other than Ruphas herself. 

Her regular attacks were so fast they were practically guaranteed to hit, and on top of that, she could slap on a skill that nullified enemy abilities like absolute evasion or absolute defense without even thinking much about it and just punch right through them. She could deal more damage in a single hit than “Brachium Overflow”, and she could unleash those hits at absurd speed—there was simply no counterplay. To be blunt, Ruphas just punching things was stronger than the combined force of all thirteen stars’ unique skills put together.

“Besides, weren’t you the one who told me that simplicity is better than having some overpowered skill?”

“Mm…yes, I did say that. And it’s true that charging in head-on and smashing through things is usually more effective and reliable than messing around with gimmicks… But still, wouldn’t it be cool to have, like, a signature super move or something? You know, a romantic finisher. Something flashy to hype up the moment. A decisive attack in a crucial scene being just a regular punch—it’s kind of anticlimactic, don’t you think?”

“…You’ve made it through 190 chapters of the main story doing exactly that, and now you’re saying this?”

Dina’s words were harsh, but she wasn’t wrong. When Ruphas stopped Aries, she didn’t use any flashy skill—she just punched her. She blew away Dina’s Morning Star with a punch too, and stopped Scorpius’ rampage with a regular kick. Even the final battle against the Devil King ended with her just punching him.

At this point, for her to suddenly say she wanted a showy finisher—honestly, it was hard to know how to respond. Incidentally, the skill Ruphas had used the most throughout the story was “Blunt Edge Strike”.

“No, no—I get it. I really do. It’s not about practicality. Romantic finishers are romantic precisely because they’re unnecessary. The fact that you don’t understand that just proves how underdeveloped you still are as my avatar.”

“Please go home, Alovenus-sama. You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be.”

Speak of the devil, and she appears. Actually, not even that—no one had said anything. She showed up anyway. Ruphas had only slightly thought of her in passing, and yet the one person who absolutely should not have shown up right now had arrived. You guessed it—the most annoying goddess in the universe and root of all evil, Alovenus, had made her appearance.

Don’t come over here. Just go home already.

“Oh? So you understand, Alovenus.”

“But of course. A decisive special move in a crucial moment—that’s romance. And it’s even better if it has some drawbacks and isn’t totally overpowered. The problem is…pretty much any good effect you might think of already exists as a regular skill or belongs to one of your subordinates.”

The two of them folded their arms and let out thoughtful hums.

If it’s going to be called a romantic finisher, then a drawback is essential. An absolutely invincible skill with no risks isn’t romantic—it’s just broken. And if such a move existed, people would just say, “Why not just use that all the time?”

The topic had somehow shifted from “unique skills” to “romantic finishers,” but Dina chose not to say anything. She had realized that trying to reason with a pair consisting of a musclehead and an idiot was completely pointless. Still, it was frustrating that the two of them were needlessly attractive, so even this ridiculous scene looked annoyingly picturesque. To be specific, crossing their arms only served to emphasize certain body parts, enhancing their charm in very particular ways.

As she happened to pass by, Benetnasch screamed, “Are you mocking me, you bastards?!”

“Alright, shall we try finding something we can use for reference?”

“Like what?”

“I’ve been reincarnating people into other worlds—due to a mishap... or rather, a tragic accident—and I let them have a small wish granted in the process. Lately, thanks to trends, more and more of those souls have been asking for cheat abilities. I thought we might find some inspiration from that.”

“Hmm, not bad. I don’t dislike templates.”

After all, templates represent the mainstream path of the times. They exist because there’s demand. If something seen as unorthodox becomes the norm, it flips and becomes orthodoxy.

Ruphas didn’t particularly dislike that sort of thing, and as for Alovenus—despite appearances—she was a huge fan of classic heroic tropes. She absolutely loved protagonists who grow through hardship and defeat great evil alongside their companions.

…That said, creating great evil herself and throwing the world into chaos just to enable that kind of story is most definitely a crime.

“Then let us go! To isekai!”

“Yes! My heart is dancing already!”

And so, the two who were once enemies vanished together, getting along surprisingly well. Had they already forgotten they were trying to kill each other not so long ago?

…They might have.

It wasn’t that Ruphas never carried grudges—in fact, back in her tyrant days, she had terrified the devilfolk with unrestrained hatred—but she was also unbelievably soft when it came to those she considered family. Even if someone had been an enemy, even if they’d betrayed her, even if they’d stabbed her in the back—if they were now “one of her own,” she’d usually just laugh it off. Even being betrayed and sealed away for two hundred years wasn’t enough to make her hold a grudge.

Now that Alovenus was considered part of her inner circle, Ruphas probably didn’t care too much about the past anymore. However, that said—if anyone did mess with someone she considered family, even something as relatively mild as tearing their clothes and leaving them in their underwear, she would become furiously enraged. So don’t let your guard down.

And as for Alovenus—there’s no need for explanation. She was simply an idiot. There was no way she cared about what had happened in the past.

“…Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn into something weird.”

Yeah. It was definitely going to turn into something weird. So thinking, Dina looked up to the sky with a weary sigh.

* * *

The place Ruphas had been brought to was a void—an empty space with nothing in it.

It reminded her somewhat of the dimensional gap where she had once been sealed.

"This isn’t the Endpoint, is it?"

"No, the me standing here is just an avatar. I created a new space specifically for world management. Thanks to that, I can now keep track of the finer details much more efficiently."

The truth was, the worlds had always been too small for Alovenus. Because of that, she hadn’t been able to focus on smaller aspects before, but now that she had an avatar in the form of a human she could move freely, things had apparently improved. With that came the need for a new space to observe various worlds—and this was that space.

"Oh? Looks like a new soul just arrived."

As she said this, a man in his mid-30s appeared before Ruphas and Alovenus. Alovenus began explaining to the man how he had died and that he would now be reincarnated into another world. Apparently, his cause of death was this: after bulk-buying a mountain of plush toys for reselling, he couldn’t see where he was going while climbing stairs and ended up falling to his death.

"Now then, please choose one cheat ability you’d like!"

"Th-then… please make my magic power SSS rank!"

"Very well. I hope you enjoy your new life in another world!"

As she watched the man depart for his reincarnated life, Ruphas thought to herself, Well, that wasn’t very helpful. What she needed were ideas or hints for abilities. Something vague like “SSS-rank magic power” wasn’t helpful at all.

"Ah, by the way—the magic ranking system in the world he’s going to uses alphabetical order, with A being the highest, so SSS is technically an off-the-charts garbage tier."

"You could have told him that beforehand."

Sure, the wish was technically granted. But no one ever said that SSS-rank meant “strongest.”

It was hard to say whether the blame lay with the soul who failed to confirm the details, or with Alovenus for failing to properly explain it. 

While they pondered that, the next soul arrived. This time, it was an unkempt-looking man with a messy stubble, someone who clearly didn’t go outside much.

Once again, the same explanation began, and eventually the man made his wish.

"P-please let me use all the magic in that world!"

"Very well. Your wish is granted."

Alovenus smiled and sent the man off to his new life in another world. No doubt he was brimming with hope and excitement for a cheat-powered second life. But then, after he was gone, Alovenus muttered a line that ruined everything.

"Well… his magical power is so low that he can’t use more than 10% of any spell’s actual strength."

"I told you to tell them that kind of thing beforehand."

Even after that, Alovenus’s lack of explanation continued. 

One reincarnated soul wished for a robot from an anime. But since the robot could only be piloted by someone with true courage, it ended up just being a giant ornament. 

Another wanted a cool skill used by a video game protagonist. But the move was deeply tied to the protagonist’s mental state, so the soul couldn’t use it properly.

Yet another soul asked for a final boss’s move from a game. But the move only made sense when combined with the boss’s countless treasures, making it completely useless.

Someone desperately wanted a transformation item from a tokusatsu hero show. But the hero in question could transform only because he was fused with the protagonist, and the item itself was basically just a switch—so transformation was impossible.

And then there was the guy who wanted to use all the skills of some light novel protagonist, but lacked the physical abilities to pull off even one of them.

"So? Any of that helpful?"

"No, not at all. Don’t you have anything better?"

So far, all Ruphas had seen were failures. They weren’t even useful as references. What she needed was something a little more…unique. Just as she was thinking that, a nerdy-looking guy came sprinting toward them.

"Hey! You dumb goddess! That girl went full monkey the second she fell for the protagonist! What the hell is going on?!"

"Huh? Oh, I did say that any girl who falls for the protagonist ends up with monkey-level intelligence."

"She literally turned into a monkey! What am I supposed to do about that!?"

"Do your best!"

"Goddamn itttttt!!"

The pitiful man ran off again, screaming, while Alovenus waved cheerfully behind him.

Ruphas stared after him, dumbfounded, before turning to Alovenus with a start.

"Who was that?"

"Ah, he’s a test subject I sent to balance out one of my newly created worlds. Sort of like a beta tester. I gave him a skill called 'Hate Gather' that makes all enemies target him, plus infinite lives so he revives no matter how many times he dies."

"In a way, he’s an even bigger wall than Karkinos."

"Except he has zero resistances to everything, so he dies instantly."

"That’s basically just harassment."

Clearly, Alovenus's world management was still a complete mess. In fact, after seeing this, Ruphas was starting to think that Midgard had actually been pretty well-run by comparison. 

But from all this, she had finally found a hint. 

The thing Alovenus was doing right now—creating worlds. Wasn’t that exactly the kind of “romantic skill” Ruphas had been searching for?

Creating a small world of her own, where she could bend the laws of reality however she liked. A skill that reshaped the very fabric of existence.

No one else had ever used such a skill. This is it, Ruphas thought with conviction. This is the ultimate romantic move! In high spirits after finally discovering what she was looking for, Ruphas returned to her world and immediately shared the idea with Dina.

The result…

"So…who exactly are you planning to use this new skill on?"

Ruphas fell silent. Alovenus also fell silent.

That’s right. No matter how cool the skill might be, there were no enemies left to use it on. The main story had already ended. This was all just post-game fluff. There was no longer any villain who needed a world-altering super move used against them, and in the end, the new skill would never have a chance to shine.

And so, that day, Ruphas sulked and napped away the rest of it in bed.