Your Excellency Is Strong, but My Style Surpasses Yours!

Sighing? Had he lost confidence in himself?

That was not the kind of emotion one should have before a major battle—Akame could not help but worry.

Although Iori had made it clear that no one was to interfere, when the moment came, Akame would not stand by and do nothing.

As for a warrior's restraint and dignity... come on, she was an assassin, okay?

"Have you realized the gap in our strength and foreseen your own death?" Esdeath sneered.

A true expert could judge the rough difference in strength between both sides from their aura alone. Esdeath believed she would not lose to anyone in that regard.

"No, I sighed only because I was a little disappointed..."

Yet Iori's next words made Esdeath's pupils constrict sharply—

"You don't seem as strong as I imagined."

Paltry Ice Shards, Not Worth Even Half of Me ### The instant his words fell, extreme cold engulfed the earth!

Accompanied by violent tremors, sharp ice spikes reminiscent of towering mountain peaks came hurtling toward them!

Layer upon layer, they resembled an enormous frost flower blooming across the ground, crushing everything beneath their immense mass! Piercing through everything!

Massive boulders fell into it like grains dropping into a millstone, vanishing in the blink of an eye!

Whether they belonged to Night Raid or the Three Beasts, all were shaken by that direct, pure power. Like small animals fleeing a mountain fire, they scattered in every direction. Even so, some were still caught in the attack. Had their companions not intervened in time, they would have become mangled masses of flesh.

Nadjeta was carried in the hand of Bulat, clad in Possession of the Evil Spirit. The two leaped high into the air to evade the first wave of impact. The agile Bulat shattered the pursuing ice spikes behind them, then borrowed the force to escape again before they truly left the attack's range.

The short-haired female general watched as the camp was effortlessly crushed like building blocks. One Imperial Arms user after another, hidden in the shadows, had no choice but to reveal themselves, each using their own methods to block the ice spikes and retreat swiftly.

Once everything temporarily settled down, an enormous Ice Flower over two hundred meters wide and nearly a hundred meters tall stood in its place. Akame, Leone, and the many other Imperial Arms users looked at the sight before them with lingering fear.

It was not enough to make them lose heart, but it had completely shattered their previous confidence.

Even Nadjeta had always believed their assembled force was incredibly powerful, and that as long as nothing went wrong, they could take down Esdeath.

But now... even if they could win, it would likely be a pyrrhic victory. More than half of the Imperial Arms users would probably have to die or be wounded to keep that monster here!

"No! Iori, where is Iori?"

Nadjeta came to her senses. Her eyes darted about as she anxiously searched for Iori's figure. Suddenly, her expression froze as she spotted Iori standing alone atop the tip of a towering ice peak, his cloak snapping in the wind behind him.

"He..."

The female general immediately calmed down. She considered herself an excellent judge of character. Even though Esdeath's strength had exceeded her expectations, seeing Iori's reaction somehow made her feel there was still hope.

"Go, Iori. Defeat... Esdeath!"

Iori ignored Nadjeta's words. His mood was quite strange now, containing both relief and excitement. It was indeed the feeling of facing a formidable opponent in battle, but—

This was absolutely not a trial of life and death!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Thick ice lances capable of hunting large Dangerous Species erupted with piercing blasts. Their immense impact shattered the ice peak Iori stood upon into countless fragments, scattering mist-like ice shards that shimmered brilliantly beneath the dusk sky.

Yet in the next instant, Iori appeared atop another ice peak and calmly raised his longsword—

Clang!

The specially made military saber collided crisply with the Heavenly Cloud Sword. The force transmitted through the blade tightened Iori's grip, and every muscle in his body automatically tensed.

The moment sword and saber met, the two faced each other in a deadlock. The Queen's eyes seemed shrouded in shadow, and even through the mask, one could feel that cold, pure killing intent.

But Iori's expression remained calm—though no one could see it anyway.

He slightly lifted his toes and flashed aside, evading Esdeath's follow-up slash. The Queen pressed forward step by step, her figure stabbing toward Iori like a diving hawk, her ice-blue hair pulled perfectly straight by the wind.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

In the brief instant of their descent, the two exchanged three blows.

Once Iori landed steadily, Esdeath suddenly kicked off the side of a slanted ice peak, like an invisible gale wielding a blade capable of cutting steel and iron—

Crack!

An ice spike of unknown thickness was severed with a single strike!

Yet that blow still struck empty air. Iori descended from above, the Heavenly Cloud Sword in his hand gleaming faintly as it slashed toward Esdeath.

At that moment, slender ice spikes suddenly protruded from both sides, crossing in front of Iori. By the time his blade fell and cut through them, the Ice Queen had already shifted into Regrip Stance, joining the index fingers and thumbs of both hands into a ring before her chest, perfectly framing the dark mark symbolizing Demon God Manifestation.

Hiss!

An ice spear shot out and struck Iori in a flash—

Clang!

The sturdy blade blocked the ice spear, but this attack was far stronger than before. The spear continued extending, blasting Iori far away.

Whoosh~

A flash of ice-blue streaked through the air. An equally extending ice pillar propped Esdeath up from beneath her feet, and she quickly caught up with Iori. Her frost-glinting military saber swung down at his neck!

Clang!

Iori raised his sword to block it, using the momentum to shake off Esdeath's pursuit.

Who would have thought that the Queen would wave one hand, causing the massive ice peaks around them to rise at once, blocking out all sunlight and rapidly darkening Iori's vision.

Had anyone looked down from high above, they would have seen an enormous Ice Flower rapidly closing. The collisions of solid ice against solid ice produced terrifying muffled booms, like polar glaciers grinding against one another—a mighty force only nature could create!

"Blade Dance!"

Just before the Ice Flower closed completely, a sharp Blade of Light burst through the solid ice and shot out from the top. Esdeath and Iori flew out with it, still locked in a contest of strength.

"To contend with me to such an extent, you truly are no ordinary man!"

The Huntress was exceptionally excited. Her power was control over ice and snow, yet both her temperament and fighting style were exceedingly aggressive. Like wildfire, like a hungry wolf, she could not wait to tear apart and devour every prey before her!

"Your swordsmanship, your weapon, and that bizarre movement technique are all things I have never seen before. This is quite a rare experience. Once I kill you, my strength should rise to another level as well!"

"...What a shame."

Iori abruptly said, "Looks like I came too early."

"What?" The Queen's gaze sharpened. "Are you trying to stall for time by talking nonsense?"

"I suppose I should praise you a little, Esdeath."

Iori looked around at the already frozen surroundings and shook his head with a sigh. "You are indeed very strong. This is neither flattery nor mockery, but an objective assessment.

"Agility, strength, explosiveness, skill, reaction speed. You possess powerful supernatural abilities without relying on them excessively, instead combining hand-to-hand combat and Imperial Arms in a balanced manner... You are practically the perfect killing weapon."

"...I do not like the way you speak."

Esdeath tilted her chin slightly and said coldly, "As if you are qualified to judge me!"

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Ice arrows formed out of thin air, and countless flashes rained down from the sky. There was simply no possibility of dodging them!

"That is why I find it regrettable."

Iori held his longsword horizontally. Beautiful radiance burst from the jewel, illuminating the jade-green blade until it resembled jade glass. Then, with a swing of his sword, it released a dragon-shaped wave of energy. Amid a majestic roar, it blew away the rain of arrows before turning and diving toward Esdeath.

It was the first time the female general had seen such a peculiar attack. She smiled faintly, and without making any movement, thick, towering Ice Walls rose before her one after another.

Boom!

The wave of energy shattered several layers of ice walls, but it failed to reach the Queen herself.

Immediately afterward, the ice-blue figure leaped over the high walls and clashed with Iori again.

"Putting on airs. Do you think that little bit of skill can intimidate me?"

"Looks like I came too early!"

Iori did not engage Esdeath in a war of words. Instead, he continued speaking to himself. "You are still growing. You have yet to reach your theoretical peak... For me, that cannot help but be a regret."

His words were not false. That was truly what he thought.

Esdeath was a typical combat-oriented powerhouse. The training and education she received in her tribe from childhood, along with her later military service, meant that her path of growth had always been accompanied by battle, and she would draw nourishment from every one of them.

In some ways, she was like a hot-blooded protagonist. The fiercer and more dangerous the battle, the more it would stimulate her growth, allowing her to surpass her peers at astonishing speed and eventually earn the title of "strongest."

But the fundamental difference from a hot-blooded protagonist was that people without plot armor could easily die halfway through their journey... After all, not everyone had the privilege of pulling themselves back up after being knocked down.

Esdeath was undoubtedly a boss-level character who enjoyed half the treatment of a protagonist, which was why she displayed such terrifying strength in the original story.

Yet that was also where the "regret" Iori spoke of lay:

The current Esdeath still lacked two important battles compared to her future self, and had not yet absorbed that crucial "nourishment."

One was when she defeated and buried alive hundreds of thousands of foreign tribesmen in the northern borderlands, utterly humiliating their leader and completely crushing his dignity and will.

The other was her battle against the humanoid Imperial Arms Susanoo. Susanoo, empowered beyond reason, drove her into a corner. Though she succeeded in turning the tables with a powerful trump card, the battle still deeply affected her.

On top of that, the chaotic situation at the time forced Esdeath to endure the constant casualties among her subordinates while matching wits and strength with the Night Raid led by Nadjeta. It made her taste defeat and helplessness for the rarest of moments.

All of these undoubtedly stimulated Esdeath deeply, pushing her one step further beyond what had already been close to perfection!

The current Esdeath was certainly powerful, but she was still somewhat short of the domineering presence with which she looked down upon the world in the original story's Grand Finale... She probably had not developed the ultimate move that could "freeze time and space," either.

Iori had originally made ample preparations to face the Ice Queen in her complete form, but now... he could only say that his interest had waned.

Even through the mask, Esdeath still sensed his emotion. Powerhouses who reached a certain realm could understand one another through battle, and in response to Iori's undisguised disappointment—

The Queen became enraged!

"Then I shall grant your wish! Witness true hell!"

As Esdeath grew angry, dark clouds immediately filled the sky. The temperature of the entire atmosphere plummeted, moisture in the air condensed into frost that covered the earth, and sharp fragments of ice like tiny knives appeared from nothing across a radius of a thousand meters and beyond, spinning madly through the fierce winds like Blade Wheels.

"Surge forth, Ice Storm!"

The bone-chilling gale mixed with ice spikes enveloped Iori. Before Esdeath even launched an attack, the clothes on his body began frosting over and freezing, as though they were about to swallow him whole.

This was the power she had accumulated and stored over time, released all at once to gain destructive force beyond her limits.

The already outrageous area covered by Demon God Manifestation was further elevated at this moment, allowing it to easily cover the entire northern borderlands and even broader expanses of land!

Of course, using such extravagant power against Iori alone would be an enormous waste, so Esdeath chose to bestow it upon herself instead, raising her already formidable strength to an entirely new realm!

Akame and the others, watching from afar, all felt immense pressure. They struggled to resist the freezing cold as they stared tensely at the battlefield in the center of the storm.

Whoosh!

Ice blades, ice spikes, ice pillars, ice arrows... all manner of attacks descended from the heavens, filling the entire sky in an instant, as if everything in this world had become Iori's enemy!

Yet the young man bearing the brunt of the pressure remained as calm as ever. He patted his shoulder and brushed away the frost clinging to it.

"Paltry ice shards, not worth even half of me~"

And at that instant—

"Splitting Void!"

Zheng!!!

An invisible wall of spiritual pressure stretched across the sky. Countless ice blades and frost edges were blasted aside, while Iori below remained completely unharmed.

"Reflecting all creation, Shuryū Bansho;

"All things are impermanent, fullness and emptiness have their measure—"

Clang!

Before his chant was complete, Esdeath impatiently swung her sword. Iori caught the even fiercer slash, and the chill transmitted through the blade seemed as though it would pierce his entire body. An ordinary person would likely be frozen into an ice sculpture merely by touching it.

Yet even so, it could not stir the slightest ripple in his state of mind.

Radiance flowed across the Heavenly Cloud Sword. The clear blade was dyed with a deep, ancient sheen, reflecting Iori's face like a mercury mirror—not the mask, but his true appearance.

"Gather, Mirror Water!"

When the condensed spiritual pressure was released from its restraints, visible transparent ripples swept through the atmosphere. The cold wind and frost were all dispersed in that instant, and the world seemed to stand still for a moment.