"An inter-world power duel... That sounds wonderfully fascinating. Can we watch it live?"
Frieren asked in the group chat, her digital avatar blinking with quiet curiosity.
"Sure," Haruto replied casually.
[Ding! Haruto has started a live stream!]
As the group members tapped into the stream interface, a holographic projection materialized before them, revealing Haruto standing face-to-face with a strikingly tall, imposing woman clad in pristine white military attire.
"It's really her..."
Najenda muttered under her breath, immediately recognizing the cold, sharp features and predatory, wolfish eyes of her former comrade-turned-tyrant.
Esdeath caught the incoming chat notifications flickering across the corner of her vision and smirked, her gaze shifting to her opponent.
"You seem remarkably confident that you'll walk away the victor."
"I have complete confidence in my strength," Haruto responded smoothly, unbothered by her aura.
He glanced at the floating system camera. "If you don't mind, feel free to introduce yourself to the chat group."
"Introduce myself?"
Esdeath's lips curled into a thrill-seeking, bloodthirsty smile. "Fighting and slaughter are the only introductions that matter. Like this!"
Without a second of warning, Esdeath raised her hand, and a massive shadow swept across the ground.
High above Haruto, a colossal block of solid ice silently materialized, plummeting downward with terrifying momentum to crush him flat.
Utterly unperturbed, Haruto flicked his wrist, summoning his personal weapon, which instantly shifted into the form of a sleek, radiant longsword.
With a single, lazy swing, a crescent wave of pure sword energy erupted outward.
Shnk!
As if slicing cleanly through soft tofu, the massive chunk of ice was effortlessly carved into a million glittering fragments, showering the battlefield like crystal dust.
Esdeath's grin only widened, her chest rising with palpable excitement.
"You truly are a rare specimen. In that case... let the real battle begin!"
Esdeath drew her signature rapier, and with a single explosive step, she lunged forward, closing the distance at blinding speed.
"Using a sword, huh?" Haruto noted, entirely unimpressed by the standard weaponry.
He knew Esdeath's true lethality lay not just in her Teigu, but in her peak physical conditioning and ruthless swordsmanship—both of which were revered across the Empire.
Unfortunately for her, her opponent operated on an entirely different plane of reality.
Clang!
A blinding shower of sparks erupted as their blades collided.
The very microsecond their steel met, a jolt of shock ran up Esdeath's arm—her sword felt fundamentally inferior, as if striking an immovable divine barrier.
Yet, driven by pure combat instinct, she didn't relent.
She launched into a relentless flurry of thrusts and high-speed cuts, each movement precise and lethal.
To any ordinary observer, her blade was a blur of silver death.
And yet, Haruto parried every single blow with effortless grace, standing completely still with one hand casually tucked behind his back, his expression as calm as a summer lake. He didn't even shift his footing an inch.
"Your swordsmanship still has a long way to go," Haruto chided gently, his tone almost mocking in its laziness. "You might as well stop holding back and use your Teigu."
"...."
Esdeath narrowed her eyes, locking onto him with an intense glare before executing a swift backflip to put distance between them.
"My swordsmanship is indeed outclassed," Esdeath admitted, her breath pluming in the freezing air. "In that case, let's see how you handle this!"
A brutal wave of sub-zero temperature radiated outward from her body as she unleashed her core power.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, a dense barrage of razor-sharp ice spikes hurtled toward Haruto like a volley of ballistic missiles.
Watching the live stream from afar, Ayame gasped softly. "She can manipulate ice, too?"
Akame nodded silently. "Najenda mentioned her Teigu is called Demon God Manifestation: Demon's Extract. It grants absolute control over ice and cold."
Megumi Kato tilted her head, observing the screen. "Just like Haruto-kun's ability."
Frieren shook her head, clarifying, "Not quite. Haruto mentioned his power is categorized as 'freezing,' which operates on a fundamentally different, absolute level than merely shaping ambient ice."
True to Frieren's words, as the massive ice spikes—each easily large enough to crush a charging war elephant—closed in on Haruto, he didn't even blink. He simply raised a single finger.
Halt.
The hurtling spikes froze dead in mid-air, entirely suspended and unmoving as if trapped in amber.
"???"
Esdeath's expression flickered, a sudden jolt of disbelief piercing her confidence as she realized her absolute control over ice had been completely hijacked.
"As I said, I'm quite skilled with ice myself," Haruto said with a faint smirk, lazily flicking his finger back toward the general.
Crack—boom!
The very ice spikes Esdeath had just summoned violently shattered out of their suspension, reversing direction and rocketing back toward her at supersonic speed.
"!!"
Despite the shocking turn of events, Esdeath's battle reflexes saved her.
She spun her rapier in a blur of motion, shattering the incoming projectiles just inches from her face.
"You..."
Esdeath fixed her piercing gaze on Haruto, expecting him to boast or ask questions.
Instead, her entire body began to tremble—not from fear, or cold, or fatigue, but from an overwhelming, intoxicating wave of sheer exhilaration.
"This is magnificent! A duel to the death against an opponent who can effortlessly match me... There is nothing more beautiful in this world!"
Her eyes dilated with manic joy. "You are strong. But from this second onward, I am going to unleash everything I have... to tear you apart and kill you!"
True to her word, Esdeath tapped into the deepest reserves of her Teigu. She threw herself into a suicidal assault, every strike now aimed at ending Haruto's life.
Giant mountain-sized glaciers erupted from the earth and crashed downward with earth-shattering force, shaking the foundation of the continent.
Miles away, deep within the imperial encampment, the ordinary soldiers stumbled out of their tents, staggering against the violent tremors and the unnatural, biting frost sweeping across the landscape.
The soldiers exchanged pale, terrified glances, assuming their general was locked in mortal combat with some catastrophic, world-ending Danger Beast.
They had witnessed Esdeath's terrifying power countless times before, but the sheer, apocalyptic scale of today's disturbance dwarfed anything they had ever imagined—as the creeping frost slowly swallowed the edges of their camp.
*****
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