As the condensed spiritual pressure broke free from its restraints, visible transparent ripples swept through the air. The freezing winds and frost were completely driven away in that instant, and the world seemed to fall into a momentary stillness.
Even Esdeath herself was intimidated by that overwhelming presence, but the surging power within her body quickly helped her break free from the daze, and the flame of her battle-loving passion ignited in her eyes.
"That's how it should be, only then is it interesting enough!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The entire ice mountain collapsed in an instant. Each fragment transformed into armored knights of varying sizes, standing up from all directions with blades and long spears raised, leaving him no space whatsoever to dodge.
Individually, these ice knights were stronger than ordinary soldiers but inferior to Imperial Arm users. However, their numbers were virtually endless, practically an undead legion.
Esdeath never expected this to decide the battle. She was merely using it to drain Iori's stamina, because she had noticed that although Iori possessed techniques that released energy outward, he didn't seem to use them often. She concluded that his accumulated reserves were far shallower than her own.
She had to admit, her judgment was extremely accurate. Iori's spiritual pressure was considered high even among vice-captains, and its quality was condensed and refined.
But when it came to sheer energy volume… it truly couldn't compare to Esdeath, who could freely manipulate the weather, at the very least, he couldn't squander it as casually as she could.
But...
If she thought sheer numbers could drown Iori, that would be a grave mistake.
Weapons attacked from above, below, and all sides. It looked as if Iori had no choice but to take it head-on, yet he calmly uttered a single word, "Storm~"
Hiss~ Bang!
All kinds of weapons pierced through Iori's body, yet not a single drop of blood sprayed out. Only the sound of air being torn apart rang out, and then the ice knights crashed into one another under the force of inertia.
Like an illusion, like drifting mist, Iori's figure emerged unhurriedly from the countless shards of ice.
"What was that? An illusion?"
Esdeath instinctively thought it was some kind of visual trick, but the gust of force rushing at her head-on and the sense of danger rising in her heart shattered that assumption in the next instant.
Clang!
The military saber and the Sword of Ama-no-Murakumo collided once more. The frigid air surrounding Esdeath was actually sliced open by some invisible blade, a stinging sensation brushing across her cheek and making the Ice Queen feel a chill in her heart.
With just a single clash, she deeply sensed the change in Iori.
Not only that, this man's basic abilities had also increased dramatically.
"Did you release energy you had stored in advance? Looks like it's the same type of ability as mine!"
This discovery made Esdeath even happier. She silently memorized Iori's intangibility that let him bypass the ice knights, but her hands didn't slow down in the slightest.
Bold and straightforward to a degree that surpassed most men, she launched continuous attacks at Iori with wide, powerful sword swings.
Iori, however, didn't give an inch. The two stood in place and exchanged blows at speeds beyond what the naked eye could follow.
In just a few breaths, they had already traded dozens of moves. The bursting wind pressure easily sliced through solid ice walls, producing shrill howls like wailing ghosts.
Clang! BOOM!
The collision of their full-force strikes sent both of them flying back, and the intersecting sword pressure directly severed an ice peak.
The massive ice mountain toppled. The two, now separated, locked eyes, only for the next moment to be cut off by the collapsing ice, Iori remained calm as ever, while Esdeath was shrouded in shadow.
"Why… no, I'm the strongest!"
In that seemingly evenly matched exchange just now, Esdeath had vaguely sensed something, but she was unwilling to admit it. As if cheering herself on, she shouted a line, then whipped her ice-blue long hair and struck the side of the ice mountain with a spinning kick.
That single blow was like the first domino. Countless cracks instantly spread across the entire ice mountain, and with a thunderous crash it shattered into innumerable sharp spikes, forming a torrential, airtight rain that completely engulfed the space around Iori.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dense ice spikes "passed through" his body without a single moment's pause. Iori stood there unmoving, as if he were nothing more than an illusion, every inch of his body constantly shifting between "particles" and "spirit form," taking no damage whatsoever from start to finish.
But he knew this was by no means Esdeath's final trump card.
Sure enough, in the next moment the ground beneath their feet began to shake. Massive ice walls rose from the earth one after another, towering like mountain peaks, even forming a dome-like ice canopy that blocked out the sky.
Centered on Iori and Esdeath, a three-hundred-meter radius was transformed into a completely sealed ice fortress.
"Although I don't know what kind of magic trick you used, since our weapons can collide, you must have a physical existence, just one that's hard to touch, like mist."
Esdeath spoke with confidence. "In that case, I'll just have to build you a prison you can't escape from!"
"I'll freeze the entire atmosphere. Whether you're a ghost or an illusion, you'll sleep forever in this massive tomb!"
"…Bad luck."
Iori sighed softly. "Your compatibility with me is really terrible."
"Isn't it a bit late to regret it now?" Esdeath revealed a sadistic smile. "Trying to provoke me with such wild talk, you should have been prepared for this!"
"No, I mean your luck is bad. And also…"
Iori lifted his eyelids. Beneath his disheveled bangs, pitch-black eyes were revealed as he looked at her calmly.
"When did you start having the illusion that you would win?"
The sword tip, gleaming with a mercury-like sheen, lightly tapped the ice surface. Like a breeze rippling across a lake, faint waves spread rapidly, sweeping across the entire ground and the surrounding ice walls in the blink of an eye, finally converging at a single point in the dome above.
Drip~
Esdeath's thoughts blurred for a moment, as if the ideas in her mind had been wiped clean. A fleeting look of confusion crossed her face, but the killing instinct buried in her subconscious snapped her awake at once.
In her shock, the scenery around her had already changed. The smooth ice surface reflected her and Iori's figures, countless overlapping lights and shadows above, below, and all around, like stepping into a kaleidoscope that left one dizzy.
She naturally wouldn't be fooled by mere visual effects. What truly unsettled her was this, the solid ice that should have been entirely under her control now felt as though it were covered by something else, making her perception of it hazy and indistinct.
For someone as domineering as her, this feeling of being turned from the host into the guest was deeply disturbing.
"What are you looking at?"
A calm voice sounded, 'Very close!'
Esdeath jerked her head up and saw Iori standing just three meters in front of her.
Whoosh!
Her figure flashed as the female hunter leapt backward to ten meters away. Her right hand clenched the saber tightly, her eyes locked onto Iori, not letting the slightest movement escape her notice.
Yet unexpectedly, Iori didn't attack while she was distracted. He allowed her to retreat out of range without making any move to stop her from beginning to end.
He merely asked calmly, "Why retreat?"
"!!!"
"If you want to kill me for certain, then you should move closer and swing your blade, not flee without thinking like a rabbit."
Esdeath's eyes widened, her pupils trembling slightly. Her beautiful face was expressionless, yet it was as if something deep within her had been struck.
"I… ran away?"
"Feeling fear at the approach of a powerful enemy, letting your body act under the drive of survival instinct, that is what 'running away' means."
"There's no need to feel ashamed of it. Humans urge themselves forward out of fear of strong enemies, that is the most primal driving force."
"If anything, you should feel happy about it. As the 'strongest,' you haven't felt fear in a long time, haven't pursued a higher realm under instinctive stimulation for a long time, have you?"
"…Utter nonsense!"
The Ice Queen clenched her teeth, revealing a feral grin. "I... I could never be ruled by fear! On the contrary, I conquered everyone else's fear!"
"A temporary retreat is for better advancement. Only by widening the distance can I shoot you down!"
She spread both hands. A pale, ghastly spear manifested between them, which the Ice Queen hurled with all her strength, instantly punching rings of transparent ripples through the air.
"Distance only matters in evenly matched fights. For you and me, distance is meaningless."
"Look, if I do this..."
Letting the spear "pass" through his head, Iori flash-stepped in front of Esdeath, his left hand forming a two-finger sword gesture pointed at her chest.
"My hand would almost immediately touch your heart."
Clang!
A cold flash streaked past as the saber was suppressed by the Sword of Ama-no-Murakumo the moment it rose.
Bang!
His left hand swept along, the sword fingers wrapped in a wisp of white light tracing a crescent arc, knocking away all the sharp ice spikes that attacked from his blind spot.
"What..." Esdeath's mind was shaken again and again.
Why… this man wasn't so strong that she couldn't even see his back. And yet… from start to finish, she had never truly been able to touch him, as if she weren't fighting a real, tangible person, but a reflection in water born of her own imagination.
"Useless~"
Iori's eyes were as calm as an ancient well, as if nothing in the world could surprise him.
"Within this domain, none of your actions have any secrets. Your breathing, the flow of your blood, the contraction of your muscles… no change can escape my eyes."
"For example, the fact that your hand is trembling."
'Trembling? Me?'
Esdeath stared blankly at her right hand gripping the saber and indeed noticed a barely perceptible quiver. It felt utterly absurd, so much so that she almost wanted to laugh.
She had lived since childhood in a brutal environment where the strong devour the weak. To her, the world was a massive hunting ground, either hunt others or become prey.
After countless brushes with death, she was now trembling before an enemy.
"Ha…"
"…Hahaha… hahahahaha!!!"
Her heart pounded, her blood almost flowing backward. A tremendous surge of energy erupted from the woman, enveloping everything around her as if it were tangible, even making the invisible air seem to solidify.
And this was only the prelude. An even more violent fluctuation of energy suddenly burst forth, "Too slow."
Iori remained composed. Just as he had said, nothing within the domain could escape his eyes, including the flow of that icy energy within Esdeath's body.
No matter how fast a technique might be, as long as it involved movement, gathering, and release, the time it consumed could never be zero.
Not to mention… Esdeath's preparation process was far too drawn out~
Crack!
The ice mirrors shattered. The towering walls were cut cleanly in half, countless cracks appearing in the frozen atmosphere before it resumed its flow.
And the queen awoke as if from a dream, her knees dropping to the cold ice surface. Her long hair fell loose like beautiful tassels, spreading out across the ground…
Drip… drip… drip…
Blood flowed from a shallow wound on her slender, fair neck, soaking down her arm and into her military uniform, then gathering at her fingertips before falling. It hit the ice surface and instantly solidified into rolling little beads.
Esdeath's face was blank, as if she was unwilling to accept what lay before her. Yet helplessly bound by the gravity of reality, she gradually realized the fact that "she was still alive."
"I… didn't die?"
She reached up to touch the wound on her neck and found that although the position was dangerous, the cut wasn't deep. It hadn't severed her throat or artery.
Was it a mistake?
No. That strike had been eerie and precise. With power great enough to sever an entire ice wall, it had only brushed past her neck. Calling that a coincidence would be far too forced, it could only have been intentional, controlled by Iori to spare her life.
As for why Iori did this… Esdeath didn't yet know.
Once the Ice Queen regained her senses, the cold energy within her body automatically circulated, instantly covering the wound with a layer of white frost to stop the bleeding in a rather rough manner.
As she touched her neck, she felt that something was off. She instinctively reached behind her, but her hand grasped nothing. Turning around, she realized that her beautiful ice-blue long hair had been completely cut off and scattered across the ice. What remained was only a length between shoulder and ear.
Of course, Esdeath wasn't an ordinary woman and didn't place much importance on hairstyles. Instead, she focused on another issue, and her train of thought was rather unusual, "You didn't kill me… are you looking down on me?!"
"…" Iori's brow twitched. A half-smile appeared on his face, and for a moment he didn't know how to respond.
In Esdeath's view, it was only natural for the strong to trample the weak, and killing one's opponent in battle was only to be expected.
For her personally, if she defeated an opponent and still left them alive, she would definitely interrogate and torment them in both body and mind, utterly crushing their will until they became a dog that only knew how to wag its tail and beg.
Judging others by herself, she didn't think surviving was anything good.
When she thought of those criminals who had been tortured by her into mental collapse, if she herself were to become like that...
Hiss!
Even though Esdeath had absolute confidence in her own willpower and believed she would never be broken by physical torment, just thinking about that possibility made her shudder with dread.
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