"Meteor Ice Strike!"
Esdeath leaped high into the air.
As her words rang out, a colossal ice sphere materialized, plummeting toward the ground below.
Koyomi Shizuka reacted instantly, darting away from the impact zone.
Boom!
The ice sphere crashed down, obliterating everything within a two-to-three-thousand-square-meter radius.
The surrounding area became a frozen wasteland, littered with shattered ice. At the center stood a massive ice block, like a small mountain.
Whoosh!
As the tremors subsided, Esdeath landed. At that moment, Koyomi appeared behind her.
Sekkarou thrust toward Esdeath's shoulder. Koyomi didn't dare aim to kill—only to disable her.
Kojou Akatsuki had injured Aya Tokoyogi, a new addition to August's ranks, and August had come knocking. Now, not only was Kojou dead, but his entire family—save for his father, Togo, who wasn't on Itogami Island—had perished.
Koyomi wasn't about to make the same mistake. She feared August, whose power she now equated with a progenitor's.
Clang!
But her plan faltered. At the last second, an ice sword rose from the frozen ground beneath Esdeath.
It forced Koyomi back in an instant. Had it struck, she'd have been lightly wounded at least.
An injury would sap her mobility, sealing her defeat.
"Ice Storm General!"
Esdeath grinned wickedly.
Suddenly, from all directions—especially the frozen ground—ice knights emerged.
As the new Fourth Progenitor, Esdeath had ascended to late demon king-tier. Her overall power had surged by leaps and bounds.
These ice knights, too, were far stronger than those from her Akame ga Kill! days.
Bang!
Crash!
Koyomi swung Sekkarou, shattering every ice knight in her path into fragments.
But the broken ice soon reformed, coalescing into new knights.
Sekkarou could "restore the world to its original state," but these knights were born of Esdeath's magic fused with ice.
Even if reduced to their base form, this was Esdeath's Absolute Frost Domain. As long as she supplied magic, the knights would endlessly regenerate.
"Thunder Strike!"
Boom!
Koyomi thrust Sekkarou forward, unleashing a wave of lightning that cleared a swath of ice knights.
The surrounding knights closing in were, to her, mere nuisances.
"Ice Dragons!"
Esdeath's voice rang out again. From among the knights, ice dragons rose from the ground.
Roar!
With ferocious roars, they charged toward Koyomi.
She found it maddening—attacks like these were relentless.
Unlike vampires, her stamina and magic were finite. At this rate, she'd collapse first.
"One last shot—Extreme!"
Faced with swarms of ice knights and dragons, Koyomi frowned, steeling herself for a final gambit.
"Silence Breaker!"
In a flash, her figure vanished.
The next second, she reappeared behind Esdeath, mere inches away.
Without hesitation, she swung Sekkarou, aiming to sever Esdeath's shoulder—a fatal blow for most, but not for the new Fourth Progenitor.
Esdeath sensed it keenly, but Silence Breaker's power left her unable to preempt it.
"I've won!"
Koyomi glimpsed victory, relief washing over her. The Lion King Organization and Japan were safe.
"You've got me thrilled! I didn't expect my first opponent in this world to be this strong—it's exhilarating! Out of respect, I'll use my trump card: Mahapdama!"
In an instant, a crystalline blue barrier, roughly a kilometer in radius, enveloped the area.
Koyomi's strike had been moments from landing—Sekkarou's tip mere centimeters from Esdeath's neck—when her body froze midair.
Everything around her halted, even a speck of dust suspended in place.
"Hey, what's this? Spatial lockdown?"
Natsuki Minamiya gasped, stunned.
"No, it's spatiotemporal freeze. It's not just space—time's stopped too," August explained.
But he noted something else. Even at late demon king-tier, freezing time outright in this world was a pipe dream. What was once a time-stopping ultimate move had evolved into a regional time-freeze skill.
That made sense—worlds differed, and rules weren't universal.
Natsuki, beside him, gaped at Esdeath's ability to freeze time—an awe-inspiring feat.
Any power involving "time" demanded astronomical magic and lasted mere moments. Yet Esdeath's technique held for an astonishing duration.
Within the Mahapdama barrier, Esdeath turned to face Koyomi.
"Sorry, you seized your chance well, but sadly, you fell just short."
Spurt!
An ice sword materialized in her hand, piercing Koyomi's heart.
"Gah—"
Esdeath dispelled the barrier. Koyomi's attack resumed, but struck only air.
A searing pain hit, and she coughed up blood uncontrollably.
As a mere human, a pierced heart was fatal.
"What happened—"
Koyomi's gaze dulled. How had everything flipped in an instant?
"You're strong. But unfortunately, I'm stronger."
"The power of time—"
Thud.
Koyomi gave Esdeath a deep, final look, then collapsed.
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