This Is Shameful

"Only you?" Ryota turned around and faced Esdeath directly: "Where's Budo? I think you better get together, otherwise it won't be fun."

　　"Your tone is not small!"

　　Esdeath raised her sword and prepared to fight. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, depicting a sense of madness: "But it doesn't matter! As much skill as you have, you have the capital of arrogance. I really like your arrogance, and I will ask your name."

　　"You are really crazy?"

　　"...Hehe, looks like his mouth is still lacking in training. Can't even have a normal conversation."

　　Esdeath narrowed her eyes half closed, eyes dangerous and sharp: "There's no need for Budo to come. I am enough to satisfy you alone. In return, you should let me enjoy it."

　　"That depends on whether you can accept it or not!"

　　Ryota chuckled, the flames on the blade exploded, and slashed.

　　Supernova Blade of Heaven Abyss!

　　"Spread!"

　　Maybe intuition and animal instincts are at work. Before Ryota could raise his sword, Esdeth gave a loud order to the Jaegers behind her.

　　Trusting and obeying Esdeath, Kurome and the others quickly moved. Among them, movement Dr. Stylish half slower. When he reacted, his field of vision was already occupied by flames.

　　At the same time, a tall wall of ice cubes was continuously erected on the ground, blocking the incoming flames.

　　Esdeath uses Teigu, Demon's Extract to create large amounts of ice, trying to survive Ryota's slashes.

　　It's a shame it was all in vain.

　　All the ice she made instantly sublimated and disappeared without a trace.

　　The flames rushed forward with a tsunami-like impact and momentum, as if it could burn everything in its path.

　　"Not good...!"

　　Esdeath sensed something was wrong. Relying on intuition like a wild beast, she reacted quickly, rolled to the side, and avoided the direct firelight.

　　But Dr. Stylish behind it is not so lucky. The whole body and the Teigu in his hands evaporated in an instant, leaving no residue.

　　Explosion--!

　　The flames melted the city walls, and continued to spread forward, reflecting half of the sky red.

　　A loud sound like rolling thunder kept ringing, as if the world had been torn apart.

　　After everything calmed down, everyone looked forward, opened their mouths instinctively, widened their eyes, and there was a look of disbelief on their faces.

　　Within the smoke and dust, one could faintly see that the vast imperial palace had been split into two parts.

　　Bottomless black cracks appeared on the ground, as if connected to the depths of hell, and a scalding hot wind blew from within.

　　"Sassy!"

　　Suddenly, a loud roar came from the split palace. Immediately after that, thunder light exploded in the air, blasting the flying smoke and dust into pieces.

　　Everyone's vision suddenly became clear.

　　Budo who was guarding the emperor in the palace, who was moving.

　　Teigu, Adramelech, who could control thunder was activated, and the power of heaven appeared in the sky above the imperial capital. Unfortunately, he didn't know that he was facing an existence above the natural disaster.

　　"Old man! This is my opponent, hold me!" Esdeath's voice followed Budo's growl.

　　After the smoke was blown away by the thunder, Ryota looked ahead and found that Esdeath was standing on a large icicle that had emerged from the ground. Behind her, a large number of ice spikes continuously condensed, floating in the air, ready to go.

　　The surrounding temperature dropped rapidly.

　　Esdeath waved her hand, one after another the ice thorns flew towards Ryota like cannonballs.

　　There was a series of sharp piercing sounds in the air.

　　Create ice, shoot ice, create ice... In just a few seconds, Esdeath created a curtain of hail.

　　Attacks rained down, covering the ground. However, without exception, these ice spikes slowly slowed down and stopped midair tens of meters away from Ryota.

　　It was impossible to advance even a centimeter. After the kinetic energy is used up, they fall to the ground.

　　"I can't believe you have no limits!" Esdeath stared.

　　Suddenly there was movement in the sky.

　　Everyone looked up, only to see a huge iceberg appear in the sky above the imperial capital at some point, and fall.

　　The shadow it cast enveloped the entire palace, including some of the nearby areas.

　　It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this is an apocalypse scene. However, the iceberg stopped as it fell a hundred meters from the ground.

　　Can no longer carry out effective attacks on the field.

　　This scene made Esdeath's expression sink a little. She finds that she can't detect the range area of Ryota's strange deceleration ability at all.

　　Ten meters, dozens of meters, a hundred meters, more than a hundred meters... Since just now, the value has changed, and none of it is constant.

　　It was as if the enemy could do whatever he wanted, and the extent of its scope depended entirely on the other party's mood.

　　If so... Did that mean she was already within the opponent's attack range?

　　The reason why the other party didn't use this ability on her was just to tease her?

　　"What an annoying man!"

　　Esdeath didn't care about losing her physique, and started pushing the Teigu with all her might.

　　Another iceberg appears and falls towards Ryota.

　　The two mountains overlapped, and the impact of the collision caused the atmosphere to tremble, as if the sky was collapsing. But the field where time had slowed still operated without being affected in the least.

　　"Let's see how much you can hold!" Esdeath snorted heavily.

　　Scored three times, and the iceberg hit.

　　"Little trick."

　　Ryota raised his head and waved his hand.

　　In his domain, a new rule had suddenly come into operation.

　　It was a burning hell befitting the "Bridge of Rage".

　　Everywhere he looked, the atmosphere heated up rapidly, surpassing the temperature of the thermosphere in an instant, and steadily rising upwards. As if a huge fireball area in the nuclear explosion environment had been created, the sky was completely red.

　　The static iceberg instantly sublimated and disappeared from everyone's field of view. Massive light radiation began to spread out.

　　The imperial guards surrounding the palace's front gate continued to retreat amidst screams, not daring to stop for even a moment.

　　Esdeath was also forced to create a thick layer of ice to protect herself.

　　The ice continued to melt, and she could only quickly distance herself.

　　"Sassy!" Suddenly a roar resounded in the sky.

　　Lightning suddenly appeared, and a figure disappeared among the clouds.

　　Boom, boom——!

　　Thick thunder pierced through the atmosphere, shot down towards Ryota.

　　The first lightning was slowed down by the time domain, and slowly dispersed in the air, creating a spectacle of lightning visible to the naked eye.

　　Thunder was ineffective... no, thunder passing through the atmosphere was ineffective.

　　Now the atmosphere has been broken, and the channel has been formed.

　　Without an air barrier, a second thick bolt of lightning struck Ryota at a speed close to the speed of light.

　　Several large lightning bolts exploded on Ryota's body one after another. But the huge movement disappeared quickly, and the flashing thunder light suddenly died down.

　　Unscathed, Ryota looked up at the sky and locked onto Budo.

　　"His attack speed is good, but it's a pity that the power is too small!"

　　Ryota raised his sword. The attack that approached the speed of light broke through its slowed time barrier. After all, he couldn't cut the speed of light down to zero. However, the thunder that exploded in his body, not to mention causing damage to triggering the second defense of the "Immortal Body", did not even break through the basic defense that his body had.

　　After clearing the Fourth Bridge, he had truly widened the gap between the living and human levels.

　　"It seems that the two of you are not qualified to fight me." Ryota grinned, speaking very arrogantly: "In that case, it's game over!"

　　"Arrogance!" Budo roared. But when he wanted to attack again, Ryota had already disappeared from his sight.

　　"You looking for me?"

　　Suddenly, a questioning voice came from behind.

　　Immediately afterwards, a deafening sound pierced the air, and the impact almost caused Budo to lose his body suspended in the air.

　　Budo's pupils shrank, he immediately understood what happened.

　　The other party was approaching him faster than sound!

　　That was why the sound of piercing the air would arrive after the other party had arrived.

Upon thinking of this, his heart skipped a beat, and he immediately turned around, barely making any defensive moves.

　　Explosion!

　　There was a sound like an explosion.

　　There was a sharp pain in both arms, and the bones were broken.

　　Budo stared wide-eyed, not even caring about the pain. Because he saw Adramelech broken.

　　Adramelech's fragment flew out directly. He himself was like a meteorite, smashing deeply from the sky to the ground.

　　A building in the palace collapsed instantly.

　　As smoke and dust flew, one of the strongest generals collapsed, completely losing the ability to fight.

　　The other side.

　　Seeing this sight, Esdeath's pupils shrank. Because she found that Ryota's figure disappeared again.

　　Invisible... a speed completely invisible to the naked eye.

　　The heart raced, as if on alert for an imminent crisis. Without even thinking about it, she activated her hidden Teigu ability.

　　——Mahapdama!

　　In an instant, everything around Esdeath started to freeze, even time and space.

　　Ability like time-stop is his trump card which can only be activated once a day.

　　"Huh... looks like a success."

　　In the area that had become like a world of ice and snow, Esdeath exhaled with a pounding heart.

　　There was no pain in her body… It seemed her unique move was launched before the opponent's attack.

　　Esdeath looked around, her eyes suddenly widening. Because she saw Ryota standing less than one meter away from her.

　　The sword shining with fire in the opponent's hand had slashed through her neck – less than 20 centimeters.

　　Esdeath even saw a shockwave not far away that froze like a wave… She guessed it must have been caused by a tear in the air during Ryota's flight.

　　"What a scary man...!"

　　A rare expression of emotion appeared on Esdeath's face.

　　Just now could be said to be the biggest crisis she had faced since she was born.

　　Life and death are at stake!

　　Looking at Ryota's frozen handsome face, Esdeath muttered: "I was a bit reluctant to kill you like this, but unfortunately..."

　　Based on the ability displayed by this man in front of her, it is estimated that he will be able to break through the ice seal soon.

　　Facing an "either you die or I die" situation, she didn't have much time to hesitate.

　　Esdeth stabbed the sword in her hand with a piercing sound through the air, going straight through Ryota's forehead. However, after carrying out the attack, instead of being able to relax, she fell into a state of extreme fear.

　　No prickling feeling.

　　It's like breaking through the air.

　　"This… afterimage!?"

　　Esdeath looked around quickly.

　　After consciously searching for it, she quickly found a clue — beside Ryota's shadow, a shockwave of frozen air expanded.

　　Opponent jumps long before the ability activates!

　　"Frozen time and space, so it really exists, I really don't know what principle can support this phenomenon."

　　Ryota's voice sounded.

　　Esdeath immediately turned around.

　　More than 20 meters away in front of the field of vision, a tall figure was standing there, walking slowly.

　　"What have you done?" Esdeath asked loudly.

　　She almost guessed it, but she still wanted to confirm it herself.

　　"Nothing, just jump five kilometers, then jump back."

　　Ryota shrugged: "It seems that the range of your time-stopping ability isn't that great."

　　He raised his sword and grinned: "Esdeath, the next attack will determine the outcome. Even though we have no hatred, but for the safety of my team members, you must leave here."

　　"What a hypocritical explanation."

　　Esdeath returned the sword to its scabbard: "From your expression, I can see that you are the same person as me, and we all enjoy the pleasures of fighting. Don't use other people as an excuse to swing your sword, my kind. This will only make me look down on you."

　　"Don't tarnish people's innocence, we are different." Ryota pouted: "I'm a normal person, don't compare me to you. And why did you keep your sword? Have you stopped fighting?"

　　"Of course not." Esdeath laughed: "My kind, the gap in our strength is too great now, and the battle is much more unpleasant, so let's save the unfinished battle for later."

　　"You don't think you can escape, right?"

　　"Unfortunately, the strength I have is only enough to allow me to escape, and that will allow me to come back stronger."

　　Esdeath shrugged lightly: "Report your name, my kind, I look forward to the follow-up battle."

　　Hearing this, Ryota was suddenly stunned.

　　Esdeath's words gave him a sense of familiarity.

　　It was as if he had done it himself.

　　Ryota suddenly had an unreasonable guess in his mind.

　　Do not have to...

　　He hurriedly asked: "Wait! Don't tell me you're also one of us?"

　　"Hah? What do you mean?"

　　"Teleportation, quests, upgrades."

　　Considering that disclosing guild information to non-guild members would be against the rules, Ryota can only use three words to create a metaphor in an uncertain situation.

　　"Oh..."

　　Esdeath gasped. Then she showed an interesting look: "I didn't expect to meet the same person so soon... That's right, a strong person like you wouldn't suddenly appear in the empire."

　　Ryota: "..."

　　Ryota glanced at the sword in his hand.

　　Does he keep at it?