Chapter 334: A New Empire (Part 2)

"What am I doing? It's simple, General Bude. For a long time, I've wanted to test your strength. Today seems like the perfect opportunity."

For Esdeath, the real reason she had come to the palace was to have a battle with Bude. Clearing out the other palace members was merely a side task. Although Esdeath was hailed as the empire's strongest, this was primarily because she had been more active. In truth, before meeting Daniel Davis, and without considering the space-freezing ability of her Mahapadma, Esdeath might not have been able to defeat General Bude.

General Bude's imperial weapon, Wrath of the Thunder God, Adrammelech, was on par with Esdeath's Demon's Extract, both being elemental-type imperial weapons. Bude's weapon controlled lightning.

Among the forty-eight imperial weapons, elemental control types were undoubtedly at the top tier. Originally, there were several elemental weapons, but over the years, most had been destroyed or lost. Now, only these two remained.

"Are you planning a rebellion at a time like this?" General Bude's face filled with anger at Esdeath's words. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have thought so, knowing Esdeath's personality and how a challenge from her was typical.

In fact, Esdeath had fought him before. Given her nature, it was no surprise that she would have challenged General Bude, one of the empire's hidden powerhouses. The outcome of that battle? Esdeath had lost.

Back then, Esdeath was much younger and hadn't reached her peak, while General Bude was in his prime. Esdeath had not yet unlocked the full potential of her ice imperial weapon, while General Bude had long since mastered the ultimate abilities of his thunder weapon.

"Rebellion? If that's what you think, then so be it," Esdeath replied, her face indifferent. If it were anyone else—perhaps even Daniel Davis—they would likely have spoken about noble causes, such as the emperor's incompetence or Prime Minister Onest's cruelty. But for Esdeath, such rhetoric was meaningless. She believed in strength, nothing more.

"You..." General Bude's face darkened. His thoughts mirrored those of Prime Minister Onest—rebels were of little concern, as the empire still had both him and Esdeath. Numbers meant little when faced with two such powerful individuals. Their plan was to execute a decapitation strike against the revolutionary army, which would be powerless to resist.

But now, with Esdeath's betrayal, the empire was suddenly in a precarious position.

"General Bude, the Northern Army has launched a surprise attack on the capital. The southern gate has already fallen!" A bloodied soldier suddenly rushed up, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing Bude before shouting the report.

"How dare you, Esdeath!" Bude's face twisted with fury. Until that moment, though he had suspected Esdeath might be plotting rebellion, he hadn't fully believed it. He knew her character well, and if she had wanted to rebel, she could have done so long ago with the Northern Army.

But now, with this soldier's report, Bude had no choice but to accept the truth. He recognized the soldier as one of his own.

"Esdeath is really rebelling!" The officials standing on the palace walls, including Prime Minister Onest, were struck with fear when they heard of Esdeath's betrayal and the Northern Army's attack on the capital. If it were only Esdeath rebelling, they could rely on General Bude. But with the Northern Army involved, the situation was drastically different.

Over the past few years, nearly all the empire's victories had been due to Esdeath and her Northern Army, whether against the northern tribes or the western invaders.

"Damn it, how could this happen? I should have killed that idiot earlier!" Prime Minister Onest cursed inwardly as he glanced at Shira, now a helpless cripple lying on the palace courtyard. Shira's lust had always driven him to pursue Esdeath. In fact, Onest himself had similar desires but was far smarter than Shira, knowing not to provoke Esdeath.

"Esdeath, Bude, both of you can die here." Standing on the palace walls, Prime Minister Onest quickly took stock of the distant smoke and flames, then quietly slipped away.

Onest hadn't risen to his position by trusting his life to Esdeath. He had his own means of countering her. One of his trump cards was the imperial weapon Ireston, which could neutralize other imperial weapons, whether they controlled ice or lightning.

In addition to this imperial weapon, Onest's final card was the supreme imperial weapon, which only the royal family could activate. He hadn't kept the young emperor around because he couldn't eliminate him, but because he needed the emperor's bloodline to activate the supreme weapon.

The supreme imperial weapon was Onest's ultimate fallback. Under its power, no ice or lightning imperial weapon would stand a chance. However, Onest's overconfidence would lead to his downfall, as he failed to anticipate the transformation of Tatsumi into a dragon, which would stop him from using the weapon.

Boom.

As soon as Prime Minister Onest left the palace walls, the battle between General Bude and Esdeath began. Lightning and ice collided, instantly demolishing the ground around them for dozens of meters.

Poor Shira, being too close to the fight, was caught in the shockwave. Already reduced to a cripple, he now suffered the full brunt of the ice and lightning. Without even managing a scream, he lost his life.

But neither Esdeath nor General Bude paid any attention to him. Their eyes were locked solely on each other. At this moment, General Bude's armor crackled with white lightning.

With his lightning imperial weapon, General Bude was a nightmare for close-combat opponents. He could envelop his body in a suit of lightning, forming an armor that made attacking him akin to striking lightning itself.

In terms of raw destructive power, lightning far outclassed ice.

In the original story, had it not been for Mine's self-sacrificial move that drained her mental strength to kill Bude, his threat would have exceeded even Esdeath's.

Faced with General Bude's lightning armor, Esdeath summoned her own suit of ice armor. This was an ability she hadn't used before, but after exchanging techniques with Daniel, she had quickly developed it.

The ice imperial weapon's limitless ice-creation potential offered endless possibilities. It was similar to a Devil Fruit in that its abilities needed to be developed. If the ice imperial weapon could allow its user to transform into elemental ice, there would be no need for something like ice armor.

"White Ice Spikes." With a wave of Esdeath's right hand, countless ice spikes materialized in front of her and shot toward General Bude.

But Bude didn't bother to block or dodge. Relying on his lightning armor, he charged straight through the hail of ice spikes, heading directly for Esdeath.

The image of General Bude clad in lightning was a sight of sheer brutality.

"Ice Wall." Seeing Bude charge at her, Esdeath quickly summoned a thick ice wall in front of her and dodged to the side. As expected, Bude smashed straight through the ice wall.

With her current strength, Esdeath could end the battle instantly by using Mahapadma. However, that was her trump card, and she wouldn't use it lightly unless her life was in danger. Every time she had used Mahapadma in the past, it was because she faced a life-threatening situation.

Boom boom boom.

Realizing that her imperial weapon's abilities wouldn't work against Bude, Esdeath abandoned long-range attacks and drew the Western-style sword at her waist, engaging Bude in close combat.

Before mastering the Breath of Water technique, this move would have been reckless for Esdeath, as it played to Bude's strengths. But now, with the ice armor and her newfound skill, she could fight him head-on.

"Esdeath." Locked in a stalemate with Esdeath, General Bude grew increasingly furious. Unlike Esdeath, who could focus solely on the fight, Bude had to worry about the empire's situation. The sudden appearance of the Northern Army made him acutely aware of the capital's peril.

Though he had no doubts about how the Northern Army had reached the capital so quickly—Esdeath had likely used Shira's Shangri-La imperial weapon to teleport them—he still found himself at a disadvantage.

Boom.

Filled with anger, General Bude could no longer waste time. He unleashed the ultimate ability of his lightning imperial weapon: Thunder God. With a thunderous roar, an immense surge of lightning appeared above his head, striking down onto him. Far from harming him, the lightning was absorbed into his body, causing his armor to glow even brighter. A ten-meter-tall lightning giant now stood before Esdeath.

This was the ultimate ability of the Wrath of the Thunder God. Each movement of the giant could release devastating lightning strikes. Such a figure, appearing in the middle of an army, wouldn't even need to attack. The lightning surrounding it would be enough to obliterate a force.

"So this is your true power, General Bude?" Esdeath smiled with excitement as she leaped backward. With a snap of her fingers, a ten-meter-wide ice ball appeared in the sky, hurtling toward the lightning giant.

Boom.

The massive ice ball was shattered by a single punch from the lightning giant, sending ice fragments scattering in all directions. Some of the shards landed within the palace, crushing several unlucky ministers and guards.

Fortunately, the palace was far from the city streets, so the debris only damaged the palace

 grounds and surrounding structures without harming civilians.

"Let's try again," Esdeath said, snapping her fingers once more. Another massive ice ball formed in the sky. At the same time, she pressed her hands against the ground, summoning a gigantic ice spike that shot toward the lightning giant.

Immediately afterward, two more giant ice spikes burst from the ground on either side.

Boom.

Faced with the three enormous ice spikes and the ice ball above, the lightning giant unleashed a blinding flash of lightning. The ice spikes and ice ball were obliterated, leaving no trace of the debris, all of it vaporized by the lightning.

Seeing her attacks neutralized again, Esdeath's expression showed no sign of disappointment. After taking a few deep breaths, her excitement only grew.

Even for someone as powerful as Esdeath, such sustained attacks took a toll on her stamina. But the same was true for General Bude. As Esdeath caught her breath, so did he.

"Esdeath!" General Bude roared, summoning a three-meter-long lightning spear in his right hand. In a flash, he hurled it at Esdeath.

"Mahapadma!" Sensing extreme danger, Esdeath immediately used her trump card, the once-per-day time-freezing ability. Lightning was the fastest element, and without the ability to sense it, even Esdeath couldn't avoid General Bude's attack.

As Mahapadma activated, everything around her turned into a white void. The lightning spear was now only half a meter away from her chest, and without her quick response, it would have pierced through her.

"That was close. Goodbye, General Bude. Grey Ice Horn." With the spear mere inches away, Esdeath summoned a massive ice spike. In the frozen moment, the giant ice spike pierced through the lightning giant's body and impaled General Bude inside. The sheer force of the attack flung Bude's body out of the lightning giant.

Boom.

As time resumed, the lightning spear struck the ground with a deafening crash. General Bude's body, meanwhile, was pinned to the palace walls by the massive ice spike.

"General Bude!" The sight of Bude's death sent shockwaves through the ministers on the palace walls. Panic filled their faces, and many trembled with fear at the thought of Esdeath's reputation. Some even wet themselves.

"Revenge for the general!" Unlike the terrified ministers, several Imperial Guards leaped down from the walls and charged at Esdeath.

The palace walls were not designed to repel invaders but to keep outsiders from spying on the palace grounds. Thus, they were not particularly high. After all, if an enemy reached the capital, the height of the palace walls wouldn't matter.

Though the empire had modern firearms and missiles, the guards protecting the palace still primarily used cold weapons.

"You're asking for death."

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