Akame, Kurome, Cornelia, and the others are curious to know what Eiji's answer will be. Will he accept Esdeath's challenge?
"I originally wanted to leave this place right away with my group. But since a woman as beautiful as you wants to taste my power... Sure, we can get to know each other through this battle."
Eiji casually agreed to fight.
Still, his words were full of flirtation toward the woman in front of him. Chelsea and Taeko's lips twitched.
The more they got to know Eiji, the more they felt he was a playboy. However, Chelsea was the only one among them who knew that Eiji actually had a huge harem full of beautiful women!
Esdeath's appearance was undeniably stunning; men like him were clearly tempted by her and lusted after her.
Esdeath seemed satisfied with what she heard, but she narrowed her eyes slightly before saying, "If it were any other man—anyone who tried to seduce me—I'd kill them on the spot. But you... Let's see if you can satisfy me with your power, Eiji."
A few seconds later.
The two changed positions. Esdeath used her ice to teleport herself to the other side of the desert.
Eiji simply took a few steps to the side. He ordered Akame and the others to move back and watch from a distance. They did as he said.
"Will Eiji be okay? That woman... She's incredibly strong and capable of freezing people to death." Poney asked everyone who was watching.
She was worried about Eiji.
"Eiji is also very strong... He should be fine. Especially if he uses the sword technique he showed earlier." The one who answered was Akame.
She still clearly remembered the Sun Breathing Technique that Eiji had used. That slash, enveloped in flames like the sun, which scorched his opponent, was incredibly powerful.
With that technique, Eiji should be able to defeat Esdeath's ice. Or more precisely, ice is weak against fire!
Akame's logic was simple.
Kurome, Gin, and Natala, who had witnessed Eiji's fire breathing technique, thought the same.
However, Eiji hadn't even drawn his sword yet!
"???" Akame and a few others.
Eiji had no intention of using his sword in this fight. That's why he was just standing there empty-handed.
From a distance of several dozen meters, Esdeath hadn't drawn the rapier at her waist either. She had even killed hundreds of tomb guards earlier with her bare hands.
"Don't make me get bored too quickly, Eiji."
That's what Esdeath said before she darted forward. Her speed created a shockwave that froze the ground beneath her feet in the process. With a single swing of her hand, several ice spikes materialized out of thin air and shot toward Eiji.
Not only that, but beneath the man's feet, dozens of sharp ice spikes suddenly shot up simultaneously to pin him in place.
Eiji didn't flinch under the anxious gazes of Akame and the others. However, his eyes, which had originally been blue, had now turned a deep red with a circular rippling pattern filled with nine tomoe—the Rinne Sharingan.
As an Ōtsutsuki Ancestor, he was able to open his third eye, a golden Rinne Sharingan. Even so, since his opponent was only Esdeath, a pair of Rinne Sharingan was more than enough.
'What kind of eyes are those? Is that a Teigu?'
Esdeath, who was almost upon Eiji, noticed the change in his eyes; she felt a chill as he stared at her.
It was only for a moment before she completely ignored that feeling. The stronger her opponent, the better!
She was fired up and didn't hesitate to attack Eiji as if she wanted to kill him.
*Wussh. Wussh. Wussh.*
Eiji moves very casually, stepping left and right. Each of Esdeath's ice spikes missed his clothes by just a few millimeters. The ice spikes protruding from the ground were shattered to pieces, unable to withstand the physical strength of their target.
Eiji also dodged the slashes from Esdeath's rapier as they tried to pass him. Seeing her attacks evaded by the narrowest of margins, Esdeath lunged forward and unleashed a direct attack with her rapier.
A barrage of lightning-fast thrusts rained down on her target.
*Wussh. Wussh. Wussh.*
However, Eiji continued to dodge all those attacks with ease. Even when Esdeath created spikes that shot up from the ground and attacked Eiji's blind spots, not a single one of those attacks hit him.
'Interesting! Those eyes must be enhancing his vision and allowing him to see in all directions.'
That's what Esdeath thought.
She didn't realize that even though Eiji was using his Rinne Sharingan, he hadn't used its abilities at all yet. He evaded every one of Esdeath's attacks using only his instincts.
At that moment, the Rinne Sharingan was merely for show.
"Can you avoid all that? How about this!?" Esdeath shouted with a smirk on her beautiful face.
She was truly a battle maniac.
With a stomp of her foot, she caused numerous ice spikes to sprout from the ground, trapping Eiji. She trapped him while simultaneously stabbing him from various directions.
"No! Why isn't Eiji avoiding them?" Just like everyone else, Cornelia panicked.
"Cornelia, calm down. Look behind that woman!" Akame shouted, her gaze fixed on the figure behind Esdeath.
Esdeath couldn't hear Akame's words from where she stood, but she felt a piercing chill run down her spine.
She turned around, slightly panicked.
"Yo, your attack is too slow. I've been standing here for a few seconds now."
Eiji was standing there. Even though Esdeath's ice spikes wouldn't be able to hurt him, he chose to avoid them all just to show off. He tore through space to appear behind the woman and took in the curvaceous buttocks peeking out from under her military skirt.
"You—!"
Esdeath was frustrated that Eiji had avoided all her attacks, but before she could finish her sentence.
Eiji delivered a casual horizontal kick straight at the woman's stomach.
*BLAAAMRRR!!!*
Esdeath couldn't react—Eiji's casual movement was too fast for her to see! With pain in her stomach, Esdeath's body shot backward like a bullet, seemingly flying through the sky. She was flung until her body finally slammed into one of the pyramids there.
The top of the pyramid partially collapsed, burying Esdeath's body in the rubble.
Chelsea: "That kick must have really hurt."
Poney: "That woman definitely won't be able to stand up again!"
Both of them were optimistic about Eiji.
Kurome, Gin, and the others were also impressed by Eiji's physical strength. With a single kick, he sent Esdeath crashing into the top of the pyramid.
"Ugh!"
However, from behind the rubble, Esdeath slowly got back to her feet. She coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. Her hand clutched her stomach, which was in excruciating pain, but a smile played on her face. Instead of showing fear or pain on her face, Esdeath looked down at Eiji, who was staring up at her from the ground, and let out a maniacal laugh.
"Hahahaha! Amazing, Eiji!" Esdeath wiped the remaining blood from her lips with the back of her hand, her eyes sparkling with a joy she hadn't felt in a long time. "This pain… how many years has it been since I last felt it?! You're truly strong!"
Akame and the others fell silent.
Is that woman named Esdeath crazy?
She's so happy just because she's in pain?
Is she a masochist?
Eiji chuckled and said, "You're enjoying this? Good for you. But for me, this fight is boring. You're so weak, Esdeath."
With that kick just now, he even held back from crushing Esdeath's stomach.
"What did you say!? I'm weak!?"
Esdeath stopped laughing; her lips twitched. Veins bulged on her forehead as she glared sharply at Eiji.
The cold air around her suddenly dropped drastically to an extreme point capable of instantly freezing the blood of an ordinary human. The collapsed pyramid's peak, and the entire structure itself, began to freeze.
Esdeath's military uniform also began to be coated with a thin layer of ice that radiated a blue aura.
"I haven't even gotten serious yet."
"Really? I hope so."
Eiji provoked the woman with his condescending words. Esdeath was slightly angry, and the chill she radiated grew even stronger.
"You should feel honored that you've forced me to play my ace, Eiji… Rise, my Ice Cavalry!"
She raised her rapier toward the sky, and instantly, the entire area—with the pyramid where she stood at its center—froze at an incredible speed.
The entire city—or rather, the tomb of the Empire's first Emperor—which had originally been a golden yellow, now appeared to have turned a bluish, icy hue.
Akame and the others felt a chill. The ground beneath their feet had also been covered in ice!
"T-This woman… Did she freeze the entire city? No, the entire desert seems to have frozen!"
Tsukushi stared at the surrounding scene in horror.
Eiji wasn't surprised. In the original work, Esdeath was even capable of freezing an entire continent. Right now, she clearly hadn't reached that level yet.
However, for Akame and the others, that woman's power was already on a far higher level than theirs.
In the Empire, Esdeath's power was also considered the strongest. Not only that, but right now—
*!!!*
Millions of soldiers made of ice rose from the ice-covered ground; they looked alive and surrounded Eiji, wielding various weapons such as swords and spears.
"Can she create her own army, too?"
"C-Cheater! That woman is cheating!"
"How can Eiji defeat them all? Should we help?"
Gin, Poney, and Kurome cursed Esdeath. They felt Eiji was at a disadvantage.
But soon, they realized they were wrong. None of them knew just how strong he really was.
"Eiji, this is my full power as the Empire's strongest force. Now, what are you going to do? You're not planning to dodge every single attack from my troops and me, are you? Show me your true power!"
Esdeath grinned. From where he was, her voice was still clearly audible.
Eiji sighed. Golden chakra began to surge from his body, making him glow. "Unfortunately, you're not worthy enough to make me show my full power, Esdeath. To defeat you and your entire army, I'll only need to use a fraction of my power."
As soon as those words fell.
A scene even more breathtaking than Esdeath freezing the entire desert and summoning her millions of ice soldiers unfolded before their eyes.
*BOOOOOOMMMM!!!*
The golden chakra enveloping Eiji erupted, soaring high into the sky and instantly splitting the clouds. The energy began to condense, forming a structure of bones, muscles, and a magnificent samurai battle armor. In just a matter of seconds, that energy structure fully materialized into the form of a giant god of war—Susanoo—of an unimaginable height: 1,000 meters (1 kilometer).
The size of this god-like figure was on par with the Ten-Tails (Juubi). Of course, his power surpassed that of even the strongest monsters in the Naruto world.
Eiji's Susanoo was so massive that it towered over several nearby pyramids, making the pyramid Esdeath was standing on look like a tiny toy beneath its feet.
"W-What… What... What the hell!?" Chelsea plopped her butt down onto the layer of ice Esdeath had created.
Her body couldn't stop trembling from a mix of awe and horror. Her eyes widened as she stared at Eiji's Susanoo. Akame, Kurome, and the other women gaped in shock; they had just realized that their leader wasn't a human or a monster—he might be a...
"Am I looking at a god?" Natala asked dazedly.
"I-I doubt there's a Teigu capable of such immense power. If not, the First Emperor would have conquered the world long ago!"
What Tsukushi said made sense.
Eiji's power clearly didn't come from a Teigu.
It was his own power.
[Kuroka: Nyahaha! Eiji's using that ability again just to show off, nyaa.]
[Le Fay: It's no exaggeration to call Eiji a god.]
[Mai: Besides, he really is a god.]
[Arin: My husband is incredibly cool.]
[Anastasia: Just as expected of Eiji. Even though he said he was only using a fraction of his power, the people in that world clearly don't think so.]
[Ningguang: Power like that... I doubt the Stone God, Morax, or any of the other gods in Teyvat could match it.]
[Erina: Never mind that. Doesn't Esdeath's appearance look familiar to one of us?]
[Alice: Erina, are you talking about Sarge?]
[Sarge: Eh, I… my style of dress and that woman's are actually kind of similar.]
It's not just a little similar—but, it's almost identical!
Many heroines think Esdeath and Sarge are like numbers 11 and 12.
While everyone kept staring at Eiji's Susanoo as if they were etching the scene into their brains, Chelsea glanced at the messages in the group chat.
She suddenly blushed and rubbed her butt.
'My boss... and my man is a god!? That means...'
The man who had fucked her asshole was a god. For some reason, Chelsea felt proud and aroused when she recalled the incident.
Something was wrong with her head.
On the other side.
"This power... Is this really a power that humans can use?"
Esdeath, standing at the top of the pyramid, looked up; her beautiful face appeared frozen as the colossal shadow of Susanoo engulfed the entire sky above her. Her arrogance crumbled instantly; her body trembled as her survival instinct screamed that she was utterly weak compared to the figure before her.
There was no way she could win!
Esdeath didn't want to admit it, but she was now afraid.
Eiji, now floating inside the gem on Susanoo's forehead, moved his right hand. At the same moment, the golden giant drew a massive energy sword from his waist. However, he wasn't just using Susanoo's power. He combined it with the authority of Verethragna that he had stolen from the protagonist, Godou.
The Warrior Authority.
"——?!"
As the 1,000-meter-tall Susanoo moved, everyone—including Esdeath—grew even more terrified.
The tension in their hearts reached its peak.
"This is my victory, Esdeath. By the way, don't die, okay?"
[If you die, I'll bring you back to life, of course. After all, you're one of the women I want to save from the events in the original work.]
Esdeath: ?
She could hear Eiji's inner voice, but she didn't understand what he was saying.
Of course, how could she have thought of that when—
That golden Susanoo swung its gigantic sword down vertically, aiming for the ice pyramid where Esdeath was standing. Along with the swing of its sword, the Warrior Authority was instantly triggered across the entire desert plain—no, I mean the ice plain.
*SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!*
Beneath the feet of Esdeath's millions of ice soldiers, the frozen ground suddenly cracked. Countless golden swords sprouted from the ground like trees. Each golden sword radiated divine power that instantly shattered Esdeath's ice structures, piercing, tearing apart, and obliterating the millions of ice soldiers, reducing them to ordinary ice shards in the blink of an eye.
*BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!*
Susanoo's sword strike slammed into the pyramid. A golden energy explosion split the structure in two, creating a shockwave that flattened the entire ice desert within a radius of tens of kilometers.
Esdeath, despite having deployed all of her strongest ice shields, was violently hurled away by the residual energy ripples from the slash. Her body slid along with the debris, her rapier shattered into pieces, and her military uniform was torn to shreds. She fell from a great height, tumbling across the ice desert she herself had created.
She lay weak on the ground, vomiting copious amounts of fresh blood, her body covered in bruises and trembling violently.
The Emperor, the former Prime Minister—ahem, 'Prime Minister'—and the other people of the Empire would surely be shocked if they saw that scene.
Not only because of Eiji's god-like power, but because Esdeath, the Empire's strongest general, looked pitiful.
She was on the verge of death simply from a gust of wind and the residual energy from the previous attack.
*Wussh*
The one-kilometer-tall Susanoo slowly shrank. Eiji floated down from the sky, landing just a few steps in front of Esdeath's body, which lay weakly on the ground.
Since her military uniform was torn, he could see her white back and plump buttocks.
Eiji pretended to cough before saying, "Esdeath, are you still alive?"
"I-I…"
"You're still alive—that's good."
"...." Esdeath wanted to say that she was dying, but she looked up and tried to see Eiji's face.
At that moment, she could see that he looked completely at ease. Even after using such immense power, he didn't seem exhausted at all.
"Hahaha... This is my defeat." Esdeath let out a small laugh; her voice sounded weak. "So, what are you going to do to me now, Eiji? If you want, you can kill me. I don't mind."
"Kill you?"
Eiji shook his head; he walked closer and naturally lifted the woman's voluptuous body.
Esdeath groaned in pain from her wounds at that moment, but she was surprised and wondered what Eiji intended to do to her?
"Instead of killing you, why don't you submit to me and become one of my women? Wait, I'm not negotiating with you. I won, so... You're mine now."
"!!!"
Not only Esdeath, but Akame and the others who had rushed to their positions were stunned.
Isn't Eiji being way too shameless?
After defeating the Empire's strongest general, he wants her to be one of his women!?
However, they were also surprised by the reaction of the woman in question. Esdeath blushed; she no longer looked as arrogant as before. She gazed at Eiji's wicked smile—correction, she gazed at his gentle smile and his incredibly handsome face, with dazed.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
Her heart was pounding.
A strange yet pleasant feeling washed over her, making her body grow warm.
Esdeath ignored the pain in her body and wondered if this was what they called love?