Tatsumi lay sprawled in the ruins, his gaze somewhat vacant.
No matter how much one struggled, before absolute power, everything was ultimately futile.
Najenda brushed the dust off her body and struggled to her feet.
Naga's arrogance had buried the lives of ten thousand soldiers, turning them into sacrifices for Uesugi Ryu to display his power.
At this moment, Najenda did not even know how to describe what she felt.
Her comrades and companions had died horribly, yet she could not stop here.
"Tatsumi, get up."
"Boss..."
Tatsumi turned his head to look at Najenda. After hesitating for a moment, he forced himself back to his feet.
Najenda reached out and pulled Tatsumi up.
She raised her head and looked toward Uesugi Ryu in the distance, her expression complicated.
"Go gather everyone. What comes next will be the true moment that decides this country's fate."
Uesugi Ryu instantly appeared before the two of them.
"Someone will help you arrange the remaining soldiers afterward. Come to the palace the day after tomorrow."
Without caring about Najenda's reaction, Uesugi Ryu left after throwing out that sentence.
On the other side, all the Jaegers members except Kurome had gathered together.
Everyone reacted differently.
Stylish did not care at all how many people had died. He only cared about the benefits he gained.
"What a stylish scene. That kind of power is comparable to a god."
Stylish stroked the stubble on his chin, thinking expectantly,
"So then, what will you do next? Rule this country?"
"For me, this should count as a Perfect end."
Wave's expression was somewhat heavy.
Even knowing they were rebels, watching tens of thousands of lives disappear before his eyes was still deeply shocking to him.
Seryu's face was flushed red as she held her cheeks and leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
"Mr. Uesugi's heroic appearance while exterminating the rebels was just too cool. Subarashii!"
"All those damn rebels deserve to be wiped out!"
They definitely needed to spend time correcting Seryu's absolute and obsessive mindset afterward!
Lubbock and Wave exchanged glances and silently thought the same thing.
Seryu looked toward the now motionless Uesugi Ryu and suddenly realized something after a brief thought.
"Why did Mr. Uesugi stop moving?"
"He must be tired. Let's all go help him!"
Before she even finished speaking, Seryu hugged Koro and leapt onto the railing, preparing to charge into the battlefield.
BolS grabbed Seryu by the collar and lifted her back up.
Seryu looked at BolS with a puzzled expression.
"Mr. BolS, what's wrong?"
BolS set Seryu back down and explained,
"Seryu-chan, Mr. Uesugi said he has something even more important for you to do afterward."
Seryu immediately asked excitedly upon hearing that,
"What is it? Does Mr. BolS know?"
After a brief silence, BolS slowly spoke two words.
"Go to school."
"Huh?"
Seryu even wondered if she had heard wrong. She was already twenty years old, so why would she still go to school?
Wave pursed his lips, barely holding back his laughter.
"As expected of Mr. Uesugi. He already thought everything through."
"With how Seryu is, she really isn't any different from a child."
Lan had once been a teacher, and hearing this topic made him sigh emotionally.
"School... Education really is extremely important."
Seryu wore a pained expression and let out a sorrowful cry.
"Why though!"
At that moment, Uesugi Ryu reached out and ruffled Seryu's orange hair before saying calmly,
"This is my order, Seryu. Do you have any objections?"
The familiar voice rang out, and Seryu immediately turned around in delight.
"Mr. Uesugi!"
Seryu fiddled with her fingers and stammered,
"N-no... I don't have any objections anymore."
There was still a huge pile of matters waiting to be dealt with, so Uesugi Ryu simply distributed the tasks.
To make such a massive Empire function properly would require enormous amounts of manpower and resources.
The world of Akame ga Kill! did not only contain the Empire alone.
The unique abilities and various cultures of other countries were all treasures waiting to be explored.
That was also one of the reasons Uesugi Ryu had kept people like Night Raid around. Cultivating talent also required time.
It was best to preserve the existing talents whenever possible.
Using Shambhala, he teleported back to his own residence.
After waiting this long, he had suddenly completed a whole pile of tasks.
At least all the time and effort Uesugi Ryu had spent had not been wasted.
There was still one Skill Upgrade Card and one Imperial Arm Fusion Card left unused.
Among the C-rank skills in Uesugi Ryu's possession, there was only Blood Frenzy, so naturally using it on that skill would provide the greatest value.
[Upgrading C-rank skill Blood Frenzy......]
[Blood Frenzy (B-rank)]
[After activating Blood Frenzy, consumes 15 mana points per minute]
[Skill Effect 1: Enchantment]
Inflicts bleeding effects on enemy units and disrupts the flow of blood within the enemy's body.
Causes effects including but not limited to mental confusion, intense pain, execution, heart paralysis, paralysis, blood clots, and more.
After killing a target, refunds 35% of the mana cost consumed by the enchantment.
[Skill Effect 2: Edge]
Moderately increases weapon sharpness.
[Skill Effect 3: [Blood King] Consumes 65 mana points per minute]
Creates Blood Frenzy energy to cover the entire body, increasing all attributes, including true attributes, by 15%.
Greatly increases self-healing abilities. Can consume 15% of maximum mana to recover from severe injuries. Skill cooldown time: 5 minutes.
Immune to most control skills, both physical and mental.
A massive amount of memories flooded into Uesugi Ryu's mind as he silently absorbed the knowledge.
The originally azure mana within his body quietly gained a trace of crimson before gradually disappearing.
A trace of joy appeared on Uesugi Ryu's face.
"Control immunity. Just what I needed."
"This consumes far less than Black Dragon Scale."
Even if it could not completely negate Esdeath's Time Freeze, as long as it reduced the frozen duration even slightly, it would still be crucial in battle.
The effects of Blood King's skill were similar to Black Dragon Scale, both greatly enhancing physical abilities, but the consumption had been drastically reduced.
After all, the latter was only a skill obtained through brute-force devouring. Its upper limit had already been set.
No matter how much effort Uesugi Ryu invested afterward, he had only managed to develop Black Dragon Scale to the point of partial coverage in order to reduce consumption.