Chapter 35: Mahapadma
"What did you do to me?"
Esdeath's eyes widened as she glared at Yumesaki. She had never encountered a situation where her own body completely betrayed her will.
Or to put it another way, she couldn't control her own movements. With a dull thud, she fell back to her knees right in front of Yumesaki.
This brought Esdeath an unprecedented level of humiliation, right alongside her utter shock.
"Demon's Extract is indeed a pretty good Imperial Arms."
"But unfortunately, the weakness of something called an Imperial Arms is just too obvious—it's nothing more than an external object."
"It doesn't even compare to my Puppet Magic."
"How does it feel?"
Puppet Magic originated from the Lost Magic known as Human Subordination.
This was supposed to belong to Zoldeo of Grimoire Heart.
This magic could weaken a human's strength and magic power, and it could summon humans to become the user's puppets in a manner similar to summoning Celestial Spirits, earning it the title of the magic of rulers.
However, this magic had a critical flaw—it could not be used on non-human living creatures.
If it were used on a non-human, the user would fuse with the target.
As a side note, Yumesaki didn't copy this magic from Zoldeo's body.
When he left Fairy Tail, he had never dealt with Grimoire Heart at all.
This magic was copied by Yumesaki from the body of the Magic King, August.
Then, after modifying it several times, that magic became the Puppet Magic he used now.
As long as they were touched by Yumesaki's Magic Power, the target would become Yumesaki's puppet.
Just a moment ago when Esdeath wanted to attack Yumesaki, Yumesaki had already channeled his Magic Power through the surface of the ground beneath her feet.
If Esdeath were a Mage, she would have easily discovered Yumesaki's Magic Power.
But unfortunately, Esdeath wasn't a Mage. In this world, magic didn't exist, and more importantly, there was no such thing as Magic Power.
Because of that, Esdeath didn't notice Yumesaki's Magic Power at all, making it incredibly easy for Yumesaki to control her.
"I lose."
Esdeath repeatedly tried to break free from this control, only to find that no matter how hard she tried and how fiercely her mind raced, her body didn't give even the slightest response.
It was as if her body no longer belonged to her.
At this moment, Esdeath realized the situation was hopeless and admitted defeat decisively.
She wasn't the type of person who couldn't accept a loss.
Since she lost, she naturally had to admit it.
Yumesaki snapped his fingers, canceling the Puppet Magic, and Esdeath instantly regained control over her body.
"You..."
Seeing the shocked expression on the other person's face, Yumesaki said calmly, "I never intended to do anything to you in the first place. If you hadn't insisted on fighting me, I would have been too lazy to even care about you."
"I only came here today just to see you."
"Since the meeting is done, you guys can discuss the remaining matters among yourselves."
After speaking, Yumesaki used Teleportation Magic and instantly vanished from the great hall.
After Yumesaki left, the civil and military officials who had been completely expressionless, along with the little Emperor, instantly came back to life.
If they looked like a bunch of wooden pillars just a moment ago, they were living humans now.
This made Esdeath even more shocked.
Just who exactly was this mysterious person, who could play an entire empire in the palm of his hand, and even she herself was no match for him.
This was truly getting interesting.
After meeting Esdeath, Yumesaki never went back to the court building again.
Every day, if he wasn't eating, he was casually strolling through the Imperial Capital.
Occasionally, he would take a few of his maids, leave the Imperial Capital, and ride the black dragon outside to hunt Danger Beasts.
Of course, most of the time it was the maids doing the hunting, while he stood off to the side watching the fun.
After they finished hunting a Danger Beast, the group would immediately start eating right on the spot.
The days passed in a very relaxed and carefree manner.
On the other side.
Ever since Esdeath was toyed with by Yumesaki, she began sending people to investigate Yumesaki, and even started investigating the Imperial Arms.
She didn't believe in magic.
She felt that Yumesaki's ability to control her back then relied on an Imperial Arms.
Therefore, she conducted an investigation into all forty-eight units of the Imperial Arms, naturally including the ones that had been lost.
Unfortunately, due to the chaos from five hundred years ago, many Imperial Arms only had their names left, and no one even knew what their functions were.
Esdeath still failed to find which Imperial Arms Yumesaki was using.
But during that investigation process, Esdeath discovered that among the Imperial Arms, there was an anti-Imperial Arms.
This Imperial Arms could destroy other Imperial Arms.
More importantly, this Imperial Arms named Erastone seemed a bit familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
After Esdeath thought back for a moment, she finally realized—wasn't this the gemstone ornament worn by Prime Minister Honest on top of his head?
Esdeath never expected that this decorative item turned out to be an Imperial Arms.
Furthermore, it was an anti-Imperial Arms that could destroy other Imperial Arms.
No wonder that pig of a Prime Minister was never afraid of her.
It turned out he had the confidence to destroy her Imperial Arms.
Her Imperial Arms, Demon's Extract, was very special. It was a blood-type Imperial Arms and had fused with her own body. Once destroyed, she would definitely receive an unprecedented heavy blow.
What a truly cunning bastard.
But speaking of which, since the Prime Minister possessed this Imperial Arms, why was he still destroyed so easily by Yumesaki, and even had his position stolen by that man.
Could it be that the Prime Minister lost too quickly, so he didn't even have time to use the Imperial Arms?
That wasn't right.
Esdeath's eyes flickered. With the Prime Minister's treacherous and cunning personality, it was impossible that he never tried to use the Imperial Arms to destroy the opponent's Imperial Arms.
The actual situation was... the Prime Minister had used the Imperial Arms, but failed to destroy the opponent's Imperial Arms.
That didn't make sense either. Erastone was fundamentally an Imperial Arms used to destroy other Imperial Arms. Since it had been used, how could it lose its function.
An Imperial Arms never knew the term losing its function.
Just like her Demon's Extract, which had been stored for thousands of years, yet still maintained great activity and power.
Could it be that everything that man said was the truth?
What he used was magic, and not an Imperial Arms.
This would also explain why the Prime Minister, who clearly had an anti-Imperial Arms, could still lose.
But the problem was, does something like magic really exist in this world?
Since her childhood, she had never believed that such an absurd thing existed in this world. Making her believe that magic existed now was truly unacceptable.
She would rather believe that the opponent mastered a completely new Imperial Arms than believe that magic existed in this world.
Perhaps, she could try one more time.
Esdeath narrowed her eyes and thought so. The reason why she lost last time was because she wasn't clear about the enemy's ability.
What if she launched a pre-emptive strike this time?
Thinking of this, Esdeath instantly had a great idea.
In the afternoon, Yumesaki rode the black dragon, bringing his four maids along after finishing their hunt, and returned from the outside to the Prime Minister's residence.
The moment he entered the Prime Minister's residence, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Mahapadma!"
In an instant, an unprecedented chill instantly swept through the entire Prime Minister's residence.
The originally bustling Prime Minister's residence was frozen in a single instant.
To be precise, it wasn't the Prime Minister's residence that was frozen, but rather the time and space around the Prime Minister's residence that was frozen.
No ice could be seen in the air.
But even the movement of molecules, at this very moment, fell into a state of absolute standstill, just like a freeze in time.
Both the black dragon and the four maids turned into puppets in this single instant, standing rigidly in their original spots without being able to move.
Right at this moment, Esdeath appeared. She walked slowly in front of Yumesaki, and a proud smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"This time, I am the one who wins."
"You win? What did you win?" Yumesaki tilted his head while looking toward Esdeath, then asked.
Esdeath looked as if she had seen a ghost. When she snapped back to her senses, she had already pulled away from Yumesaki in a swift dash.
She subconsciously retreated over a dozen meters, and her pupils contracted violently.
"You actually weren't frozen?"
It must be known that Mahapadma was a move she specifically created for the sake of defeating Yumesaki, capable of freezing time and space.
Under this move, even time and space would be frozen solid.
Yet Yumesaki turned out to be completely unharmed. How could this possibly happen?
"Why should I be frozen?" Yumesaki asked Esdeath back. "After all, this is just a move that can freeze time and space. It's not like I can't do it myself, so why would you think I'd be frozen?"
Esdeath had to admit that she had underestimated Yumesaki. This man was far stronger than she had imagined.
Even the Mahapadma she developed herself was useless.
Since it had come to this, then she could only engage in a real fight.
Seeing the light of excitement inside Esdeath's pupils, Yumesaki sighed helplessly, then snapped his fingers.
Swoosh!
A beam of light instantly pierced through Esdeath's body, and a hole the size of a fist appeared on her body.
Esdeath: "???"
Her entire body instantly lost all of its strength, then fell onto the ground with a dull thud.
"You see, you can't even take a single move from me, yet you still want to fight me. Isn't that overestimating your own abilities a bit too much."
Yumesaki walked over there, then looked down at Esdeath lying on the ground.
Fresh blood instantly flowed out along the hole in her abdomen, staining the ground beneath her body crimson red.
After receiving such a heavy blow to her body, Esdeath couldn't even manage to maintain Mahapadma and was forced to cancel it.
The surrounding people instantly recovered to their original states.
Suzuka, Mez, Leone, Sheele, and the others looked toward Esdeath, and their pupils kept shifting.
There was shock, there was fear, and there was also pity.
This woman was undoubtedly a monster.
But unfortunately, her opponent was a monster among monsters, so her defeat didn't make her feel treated unfairly at all.
"Kill me."
Esdeath spat out a mouthful of blood, then said weakly.
According to common sense, a wound of this size would be a fatal blow to anyone else, but for Esdeath, it was absolutely nothing. She only needed a little strength to freeze the wound with ice.
She could even continue the fight.
But looking at Esdeath's appearance, it seemed she didn't plan on continuing the fight with Yumesaki anymore.
In other words, her confidence had been completely shattered.
The speed of that beam of light just now was too fast, so fast that she had absolutely no way to dodge it.
If the opponent hadn't aimed for her abdomen but instead aimed for her heart or head, she would already be dead.
Esdeath was very clear about this.
Therefore, her mental state collapsed completely.
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