In the capital city, protests were happening everywhere. Even outside the royal palace, there were groups of people. Some supported the king, while others supported Lortell or Maruti. It was hard to tell who was on whose side.
Esdeath's parents had arrived, but they were imprisoned in a nearby prison. Maruti, meanwhile, was still under house arrest. Inside the court area, on the audience's side, many powerful people from different kingdoms were sitting. This included Princess Ravenna and the two princes. They looked very alike yet different, All three had pink hair but facial features of Ravenna and her two brothers were completely different. Not only them but also Lortell's other three mothers, her elder sister, and her youngest brother were present.
Meanwhile, Lortell was quietly standing in the defendant's box with a bored expression. Cassandra, who was supposed to be exposing Lortell's crimes, had yet to arrive. Most of the evidence was with her, making the situation quite awkward.
But of course, Cassandra was prepared for this just in case she would be late. A half-bald middle-aged man stood up with some papers. "Since we are waiting, take a look at some of the corruptions and misjudgments she was doing as a third squadron leader, and this is just the beginning," he said while rubbing his palms together. He was just meant to stall for time as much as he could.
But before he could say or show anything, Lortell interrupted. "Where is Esdeath?" she asked, her voice sharp and demanding.
"You do have the right to ask—" the half-bald man was saying, but his words were cut off again.
"Where—Is—Esdeath?" Lortell asked again, her face intimidating and her eyes piercing.
She wasn't asking him but everyone present, especially the king.
"She is safe for now, and soon she will be here. You should focus on yourself more!" King Augustus said with the confidence of a king.
Although he feared Lortell very much—so much that he didn't even attend Lortell's father, Arthur's, funeral because he was too afraid that Lortell would kill him there—now, sitting between leaders of other kingdoms, he felt quite secure.
"I'm not hearing or saying anything unless I see Esdeath," Lortell said, looking directly into the king's eyes, her gaze unyielding and intense.
---
At the same time, Esdeath was fighting alone against Ethan, Violet, Cassandra, Sylvania, and Caesar. From time to time, they would take turns attacking. Violet would attack her with her gravity skills, which were said to be the most annoying since Esdeath had no method to defend against gravity and could only endure and run out of the range of the affected area.
Backing Violet was Sylvania with her water and ice magic, freezing legs or arms at times, causing Esdeath to take several hits.
After that was Cassandra, whose battle strength was high, but she excelled in the dream path, attacking the mind. However, against Esdeath, who for some reason had a very tough mind and powerful soul, her attacks were not effective at all.
Even her strongest killer move, which might have given her a chance to win against Ethan—Eternal Slumber—did worse than a Rank D killer move. It wasn't Cassandra's fault; it's just that Esdeath was naturally resistant to such moves.
Cassandra did manage to make Esdeath fall asleep from time to time, but Esdeath would just wake up the next second. Not to forget, her attacks could harm her companions, so she didn't interfere much.
The most important factors were Ethan and Caesar, who were constantly fighting against Esdeath, even saving others from Esdeath's ZK-20. The weapon was just too formidable; it could be said to be a legendary weapon.
Who knows how Esdeath got her hands on it?
Emma was not in the fight; she was at the very back, kneeling on the ground with a dazed expression. The death of Belta had caused a great shock to her. She was already in an inferiority complex, feeling that she wasn't as strong as others, and now it made her feel despair. Esdeath didn't even give her a glance, it was good that she wasn't fighting.
As for Krona, she was leading the army into fighting the robots.
"Combined Killer Move—Gravity Hurricane!" Sylvania and Violet shouted at the same time. A huge water hurricane enveloped Esdeath, with immense gravity pressure that not only made Esdeath feel light as paper but also crushed her as if she were in a mixer.
She was immediately teleported to her previous position from five seconds ago, getting her out of the hurricane.
"Sword of Death!" Ethan roared, his sword moving like a snake, directly going for Esdeath's head again and again.
"Lucia, Maya," Caesar also shouted, taking out two more ghosts. All three were engaged in a tense battle, exchanging move after move. She showed excellent battle strength despite being in a fight for so long.
"If only you had used your powers for good, your name would have gone down in history!" Caesar said in the middle of the fight.
They were very close, and Esdeath wanted to use her newly obtained time-cutting edge, but the problem was that it was only one essence stone. To form the actual killer move, she needed supplementary essence stones as well, or else it wouldn't be as powerful as Elara's time-cutting edge.
She also wanted to use her killer move—Oblivion Nova—again, but she no longer had much mana. She had healed herself dozens of times already, fought against eight Rank A and B+ level awakeneds, and even succeeded in killing two. There was a limit on her mana, and her mind was already going dizzy from the overuse of mana. If it were Esdeath from before, she would have died three times already.
As for the others, they were taking chances in attacking and defending Esdeath. They still had enough mana in reserve and could continue fighting without worrying about mana. The only thing they were short on was time.
"This is the advantage of numbers that I can't have, even with my A grade ESR talent!" Esdeath sighed to herself and thought of Maruti. "She might have been of some help if she was here!"
----
Meanwhile, near the royal palace, Maruti was under house arrest. Although the house had everything, it didn't have freedom. Maruti was getting so bored that she even slammed her head against the wall and scratched it with her nails. It didn't matter if she liked something or not; as long as she was occupied, that was sufficient.
Even in her dreams, she would fight aliens or zombies to keep herself engaged. But doing nothing was her great problem. She couldn't maintain her cheerful personality like this.
Not to forget, she had a heart of freedom (Freedom essence stone), and with her freedom binding, her heart was filled with anxiety. Thus, right now, she was laying on the ground, trying to fall asleep. This was the best way to pass time.
"Achoo!" she sneezed loudly and sat up. "Is someone thinking about me?" she said to herself, remembering it could be either Esdeath, Kailith, Alice, Ravenna, or Brenna.
"What should I do?" she thought for a few seconds and then suddenly had a great idea.
"Yes, I should just sleep!" she immediately lay down, pulled the bedsheet over her body, and fell asleep.
---
Esdeath's body had multiple internal injuries and was bleeding. Exhaustion was taking over, and it was hard for her to keep her eyes open as she panted heavily. The army of six thousand soldiers was mostly gone, but they managed to defeat the robot army, which meant Krona was also free to join the battle. There was no room for escape either; it was truly a grim situation for Esdeath.
But at that moment, she also received a notification from the system:
<40,000 SP received>
Gulp!
Esdeath gulped. The sudden reward of so much SP looked very tempting, and not to forget, she could remove her restrictions of going along with the plot line with 1,00,000 SP points.
But Esdeath decided not to do that. She took a deep breath and let go of her ZK-20. Then, the ZK-20 twisted and turned into a small sword with wings and flew away rapidly at great speed, going somewhere far away.
"The weapon, it's flying away. Should we chase it?" Violet said, walking forward, but Ethan and Sylvania stopped her. "No, this can be one of her tricks. Not to forget, our first priority is Esdeath!" Sylvania said in a serious voice.
"She let go of her weapon. It seems even she knows this is the end for her!" Krona's voice came from up in the air as she directly slammed her hammer towards Esdeath.
But Esdeath quickly dodged and took dozens of steps back. "It was a pleasure working with you back there!" she said with a smile, talking about a few weeks ago when she, Lortell, and many others made a team and marched into M.A.L.I.C.E.'s territory.
"Now begone!" Her tone changed as she swung her hammer, causing a shockwave.
The shockwave made Esdeath fly twenty meters away, but she successfully landed on her feet.
"Once I'm out of here, I'll make sure to kill all of your new-gen specimens, enslave your dwarf king, and make him lick my feet!" Esdeath said in a mocking tone to rage-bait Krona into blindly attacking her.
"You!" Krona's facial features twisted in anger as she ran towards Esdeath.
Esdeath immediately smiled, and the next moment, Krona felt like everything was moving very slowly, even her thoughts.
At that moment, Esdeath put her palm on her lower lip and blew air softly. The next moment, cute transparent butterflies flew towards Krona. Krona's eyes immediately widened as she retreated while also activating a defense move.
Multiple explosions happened, but there was no sound. Krona was sent flying away with many injuries, but thankfully, she managed to survive.
"It was a good thing that I knew of this move beforehand, or else I would've been dead by now!" Krona gritted her teeth. She had seen Esdeath using this move in the expedition when she obliterated multiple robots in one go.
Before Esdeath could even catch her breath and assess the situation, she saw Ethan and Caesar standing high in the air.
They both were holding Ethan's sword. "Natalia… Callie… Clara… Serenity, Aria… Harmony… Arianna!" Caesar summoned his rest of the ghosts, and one by one, they merged into the sword.
A great aura burst forth, and the size of the sword immediately tripled. It even had royal patterns like a rare sword. And the next moment, a huge golden aura burst forth, so big and majestic that it pierced the sky. Ethan was putting most of his strength into it.
"Azurelion Sword Style Fifth Form!" he shouted as the aura grew even bigger and denser. Esdeath could only stand and look at the sword slowly descending towards her.
"EXCALIBUR!"
Aoto and Caesar shouted at the same time. The sword slapped downwards, going for Esdeath.
Esdeath had her defensive methods, but she didn't have enough mana. Even if she could use them, they weren't powerful enough to block something like this. She couldn't do anything but stay still and see her own downfall.
SMASH!...
The ground split into two as it reached the ground, causing trembles.
Esdeath's left hand was immediately beheaded, and some part of her side's outer skin peeled off. She fell to the ground, unable to move at all.
The blood loss itself meant that, in just a few more minutes, Esdeath would die of blood loss even if no one else killed her.
Her death was certain at this point.