Chapter 295: Scraping
Will I lose?
Maybe...
Esdeath regulated her breathing, gradually pushing her body to its limit.
For the first time since fusing with the Teigu Demon Extract, she felt true fear—genuine, bone-deep trembling.
Her hair stood on end. Her blood surged violently through her veins.
Even as a child, when she first encountered danger, she had never once considered retreat.
Retreat?
Esdeath grinned.
How amusing.
Death meant little to her. But a thrill like this?
This... she had to taste.
"You want to do it here?"
Ryosuke didn't object to the challenge. His tone was casual. "There are too many people around. Let's change the venue—"
In Esdeath, he saw a version of himself.
Not the one who stole skills or jumped between worlds, but the person he once was—
A fighter. A predator. Someone who always took the first step forward.
It felt like a shard of memory from the past, a fragment of his true self.
That deep, buried desire for battle.
"No!"
The moment the word left her lips, Esdeath moved.
Her high heels cracked against the bridge as she launched herself forward.
With a deafening roar, the bridge beneath her crumbled.
Her figure blurred—pure physical speed driven only by the flow of her blood and Qi. No external energy.
In the blink of an eye, she was already in front of Ryosuke, slashing downward like a blade.
A gleaming ice blade appeared mid-swing, sharp and deadly.
"A bit too hasty," Ryosuke murmured.
He raised one hand—and with just two fingers, caught the descending blade.
"You really don't want to reconsider?" he asked, calm. "There are beings out there far stronger than me. It's a shame to throw your life away here."
Without using chakra or any form of energy, Ryosuke met her strength head-on.
His body had long surpassed human limits.
"Oh?"
Esdeath's expression remained neutral. "There are stronger beings out there? Then I've truly been a frog at the bottom of a well."
But even as she spoke, she didn't falter.
The moment her ice blade was caught, it melted into droplets between Ryosuke's fingers.
Then, mid-air—she formed another.
Her movements were seamless. Even though she had anticipated her first strike being blocked, she had already calculated several follow-ups.
But...
Her second slash didn't connect either.
There was no sound. No visible force.
And yet—something had stopped her blade.
It was as if the very air resisted her.
"Interesting…"
She spoke through clenched teeth.
She had already exerted her full strength.
The target was just inches away.
Those strange eyes—calm and unshaken—watched her without even blinking.
Her blade couldn't move forward.
"You have no chance."
Ryosuke sighed. "The gap between us… is too vast."
"This isn't a fight. Not for me. Not for you."
He stepped forward—and punched.
Fast. Faster than a thought.
So fast, it seemed time itself had skipped a beat.
But Esdeath's instincts saved her.
She released the ice blade and flung herself backward, raising a wall of ice between them.
Boom!
The wall shattered instantly.
With Ryosuke's current strength, even without chakra, no ordinary defense could withstand him.
Whoosh—
The force of the punch didn't stop.
It smashed through the remnants of the wall and struck Esdeath squarely.
Her body flew high into the air, arcing over the city walls.
"I'm surprised... she wasn't pulverized."
Ryosuke narrowed his eyes.
Given his strength and her physique, she shouldn't have survived that.
At the very least, she should have died instantly.
But she hadn't accepted his offer.
And Ryosuke—when he chose to act—didn't hold back.
This fight was meaningless.
The difference in level was too extreme.
To him, it wasn't even a contest.
He looked across the ruined bridge, past the walls of the Imperial Capital, toward where she had fallen.
She should be dead... right?
He knew his power. He knew what her body could withstand.
Even accounting for variations—she shouldn't have been able to move.
But then—
"She stood up?"
His eyes widened slightly.
Through the gaze of his eyes, he saw her body lodged in the wreckage of a collapsed residential building.
Her internal organs were mangled. Bones cracked. Blood flooded out of a gaping wound in her abdomen.
But still...
She stood.
She dragged herself out of the rubble, her body shaking, her face pale.
Blood pooled at her feet—thick and bright—but her eyes burned with excitement.
Her killing intent flared like wildfire.
"What a lunatic."
Ryosuke muttered.
Her posture... her face... her madness—
It all looked too familiar.
The image in his memory—the one he couldn't quite place—grew clearer.
He stopped.
Paused mid-step.
He had planned to finish it. To crush her completely.
But now...
"Let's change the battlefield," Ryosuke said, appearing before her once more.
"I imagine you don't want to be disturbed."
The city had gone silent.
When the battle began, every citizen had locked their doors and hidden away.
They knew the rebels weren't here to slaughter the innocent.
But war—true war—never left ordinary people untouched.
But those who needed to hide still had to hide. If a real fight broke out… who could possibly control the aftermath?
"Cough..."
Esdeath kicked a large stone aside and staggered forward toward Ryosuke.
"Let's go elsewhere."
As she spoke, the black markings on her chest—the symbol of the Demon Extract—began to glow with a cold, icy blue light.
Frost-colored lines crawled across her body, freezing over her bleeding wounds and stabilizing her damaged limbs in seconds.
Ryosuke took a long look at this stubborn woman. The air around him rippled as space began to bend.
If only I had mastered the Otsutsuki clan's secret art—Ame-no-Mikado, he thought. Then I wouldn't need to keep escorting her like this. I'd simply will it—and we'd be somewhere else entirely.
A howl of cold wind sliced through space as the two disappeared—then reappeared on a white, frostbitten land.
The far north—the empire's coldest region.
A place Esdeath knew like the back of her hand.
The moment the freezing air hit her skin, her battered body reacted.
The icy-blue lines glowing across her form pulsed with energy, her blood—infused with super-dangerous ice species—boiled with life.
This was her domain. Her battlefield.
"You chose this place on purpose?"
Esdeath turned to Ryosuke.
But this time, she didn't rush in. Her gaze narrowed, sharp and dangerous.
"Have your feelings toward me changed? Are you going easy on me now?"
That calm silence—more than any insult—felt like humiliation.
"That look… that posture."
Ryosuke glanced at her lazily. Around him, the snow and wind bowed in submission.
"I'm just curious. I want to see what kind of surprise you still have left."
That strange, familiar aura of hers—it kept pulling at pieces of memory buried deep in his soul.
If only I could remember…
"Then I'll give you a surprise."
Esdeath shoved the emotion down and focused.
In the next instant, her body vanished, reappeared next to Ryosuke—and kicked.
But Ryosuke, unfazed, sidestepped and countered with his own kick.
Boom!
A burst of power exploded from the impact, scattering snow in a wide spiral. Even the sky seemed to pause in the face of that force.
Esdeath was blasted back, crashing into a snow-capped mountain. White powder erupted, swallowing her completely.
But the cold… only strengthened her.
The Demon Extract fully awakened within her blood, the icy energy merging deeper with her body.
For the first time since consuming the blood of the super-dangerous species, she felt cornered—and she loved it.
This was the first time she fought with her full strength, the first time she unleashed everything her Teigu had to offer.
Bang—!
Esdeath burst forth from the snow, launching herself at Ryosuke once more.
Her speed and strength surged.
Driven by the threat of death—and the effect of the demonic blood—she was evolving in real time.
Boom!
Ryosuke's whip kick met hers.
The shockwave sounded like a meteorite colliding with the earth.
And again… she was kicked away.
This time, her right leg snapped off at the root, flung somewhere into the endless snow.
Ryosuke didn't flinch. His movements were mechanical, precise—like a machine built to kill.
With each exchange, his strength scaled with her.
And each time, the gap widened.
"This fight is meaningless. Why are you so persistent?"
His tone was calm. Almost bored.
"Raaahhh!"
Esdeath didn't reply with words.
A deep, feral roar tore from her throat.
She stood once more—this time with a leg of solid ice.
Like a beast born from ice and war.
Her memories flickered.
She was a child again.
Struggling beneath the gaze of her father.
Fighting impossible odds.
Bleeding. Crawling. Surviving.
There was no place for weakness in this world.
Only the strong ruled.
The weak—died.
I will be the strongest.
She repeated those words like a mantra.
Her body—almost fully encased in ice—still moved.
Her blood pumped. Her chakra surged.
---
"She actually refined chakra..."
Ryosuke blinked. Still calm.
But now… intrigued.
This woman—on the brink of death—was evolving.
Logically, her combat strength should've declined steadily.
But she was defying logic.
She was getting stronger.
Her blood, her will, her madness… it fused into something beyond human.
---
Of course, he thought. Hyuga has been spreading the chakra extraction method for three years. It's not surprising the Empire picked it up. And with her talent…
"Mahapadma!"
Esdeath's scream cut through the frozen sky like a blade.
She charged.
And this time—the world froze.
Time itself stopped.
For the first time in the entire battle—her fist touched Ryosuke.
But—
So hard...!
It was like punching the foundation stone of the world.
Her knuckles ground against his temple—but she couldn't push forward. Couldn't even scratch him.
"I told you..." Ryosuke looked down at her. His voice soft. Pitying.
"The gap between us is too vast."
Even with time frozen, he didn't defend. Didn't flinch.
He just stood there—unmoving.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang!
Her fists pummeled his body, relentless.
Her expression was wild. Blood trailed from her lip. Her body trembled.
But she didn't stop.
Ryosuke stood still.
Watching her.
That madness… that resolve…
It reminded him of someone.
Someone with only one eye.
Someone who never gave up.
Who stood, again and again, in front of impossible power.
For no glory.
No audience.
Only for the conviction in their heart.