"Kannazuki, have you identified who it is? Is it DEM... or—watch out!"
Boom!
Mid-sentence, Shido Itsuka felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. Instinctively, he threw himself flat onto the ground. Dignity didn't matter—staying alive did.
Having conquered so many Spirits and experienced extraordinary power at close range time and again, Shido's awareness of his surroundings was no longer what it used to be.
"Hey! Get out of here, hurry—this is danger—!" Lying prone, Shido looked at the despair etched across the faces of civilians not far away and shouted reflexively.
Whoosh!
Before he could finish speaking, hundreds of irregular ice blocks—each with a radius exceeding ten meters—whistled overhead, wrapped in shards of frost. After crashing down, the massive chunks rolled far into the distance, crushing entire stretches of buildings in an instant.
In that single moment, countless civilians who had failed to escape in time were killed on the spot.
Bang!
When gods fight, mortals suffer—nothing illustrated that truth more clearly.
"Damn it! Snowstorm's descent was too sudden. We didn't have time to evacuate the civilians! She doesn't care about human casualties at all!"
Aboard the Fraxinus airship, Kannazuki Kyouhei—temporarily acting in place of Commander Kotori Itsuka—slammed his fist against the control console.
Despite his usual unserious, perverted demeanor, seeing so many deaths unfold right before his eyes filled him with anger and regret.
"If only we hadn't lowered our guard. Blind reliance on past experience is deadly!" Kannazuki said bitterly, the usual frivolity gone from his handsome face.
Based on past experience, once a Spirit returned to the Neighboring World, at least twenty-four hours would pass before she manifested again. Sometimes it took even longer—days, even weeks.
For someone like Snowstorm to reappear after only a few hours was unprecedented.
According to prior patterns, after the Spacequake alarm had been lifted several hours earlier, most of Tengu City's surviving residents had already left the underground shelters and begun clearing up their damaged homes.
Living in disaster-prone Tengu City, the locals had long since developed a sense of calm detachment. Spacequakes? Spirit battles? They were used to it.
As long as they survived, life had to go on. There was work tomorrow.
The only difference this time was the scale—the city had lost half of itself.
But neither the authorities nor they had anticipated that Esdeath was not a Spirit at all. Her arrival was too sudden. Civilians who had just returned to the surface had no time to evacuate when the Spirit warning sounded.
The shockwaves of battle were already claiming lives.
What unfolded before them was a scene both magnificent and drenched in blood.
"How could this..."
Slowly lifting his head, Shido's pupils constricted. Amid the flying rubble, countless blossoms of flesh bloomed beneath collapsing buildings.
Ice-blue fragments littered the ground. The earth lay in ruins. Mutilated bodies bled across the streets. Flowing blood froze solid before it could even spread, seized by the incoming cold wave.
In an instant, Shido felt the chill crash into him. The blood coursing through his veins began to slow.
But the next moment, just as the blizzard was about to swallow him whole, a burst of intense light enveloped Shido—and he vanished.
The freezing wave swept past without hesitation.
Crack crack crack!
The ground emitted crisp, shattering sounds as fractures radiated outward.
Centered on the ice tornado Esdeath had unleashed, within a radius of several kilometers, every building in the district was frozen and disintegrated.
Within that range, all vegetation, structures—even living beings—were erased in an instant, shredded and reduced to powder by the terrifying ice storm.
The sky-piercing ice tornado and the scattered "hail" together constructed a city of a new Ice Age.
"I can see it now. You're nothing more than ordinary people wielding extraordinary power. No structure to your combat at all—just relying on superior physical ability and energy output to flail around."
Overwhelming force could defeat ten techniques—but when the gap in power wasn't great, skill became decisive.
"Your level of coordinated combat is worse than fresh recruits in the Imperial Capital's training camp. It's like children playing house."
The ice-forged rapier deflected Tohka Yatogami's broad greatsword. Esdeath pivoted and delivered a straight kick toward Kotori Itsuka.
Boom—!
A terrifying roar erupted. Visible shockwaves blasted outward. Immediately, a massive bowl-shaped crater fractured beneath Esdeath's feet.
A cry of pain rang out. The ice dust hanging in midair was blown away as the red-haired girl, flames blazing around her body, was sent flying.
Her petite frame skipped across the frost-covered ground like a stone across water, smashing crater after crater into the frozen earth.
In the instant she kicked, Esdeath used Kotori's body as a stepping point, leveraging the force to propel herself upward. Her grip tightened on the ice blade as she applied a second burst of strength.
Bang!
"Ugh—!"
In the next second, Tohka—already at the center of the crater—was driven straight into the ground.
The earth beneath her sank more than five meters deep. In the semicircular direction of Esdeath's force, even ground frozen harder than steel tilted and collapsed. Dense cracks spread like flattened wheat.
"Damn it! Why are you so strong?!"
Her arms trembling as she braced against the blade, her body already tilting backward, Tohka poured in all her strength. Yet the slender ice blade pressing against her massive sword felt like a thousand tons, utterly unmoving.
"Strong? Heh heh..."
Esdeath chuckled lightly, unconcerned.
"Still don't understand? It's because you don't know how to use your power. No technique. No combat experience whatsoever."
"If you want to fight, call someone stronger. Fighting you is terribly dull."
As she spoke, icy blue light flickered over her free left hand. Ignoring the blade of Sandalphon entirely, she dragged up a spray of ice shards and drove her fist into Tohka's face.
A heavy thud echoed—blow after blow landing solidly.
"N-No... don't hurt Tohka-nee... Zadkiel!"
Seeing this, Yoshino—who had been dodging the encirclement of ice thorns—swung her right hand downward. Spiritual power surged from her body, white mist spreading across a hundred-meter radius.
Only when she summoned her Angel did Yoshino finally feel that she had regained a sliver of control over the snow and ice from Esdeath.
Before this, every blizzard she unleashed had been seized by Esdeath and redirected at Kotori and Tohka instead.
It had left Yoshino shrinking back in fear, hardly daring to attack.
When the mist cleared, a completely different pure white figure stood there.
Over ten meters tall—a monstrous rabbit doll.
"Ice Thorns."
Esdeath murmured softly without even turning her head.
This girl named Yoshino—honestly speaking, with her level of ability, she was nothing more than free points to Esdeath.
Swish swish swish swish!
In the next instant, countless fine ice spikes extended from the frozen world in every direction, shooting toward Yoshino, who rode atop the giant rabbit doll.
"Y-Yoshinon, hurry and get out of here—use Shiryon!"
"Roar!"
After letting out a strange roar that made ears ring, the pure white giant rabbit doll carried Yoshino as it leapt and bounded across the battlefield, now reduced to icy ruins.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Thud! Thud!
Esdeath relied on the same move again and again. With nothing more than her fingers flicking lightly, ice spikes surged endlessly from the frozen debris in every direction—broad in range, dense and innumerable.
In the blink of an eye, countless gashes opened across the giant rabbit doll's body.
"Boring... At this level, Cornelia can simply upload the data they've gathered. Whether to attack or not can be left to Roboute."
Just as Esdeath lowered her head in disinterest, considering contacting the Jaegers unit—
"It's not over yet!"
A massive double-bladed axe burned with roaring flames. Gripping the haft tightly with all five fingers, Kotori Itsuka's eyes were completely dyed crimson, a manic grin spreading across her face as she swung straight at Esdeath.
"Has she lost control? Tch... This mission is turning out to be rather disappointing. The one who created the Eurasian Sky Disaster still hasn't shown up... In that case, I'll force you out!"
Boom!
With an explosive sound, Esdeath shattered the ground beneath her feet. She discarded her ice blade and shot upward to meet the descending axe head-on.
Influenced long ago by someone who preferred fist-to-fist combat, Esdeath had trained her hand-to-hand techniques extensively in addition to her usual rapier.
Buzz!
Her forearm shifted into a deep blue hue as condensed frost coated it. Like a meteor descending from the heavens, Esdeath's punch carried overwhelming force as it smashed directly into Kotori's battle axe.
Boom—!
Wind pressure equal to a violent typhoon swept outward. The remaining building wreckage and ice debris vanished in an instant.
Although the battle axe Camael withstood the impact, Kotori's wrist fractured under the crushing force.
Her feather-like red Spirit Dress—Elohim Gibor—tore with a ripping sound.
Her palm, wrist, and forearm erupted with searing pain from fractured bones. The impact destabilized her midair position, sending her crashing backward onto the ice.
"Kotori!"
"You're all so weak... You don't stir even a hint of battle excitement in me."
Esdeath spread her right hand. An icy blue sphere of light flickered in her palm.
Buzz!
A beam several meters wide shot forth toward the charging Tohka Yatogami.
"Throne!"
As Tohka shouted, a spinning sphere of black energy expanded in the sky before plunging toward the ground.
A protrusion resembling a metallic throne slammed down in front of her, firmly blocking Esdeath's freezing beam like a shield.
"Esdeath, you're strong—but for Shido, I won't lose. Final Sword: Halvanhelev!"
Crack crack!
A violet spiritual domain surged outward, deflecting the freezing beam. Cracks spread across the throne in every direction before it shattered with a sharp snap into countless fragments.
As Sandalphon absorbed the fragments' power, a bizarre greatsword over ten meters long manifested in Tohka's hands.
"Esdeath, take this—"
"...Is that your trump card?"
Esdeath sighed softly. So this was her full strength?
Roboute had hoped she would refrain from large-scale destruction, to avoid causing technological regression in this world.
And she had complied. Aside from exerting some force during her descent, she had truly been holding back—treating this as play while sensing her surroundings.
The strongest Spirit—the one responsible for the Eurasian Sky Disaster—was the true target of her vigilance.
In that case—
"Mahāpadma."
Esdeath spoke lightly. The red sigil on her chest glowed faintly as a pale blue sphere appeared.
The sphere expanded instantly. Before Tohka could finish speaking, everything within this space turned pale blue.
Falling ice fragments halted midair. The distant ice tornado ceased its rotation.
In that moment, all things in the world stopped moving.
Esdeath walked slowly to Tohka's side. An ice spike condensed in her hand. Expressionless, she aimed at Tohka's heart and drove it in.
Thud.
"Game over. Let's see whether they will come."
The pale blue space faded. Ice shards resumed drifting.
"Wah—!"
Blood poured from the wound in Tohka's heart. She spat out mouthfuls of crimson foam. With a metallic clang, the greatsword slipped from her grasp.
Her strength drained away. Tohka collapsed to her knees, curling inward.
"E-Esdeath... you—"
"It's over."
Pressing a single finger against Tohka's forehead, Esdeath said coldly, "Freeze."
"Tohka!"
"You're next."
Whoosh!
In a blur, Esdeath reappeared. The newly risen Kotori was stomped deep into the earth once more. Even the frozen ground split into deep trenches beneath Esdeath's tread.
Kotori felt as though a massive hammer had smashed into her chest, crushing her organs. As she was embedded into the ground, bones and flesh alike were ground to ruin.
"Puh—!"
"Your arm should have been shattered just now. That last strike should have been fatal. Yet you recover remarkably fast... Is it that flame? The regenerative ability of a phoenix?"
Her high heel pressed against Kotori's chest as Esdeath spoke with interest.
Coughing blood, Kotori struggled to speak. "What exactly is your objective...?"
"The dominion of this world..."
With that, ignoring Kotori's panicked expression, Esdeath produced a metallic cube.
Buzz!
Bathed in purple-red light, the cube activated.
"Hey, Roboute?"
After static crackled and the connection went through, Esdeath spoke casually.
"Roboute, it seems you were overly cautious. This world doesn't possess particularly strong overall technological capability..."
"From what I can sense, there are only a few exceptional inventions. As for extraordinary lifeforms... they're roughly at the level of Super-class Danger Beasts."
"Cornelia and the others will soon upload the detailed data. Whether to launch a full-scale assault is your call."
"Hello? Hello?"
After speaking for quite some time without response, Esdeath frowned slightly.
"Legion Commander Roboute, are you listening?"
But in the next moment—
"Little Esdeath."
That familiar, cool voice made Esdeath straighten instinctively.