— — — — — —
"So it really is Your Majesty!" Esdeath dropped to one knee in a respectful bow after confirming Renzo's identity.
"Get up, no need for formalities," Renzo replied with a wave of his hand.
Esdeath stood up smoothly, her eyes gleaming with interest as she looked him over. "I have to say, Your Majesty, you really caught me off guard with that dramatic entrance. I never knew you had such power."
And she wasn't just talking about him flying.
There was a pressure radiating from Renzo—a terrifying strength that sent a chill down her spine. For someone like Esdeath, who thrived on battle, it was thrilling.
She could feel it.
This man could kill her. And that only made her more excited.
Whether she won or lost didn't matter. What mattered was the fight—the thrill of clashing with someone strong.
"Your Majesty, may I ask for a duel?"
Her eyes were sharp and hungry as she stared at him.
"Oh?" Renzo raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "Well, I don't see why not. Let's take this somewhere less crowded."
He nodded toward a nearby empty clearing and flew over without another word.
"Liver, keep clearing the battlefield. I'll be back shortly," Esdeath ordered, then took off after him without hesitation.
— — —
"This is a good place."
Renzo said as he landed softly on the ground. "Let's fight then."
Esdeath smiled like a predator. "Perfect. Then I'll go first—Your Majesty, try not to die, okay?"
She drew her slender blade, her eyes locked onto him like a hawk eyeing its prey.
The moment her foot touched the ground, she exploded forward—shattering the earth beneath her—and slashed directly at Renzo's neck with frightening speed.
Clang!
Renzo didn't flinch. He simply raised his hand at the last second… and caught her sword between two fingers.
Two Haki fingers.
That strike had carried over seventy percent of Esdeath's full strength, and yet—it didn't even make his hand tremble.
Even the ground beneath him remained completely undisturbed.
What…?
Her attack had been completely nullified like it was nothing.
"This… what?"
Esdeath's pupils shrank in disbelief.
He was just a teenager—how in the world was he this strong?
She instinctively tried to pull her sword back, but no matter how hard she yanked, it wouldn't budge from between Renzo's fingers.
Impossible.
When brute force didn't work, she immediately activated her Teigu—Demon's Extract—channeling her ice power through her sword in a flash-freeze attack aimed at Renzo's hand.
But Renzo only smiled.
"Ice powers, huh? Sorry, that won't work on me."
Esdeath watched in shock as the frost that surged toward his fingers… simply vanished.
No freezing. No resistance. No reaction.
It was like her power had been swallowed whole.
Frowning, she released her sword and jumped back several meters. Then, narrowing her eyes, she asked, "Your Majesty… what are you? Why didn't my ice affect you? Are you using some kind of special Teigu?"
Renzo casually tossed her sword back to her with a chuckle. "Nope. Not a Teigu. This is power I gained through training… or, well, let's call it 'divine cheating.' But definitely not some tool."
"As for your ice?" he continued with a grin. "That's easy. It doesn't work on me… because my ice power is stronger than yours."
Esdeath's eyes widened as she watched a crystalline sword of pure ice slowly take form in his hand.
"You actually do control ice…?" she murmured. "Now you've really got my attention. Let's go again!"
Without hesitation, she lunged forward, slashing at Renzo once more.
This time, though, she was more cautious—ready to react if he tried to catch her blade again. She focused on her footwork and swordsmanship, hoping to overwhelm him with technique.
But Renzo didn't go easy this time either.
He raised his own ice sword and met her attacks head-on.
Sword to sword.
He wasn't just some overpowered monster—he was a swordsman, too.
His skills were from Swordsman Renzo, Pirate Renzo and Aizen. Even others like Uchiha Renzo created some moves.
Even Dracule Mihawk wouldn't stand a chance against any Renzo in pure swordplay anymore.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Blades clashed in rapid succession. But the deeper the duel went, the more obvious it became—Esdeath was being pushed back.
She tried every trick in her book. Changed tempo. Shifted stance. Mixed in feints.
It didn't matter.
Renzo adapted instantly to everything she threw at him—and even countered with techniques that left her scrambling.
And worst of all? She knew he wasn't going all out.
He was holding back.
Just playing.
"Ice Cavalry!"
Realizing she couldn't win with swordsmanship alone, Esdeath leapt backward and activated her Teigu.
With a stomp, the battlefield froze over in an instant—hundreds of meters of ground covered in frost.
Then, from the ice, centaur-shaped constructs began to rise—dozens of them—charging at Renzo.
Renzo just smiled.
"Ice Reverse."
The next moment, Esdeath's confident expression froze along with her control over the battlefield. She felt the connection to her summoned ice centaur soldiers suddenly vanish—and the soldiers turned back, now under Renzo's control, lunging straight at her!
"What?!"
That was the first time Esdeath lost her composure.
Her face twisted in disbelief. Her own Teigu—her power—had been hijacked. Just how powerful was this man?
As dozens of ice centaurs closed in, she raised a hand and summoned a towering wall of ice, blocking their path.
But she didn't stop there.
With a subtle motion, the ice wall came to life, shifting like a tidal wave under her command, crashing down and obliterating the soldiers she had summoned.
The momentum didn't stop—it surged forward, roaring toward Renzo like a frozen tsunami.
Snap!
Renzo didn't flinch. He just smirked, lifted a hand, and snapped his fingers.
In the blink of an eye, the entire wave shattered into sparkling crystals, dissolving into the air like it had never existed.
Esdeath stared, stunned.
Was this… her natural counter?
Her strongest ice-based attacks, erased so casually—nullified as if they were nothing.
"Demon God Manifestation: Demon's Extract!"
"Its power isn't bad," Renzo said, voice calm. "But it's nothing compared to my ice power. Your Teigu's strength just doesn't hold up against mine."
He smiled at her. "So? Want to keep going?"
"Of course!" Esdeath replied without hesitation, refusing to back down. "I've still got one last move. If that can't do anything to you either… then I'll admit defeat!"
She raised both hands and shouted—
"Mahāpadma!!!"
A terrifying surge of ice energy exploded from her body, radiating outward like a storm, freezing everything within a kilometer.
In that moment, the entire battlefield seemed to stop.
Time and space themselves felt frozen, locked in a pale blue aura that coated the world in stillness.
Across the ice field, Renzo appeared to be caught in the freeze as well.
Seeing this, Esdeath smiled again, her confidence returning as she slowly walked toward him.
"Haha… I knew it. Even you couldn't—"
Crack!
Before she could finish the sentence, the ice around Renzo splintered.
He stepped out without a scratch, completely unfazed.
Esdeath's smile vanished. Her body tensed.
But Renzo just looked at her with an amused glint in his eyes. "Not bad. Freezing at the particle level, huh? I'll admit—General Esdeath, you've developed your Teigu quite well."
Now that he had experienced it firsthand, Renzo understood the mechanics behind the move—and had already figured it out.
This wasn't truly freezing space or time. It was a high-level technique that froze particles so thoroughly that it simulated the feeling of time stopping.
But it didn't freeze souls.
And because the brain was frozen on a microscopic level too, anyone without powerful mental resistance would feel like their consciousness had been locked down—like even their thoughts were frozen solid.
"So even this move didn't work…" Esdeath muttered, her voice laced with frustration and awe. "And you took it head-on, just to understand how it worked… didn't you?"
"You really are something else," she said with a sigh. "Alright. I'm done. I admit defeat."
With that, she shook her head and sheathed her sword, though her eyes still burned with intensity.
"Earlier, you said your ice powers came from you… So it's possible to gain this power without a Teigu?"
"Naturally," Renzo nodded.
He had already confirmed it: his ice magic (From Fairy Tail or KonoSuba) could be used freely in this world, without using Source Energy or that domain skill.
That could only mean one thing—this world did have magic, or at least, it had once existed.
Renzo was starting to doubt if this world was a mashup. Once he got out, he'd find that even more anime worlds had been fused together.
"Then… is there any chance I could learn it too?" Esdeath asked directly, eyes locked on his.
She had just wiped out hundreds of thousands of northern invaders in one campaign, completely crushing their forces. That wasn't a small achievement.
Before, she hadn't cared about rewards.
But now?
She had changed her mind.
She wanted to earn the right to study this power—trade her military victories for a shot at learning Renzo's ice skills.
Of course, she had no intention of giving up her Teigu. But if she could combine both, evolving her freezing abilities even further...
Wouldn't that make her even stronger?
.
.
.