章節 39: Chapter 36 - Status Null (I)
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-SR_2027.
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--[3rd POV]--
-[Location: Akame Ga Kill world]-
*Pziu*
In the frozen landscape, a portal opens in an area covered in snow.
As the portal opens, a person is thrown out of the portal. The person was handsome, but his body was very skinny, one could almost see his bones. The person had white hair, purple eyes, purple horns, and blue skin.
*Bang*
As soon as he is thrown out, his left hand fractures while a few of his ribs are also fractured.
The man landed harshly, the impact sending sharp pain through his body.
His left hand was twisted at an unnatural angle, and he could feel the pain of fractured ribs as his body rolled on the ground.
But...
Despite the pain, his face remained emotionless, his purple eyes vacant and detached. With empty eyes, he looked at the snowy landscape, and slowly put himself up, sitting on the ground.
As he sat in the snow, his eyes fell on his twisted hand. His wrist was broken. But as if, his instincts took over, the body began to repair itself instinctively. Bones melded together as his muscles and bones twitched and grew abnormally, knitting the fractures and soothing the pain.
The man... No, if one calculates the child's mental age, it won't be more than a few seconds old.
This child's name was Otsuki Ryo. But he didn't know it yet.
Ryo's mind was a blank slate, devoid of memories or understanding. He felt like a confused child, lost in a world that made no sense.
He questioned himself silently...
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I
And...
[Why am I, Me]?
The snow continued to fall gently around him, covering him in a thin layer of white. As if feeling an unusual feeling, he sat still for a second to watch the snow accumulate for a few seconds for his own amusement.
As the time ticked by, He finally decided that it was time to move.
The cold was biting, but he barely registered it, no more like, he didn't even feel cold due to his natural resistance.
He slowly stood up unsteadily, looking around the desolate, snowy landscape. There was nothing but endless white in every direction, no sign of civilization or shelter.
As he struggled to make sense of his surroundings, a new sensation gripped him.
[Hunger].
It gnawed at his insides, a primal instinct that demanded satisfaction.
He glanced around, finding nothing in the vicinity. Desperation clawed at him, urging him to find sustenance.
He lifted his face to the air, his senses sharpening. Suddenly, he caught a whiff of food, faint but unmistakable.
[Food]
As if feeling the increasing urge, driven by this instinct, Ryo began to run, his feet sinking into the snow with each step. The scent grew stronger as he moved, and his instincts suddenly grew stronger, as his backbone area suddenly started to twitch.
Four tentacles suddenly burst out of his back, and he suddenly felt himself floating in the air due to these tentacles, but he didn't have any time to focus on it. His hunger was so strong that he was barely keeping himself sane.
The scent felt like a guiding hand for him. Like an invisible thread through the frozen wilderness. After what felt like several hours, he finally found the traces of the food he was searching for.
There it was, in the frozen ice crystal, preserved from decay.
There was a body of a person, with several bullet marks over his body. A broken blue sword and broken parts of what seemed to be armor were left by the area where the crystal was located.
The whole area seemed like a battlefield, filled with small or large craters, along with the smell of gunpowder in the air while blood covered the snow. The ground was not only covered in red but blue blood as well.
Inside the frozen crystal, there was the body of a man with raven blue hair with closed eyes.
It was Wave.
"...", Looking at the body trapped in the crystal, the child walked close to it and touched it. Feeling the coldness, he tried thinking of a way to either break or melt the ice.
To reach to his [Meal].
'But before that...', The child's eyes fell on the broken pieces of armor on the ground as he sensed a sort of 'familiarity' to it.
Picking up a piece, he chewed hard on it and crushed it. After chewing it for a while his body recognized that it didn't have any sort of 'nutrients', so he threw out the armor and looked back at the person in ice.
"...", After thinking for a second, he looked at his hand, and instinctively, he felt a bit dizzy, but he felt the muscles in his arms grow. With that, he clenched his fist and punched the ice.
*Boom!*
Ice crystals flew out as the child saw that even when frozen, the body was not 'frozen' to the cellular level, it was merely preserved to a temperature where the body maintains its original state.
With that, the child walked to the body, crouched down, and stared at the body.
It was time for his [Meal].
*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*
Crunching sounds could be heard as the child chewed on the body of Wave, consuming everything, not even leaving behind bones.
As he chewed and chewed and chewed...
He finally held the head, that was finally left in his hand, as he observed the head, his instinct took over. He felt like he could obtain something if he somehow 'absorbed' that part.
Thinking so, his mouth grew wide as he bit off the skull, as he directly swallowed the brain, which was captured by the tentacles in his throat, as they injected themselves into the brain, absorbing the memory of the person.
The memory of an insignificant ant began to play throughout his mind.
"..."
As his mind consumed all the memories, his body absorbed all the nutrients from the body as the child's body grew exponentially and so did his abilities. His mind was able to 'sense' the living being around him.
As his scope of 'search' expanded, his mind finally pointed to something... Big...
-
.
-
--[Time: When Ryo 'died']--
With Ryo's death, the whole world went into chaos.
As soon as Ryo died at the hands of Esdeath, Zero Two, who was very far away from Ryo rushed back to help him.
Zero Two clearly felt it...
"NOOOO!"
"AhhHHhhH!Damn It! Damn it! Why? Why? Why?"
The Ryo's life force slowly disappeared to her horror, in anger, she decided to kill Esdeath as cruelly as possible but...
"How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! How dare you! I will kill you, bitch!"
*BANG!*
A huge booming sound was heard throughout the battlefield. Esdeath's eyes became bloodshot as blood began to pour out of her nose while she used her Ice Manipulation to form a pillar beneath her legs to dodge the huge attack aimed toward her.
Looking at the huge colossal creature in front of her, "Hmup!", Esdeath snorted out the blood from her nose as she coldly examined it. It was a Gutenberg-class Klaxosaur, the second largest Klaxosaur classification. It was almost reaching a mountain in its size.
"Hagelsprung!", With a hoarse voice, Esdeath murmured as an ice crystal bigger than the Klaxosaur instantly formed in the air above the Klaxosaur. Looking at the ice falling, Esdeath moved her hand down, "Die!"
The massive ice crystal plummeted toward the Gutenberg-class Klaxosaur, its immense shadow casting an ominous pall over the battlefield. As soon as it began to fall down, Esdeath quickly moved to a small distance to not get caught in the blast radius.
Inside the Gutenberg-class, Zero Two's eyes widened as she saw the colossal ice structure descending, but she knew she had no time to lose.
Zero Two's horns glowed with intensity, as the Gutenberg-class Klaxosaur instantly got the information on what to do and knew what she wanted. It instantly formed an emergency launch pod, sending Zero Two out of its body as it got knocked down and crushed by the huge Ice block.
*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*
Esdeath, despite the strain of using her ultimate trump card, met Zero Two's attack head-on. Ice and energy clashed violently, sending shockwaves rippling through the ground.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Boom!*
The two warriors were locked in a fierce struggle, each determined to overpower the other. Zero Two's metallic sword and Esdeath's ice sword clashed with each other, cutting through the air, and each strike caused small craters to form below each of their feet.
Zero Two's mind was a mess of anger and sorrow, for her, Ryo was everything. After his death, she felt so suffocated. She felt as if she was a fish outside of water. She could only feel horror remembering Ryo's fading presence, and it drove her to push beyond her limits.
Her hands tightened around her weapons, and she unleashed a flurry of attacks, each one more ferocious than the last.
"You will pay for this, bitch!" Zero Two screamed, her voice echoing across the battlefield. "Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die for Ryo!"
'Ryo? So that was Shadow's name, huh?', Esdeath, blood still streaming from her nose, grinned through the pain. "You think you can defeat me? You are nothing but a nuisance, a mere insect!"
An indescribable aura exploded from Esdeath's body. Her body was weak, but she was able to push it beyond her limit because of her rebirth. Her body kept working as if it was at its prime, showing no opening as she kept countering Zero Two.
But Zero Two was not left behind. Her body was slowly adapting, slowly growing, both physically and mentally. Each clash caused her to learn and adapt to Esdeath's attacks, but even after all that, she saw no opening in Esdeath's attacks, making her grit her teeth and push.
She dodged and skillfully countered through Esdeath's attacks, her movements a blur of air. As she drew closer, her rage grew more and more into her strength, each of her slashes began to push Esdeath back, as she began to aim directly at Esdeath's vital points.
'... I might lose.', As they clashed, finally Esdeath, not being able to maintain her peak condition due to using so much of her power and trump cards, felt herself losing strength. So knowing full well, she tried to distance but Zero Two saw through it as she opened her mouth suddenly an energy blast formed in her mouth, surprising her.
*Bang!*
'...', The impact was devastating. Esdeath was thrown backward, crashing into the ground with a thunderous roar. Esdeath was barely able to use her sword to shield herself from the energy blast.
But she used this opportunity to distance herself tens of meters away from Zero Two. For a moment, the battlefield was silent, the only sound was the labored breathing of Esdeath, while Zero Two had no tiredness, but she felt like a wild dog ready to bite anyone.
Zero Two walked slowly towards Esdeath, who was struggling to rise. "This ends now," she said, her voice cold and final while her chest moved up and down due to taking deep breaths due to anger.
Esdeath, despite her injuries, wiped the blood from her face and smirked. "You may have won this battle, but the war is far from over. Hahahaha! Great! This is how it should be! To think there was someone so strong in this world, and two at that! Fine, I will remember both of your names!"
"Mahapdama!"
"...", In the frozen time, Esdeath walked through the battlefield with wobbly legs, but just as she was about to reach Zero Two, her eyes caught two figures rushing toward her making her eyes narrow.
It was Wave and Seryu.
Her mind instantly calculated her conditions, the possibility of surviving after killing Zero Two, and more. 'I will die if I focus on killing Zero Two now... As soon as I unfroze time, I will not be able to kill and defeat both of them combined... But... Who cares...'
"Hahahahah!", With a crazy expression, Esdeath quickly rushed to Zero Two and instantly decapitated her. Grabbing her head, Esdeath smirked. "I don't know what that Ryo guy used to lure Wave and Seryu, but I am sure he might have manipulated Seryuu and lied to her to get her to his side..."
As soon as the time unfroze itself, Zero Two body froze on her track, It began to fall down as it lost its head. But...
"You!", Zero Two's eyes turned wide as she found her head disconnected, but due to her Klaxosaur physique, her head still retained its function, which surprised Esdeath, but before she could do anything, she had to dodge her side.
*Shiu!* *Shiu!* *Shiu!*
Bullets flew and lodged on the place where Esdeath was standing. But as soon as Esdeath dodged, she felt something grow on Zero Two's head, she suddenly felt pain in her hand making her frown as she threw her head toward the two people who had rushed into the battlefield.
"Lady Alpha!", Wave, in his tengu's armor form quickly rushed forward, causing a small sonic boom as he instantly reached Zero Two's head and grabbed it. The sonic boom, caused both Seryuu and Esdeath to frown.
Seryuu because her ears almost popped, while Esdeath was not in a very good condition, the sonic boom only worsened her condition while one of her hands was damaged badly as Zero Two's effort of using sharp structures formed on her head due to body manipulation.
While he thought she might have died, his eyes grew wider as he saw tentacles grow from below her head while Zero Two was still conscious. He almost jumped back but controlling his body, he looked back at Esdeath, ready to attack her.
"I see. So they have brainwashed you both. Truly unfortunate for the Empire to lose two of its great warriors to corruption.", Esdeath casually looked at two people who were standing, opposing her.
A shadow was cast over her eyes as she indifferently looked at both of them. 'I can still retreat with some injuries... but I can't just leave as it is. Let me test the water...'
"B-Brainwashed? And are you by any chance... General Esdeath!? What is going on...?", Seryuu's eyes went wide as she looked at Esdeath. For her whole life, she had admired Esdeath from her very heart.
Esdeath was like an idol to her.
As soon as Wave heard her, his heart skipped a beat. After all, unlike him, Ryo hasn't told Seryuu about the 'Shadow' identity, that Ryo was the 'illegitimate son' of the Emperor.
Even if it's revealed to Seryuu, at this point, that Esdeath was there and they were standing on the battlefield; Wave didn't believe that Seryuu would believe him. 'Damn it!. Why now of all time!? Where did it all go wrong.'
Wave's hands clenched as he looked at Esdeath. 'Just half a day ago we got a notification that 'Shadow Garden' will be attacked soon and they need to return as soon as possible. Although I don't know why Lady Alpha wasn't in a hurry which caused us to return so late, in this situation...'
Without waiting any longer, Wave instantly looked at 'Alpha' as he lightly tightened one of his hands around her head and commented, "Lady Alpha, please forgive me for this rudeness.", With that, a sword extended from his hand as he flew toward Esdeath.
*Bang*
With a wave of the sword, Esdeath blocked Wave's attack and looked back at him, "It seems you're beyond saving... Wave.", Hearing his name from Esdeath's mouth, Wave's eyes went wide.
Taking this opening, Esdeath swiftly sent Wave flying with a kick while also targeting Zero Two, making Wave quickly cover Zero Two's head with another hand as he was sent flying across a few meters before he quickly stabilized himself.
As he stabilized himself and prepared himself, a soft voice sounded and asked, "Wave, can you put my head to my body?", It was a weak voice, making his eyes go toward Zero Two. Much to his surprise, he found her head was trembling and he eyes seemed a bit anxious.
What he didn't know was that that was not the main reason. The main reason was...
'My babies!? How can I forget about them!? I just have to believe in Ryo. If he let us away for such a long time, that means that he must have a plan otherwise he could have just run away! Yes!', A rare moment of clarity returned to Zero Two.
For her, Ryo was her whole world, but feeling the touch of death, her brain froze as she realized that she still had another responsibility.
Wave instantly thought that because of the 'head' being detached, Zero Two was in such a situation. He quickly placed her head over her body as suddenly tentacles formed below Zero Two's head and instantly pierced her now motionless body.
While this was going on, Esdeath slowly walked toward Seryuu while keeping Wave and Zero Two in her line of site. Tilting her head, her cold silently examined that trembling in front of her, "Seryu Ubiquitous."
"Y-Yes!", Although a bit confused, Seryu looked back at Esdeath with a frown on her face. From her perspective 'Shadow Garden', was in the end a secret force of the Empire. It was, in the end, an organization started by the Prime Minister Honest.
"I see... So you were lied to. Seryuu... You were manipulated by this terrorist group called 'Shadow Garden'. You never worked for the Empire. These people were using you for their own benefit.", With pity eyes, Esdeath looked at Seryuu and shook her head.
"What!?", Seryuu's eyes went wide as her mind went blank. A shadow covered her face as her body trembled in unknown emotions.
This was not just because Esdeath was the strongest person in the whole world for her, who didn't need to lie to her as she could just kill them but also because she was never given a certification proof of the 'Shadow Garden' working for the Empire.
She never got an audience with the Prime Minister. And Ryo always dismissed some of her confusion.
Yes, she saw those letters.
Yes, she saw the corrupted nobles.
But what if...
It was all staged?
Her mind was struck by a thunder as she thought of that possibility. With dull eyes, she looked back at Esdeath and asked, "General Esdeath... Is what you said true?"
"Yes.", Esdeath looked back at her and replied to her emotionlessly. But she was happy. For she had gotten one of her subordinates back, and also got herself an ally for a fight. Now this was not 1 person fighting three, it was two people against two.
It won't make a huge difference with her condition. But with Seryuu on her side, she was confident that she could take down Zero Two while Seryuu held off Wave.
"Seryuu. I am giving you a chance to prove to me that you are not another traitor. Prove it to me by bringing her their dead bodies."
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[3610]
Note:
From here on, you will understand the true scope of his plan.
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In the original material, Wave was alive till the end, while Seryuu died. Here the situation is reversed.
Ryo knew that after their fight, Esdeath would have next to no strength to actually 'kill' Zero Two. Even if she died, due to their physiology her 'babies' would be saved by forming egg cells as long as they are not damaged.
Even if Zero Two died, Ryo would just impregnate another girl, and make her give birth.
As for why just Zero Two? Why go through and make her 'yandere' for him? It's for the final 'revival' plan. But in the end, she won't really be the 'final' option. Ryo had set up multiple countersafe plans.
Zero Two surviving and fulfilling her role will be the BEST outcome.
He already planned Seryuu's betrayal, that's why he had stationed his soldiers such that they would invite Wave, Zero Two, and Seryuu as described. And he had already measured how strong Esdeath was with their confrontation.
He knew for a point that Esdeath could use her time freeze again to some possibility, so he at least made sure that she was exhausted before he died so that when confronted by Zero Two, she would at most attack her vital spot (Brain or Heart) according to the setup.
For he knew that Esdeath never had any 'proper' fight in her previous life. Fighting Ryo was just rewarding for her, so she would go all out, when and when only when she was exhausted would she use her 'Time Freeze' to honor her opponent.
-
As for the reason why the 'main' Ryo couldn't return and send out this empty shell?
First, any High Dimensional Being's presence will literally destroy a world. They are like outer god. Their mere presence is a defiance of physics and logic.
Also, remember the System placed a barrier over the world of 'Akame Ga Kill?'. Yes, the [RYO], was after all an outer entity that had reached a higher dimension. He is also considered an outer interference.
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Don't forget to give me a comment, reply, or power stone! They give me motivation!
Thank you!
-SR_2027.
=====
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票