After Mahapadma was canceled, Zhang Yong's body collapsed onto the ground, his body riddled with holes.
"This is your end, Zhang Yong. I will remember you as the most entertaining warrior I have ever met. As a true warrior."
Esdeath raised her sword and prepared to cut off his head. But before she could attack again...
At that very moment, the cathedral shook.
Najenda's shout cut through the silence
"Magatama manifestation"
Najenda's voice rang through the hall, and a yellow flash emerged from her body.
Susanoo, who had been trapped in ice, was suddenly freed.
His body was now covered in black armor, his hair white as snow, and a disk floated behind his back.
Susanoo's speed increased wildly. He vanished from his spot and appeared before Esdeath in the blink of an eye.
Then, a long, transparent sword of energy appeared as it cut through the air toward her neck.
Esdeath leaped back quickly, but the sword scratched her skin – a thin line of blood appearing on her neck.
To be honest, her battle with Zhang Yong had taken some toll on her; otherwise, even Susanoo would have been unable to harm her at all.
Suddenly, the cathedral's ceiling collapsed!
Mine and Akame descended from above. Mine fired a beam from her Pumpkin Cannon directly at Esdeath, while Akame, upon landing, assessed the situation and rushed at Esdeath with her high speed.
Esdeath created a giant ice horn to block the attack, but Akame dodged it with a sideways roll.
Mine's beam pierced through the horn and nearly reached Esdeath, had she not thrown herself aside at the last moment.
Esdeath raised her hand, ice shards formed into a sphere, and she fired them all at once toward them.
Susanoo stood in front of Mine and Akame, a giant mirror rose before him, and he reflected the attack.
At that moment, Incursio appeared, carrying Zhang Yong's body, and moved away with him.
As Tatsumi carried Zhang Yong's unconscious body away from the battlefield, he turned to see the unfolding scene behind him.
Suddenly, a hand rose and grabbed his shoulder. It was Zhang Yong. Tatsumi's body trembled, and for a moment he felt he might attack, but Zhang Yong's expression was calm.
"Zhang Yong!"
"Shut your damn mouth. Put me down," Zhang Yong said with difficulty.
Tatsumi placed Zhang Yong's body on the ground. "Are you still Zhang Yong?"
"It will take more than this to kill me. I manipulated my organs at the last moment to pull them away from the impact sites , adding my matal bones , even if she tried to cut my neck it will be hard , Apart from the blood I lost, what happened after I lost consciousness?" Zhang Yong said, breathing heavily.
Tatsumi examined him anxiously, then looked toward the battlefield where Esdeath was facing the three.
Zhang Yong looked at them and cursed coldly.
"The boss ordered us to be evacuated first, along with my elder sister," Tatsumi said cautiously.
Zhang Yong closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them. "Good. I suppose the mission is accomplished anyway," he whispered hoarsely. "But... she hasn't injured any of you yet?"
Tatsumi shook his head, his expression tense. "No... she evades every attack with ease. Even Susanoo in his amazing form cannot touch her."
At that moment, the sound of a violent impact exploded. Esdeath had pierced through Susanoo's defenses with a fierce blow, sending him crashing into one of the cathedral's pillars.
"Impossible!" Mine shouted as she reloaded the Pumpkin Cannon. "How can she be this strong?!"
Zhang Yong's eyes narrowed, and he forced his body to stand.
Wooden Path – Sacred Wood Art
Zhang Yong was enveloped in a green light, and his body began to repair itself. 'I felt it for sure... a seed of the World Tree. It was coming from Esdeath's body... This means her power is indeed incomparable to anyone's.'
"Tatsumi, take Najenda and Leone and leave this place immediately. The mission is already accomplished. Reinforcements will arrive soon. If it's just us, we can leave safely."
Tatsumi grabbed Zhang Yong's arm, trying to stop him. "What are you going to do? You're in no condition to fight!"
But Zhang Yong pushed his hand away with a sharp look. "I won't fight... but I will distract her. Take the others and run. This isn't advice – it's an order."
Before Tatsumi could object, Zhang Yong vanished into a black shadow.
In the center of the hall, Esdeath stood confidently, her ice shattering before attacks as she sneered coldly.
"This is starting to become entertaining."
Suddenly, a pillar of ice exploded in the middle of the hall, piercing through the ceiling, and Zhang Yong emerged from it.
Esdeath held her hat and smiled stiffly. "Oh... you're not dead."
Zhang Yong stared at her coldly. "Susanoo, now!"
Hearing his words, Susanoo grabbed Mine and Akame, and Tatsumi who was carrying both Mine and Najenda.
Zhang Yong raised his fist and shattered the pillar he had made, leaving a hole in the ceiling.
Susanoo waved his arms and hurled the group through the opening in the ceiling.
"I hope your plan isn't suicidal," Susanoo said, standing beside Zhang Yong.
"I'm not that suicidal." Zhang Yong raised his bone sword in his hand, and it transformed into a bone bracelet around his arm.
Then he raised his fists. He was preparing to enter a fistfight.
Susanoo suddenly vanished with blinding speed, appearing before Esdeath with his transparent sword gleaming under the stained glass light.
He struck with his sword fiercely, but Esdeath parried the blow, her sword clashing with his weapon.
Tai Yin Si Xiang – Dragon Devourer.
At that moment, Zhang Yong pounced on her from above, his fist charged with Black Death Qi forming an illusion of a dragon heading directly for her back.
But Esdeath, without even looking, raised her hand, and a thick ice wall suddenly formed to block the strike.
At that moment, Zhang Yong shattered his attack and used Earth fold to move away from her, and Susanoo leaped back as well.
Zhang Yong raised his hand, and the Millennial Tree of Life appeared in his grip.
His first Spirit Ring glowed, and a small tree rose from the ground, beginning to emit mist.
Susanoo understood immediately, and soon the place was filled with mist.
The dense fog flooded the entire hall, completely obscuring vision. Even Esdeath, with all her sharp senses, found it difficult to pinpoint their locations.
Meanwhile, the two had already escaped. Their fast fight was only to ensure the others were out of the search radius.
---
Outside the city, in the barren rocky area, the rest of the Night Raid members gathered after escaping the cathedral.
Tatsumi stood at the edge of a rock, anxiously watching the horizon. "Where are they? Did they manage to escape?"
Before any of them could answer, two shadows appeared in the distance. Susanoo was carrying Zhang Yong, who looked pale and exhausted, but his blue eyes still gleamed.
"Zhang Yong!" Mine shouted, trying to get up despite her exhaustion
As using too much spiritual energy in the fight , she was somewhat reckless
Susanoo gently placed Zhang Yong on the ground, then stepped back, his white hair gradually returning to its natural black color as the Magatama's effect faded.
Zhang Yong leaned his back against a nearby rock and took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling slowly as he tried to catch his breath.
"The mission is complete. Bolic is dead, and we managed to escape from Esdeath. Our best option to avoid attack is to take a longer route and return to the capital from the south," Najenda said in a dry tone.
Zhang Yong slowly raised his body. "Then we should move now. If Esdeath wanted to, I bet she could catch up to us."
Najenda looked at him with an enigmatic expression. "Don't push your body. Among us, you're the one who fought Esdeath directly and barely came out in one piece. Let Susanoo carry you."
Zhang Yong nodded slowly, his eyes half-closed from exhaustion. "Alright... just this once."
Susanoo carefully took hold of him and carried him on his back as if he were a child.
As the team began moving south across the rocky terrain, Mine walked beside them, her eyes never leaving Zhang Yong, who was slowly dozing off.
"Will he be alright?" Mine whispered, her voice full of concern.
Susanoo looked at her over his shoulder. "Yes. His body is recovering with unnatural speed, but he lost a lot of blood. He just needs rest."
As for Tatsumi, he was walking at the rear, his eyes constantly scanning the horizon. He was happy inside – at least, on this mission, despite facing Esdeath directly, they hadn't lost any comrades.
But deep inside, remembering the fight with Esdeath, there was a feeling of powerlessness. There was a vast gap between his level and hers.
Slowly, he began to recall things Zhang Yong had told him.
"Your Teigu is special because it's made from the Tyrant's body. It has the ability to change and evolve, as happened when you first possessed it. So, as long as you have enough willpower, the armor can evolve again."
At that moment, his grip tightened fiercely. If willpower was what it took, then he would do it. He would not allow himself to become a burden.
---
Three months after Bolic's assassination, the Path of Peace managed to organize an armed revolution.
They immediately began a campaign of attacks on government offices that imposed high taxes and on the warehouses of landowners.
With the Path of Peace's uprising, a popular uprising against injustice began, and the revolution spread across the empire.
At the same time, the Western Nation began its attacks on the empire to exploit this precious opportunity, and they ended up penetrating the territories.
Because of this, the empire fell into many problems, necessitating the appearance of Generals Esdeath and Budo on the campaign, which also stopped the Jaegers' pursuit of Night Raid.
At the same time, it was the snowy season, making fighting more difficult at this time.
At this point, the group was on a road 250 kilometers from the empire.
Zhang Yong wasn't the only one exhausted; the others were more damaged than him, as due to fighting, Lubbock and Akame had broken a number of bones.
And unlike the plot, this time, Susanoo was not dead, which made the team's morale a little higher than expected.
Currently, they were sitting in a wooden house Susanoo had created in an instant for rest, while the healthy members went hunting.
The air was bitterly cold, and heavy snow covered everything, making movement difficult. Bare trees stretched out like ghosts in the fog, and the wind howled through the branches like a warning of a merciless winter.
Zhang Yong and Susanoo walked side by side, their footprints sinking deep into the snow.
"I didn't expect winter to be this harsh here," Susanoo said in a deep voice, his breath visible in the cold.
"Such harsh weather is good for bears. We might have a feast," Zhang Yong looked at his stomach and patted it lightly.
Due to the effect of the Elephant Devourer, he had a huge appetite, and if he didn't satisfy it, it would eat him from the inside and could cause his body to explode.
Although things had been difficult over the previous three months, with the help of this skill, along with dual cultivation with Mine, it had allowed him to actually reach rank 60 and be on the verge of advancing to the Venerable Realm. He had already completed tempering his heart by 89%, and the other organs had already reached between 50-60%, thus enhancing his body's abilities.
To advance to the Venerable Realm, he didn't really need to purify the five organs, because the laws governing his current body were not the laws of his previous world, but the laws of this world. And here, it was not necessary to achieve those conditions.
"Thinking about it, why did you ask to separate from Tatsumi and Mine?" Susanoo wondered in a low voice.
Zhang Yong stopped for a moment, his breath sublimating into the cold air like a light mist. "There's no specific reason. Just so they could have some time alone, nothing more."
At that moment, they heard the sound of a snow collapse in the nearby forest, followed by an angry roar.
"A bear," Susanoo whispered, his grip tightening on his staff.
Zhang Yong and Susanoo rushed toward the source of the sound, their feet sinking into the deep snow. Between the frozen trees, a massive creature appeared.
Its white fur was covered with a layer of ice formed by the intense cold. Its yellow eyes flashed with anger, and its long fangs gleamed like ice swords.
This was an ice bear.
"Leave it to me, Su," he grinned fiercely. The bone bracelet on his arm slowly began to transform into a bone sword. "I need to move my body a little."
Zhang Yong leaped into the air and cut off the bear's head in a single stroke.
"Dinner will be rich," Susanoo said, lifting the bear over his shoulder with astonishing ease.
"Yes, we might even have a feast," Zhang Yong patted the bear's body.
"Zhang Yong, your hair is already growing. It bothers me a bit," Susanoo pointed towards Zhang Yong's hair and began to stare at it with some annoyance.
Zhang Yong's hand rose to the back of his neck to feel the matter. His hair had extended to cover the back of his neck. He didn't mind regrowing his long hair, but currently, he had no reason "Then I'll rely on you to cut it when we return, Su."
As Zhang Yong and Susanoo returned carrying the giant ice bear, the delicious smell of barbecue filled the air even before they arrived.
Tatsumi, Akame, and Mine had lit a fire outside the wooden cabin and were grilling over it. Even from a distance, it was clear that Akame's mouth was watering.
"Finally! I was starting to think you two got lost in the snow!" Mine shouted, jumping from her spot, her eyes blazing with enthusiasm at the sight of the giant bear.
"The situation isn't that bad out there, and congratulations, anyway," Zhang Yong said, waving his hand unnecessarily.
The three looked at each other in confusion, as if they didn't understand what he was saying.
"Congratulations...? What do you mean?" Tatsumi asked, tilting his head in bewilderment.
Zhang Yong stopped and looked in their direction. "Didn't something happen?"
"Nothing happened, as far as I know," Akame looked at him in surprise. "Was there something you were expecting?"
Zhang Yong nodded slowly, then turned his back, stroking his chin. "Nothing important... perhaps I was mistaken."
'What is going on? This event is supposed to exist. Could I have changed the future somehow? No, I must not allow this. Emotions are a necessary part of Teigu development,' Zhang Yong analyzed internally.
Zhang Yong stood before the blazing fire, his blue eyes reflecting the flames' tongues as his mind worked rapidly.
Susanoo, who was grilling huge chunks of bear meat, raised his eyebrows, noticing the enigmatic expression on Zhang Yong's face. "Is everything alright?"
"Yes, everything is fine," Zhang Yong answered quickly, but his hands were gripping his bone bracelet tightly.
Mine, who was sitting beside Tatsumi, looked at them curiously. "You two are strange today. Did something happen in the forest?"
"Nothing worth mentioning," Susanoo said as he distributed the grilled meat. "But I think Zhang Yong is bothered by his hair story." Susanoo's expression was serious when he said this, and he meant his words.
The others laughed, but Zhang Yong did not join the laughter. His eyes met Tatsumi's for a moment, as if he were trying to read what was inside him.
'Perhaps... I should interfere personally. No, perhaps... they need more time. Emotions cannot be rushed. And I don't have the Nightmare King's Soul Bone to use psychological tricks. So I will wait until we return to the hideout near the capital.'