For thousands of years, every undefeated army has had a "root art"—their ultimate trump card.
The Hunters' Hōmyō can flash-white explode.
Esdeath can stop time.
Su Nuan can invoke Murasame's venom to possess herself, sending her physical stats skyrocketing for a short burst.
Right now, what General Budo unleashed was the "secret art" he never used in the anime.
"—Haaa!!"
Thunderclouds massed.
Beneath the roiling sky, a colossal giant of lightning rose up behind General Budo, towering from the ground like a living titan of storm.
With this one move, Budo was confident he could, alone, annihilate a hundred thousand soldiers.
[So… he's opening a Gundam?] Akuto arched a brow.
[Considering Shikoutazer is basically a giant Gundam, it kind of makes sense that the dynasty's hereditary grand general would pilot a "small Gundam," right?]
"What's wrong? Scared?"
For once, a faint smile tugged at Budo's stern features.
"I used this to evaluate your power. Don't disappoint me."
Budo leapt upward and sank into the lightning giant's core—
pilot and mecha, as one.
"General Budo, when have I ever disappointed you?"
Facing the two-hundred-meter thunder mecha, Akuto took a slow step forward.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
With each step, his body surged taller by dozens of meters.
After the third step, a scarlet colossus—nearly equal in height to the thunder Gundam—stood in the arena.
[Boosted Gear—Giant Mode.]
He was drawing on the power of the Avatar of the God—Vamana.
To wrest the sovereignty of Heaven, Earth, and Sky back from the demon king Bali, Vishnu incarnated as a dwarf and begged for "three paces of land" at the great horse-sacrifice.
Bali thought a tiny dwarf couldn't amount to much and agreed to yield however much land the little one could cross in three steps.
No one expected Vishnu to restore his true form: with two strides he spanned Heaven and the human world—and then stopped, deliberately leaving the Underworld to the demon king.
Endowed with the Vamana avatar, Akuto possessed spatial authority and the power to alter his own size.
That was his answer—Gundam vs. Gundam.
"Good!"
Budo's eyes sharpened. He thundered forward, each step rending the earth, his lightning titan driving a titanic fist toward Akuto.
Akuto said nothing—only swung the scarlet giant's fist to meet him.
Compared to Budo, he had an extra reason to drag this out: he'd deliberately chosen a high-consumption mode to bait certain people out. Don't you dare let me down…
In the arena, the two "Gundam pilots" clashed in the most primal way.
Ordinarily, even at Budo's level, and especially while injured, he shouldn't have been able to brawl Akuto at such ferocity.
But under the Cloud-Qi Battle Formation blessing, Budo's power erupted for a short window—enough to rival Akuto head-on.
"Hrah!!"
"Hrah! Hrah! Hrah!!!"
One punch. Then slower—
Ten exchanges, a hundred—
Akuto neither rushed nor lagged, mirroring Budo's pace and power the entire way.
At last, after more than fifteen hundred heavy traded blows, both giants broke off simultaneously.
The thunder Gundam crackled apart into stray static and dissipated.
Budo fell from the air.
A few seconds later his heavy frame slammed down, a gray ring of dust flaring outward.
With a thunderous thud, he lay still.
On the stands, Furina was practically vibrating with excitement—no trace of gloom at seeing her great general beaten.
Joking! She hadn't lost a general—she'd gained a new one. What's not to celebrate?
Although he'd "won," Akuto didn't look great either.
Right after Budo crashed, the crimson dragon-armor flickered—
and the scarlet giant unraveled. Akuto, too, dropped like a stone.
Boom—
The impact drove a crater under him.
He didn't pop up like Budo. To any onlooker, he looked completely wide open.
As one of the Empire's top super-assassins, Gozuki sensed that opening instantly.
Dozens of needles slicked with venom hissed toward Akuto.
Akuto's lips curled. Finally.
"True Water Breathing, Sixth Form—Twisting Full Flow!"
Moisture bloomed out of nowhere, and those venom needles were swallowed perfectly into streaming currents.
"What?!"
Gozuki couldn't help the shock.
There would never be a better chance than now. If they failed to finish Akuto here and he fully recovered, they'd have no hope.
Seeing Gozuki commit, the other assassins embedded among the Capital Guard finally bared their fangs.
Nahash, Gai, Green—all of them Suzuka's former teammates; in assassination experience, they were top-tier in the Empire.
"Thousandfold Cloak!"
Wielding the Teigu called Thousandfold Cloak, Gai dove into the soil like a mole and streaked below Akuto.
"Got him!"
Bursting up through the dirt, Gai clamped both hands around Akuto's calves, pinning his lower body for his comrades' strike.
"Rattle!"
As Gai tunneled at high speed, Green activated his Teigu, Rattlesnake.
Gossamer-thin filament wires moved like they had a will of their own, and—just like countless times before—wrapped Akuto's upper body tight.
Almost at the same moment, the two had locked down Akuto's top and bottom—
Seizing that instant, the two strongest of the kill-squad launched together.
"—Aaaaah!!"
"Water Dragon Rend!"
Nahash imitated Aten's Water Dragon Rend, sending cutting torrents of water at Akuto.
Near-simultaneously, Nahash and Gozuki reached him—
And saw Akuto smiling.
Not good!
He wasn't collapsing—he was grinning.
Too late.
Pale-blue Leviathan's Water erupted from Akuto's body, surging madly.
On the burst of Leviathan's Water, he tore free of Gai and Green's bindings, shouldering through the streams—
With a light clang, Akuto caught Gozuki's venom-lacquered blade in his palm.
"It's not over yet!"
Gozuki snapped up a sleeve; the hidden mechanism inside fired, a spray of poisoned darts fanning point-blank—
Akuto didn't answer. He only looked at Gozuki with a sun-hot, corpse-cold gaze.
A whirl of water shielded his form; under the hydrodynamic deflection, the darts' vectors bent aside and sank harmlessly into the Leviathan flow.
"Leviathan—Waterburst Art!"
The water detonated outward. Venom projectiles, shock-accelerated like buckshot, ricocheted back toward the killers from every angle.
After a flurry of wet thuds, wounds bloomed across their bodies.
Faces turned cyan.
A closer look—every last one had already lost their lives.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the Host for completing Story Quest: The Minister's Tentacles.]
[Quest Requirement: Eliminate all assassins the Minister embedded in the Capital Guard.]
[Quest Rarity: Purple.]
[Reward Granted: Sennin Body.]
[Sennin Body: Here, "Sennin" refers not to the Naruto sense but to the High School DxD sense.
DxD Sennin are born with sen-ki, living in harmony with the Dao. Whether in arts/techniques or in close-quarters battle, they're blessed with unrivaled affinity.
—Melee: Sen-ki augments the body, and when fused with spirit and fighting will it sublimates into battle aura, making you nearly unstoppable up close.
—Ranged/Arts: Sen-ki empowers technique control. It raises compatibility with virtually all systems—every jutsu/technique/supernatural energy scales higher when coupled with sen-ki; together they…*]
[Ding!]
[Sennin Body acquired. Base physique enhanced. Overall power advanced to Mid-Ultimate-class Devil (Top Tier).]
The raw stat bump was secondary. What spiked first after obtaining the Sennin Body was his spirit and presence.
He merely stood there—yet a pressure like a living sun pressed outward.
Akuto turned toward General Budo, voice calm.
"General Budo, it seems there were rats in your ranks."
"As you saw, those weapons were poisoned."
Budo struggled to his feet—then his gaze snapped to the court minister.
The Minister! It could only be the Minister!
So that's why he'd so readily agreed to their arrangement—this was the trap.
"Your Majesty! This is my failure in command; my lax discipline allowed this to happen. I beg punishment!"
Budo turned and bowed to Furina-sama to confess his crime.
Furina was angry that someone dared attempt to assassinate Akuto—yet she waved it aside.
"General Budo, it's normal for a few spies to slip into the army. Don't mind it. Go back and conduct a thorough purge."
"As for punishment, forget it. I don't want to punish my general twice in one day."
"Akuto, and you too, General Budo—go rest first. Once you've recovered, I'll issue the imperial decree you wanted—right in front of you both."
—Half an hour later, Akuto, freshly changed into a brand-new court robe, entered the deepest palace hall side by side with Budo.
On the throne—
the little emperor sat cross-legged, white socks gleaming, pale legs lustrous as jade.
Even as the Minister kept shooting warning glances at her to behave, she couldn't be bothered.
All her attention was on Akuto.
"Interior Officer Akuto, guess—what office do I plan to grant you?"
The girl-emperor flicked the rolled decree with a fingertip, smiling sweetly.
"Whatever Your—no, Furina-sama's will decrees, I am willing to shoulder it for the realm," Akuto answered in a low voice.
"Good, good, good! Minister, read it."
Furina-sama, idly raising her exquisite pale feet, giggled and passed the decree to the dais.
The Minister's eyes flashed—then smoothed. He stepped forward and intoned:
"By Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees:"
"Interior Officer Akuto, virtuous and diligent, loving the people as his own children; while in office, his governance has been outstanding and his martial virtue abundant."
"Now, upon the joint recommendation of the Minister and General Budo, he is hereby appointed Imperial Governor—to command the Capital's civil administration, public security, and military affairs."
"Let him set his heart upon ordering the realm and benefiting the people."
"Thus is our drink." (Seal)
Imperial Governor—that was the post Budo and the Minister had crafted together for Akuto.
In the Minister's explanation that followed, Akuto realized just how broken this new office truly was.
"The Imperial Governor mainly oversees the affairs of Anvale City and the Imperial Capital's surrounding provinces. Three broad remits:
"First, he manages Capital civil administration, and jointly with the Minister oversees the Triad of top civil offices: Interior, Domestic, and Taxation—and all subordinate bureaus beneath them.
"Second, he commands Capital public security: the Capital Guard and all attached units.
"Third, he commands the newly established Imperial Capital Praetorian Guard. Under him sit three General posts and six Vice-General posts. He may claim three Teigu from the Imperial Treasury, or draft three Imperial Arms users from anywhere in the Empire.
"Given the scope of the Governor's authority, His Majesty (Her Majesty) grants the right to open a personal government. Governor Akuto may select his own staff to assist on civil and military matters.
"In short: if it concerns the Capital, much of it lies within the Governor's jurisdiction; even beyond the Capital he possesses investigative authority as needed."
After listening, Akuto was speechless.
Good grief—army, police, and civil administration, all three in one hand.
If he could snag the Tribunal (judiciary) on top of that, he could basically call himself little emperor.
(End of Chapter)
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