Am I even human?

Sinbad and Esdeath were clashing across the canyon causing the landscape to tremble beneath their power. Esdeath was gritting her teeth as she continued to throw blow after blow at Sinbad but he was just dodging like he was avoiding a cool breeze.

Sinbad avoided her blows and somersaulted into the air. He stood there looking down on Esdeath which made her feel all sorts of feelings. Anger, frustration and excitement. Esdeath knew she couldn't beat him but knew this was a valuable learning opportunity for her. She conjured some ice around her wrists and ankles.

She took a deep breath and focussed her mind and she then began to levitate. She continued to refine her control and eventually, she was moving effortlessly to Sinbad's height. Sinbad looked at her and knew that it was time to end this.

"Throw everything you have at me," Sinbad said.

"If that's what you wish," Esdeath replied.

Esdeath's aura got colder and Sinbad felt that the temperature in the area was dropping increasingly. The tattoo on Esdeath's chest illuminated ice blue and lit up the area blinding Sinbad. After the light dissipated Sinbad saw ice blue markings covering Esdeath's body similar to Akame's Teigu trump card 'Little War Horn' but Sinbad sensed an even greater danger like she had become unchained from all her shackles like a sealed primordial beast.

"Immortal Mahapadma," Esdeath said softly.

The markings on her body glimmered dark blue and Sinbad no longer moved. Esdeath had frozen space and time. Sinbad was suspended and vulnerable. Esdeath stepped gracefully towards his unmoving figure as the pupils of her eyes revealed the Demon Extract's marking within them. She raised her arm and millions of icicles surrounded Sinbad.

"This is my domain," Esdeath declared as she waved her hand and all the icicles locked onto Sinbad. They rushed at him and shot through his body as blood and flesh splattered everywhere. Sinbad felt agonising pain but couldn't move. He decided to get a little serious and a limitless strength leaked out from his body. His body rumbled as if a monster was awakening and he roared rattling the entire canyon. The others who were fighting in the south felt the place shake violently and knew shit was going on.

Esdeath was taken aback and saw his body healing at an astonishing rate. Sinbad's body was bathed in golden light then his figure was revealed. He had a long sabre in hand and resplendent golden orbs surrounding a golden ring. Sinbad's body had assimilated with a lion's body as his body was coated in royal golden fur.

Esdeath was in awe as she felt the majesty and pride radiating from Sinbad's body. Sinbad rushed at her unexpectedly and slashed his sabre. Esdeath summoned an ice blade and collided with the sabre. Esdeath was then sent flying into the distance by Sinbad's terrifying strength and then controlled herself.

"Beurteilung!" She shouted as a massive hammer descended from above went crashing down on Sinbad.

"Heaven's Rage," Sinbad said and a golden orb from above his head clashed with the hammer and detonated coating the sky in a sea of gold.

Esdeath responded by conjuring all the power in her body and a breathtaking gargantuan ice phoenix appeared in front of her. It was a beautiful work of art that even the gods would envy.

"This is my final attack Sinbad be prepared!" Esdeath warned waving her hand sending the phoenix flying to Sinbad.

The phoenix let out a cry as it menacingly made its way over to Sinbad. Sinbad grabbed one orb and fused it into his sabre. Sinbad roared and slashed down. The sabre descended slowly as Sinbad put more strength behind it. Sinbad felt more resistance and the air around the blade heating up like he was right beside the sun.

He completed his slash and then nothing happened. The Phoenix as if it had some intelligence looked mockingly at Sinbad before a divine light shot through the heavens and raced towards the Phoenix.

The Phoenix looked unwillingly and cried once again shooting towards the radiant heavenly slash racing towards her. The slash was devasting the ground below as if it was going to cut right through the earth.

The two met head-on and erupted creating a massive shockwave blowing back the clouds into the distance from the incredible force. Light shrouded the area as both Sinbad and Esdeath closed before being pushed back from the immense aftershock.

Soon, the light cleared and Esdeath was lying on the ground exhausted after expending so much in that attack. Sinbad saw her and flew towards her location. Esdeath saw that Sinbad didn't even break a sweat and smiled in defeat.

"It's my loss..." Esdeath managed to say weakly.

"Yeah, it is," Sinbad replied deactivating Full Djinn equip mode. He continued "You shouldn't do that next time. Your body was on the verge of breaking apart there."

"You think I didn't know that?" Esdeath answered sarcastically.

"I wanted to test my limits and I was pretty satisfied," Esdeath said.

"But I have to punish you for pulling off such a dangerous trick so you wouldn't do it again," Sinbad said sternly.

"Oh really?" Esdeath said amused as she regained some energy.

Sinbad picked up Esdeath on placed her on his knee which made her scream in surprise before she screamed in pain. Sinbad slapped Esdeath's bubble butt cleanly leaving a deep red handprint on her supple pale ass. Esdeath was in agony because Sinbad was using a lot of strength. Her eyes welled up as tears trickled down her face while she smiled and moaned in pleasure. Sinbad was now sure that she enjoyed this but still continued.

Esdeath continued to moan before she screamed and panted limping over Sinbad's knee. Sinbad knew she had orgasmed from getting slapped aggressively on the ass and couldn't help but look forward to what the future holds.

He positioned Esdeath into a princess carry and flew to Bulat and Sheele while Esdeath was still huffing after enjoying herself. Sinbad found Bulat and Sheele waiting patiently. The both of them were shocked to see Esdeath with Sinbad but they knew he must have good reasons for doing so.

"So why is Esdeath with you, Sinbad?" Bulat asked out of necessity.

"She's mine now," Sinbad said casually.

Bulat and Sheele were left jaw-dropped while Esdeath was blushing when Sinbad declared her as his. After a while, Bulat and Sheele recovered but still couldn't comprehend why this had taken place.

"Let's go see the others," Sinbad said before Esdeath interrupted "Sinbad there is something that I must inform you of,"

"What? That you're mine?" Sinbad questioned stupidly.

"No, not that. This is serious," Esdeath said with a serious expression on her face.

"Okay, we'll meet up with the others first then we'll discuss it back at base," Sinbad replied.

While Sinbad, Sheele and Bulat had their fight the other Night Raiders were wiping the floor with the Jaegars. Akame slashed out a flash of jet black lightning towards Bols. Bols was caught off guard because this wasn't on the scouting report. Then he got struck clean in the chest. His body convulsed epileptically as Murasame's curse crept creepily around his body like a spider. He stopped shaking and dropped to his knees then face planted into the ground.

Kurome who was struggling against Mine saw Bols die which made her scream in rage. She and her puppets rushed at Mine who had her cannons hovering beside her. Mine changed to machine gun mode and shot rapidly at the incoming enemies. The puppet Doya got blasted apart by one of the cannons when she tried to flank Mine. Natala went straight at Mine and swinging his Shingu Trisula which looked like Chinese Guandao. Mine shot at Natala as he deflected her bullets with east before her he had his head blown off by Najenda who ambushed him from the forest.

Kurome saw her puppets get decimated and that was when she turned her head and saw Susanoo and Tatsumi dismantle Death Tagool a giant dinosaur skeleton of a Danger Beast. Death Tagool got smacked right in the face with a wind shuriken shattering its jaw bone. While Susanoo extended the hidden blades within his staff and thrust straight at the weak point located on Death Tagool's collarbone. Death Tagool's upper torso fragmentized and exploded into a rain of bones.

Kurome knew that they lost and tried to escape before Akame and Leone appeared right behind her. Kurome dropped her sword because there was no way she was to leave unscathed. Leone walked over to Kurome with some rope and tied her up. Then came Seryu and Koro who was holding Wave in its mouth.

A minutes later, Sinbad teleported everyone down south and the destructive state the place was in. Canyon faces crumbled, forests destroyed and bodies lying cold on the floor. Anyone could tell things got rowdy here. Sinbad saw the group sitting and chatting while Kurome and Wave were tied up. Sinbad walked over while everyone apart from the girls were shocked to see Esdeath in Sinbad's arms.

"Sorry we're late but Esdeath has something to tell us so we don't have time to chat," Sinbad said and teleported everyone into the conference room of the base before anyone had a chance to say anything.

"Akame please untie those two," Sinbad said to which Akame complied.

Kurome and Wave were still confused as to why their boss was with their enemy but they saw her nod so they compliantly stayed silent. Everyone got seated around the table while Esdeath and Najenda stood side by side. Najenda was impatiently curious as to what Esdeath had to say. Esdeath waited for everyone to get settled.

"So what's so important?" Sinbad inquired wanting to know what's so important.

"I have to start explaining from the beginning so you understand the whole story," Esdeath said looking at Sinbad.

"Alright," Sinbad nodded his head and Esdeath took in a deep breath.

"It all begins with Sinbad's appearance in the capital on the night of the High King. After Sinbad's little show that rattled the entire Empire, it had put all political and military personnel on high alert from the average foot soldier all the way up to the Emperor. Honest had a faint premonition that Sinbad signalled the inevitable end for the current regime. Therefore, ever since then he had been trying to form contingency plans to rid of Sinbad completely,"

Everyone was stunned but this was to be expected. Sinbad was an anomaly unchecked and had arrived out from nowhere. It would make sense for Honest who was the true puppeteer in the Empire pulling the strings to be wary of Sinbad. Sinbad, however, felt different. He eyebrows furrowed and his body tensed up and he didn't know why.

"That was when one day, Honest had arrived back from a trip outside the Capital. This was a rare occurrence to take place because this was the first time Honest had left the Capital ever since becoming Prime Minister. When he arrived, he and his personal guards brought in an elderly man. The only thing I know about this old man is that his name is Archimedes,"

"Nothing else?" Najenda asked.

"No. Honest was particularly secret about this one," Esdeath replied.

"Wait why are you telling us this? Isn't this important information?" Lubbock questioned stroking his chin.

"Ever since Sinbad had defeated me, I was his. So now I don't belong to the Empire, I belong to him. Therefore the secrets I disclose is merely information for you now," Esdeath said with a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks.

"Wait, boss! What about us then?" Wave exclaimed.

"Kurome has her sister now but you Wave can either stay here or leave for the Empire but I recommend you stay and listen then you can decide whether you to be here or there," Esdeath advised.

Wave clenched his fists and couldn't accept that his boss had just changed sides so easily. His teammates had died, what do you expect him to do? Of course, he wanted to leave but he stayed because if he didn't he would deeply regret it. Esdeath saw his frustration and understood how he felt but this was how it went. The winner takes all.

"Is there anything else?" Sinbad asked staring at Esdeath.

"There is," Esdeath said looking at the people sat down and proceeded to say "When the elderly man Archimedes was brought in he was obviously captured from his home and taken forcefully for reasons unknown. But that was the last time I had seen Archimedes. He was either hidden away or killed but the former being the most likely. However, the main point which has gone unnoticed by everyone including you lot is that the Empire has been capturing people and bringing them to the palace,"

"Isn't that normal?" Leone asked raising her hand like she was in class.

"Yes it's normal on an everyday basis but it's the number of people that had been captured that's disturbing," Esdeath answered looking solemnly.

"How many have been captured?" Bulat asked hesitantly.

"Four million and counting..." Esdeath's voice trailed while the members of Night Raid even including Kurome and Wave were lost for words.

"W-What?!" Sinbad exclaimed standing up and slamming the table not wanting to believe Esdeath.

"It's true whether you want to deny it or not. Honest has been using the army take people from all over the Empire. Castles, towns and villages none of them were spared. The Empire has been calculatingly abducting people using different reasons such as epidemics, witches or possible uprisings. Honest has been utilising these methods to veil his agenda from you and the Revolutionary Army so you won't catch on because the Empire is notorious for these kinds of things. But the reason for capturing this number of people is unknown," Esdeath explained not saying explicitly what the probable outcome was of those people.

"W-W-WAIT! WHAT ABOUT MY VILLAGE!?" Tatsumi shouted all of a sudden standing up trembling from head to toe demanding to know an answer.

"What's the name of your village?" Esdeath asked calmly staring at the shook Tatsumi.

"Axhead Village in the North," Tatsumi quietly replied calming himself down after seeing Esdeath's tranquil countenance.

Esdeath stayed silent while the whole room held their breath. Eventually, Esdeath said something and the whole room collapsed. Tatsumi slumped into his chair while tears unceasingly fell from his eyes. Everyone lowered their heads as Tatsumi was in total anguish. Teardrops could be heard hitting the ground

Sinbad stared at Tatsumi, his friend and comrade in pieces as tears dripped from his eyes. His fists were balled up as blood cascaded onto the cold concrete floor. He was shaking uncontrollably thinking.

'What have I done?! I had the power to prevent all this but I insisted on playing around. All those lives are gone because of me. I was so ignorant to think this was just a story. What kind of friend am I?! This is all my fault! This is all my fault! This is all my fault!. Tatsumi's my friend but I let him down. Am I even human?'