Chapter 4: Curtain Call

All sounds in the world vanished for a moment as Emerald and Azure waves clashed and brought down apocalypse upon this world….

And the truth of the saying 'When god-like beings fight, the world and the mortals living in it shall suffer' was finally proven…

Some were disintegrated as nourishment as the all devouring emerald ray swept past them…

While some others were sentenced to frozen death as the azure waves enveloped them… 

The innocent and the guilty, the living and nonliving, none were spared! Even the planet itself had been ruined beyond repair as half of it had become an icy hell while the other half was turned into a barren wasteland filled with deadly radiation.

And once the apocalyptic clash for supremacy ended in a draw, the two beings responsible for the cataclysm were revealed.

First was a man in a hideous metallic red and silver armor akin to a devil from the deepest part of hell. 

He was Ryoma Nagare! and he was currently using the Battlesuit Mode of the Getter Emperor's Larva to show this dying world the shard of the Getter Emperor's power.

And in front of him was a woman which could be said as the perfect combination of elegance and fierceness. She was donned in a set of streamlined body armor made out of ice that fully covered all except her head with a translucent ice cape draped on her back that was flowing freely like regular fabric against the turbulent winds. A sigil of her iconic Teigu was visible on the front part of her chestplate and a crown of ice thorns decorated her head, complimenting her fluttering snow white hair.

She was the Ice Empress, Esdeath. The final champion of this world!

The two of them stood tall on their grounds. Both of their eyes fixated upon each other so they wouldn't miss even the most minute details from their opponents, and their bodies were akin to a half-pulled trigger of a gun, ready to execute the target in front of them at any moment.

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'Is this his true strength? Even with this newfound power of mine I still couldn't catch up to him– No… the gap only expands!' thought Esdeath in amazement at his seemingly boundless strength.

Her power had increased by leaps and bounds after using this new technique. But when she thought that she could finally stand on equal grounds with this monster, that belief was immediately shattered as he finally took her seriously… 

If the impression she got when fighting him a few moments prior was like a human against a goliath, now it was like an ant against a mountain, utterly impossible for her to match no matter what she does.

'And I don't have much time to spare…' She gripped her swords tighter, trying to hide the excruciating torment she felt so as to not show even the slightest moment of weakness for this monster to exploit.

Indeed, she absolutely couldn't maintain this form for an extended period of time as she could feel that her body had already begun falling apart caused by the sky shattering amount of energies contained inside her. Fortunately her monstrous regeneration was still barely able to keep up with the destruction, but for how long would this fragile balance last??

Calling her situation hopeless was an utter understatement. With a body that was already half-step away from its grave, she was forced to fight against an unbeatable monster. Sigh… even many mentally tough warriors would be tempted to just surrender directly if they were put in her shoes.

'Hehehehe…. AHAHAHAHA!' Nevertheless, she just laughed at those despairing thoughts in her mind. 

Surrender?? What a joke?! Even if she had to give up her life, she would absolutely drag this monster together with her to the deepest part of hell!

'Hahaha haa…. Fine, let's just see how strong you really are, Ryoma Nagare!' Then soon after, her maniacal grin ceased to exist, replaced with absolute solemnity as her desire for triumph was alighted like never before!

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["Such grace and prowess! Very befitting for an Empress!"] exclaimed Ryoma in amazement to his system assistant as he witnessed the transformation of his wife to be. 

From simply triggering harsh winter throughout the continent with her full power into turning the planet into the second Neptune if her energy outburst didn't get blocked by his own, she really had improved a lot from her canon counterpart and this brought a genuine smile to his face even though he played a really huge part in it. 

He wants his women to become stronger and he achieved that, isn't it something to be proud of?

And her new attire, such a perfect combination of regal allure and a warrior ferocity made him unable to take his eyes off her.

[Such tremendous increase in strength! Master, Lady Esdeath now has become a considerable threat for you! Her strength has reached 80% of yours with the bonus stats from pre-evolution Shin Getter!] warned his system assistant anxiously after finding out the sudden increase in her beloved's power.

["Enough to rip this planet apart huh? But, you don't have to worry that much as I'm currently using Shin Getter Battlesuit"] so he gave his overly cautious assistant reassurance as he was now at least a few thousand times more powerful than before. 

["In any case, how long until my Ice Empress collapses?"]

He worried more about his beloved's condition rather than her prowess because according to the information given by the sensors of his suit, he concluded that she was slowly but surely approaching her doom as the immense energy contained inside her body had begun to run rampant.

[But still…]

["Don't worry too much and just tell me how long until her body falls apart!"] ordered him with a tone that accepts no refusal.

Depending on the time his Ice Empress had, he could try to prolong the fight and make her adapt to her energy or end things quickly so she wouldn't die by exploding from the inside.

[Approximately 30 minutes…]

["Good, l can try to polish her even more... Though I still need to be careful with my strikes. Then how about The "Empty Vault" Scenario and Emperor's Larva feeding progress?"] He inquired about the other on-going objectives on his list after confirming the time his beloved had.

[All Teigus targeted for extraction and some new ones which have never been recorded in the database have been retrieved by your Getter Ray outburst and GM Sniper with its bloodhound team. And regarding Shin Getter, It has reached 3500 km in height after completely absorbing the Eastern Archipelago and it's currently going to absorb the southern hemisphere so it won't disturb your fight.]

["Did GM Sniper face any resistances?"] He asked again with slightly more interest, he was kind of curious if what was on his mind really happened or not.

[Except for having to endure the energy outburst of Lady Esdeath for a while, it didn't face any more resistance]

["Oh, how so?"] 

[Master, All life on this planet, except you and Lady Esdeath was extinct after both of your energies clashed, including those Teigu holders….]

["Damn…."]

Yeah it had truly happened, the complete massacre of a series whole cast! Though it was a pity that those pitiful girls had to perish but it is what it is, at least his top priority was still alive and his side goals of collecting Teigus had been completed perfectly.

[Then, Do you want me to recall Shin Getter as reinforcement?]

["Hmm no, that's not necessary. Anyway, collateral damages tend to happen but we just need to move on! Theresa, don't forget to retrieve their remains because they're still useful for later."]

[Roger that!]

Their conversation seemed long but actually not even one second had passed in the real world, courtesy to their immensely high speed stat.

'Sorry my dear, but this will hurt a little!'

["Getter Tomahawk!"]

A pair of huge battle axes were launched from his shoulder pads into his hands, then green lightning started to arch around his armor as its yellow visor began to shine menacingly. He would give her a beating of a lifetime! Then pamper her a lot after that as an apology…

["Now let's begin!"]

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"Hagel des Unheils!" (Hail of Doom!)" Esdeath finally decided to break the standoff with a fierce appetizer called off by a snap of her fingers.

Ice shards, countless in numbers, began to appear out of thin air all around her and without needing her to give further command, they hurled themselves towards their prey like a cloud of crazed locusts!

Clank! Clank! Clank!

But those endless shards, even though every single one of them packed more punch than the 'Reverse Mountain', still couldn't do anything to the armored red devil as he just stood still in his ground menacingly with a pair of huge battle axes in hand, not even a scratch was seen on that hideous armor of his.

"Ohh, is that it? I thought the rain would last much longer…" the devil mocked her as her barrages, which only felt like comfortable rain, finally stopped and he began to slowly approach her step by step.

"Well~ I can't afford to disappoint you, can't i?" She lifted her right palm upwards then something amazing yet could possibly be gruesome happened...

The remains of the icicles around the devil which were broken upon hitting him grew into countless ice thorns which stabbed him with even more powerful impact from all directions, not leaving a single spot on his armor untouched!

Everyone from this World would be turned into a bloodied honeycomb instantly if they got hit by this, but this damn monster? She was only able to lock him in place with the extended thorns acting like a makeshift imprisonment as even after literally hitting him from all directions, she still couldn't find the gap in his defense. 

"Hahaha, oh well.. this is quite decent~" The monster even mocked her again as her assault was proven to be useless once more. She too could see that cracks had begun forming on his ice thorn prison, signaling to her that he would break free sooner or later.

But her aim wasn't really hurting him with this technique, it was just to buy time for her to execute this next, devastating one!

"Thank you~ and you don't need to hurry to get out of that place!!"

"Wha–" 

The red devil failed to respond to her words as he was instantly encased by a gigantic iceberg made out of the transforming ice thorn prison after she clenched her uplifted palm, turning him into an ice sculpture….

...…..

"Eh? That's it?" the Ice Empress wondered aloud while still maintaining her utmost vigilance as she somehow didn't see any sign of movements from the monster after she successfully froze him.

She too could see that the green crystals on his armor and his yellow visors had already dimmed, so did she really manage to defeat him with just that? Was it really that easy?!

Crack! Crack!

"Hahaha yeah that's not enough!" 

Her question was answered soon after as the ice coffin began to crack and light returned to his visors once again.

"But like hell I will let you!" In response, she joined both of her palms in front of her chest and the almost broken Ice Coffin began to repair itself at an even faster rate than its destruction.

Even so, her goal wasn't to just rebuild his imprisonment, but to turn that coffin into his true burial ground!

"Grab des Endes!" (Grave of The End)

Following her command, seemingly endless amounts of frost energy from all over the frozen half of the planet began to converge into the coffin, strengthening the seal of the Demon so it wouldn't be able to escape the next part of this attack which was signed by the continuously intensifying radiant blue light!

BOOM!!

Then a colossal explosion of azure finally erupted, annihilating nearly half of the former blue planet!

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"Haa…. ha… did it work?" said The Ice Empress with labored breath as she emerged from a protective ice cocoon, far away from the explosion's epicenter.

She was quite tired after repeatedly casting 'Mahapadma' successively to escape from the explosion and to put that monster in a timelock, as she knew that he could easily adapt and break free from her time freeze if she only casted it once.

"Wow…. " and she exclaimed in amazement after she took flight to the sky to inspect her surroundings.

Huge chunks of the World were literally gone, making the view quite odd yet it fascinated her to no end…

And weird natural disasters, unthinkable for her previously, had begun churning the remaining part of the earth. Torrents of Magma bursting out from the ground, colossal earthquakes which split the world apart, and more which made it look like the world was about to end….

All of those were caused by her alone which filled her heart with genuine happiness! She never would've thought that she had become so strong that one of her attacks literally caused a world ending apocalypse!

"Hahaha no, it was thanks to him…" she laughed and shook her head. 

Indeed, without that monster's blessing, she would never reach this far.

"Umm, you're welcome I guess?" 

And speaking of the devil, he literally appeared again in front of her eyes, with huge demonic metal wings unfurled on his back which made that monicker even more suitable.

"Oh well, it seems like that didn't even work too huh? As expected" she greeted the red devil with a subtle smile after seeing that he still was alive and well without any scratch on his armor.

Even after getting hit with a world ending attack, he was still fine and dandy? What was he really made of…

'I really have no choice from the beginning huh? I guess I can only use that…' So, she finally decided to use her last ditch effort to drag him down with her!

But In order for her final attack to bear fruit, she needed to buy time to converge as much energy as possible inside of her body and to detonate it at point-blank range so baiting him into a melee was the best decision.

"So how about round 2? Up close and personal?" Thus, she challenged the monster to it while conjuring two ice sabers in both of her hands. 

"Heh? why not?" 

And the demon just went along with her whim, was he that confident in his capabilities? Obviously he was…

"But don't think that i will let you be like before~" 

Then the demon suddenly appeared right in front of her, his right battle axe was already coming down to split her head apart from above, though when his blade of doom just about to touch her crown…

"Mahapadma!" 

The fatal strike which should've been unavoidable, was fortunately frozen in time. Even so, it only managed to delay his blade for just a few slight moments but it was enough for her to use her twin swords to deflect his deadly blow.

CLANG!!

'Ugh! Heavy!!'

Loud metallic sound reverberated in the sky of the ruined world as her swords finally clashed with his axe and it made her arms feel like they were about to give up but they kept holding on with sheer will.

But she realized one thing, while his earlier attack was definitely the strongest one she had received, it felt like a beast's attack which only relied on brute force without any finesse. So she concluded that her opponent, while amazingly strong, never had any experience in wielding weapons, and she could exploit this weakness of his to land her coup de grace!

"Whoa!"

Then as expected, his balance was broken when she successfully redirected his blow further downwards which made his position really awkward and utilizing this opportunity, she delivered a combined slash with both of her swords towards his neck.

"Tch! Mahapadma!" 

Though she stopped her slash mid way and dodged backwards as a blindingly fast spinning backhand slash from the axe on his left hand was coming towards her neck which she once again froze alongside time.

"Hehehe~ I almost got you~" the demon let out a snicker after barely failing to claim her head.

"That… won't happen again!" and true to her name as an Ice General, she responded to his cheap taunt coldly as she went on the offensive once again. 

"That's the spirit~" replied the demon teasingly as he met her strikes with his own.

Thus, the fiercest and deadliest harmony of blades in her life had finally begun!

Strength? She was utterly outmatched as every single one of his strikes she took on with meticulous care and precision still made the bones in her whole body tremble…

Speed? She was only able to keep up with him by abusing the hell out of repeated activation of Mahapadma to slow him down…

But she had aces in her sleeves! Her graceful technique which she had grinded for years and her final attack! She had a chance to slay this monster!

So as her blades kept clashing with the demon, slowly yet surely she lost herself inside the lethal symphony of blades alongside him.

Whether when the sky was split….

Whether when the land was torn asunder…

Whether when the world was shaking, as if crying for the two god-like beings to give it mercy….

All of them were pitifully ignored since the pair only had the enemy in front of them in their eyes, mind, and soul as their blades kept clashing and clashing for supremacy without any care for the ongoing apocalypse.

But even so, One had to fall in this deadly waltz…

Crash!

Esdeath's swords finally couldn't handle the burden of struggling against the Demon's battle axes, leaving her unarmed and could only wait for the reaper to claim her soul.

"You have done well but…." The reaper took his time, savoring every last moment before he harvested her life. "This is the end!" And following his words, he swung his battle axes towards her defenseless neck from both sides, the cold gleam in their blades signifying her inevitable end.

Even then, seeing the imminent death with her own eyes didn't make her cower in fear, it only made a smile bloom on her face because….

'Now!'

Her preparation had been completed!