You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

However, the young man who was bearing the main pressure remained calm. He patted his shoulders and brushed away the frost on them.

"Just a piece of ice, not even half as good as me~"

And at this moment——

"Duan Kong!"

Zheng! ! !

An invisible wall of spiritual pressure stretched across the sky, and countless ice knives and frost blades were bounced away, but Iori below was unharmed.

"Reflecting the myriad things, flowing through the ten thousand voids;

All things are impermanent, and there is a limit to their gains and losses—"

Clang!

Before the chanting was over, Esdeath couldn't wait to swing her sword. Iori took the even more fierce blow. The chill from the sword seemed to penetrate his entire body. If he were an ordinary person, he would be frozen into an ice sculpture just by coming into contact with it, right?

But even so, it still couldn't cause any ripples in his mood.

The sword of Tian Congyun was shining brightly, and the clear sword blade was painted with a deep and ancient color, reflecting Iori's face like a mercury mirror - not a mask, but his true appearance.

"Concentrate, Mingjingzhishui!"

Volume 65: The White Moonlight of the Entire Seireitei: Chapter : When did you have the illusion that you would win?

When the condensed spiritual pressure was released, transparent ripples visible to the naked eye swept through the atmosphere. The cold wind and frost were all dispelled at this moment, and the world seemed to stand still for a moment.

Even Esdeath was shocked by this momentum, but the surging power in her body soon helped her break through her confusion, and the fire of warlike passion ignited in her eyes.

“That’s what makes it fun!”

clack clack clack-

The entire iceberg collapsed in an instant, and the fragments turned into armored knights of varying sizes, holding up swords and spears from all directions, leaving him no room to dodge.

The individual combat power of these Ice Knights is stronger than that of ordinary soldiers but inferior to that of Imperial Equipment Users. However, their numbers are almost endless, and they are simply an undead army!

Esdeath did not expect to win the game with this, but only used it to consume Iori's physical strength. Because she found that Iori had a trick to release energy, but he did not seem to use it very often, and concluded that his accumulation was far less profound than hers!

It has to be said that her judgment was extremely accurate. Although Iori's spiritual pressure was considered to be at the top among the vice-captains, and its quality was condensed and refined, but in terms of energy scale... it was indeed not as good as Esdeath who could freely control the celestial phenomena. At least she could not squander it as casually as she did.

but!

If you want to overwhelm Iori with human wave tactics, you are making a big mistake!

Various weapons attacked from all directions. It seemed that he had no choice but to resist. However, Iori said one word calmly:

"Lan~"

Hiss—bang!

Various weapons pierced Iori's body, but no blood flew out. Only the sound of air being torn was heard, and then the ice knights collided with each other due to inertia!

Like an illusion or mist, Iori walked out calmly from among the countless pieces of ice.

"What is that? A hallucination?"

Esdeath subconsciously thought that it was some kind of deception, but the next moment the strong wind coming from the front and the sense of crisis rising in her heart broke this guess.

Clang!

The saber and the sword of Ame Murakumo collided again, and the cold air surrounding Esdeath was actually cut by some invisible sharp blade. The stinging feeling passed across her cheek, making the Ice Queen feel a chill in her heart.

After just one fight, she deeply felt the changes in Iori.

Not only her, this man's basic abilities have also been greatly improved!

"Did he release the energy he stored in advance? It seems to be the same type of ability as mine!"

This discovery made Esdeath even happier. She secretly memorized Iori's ability to avoid the Ice Knight's virtualization, but her hands did not slow down at all. She was more bold than men and continued to attack Iori with her vigorous swordsmanship.

But Iori refused to give in. The two men stood in place and fought continuously at a speed beyond the reach of the naked eye. Dozens of moves were made in just a few breaths. The splashing wind pressure easily cut through the hard ice wall, making a sharp sound like a ghost's howl.

clang——boom!

The collision of the full-force attack bounced the two people away, and the intersecting sword pressure directly cut off an ice peak.

The huge iceberg fell, and the two people's eyes met, and the next moment they were separated by the iceberg——

Iori remained calm, but Esdeath was shrouded in shadow.

"Why... no, I'm the strongest!"

In the seemingly evenly matched battle just now, Esdeath vaguely sensed something, but she was unwilling to admit it. She shouted as if to cheer herself up, and then her long ice-blue hair swung up, and the queen did a roundhouse kick to hit the side of the iceberg.

This blow was like the first domino. Countless cracks instantly spread to the entire iceberg, and it shattered into countless spikes with a loud bang. It was like an impenetrable torrential rain that completely covered the space near Iori!

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!

Dense ice spikes "passed through" his body without even a second's break, but Iori stood still without moving, as if he was just an illusion. Every inch of his body was constantly switching between "spirit particles" and "spiritual body", and he did not suffer any harm throughout the whole process.

But he also knew that this was definitely not Esdeath's last trump card.

Sure enough, the next moment the ground beneath his feet began to shake, and huge walls of ice rose from the ground, towering like mountains, and even formed an ice cap like the sky, covering the sky.

With Iori and Esdeath as the center, the area within a radius of 300 meters was turned into a completely enclosed ice fortress!

"Although I don't know what magic tricks you used, but since our weapons can intersect, you must exist as a physical entity, just as difficult to touch as water mist."

Esdeath was determined to win: "In that case, I will have no choice but to build a cage for you that you cannot escape from!

I will freeze the entire atmosphere. No matter you are a ghost or a phantom, you will sleep forever in this huge tomb!"

"…Bad luck."

Iori sighed slightly: "You and I are really not compatible."

“Isn’t it too late to regret now?” Esdeath showed a sadistic smile. “You should have realized this long ago before you tried to anger me with such arrogant words!”

"No, I mean you're unlucky, and..."

Iori raised his eyelids, revealing his dark eyes from under his messy hair, and glanced at her indifferently.

"When did you get the illusion that you were going to win?"

——【Nagi】

The tip of the sword, shining with mercury, touched the ice surface, and like a breeze blowing on the surface of a lake, slight ripples quickly spread out, sweeping across the entire ground and the surrounding ice wall in the blink of an eye, and finally converging into a point on the dome -

Drop~

Esdeath's thoughts became fuzzy, and her brain seemed to be cleared of all thoughts. A moment of confusion flashed across her face, but the killing instinct in her subconscious made her wake up immediately.

As she was astonished, the surrounding scenery had changed drastically. The smooth ice surface reflected the figures of her and Iori. Countless lights and shadows superimposed on each other from all directions, as if they had walked into a kaleidoscope, which was dazzling.

She would not be fooled by the mere visual effect. What really made her uneasy was:

The solid ice that should have been under her complete control now seemed to be covered by something, making her sense hazy.

For her, who has always been strong, this feeling of being the host is too disturbing!

"Where are you looking?"

A faint voice sounded, and it was quite close!

Esdeath suddenly raised her head and saw Iori three meters in front of her!

Sudden!

With a flash of her body, the female hunter jumped back ten meters away, tightly grasping the saber in her right hand, her eyes fixed on Iori, not missing any slight movement.

However, unexpectedly, Iori did not attack her while she was distracted, allowing her to escape from the attack range, and did not make any move to stop her from beginning to end.

He just asked calmly: "Why do you want to retreat?"

"—!"

"If you wanted to kill me for sure, you should have gotten close and brought down the blade instead of running away like a rabbit without thinking."

Esdeath opened her eyes wide, her pupils trembled slightly, her beautiful face was expressionless, but she seemed to be deeply touched by something.

"I... escaped?"

"Feeling fear at the approach of a powerful enemy, the body is driven by the instinct for survival to move - this is called 'escape'.

There is no need to be ashamed of this. Human beings are driven forward by the fear of powerful enemies, and that is the most primitive driving force.

You should be happy about this. As the 'strongest', you haven't felt fear for a long time. You haven't pursued a stronger state under the stimulation of instinct for a long time, right?"

“…What nonsense!”

The Ice Queen gritted her teeth and smiled like a wild beast: "How could I be dominated by fear! On the contrary, I conquered everyone's fear!

The temporary retreat is for a better advancement. Only by keeping a distance can I shoot you!"

With her hands open, a white spear appeared in between, and the Ice Queen threw it with all her might, instantly piercing through circles of transparent ripples in the atmosphere!

“Distance only has meaning in a contest of equal strength. To you and me, distance is meaningless.

Look, if I do this—"

Even though the spear "pierced" through his head, Iori instantly appeared in front of Esdeath, with the two fingers of his left hand together pointing at Esdeath's chest.

"My hand will almost immediately touch your heart."

Clang!

A cold light flashed by, and the saber was suppressed by the sword of Ame Murakami as soon as it was raised.

boom!

His left hand swept across, and a ray of white light wrapped around the sword finger drew a trajectory like a waning moon, knocking away all the sharp ice spikes that attacked from the blind spot.

"What—" Esdeath's mind was shaken again and again.

Why... this man was not so powerful that she could not reach him, but why... from the beginning to now, she was still unable to truly touch him, as if she was not fighting with a real person, but an imaginary reflection in the water!

"Mu Da Da~"

Iori's eyes were calm, as if nothing was worthy of surprising him.

"Within this realm, all your actions are completely secretive, including your breathing, blood flow, muscle relaxation... no changes can escape my eyes.

For example, your hands are shaking."

Trembling? Me?

Esdeath stared at her right hand holding the saber, and indeed found that there was a slight fluctuation, which made her feel extremely absurd and even wanted to laugh.

She has lived in a cruel environment of the survival of the fittest since she was a child. To her, the world is a huge hunting ground where she either hunts others or becomes the prey!

She had brushed shoulders with death countless times, but now she was trembling when facing the enemy!

what……

“…Hahaha…hahahahaha!!!”

The heart was beating, the blood was almost flowing backwards, and powerful energy gushed out from the woman's body, enveloping everything around her like a substance, even the invisible air seemed to be solidified.

And this was just the prelude, a more violent energy fluctuation suddenly erupted -

"too slow."

Iori remained calm and just as he said, nothing in the area escaped his eyes, even the flow of the icy energy in Esdeath's body.

No matter how fast the moves are, as long as there are steps of flow, condensation, and release, the time consumed will definitely not be zero!

What's more... Esdeath's brewing process is too lengthy~

——【Clear】

Ka!

The ice mirror shattered, the towering wall was cut in half, and the frozen atmosphere showed thousands of cracks before resuming its flow.

The queen seemed to have just woken up from a dream. She knelt on the cold ice in a trance, her long hair falling down and spreading out like beautiful tassels...

Volume 66: The White Moonlight of the Entire Seireitei: Chapter : He beat Esdeath to her knees—

Tick...tick...tick...

Blood flowed from a shallow wound on the slender and white neck, flowing down the arm and soaking the military uniform, then condensed at the fingertips and finally fell, dripping onto the ice surface and solidified into rolling beads in an instant.

Esdeath had a dull look on her face, and seemed unwilling to accept what was happening before her, but she was helpless and could not escape the gravity of reality. She gradually realized the fact that "she was still alive."

"I...am not dead?"