3 Chapter 2: A Not So Friendly First Contact

A week has passed since he began his training…

In this short span of time, he managed to achieve some of his goals albeit sacrificing his sleeping time that he didn't really need anymore because after undergoing the fusion, he was now akin to a machine that could work endlessly, plus he doesn't need to eat and drink anymore because the endless amount of energy that is provided by his heart is enough to cover for those needs.

He had been able to improve the control over his strength significantly. At first when he punched a tree, he annihilated everything in front of him for tens of meters even though he did it casually. Now? he could manage the damage only into a fist sized hole without causing unnecessary destruction.

In fact, he achieved this feat in the first hour of his training session! That was all thanks to the coordination of his adaptive and constantly evolving body with his supercomputer like mind which kept precise control over all of his power and energy usage. The rest of the time, he used it to familiarize himself with his mechs and experimenting with Getter Ray.

Starting from its basic function such as molding it into many forms for different purposes, controlling its power output, until the more complex ones like testing its regenerative properties to machines and flesh, then last but not least, the evolution/devolution of organisms. 

He had turned some trees and animals into their Jurassic era counterparts. He even managed to turn humans he kidnapped from the shore of mainland into monkeys! That was a fun experience to say the least.

Anyway, they were all criminals so experimenting with people like them surely wouldn't put a burden on his mind.

The evolution process was somehow more difficult than devolution. He needed to use more Getter Rays intensity to slowly alter them but if he used too much then they would be absorbed by him.

He too could choose what he would evolve them into, their higher forms or another very dangerous species, "The Invaders".

They're infectious organisms with great regenerative ability that are capable of surviving in almost any environment, and possess the ability to immediately adapt to any environmental shift with the exception of environments bathed in intense Getter Radiation. This extreme adaptability comes with an instinct to consume everything that could hold a shred of use. 

The morphed organism's body color would start to darken and they began to grow sharp tentacle-like appendages along with eyes all around their body. They also showed signs of extreme voracity by trying to devour everything around them either by biting or using their tentacle-like appendages.

The only way to dispose of them effectively is by using physical weapons that are coated by Getter Rays or Getter Beam to make their whole genetic structure collapse from over-evolution.

But there is an easier way to evolve organisms, it's to make them his chosen one like what Getter Emperor did to some humans. They were able to survive in intense Getter Ray radiated environments and became strong enough to hold the G force from piloting a mech that was moving with immense velocity.

He tried that on some humans he kidnapped. The result was quite astonishing but still within Ryoma's expectation. They actually became younger, more good looking, and more powerful. He too noticed that they made some kind of connection with him that enabled him to transfer his endless energy reserves to them seamlessly. But when he amplified the Getter Ray intensity thrice of the initial amount, they started to trash around in pain as their body started to slowly melt into the ray and got completely absorbed by it.

Currently he could only pick 3 chosen ones simultaneously but he was pretty sure that the limit would increase as he and Shin Getter Robo evolved even further.

Regarding the people of interest that he asked Theresa to find and monitor, they were all still alive and well. All Night Raid members, the corrupt imperial police captain, Ogre, even The blonde girl with dark family secrets, Aria, were still alive and kicking excluding Tatsumi because he hadn't managed to track him in the capital. 

So he concluded that canon hadn't even started...

As for his top priority in this world other than nuking the Empire, she was currently commanding her army to quell the rebellion of the Northern Tribe. Their first clash was near and it would lead into a stalemate for a while until She led the charge by herself, swiftly eradicating them once and for all.

Her dance in the battlefield, her sadistic side when torturing people, and more! He definitely wouldn't miss those amazing spectacles!

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"Theresa…. Issue a Main Quest for me…" with a dark voice, he ordered the quest's creation to his system assistant. 

Main Quests….. Things he really wants to achieve, Things he deeply desires. To trigger them, he needs to focus all of his mind and heart for those, and in this case..

[Very well! Now channel all of your desires, Master!]

'Esdeath!'

One name, recited countlessly by his mind and heart with deep longing and obsession as Eerie smile starts to creep upon his face and his eyes start to darken. But The System Notification fortunately popped out in time when he was almost lost amidst his growing insanity and brought him back to reality.

[Great Desire detected!!]

[Adjusting Goals and Rewards..]

[New Main Quest has been successfully added!]

["Waltzing on Glaciers of Blood"]

[Objectives: Defeat Esdeath and Make Her fall in love with you completely!]

[Rewards: Ultimate Wedding Rings Set x1, Soul Marriage Token x1, Esdeath Custom Made Unit x1]

"Perfection~ i get the gist of those but mind explaining them even further Theresa?"

His eyes had regained their light but his expression was still tinted with a hint of obsession, it seemed like his previous act just snapped something inside of him….

[My apologies, Master. You need to obtain those rewards first before I'm allowed by the system to describe them in detail.]

"Hmm… fair enough… then how is the battlefield status?".

[Some small skirmishes have already happened but Lady Esdeath still hasn't made her move yet.]

"As expected of her, some insects wouldn't make her bat an eye. Wait… why did you address her as 'Lady'?" He raised an eyebrow at how she addressed Esdeath.

[Because she is my future Mistress, your future partner, Master. Some form of respect is mandatory]

"Understandable… but you behaved more and more like a maid recently."

[I'm your Assistant so it's not wrong to call me that. Then may I ask you a question, Master?]

 "Go ahead"

He was quite intrigued. It was rare for his assistant to ask him something....

[Why Lady Esdeath? According to this world's database she is a highly dangerous and mentally unstable individual so why do you desire her so much?]

She asked with confusion and a hint of concern in her voice. The woman her master greatly desired is bloodthirsty, genocidal, has twisted moral value, and more! Logically, those characteristics should make her a very unappealing partner for men. She couldn't understand, there are many better choices for her master's partner in this world for example Akame or Najenda.

"She is not that bad you know? you must have known that she could change a lot when she fell in love"

[Let me see… She showed signs of obsessive love disorder while still retaining her dangerous traits when that happened… Master, she has another mental issue!] 

Her future Mistress is dangerous for her Master wellbeing, she has to find a way to change her Master's mind! 

"That is even better~ Enticing but terrifying possessiveness and obsession, Willingness to burn the world for her loved one, and most importantly.. absolute loyalty. Ahhh~ how amazing~"

At this moment, Theresa realized that her Master has a few screws loose on his head too…

[Master… Your fetish is dangerous. You might end up getting your heart stabbed by a mad woman in the future.]

"Is that a flag? well don't worry too much, my heart is the toughest part of my body~"

[...]

Yep, her master is already beyond help. Seems like her job will become even harder in the future…

"Anyway, let's stop this idle talk as I have an Ice Queen to melt and blood to shed."

His expression immediately returned to normal and his eyes became more focused. 

"Launch Shin Getter Robo and activate its absorption field, let's start from this island then the lands surrounding the main continent" 

[Affirmative! Shin Getter-1, Launch!]

With a spark of green light, a menacing 50 m tall red mecha appears in front of him and immediately its surroundings for 200 m radius start to be absorbed by it excluding Ryoma of course.

Shin Getter's size and absorption field began to visibly grow and the island's landmass started to shrink with more time passes, Ryoma too felt the little but steady increase in his strength. Then as an act of respect for the island that had served as his training ground for this past week and food for his growth, he cupped his hands in front of his chest and bowed down.

"Farewell O Unnamed Island, your aid won't be forgotten and your legacy will continue to live inside me.."

After saying his goodbye, He immediately flew to the North at top speed because he was quite impatient to meet his Ice Queen.

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The Northern Tribes are a group of people who live in the lands far north of The Empire. Their society consists of small tribes scattered throughout their territory. The tribes are fairly modern, as they are shown to have buildings and steam workshops. 

Its largest city (and possibly the capital) served as a powerful stronghold with great natural barriers as it is surrounded by mountains with only one entrance viable for large armies to access, making it quite easy to set up ambushes against invaders. Furthermore, this city is led by Numa Seika, the major hero within their military and the prince of the north. 

But this once mighty city had been turned into ruins after a few minutes of futile struggle against The Imperial Army led by General Esdeath. All of the northerners' preparations, traps, and strategies were all single handedly decimated by her overwhelming prowess.

Its citizens are turned into toys for the invading imperial soldiers be it men and women, young and old, all of them are subjected to inhumane tortures that's quite difficult to describe even with thousands of words. 

Its mighty hero, the pillar of hope for the northerners, was turned into a pathetic mess that was currently prostrating while crying and begging for mercy for his people in front of Esdeath. 

'Pathetic'

That was all she could say about him. She expected someone who would fight until the bitter end from someone who was called as The Hero of the North but after torturing his family a "little" the hero turned into this failure.

"So… Will you do anything?" thus asked the Ice General boredly.

"YES! YES! ANYTHING!!" and the hero answered while banging his head to the ground as he thought that he finally saw a glimpse of salvation for his people and he wouldn't let this chance slip away.

"Hmmm…"

After thinking for a bit, she finally decided on something that would definitely humiliate him even further.

"Strip, and act like a dog!"

"H-huh?!"

"Do I have to repeat myself?"

Her gaze on the failure immediately became colder when she heard his response, signifying that she would do worse things to his family if he continued to make her wait.

"N-no no no, i'll do it!"

Left with no choice, he started to strip his armor as he was truly afraid of angering this demon even more.

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"She's even more brutal in reality huh? Medieval Earth's torturers would beg her to become her disciples if they saw her methods" Ryoma said as got up from his seating position in the sky then began to do some stretching. 

He had been watching the atrocities Esdeath committed alongside her army from the beginning, and he must say that they were quite eye opening. Some of them could even make him cringe a little, especially the ones she used on Numa Seika's family.

Why didn't he save those innocent people? Well, he was too absorbed in watching those horrifying scenes which were impossible to replicate even in the horror movies with the highest budget from his previous life. And to be fair, it wasn't his responsibilities anyway....

[So…. would you change your mind, Master?] His assistant asked with even more concern as it turned out Her Mistress candidate was actually even more terrifying than what the system database had recorded.

"Hmmm~ No~? Anyway, regarding Shin Getter Robo.. How far is the progress?" though he ignored her warning and inquired about other stuff to divert the topic.

A few hours ago, he suddenly received a huge boost in his strength out of nowhere so in reflex he checked his quick launch tab and saw that Shin Getter Robo name had an additional [Emperor's Larva] remark to it.

[Yes, Master. It has evolved after it reached the 6000 meters tall threshold and it's now currently in the process of devouring the eastern archipelago. But, It has received some small resistances from the natives.]

If the Eastern Country's Army that was fighting with all their might to fend off the Invincible red giant hear that their resistance was considered as "small", they might do seppuku on the spot immediately…..

"Make it quick, we don't need to unnecessarily prolong those poor people's suffering"

While the torture methods of Esdeath fascinated him quite a lot, he wouldn't apply those on some innocent passerby. He would only use them to those who really deserved it.

'Wait, doesn't she count as one?'

Now that he thought about it, the woman he was going to take as a partner deserved those kinds of treatment because of her atrocities....

'Nah, I can fix her... wait, am i being a hypocrite right now?'

Hell yeah he was! But humans are hypocrite anyway so him, being a human himself wasn't exempt from that....

Okay, he would rough her up a little bit for her punishment...

"Oh.. that's our cue to step in, disable Shin Getter shared stats except the durability and recall all deployed feather drones"

Seeing that the defeated hero began to strip his armor, he decided that it was time to step in for his long awaited duel with her. No, not because he wouldn't let her see another man stripping naked in front of her, definitely not!

[Affirmative!]

This time she wouldn't question her Master rash decision because his safety should be guaranteed while he was keeping Shin Getter durability. She too understood that he wanted to have fun while making both himself and Lady Esdeath evolve in combat, her Master didn't want to end things instantly after all.

A few seconds later….

A swarm of flaming drones arrived and immediately got into a formation resembling burning wings on his back.

"Let's go with this"

He then took out a burning vermilion greatsword with a taiji symbol on its guard. It's the main weapon of Zhen Zhu Que, The Flames of Duality.

[Stay safe, Master. I will immediately back you up if things get dangerous]

"Thank you Theresa, then.. Ryoma Nagare, Launching!" He then dived into the ground with blinding speed, the blazing wings on his back created trails of flames akin to a falling comet. 

And once his foot made contact with the failed hero's head, he activated one of Zhen Zhu Que trump cards.

"[Four Beast System: Flaming Sky]!"

Burst of red particles immediately spread throughout the whole Northern City, scorching every single thing inside it, followed by a wave of flaming explosions, turning them into ashes.

This was just his greetings for her, she would surely be able to live from this right?

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A moment before the impact….

"?!!"

Esdeath's survival instincts suddenly flared up to the maximum as she reflexively conjured a thick ice wall to protect her and The Three Beasts from the unknown falling object.

BOOM!!

But the ice wall failed to fulfill its purpose as it was immediately exploded into a burst of vapor from the impact and the red particles that spread from the epicenter with blinding speed. 

Everything touched by them was burned into cinders. The buildings, the tortured people, her soldiers, and even her Three Beasts weren't able to escape their doom as they weren't fast enough to evade. Her only trump card that was able to counter the red particles, 'Ice Commander in Chief' would take too long for her to cast so she could only continue evading the storm while occasionally conjuring ice barriers to buy time, but alas they were all useless as the red storm just bypassed them all like they didn't even exist.

'Is this the end?..... NO! IT'S NOT!!'

Her life flashed in front of her eyes when the crimson storm of death was almost catching up to her but she refused to surrender herself into the embrace of death! Not when she hadn't even put up a decent fight!

"Mahapadma!"

As if answering her desire to survive, the looming vermilion wave of death stopped just a few inches away from her whole body. She managed to freeze time itself right before death came to accept her in its cold, or in this case, scorching embrace.

And sing this crucial opportunity, she conjured ice bracelets on both of her wrists and ankles then controlled them to make her levitate high into the sky.

Time flows again…

The red wave of death continues to travel for miles through the city walls before stopping, then a following explosion of flames sweeps through the area, obliterating everything into ashes.

"Haa… haa…. i survived.."

She unleashed everything she had to use that new technique, even now she was only barely able to maintain her floating state. 

But she survived… that was all that matters.

Then she once again looked at the city she had successfully captured.

What was left of it was only a scorched land covered by smoke and ashes. The previously mighty city, The Bastion of The North, was now only a smoldering remains…. 

"Everyone…" She gritted her teeth in anger.

Her soldiers, especially her three most trusted subordinates… She lost all of them! They died because they were weak, but still, they were her responsibility too as their General. 

"So, there really is someone strong here.. good~"

A deep masculine voice from the smoke-covered smoldering land brought her up from her mourning as she realized that the calamity hadn't ended yet. The source of all of this was still lurking somewhere, waiting to strike her down at any time.

And after a while, a man wearing black and white military attire with a pair of blazing wings on his back flew from the scorched land below into the sky and floated just 10 meters in front of her.

'Monster…'

She has the ability to judge a warrior's strength from a single glance after fighting countless battles for her whole life and after seeing the man in front of her… she knew that there is no hope for her to surpass him even when she still has her full strength, let alone now.

'So he is the cause for all of this? An opponent that's way stronger than me.. Finally!'

But it just made her tremendously more excited. She wanted to fight him and make him submit under her mercy! It's the ultimate bliss for a battle maniac like her to subdue an insurmountable adversary after all, and his immensely stunning looks just motivated her even more.

"Can you still fight?" The mysterious man asked her with a wide smile full of expectations on his face and she concluded that they both truly desired to fight each other.

'Ahh…. that visible thirst for battle and that smile… so unfair~'

She finally found her kindred spirit! An immensely powerful and stunning one even! His smile just now even made her feel an unknown desire to have him all for herself. But unfortunately…

"Haha… I can't, I've used up everything I've got.." She shook her head, disappointment was noticeable in her voice. 

Yes, she wanted to fight and defeat him! But alas, she already used up almost all of her strength to unleash 'Mahapadma'.

"Hmm, but you still want to, right? I can see it in your eyes, the burning desire for triumph!" He asked her with a more spirited voice.

'He noticed that too, huh?'

And a wide smile bloomed on her face upon hearing his challenge. As expected of a fellow battle maniac!

"Yes! A worthy opponent is right in front of me, how can I stop and surrender myself?!"

Hearing her declaration, the man's expression became brighter.

"That's the spirit!"

He lifted his left hand and pointed at her with one finger, then a golden-green string of light shot off from his finger into her heart without her being able to react.

"Wha-?!"

Her almost depleted stamina and internally wounded body recovered at a rapid pace when the light entered her heart. She too could feel the gradual strengthening of her body. And now she was able to feel the gap between her and the mysterious man closening. It was still like a toddler against an adult but at least she now had a sliver of hope to win unlike before. 

Though the greatest boon she got was a connection with an endless pool of energy which made her feel like she could use Mahapadma for an indefinite amount of time with the help of this connection.

"Are you pitying me?!"

But his aid just made her angry. Yes she was weak, far weaker than him! But still, pitying her by giving away powers like that is an insult to her pride as a warrior!

"No.. it's just that i won't be satisfied if i defeated you in your previous state so i gave you a little help~" he replied smugly with a sly smile on his face that annoyed her even more.

"Is that so?..."

Oh well then, she shall show him how foolish his decision to help her is! 

"Now, before we begin.. I'm Ryoma Nagare, you?" 

The man briefly introduced himself and immediately after, the uniquely shaped greatsword on his right hand lit up in flames as he began holding it with both of his hands and took on a wrath guard stance.

"Esdeath..," she simply answered by her name as she unsheathed her saber with her right hand and conjured an ice sword with her left then took on a dual wielding stance.

"Then Esdeath…"

Ryoma suddenly appeared in front of her and his flaming greatsword was already coming for her neck.

"Don't die on me~"

The fight she always dreamed of, the fight she always longed for has just begun! But little did she know that what awaited her at the end even on her defeat wasn't death but a sweet victory…..