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"Wait… my eye and my arm can really be restored?" Najenda asked again, stunned.
"That's right. To show my sincerity, I'll start with your eye," Alex said. As he spoke, he activated both healing sorcery and healing magic, carefully limiting the effect to her head.
Two layers of healing, focused on such a small area.
The effect multiplied instantly.
Najenda felt an itch where there had once been nothing but emptiness. Sensing something, she reached up and ripped off her eyepatch.
Akame and Bulat, standing beside her, witnessed what could only be called a miracle. Flesh regenerated inside the hollow socket, followed by a brand-new eyeball forming right before their eyes.
It didn't take long at all before Najenda's eye was fully restored.
"It's… really healed?" Akame said blankly.
As she spoke, she waved her hand in front of Najenda's face.
"Boss, can you see?" Bulat asked anxiously.
Najenda nodded. Tears streamed down the corners of her eyes. "I can see. I really can. My eye… it's back!"
Alex spoke up again. "As long as you're willing to pledge your loyalty to me, I'll heal your arm too."
Najenda fell silent, hesitation flickering in her gaze.
Akame and Bulat exchanged a glance, then spoke in unison. "Boss, agree to it."
Najenda looked at the two of them in shock, her heart overflowing with emotion.
She knew they were choosing this for her sake.
After a brief pause, she finally said, "I can help you govern and heal this country for now. But if it can't be saved in the end, I'll still choose the Revolutionary Army."
"That works. Remember what you said," Alex replied with a slight smile.
He activated healing sorcery and magic once more. Najenda's severed arm regenerated, flesh and bone reforming until it was whole again.
With her body completely restored, Najenda's appearance improved noticeably.
If her short silver hair were grown out long, she would be even more striking.
Seeing Najenda fully healed, Akame and Bulat were overjoyed. They bowed to Alex together.
"Akame."
"Bulat."
"Thank you, Prince."
Alex waved his hand casually. "No need."
With everything laid out in the open, the tension between both sides vanished. The atmosphere relaxed, and their conversation gradually grew more personal.
Akame couldn't help asking how Alex had blocked her strike earlier.
After thinking for a moment, Alex answered, "I blocked it with my hand."
As he spoke, he raised two fingers to demonstrate.
Akame froze.
Bulat, however, said, "Your Highness, you caught Akame's blade with two fingers and then used that to stop my full-powered strike. Your strength must be incredible, right?"
"I'm not exactly sure how strong I am," Alex replied after a moment. "But lifting something that weighs a few dozen tons should be easy enough."
After being cleansed by sacred flames, his physical abilities were ten times that of a normal human, including strength.
On top of that came the blessing system. His Strength stat had been S-ranked when leveling from Lv.1 to Lv.2, and every level after that was SSS-ranked.
After becoming a godslayer, his body underwent another complete transformation.
At this point, even he didn't know his true limits.
Saying "a few dozen tons" was honestly being modest.
Najenda and the others stared at him in shock.
Dozens of tons of strength. Was he even human?
He felt more like a super-danger beast wearing human skin.
"No wonder Your Highness can defeat Teigu users so easily without using a Teigu yourself," Bulat said with a sigh.
In this world, anyone who wielded a Teigu was known as a Teigu user, the strongest class of people there was.
Alex's existence shattered that rule completely.
"A Teigu user? Actually, I can use Teigu too," Alex said.
As he spoke, he copied Akame's and Bulat's Teigu.
In his hands appeared a katana and a massive greatsword.
The katana was Akame's Teigu: One Cut, Certain Kill, Murasame.
The greatsword was Bulat's Teigu: Demon Armor, Incursio.
Akame and Bulat looked at the weapons in Alex's hands, then at the identical Teigu they themselves were holding. Their faces filled with disbelief.
"What's going on?" Najenda asked, stunned.
Alex smiled. "Think of it as a special ability of mine. I can copy any weapon I've seen."
Najenda's eyes widened even further. "Do the copied Teigu still have their original abilities?"
Alex's smile deepened. He planted the greatsword into the ground and shouted, "Incursio!"
In the next instant, a colossal dragon's silhouette appeared behind him.
The dragon transformed into armor and wrapped itself around Alex's body.
Najenda and the others were so shocked they couldn't even speak.
With an ability like this, didn't that mean Alex alone was equivalent to having all forty-eight Teigu?
Who in the world could possibly oppose him?
Budo?Esdeath?
Neither stood a chance.
Alex tested the armor briefly, then used his divine will to suppress the dragon's consciousness within, forcing it into submission.
Immediately after, the armor began to evolve.
The silver armor turned gold, and a pair of dragon wings sprouted from his back.
It was exactly the final evolved form Tatsumi reached.
Seeing the transformation, Bulat's eyes lit up. "I never imagined Incursio had a form like this!"
Alex dismissed the armor and looked at Bulat seriously. "Bulat, with your level of strength, you don't need to pursue this form. It lets the dragon's consciousness erode you."
In the original story, Tatsumi wasn't strong enough, so he poured all his effort into drawing out Incursio's potential.
In the anime, Tatsumi evolved the armor but died in the end.
In the manga, he survived but fused completely with the armor and became a dragon-type being.
Bulat was different. He was far stronger than Tatsumi. The normal armor form was more than enough for him. There was no need to merge with the Teigu and lose himself.
As for becoming stronger later, once he joined the Hestia Familia, he could simply level up through blessings. At that point, Teigu would just be ordinary weapons.
After hearing Alex's warning, Bulat nodded instinctively.
After all his years using Incursio, he knew better than anyone that a dragon's will slept within it.
Merging with it would grant power, but at the cost of one's self.
"Alright, enough of that. Dinner should be ready. Let's eat," Najenda said suddenly.
With her eye and arm restored, her mood was clearly lighter.
Alex nodded and followed them into Night Raid's headquarters.
During dinner, Najenda introduced the other members of Night Raid to Alex.
There was Mine, with her mixed-blood heritage.Lubbock, the green-haired kid hopelessly in love with Najenda.And Sheele, the bespectacled girl with a strong Eastern vibe.
Alex nodded to the three, his gaze lingering on Sheele a little longer.
Back when he watched the anime, he had hated Seryu to the bone because of Sheele's death.
Now that he was here, there was no way he would let that tragedy repeat itself.
Night Raid's dinner was lavish. Every one of them was a big eater, especially Akame.
Her appetite even surpassed Artoria's.
Terrifying.
Alex ate very little. After the meal, he talked with Najenda for a while about the empire's future direction before leaving around ten at night.
Watching Alex fly straight into the sky toward the capital, every member of Night Raid looked on with envy.
That was flight.
Alex returned to the palace and found Esdeath missing from the bedroom.
After searching for a while, he found her at the royal training grounds.
She was drenched in sweat, practicing the Sword God Style, Water God Style, and North God Style techniques he had taught her.
Aside from their ultimate techniques, the basics of the three sword styles weren't particularly difficult.
For a genius like Esdeath, mastering them took almost no effort.
What she was doing now was even more impressive. She was trying to merge the three styles.
Taking the best parts, discarding the rest, and combining them with her own combat style to create something entirely new.
Watching this, Alex couldn't help admiring her talent.
He didn't interrupt her. Instead, he found a spot outside the training grounds and sat down, watching her work.
After dozens of attempts with no breakthrough, Esdeath finally gave up.
She then switched to cultivating her battle aura.
Just like that, midnight arrived.
When Esdeath woke from her training, the first thing she saw was Alex waiting nearby.
A smile curved her lips. Without caring that she was soaked in sweat, she walked over, pushed him down, and kissed him.
They finally separated after a long while, both breathing hard.
Alex chuckled. "Go take a bath first. You're covered in sweat."
""You're disgusted by me?" Esdeath raised an eyebrow, sounding a little annoyed..
"No. Don't you feel uncomfortable like this?" Alex said, leaning in to kiss her lips again.
He wasn't lying. Ever since she had used a Teigu forged from super-danger beast blood, her body had undergone a mutation. She was practically flawless, skin like ice and jade.
Every inch of her was perfect.
Even her faint natural scent was pleasant. Sweat didn't make her smell bad like ordinary people.
Her sweat had no odor at all.
If anything, it smelled like perfume.
"..."
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