This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
As the shadow melted into her body, the wrinkles on Imu's face vanished rapidly. Her skin regained a smooth, youthful luster; if not for the white hair and beard that still clung to her regal features, she would have looked like an ordinary middle-aged person.
The Elder regains youth!
That was the terrifying sight she presented now.
"I truly underestimated that boy… his ambition and courage are far from ordinary."
Gazing out the shattered window, Imu's eyes shimmered faintly, like starlight stirring within. Her voice was soft, carrying the calm weight of absolute, ancient confidence.
"But it doesn't matter. Just a passing storm… before true strength is unveiled, all else is a fleeting spectacle."
She turned her gaze toward Orrick, still unconscious on the floor.
"What a pity, though… I'll need to train another generation of misguided pawns. What should I call them this time? 'The Anointed,' perhaps?"
BOOOOOM… RUMBLE!!
The Red Line trembled violently. Compared to the massive continent, the Spear of Thunder was microscopic, yet the destruction it unleashed couldn't be measured by mere size. The blast's aftershock tore through stone and earth alike, shattering everything in its path.
Only after a long while did the thunderous roar finally fade.
Kong slowly rose to his feet, looking toward the horizon… And his expression froze. His breath caught in his throat.
"This is…!!"
Before him, at the site where Rowen's thunder spear had struck, the Red Line now bore an enormous meteor crater. The terrifying explosion had pulverized even the fabled red rock into dust.
In the distance, a desolate landscape stretched like a nightmare wasteland, crisscrossed with deep ravines, storms of dust still twisting in the turbulent air.
How large was this crater?
Roughly a third the depth of the Red Line, wide enough that even the colossal Marineford fortress could have fit inside with room to spare.
This wasn't an act of nature. This was an act of a God.
As the smoke and dust slowly cleared, Kaido stood tall in the center of the devastation, his legs spread apart, his chest heaving. His fierce face was marked with raw disbelief.
A horrifying gash ran from his left shoulder all the way to his abdomen. His legendary scale armor had shattered, flesh torn apart, and blood streamed like a waterfall. It poured down freely, dyeing the pulverized red earth an even deeper crimson.
CRACK… BOOM!
A rumble echoed again.
Not just Kaido, Kong, too, lifted his head in shock.
The storm clouds still hadn't dispersed. Lightning rolled endlessly through them, tens of thousands of silver serpents writhing within the sky.
"It's… not over yet?!"
The Zenith Tempest – Prison of Bright Heavenly Thunder still lingered overhead. Bolts of lightning continued to fall like divine punishment, scorching the red stone black.
SWISH!
Lightning surged, Kaido stomped heavily and twisted aside, barely dodging.
He couldn't let Rowen keep attacking like this. That man was trying to grind him to death. Kaido understood that much.
Rowen's current strikes couldn't kill him outright, but that didn't mean they couldn't hurt him. And every injury meant more electrical charge accumulating within his body, until paralysis would eventually set in, and resistance would become impossible.
At that point…
The memory of being utterly crushed in their last battle flashed in Kaido's mind, and his eyelid twitched violently. If that happened again, he would die.
Rowen wasn't hiding out of fear; he was employing patience, a weapon Kaido had never learned to wield. He was conserving stamina, because controlling such divine lightning while fighting Kaido directly was draining him fast.
This was a battle of attrition. Even the smallest bit of energy wasted could tip the scales of victory.
Kaido thought that breaking through Rowen's initial barrage would turn the tide, but why would Rowen use the same predictable pattern twice?
"You're still hesitating…"
A cold voice echoed suddenly. Kaido's eyes widened, he spun, his leg sweeping out in reflex.
BOOM!!
A lightning clone exploded on contact, crackling with paralyzing current.
"Do you know why?"
"Bastard!!"
Kaido roared, smashing another lightning clone with a furious punch. His muscles bulged and flexed, forcing his wounds to constrict as he bellowed in rage.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!!"
He had already disbanded his pirate crew, it wasn't supposed to be like this!
ZZZTT… BOOM!!
A figure appeared behind the roaring Kaido, hanging upside down midair, then drove a crushing blow straight into his back, sending him staggering forward.
Hot Breath!
BOOM!
Turning sharply, Kaido spewed a torrent of searing flames, believing for a moment, perhaps with a trace of luck, that this time he'd caught the real Rowen.
However, there was no such luck.
The "Rowen" who'd ambushed him detonated instantly, lightning surging outward. A violent electromagnetic shockwave blasted into Kaido's chest, forcing him back three heavy steps.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Each stomp heavier than the last.
But his feet suddenly felt as if they were sinking into mud, difficult to move, as though trapped. Kaido looked down.
"This is…?!!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A dozen lightning clones burst up from the thunderous ground, each striking once, hammering Kaido back again and again.
Individually, their strength was nothing remarkable. But such relentless and concentrated attacks left Kaido unable to defend himself. Forced into retreat, with only one arm free, he couldn't possibly match Rowen's unbroken rhythm of assault.
Crackle!
Suddenly, a lightning-wreathed hand reached out, grabbing the back of Kaido's skull.
Rowen stood there, lips curved into a cold smirk, his single arm braced against Kaido's massive frame.
"Your next words will be… 'Get lost.'"
"GET LOST!!"
Kaido roared exactly as predicted.
And then…
BZZZZT!
A sharp vibration split the air as the surrounding space compressed into a transparent, diamond-hard Tekkai barrier that exploded outward in all directions.
BOOM…!
CRASH!!
The shockwave detonated like several tons of TNT, the air itself tearing apart. Eardrums screamed in pain, no flames, no fire, only raw force ripping the ground open into jagged trenches.
But the instant the impact faded, a shadow burst through the smoke, streaking toward Kaido from his blind spot.
Raigo – Planetary Thunder Greeting!
One large and five smaller black thunder orbs stuck to Kaido's scales, then exploded in unison, launching him high into the air.
THUD! THUD!
He bounced twice along the ground like a skipping stone, then tried to steady himself… Only for a massive foot to crash down from the sky.
BOOM!!
The already-ruined crater deepened again as thunderlight coiled around it.
Standing tall like a Titanic Thunder Giant, Rowen loomed above, silver serpents of lightning writhing behind him, expression cold and emotionless.
"D-Damn it… how…!"
Due to the limits of anatomy, one's back was the hardest place to exert power. Kaido struggled violently, but couldn't reach Rowen, he could only pit his brute strength against the crushing weight of the foot on his head.
"You hate trouble. You don't like to think. Whenever something doesn't go your way, you rely on your fists."
Rowen's gaze was glacial.
"But you don't have the raw strength to justify that kind of arrogance."
"In other words, you're stupid. Your furious rage isn't a sign of strength, Kaido. It's a mask for your simple-mindedness."
"Kaido… everything about you, I've already seen through it!"
At those words, Kaido's pupils contracted sharply.
So… that's what it was.
This wasn't just a gap in power, it was an unyielding disparity in cunning, a mental divide that even supreme strength couldn't conceal.
"That last time I beat you, that was luck. That old bastard Garp, even in death, he still managed to screw me over and leave me a debt I'll never repay."
"But from this moment on… you will never be my equal again."
The lesson Garp had left behind taught Rowen to use overwhelming offense to suppress Kaido's unpredictable ferocity. At that time, Kaido hadn't been as composed as he was now; he couldn't break through Rowen's storm and was nearly beaten to death.
But thinking back, why had Garp known that strategy would work?
That was what Garp truly wanted Rowen to learn.
See through your opponent.
Once, when Rowen had first joined the Marines and fought Shuzo, he'd relied on cunning and calculation rather than brute force. He had never been a simple brawler. To analyze his foe and strike at their weakness, that was his true nature.
But as his power grew, he'd grown accustomed to simply crushing everything head-on. He'd forgotten that original instinct.
And if that continued… one day, he would pay for it dearly.
Especially when facing that existence in the Holy Land, that flaw would be magnified without limit.
Garp had seen it clearly, that was why he did everything he did.
As for Kaido… in this moment, he was nothing more than a discarded lesson plan.
(End of Chapter)