Alucard held nothing but utter contempt for "Gods." Whether such beings actually existed was irrelevant; his conviction remained the same.
God would not descend. Alucard's entire existence was built upon the creed of "Blasphemy." Marked by the inverted cross, he was the monster who desecrated the divine: Alucard.
When the Gorosei and the Celestial Dragons deigned to call themselves Gods, they and Alucard were destined to be eternal enemies.
"God now stands before you."
The robed Elder drew his blade halfway. A flash of sword-light erupted, cleanly and beautifully bisecting Loli A's body right down the middle.
After passing through Loli A, the slash vanished into the clouds, carving a massive rift across the sky. The sight left Princess Vivi, King Riku, and the other representatives at the harbor paralyzed with fear, momentarily forgetting to evacuate.
"Hmph. Pathetic."
The robed Elder sheathed his half-drawn blade. Sensing the young girl's life force dissipate, he turned to return to the sanctuary. "Soon," he said over his shoulder, "the newspapers will carry photos of your corpse to every corner of the world."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sudden gunshots rang out. The robed Elder drew his sword fully this time, deflecting every incoming bullet with a rhythmic series of clangs.
"Oho~"
Loli A, restored to her original state, held her white handgun, Casull. She watched the robed Elder who had swatted her bullets away and smirked. "I didn't expect anyone to avoid a headshot under those circumstances."
There weren't many people capable of blocking a shot from Casull, but they did exist. However, to block so sharply while caught off guard and with his back turned... in Alucard's memory, only a young Golden Lion Shiki possessed such reflexes.
As for Hawkeye... Alucard hadn't fought him at full strength yet, so it was hard to say.
"The same ability as your Captain? Are you his daughter or something?" the robed Elder speculated.
He had only ever sensed this level of eerie resilience from one other person: Alucard. If someone like Doflamingo used a string puppet, their life force wouldn't vanish; such a trick only fooled rookies with poor training. But just now, this girl's life force had truly vanished, yet she was not dead.
This was identical to Alucard's state when he attacked the Government nearly twenty years ago. In that battle, the Celestial Dragon families had lost two top-tier powerhouses in a single stroke.
"What's the matter? Is this the extent of a self-proclaimed God?"
Loli A mocked him with a flick of her wrist. Countless shadow hands erupted from the blood pool. "If you won't move, I'll start the show."
Innumerable shadow hands wearing white gloves surged from the blood, some extending over ten meters. Like a mass of eldritch tentacles from myth, they blanketed the sky to strike.
"Your opponent is but one man. What is the point of such a wide-range attack?"
Facing the overwhelming onslaught, the robed Elder remained calm. He returned his blade to its scabbard, then suddenly drew it in a violent burst, charging forward. Magma-colored veins pulsed across his skin, bearing a slight resemblance to Zephyr during his Blacklight infection.
Slash!
In the blink of an eye, the "tsunami" of shadow hands was pierced through, leaving a gaping hole as the Elder lunged directly for Loli A's heart.
"A Kishin?"
Even Alucard, who disbelieved in gods and walked the path of blasphemy, couldn't help but utter the words upon seeing the flaming, four-armed Wisdom King manifested around the robed Elder.
"I am the Non-Celestial... the Kishin, Asura!"
As the robed Elder spoke, the tip of his sword was less than a centimeter from Loli A's heart.
"Gods claim to be the Heavens, yet you call yourself the 'Non-Celestial'? Isn't that a contradiction?"
A dark shadow lunged out, biting down on the blade and forcing it off its intended trajectory. The robed Elder's pupils shrank—it was a beast covered in eyeballs, Baskerville, using its jaws to forcibly slam the sword off course.
With a grimace, the robed Elder twisted his grip and exerted his strength. Starting from the mouth, he sliced Baskerville perfectly in half down the middle.
Just as he prepared to swing downward to cleave Loli A, she blocked his blade with the back of a Haki-hardened hand. Blood spurted, but the hand wasn't severed!
"Though it wouldn't matter if you pierced my heart... no, this won't do."
Loli A's expression turned manic. "Those who call themselves Gods are my absolute enemies. For me, losing to a 'God' is something that can never be allowed."
"To think someone of this age could train their Armament Haki to such a degree."
The robed Elder was in disbelief. In his mind, only two people could stop his blade with Armament Haki and sustain only a superficial wound: the Hero of the Marines, Garp, and the late Black Arm Zephyr. And even then, it would have to be them in their prime, not their current aged states.
"I am the blood that runs through your veins. I am the dark shadow that chills the hearts of men as you pass. I am the fury... your hate and your vengeance. I am... your destiny!"
Loli A recited an incantation, distinct from the River of Death, and the blood pool on the ground rose up, enveloping her body. Sensing an instinctive threat, the robed Elder retreated five paces.
When the blood pool subsided, a man in his forties stood in her place. He was clad in ancient bronze heavy armor with a long black cape billowing behind him, looking like a knight out of English legend.
The Impaler, Alucard!
"You... who are you!?"
The sudden, total transformation shocked the robed Elder. Did that girl have the power to shapeshift? But the presence and aura of these two individuals were worlds apart.