"Blood Clone."
Redfield's eyes burned like wildfire. Countless blood colored bats burst from his body, screeching as they swarmed together and condensed into another Redfield. The clone radiated at least eighty percent of his original strength.
One Redfield at peak condition.
And another at eighty percent.
It was a monstrous ability.
Boom.
Two streaks of crimson light tore across the battlefield as Redfield and his clone attacked in perfect coordination. One came from the front, the other from behind, their timing flawless.
Lucien stood between them.
A black umbrella coated in Busoshoku Haki slammed down from one side while a hardened fist struck from the other. Lucien raised both arms, crystal hardening spreading across his skin as he blocked simultaneously. The collision detonated the ground beneath his feet. Air pressure collapsed in layers, the sea in the distance rising violently into a raging tsunami.
The pressure from both sides intensified. Lucien grunted faintly as his boots slowly sank into fractured rock. Yet his amethyst eyes only grew brighter.
If Redfield could produce a hundred more clones, perhaps that would finally entertain him.
Redfield saw Lucien withstand both attacks and rage flickered across his face. He and his clone shifted instantly, four limbs striking in ruthless succession. Two fists were difficult enough, but four attacks from two directions were meant to overwhelm.
At the final moment, Lucien vanished.
Both attacks missed by a hair.
The clone twisted midair and lashed out with a sweeping kick aimed at Lucien's skull.
Lucien raised one arm casually and blocked. The impact fractured the earth beneath him into a spiderweb of cracks. Entire hills in the distance were uprooted by the shockwave and exploded into debris.
"Die!"
Sword energy condensed around the black umbrella, vibrating violently. Redfield appeared behind Lucien and thrust forward, aiming directly at his spine.
Lucien's Kenbunshoku Haki flared. His body shifted with elegant precision, narrowly stepping aside as the blade grazed past empty air.
Redfield clearly saw Lucien move.
He simply could not touch him.
Boom. Rumble.
Redfield's aura surged violently. His face twisted with fury, veins bulging as his Haoshoku Haki clashed outward. The sky above darkened further under the pressure.
The battle escalated.
Red streaks flashed continuously in Lucien's eyes as he refined his Future Prediction in real time. His movements became increasingly precise, increasingly cruel.
Occasionally he was struck. Bones cracked. Flesh tore. Blood splattered across the shattered terrain.
Yet wounds regenerated almost instantly, crystal and flesh knitting together grotesquely.
One hour passed. Then two.
Against Redfield and his clone, Lucien remained at ease, never once falling into disadvantage.
The island beneath them had long since collapsed into ruin. Only jagged fragments remained, separated by a yawning abyss filled with seawater. The two stood on opposite sides, staring at each other across devastation.
Lucien's body was drenched in blood. Multicolored threads of regenerative energy wrapped around him, muscle fibers visibly reconnecting. He looked like a corpse stitched back together, yet his presence was even more vigorous than before.
"Time's almost up. You can't pressure me anymore."
The initial strain Redfield created had already been completely absorbed and adapted to.
Lucien's Future Prediction had become sharper, cleaner. Yet it still could not break past two seconds.
From the moment he awakened it, his foresight had remained fixed at one second.
Originally it was passive.
Now he could activate it at will.
Still, that second barrier remained unreachable.
His other abilities had stabilized as well, refined in the furnace of combat.
"You've gone too far!"
Redfield roared. Both his true body and clone transformed into streaks of deeper crimson as they attacked from opposite directions.
Lucien did not move.
Red light flickered in his amethyst eyes.
As the two figures closed in from left and right, a colossal ten thousand meter divine dragon manifested behind Lucien, stretching into the turbulent sea. Its scales shimmered with destructive force.
The dragon's massive palm descended toward the Redfield on the left.
Time slowed.
That Redfield's eyes widened in shock. It felt as though he had willingly thrown himself into execution.
This one was the real body.
He tried to halt his advance.
Too late.
Lucien had calculated everything.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon."
Crack.
The blow landed with absolute dominance.
Even with Busoshoku Haki reinforcing his chest, Redfield's ribs shattered instantly. Scalding blood burst from his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. His face contorted grotesquely, blood vessels rupturing as his body bent like a broken shrimp before being blasted away as a distant black speck.
Mountains exploded along his trajectory.
The island split cleanly into two halves, the surrounding sea torn apart.
Lucien did not stop.
He appeared above the flying Redfield. Another colossal divine dragon materialized behind him, its body stretching endlessly into the heavens.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon."
Boom.
Sound vanished.
A massive mushroom cloud rose from the epicenter. The remaining fragments of the island were obliterated and submerged, exposing sections of the deep sea floor. Thousand meter waves radiated outward in every direction.
Blinding light consumed the battlefield before slowly fading.
When vision returned, Lucien stood in midair, gripping a blood soaked, dying Redfield by the throat.
Two palms.
That was all it had taken.
"Was it… Future Prediction?"
Blood streamed from Redfield's seven orifices as he forced his head up weakly. His voice trembled with disbelief.
He had lost. Completely.
"Smart."
Lucien's tone was indifferent.
From his tailbone, a sharp thorn extended and pierced into Redfield's body. Dark blood began flowing inward, invasive and parasitic.
Lucien showed no mercy. He was ruthless toward enemies, crushing bone fragments further with his grip until Redfield's throat caved slightly under pressure.
Nearby, the tanuki Paton was also captured. Its Mythical Zoan ability, the Tanuki Form, allowed it to transform leaves into powerful figures and imitate their abilities, though weaker than the original.
Lucien did not hesitate.
He harvested everything.
Far away in the New World.
Black clouds churned violently as thunder roared across the sky. Lightning split the heavens while the roar of a dragon echoed endlessly. A massive divine dragon coiled among storm clouds.
Below, a gigantic island suddenly lifted from the sea and transformed into a colossal armored beast that pierced the sky.
"Bullet."
The dragon spoke in a human voice. It arched backward and condensed catastrophic energy in its jaws before unleashing a dragon's breath that cascaded downward like a blazing river of destruction.
"Strongest Fist."
The colossal beast swung a ten thousand meter fist coated in Busoshoku Haki, colliding head on with the breath attack like a planet smashing into a comet.
The dragon appeared minuscule in comparison.
Air currents blasted outward horizontally as the two forces collided, forming a radiant halo that erased everything in its path.
Boom.
The dragon coughed blood and was hurled backward through layers of cloud.
The beast's right arm shattered violently, fragments raining into the sea like meteors.
"Haha, this is true power."
The colossal figure laughed as purplish red crystals spread from the broken limb, reconstructing a new arm from the ground itself.
Flaming projectiles rained from the storm filled sky. Through the clouds, the dragon continuously unleashed devastating breath attacks, each capable of annihilating a city. The weather itself bent to its will, wind, rain, and thunder combining into apocalyptic force.
This was power capable of destroying islands.
Before such force, ordinary humans were nothing.
"Watch me punch through the sky."
The giant beast drew both arms back and hurled them upward. From afar, they resembled two mountains rising into the heavens. Their movement alone triggered landslides and earthquakes.
Natural disaster and overwhelming might collided again.
The sky itself seemed to shatter.
The dragon was Kaido.
The colossal beast was Douglas Bullet, the Demon Heir, former member of the Roger Pirates, wielder of the Combine Combine Fruit and master of all three types of Haki.
He could merge inorganic matter with his own body, turning the entire island into an extension of himself.
Despite his monstrous strength, he was not facing Kaido alone.
Whitebeard watched from the raging sea, his presence alone enough to suppress the horizon, though he had not yet moved.
From another direction, figures swept across the waters at terrifying speed.
Stussy of the Underworld.
Magellan.
Katarina.
Smoothie.
===
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