"Run!"
"No~"
A man, clutching his wife and child, sprinted from his home, his face frozen in terror as he watched the cataclysm descending from the horizon.
But after only two steps, the scorching heat engulfed him.
The abyss at the center of the devastation expanded endlessly. From space, it looked as if an entire planet had caved in. Seawater evaporated, revealing the seabed crust from which magma erupted, raining like meteors across the world.
This was a catastrophe unseen in thousands of years. The apocalypse had arrived.
Under the onslaught of these natural disasters, life proved unbearably fragile.
The world's oceans surged hundreds of meters, forming monstrous tsunamis, then receded, dropping just as dramatically, sweeping everything in their path.
Islands, like fragile leaves, swayed and crumbled in the waves.
The geography of the entire world shifted. The Red Line, in particular, suffered unprecedented breaches. Casualties far exceeded any prior destruction in the New World.
Temperatures at the epicenter were incalculable. The fate of the Gorosei, the Marines, and the Celestial Dragons was impossible to ascertain.
High above, ten thousand meters in the sky, Lucien Graves stood with his hands behind his back, his expressionless face radiating an eerie calm.
"What do you see?"
He was surrounded by allies, yet Kuma, Law, and Mansherry were missing.
Lucien turned to Violet, the Paramecia-type Glare-Glare Fruit user, a clairvoyant of sorts.
Even he dared not venture into the explosion's heart; the heat alone could threaten his life. He sensed some targets remained alive.
"Master, there's only white fire and heat inside," Violet said, tears streaking her face as she gazed at the former site of Mary Geoise. Only a blinding, fiery expanse remained. The air rippled like a distorted curtain of water. No life could survive that.
Five hundred Da Ivan bombs had been detonated, each half as powerful as a full Da Ivan, yet still over a thousand times stronger than the Little Boy atomic bomb. It was miraculous that the star beneath them had not already imploded.
It was clear the world would be harsh and unforgiving from this point onward.
"Master, something's happening!" Violet exclaimed.
Her face drained of color as space itself seemed to tear open at the edge of the explosion, forming a massive gateway. Through it surged innumerable figures, led by none other than Sengoku and the World Government elite.
"I see it."
Lucien did not need Violet's warning.
The Marine fleet—Sengoku, the Four Admirals, Fleet Admiral Kong, elite Marines, the Four Grand Line Army Generals, hundreds of CP0 members, and the Gorosei—each radiated overwhelming power, a dark, oppressive cloud confronting him.
Among them were Lucci, Blueno, and other CP9 members.
"You truly are still alive!"
The Gorosei stared at Lucien Graves, alongside Whitebeard, Katakuri, Kaido, and the other powerful figures hovering nearby.
"You anticipated this," Lucien said grimly. He had been outmaneuvered again.
Fifty Da Ivans had been deployed, yet not a single high-value target had been eliminated. Clearly, the World Government never relaxed its vigilance. They had prepared for this.
None of them were fools.
As tensions reached a peak, a hazy figure appeared at the forefront of the Gorosei. Neither face nor body was distinct.
No aura was emitted, yet every presence there felt an overwhelming sense of deadly peril.
"Over 900 years," the figure whispered, a voice laced with both sigh and joy, turning its attention first to Silver Dragon, then fixing its gaze on Lucien.
"It seems you are Imu."
Lucien narrowed his amethyst eyes, body tense.
This individual was dangerous beyond measure.
"Clean them out!"
Imu said nothing more. His form began to rise, ascending toward Lucien.
Lucien's face remained cold as he also ascended.
As they climbed, two immense auras erupted, like blazing suns, sweeping across the New World, the Grand Line, and the Four Seas, shaking the entire sky.
The world trembled beneath their might.
Even the Savior Group and World Government elites were knocked to the ground like raindrops.
A high-pitched, tragic war melody seemed to resonate in the air as Lucien unleashed his full strength from the start, holding nothing back.
Light and flames burned to their extremes, golden lightning flickering in all directions.
Imu remained shrouded and indistinct.
"How can an aura be this powerful?"
"Too strong."
"Just standing here makes it hard to move."
"The entire surface is shaking."
Those who had fallen struggled to rise, their gaze fixed on the turbulent sky.
Below, the seawater had yet to recede. The battlefield remained solid beneath their feet.
Tens of thousands of meters above, Lucien's face was grim.
"You are indeed the ultimate boss," he muttered.
"What a pity, you almost broke the ceiling of this world."
Imu's voice was impossible to identify as male or female, yet it conveyed a sense of lamentation.
"Bold demon, you dare show off your petty tricks before a master! Great Might Heavenly Dragon, World Honored Ksitigarbha, Great Luo Dharma Mantra, Prajna Buddhas, Prajna Paramita Hum!"
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon!"
A ten-thousand-meter divine dragon materialized behind Lucien, its roar shattering clouds as it unleashed a devastating attack from the start.
The atmosphere tore apart, the dragon advancing with unstoppable force.
Imu raised a flawless hand, seemingly manipulating a force field, colliding head-on with Lucien.
The sky cracked, the earth caved in. Both were hurled backward by the explosive force. Lucien's crystal arm developed fissures, but they instantly healed.
Air roared as they stabilized.
"Whoosh…"
They moved as if shrinking the ground, tens of thousands of meters apart, fists colliding like the detonation of ten hydrogen bombs. Shockwaves rippled outward.
The ocean beneath them formed a deep abyss.
"Divine Might."
Imu seized the Undersea continent. In moments, it contorted into a ten-thousand-meter giant and smashed toward Lucien with earth-shattering force.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon!"
The divine dragon clashed with the giant, the landscape crumbling instantly.
Lucien grunted, spitting blood, slamming into the abyss wall. The earth trembled violently.
The ten-thousand-meter giant shattered into fragments, raining down on the receding sea.
"Divine Might."
Imu raised his hands toward the distant ocean. The waves, frozen mid-surge, transformed into a ten-thousand-meter water giant and slammed its palm down on Lucien's position.
The war's symphony reached a climax.
Lucien injected his soul into the attack, causing the earth beneath him to rise in roaring layers, halting the water giant.
"Meteor."
Imu disregarded everything, summoning a colossal force field. From the storm-shrouded clouds, a fireball the size of a small comet—one hundred thousand meters across—hurtled downward.
Lucien cursed. What kind of ability allowed this opponent to manipulate everything?
Rumble!
A true comet struck the Earth. The destruction it unleashed was catastrophic.
Whitebeard, Redfield, Kong, the Gorosei, and others, who were originally fighting each other, ascended and retreated, moving far away. Even so, a single small comet crashing down now could be fatal.