"Boom…"
Light, flame, and lightning flared together before vanishing in an instant. Lucien wore a ferocious expression as his hand clamped down on Imu's head, driving him horizontally across the fractured seabed continent like a living projectile.
The destruction was absolute.
The abyss widened violently as molten magma erupted upward, painting the depths in burning crimson.
"Bang! Bang!"
Each strike Lucien delivered felt as if it shook the very axis of the world. One hand crushed Imu down while the other hammered relentlessly, every blow heavy enough to rupture continents.
"Pfft…"
Lucien's face went deathly pale. A devastating counterstrike tore into his waist, leaving half of it missing. Shredded flesh and broken organs spilled freely, ribs exposed and soaked in blood in a sight gruesome enough to make even veterans recoil.
And yet, Lucien did not release his grip.
Instead, he became even more savage.
A sharp, sickening sound rang out as something pierced flesh. Lucien's heart was impaled clean through. Imu clenched an invisible force in his hand and twisted without mercy, grinding Lucien's heart into pulp.
Lucien let out a muffled grunt. His remaining hand latched onto Imu's left arm, and as blood sprayed in every direction, cracking sounds echoed from both of their chests at the same time. The two figures were violently flung apart, streaking across the sky like twin meteors tearing rainbows in their wake.
It was clear that their wounds were already healing.
Imu's severed left arm regenerated in an instant, flesh and bone reforming seamlessly. At the same time, Lucien's shattered chest filled with radiant light and scalding steam. Their regeneration speeds were terrifyingly similar.
Lucien climbed out of the ruins, spitting blood onto the broken ground. His gaze locked onto Imu, who stood fully restored, and his expression darkened.
This enemy was powerful.
Stronger than any of those compatriots he had fought before.
"Swish!"
The air detonated.
Lucien vanished and reappeared in a flash, his kick slamming into Imu's chest and launching him away at the speed of sound. Lucien pursued instantly, crossing the Grand Line in the blink of an eye as the two tore into the West Blue.
Rings of pressure and light spread outward with every collision, overturning the entire sea. Medium and large islands were erased in under a minute, sinking without a trace.
The death toll was beyond calculation.
The sky darkened as violent winds screamed across the heavens. Two overwhelming torrents of power collided, splitting the sea apart and forcing the seabed to rise. The ocean vanished at the epicenter as thousand meter depths surged upward, forming jagged mountains where water once ruled.
And still, the battle escalated.
Imu flashed forward twice, bending space itself to appear directly before Lucien.
A piercing howl escaped Lucien's throat as Imu's right fist punched straight through his crystalline chest. His defenses crumbled like wet paper.
Ignoring the suffocating agony, Lucien retaliated. His hand crushed Imu's heart, fingers sinking deep as he ripped out chunks of flesh and tangled intestines without hesitation.
For anyone else, such wounds would mean instant death.
For them, it was routine.
As long as energy remained, regeneration followed. No scars. No weakness.
Rumble.
A colossal mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and earthquakes tore through the West Blue. Magma flowed endlessly through the exposed seabed below.
Lucien dragged himself out of the abyss, his body incomplete and horrifying. Multicolored light pulsed through him, mixing with high temperature steam that hissed against his torn flesh.
Imu emerged from the rubble as well, floating in the air above Lucien.
The war battle music inside Lucien's mind had already passed its midpoint, yet the best he could manage was a stalemate. If the rhythm ended completely, he would be beaten into nothing.
Even Future Sight, his Observation Haki, had lost its edge. Though he could glimpse a second into the future, Imu adjusted with ease, nullifying the advantage entirely.
Lucien stared at him, blood running down his face, expression twisting.
If that was the case, there was only one option left.
Near death.
When his combat power surged on the edge of annihilation, combined with the remaining rhythm of battle, he could still crush this bastard.
Lucien sneered inwardly.
He was a cheat.
There was no way he was losing.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
The pressure of battle rippled outward, shaking the very ground of the West Blue.
"Whoosh…"
A blurred rainbow descended, cleaving the land in two. One half of the continent tilted upward as landslides and fissures tore through it, dust blotting out the sky.
Lucien drew his hands together at his waist. Blue light flooded the heavens, illuminating the darkened sky like a second dawn.
"Kamehameha!"
A roaring blue beam shot downward, dragging a blazing tail behind it.
Imu, buried deep within a crater, looked up and thrust both hands forward, gripping an unseen force and pushing back against the attack.
Boom. Buzz. Buzz.
The beam halted midair, grinding violently as if pressed against an invisible wall.
"Die, you bastard!"
Blood poured from Lucien's nose and mouth as his face twisted into something feral. He poured every last drop of energy into the attack.
Below him, Imu was driven deeper into the earth as the surroundings collapsed into mountains and valleys. Tsunamis towering into the sky were forced aside by the pressure.
Even so, Imu resisted.
The beam began to rise.
Lucien's expression changed instantly. Without hesitation, he detonated it.
"Boom…"
Light vanished from the world.
An endless mushroom cloud expanded from the center, three massive rings of light spreading outward and tearing through sky and sea alike. Even the atmosphere itself ruptured as the entire West Blue exploded.
And still, the battle continued.
This time, it was Imu who seized Lucien's head and dragged him through the earth, the crust shattering violently in their wake.
Lucien refused to submit. His crystalline left hand plunged into Imu's chest.
Imu screamed in pain, then grasped an invisible blade and severed Lucien's left arm cleanly.
The limb spun through the air before crashing into the ruins and rolling to a stop in a jagged crevice.
"Pfft…"
Blood sprayed from Lucien's mouth and nose. His coccyx crystal thorns coiled tightly around Imu's arm as he launched upward, slamming a kick into Imu's chest.
At the same time, Great Might Heavenly Dragon erupted forth.
Bone shattering cracks echoed as a massive divine dragon tore through Imu from behind and vanished into the sky.
Imu endured it through sheer will, his body collapsing and reforming as he clashed head on with Lucien.
A monstrous shockwave followed.
Defense was abandoned entirely.
Flesh met flesh, bone met bone, destruction answering destruction.
Lucien's right face was gone, torn away in a mess of gore. Imu's body was missing chunks, organs exposed, yet both continued regenerating with terrifying speed.
Another mushroom cloud rose.
Both spat blood as they were flung apart, their appearances so ruined they barely resembled human beings.
Then, abruptly, the war battle music stopped.
Lucien's aura plummeted.
He stood in the canyon, soaked in blood, coughing violently as his wounds regenerated at a crawling pace. Shockwaves from distant collapses continued to rumble across the land.
Imu hovered in the sky, staring down at him.
"Pfft."
Even with Future Sight, Lucien could not evade the kick. His body folded inward as blood burst from all seven orifices. The mountain canyon behind him was obliterated, flattened into an empty plain.
"It seems this is your true strength," Imu said coldly, floating just above the ground.
Lucien knelt, vomiting blood.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon!"
With ruthless resolve, Lucien compressed his final trace of power. The divine dragon surged forward once more, but this time Imu caught it with a single hand.
The attack was far weaker without the war rhythm amplifying it.
"Too weak."
Imu kicked Lucien squarely in the chest. The land split open, forming a long avenue of ruin. Lucien lay at its far end, chest half destroyed and life hanging by a thread.
Imu casually discarded Lucien's severed right arm and floated closer.
"Do you think you've won?" Lucien rasped.
He forced himself upright, swaying, nearly collapsing, yet his expression was eerily calm as he looked at Imu.
"Since I perfected this move, no one has ever witnessed it. You are strong," Lucien continued. "Stronger than any enemy I have faced. To show you respect, I will use my strongest attack."
Imu's posture stiffened, his hazy face turning solemn.
Lucien moved.
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