Lucian's consciousness returned to this scar-ridden battlefield of God Valley.
The ecstatic thrill of acquiring two supreme cheats still hadn't faded from his heart.
A low hum of energy resonated outward from within him.
The already formidable solar flames wreathing his body suddenly surged once more!
The colossal solar halo behind him rotated slowly, its radiance carrying a palpable, crushing pressure that swept across the area.
At this moment, he was like a sun itself. A true deity had descended.
At the edge of the battlefield, Rocks, Roger, and Whitebeard... all instinctively squinted against the blinding, surging golden light.
Their confusion only deepened. The aura of that mysterious masked man had just climbed to an entirely new realm—one they could neither comprehend nor fathom.
"You've got to be kidding me..." The Golden Lion Shiki struggled to pull himself from a pile of rubble, his face a mask of utter disbelief. "This guy's power... does it have no limit?!"
No one could answer him. Everyone just stared fixedly at that golden figure, their eyes united in sheer awe.
Imu, however, caught the scent of a lethal threat. More clearly than anyone else, he could feel the terrifying power contained within those solar flames—a force capable of threatening his very origin.
He abandoned all probing. Letting out an inhuman, piercing shriek, the light-devouring dark energy surrounding him grew even more potent. He became a moving abyss of darkness, charging toward Lucian with a single, unwavering will: to kill him.
Yet, this clash would catch Imu completely off guard. Lucian's gaze turned icy.
Amidst the blindingly fast exchange of offense and defense, he keenly sensed that the limit of what Imu's host, Jaygarcia Saturn, could endure was nearly reached. So that was it! This vessel! Saturn's body simply couldn't fully contain Imu's terrifying dark origin! Every high-intensity collision, every surge of power, was accelerating the collapse of this fragile shell! It was on the verge of breaking!
This realization drew a cold chuckle from beneath Lucian's white mask. The rhythm of the battle was now entirely under his control.
Facing Imu's lethal, destruction-laden claw strike, Lucian abandoned all offensive and defensive maneuvers. Instead, with an effortlessly graceful posture, he simply slid lightly to the side.
*Shhhhk—* The five black claw marks, capable of tearing space itself, barely grazed his Sun God armor, failing to spark even a single ember.
Imu's strike missed. Just as he prepared to unleash an even more ferocious assault, a voice rang out. Calm, mocking, and dripping with contempt. It pierced directly into his consciousness while echoing across the skies of God Valley.
"Hey." Lucian hovered nearby, arms crossed over his chest, his posture utterly relaxed.
"A king who's spent eight hundred years playing the coward, hiding in the sewers of history."
Every motion Imu made froze instantly. Saturn's body locked in midair. Eight hundred years. For eight full centuries, ever since he took his seat upon the Empty Throne, no living soul had dared address him in such a tone.
The word "king," spoken by this man, carried not a shred of reverence—only naked mockery. And this man before him had humiliated him time and again, relentlessly pushing his boundaries!
Terrifying rage threatened to burst Saturn's crumbling shell apart! Within those crimson eyes, frenzied killing intent solidified into something tangible.
Lucian regarded that mind-shattering fury with utter indifference. He even tilted his head with mild interest, examining Saturn's body like a merchant appraising goods, and continued in a playful tone:
"This body of yours... it's about to give out, isn't it?"
"Tsk tsk, how pitiful. The power is too great, yet there isn't a sturdy enough vessel to hold it."
"Tell you what." Lucian extended a single finger and wagged it at Imu.
"How about you let your true form descend?"
"Maybe then, you could actually make this slightly entertaining."
"Because with this fragile shell right in front of me... it really isn't even enough to warm me up."
*BOOM!!!* Words, at this moment, became the sharpest blades. Every single line struck precisely at Imu's most arrogant yet fragile pain points!
Having his greatest weakness so casually exposed in public, the rage of humiliation completely overwhelmed Imu's divine detachment.
"YOU—ARE—SEEKING—DEATH—!!!" A completely distorted, piercing roar, laced with trembling soul and boundless malice, erupted from Saturn's mouth!
Imu abandoned all technique and variation. He gathered every ounce of power he could muster, squeezing out the very last drop of dark origin this vessel could provide, and condensed it into a single point! He would erase this mortal who dared to blaspheme divine authority time and again! He would vaporize him, along with every trace of his existence, from this world!
Facing this heaven-shattering strike, the mockery on Lucian's face vanished instantly. His gaze turned cold and detached. Like a supreme deity looking down upon an ant foolishly trying to shake a tree.
"Enough." He spoke calmly. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried the weight of an undeniable final verdict.
"Stop screaming in front of me." "I'm... getting tired of this."
The moment the words left his lips, the power of the Sun God within him erupted on an unprecedented level! *BOOM—!!!!!!*
The dark energy that had previously stood toe-to-toe with his solar flames now proved utterly fragile before this unreserved, utterly pure golden divine power!
The dense darkness, upon contact with the golden flames, didn't even have time to produce a wisp of smoke before being instantly "evaporated" into primordial nothingness!
Lucian didn't even make an aggressive move. He simply raised his right hand casually, palm facing forward, and gave a gentle push. A simple motion.
The golden energy erupting from his palm was no longer a beam or a cannon blast. It was an indestructible, insurmountable absolute barrier! A golden shockwave forged from pure divine energy advanced forward with an unstoppable, domineering presence!
Imu's singularity of destruction, condensed with all his power, met that golden barrier like a mud ball thrown by a three-year-old crashing into a steel dam. There was no earth-shattering explosion. No stalemate of equals. Only... one-sided crushing and annihilation!
The moment that pitch-black energy sphere touched the golden barrier, it was instantly dissolved and purified, failing to stir even the slightest ripple. The golden shockwave, its momentum undiminished, instantly pinned Imu, who hadn't even reacted, in midair. It rendered his entire body completely immobile!
*Crack... cr-crack... CRACK!* Under the crushing weight of this vast, boundless energy, Saturn's body began to fracture. The injury Lucian had previously inflicted with a kick instantly spread across his entire frame!
Spiderweb-like cracks covered this Five Elders shell, dark red blood mingling with black energy mist seeping continuously from the fissures. This time, the once-invincible dark energy could no longer mend a single wound!