Lucian suppressed that mass of divine energy with a single hand, his expression behind the mask cold and unyielding.
He watched the vessel disintegrate within the radiance, and the soul inside it screaming silently.
He felt nothing.
A single thought flashed through his mind.
*Hum!*
The void trembled, twisting out several chains of pure light from thin air.
Sacred golden runes covered the chains, emitting a sharp, metallic resonance as they lashed forward and wrapped tightly around the target.
"Divine Bind."
Four words left Lucian's lips.
The light chains pierced precisely through Jaygarcia Saturn's limbs and chest, binding him tightly to the crumbling vessel and suspending him mid-air.
The golden runes cycled, severing the last thread of connection between Imu and this shell.
His will was now locked inside a cage on the verge of collapse.
Lucian did not strike the killing blow immediately.
Only after finishing this did he turn around, his gaze sweeping over the devastated landscape below.
His eyes passed over the ruined battlefield and settled on Rocks, Roger, Garp, and Whitebeard.
These maritime overlords, having just witnessed a clash of gods, stared at him with eyes locked in a mixture of dread and stupefaction.
A single command fell from Lucian's lips.
His voice was not loud, yet it echoed into every corner of God Valley, drilling into the ears of every survivor.
"Everyone, evacuate this island immediately."
Rocks' brows knitted into a tight knot.
The smile on Roger's face froze.
Garp's fists clenched until his knuckles turned white.
'What does he mean?'
This mysterious man had clearly won. Why was he telling them to run?
Just as their confusion peaked, Lucian's gaze returned to Imu, who hung suspended and immobilized by the golden chains.
Calmly, yet with a pressure that seemed to crush the heavens and earth, he offered an explanation.
"In a moment, I will make this island his grave."
The words struck like lightning.
They detonated in the minds of every legend present!
'A grave?'
'Make this island... a grave?'
In an instant, they grasped the madman's intention.
He was going to wipe all of God Valley off the map, along with the king who had ruled the world for eight hundred years!
He was going to turn this island, and everything on it, into a coffin to bury a god!
"Hey! You bastard..."
Rocks opened his mouth to speak.
But they only saw Lucian turn his back after those words, offering not a single second for explanation.
The figure clad in golden holy armor transformed into a blinding streak of light, dragging a long trail of flame as he shot straight toward the sky ten thousand meters above, defying physics in his trajectory.
That kind of resolve.
That kind of decisiveness.
Silently told everyone one thing: he possessed absolute confidence.
A confidence capable of destroying the world, and controlling everything within it.
Rocks and Roger exchanged a glance.
Both saw the exact same thing in each other's eyes.
Shock, and decision.
They understood.
Without a moment's hesitation, the two issued their highest commands to their battered but surviving crews at the exact same second.
"Rocks Pirates! All hands!" Rocks' roar shattered the air. "Get the hell out of God Valley at top speed! Find our ships! Move!!"
"Listen up, you bastards!" Roger's booming laugh followed, wild and alive with the thrill of survival. "What the hell are you standing around for?! Run! If you don't want to be buried here, run like your lives depend on it!"
On the other side, Garp reacted just as fast.
He bellowed at the surviving Marine officers around him.
"All Marines, heed my orders! Organize an immediate evacuation! Get every living civilian and slave off this island and onto the warships! Now! This is a direct order!"
The deathly silent battlefield was instantly swallowed by chaos and clamor.
Pirates sprinted madly toward the coastline, while Marines, pushing through pain and fear, scrambled to find and rescue people.
It was at this moment that the Five Elders and Saint Garling, who had been laid low by Lucian's single strike, dragged themselves up from the rubble.
Their wounds slowly knit together under the influence of dark energy. Their auras were depleted, but the ingrained loyalty to Imu in their souls drove them to instinctively try and block the fleeing crowds.
'Don't think... you can escape...'
Venus, gripping the Shodai Kitetsu, rasped a low growl, swaying unsteadily as he tried to push forward.
A massive shadow fell over him.
Having just returned to his peak, Whitebeard let out a cold snort, a look of utter disdain on his face.
"Gurararara... Get out of my way. Don't block me."
He gripped *Murakumo Giri* in one hand and swept it casually across the ground before him!
There was no deafening explosion.
Only a teeth-gritting hum.
A visible white shockwave crackled along the earth, shooting forward in an instant!
*Rumble!*
The next second, the entire stretch of land before the Five Elders, along with several shattered peaks, was violently torn apart by an irresistible force!
A terrifying abyss, a hundred meters wide and bottomless, suddenly split the battlefield in two, cutting off their path.
On the far side of the chasm, Whitebeard rested his naginata on his shoulder, standing like an impassable war god.
"Step aside, or die."
"Hahahaha! Beautifully done, Newgate!"
Roger's booming laughter rang out as he watched several members of the Holy Knights trying to flank them, his killing intent laid bare.
"Obstacles should know their place and stay put!"
His famed sword, *Ace*, ignited with a crimson-gold Conqueror's Haki.
"Divine Departure!"
A seemingly casual horizontal slash.
Yet the terrifying crimson-gold sword pressure transformed into a shockwave that blasted the Holy Knights into the sky along with the ground beneath their feet, reducing them to vanishing specks.
An absolutely safe evacuation corridor was forcibly cleared.
Against these Emperors of the Sea, fully recovered and dead set on leaving, the pitiful attempts by the Five Elders and Holy Knights to stop them looked pale, feeble.
And frankly, laughable.
...
Meanwhile.
High above the heavens.
At the peak of the clouds.
Lucian's figure had already reached the stratosphere, tens of thousands of meters up.
Looking down from here, the sea of clouds resembled a soft white quilt, and the massive, azure curve of the planet was clearly visible.
Within that expanse of blue, the island of God Valley was pitifully small, almost negligible.
Lucian slowly spread his arms.
His posture was like that of a man embracing the entire world.
The massive sunwheel behind his back began to spin and expand at a terrifying speed!
*Buzz, buzz, buzz!*
Endless true solar flames and divine energy poured in from all directions, from the cosmic void, converging madly into his palms.
A sphere of energy took shape between his hands.
At first, it was only the size of a fist.
But as energy flooded into it, it expanded wildly, its brilliance growing more intense.
The sky was dyed a pure, blinding gold.
Below, the waters surrounding God Valley boiled and evaporated violently under the leaked divine pressure!
Massive plumes of white steam shot into the sky, encircling the island in a thick ring of clouds.
All of God Valley let out a violent, mournful groan under this world-ending pressure.
Countless massive cracks spread outward from the center of the island in all directions.
Mountains collapsed in silence.
The earth sank violently.
The very "existence" of this island was being erased from its roots by a higher-dimensional power.
It was on the verge of shattering.
Finally, the scene froze.
Frozen on Lucian, high above the ten-thousand-meter sky, looking down like a god upon the tiny island shrouded in the shadow of death below.
In his hands, that sphere of energy—now charged to its absolute limit, a hundred times more terrifying than any of his previous attacks—hung ready.