hotmtlnovel Chapter 612: Elegy for an Old Era
Chapter 612: Elegy for an Old Era
The black ball slipped from his hand.
It wasn't just Whitebeard who was being attacked, but also Rocks who was standing nearby!
A distorted trajectory was drawn through the air. The air was sucked out. The light was swallowed up. The energy sphere, compressed to its limit, crashed into the pure white beam of light that broke the sound barrier.
An aura of destruction swept over us.
Rocks' Observation Haki went into overdrive, triggering an alarm. A sharp, piercing pain shot through the depths of his brain. He smelled death.
There is no way to retreat.
I don't want to escape.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Lox roared like a beast. Without any hesitation, he detonated all the dark energy within his body.
The heart contracts violently.
Pitch-black mist erupted wildly from every pore of his body. This wasn't an ordinary Devil Fruit ability. It was the primal power he had gained by squeezing out his life force. The mist was as thick as ink, mixed with his blood. His body was instantly stained a terrifying dark red.
Rocks thrust his arms forward with a sudden, sweeping motion.
A violent, dark force compressed wildly before him and the white-bearded man. The air crackled under the immense pressure. Layers of black mist swirled, pressing against each other, consuming one another.
In a mere 0.1 seconds.
A barrier of absolute darkness, three meters thick, had taken shape.
A dark purple, eerie light flowed across the barrier's surface, greedily devouring all surrounding energy. Lox's eyes were bloodshot. His eyelids, strained from the exertion, suddenly tore open, and crimson blood gushed down his cheeks. His muscles bulged, and his veins throbbed violently beneath his skin like twisted earthworms.
"I'm Lox!"
He roared hoarsely, his voice filled with defiant arrogance.
"Don't even think about killing me!"
He pressed his hands firmly against the dark barrier, his fingers sinking deep into the black energy. The knuckles creaked and groaned. He poured all his domineering spirit and dignity into this barrier.
next moment.
Whitebeard's "Shaking Blade: Shattering the Void" collided head-on with Im's black energy ball.
There was no deafening noise.
A perfectly still black and white sphere of light appeared at the center of the collision. Immediately afterwards, a ring-shaped shockwave exploded outwards.
The permafrost within a 500-meter radius was directly blown away.
The hard rock shattered like fragile biscuits. Hundreds of tons of soil and boulders were hurled into the air. The battlefield terrain was instantly reshaped. The violent shockwaves transformed into tangible blades, slicing wildly in all directions.
The very center of the collision.
The white-bearded man gripped the Murakumogiri tightly with both hands. The blade trembled violently. High-density vibrating white light rubbed wildly against the black energy sphere. The pure white beam of light struggled to tear open the outermost layer of the black energy sphere.
A blinding burst of sparks erupted.
Each spark contained terrifying energy enough to destroy a hill. Sparks rained down on the earth like a meteor shower, instantly riddling the ground with holes. The white-bearded man's arm muscles were torn apart, blood staining his bandages.
But he did not retreat an inch.
They used absolute force to forcefully stop the energy ball from advancing.
The devastating shockwave spread outwards, like a stampede of ten thousand horses, crashing violently against Lox's dark barrier.
"boom!"
The barrier emitted a dull, loud thud.
The absolute darkness, three meters thick, shook violently. Its surface cracked and sputtered. Thick cracks spread wildly like a spiderweb. A dark purple light flickered intermittently.
A metallic taste rose in Lox's throat.
He swallowed blood violently. His feet were rooted to the ground. His body was forced forward, and he poured the last vestiges of his dark essence into the barrier. Cracks repeatedly tore at the barrier, trying to repair it while it crumbled.
A miracle happened.
This tattered, dark barrier stubbornly withstood the aftershocks.
It did not break.
The violent thrust propelled the two men backward. The two men, standing atop the ocean's peak, stood side-by-side, having withstood Im's devastating blow together. Their feet carved two deep, hundred-meter-long furrows into the hard rock. The rock, under the intense heat and friction, transformed into dark red magma.
The storm gradually subsided.
Dust filled the air and fell in abundance.
The white-bearded man gasped for breath. The pure white aura around his body slowly receded. Rocks lowered his arms. His entire body was soaked in sweat and blood. The ground beneath his feet had turned into a scorched ruin.
But they still stood.
Its spine is as straight as a mountain.
They defended the dignity of the old hegemon with their strength.
Im stood quietly twenty meters away.
Her pale face was devoid of any expression. She watched the black energy sphere gradually dissipate in mid-air. A barely perceptible hint of surprise flashed in her dark red eyes.
This moment of surprise vanished in an instant.
She tilted her head slightly, her gaze sweeping over the panting white-bearded man and Rocks.
"The awakening of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit?"
She spoke in a hoarse voice, like rough sandpaper rubbing against glass.
"And the power of Rocks?"
He paused. There was no praise in his tone, only condescending indifference.
"That's interesting."
Im gave his evaluation.
"But that's all."
The voice just fell.
Im slowly raised his left hand. The movement was extremely casual, as if he were shooing away two annoying flies.
The thumb and middle finger are crossed.
He snapped his fingers lightly.
"Smack."
A crisp snap of fingers echoed across the deathly silent battlefield. A small wisp of black flame, about the size of a thumb, drifted leisurely from the fingertip.
This black flame has no temperature.
The surrounding air was not distorted. Nor did it emit any light. It was like an absolute black hole, silently suspended in mid-air.
The black flames drifted slowly forward.
The speed appeared extremely slow. However, Whitebeard and Rocks' Observation Haki exploded completely at that moment. The shadow of death instantly enveloped their souls.
Whitebeard suddenly raised the Murakumogiri.
The vibrating white light erupted once more.
Locus roared. The remaining barrier of darkness reformed.
But all defenses are in vain.
The black flames defied the laws of physics and the rules of energy collision. Like a phantom, they pierced directly through the white-bearded man's pure white aura, powerful enough to shatter space itself. Then, as easily as piercing through a thin sheet of paper, they penetrated Locke's three-meter-thick barrier of absolute darkness.
There were no obstacles.
There was no consumption.
The black flames touched the Armament Haki covering their bodies. This layer of jet-black armor, forged to its absolute limit, became, in that instant, the most laughable decoration.
The black flames expanded violently.
Instant explosion.
There were no towering flames. No deafening explosions. Only absolute annihilation that devoured everything. The moment anything came into contact with the black flames, it was instantly wiped out of this dimension.
Whitebeard didn't even have time to finish the motion of swinging his sword in defense.
The power of annihilation pierced directly through his chest.
His body stiffened abruptly. A gaping hole, the size of a bowl, appeared in his chest. The edges of the hole were an eerie, charred black. No blood flowed out. Because that part of his flesh, bone, and blood vessels had been completely annihilated.
A piece of the heart's edge was smoothly cut away.
The fatal blow instantly extinguished the white-bearded man's life force. His once-proud, monstrous body was as fragile as rotten wood before this power.
At the same time.
The edge of the black flame scorched across Lox's right scapula.
Rocks's prized black Armament Haki crumbled instantly. His incredibly hard shoulder blade turned to white powder in a fraction of a second. His skeletal support vanished in an instant. His entire right arm hung limply, like a dead snake.
The excruciating pain only reached the brain at this moment.
The nerve endings were screaming wildly.
Both men simultaneously coughed up a mouthful of blood, mixed with shattered internal organs. Their tall, imposing bodies were sent flying like broken kites by an invisible force of annihilation.
It drew two tragic parabolic lines in mid-air.
The powerful kinetic energy propelled them through three dilapidated giant structures in succession. The hard frostbone stone walls shattered upon impact.
finally.
It was buried deep within the ruins hundreds of meters away. A cloud of dust rose into the sky, obscuring the fallen figure.
The battlefield fell silent once again.
Only the mournful sound of the cold wind blowing through the ruins could be heard.
Rocks lay in the cold pile of rubble.
The right side of my body has completely lost sensation. Waves of excruciating pain assault my reason.
He struggled to open his eyes.
His vision was blurred by blood. He tried to prop himself up with his left hand, but his muscles were completely unresponsive.
He started coughing violently.
Each cough brought out black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. Blood flowed down the corners of his mouth, staining the rubble beneath him.
He stared intently at the gray sky.
The arrogance and ambition in his eyes had been utterly shattered, replaced by an unfathomable despair.
He was once the overlord who ruled the seas.
It once struck fear into the hearts of governments around the world.
They thought they had reached the pinnacle of power. They thought that by joining forces with Whitebeard, they would at least be qualified to contend with the gods.
But reality dealt him the cruelest blow.
Their desperate, all-out attacks were easily neutralized by their opponent. And with a casual snap of their fingers, they were utterly annihilated.
The ceiling of combat power was ruthlessly shattered at this moment.
This is not even a battle on the same level.
This is an absolute crushing of lower life forms by higher life forms.
Rocks' lips trembled violently.
With the last ounce of strength in his body, he let out a deafening roar.
"This Im is terrifyingly strong."
The roars echoed over the ruins.
It exudes endless desolation and despair.
This is the final lament of the overlords of the old era.
Im stood still.
He didn't even lift his eyelids. He completely ignored the two people lying in the ruins, their fate unknown.
In her eyes.
The ants have been crushed. There's no need to confirm it further. The gods don't care about the dust beneath their feet.
She slowly turned around.
His dark red eyes gazed into the distant, dark swamp.
Garin remained kneeling on one knee. His legs were corrupted by dark power. His armor was shattered. He was in a sorry state. But his eyes, as he looked at Im, were filled with a morbid fanaticism.
Im took a step.
He slowly walked towards the direction of Garin Saint.
The pace was slow. But with each step, the surrounding air temperature dropped by one degree.
She raised her pale right hand.
Palms down.
An even more violent surge of pitch-black demonic energy erupted from his palm. This energy was thicker and more malevolent than the black flames from before, like a living venomous snake, twisting and coiling wildly in the air, emitting a chilling hissing sound.
Dark shadows spread rapidly across the frozen ground.
The wrath of the King of the World.
It has only just begun to burn.