Chapter 299: The Rotating Battle
The once-magnificent, opulent Mary Geoise was now a ruin. The shattered remains of Impel Down were mixed with the rubble of the Holy Land. Smoke rose from all directions, and fire spread, consuming corpses and debris. The air was thick with a sickening, foul stench.
Louis hovered in the air, his wings spread. He pulled his gaze from Imu in the distance and focused on the five giant, monstrous figures slowly surrounding him.
"What a nuisance."
Louis slowly drew the Seven Star Sword, holding it in one hand and his spear in the other. Black-red arcs of Haki lightning and golden streams of life energy wreathed both weapons, emanating a terrifying, destructive aura. The invisible pressure wave cleared the smoke, making the world starkly clear.
The battlefield on the Red Line fell silent for a beat. Even the ferocious demons hesitated, a flicker of fear in their eyes. The shockwave of pure power washed over the Five Elders, and their advance faltered, their expressions turning grim.
Not far away, Kong, who was in the middle of fighting Bullet and the Red Count, felt it. His face paled, and his eyes went wide, cold sweat beading on his brow.
Louis hadn't even attacked, but the simple act of entering his battle stance had put them all under immense pressure.
Imu, perched atop Pangea Castle, seemed displeased by their hesitation. The book in his hand snapped shut. A cold light flashed in his crimson eyes.
"What are you waiting for?"
"!!"
The Elders snapped back to reality, sweat dripping from their bestial faces. Their killing intent flared.
Hōki's (Ju Peter's) four hooves dug deep into the earth, his massive body tensing. He opened his giant maw toward Louis.
"ROAR!"
A lethal roar, combining a shockwave with strands of black-red Haki, blasted toward Louis.
At the same time, Nusjuro (V. Nusjuro), in his half-man, half-skeletal-horse form, launched himself into the air. His hands, wreathed in black mist, gripped the Shodai Kitetsu. A hellish cold and raw Conqueror's Haki coated the blade as he slashed down.
Saturn (Gyuki), his eight steel-like spider legs a blur, charged at a speed the eye couldn't follow. As he moved, his eyes glowed red, and an invisible attack shot directly at Louis's head.
These were attacks that could shatter mountains and divide seas, and they all converged on Louis in an instant.
A clear, sharp ring echoed. The Seven Star Sword, wreathed in destruction, moved with a deceptive, lightning-fast grace.
A brilliant, dangerous slash tore through the air. It split Hōki's Haki-infused roar in two, carved a bottomless canyon in the earth below, and continued, undiminished, striking Hōki head-on.
Hōki, stunned that his attack was so easily cleaved, hardened his head and tusks with Armament Haki and met the slash.
BOOM!
The collision was deafening. A terrifying shockwave blasted outward, shattering the ground and sending rubble flying.
"How?!" After a brief stalemate, Hōki's face changed. The force, like an island crashing into him, sent him flying backward.
Having unleashed the slash, Louis tilted his head just enough for the Gyuki's invisible headshot to graze his golden hair.
With his left hand, he spun his spear in a perfect arc, intercepting the Shodai Kitetsu.
CLANG!
The Haki-wreathed spear and sword clashed. Black-red lightning exploded outward like giant serpents. The icy aura on the Kitetsu was snuffed out like a candle in a gale.
The sudden change and the terrifying, unyielding pressure from the spear made Nusjuro's eyes widen in rage. "I haven't felt this kind of strength, not even from the ancient giants! What is this guy?!"
In the stalemate, Louis calmly looked past the crackling Haki at the grimacing Elder. Then, he lifted his heavily armored leg, coated it in Conqueror's Haki, and kicked, striking the junction between Nusjuro's human torso and skeletal horse body.
BANG!
Nusjuro's vision blurred as he was sent tumbling, crashing through one ruin after another.
Having swatted away the first two like dead dogs, Louis turned his gaze back to Imu. The flames on his white wings blazed.
SWOOOSH—BOOM!
A sonic boom echoed. Louis shot forward like a meteor, wreathed in fire, streaking directly toward Imu. The hurricane from his flight swept the ground, extinguishing fires and kicking up a new, world-obscuring storm of debris.
In the ruins, the mountain-sized Hōki (Ju Peter) was on the ground, the long gash on his head slowly healing with black flames. "A hundred years? Two hundred?" he thought, stunned. "It's been that long since I was last injured..."
But he had no time to reminisce. The monster was closing in on Lord Imu. He scrambled to his feet, shaking off the rubble, and positioned himself a thousand meters in front of Pangea Castle.
"You shall not pass!!"
BOOM! Piles of rubble in Louis's path exploded upward. From the dust, a deafening, abyssal roar shook the earth.
Louis's gaze, sharpened by Observation Haki, pierced the dust. He raised his Seven Star Sword, already wreathed in Haki and life energy, and held it with one hand.
In an instant, he entered the dust cloud. A giant maw rose from the ground, its suction pulling in rocks and debris. A colossal, serpent-like body, wreathed in the black smoke of an Awakened Zoan, filled his vision.
"The Sandwyrm?"
As the abyss-like mouth lunged to bite him, Louis's sword slashed down.
A brilliant flash of light. The Sandwyrm's (Ju Peter's) ship-sized eyes shrank in terror. It twisted, trying to dodge the blow.
SHRIIIIIP!
With the sound of tearing canvas, hot, scarlet blood sprayed into the air, vaporizing instantly. Louis flew straight through the gaping, open wound he had created, his blade untouched by blood.
The Sandwyrm, its head nearly severed, crashed to the ground, writhing in agony. Its wound was drying out, its regeneration suppressed. Its death throes flattened what was left of the ruins.
Louis ignored it, flying straight for Imu.
The speed of the exchange, and the pathetic performance of the Five Elders, sent Imu into a cold rage.
The mysterious book in his hand opened again. One by one, firearms that looked to be forged from pure magic materialized, surrounding his slender figure. They all aimed at Louis.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A hail of bullets, each the size of a cannonball, shot through the air at the speed of light.
"Hm?"
Louis sensed the attack, his Haki registering a strange power, something that was like Haki, but also like a Devil Fruit... or magic. He was impressed by their speed.
He instantly veered, the "bullets" streaking past, grazing his armor.
After dodging, Louis stopped his straight-line flight, using his wings for pure maneuverability, weaving through the dense barrage as he closed in on Imu.
"Are we all playing with Haki and Devil Fruits while Imu is using magic? This magic book... its art style doesn't really match this world."
Imu's attack had successfully slowed him down, enough for the Elders to re-engage.
From the ground, Hōki roared again.
From the sky, Marcus Mars (Itsumade), now in a humanoid beast form, dove down, his talons crackling with black-red lightning.
Louis foresaw it all. He spun in mid-air. "Blazing Sun!"
His spear, tipped with a miniature sun and wreathed in Haki, shot upward.
BOOM!
The spear and talons collided. The "sun" exploded, engulfing Marcus Mars in stellar-level heat, his Haki suppressed.
"SKREEE!"
An agonized shriek. His talons, which could tear steel, were instantly incinerated, his feathers catching fire. He became a living torch.
Driven mad by the pain and his repeated failures, Marcus Mars attacked again, lurching through the flames.
Louis raised his spear, coated in Haki and life energy. He, for a rare moment, also coated his body in Armament Haki, just in case Imu's bullets had some strange, secondary effect. He then swung his spear down.
Below, Nusjuro saw his chance and unleashed a massive, icy Haki-slash. The Gyuki and Hōki also attacked, trying to save their comrade.
But in the next second, Marcus Mars was instantly enveloped in Imu's black flames, his wounds healing in a flash. With a powerful flap of his fully-restored wings, he rocketed away.
"..."
Louis turned, looking at Imu, who hadn't moved from Pangea Castle, his eyes flashing with annoyance. "Aren't you coddling them a bit, Imu?"
Far away, Imu tilted his head, his gaze icy.
"Are you telling Mu how to act?"
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