webnovelvip Chapter 689: The Last Strike Before Burning Away
Chapter 689: The Last Strike Before Burning Away
The storms on the far north ice sheet have stopped.
The air in mid-air solidified into a gel.
Chen Ye hovered ten thousand meters in the air, his eyes slightly closed.
His Observation Haki transformed into an invisible sea of needles, piercing through the battlefield below and firmly anchoring itself in Im's heart.
He grasped that ancient, dark, swirling rhythm.
This force is activated extremely slowly.
It was like a giant beast turning over in the mud at the bottom of an abyss, each turn so heavy it was suffocating.
With each rotation of darkness, the space around Im became more solidified.
Light cannot escape.
The sound was completely swallowed up.
Im had no intention of launching a preemptive strike.
He is waiting.
Once the fire of the sun god within Luffy has completely burned away.
When Luffy falls to the lowest point of his power.
This was a hunt conducted with absolute confidence.
Below, Luffy's pursuit came to an abrupt halt.
He abruptly sheathed his sword, his feet sliding backward dozens of meters, his boots carving two charred cracks into the mirror-like ice.
The inertia kicked up a shower of ice shards.
Luffy stopped.
He gripped the first divine weapon in both hands, the tip of the greatsword pressed firmly against the ice, supporting his swaying body.
He was panting heavily.
His chest heaved violently, each breath exhaling white mist and faint golden sparks.
The golden light on his body was no longer dazzling.
The light was extremely unstable, flickering three times in a row.
Lights up.
Extinguished.
It lights up again.
Then turn it off.
Each flicker of light represents a significant decrease in the life force within the body.
Luffy kept his head down.
Sweat dripped down his chin, instantly freezing into ice beads on the ice surface.
The muscles are groaning.
The bones were making a cracking sound.
The power of the sun god is being drained from his veins.
He was on the verge of exhaustion.
Can't delay any longer.
Luffy gritted his teeth. If he could hold on for another dozen breaths, this body would completely lose all its power.
By then, he wouldn't even have a chance to swing his sword.
He will become fish on the chopping board, at the mercy of that world king.
The wind and snow swirled around the road.
Im did not pursue.
The King of the World hovered in mid-air, truly like a god.
He did not take the opportunity to expand his gains, nor did he exert any sense of pressure.
Im simply let the Codex Sword with its flowing dark gold patterns hang at his side.
At the tip of the sword, a drop of dark gold energy condensed and fell.
The ice surface was silently corroded, creating a deep black pit.
Im lowered his head and looked down at Luffy.
There was no anger, no murderous intent in those scarlet eyes, only a chilling stillness.
"It's almost time again, isn't it?"
Im spoke.
The sound wasn't loud, but it pierced through the wind and snow and reached Luffy's ears.
In short, like a scalpel, it precisely cuts through the surface of the battle, dissecting the bloody truth.
High in the sky, Chen Ye heard it.
His eyes instantly turned extremely cold.
This statement completely exposed Im's hunter mentality.
He was calculating from the very beginning.
Calculate the energy consumed by Luffy's each sword swing.
Calculate the energy loss Luffy experiences each time he dodges.
He accurately predicted Luffy's point of exhaustion.
He was enjoying the process of his prey struggling desperately and finally collapsing.
Luffy did not answer.
Not a single word.
He simply raised his left hand.
Beneath the tattered cuffs was an arm covered in golden cracks.
He placed his palm on the brim of his straw hat.
Press down hard.
His straw hat covered his eyes, and the shadows obscured all his expressions.
All that remained were tightly pursed lips and an extremely taut jaw.
His right hand gripped the hilt of the first divine weapon again.
A faint yet warm resonance emanated from the rough metal, traveling from my palm straight to my heart.
His choice was simple, even reckless.
You, Im, are waiting for me to finish burning.
You want to see me collapse from exhaustion.
Then I will grant your wish.
But it doesn't mean it will collapse.
I want to unleash all my power at once while the last embers of fire are still burning.
Behind the rubble.
Zoro stared intently at the center of the battlefield.
The veins on the back of his hand, which was gripping the Wado Ichimonji, bulged.
He watched Luffy stop and watch Luffy lower his straw hat.
Zoro's pupils contracted instantly.
The captain did not admit defeat.
The captain wasn't waiting for his strength to recover either.
Luffy needs to change his tactics.
The war of attrition has been changed to a decisive battle.
Zoro's fingers rubbed against the hilt of his sword, his blood boiling.
Instinct drove him to rush out and reach the captain.
But he managed to restrain himself.
His feet were firmly planted on the ice like nails.
The clash between Luffy and Im has reached the realm of gods.
Any outsider who approaches is courting death.
Even he, if he stepped into that area, would be instantly crushed into dust.
He cannot interfere.
He can only trust.
This is the only thing he can do for the captain right now.
Another sky.
The clash between Shanks and Shamrock also came to a brief halt.
The two men used the recoil from the clash of their weapons to retreat.
Shanks held Griffin in one hand, not pursuing, but instead holding the sword horizontally in front of him in a defensive stance.
His gaze passed over Shamrock and landed on Luffy in the distance.
Shanks got distracted.
A sinister glint flashed in Shamrock's eyes.
He won't let this opportunity slip by.
The ice beneath his feet shattered, and Shamrock transformed into a blood-red afterimage, his blade flashing with a blinding crimson light as he lunged straight for Shanks' open defense.
This strike contained all his killing intent.
Shanks didn't even turn his head.
The Conqueror's Haki caught the sound of something cutting through the air behind him.
Backhand.
Draw your sword.
Griffin drew a simple semicircle.
"clang!"
The clang of metal echoed through the sky.
Shamlock's figure froze in mid-air, then flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the ice wall in the distance.
He clutched his numb arm and stared at Shanks in horror.
Shanks turned around, holding a sword with one arm, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.
An immense, suffocating burst of Conqueror's Haki erupted, completely suppressing Shamrock.
"Don't move."
Shanks' voice was cold.
"Don't block my view of the world turning around."
The edge of the ice pit.
Rocks' foot was firmly planted on Garin's chest.
Garin was covered in blood; his magnificent armor was shattered inch by inch, and blood gushed from his mouth and nose.
The black flames surging beneath Rocks' feet were devouring the life force of the Five Elders.
Torture.
But the next second, Rocks stopped moving.
He raised his head.
Those eyes, once filled with arrogance and ferocity, were now unusually solemn.
High in the sky, the golden light, like a flickering candle in the wind, changed.
It is no longer weakness, but an extremely dangerous cohesion.
A harbinger of mutual destruction.
Rocks withdrew his foot, stood up straight, and held the black flame longsword horizontally in front of him.
Not far away.
Whitebeard too.
"Gurala la la..."
The white-bearded man stopped laughing, gripped the Murakumogiri with both hands, and held it horizontally in front of his chest.
The power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit was surging within him, but he did not launch an attack.
The two overlords of the old era reached a tacit agreement.
Luffy is about to deliver the decisive blow.
This strike can alter the terrain of the ice field and even tear the sky apart.
The terrifying aftershocks will engulf the entire battlefield.
They must control the pace of the battle on the ground.
We must hold our ground and create a safe zone for this clash of the gods.
In the center of the battlefield.
Luffy closed his eyes.
In the darkness, the remaining power of the sun god within him was a white flame.
Faint, yet intensely hot.
He began to compress inward.
He forcibly pulled the remaining white flames from Nika's limbs toward his chest.
The white flames left his fists and legs, transforming into tiny white fire dragons that surged wildly into his heart along his meridians.
"Thump."
A muffled thud came from Luffy's chest.
It's not a heartbeat.
It's the sound of force striking the heart.
The sound was extremely loud, penetrating his body, piercing through the wind and snow, and spreading through the clouds.
The clouds then churned violently.
"Thump."
Second tone.
Each time the compression occurred, Luffy's body trembled violently.
The cost was devastating.
As the white flames gathered, the golden patterns on Luffy's skin began to crack.
"Click."
A golden line on his left arm split open.
Fresh blood gushed out and was instantly evaporated into a blood mist by the high temperature.
Then came the second and third points.
The skin began to ulcerate, and blood vessels began to burst.
The excruciating pain came like a tidal wave.
But Luffy's lips curled into a stiff smile.
Because the first-generation divine weapon in his hands is changing.
As white flames were injected, the originally dull sword body regained its brightness.
The ancient metal surface reflected a dazzling pure white light.
The ancient patterns on the sword came to life, greedily absorbing the power of the sun god that Luffy had poured into it.
Its sharp edge is being rebuilt.
High in the sky.
Chenye opened his eyes.
Luffy's choice was a resolute suicide.
But he did not stop it.
This is Luffy's only chance, the only way to break this deadlock.
If this attack succeeds, it will not only severely injure Im, but also force Im to abandon his defense and prematurely expose his demonized trump card.
Once Im reveals his hand, he will have a chance to find a weakness.
Chen Ye closed his eyes and inhaled a breath of cold air.
He began to mobilize the power within his body.
A dark golden aura surged from his dantian, but instead of erupting, he compressed it with great difficulty.
He pressed this immense golden aura inch by inch into the meridians of his right arm.
A sharp pain struck.
Dark golden patterns appeared on Chen Ye's right arm, and his sleeve turned to ashes.
His entire right arm emitted a dazzling dark golden light, transforming into a divine sword poised to strike.
He is waiting.
Waiting for a window of opportunity that may only be a fraction of a second.
midair.
Im noticed it too.
Luffy's weakening aura suddenly underwent a qualitative change.
The air around him shifted from deathly stillness to a tense, almost explosive feeling.
For the first time, the indifference faded from Im's crimson eyes.
Instead, scrutiny is employed.
This kid is burning with the essence of life.
We have to go all in.
However, Im remained completely calm.
He made the decision.
The full demonization is still not initiated.
He forcibly suppressed that darkness deeper within his body.
Since Luffy is going all out, then he'll accept.
He intends to use his existing defenses to withstand Luffy's final blow.
He wanted to show the world how powerless the struggles of the old era were in the face of absolute order.
He wanted to save his final trump card to completely end this arrogant brat.
The air on the battlefield seemed to freeze.
Everyone is watching.
Luffy suddenly opened his eyes.
His eyes were filled with pure golden light, with no pupils or whites remaining, only an extreme brilliance.
The previously weakened golden light suddenly surged from its lowest point to its peak without warning.
boom!
The golden light surrounding Luffy transformed from weakening to an intense, blazing intensity!
The light pierced through the wind and snow, illuminating the entire far northern ice plain.
On the eternally dark icy plains, a blazing sun rises out of nowhere.
"Crackling and popping!"
A dazzling golden bolt of lightning exploded beneath his feet.
Thick bolts of lightning, like countless raging golden snakes, crawled in all directions along the smooth ice surface.
The millennia-old ice was instantly shattered, turning into a shower of ice powder.
The blinding flashes of light illuminated the battlefield dozens of miles away.
Luffy didn't move.
He poured all his strength into the first-generation divine weapon in his hand.
The pure white flames of the sun god roared upwards along the broad spine of the greatsword.
This is not the thin flame from before.
This is the ultimate fire that ignited the very essence of Luffy's life.
White flames condensed on the blade, the temperature of the sword rose sharply, and the surrounding air was twisted and burning.
The first-generation divine weapon emitted a high-pitched, cloud-piercing sword cry.
The sound contained a sharp edge that could tear the heavens apart.
At this moment, the skin of all the strong warriors on the battlefield was stinging.
Zoro, Shanks, Whitebeard, Rocks.
A terrifying sharpness, capable of cleaving through heaven and earth and severing the rules, is gathering at the tip of Luffy's sword.
Along with this sharp edge, Nika's power within him was disappearing!