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Chapter 392: Tri-Beam! Instantly Erasing the Ocean
"Holy shit?!"
Kaido's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. He was shoved back several meters by the shockwave, his feet plowing two deep trenches into the floorboards. "What the hell is that?!"
Whitebeard had to plunge Murakumogiri directly into the floor just to stabilize himself. His weathered face was written with pure disbelief. "No Haki… and no signs of a Devil Fruit activation… Just what did this old monster do?!"
At the center of the storm, Imu slowly opened her eyes.
A faint, milky-white halo now subtly radiated from her previously crimson Rinnegan. That was the sign of "Ki" overflowing. She raised her hand and stared into her palm. There, a visible orb of white flame burned silently.
It had no heat. Yet, it contained enough terrifying energy to destroy a world.
"Is this… the B-Rank reward?"
Imu's voice trembled. Not out of fear, but from extreme exhilaration. The white light in her palm wasn't blinding. In fact, it was almost tame. It looked like a sluggish winter hearth. Compared to Akainu's magma that could boil oceans, or Enel's sky-rending lightning, this light was far too quiet.
But standing nearby, all the hairs on Kaido's body stood on end. As the monster renowned across the seas for his pure physical "body," his perception of life force was the sharpest. That wasn't fire, it wasn't lightning, and it wasn't any natural element.
It was the life force of an entire nation forcibly compressed into a space no larger than a palm. If it exploded, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Hey, hey, old hag." Kaido gripped his spiked club tightly, his muscles entirely tensed. "You aren't planning on blowing up the shop right here, are you? That's going to cost a fortune to repair, and I definitely can't afford to pay for it with my current salary."
Imu ignored Kaido's noisy complaints. She was deeply immersed in that beautiful sensation.
For eight hundred years, her body had been like a massive reservoir with only an inlet and no outlet. Her life force had piled up until it molded and rotted, relying on long slumbers just to slow the decay. But now, the valve known as "Ki" had been opened. That stagnant, heavy power began to gallop joyfully through her meridians. It felt like she had been reborn.
"Hmph."
Imu suddenly clenched her fingers into a fist. The white light in her palm was instantly extinguished, pushed right back into her body. That terrifying, oppressive weight vanished as if it had never existed.
Retracting and releasing at will. This was the exact technique that three-eyed bald man had displayed in the arena. As long as she mastered the trick, it was as easy as breathing for someone who had lived for eight centuries.
"Get out."
Leaving those two words behind, Imu turned and walked toward the tavern's exit. Her feet never touched the ground. She looked like a ghost, hovering three inches above the floor, gliding smoothly forward.
There was no sonic boom like when using Moonwalk to stomp the air. Nor was there the heavy gravitational pull of the Float-Float Fruit. It was simply flying purely on will.
Sitting behind the counter, Blake wiped a glass with a cloth, a playful smirk curving his lips. This old monster has pretty high comprehension skills. Then again, she's lived long enough. Even a pig would turn into a demon if it lived for eight hundred years.
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Foosha Village — The Docks
The sunlight was somewhat glaring. The sea breeze carried the salty tang of the ocean, blowing against the Five Elders' robes until they fluttered loudly.
Saint Saturn leaned on his cane, panting heavily as he ran over, his old face covered in fanaticism and anticipation. "Lord Imu! Have you truly mastered that power?"
Imu didn't answer. She hovered in mid-air, looking down at the tranquil blue sea from high above.
Behind her, a group of pirate powerhouses had also followed her outside. Whitebeard carried Murakumogiri, standing on the shore like an iron tower. Red-Haired Shanks sat on a wooden post at the pier, casually playing with a liquor bottle with his one remaining hand. Katakuri stood guard in front of Brulee, his eyes heavy with solemnity.
Everyone wanted to see exactly what the mastermind who had ruled the world for eight hundred years had brought back from that other world.
Imu took a deep breath. She slowly raised her hands. Left hand on top, right hand on the bottom. Thumbs and index fingers connected, forming a somewhat peculiar diamond-shaped window in front of her chest.
Through that diamond gap, she locked onto the calm surface of the sea in the distance.
"That is…"
Among the crowd, only Blake, who had just stepped out of the tavern, knew what that posture meant. It was the exact move that had nearly blasted Imu into cosmic dust.
The Crane School's forbidden technique.
The Tri-Beam.
Wzzzzzz—
An agonizing, low hum suddenly echoed from Imu's chest. That was the sound of burning vitality. Imu's normally pale skin instantly flushed an eerie, deep crimson. The life force inside her body was being extracted, compressed, and compressed again at an insane speed!
If this were an ordinary person, this single action would drain them completely dry. But Imu didn't care. The one thing she lacked the least was life force.
"Watch closely." Imu's voice wasn't loud, but it drilled clearly into everyone's ears. "This is… true power that surpasses Devil Fruits."
As her words fell, the red light in her eyes surged. Within that diamond-shaped window, a speck of golden light abruptly exploded with blinding brilliance!
"Tri-Beam!!!"
BOOM—!!!
There were no flames from an explosion. There was no sky filled with smoke and dust. There was only a beam of the purest golden-white light surging violently from Imu's hands!
The beam was perfectly square, its edges as sharp and clear as if drawn with a ruler. It sliced through the air without a sound and slammed into the ocean.
No water splashed. No waves churned. Under everyone's watchful eyes, the ocean where the beam made contact… simply vanished.
Yes, vanished.
The seawater was instantly vaporized by that terrifying heat and kinetic impact within a millionth of a second. It didn't even have the chance to turn into steam. It was directly erased.
The beam drove straight downward with unstoppable momentum. A hundred meters. A thousand meters. All the way to the ocean floor!
Bzzzt… bzzzt…
Ear-piercing static echoed through the air. The light pillar dissipated. Dead silence fell over the area. Only the sea breeze continued to blow, blissfully ignorant of the devastation.
Clack.
Whitebeard's wine gourd dropped from his hand and hit the ground. The liquor spilled everywhere, but he remained completely oblivious. He widened his copper-bell-like eyes, staring dead ahead at the sea.
Right there, upon the once-rolling ocean, was a massive, perfectly square abyss. It was hundreds of meters long and wide, and seemingly bottomless. The seawater around it looked as if it was blocked by invisible walls, sliced so neatly that it didn't even pour back in!
Through that abyss, they could even see the exposed, scorched seabed! The mud and rocks at the bottom had been compressed into a sheet of perfectly smooth glass.
"This…"
Shanks crushed the liquor bottle in his hand. Shards of glass pierced his palm, but he didn't feel the pain. "Are you kidding me… How the hell is this something a human can actually do?"
He was an Emperor-level powerhouse. His Haki could knock out Vice Admirals, and his swordsmanship could split the sky. But he couldn't do this. Splitting the sea meant pushing the water apart. But what happened right before his eyes was the water being eaten! Absolute, total annihilation!
Gulp.
Someone swallowed hard. Triggered by that sound, a collective gasp of cold air rippled across the pier.
The Five Elders dropped to their knees immediately. Their scalps went numb. This was their God! This was the master of the Empty Throne! What Ancient Weapons? What Pluton? Could a single blast from that thing even compare to this?! And this was just a casual strike from Lord Imu! If she went all out… she might just drill a hole straight through the Red Line!
In mid-air, Imu slowly retracted her hands. Her chest heaved violently, and a fine layer of sweat beaded on her forehead. The stamina drain of the Tri-Beam was indeed astonishing. Even for her, this single shot had drained nearly a tenth of her reserves.
But this feeling… was incredible.
That sense of absolute control, watching all things turn to ash within her grasp. It was ten thousand times more satisfying than sitting on that cold throne barking orders!
"Huuu…"
Imu let out a breath of stale air. She lowered her head, gazing at the abyss below that was finally starting to slowly fill with seawater, and a cruel, bloodthirsty smirk curved her lips.
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