Chapter 374: Imu's Spark
The gap is huge—both Ace and Yamato could clearly recognize this point.
In fact, the injuries on their bodies that were still continuously healing right now were enough to prove this.
Haki, martial skills, strength, speed... this giant in front of them completely suppressed them in every aspect.
In fact, if it weren't for Rabbit's Unextinguishable Fire granting them almost cheating-like recovery power and enhancing their strength, they wouldn't even know how many times they would have lost their combat capability in this fierce battle.
Even with the Unextinguishable Fire, they knew that the current situation was gradually getting worse.
Because although the physical wounds could heal, the Haki on their bodies was different.
In the battle just now, the Haki consumption of both had already been quite severe. Although it hadn't reached the point of bottoming out, it wasn't far off either.
However, although the situation was quite bad, as Ace and Yamato looked at each other at this moment, a certain strange light flashed in both their eyes.
"You noticed it, right?"
Yamato gripped the kanabo in her hand tightly and said in a low voice.
"Mm."
Ace also nodded slightly.
"Between every few attacks, that guy's state becomes very strange..."
While they were speaking, Harald in front of them leaped up once again.
The giant sword in his hand swung down, sweeping through everything in front of it like sweeping through a thousand armies. Wherever it passed, the massive rift on the ground of Onigashima visibly expanded once again.
Seeing this, Ace and Yamato simultaneously activated their Haki, quickly leaping to dodge this strike.
At the same time, their gazes stared intently at Harald.
Then, they noticed—on Harald's tattoo-covered face, an extremely discordant trace of confusion and struggle suddenly flashed across his originally violent and cold eyes.
"This is the time!"
At this moment, Ace also shouted in a low voice.
Subsequently, he didn't hesitate to burst the Haki within his body to the limit once again.
Whoosh!
His fists turned into massive fists of flame, roaring as they blasted towards the giant: "Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor!"
At the same time, Yamato similarly didn't hesitate.
She took a deep breath, and freezing cold air instantly condensed on her kanabo, turning into giant ice crystals.
Her entire body even turned into a streak of white light, similarly swinging the kanabo in her hand towards the giant: "Thunder Bagua!"
The attacks of the two instantly hit Harald's body.
BOOM!
A massive explosion roared, and Harald's body instantly took two steps back, then abruptly collapsed, kicking up smoke and ash all over the ground.
At the same time, the figures of Ace and Yamato landed on the ground.
Both panted heavily, looking at each other, joy in their eyes.
Yes.
In the battle just now, both of them had already keenly discovered it.
Although Harald was absurdly strong, they couldn't gain any advantage at all in normal combat.
But every so often, the other party seemed to fall into a peculiar state.
In that state, he would pause his attacks for a brief moment.
And now, they took advantage of this state and completed this frontal attack.
Both were also very confident—being hit head-on by their moves like this, even that monster would definitely...
Rumble!
But exactly when the two breathed a slight sigh of relief, before they even had time to exchange words.
They already felt the tremors of the ground, and heard the sound coming from the smoke and ash ahead.
"Mm..."
Accompanied by that deep voice, Harald's massive figure slowly stood back up amidst the smoke and dust.
The surrounding smoke and dust dissipated with his breath, revealing his figure.
Right now, in the place where he was just hit by Yamato and Ace, a massive gash had indeed appeared on the armor on his body.
And within the gash of that armor, a portion of the bandages wrapping his body had also been burned away, revealing some pitch-black lines whose specific appearance couldn't be seen clearly.
But there was only one thing, and that was that he hadn't suffered any obvious injuries on his body, not even a slight weakening of his aura.
"Completely ineffective!?"
After seeing this scene, Ace and Yamato's expressions completely sank, and their bodies instantly tensed up again.
Their full-force frontal attack actually failed to inflict even the slightest bit of injury on this guy?
Where did this kind of monster pop out from... even Kaido couldn't do this kind of thing, right!?
But just as the two were alert and horrified in their hearts.
"Who... am I...?"
They strikingly heard Harald's deep voice, like muffled thunder.
At this moment, the giant covered his forehead, his massive fingers sinking deep into his skin.
His expression was extremely pained: "I am... God's... command... destroy... no..."
This state also made Ace and Yamato look at each other.
"Hey, this guy looks a bit like you from before?"
Ace couldn't help but say to Yamato.
He still remembered when he fought Yamato together with Rabbit earlier—after the Deep Sea Contract on Yamato was removed by Rabbit, she also briefly showed this kind of obvious "struggling" behavior.
"...Indeed, could it be that this guy is also someone forcefully controlled by the 'Abyss'?"
And Yamato didn't deny it either.
The two looked at each other, and a thought naturally arose in their hearts.
"If this guy is also someone being controlled..."
"We really should notify Rabbit, right? If we can remove the control on this guy and have him join our side... with a guy of this level, even if Kaido comes back, we can easily deal with him!"
But exactly at this moment...
Harald's state only lasted for less than a second.
Immediately, that cold murderous intent covered his face again like the tide, his icy gaze locking onto Ace and Yamato once again.
He slowly raised the giant sword, pointing the tip at Ace and Yamato, black-red Conqueror's Haki lightning wildly dancing on the blade and around his body again.
"Ants... your resistance... against God... ends here."
"The next strike... will send you back to dust!"
His voice was intermittent, as if he hadn't spoken for a long time.
Then, he swung the giant sword again.
Seeing this, even though the Haki in their bodies was on the verge of exhaustion after that strike just now, Ace and Yamato still forced themselves to stand straight, ready to face this strike head-on.
However, just the next instant.
Their expressions instantly froze.
Right now, above Harald's head.
A ball of illusory starlight appeared out of thin air like a cloud of mist.
And wherever that starlight covered, the ground below seemed to be continuously turning incorporeal, as if stained with stardust.
The next moment, the giant sword swung by Harald abruptly stopped.
"!!!"
And at this time, Harald's expression also froze simultaneously.
Because he had already seen the thing appearing from within that illusory starlight.
That was a finger.
It blocked in front of Harald's giant sword, steady and casual.
But just that single finger—when it touched Harald's giant sword that was capable of cleaving mountains and seas, it actually seemed as steady as an abyss.
Even Harald couldn't push his giant sword forward even the slightest bit at this moment.
"You..."
His hesitant and seemingly unclear words were spoken again, his cold gaze looking at the figure appearing amidst the starlight.
That figure with stars flowing on the mask also caused Ace and Yamato to abruptly freeze in a daze at this moment.
They had both read the newspapers, and both knew who this person in front of them was.
"Star... Star..."
Yes.
The person appearing here right now and stopping Harald was not "Rabbit" as they thought, but...
"Star Lord!"
At the same time.
Mary Geoise, Pangea Castle, Room of Flowers.
Shamrock was kneeling on one knee, bowing his head to the God he served in front of him.
No joy or anger could be seen in his eyes.
And in front of him.
That Lord Imu, who was usually always very quiet and stable, unprecedentedly showed a different posture at this moment.
A pair of demon-like wings seemed to extend from His shadow.
A bizarre weapon surrounded by countless eyes and burning with pitch-black flames also faintly appeared in His hand at this time.
"Go notify the Five Elders, their time to 'atone for their sins' has come."
Imu spoke calmly, and then slowly turned around.
"Lord Imu."
As the only person besides Imu who knew about this plan.
Shamrock, at this moment, seemingly rarely hesitated: "Do we really have to..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
Because at this time, an extremely cold emotion had already surged from deep within his heart.
And for Shamrock, the sole holder of the "Abyssal Servant Contract", whose heart had almost completely become a part of Imu, his heart was instantly filled by that emotion.
Thus, that rare hesitation and indecision of his vanished completely.
"Yes."
He knew this Lord had made up His mind.
So he responded like this, and then immediately turned and left the Room of Flowers.
And Imu did not speak.
He merely turned around and silently walked into the deepest room of the Room of Flowers.
Once again stepping into that ancient building with countless massive freezers, which had existed for a long time long before the establishment of the World Government, named the [Ancient Wall].
He once again came to the deepest part of the Ancient Wall, arriving in front of the "First Generation Nika" and the ancient machinery that now existed as a legend on the sea.
Then, He slowly raised His hand.
A small casket had already appeared in His hand at some point.
That casket bore obvious cultural traces belonging to the "Sky Islands".
Of course, to Imu, He knew very well.
The so-called Sky Islands and Sky Islanders were all descendants of the "People of the Moon" from beyond the sky.
That species of the starry sea with technology developed to the extreme, who came to this world from beyond the sky, bringing everything in the world and the Pillar of Creation.
They brought everything to the world—light, fire, thunder and lightning, technology, civilization, hope, and despair.
So to be precise, the name of this casket was...
"Casket of Stolen Fire."
Imu whispered this name softly.
Then, He opened that casket.
Whoosh!
And inside the casket, a small flame was burning quietly.
If Roy or Vegapunk were here right now, they would naturally recognize it immediately.
This clump of flame was extremely similar to the "Mother Flame" created by Vegapunk, but seemed to have some differences.
It was more ancient, more complete, more... powerful!
That was strikingly exactly the prototype of the Mother Flame, which was also the most incredible one among all ancient technologies.
Symbolizing infinite energy...
[Wish Creation · Eternal Furnace · Eternal Flame]
The world legend says that it is a "technology" left behind by that Ancient Kingdom which vanished during the Void Century.
But Imu knew very well, that was not the case.
The Eternal Flame was not a creation of that Ancient Kingdom—its essence was an object of the world's origin brought from beyond the sky by the "People of the Moon".
Even the creator of the Ancient Kingdom, "Davy Jones", only inherited a portion of its spark with Imu's help.
It was precisely because of the existence of this infinite energy that Davy Jones could operate the ancient technologies in various parts of this world, including the three Ancient Weapons, and establish such a prosperous kingdom.
But unfortunately, the vast majority of the Ancient Kingdom's sparks were almost entirely destroyed in that great war.
This was also Imu's most frustrating point—He knew the power of the lunar technology, but in this long period of time, He hadn't found any other "sparks", so He could only sigh in despair.
If He had enough Eternal Flame, then with the power of lunar technology, He wouldn't even need to rely on the power of the World Government to easily rule the entire world.
However, interestingly enough, just a few years ago.
A Sky Islander named Enel brought Him an unexpected harvest.
The other party found ancient ruins from the Sky Island named "Birca", ate the "Rumble-Rumble Fruit", and discovered this casket.
And inside this casket, there happened to be a spark, perhaps the only one left in the world.
Enel offered the spark to the Government in exchange for the identity of God's Retainer.
And after obtaining this spark, Imu had been waiting.
Waiting for the time when this spark would fulfill its purpose.
Which was... now!
BOOM!
Behind Imu, that special weapon surrounded by dozens of eyes and black flames abruptly flew towards the massive corpse of the "First Generation Nika" in front of Him following His will.
The next moment, it strikingly hit the First Generation Nika's massive body, which was exaggerated to the extreme even as an ancient Giant race.
Then...
The corpse of that long-dead "Warrior of Liberation" made a posture of falling backward.
But...
Clack!
As he was about to fall, his two long-withered arms tightly grabbed the massive machinery in front of him.
Even looking closely, one could see on those two arms, even though an unknown number of years had passed, there were still residual traces of Haki.
As if this existence hailed as the first generation Sun God, even though already dead, still didn't want to let that massive machinery regain its "freedom".
But clearly...
"A corpse, wants to defy Imu too?"
Coldness flashed in Imu's eyes.
The next moment, that special weapon hummed again with extreme Conqueror's Haki.
Endless Source Energy of Lineage Factor gathered.
Thus, the hands of the First Generation Nika finally slowly fell.
And as his arms fell, the part of that massive machinery that was covered was clearly revealed.
That was a long-extinguished core resembling a smelting furnace—its posture was very similar to the core energy smelting furnace of the "Ancient Weapon" Pluton.
And at this time, that clump of flame inside the casket in Imu's hand, seemingly sensing something, abruptly flew up and poured into that massive smelting furnace.
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