"Divine power isn't all the same. Since you also devoured half of his body, you should understand that."
In other words, the ability to create and control Devil Fruits was Imu's innate talent, not something granted by his divine power.
Divine power was more like fuel; it merely drove his body to use that instinct. And when they divided Imu between themselves, they only divided the divine power within him, not his instincts.
If they truly wanted to devour his instincts…
Those two grotesque vine-like remnants were still lying on the small island. Add some salt, boil them into a soup, and try drinking it.
As the words fell, Shiji stomped heavily.
Boom! Chi! Chi! Chi!
The ground beneath their feet seemed to come alive, shooting up spikes of Seastone.
"You think only you can do that?"
Ding ding dang dang!
Rowen spoke casually, but his hands moved like lightning. The thunder halberd blurred into afterimages as he deflected the spikes one by one. Then, facing Shiji rushing in again, he drew in a deep breath,
Thunderlight exploded!
Awakening Technique · Titan Mode!
Bang!!
Repeating his earlier tactic, Shiji hadn't expected Rowen to erupt with power in the heat of battle. The projected thunder halberd was wrapped in terrifying, oppressive black lightning, unstoppable.
"Not bad…"
Shiji's eyes narrowed. Moving at extreme speed, he had no time to change direction and was struck head-on by the explosion. But before Rowen could even catch his breath, a figure shot out of the shattered thunderlight and slammed a fist into his chin.
"Pff!"
Feeling his teeth loosen, Rowen's head rang. His massive body was sent flying.
But it wasn't over.
As he was hurled away, a mass of seawater appeared directly in his path.
Plop…
Rowen crashed straight into it. The seemingly thin stream of water instantly turned into a muddy quagmire, binding him in place.
"Crush!"
Shiji raised one palm toward him and clenched it fiercely.
At once, the viscous water rapidly crystallized, revealing a deep indigo hue like Sea Crystal. Terrifying pressure surged from all directions, squeezing inward, trying to grind Rowen into minced flesh.
Crack… Ka-cha!
Layer after layer of water poured out of the void, continuing to wrap around the crystal, forming new layers of crystallization. Under the relentless compression, Rowen's enormous Titan Mode physique visibly began to shrink.
Rowen didn't know what Shiji meant by "Void God," but the fact that Shiji could instantly see through his undying nature proved that this method was extremely effective.
Even if it couldn't kill him outright, it could leave him utterly incapable of resisting.
After all, being crushed into a pile of pulped flesh was something he really hadn't tried before.
So,
Eye of the Firmament!
Boom, rumble!
A deep, oppressive thunder rolled across the heavens. Shiji frowned and looked up, staring at the lightning throne slowly taking shape under the gaze of the Eye of the Firmament.
Then, thunderlight surged violently.
From the clouds that blanketed the sky, spears of black lightning filled with annihilating intent slowly extended outward.
Black Thunder · God's Cry Hall · Zenith Tempest , Prison of Bright Heavenly Thunder!
Boom, ka-cha!!
Kilometer-long black lightning cannons rained down from the sky, countless in number.
Rowen's strongest lightning-control technique had always been the Thunder God Seal. After fusing it with the Heavenly Network, the Eye of the Firmament was no longer merely a perception ability, it had become a lightning battery fortress that embodied his overall combat power!
"Troublesome."
Shiji raised his hand impatiently, forming a Sea Crystal barrier from condensed water, preparing to tank the attack head-on. Rowen had devoured vast amounts of divine power belonging to both Shiji and Imu. Otherwise, relying solely on the power in his body that hadn't yet been fully digested, he would at best have been able to fight Imu.
But with divine power augmenting him, even Shiji dared not ignore this level of lightning.
As always, a god isn't necessarily powerful, but its essence is fundamentally different.
Just like how attacks in a two-dimensional world can shatter heavens and earth yet never affect the three-dimensional world.
But even the weakest attack from the same dimensional level cannot be ignored.
Whoosh! Xiu xiu xiu! Boom, rumble!
A torrential rainstorm was no longer enough to describe the thunder filling the sky. With reinforcement from the other "self" within him, combined with the divine power of Imu and Shiji, Rowen at full output,
If he wanted to imitate Mountain Ancestor and destroy the world, it would take no more than one or two days.
And when attacks of this magnitude were concentrated within a relatively limited area, the resulting scene was nothing short of staggering.
Boom! Boom boom!
Rampaging black lightning and explosions swallowed Shiji whole. The Sea Crystal barrier kept shattering, spraying out glittering crystalline fragments. Faced with the endless thunderous bombardment, Shiji was instantly pinned in place.
"Perfect chance!"
Sensing this, Rowen, who was still sealed inside Sea Crystal, flexed every muscle in his body. Jet-black lightning rapidly crawled across the surface of the blue crystal sphere, then,
Bang!
It exploded apart.
Boom! Boom!
Two shattering sounds rang out almost simultaneously. Rowen diverted lightning to break free of the Sea Crystal, which naturally weakened the force attacking Shiji. Shiji decisively shoved the barrier outward, letting it collide with the rain of lightning and explode, while he himself burst forward.
His speed was still so fast it felt like missing frames, but Rowen had already prepared for this.
Military Wrist · Deep Gate!
Buzz!!!
A terrifying volume of Armament Haki wrapped around Rowen's right arm. Amid the violent vibration and buzzing of the air, Rowen twisted his body and threw a punch straight at Shiji.
Bang!!!
"You actually managed to catch my movement trajectory?"
Centered on the two of them, a massive disc-shaped shockwave blasted outward in all directions. Shiji stared in surprise at the Sea Stone fragments bursting from his arm, his expression uncertain.
zī zī…
At that moment, hair-thin strands of lightning continuously appeared and dissipated around him, some even crawling onto his skin.
Feeling that sticky, suppressive pressure, Shiji abruptly looked up.
"So that's it! What a brilliant idea!"
Above him, the massive Eye of the Firmament had, at some point, shifted its gaze and locked onto him.
It wasn't just a lightning battery fortress or a suppression tool. The Eye of the Firmament itself was something born from the fusion of Rowen's Observation Haki and his Devil Fruit abilities. Within the area covered by lightning, nothing that happened could escape Rowen's perception.
The effect was similar to the technique Rowen had demonstrated back when he advanced to Admiral-candidate status against Chaton. Faced with the bizarre power of Chaton's Deceleration Fruit, Rowen had determined enemy movements by sensing how hair-thin lightning dispersed differently across space, abandoning his own conventional perception altogether.
So as long as Shiji moved or appeared, wherever the lightning scattered abnormally was the direction from which his attack would come.
"However… can your reaction speed keep up?"
Instead of attacking the Eye of the Firmament, Shiji, whose insight far surpassed Imu's, understood that it was merely an extension of Rowen's abilities. Attacking it directly would be putting the cart before the horse, only giving his opponent an opening.
Every power has a source.
So all he needed to do was strike at the source itself.
Kuāng dāng!
Amid the clash of metal, one large and one small iron fist scraped past each other, sparks flying.
Overall, Shiji had taken the loss. No matter how fierce his attacks were, unless he could blow Rowen's entire body apart in a single strike, he had no way to deal with an undying Rowen.
On the other hand, the stone fragments shattered from Shiji's body during that punch exchange were not so easily replenished.
This was an extremely troublesome opponent!
Shiji narrowed his eyes silently.
A mere heretic, at full strength, he wouldn't have even considered him. But now…
Having made his decision, Shiji's body suddenly vanished from sight.
"So fast!"
Rowen didn't even have time to turn his head before a terrifying sense of danger flooded his entire body. Relying solely on the feedback from the Eye of the Firmament, he instinctively kicked backward.
Boom! Chi!
The first strike was successfully blocked, but the second was unexpected.
Watching a blade formed of Sea Crystal plunge into his knee and draw a spray of crimson blood, Shiji curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Hm. In the end, you're still a mortal. Speed it up just a little, and you can't keep up anymore."
With his kneecap pierced clean through, the pain made Rowen's eyelid twitch.
He knew it,
The warm-up was over. His opponent was about to get serious.
(End of Chapter)
This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395