Seastone is the crystallization of the sea, so why shouldn't the land have its own kind of crystallization?
And even if it did, whoever said that the land's crystallization had to be as indestructible as Seastone?
No one had ever really tested what would happen if Seastone and Dyna Stone were placed together.
Rowen had been lucky; he guessed right.
Since ancient times, water and fire have been incompatible. When the crystallization of the land and the crystallization of the sea were forcibly brought together, the result was mutual rejection,
Mutual destruction.
Boom!!
The devastation caused by Shi Ji's explosion could not be compared to a full Dyna Stone detonation, but at the moment he exploded, a storm of energy, visible only to Rowen, suddenly scattered across the entire world.
That was divine power.
Unlike Imu, who had stripped most of his power from his body to create Devil Fruits, Shi Ji's divine power had always been hidden within him. Even the Sea Saintess could only borrow it, never seize it.
Now that his body had been destroyed, the consequence was simple: that divine power lost its restraint and surged outward in all directions like a mighty tide.
Shuā!
Rowen reached out and grabbed with one hand, catching a mass of divine power in his palm.
Feeling it, he said in surprise:
"I can't absorb it?!"
It was divine power all the same, yet it felt like stone, utterly incapable of arousing even the slightest "appetite" in him.
"Could it be…"
Frowning silently, Rowen looked at the surging energy tide that continued to spread across his field of vision, gradually disappearing beyond the curve of the planet. Then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"So that's it, the power of the sea?"
Shi Ji had been born from Seastone, the crystallization of the sea.
And the sea, without question, belonged to this world.
Therefore, this divine power was not ownerless, it was a part of the world's origin itself.
Shi Ji's existence had prevented Imu from interfering with the ocean, while Imu's goal had been to replace the planet's consciousness. In this regard, the two were no different, except that one had succeeded but was limited to the ocean, while the other had not yet succeeded but had devoured the land and the sky.
With Shi Ji, the controlling will, gone, the only way for Rowen to devour this ocean-bound divine power would be to imitate Imu's method of seizing other origins,
By conquering the ocean itself.
But…
"If I did that, the world would be destroyed."
If he continued down that path, it would mean that the destruction of civilization had never truly ended, and that distinction mattered.
Rowen released his grip, allowing the divine power to dissipate freely.
Suspended in the sky, he narrowed his eyes slightly and looked down at the shattered planet.
"Civilizations collapse amid destruction, and are reborn amid destruction… it's time to end all of this."
Destroying a civilization was Rowen's original duty, but destroying an entire world was not. On the contrary, once a civilization fell, Rowen gained a new responsibility.
That responsibility was,
Helping civilization recover.
At that moment, a holy radiance surged forth from Rowen's body, bathing the land and the ocean in pure white light.
The Heavenly Demon does not exist only at the instant a civilization vanishes, it also exists at the moment another civilization rises.
By its very nature, it is dualistic, wielding two powers at once.
When civilization stands on the brink of collapse, what it reveals is destruction.
But when civilization stands on the brink of rebirth, what it embodies is renewal.
With Shi Ji shattered by Dyna Stone, the age of "Gods" officially came to an end.
What followed was the era of mortals.
"You and I… were never the same."
Recalling the question Shi Ji had once thrown at him, Rowen couldn't help but find it faintly amusing.
In Shi Ji's eyes, gods and humans were eternally opposing forces that could never fuse, whether it was Shi Ji himself, Imu, or any other gods that might exist.
Their fundamental differences made true unity impossible.
That was the truth.
Even Rowen could not refute it.
But what they did not know was that the divinity within Rowen was special.
He did not originate from a godborn civilization, he came from a mortal one.
Rather than calling the Heavenly Demon, sealed after manifesting at the cusp of destruction, a god, it would be more accurate to call it the spokesperson of mortals and civilization itself.
To mortals, it is both a loving father and a stern mother. It destroys civilizations and reforges them, annihilates everything and revives everything,
It is both death and life.
Rumble, boom!
Layer upon layer of dark clouds began to spread, muffled thunder rolling as they gradually enveloped the world.
Yet the thunder did not fill the surviving humans with fear.
To their astonishment, the sound brought them a long-lost sense of comfort and peace.
Hua, la, la!
Accompanied by dazzling lightning, a torrential downpour suddenly poured from the sky.
When the raindrops fell on his body, one man lowered his head in shock, discovering that the wounds and lingering pain he had suffered during the tsunami were rapidly disappearing.
"My… my wounds healed?!"
Turning around, he saw that the same thing was happening to everyone else in the refugee camp. Even those who had been on the brink of death found their breathing gradually stabilizing the moment the rain touched them.
Seeing this, the burly man's eyes reddened as he fell to his knees.
"Heaven truly has eyes!"
To him, it was nothing more than an emotional exclamation, but beyond the clouds, the countless Eyes of the Firmament spread across the planet noticed the scene, and Rowen's expression became rather awkward.
Because this… wasn't his power.
Mm. So salty.
At that moment, the man opened his mouth and licked his lips.
Why was this rain so salty… and fishy?
Just like… seawater?
The man shook his head. No, that couldn't be right. It must be sweat mixing in.
Rain sent from heaven, blessing all things.
How could it possibly be seawater?!
But it really was seawater.
The oceanic power that had spread out after Shi Ji's explosion was something Rowen had conveniently "borrowed to show generosity." Just as the Sea Saintess had once borrowed Shi Ji's power, Rowen had borrowed the power of the ocean to perform a universal salvation.
The ocean nurtures all things, and only its power could achieve healing on such an immense scale.
Shuā!
Hua, la, la!
As the rain continued to fall, the world plunged into boundless jubilation.
Aside from a small number of unfortunate souls whose bodies had been too badly damaged, even those who had died in the natural disaster were revived. This was the planet itself feeding its power back to them, the sheer magnitude of it left countless people stunned.
When the dark clouds finally dispersed and dawn once again descended upon the world, aside from collapsed mountain ranges and the enormous corpse of the Mountain Ancestor, it was as if nothing had ever happened.
The entire world had been reborn.
Several days later, Marine Headquarters.
The Red Line that had suppressed the Mountain Ancestor had been smashed apart. The Holy Land no longer existed, and the G-1 Branch had also suffered collateral damage.
Even though most people whose bodies were largely intact had been revived afterward, they were left homeless.
Meanwhile, the Great Whirlpool Iron Triangle had miraculously survived the natural disaster.
Only later did they realize that, given the nature of the great whirlpool, it was also a kind of quagmire for the Mountain Ancestor, something that required great effort just to pull a leg out of once stepped into.
Ordinary people would instinctively avoid puddles while walking. Why should the Mountain Ancestor be any different?
Thus, through sheer luck, they survived the catastrophe.
"The losses are… pretty severe."
For someone of the Soryu (Azure Dragon)'s famed status to draw such a conclusion, the scale of the world's losses was self-evident.
"But people are still alive! As long as people remain, rebuilding is only a matter of time."
Standing to his right, Akainu spoke, then frowned.
"Are you really not going to announce to the world that you're still alive?"
"Right now, the entire world is searching for the God who brought their families back to life."
The act of revival might have been a simple, natural decision for Rowen, but to ordinary people, it was unforgettable.
There was something Akainu didn't say out loud: in the years of reconstruction following this great calamity, having a true God like Rowen overseeing things would be the greatest deterrent to those with ill intentions.
Gods were too distant from humanity. Ambitious schemers only ever focused on what was right in front of them.
When everything revived, and even birds began searching for food again, ordinary life would inevitably continue.
Yet at precisely such a moment,
Rowen chose to withdraw.
He intended to announce to the world that he had died in that battle.
Akainu couldn't understand it.
Even that supreme, unrivaled authority, he hadn't held it for very long, had he?
(End of Chapter)