Chapter 573: Revealed
A blindingly bright beam fell from the sky and drove into the sea.
The deep water was pierced open in an instant, a massive channel bored straight through it, and in the next second the beam landed directly on the dark figure that had just begun to rise.
The sea began to swell.
The world-shaking wave from moments ago was reduced to a small ripple. In its place, the ocean heaved upward into an impossible mountain of water.
Mihawk stood at the shore, eyes fixed on the colossal water mass that filled his entire field of view. Before he could say a word, it exploded.
Flame, lightning, wind — three forces fused into an enormous sphere of light that expanded outward, its surface crackling with black electricity.
The shockwave hit like a wall. The island cracked apart. The already-ruined base was erased entirely. Anyone still on the island without sufficient strength lost all control of their bodies and was blown into the sky.
Then the towering wave came crashing in behind it.
"We're finished!!" Pizarro's voice from somewhere behind was close to a wail. "There's nowhere to run!!"
But Mihawk's hand had already closed around his sword's grip. He couldn't beat Brett — but perhaps he could cut through this wave.
He swung.
In the sky, Brett raised a hand and wiped the residual flame from his mouth.
After Awakening, his fire had grown denser — what had already been flame capable of conducting Haki could now nearly solidify. The sea below him was still boiling across its entire surface.
Brett estimated that the breath he had just released was roughly comparable to the light cannon Imu's ultimate weapon had fired when hunting them down — perhaps even slightly beyond it.
Which meant: the power to destroy an island completely in a single shot.
It still fell short of Pluton or the ultimate weapon at full output, of course. But he was reaching the boundary of that category now.
Calling himself a living ancient weapon wouldn't be an exaggeration.
But —
Imu was operating at the same level.
From the churning depths, a dark shape rocketed upward.
Imu, naturally. Only Imu.
That breath — a strike that could have turned the nearby ruins into ash without effort — had landed directly on him, and he was still moving.
The long black robe that had always concealed his appearance had been destroyed, though.
The monster who had ruled the world for eight hundred years from the shadows was showing his true face in front of Brett for the first time.
How to put it.
Quite different from what he had imagined.
Brett studied Imu.
First — a man. Slender and tall, but unambiguously male.
His features were reasonably handsome, though no longer young. Perhaps mid-forties or so in appearance, though for someone who had been alive for over eight hundred years, that of course meant very little.
And now Brett finally understood why this man's frame held so little visible muscle and yet could generate such extraordinary force.
His limbs and body showed clear signs of modification — a metallic sheen that had no place on a human body.
This man had altered himself with technology.
"How irritating. I really did not want my true appearance seen by others, Brett."
Imu sighed. "Even Joy Boy never knew this."
"Which is why he couldn't understand it — why someone who was never a fighter suddenly had power like this."
Brett smiled.
When Joy Boy finally engaged Imu directly in battle, he had been shocked to discover that this man — who had always operated through schemes and shadows — possessed extraordinary combat ability. Not enough to overwhelm Joy Boy, but far beyond what any assassination attempt could have casually solved.
So that was why. Body modification.
"After I overthrew the Lunarians, I didn't destroy them immediately." Imu opened and closed his right hand. The air around his fingers crackled and popped. "They were a powerful fighting force, and they also possessed remarkable scientific capability."
"After Joy Boy gained the power of Nika, his strength became unstoppable. I understood then that if I wanted to ensure my own survival, I would need to possess real power of my own."
So he had modified himself. A ruthless decision.
"Is the longevity also from the modification?" Brett asked.
"No." Imu shook his head. "My modifications are not extensive. They gave me extraordinary physical capability, yes, but the brain and organs still age."
So the majority of his combat strength had genuinely been cultivated over those eight hundred years?
Brett thought.
At that point, Imu's face shifted into a smile.
"This is where I have to thank Joy Boy."
"When I had already begun to consider passing power on, I discovered that somewhere in the world there existed a Devil Fruit called the Op-Op Fruit."
The corner of Brett's mouth twitched.
So this man was the original recipient of the immortality operation.
Not particularly surprising, in hindsight.
"It really is rather strange when you think about it. A power born to oppose me ultimately delivered eternal life to me instead."
Imu smiled. "When I consider it carefully, Brett — we are really quite alike."
"Always victorious. Never having known defeat."
"That changes today." Brett grinned. "From today, the only one who keeps winning is me."
"Is that so?" Imu smiled as well.
And at that exact moment, Hades came sweeping in through the sky and fired.
Imu's reaction speed was every bit as extraordinary — most likely because he too could glimpse the future. He launched himself sideways and avoided the shot cleanly.
But Hades had not been firing recklessly. It had been waiting for this moment.
The instant Imu moved to dodge, a blazing white light rose from the sea surface below — the sea that still hadn't settled from the earlier cataclysmic wave — and cut directly across Imu's escape trajectory.
Imu flew straight into the cannon blast.
Had it worked?
The thought surfaced in Brett's mind before he could stop it.
Then in the next second he almost laughed at himself.
After saying all that, how could it possibly be over this easily?
From the churned sea below, a great steel ship came bursting through the surface.
Beside it, a colossal creature beat enormous wings and surged out of the water, and the moment it cleared the surface, the bubble around it dissolved.
"ROOOOAR!!"
The cry shook the sky.