"Look, the island is moving!" Bell cried out, pointing toward the floating landmass.
If that island was shifting, it meant only one thing—
"The Golden Lion has made his move," Kuzan said.
"It seems he won't be going down so quickly after all. Let's focus on our own fight and hold out until Drake arrives." Kenshin glanced in Shiki's direction. Having the Golden Lion draw some of the heat was undeniably advantageous.
With him acting as a diversion, their own burden would be significantly reduced.
"Stay sharp, everyone! Here it comes!" Kenshin's pupils suddenly shrank, his voice tightening in shock. "What is that?!"
A gargantuan palm bore down on them from the heavens above. Dense, churning black mist writhed across its surface, its sheer scale dwarfing the Demon Warder.
It was the size of a small island.
"Not good! Brace for impact!" Kenshin could clearly perceive the catastrophic power latent within that palm—it was well beyond what he could contest head-on.
In their current situation, all they could do was give their all and leave the rest to fate.
"Descent of the Thunder God!"
Regardless of the odds, Kenshin chose to stake everything on an all-out strike. He had to test his absolute limits against it; even if the clash proved too much, they still had the Demon Warder to rely on.
A burst of blinding lightning erupted from the hull, coalescing into an immense pillar of violet-blue radiance that pierced heaven and earth, surrounded by dancing ribbons of roaring electrical current.
What unfolded before the eyes of the entire East Blue was a world-class collision between a soaring pillar of light and an abyssal colossal hand.
Kenshin poured everything he had into the strike, funneling the united strength of the Dragon Flag Pirates into a direct clash against Im.
RUMBLE...
A deafening detonation washed across the sky.
In the initial clash, Kenshin was forced onto the back foot. The gargantuan hand of black mist pressed down on the pillar of light, bearing it relentlessly lower.
"Raaagh...!" Kenshin bellowed. The electrical output surged violently, finally tearing through the shadowy palm from the inside out.
"It worked!" Bell gasped in relief.
The crew breathed a collective sigh. At this rate, their chances of holding the line until Drake's return looked substantially better.
"Keep your guard up!" Sheathing his blade, Kenshin pivoted instantly and unleashed another slash, barking out a warning.
The shattered palm re-condensed in a heartbeat—and not just one, but three at once!
Fortunately, Kenshin's instincts were razor-sharp. The Demon Warder pushed its blistering speed to the limit, executing short-range spatial warps that left the shadowy appendages grasping at thin air.
Each time they evaded a blow, Kenshin struck back without missing a beat, chaining fluid motions together. Gradually, he caught onto the structural vulnerability of the colossal hands.
Though the force behind them was monstrous, as long as they didn't meet them head-on in a battle of raw power, cleaving them apart was surprisingly manageable.
"We can't keep this up indefinitely. The Demon Warder's energy reserves are finite. If she bleeds us like this, we won't last," Kuzan voiced his concern.
He was right. The black mist conjured palms ceaselessly, growing in number with every passing wave, seemingly demanding zero effort from Im.
The Demon Warder, on the other hand, was already low on power. In a war of pure attrition, the outcome was written on the wall.
Kenshin gave a grim nod.
According to Drake's earlier estimate, he would return to the East Blue before nightfall. There was still at least an hour before sunset.
Fighting at this intensity, their remaining reserves would barely last thirty minutes. They had to ration power.
BOOM...
A sudden, concussive roar ripped through the clouds. Bell was on high alert instantly.
"Kenshin-aniki, warp to the right—now!"
Without waiting to question why, Kenshin followed Bell's cue, causing the ship to vanish from its coordinates on the spot.
"Not far enough! Again!" Bell shouted.
"Understood!"
Kenshin frowned, executing a second warp without hesitation.
The moment the Demon Warder broke free of the dense shroud of fog, the floating island slammed across the sky, kicking up violent shockwaves that scattered the surrounding mist.
It plowed straight toward the colossal shadowy face of Im.
The newly formed hands of dark mist shattered on contact. Under the sheer concussive impact of the collision, countless boulders rained down from the sky.
"It's that island!"
Only then did the crew realize what had happened. Enveloped by the thick fog, they hadn't tracked the island's movement at all.
"Did the Golden Lion pull that off?" Locke asked after a beat of disbelief.
If Shiki had orchestrated this, his true combat prowess was far from negligible—he was certainly no paper tiger.
Perhaps he truly was worthy of his legendary title.
"AHAHAHAHA...!"
Shiki's arrogant laughter boomed from the heavens. The howling gales generated by the island's flight blew away great swathes of black mist, granting the crew a clear view of the landmass.
The battered, bloodied figure now stood in a posture of haughty superiority, arms crossed over his chest, a wicked smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
That smirk was pitched with surgical perfection—a fraction wider and it would look excessive; a fraction less and it would lose its mocking bite.
It carried equal parts unshakeable confidence, supreme disdain, and absolute self-satisfaction.
Kenshin and the others were left temporarily speechless. Is this the legendary demeanor of a titan of the Old Era?
He truly had the presence to match his fame!
"I was planning to let you linger a while longer, but since you insist on dying first, I'll take care of you right now." Im's voice reverberated from the heavens, and the gargantuan shadowy visage parted its maw into an abyssal chasm to match the words.
Before Kenshin and his crew could comprehend her intent, a torrent of black mist burrowed straight into the bedrock beneath Shiki's feet.
"Hm?"
A flicker of confusion crossed Shiki's face. He couldn't quite tell what Im was planning either.
Even so, he didn't pay it much mind. He was the Golden Lion, a titan whose name had shaken the entire world decades ago.
Though he sensed lethal danger radiating from Im, he remained convinced he possessed more than enough means to protect his own skin.
Why was he so confident?
Anyone capable of hurling an entire island with a wave of their hand would be just as confident.
His foundation lay right beneath his feet.
Even if... he had no actual feet left.
Thump, thump, thump...
Bizarre, muffled vibrations echoed through the rock. Shiki's brow furrowed.
He could feel the strange resonance pulsing right beside him.
Yet no matter how he probed with his senses, he turned up nothing.
Just as he was about to write it off as an empty scare tactic, the bedrock beneath him heaved violently.
"Damn it!" Shiki realized something was terribly wrong.
The massive landmass he relied on as his absolute anchor fractured from the core, spiderwebbing with countless deep chasms before rupturing completely with a cataclysmic boom.
Vast plumes of dark mist erupted from within, reducing the entire island to pulverized dust in a split second.
"It's over!"
The singular thought flashed across Shiki's mind. Without granting him a fraction of a second to react, an immense shadowy hand descended from the clouds, slamming squarely into his frail frame.
In that single instant, the sky seemed to split and the earth gave way.
Against the colossal hand, Shiki's figure looked pitifully minuscule. Kenshin and the others couldn't even spot a hint of retaliation.
All they saw was the gargantuan hand driving down from the sky straight into the ocean swells, churning up towering tsunamis and sending tidal surges rolling across the horizon.
A cold shiver raced down Kenshin and the crew's spines.
This... and that's it?