Chapitre 157: Chapter 156: Theomachy (3)
In contrast to the throne room behind, the garden was brighter than any other.
There were no windows. In fact, this room was completely separated from the outside, meaning that there had to be another light source somewhere within this room.
Smoker narrowed his eyes at the butterflies that fluttered by. This room was awfully peaceful, unlike the bloody scene right outside the Pangaea Castle.
SWOOSH!
Leaning his head to the side, Smoker evaded a sharp vine that was abruptly shot at him from his back.
The ground rumbled. A roar was blown from the back. Turning around, Smoker saw the appearance of the enormous Fengxi, Warcury in his full Zoan form, who was found charging at Smoker out of nowhere.
Smoker, in response, held his palm out toward the incoming Warcury. A concentrated beam of bright energy—aether—was blasted out of said palm, traveling straight at Warcury.
Then said beam, at the next moment, was surrounded by the crimson hue. Smoker could tell that it was Imu's doing, attempting to have the beam of aether attack its creator instead of the demonic creature that was approaching Smoker.
'...This is an important piece of evidence,'
Thought Smoker as his eyes blazed,
'Imu does not know the true ability of my Devil Fruit.'
The crimson hue had no effect on the beam of aether. Its attempt to control has failed.
Instead, the beam of aether struck straight at Fengxi as it was intended to do so, stopping the ferocious advance of the demon and drilling a hole through its body.
Traveling through Fengxi's body, the beam shredded the black line beyond Fengxi, one that connected it and Imu.
Right after, Warcury as Fengxi was disintegrated into the shadow that fell to the ground—only for him, along with the other Five Elders in their full Zoan form, to more to rise from the ground, harbouring malicious intentions.
"When will you reveal yourself, the self-proclaimed king of the world?"
Stoically, Smoker gazed at the demons who surrounded him at all sides.
The countless swords of aether, shining brightly, sprang out into existence and revolved around Smoker.
Floating and spinning around him, they then launched themselves toward the enormous demons who surfaced from the aesthetic vegetation of the area.
They roared, however, but no matter how tough they were or possessed a unique ability, were torn apart by the aether swords without an exception.
As if cutting through the butter, they were brutally slayed, their connections to Imu were cut, and were dissolved back into a pile of shadow, one that faded back into the earth just as how Warcury as Fengxi did.
"..."
Imu eyes, Smoker could feel them. Shifting his own toward the direction in which the hostile gaze was coming from, Smoker sighted Imu standing aside an unmoving womanly figure that was surrounded by vegetation, caressing it gently.
Imu's touch onto said figure, in Smoker's eyes, seemed perverted almost.
'Forest. Garden.'
Something was strange after he set foot into this room.
When the Five Elders were summoned, the black circle with pentagrams did not appear. It was as if they teleported all of a sudden from nowhere.
Furthermore, back in the throne room, Imu couldn't attempt to control what was born out of Smoker, unlike what he attempted just now.
'This is...'
Back when he inflicted a blow on Imu, the latter didn't resist but let his body be guided into this area.
"Forest."
The voice of his Devil Fruit spoke to him.
"Beware of the forest."
'...A domain of his own, huh.'
Smoker came to conclude that within the area surrounded by vegetation, Imu gains control over the 'space' itself. After all,
the swords—Shodai Kitetsu and Shusui which Nusjuro was using previously—were stabbed on the ground in front of Imu now.
Smoker knew that he wasn't hallucinating. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
"Humans are flawed. Nothing but a path of ruination lies ahead of them. Without someone, a perfect being, to rule above them and contain their savage tendencies, they come to achieve nothing."
Then, the hilts of the swords began to morph. Bubbling in a repulsive manner, they grew into the form of an armoured knight that held onto the swords.
"...Perfection, what a lovely word."
Smoker bickered, sarcastically.
"Being perfect, in other words, means that there is no growth. Refusing to accept your flaws and staying the same... I don't know, your belief in perfection itself seems flawed."
Imu didn't say anything in return. However, the spreading Conqueror's Haki that contained wrath, centering Imu, indicated that he wasn't so emotionless in the end.
SWOOSH!
The two knights dashed at Smoker with the blades encased by the crackling Conqueror's Haki: Infusion.
Simultaneously, the ground below Smoker became soft before his feet sank into it.
"White,"
However, there was no need for Smoker to dodge.
All of a sudden, there was a swirl of aether in the middle of two knights, shining brightly in an immense energy.
Smoker snapped his fingers,
"Bang."
The light surrounded the view as the aether exploded magnificently, consuming the knights along with it.
The space itself cracked—which further proved Smoker's assumption that Imu was enforcing his control over the space of the entire garden.
"Hu..."
A weak sense of exhaustion washed over Smoker. The thumping of his heart became faster from the continued use of his Devil Fruit ability at its maximum potential; this surely was taking a toll on his stamina—although not as much as the use of the incompleted, power of 'Arcane Drive' that he used in the past.
'But I am sure,'
Smoker nonetheless felt confident. He felt it through the intent that Imu momentarily revealed previously, that the latter was reaching his limit as well.
Summoning hundreds of monsters, controlling and maneuvering the environment, reading a slice of his memory, and attempting a mind manipulation on Haki user—the feats that Imu showcased were already staggering enough.
Staring at Imu, Smoker then found that the figure of a woman covered in vegetation was now nowhere to be found.
"...And that is where you are wrong, White Hunter."
Then, Imu spoke as if having read through Smoker's thoughts.
There was a tree behind Imu all of a sudden, one that was shining in rich gold.
"You are delusional if you think that Mu revealed all his hands."
'...'
The dark and thin, tentacle-like tails revealed themselves from below Imu's robe. Stretching themselves toward the shining tree, they seemed to be moving with an intent of their own.
Smoker and Imu's eyes gleamed simultaneously as they glanced at the future.
The ground below then rumbled before it began to bend, attempting to sandwich Smoker as his feet remained embedded in the ground.
The entire atmosphere was slowly turning red, and Smoker felt that the oxygen was becoming scarce.
Imu's incredible degree of psychokinesis was drawing the air away from Smoker, forcibly. Centering Smoker, the vacuum, the suction force had arisen, keeping him trapped in the area where he stood.
The suction force, so strong, took on the form of a black hole.
"Sunlight Tree Eve,"
Said Imu as the tails stabbed the trunk of the shiny tree and began to 'absorb' energy from it.
"You stand before the world's second-greatest source of energy."
This meant that as long as Imu remained the owner of it, he would never run out of energy to operate his power.
And this was the future that Imu saw, the unchangeable future. He would successfully restore the energy through the use of the Sunlight Tree Eve.
This is where the fight for equal standing deviates into a one-sided one, believed Imu.
"Power comes with a price. The greater the power, the greater the cost. In that sense, the victors when it comes to the battles among the strongest... has always come down to who lasts longer since the long past."
Imu clenched his hand as the plains of the bent ground, covered by vegetation, crushed Smoker's form from within.
"Energy is the key to all. Energy is what causes the living beings to move. And Mu's power... is the purest form of energy itself."
The light on the Sunlight Tree Eve became dimmer as Imu's tails retracted. The stabbed marks on Eve's trunk remained, however, and from such holes, it was leaking the water as if leaking blood.
But little did Imu know, that Smoker too was waiting for this future to arrive.
'You've let your guard down—yet another proof that you aren't perfect.'
Though the blood was drawn from his body and wounds appeared from the strikes that occurred all over, such bombardment of force couldn't break his unyielding will.
With loads of ground, vegetation, Conqueror's Haki, vacuum—everything being crashed onto him, Smoker's vision was obscured.
But this also meant that Imu's vision couldn't reach him as well.
While Imu launched such an attack on Smoker and absorbed energy from the Sunlight Tree Eve, what exactly was Smoker doing?
'The battle of stamina is against me, considering how Imu essentially has an infinite amount of it thanks to the tree.'
In the end, Smoker could only draw one conclusion.
'Then, I must use this gap of time to generate the strongest attack that I can muster, one that requires some time to be charged.'
Aether. It is the imaginary substance that does not exist in this world. Yet, Smoker brought it unto the world, and thus, its existence itself was a paradox.
'Though I too was not too sure upon the first manifestation of it, as the fight progressed, I came aware of it,'
Within the prison of black hole, Smoker raised his hand that glowed in white.
'what it means for aether to exist in a pure, unbridled form without taking on the form of a matter that exists in this world.'
'When aether is revealed through my ability,'
it exists in a dimension of its own, Smoker realized.
In other words, there is a dimensional fissure between the aether and the surrounding matter that exists in this world.
Ironically, it was the Smoke Smoke fruit, known to generally be harmless in contrast to other Logia-type Devil Fruits, that had the highest offensive capability at its full potential.
'Therefore, anything else that comes in contact with aether, anyone but me, will be exposed to this dimensional fissure and be torn apart with no exception. And,'
The white glow on his hand began to travel up to the tip of his index finger before what appeared to be a pea-sized ball of light was formed atop said finger.
The air was scarce, but that was of no problem to Smoker. His body, having long surpassed the limits that oxygen presents, was able to survive for a long time without breathing.
'The attacks infused with aether cannot be blocked with anything but Haki. Then comes the next question,'
The black lightning, crackling dangerously, was integrated into the ball of white light. The pure ball of white light has dimmed into a pitch-black, shining more dangerously than any other that was seen before.
Conqueror's Haki, Infusion—the most advanced and difficult, and for that reason, the strongest technique to learn and master.
Aether, granted by the resonance with the devil within Smoke Smoke fruit—the highest form of a person's ability to utilize a Devil Fruit power, one that was unheard of.
When these two ultimate concepts were brought together...
'Are you able to top my desire, Imu?'
...The ultimate technique was born to destroy the ultimate foe ahead of him.
Imu, gazing at the black hole that he generated ahead, frowned as the will of his enemy continued getting stronger and stronger—even though Smoker was under the effect of such an attack.
Then, the future warned him.
For the first time, Imu felt his eyes widening.
The entire room seemed to have darkened slightly. The space itself was cracking as if the glass was about to shatter.
Slowly but surely, Imu was losing control over the area.
Then,
Smoker's technique was released.
The pitch-black, pea-sized ball of aether abruptly expanded, engulfing everything that was attempting to engulf it instead.
Dominating the entire area, it shattered everything in its view.
"White Nova."
The black took away everything, and all that remained was the space where nothing but bright white existed.
Imu realized that this bright white was the indication that he was momentarily blinded by such an intensity of light.
His sense of hearing was also muffled, unable to hear anything.
The sensation over his body was gone; he couldn't feel a thing. However, he knew that he was flown from the impact of Smoker's strike.
Then, slowly, one by one, his senses begin to return to him.
"Huff... huff..."
Imu's vision, initially blurry, began to focus. Looking up, Imu found the bright sun gazing down at him.
Nothing but destruction lied in his surroundings, and his garden was no more.
Imu then saw that his left arm and right leg were shattered. His torso had a deep gash and seemed barely intact.
"Huff... huff... wahahaha..."
Smoker, who was leaning on the ruins on the opposite side of Imu, laughed amid his heavy breathing.
"You don't even bleed. Hell, you aren't even made of flesh, huff, huff..."
Smoker too was injured, bleeding all over. However, in contrast to such a gruesome state he was in, Smoker was grinning.
"I see now, of why you kept on saying human this, human that. Forget that chit-chat about perfection or king of the world whatsoever."
With the robe gone, Imu's full form was revealed in its full glory. Wooden body, wooden legs, wooden arms, wooden visage with only eyes attached on it...
...it was clear that Imu wasn't a human being.
"You wanted to be a human yourself, didn't you?"
Imu's eyes shook in disbelief, revealing a swirl of emotion.
For the first time, Imu's face parted, showing what appeared to be sharp teeth made of wood.
"WHITE... HUNTER!!!!!"
Imu roared in a monstrous voice as he glared at Smoker in wrath. His body glowed, and the broken parts of his body began to regenerate.
Watching as Imu was standing back up, albeit weakly, Smoker too slowly stood back up by supporting his weight with his hand that gripped a piece of rock nearby.
Smoker wobbled, but his grin didn't fade.
It was out in Mariejois, surrounded by ruins and cold corpses of Celestial Dragons, where slowly but surely, Smoker once again began walking, although he was limping slightly.
The battle was far from over.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone