Chapter 335: My Storm!
Chapter 335: My Storm!
On the island, just as Sag opened the sky with a punch, clearing the clouds, a thick bolt of thunder struck upwards from below.
"Tsk!"
He clicked his tongue and crossed his arms in front of him to brace for the impact of the incoming thunder.
The preceding assault briefly exhausted Sag's dominance, and he required a moment to recuperate. He had no option but to defend himself during this interval.
Otherwise, with the help of his dominance, he could have counterattacked the thunder, mitigating some of the damage.
But just as he was about to be struck by the thunder, another bolt suddenly crackled out of the clear sky. Despite the absence of clouds, a thick lightning bolt struck down from above Sag and disappeared into the ground.
Sag's eyes widened as he sensed the lightning, and he turned his head instinctively. The thick lightning bolt filled his vision, and in an instant, both bolts struck him simultaneously, intertwining and merging into a thick pillar of lightning.
Below, Zeus paused for a moment before shouting, "Mom, look how useful I am!"
"Shut up! That's not your power!"
Prometheus, in the form of a fiery skull, retorted,
"That's a Homie your mom just created, our companion, and it seems much stronger than you! You still need Mom's power to release it!"
As he spoke, the face in the flames asked expectantly, "Mom, is it a girl?"
"No,"
Charlotte Linlin looked up at the pillar of lightning that had appeared in the sky. "I didn't sense it."
As soon as she finished speaking, her eyes narrowed, and she swung Napoleon towards the sky.
Bang!
A fist appeared in front of the blade, and without touching it, a concentrated and irregular vacuum formed between them, emitting purple and crimson lightning bolts.
It wasn't until the irregular mass exploded, forming a blast wave that rippled outward, that Charlotte Linlin was forced back a few steps, and the owner of the fist was also pushed back.
Dong!
In the moment of being pushed back, the figure below created a smoke ring with its feet, changing direction in mid-air. It jumped upward and instantly turned into an afterimage, appearing in front of Charlotte Linlin's abdomen when her vision was still blurred.
"Hundred Ghosts Assaulting the Aristocrat!"
A violent shockwave rippled across her balloon-like abdomen, and with the burst of crimson lightning, it punched a deep dent into her body, sending Charlotte Linlin flying backward.
"Damn it!"
She roared, and flames spewed from her hair first, followed by lightning bolts from the nearby clouds. However, they all struck the ground, missing their target.
Sag's body quickly retreated, spinning a couple of times in the air before landing steadily. He looked up and let out a sinister smile.
At the same time, the pillar of lightning that connected heaven and earth also dissipated, turning into flickering sparks that vanished into the air.
Charlotte Linlin's massive body hit the ground heavily. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and stared at Sag in astonishment.
"How is it possible that you're immune to lightning?!"
That guy had clearly taken two direct lightning strikes and should have been injured.
The power of the elements was not something that could be easily blocked by Busoshoku Haki. If it were, the Navy would have been overwhelmed by them long ago.
It was precisely because of her countless battles and her knowledge of the fearsome power of the natural system and the might of the elements that Charlotte Linlin possessed such strong confidence.
It was impossible to escape unscathed!
"Sheer willpower!"
Sag replied and then curled the corners of his mouth into a smile. "Never mind, I don't believe it myself, and I don't know how, but that lightning bolt didn't hurt me."
Sag didn't have the talent to withstand fire and lightning with sheer willpower.
However, he had indeed come out unscathed from those two lightning strikes.
Sag didn't know why, and he was too lazy to think about it. Instead, he seized the opportunity to take the initiative and launched an attack.
"Did you just get lucky?"
Charlotte Linlin looked up at the still clear sky and shouted, "Zeus!"
Zeus, in the form of a thundercloud, rushed to her feet and carried her body upward, expanding the cloud's area rapidly. At the same time, the sky, which had been cleared, once again gathered dark clouds.
"You may have dodged one, but what about the rest?"
Rumbling!
The sky crackled with lightning, and countless purple lightning bolts appeared, coming to life like thunder snakes and striking out at the ghost-like Charlotte Linlin.
"Heavenly Fulfillment: Great Self-at-Ease Heavenly God!"
Countless lightning bolts struck down towards Sag.
Like Kaido, she could control thunder and thereby induce lightning, but the difference was that Kaido used this technique to restrain people from using Dragon Whirlwind. In contrast, Charlotte Linlin's lightning was incredibly powerful!
Equally difficult to defend against!
Sag took a deep breath and tensed his body, gathering Aura in his hands to form black flames to block the attack. However, the lightning in the sky suddenly changed direction!
Half of the lightning bolts veered and struck the descending lightning bolts.
"What's going on!?"
Prometheus roared, "Zeus! What are you doing!"
"I don't know," Zeus replied pitifully. "These bolts of lightning are beyond my control, Mom. It's really not my fault!"
Charlotte Linlin ignored them and glared at Sag, her expression turning solemn, with a hint of strangeness and disbelief.
"Hey, kid, what did you do to my Homie?"
"I didn't do anything," Sag began to explain, but then paused, his eyes widening as a black-bottomed, red-tipped cape drifted towards them from below Charlotte Linlin's position.
The cape had fallen off during his enlarged state, as it was quite inconvenient to wear while transformed. He was fond of it and didn't want it damaged.
However, the cape now seemed a little different. As it drifted over, it resembled a thundercloud more than anything else.
"Is that...?" Sag trailed off, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.
The cape continued to drift closer, as if it had a mind of its own, and then draped itself over Sag's shoulders, as if personally putting it on him.
The moment the cape settled on his shoulders, Sag stood there, stunned for a moment. Then, a grin spread across his face as he felt a surge of familiarity and control wash over him.
This feeling... "What did you do to my Homie, Skyfire?"
A pillar of flame erupted from Charlotte Linlin's clenched fist, fueled by her rage.
"Whoosh!" Just as the flame pillar rose, a gust of wind suddenly blew in from the opposite direction, causing the fire to spray outwards like a fountain and spreading wide before suppressing it entirely. The wind then pressed down on the flames, causing them to spread across the ground and ignite a raging inferno.
"Your Homie?"
Sag's wild laughter echoed through the flames.
A dark silhouette rose from within the inferno, casting an even darker shadow over the flames and robbing them of their color.
It was a massive black cloud, even larger than Zeus, carrying Sag upwards into the sky.
There was also some black mist at Sag's feet, connecting with the cloud below.
His cape now seemed more like a cloud itself, shrouded in darkness.
"Now this is my thing! Ha ha ha! Oh ho ho ho! And all thanks to your gift!" Sag's laughter rang out.
The moment the cape settled on his shoulders, a sense of familiarity and affection washed over him, as if the cape itself was delighted to be reunited with its long-absent owner.
However, this left Sag perplexed as well.
How did his cape come alive?
But as he felt that surge of connection and the power it now held, he understood.
This thing must be the Homie she created by splitting her soul and combining it with the souls of other pirates!
But why was it so affectionate towards him and not her?
Unless... "Did you just disintegrate its soul with that attack?"
Charlotte Linlin glared at Sag, her eyes burning with anger. "Answer me! That cloud, the one I didn't even name yet. Why won't you speak?!"
A Homie created by soul-splitting would definitely be able to speak independently as a unique life form.
However, no matter how much she called out to it, the cape—or rather, the thundercloud it had become—didn't respond with so much as a human face. It didn't show any signs of intelligence beyond being able to transform into thunderclouds.
Charlotte Linlin thought of something and turned to Sag. "Did you destroy its soul?"
Her instincts were correct. That attack, capable of cleaving the heavens, should have been powerful enough to destroy even a formed Homie. She herself acknowledged the might behind it.
But now, with the thundercloud reappearing without any signs of sentience, soul-splitting was the only explanation.
There were indeed beings in the Grand Line capable of 'soul-slicing.' Ordinary Homies would undoubtedly perish against such entities.
However, this cloud was different. Besides her own split soul, it also contained the additional souls of the other pirates. It should have been an incredibly powerful ally to her!
"Disintegrate..."
Sag raised his palm, a realization flashing through his mind, and a smirk played at the corners of his lips.
This reminded him of something.
It seemed similar to how that cloud called 'Zeus' eventually fused with Nami's Climate Baton due to some reason and transformed into an entirely new species.
It seemed that it was achievable.
However, that was a conscious action.
This was unconscious.
Now, the feeling he got from his cloak was more like that of a tool, devoid of thought and only possessing life.
"Oh, I see. That explains it."
Sag laughed, "My technique is not something to be taken lightly. The dissipation of form also dealt a heavy blow to its soul, causing it to lose its consciousness."
"It still wouldn't become yours!" Charlotte Linlin shouted.
"Whatever I set my sights on becomes mine!"
Sag clenched his fists, and a trail of black and crimson lightning crackled around them as he cackled, "Now, it's time to return the favor!"
This wasn't an external manifestation of the Conqueror's Haki, but genuine lightning!
Charlotte Linlin was taken aback, and her fist ignited with lightning as she unleashed a thick bolt of lightning.
"Thunderous Emperor's Rage!!!"
As she shouted, Sag's voice mixed with hers, and as the purple lightning exploded, a black and crimson lightning bolt struck out in parallel.
BOOM!!!
The two lightning bolts collided violently, as if blowing a massive hole in the sky, the thunderclap so loud that it killed all the small beasts on the island.
Lightning danced in the air, revealing two figures, one large and one small, above the massive black cloud.
Sag's mouth hung open, and as the lightning clashed, he pointed a finger at the sky.
BOOM!
A black and crimson lightning bolt descended towards Charlotte Linlin.
"You despicable brat!"
Not only had he taken her Homie, but he was now using the same technique against her?
She was so angry that her soul nearly exploded on the spot!
"Ah!!!'
She roared at the sky, and the sound waves of her Conqueror's Haki became tangible, blocking the black and crimson lightning for a moment. At the same time, a purple lightning bolt fell from the sky, striking the black and crimson lightning.
BOOM!
Amidst the thunder, a figure appeared before her.
Sag's entire body was enveloped in lightning, and he brought his hands together to form a fist, with black and crimson lightning and Haki entwined around it, making it impossible to discern whether it was Haki or lightning.
"Stop your damn screeching, old hag!!!"
BOOM!
The impact of the twin fists resembled the Six King Guns, creating an explosive burst that first ruptured the air and then resulted in a violent explosion.
You couldn't say that the sudden appearance of the thundercloud gave him much help, nor could you say that Sag was very proficient with it, but there was one move he definitely knew.
That was the Thunder Bagua!
Sag's Thunder Bagua was an amplified speed-enhanced version and couldn't be considered the complete technique.
Because he lacked a crucial component.
When Kaido used this technique, he could perform a genuine teleportation strike due to the activation of his fruit's lightning abilities.
Sag's speed couldn't achieve this.
But now he could!
He didn't care why the lightning from this thundercloud didn't harm him, nor did he care why he could use this power.
All that mattered was that he could!
And now, he could turn it into an advantage!
The power of lightning, the burst of teleportation, the impact of the punch, the piercing of the King's Domination, and the inherent mortal wound it inflicted!
As the twin fists collided, a black and crimson flash erupted, and with the teleportation, there was no time to react as it slammed into Charlotte Linlin's head.
"Great Crimson Annihilation!!!!"
Sag glared, his eyes tiger-like as he roared, "Die, old hag!!!!"
BOOM!!!
The crimson light burst forth from his fist, penetrating Charlotte Linlin's forehead, exiting the back of her head, and transforming into a pillar of light that shot towards the sky.
Even without touching the sky, the path it carved caused the cloud layer to split apart.
Under this strike, Charlotte Linlin's head jerked, blood flowed from her seven orifices, her eyes rolled back, and her head tilted upwards as she clearly couldn't withstand the blow and lost consciousness.
The violent impact caused her body to instinctively fly backwards.
But just as she was about to fly away, the soul flames burst out of her vacant eyes once more, as if they wanted to burst out of her eye sockets. As her thick fingers clenched tightly, Napoleon, the sword in her hand, was infused with lightning and flames once more.
Charlotte Linlin's body expanded again, and as Sag's fist remained embedded in her head, she swung her grotesque sword, the blade flashing with purple lightning and entwined with Haki and the power of the lightning itself. She swung it in a half-circle, heavily slamming it into the lower half of Sag's back, from his waist to his ribs.
"Raging Light King Domination!!!!"
BOOM!!!
The island trembled violently, and the edges of the island erupted with towering waves that crashed towards the surroundings.
Sag was struck heavily by this blow, and as Charlotte Linlin flew backwards, he also flew diagonally towards the fleet with which they had been fighting.
The trajectories of the two were almost back-to-back, one in front of the other, as they crashed into the Song Queen and the Dead Star.
(End of Chapter)
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