Bones shattered, flesh burst—everything in the path of that overwhelming force was ground to dust.
Saint Michael stared, stunned, as his right arm—hardened with Armament Haki—was obliterated by a single punch from this "human insect." A searing pain drilled straight into his marrow.
"What is this 'human insect' crap? When did humans ever offend you immortal bastards?"
Blood and gore splattered across Darren's face and coat, making him look even more savage and tyrannical, his arrogance blazing to the heavens.
While Saint Michael's severed arm was still in the midst of regenerating and his guard wide open, Darren surged forward. His knee rocketed up like thunder, trailing a streak of dark red flame as it crashed into the Celestial Dragon's jaw.
BANG!
A shockwave of compressed air exploded outward. Saint Michael's head snapped back with a sickening crack. Blood seeped from between his clenched teeth as his pale mane whipped wildly in the blast.
"Damn…"
His blood-red, slit pupils shrank and trembled, their focus blurring.
The impact sent a white-hot wave of dizziness crashing through his brain, pushing his eyeballs to the verge of popping from their sockets. The force of the knee strike threatened to hurl him backward—
But Darren was faster.
The brutal melee against the Gorosei on Felsek Island had taught him one thing the hard way: never give these so-called immortals even a single moment to breathe.
Only by never allowing them to recover could he hope to truly kill them.
The instant Saint Michael's head snapped back, Darren's hand clamped down on his skull. Eyes blazing with feral intent, he slammed the Celestial Dragon straight into the ground.
"Meteor Drop!"
BOOM!!
It was like a meteorite plunging from the sky. The impact caved the earth in for kilometers around, pulverizing rock and sending a roaring shockwave blasting outward.
Fissures spiderwebbed from the heart of the crater, hurling columns of dirt and stone into the air. From the nearby sea, a tsunami over a hundred meters high surged up in response.
Saint Michael's face looked on the verge of exploding from the impact. Blood and torn flesh turned his features into a mangled ruin, flayed open to reveal fragments of pale skull beneath.
He spat out a mouthful of blood—then suddenly clenched his teeth. For a split second, his glazed eyes snapped back into focus and a manic grin twisted his face.
"Useless! Even with that overwhelming strength… you still can't kill me! Faced with this infinitely regenerative 'immortal' body, your attacks are meaningless!"
As he spoke, the black, flame-like halo around his neck surged. Under its shroud, flesh visibly squirmed and crawled back into place, his shredded features knitting themselves together before Darren's eyes.
"You insignificant insect! You can't comprehend a god's power!"
"I can regenerate forever, and your body must already be close to its limit! Hahahahaha!!"
"No matter what tricks you try, they won't work!"
BOOM!!
Another thunder-charged fist came down like a hammer, driving Saint Michael's head even deeper into the earth. A plume of dirt and debris blasted skyward.
"Then let's see," Darren roared, "whose regeneration holds out longer—yours, or my strength!"
Blood streamed from his mouth, nose, ears, eyes, even from his pores—yet his laughter only grew more wild and unhinged.
"I don't believe you can still regenerate after I tear you completely to pieces… or pound you into a fine paste!"
BOOM!!
Another punch.
With one boot planted firmly on the self-styled Strongest Celestial Dragon's chest, pinning him in the crater, Darren hammered his fists down in a relentless storm.
Every blow sent flesh and blood flying.
Every impact made the ground shudder and groan.
Every strike unleashed a shockwave that deepened the cracks spiderwebbing across the battlefield.
"You say humans are insects… that insects can't kill you…" Darren's voice rose into a hoarse, crazed shout, his eyes burning crimson. "Then I'll stop being human altogether!!"
Rip!
He seized Saint Michael's ruined left arm and, with a savage yank, tore it clean off his body.
The storm-like assault showed no sign of slowing. Saint Michael felt his body slipping out of his control.
Rotting flesh burst apart, then grew back under the swirl of black flames—only to be ripped to shreds again. The cycle repeated in endless, nauseating loops.
Numbness crept into his limbs. His sense of pain faded. His pupils began to dilate.
Even with an Awakened Mythical Zoan's regeneration, he couldn't withstand this level of destruction.
A primal terror—one he had never felt in his life—suddenly clenched around his heart.
Unlike those five ancient monsters who had lived for eight hundred years, his regeneration had a ceiling.
Under Darren's relentless barrage, there was hardly a patch of unbroken flesh left on his body. His frame was rotting, and what muscles remained only twitched and spasmed beneath shredded nerves.
"I refuse to believe you're truly immortal!"
Darren's grin twisted into something almost demonic as all ten fingers curled at once. Lightning exploded along his arms, coiling and knotting together overhead into the shape of a black Thunder Dragon's claws.
The pitch-black Dragon Claw, forged to tear apart all things, lifted high into the air, its razor arcs gleaming cold in the half-light.
"Magnetic Field Rotation… Dragon's Claw!"
With a roar, the claw came crashing down, ripping through the atmosphere.
In that instant, a suffocating sense of death slammed into Saint Michael's heart.
His eyes flared with eerie crimson light.
"No!!"
He wrenched open his shattered jaw, gathering every last shred of strength into a final, desperate freezing beam.
"Shadow Frost Impact!"
The pitch-black Dragon Claw slammed into the roaring blue beam. Frost formed in an instant, racing across the claw's surface and forcing its descent to a crawl.
Under the extreme cold, even the air seemed to freeze. The Dragon Claw's fall became agonizingly slow.
At the last possible moment, Saint Michael twisted his head with everything he had left.
The Dragon Claw, forged to crush all dominion, only grazed his cheek—searing a crystallized, carbon-black scar into his freshly regenerated skin with its blazing heat.
BOOM!!!
The Dragon Claw struck the earth.
For a heartbeat, the world fell utterly silent.
Then—
RIIIIIP!!!
The already-shattered island finally reached its breaking point.
Its fractured terrain tore open along the new wound, fissures erupting outward and racing across the sea.
Amid the earth-splitting roar, the island, ravaged by Darren's full-power blow…
…was completely cleaved in two!
To be continued...