The battlefield Zhang Zhiwei selected was a barren plateau thirty kilometers from Renjia Town—far enough that their clash wouldn't level innocent homes, close enough that they could return quickly if needed. Rocky outcroppings and sparse vegetation stretched toward distant mountains, while overhead, stars wheeled in their ancient patterns.
"Perfect!" the Fat Doll exclaimed, bouncing on his toes with innocent enthusiasm. "Now then, shall we begin our little game?"
Zhang Zhiwei said nothing. Golden light erupted around him like a second sunrise as the Jingang Zhao reached full manifestation. His robes whipped in the supernatural winds generated by his own power, and the very air seemed to sing with barely contained force.
"Curse Dorée: Manifestation Totale!" he declared, drawing upon techniques refined across decades of mastery.
The Fat Doll giggled—a sound like wind chimes in a hurricane. "Oh, you're going to be delicious!"
What followed was less a fight than a force of nature unleashed.
The child-demon blurred forward with impossible speed, his small fist trailing fire as it sought Zhang Zhiwei's heart. The Heavenly Master met the attack with his own palm strike, golden light colliding with demonic flames in an explosion that turned night to day for a hundred meters in all directions.
The shockwave flattened every tree within sight.
But this was only the opening move.
Zhang Zhiwei spun away from the collision, his hands already weaving complex patterns. "Wulei Zhengfa—Tianlei!" Thunder answered his call, dark clouds boiling out of clear skies with supernatural speed. Lightning painted the heavens in stark white and electric blue.
The Fat Doll laughed with genuine delight as the first bolt struck him dead center. His small body absorbed the electrical assault, steam rising from his reddening skin. "More! More! It's been so long since someone really tried to hurt me!"
CRACK!
A second bolt, twice as powerful as the first. The Fat Doll's feet dug furrows in the rocky ground as he was driven backward, but his smile never wavered. If anything, it grew wider.
"My turn!" he chirped, then moved.
Gustave, watching from a safe distance, barely tracked the motion even with his enhanced senses. One moment the Fat Doll stood fifty meters away—the next, his tiny fist was buried in Zhang Zhiwei's stomach, golden barriers shattering like spun glass.
The Heavenly Master flew backward, carving a trench through solid rock before managing to arrest his momentum. Blood flecked his lips, but his eyes blazed with renewed determination.
"Jingang Zhao—Bafang Yundong!"
Eight circles of golden light materialized around Zhang Zhiwei in rapid succession, each one denser and more powerful than the last. They spun like prayer wheels, building energy, preparing for the demon's next assault.
The Fat Doll didn't disappoint. He launched himself forward again, but this time Zhang Zhiwei was ready. The first barrier caught the demon's charge, cracking but holding. The second absorbed more impact. By the fourth, the Fat Doll's advance had slowed to merely supernatural rather than impossible.
"Clever!" the demon approved, even as he systematically destroyed each barrier with methodical punches. "You're actually making me work for it!"
The final barrier exploded in a shower of golden sparks, but Zhang Zhiwei had used the precious seconds it bought him. Lightning fell like rain—not just one or two bolts, but dozens, a concentrated barrage that turned the battlefield into a miniature Armageddon.
The Fat Doll's delighted laughter echoed across the plateau even as his body was hammered into the ground. Steam and smoke rose from the impact crater, but when it cleared, the demon was not only intact—he was changing.
His skin flushed from rosy pink to angry red. His cute pigtails burst into actual flames. Most unsettling of all, his innocent smile transformed into something hungrier, more predatory.
"Phase two!" he announced cheerfully.
The ground beneath his feet turned molten at his touch. Magma bubbled up through cracks that spread like spiderwebs, and the air itself began to shimmer with heat distortion. The Fat Doll sank into the lava as if it were a comfortable bath.
"Merde," Gustave breathed, recognizing the tactical shift. "Zhang Zhiwei, he's tapping into the earth's power directly. As long as he maintains that connection—"
"He's essentially invincible," the Heavenly Master finished grimly. "I understand."
The magma pool began to rise, building itself into a humanoid shape. Ten meters tall. Twenty. Fifty. The Fat Doll's giggling voice echoed from within the molten construct as it continued growing, drawing more and more lava from underground sources.
At one hundred meters in height, it paused. The magma giant's eyes opened—two lakes of liquid fire that fixed on Zhang Zhiwei with predatory hunger.
"Now this is more like it!" the demon's voice boomed across the plateau, distorted by his massive form but retaining its childish enthusiasm. "Shall we continue our dance, little golden insect?"
Zhang Zhiwei looked impossibly small before the towering figure, but his voice never wavered. "Gustave! I require your assistance!"
"Already moving!" Gustave called back, electricity crackling around his form as he prepared his own transformation.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit's power flooded through every cell of his body. Lightning arced between his fingers, danced along his arms, turned his very blood into liquid electricity. The sensation was like holding the heart of a thunderstorm in his chest.
"Éveil du Fruit du Tonnerre—Dieu du Tonnerre!"
Power beyond mortal comprehension exploded outward. Gustave's human form dissolved into pure electrical energy before reconstructing itself on a massive scale. Lightning given shape and substance, growing taller and more substantial with each passing second.
Ninety meters. Ninety-five. At one hundred meters, the Thunder God avatar reached parity with its molten opponent.
The two giants faced each other across the ruined plateau—one wreathed in lightning and electromagnetic force, the other radiating heat that turned sand to glass. For a moment, the world held its breath.
Then the Magma Giant swung its massive fist.
The Thunder Giant met it head-on, and the collision sent shockwaves racing across half the province. In Renjia Town, windows shattered. Birds fell from the sky, stunned by the overpressure. The very bedrock groaned under the assault.
But this was only the beginning.
What followed was combat on a scale that defied mortal comprehension. Each blow exchanged between the titans reshaped the landscape. The Magma Giant's strikes left lakes of molten rock wherever they landed. The Thunder Giant's attacks carved lightning-glass trenches through solid stone and burned afterimages into the retinas of anyone foolish enough to look directly at the battle.
They grappled like wrestlers made of fundamental forces, and the earth suffered for their contest. Mountain peaks crumbled. The plateau itself began sinking under their combined weight.
"You cannot win!" the Fat Doll taunted from within his molten shell. "Every second I remain connected to the earth, I grow stronger! Your lightning is impressive, but my power is endless!"
It was true. Already, hairline cracks were appearing in the Thunder Giant's form—signs that Gustave's stamina was reaching its limits. Maintaining a body of this scale drew enormous energy reserves, and the constant combat was draining him faster than anticipated.
But Gustave had learned from his battle with Kaido. Raw power wasn't always the answer—sometimes, victory required strategy.
"Zhang Zhiwei!" he called out, his voice distorting through the Thunder Giant's form. "I need thirty seconds! Can you give me that?"
"Understood!" came the immediate reply.
The Heavenly Master drew upon every technique in his arsenal. Storm clouds darkened the sky until it was black as the depths of space. Lightning danced between his fingers—not the simple bolts he'd used before, but concentrated Tianlei charged with enough power to level mountains.
The Magma Giant noticed the gathering energy and moved to interrupt, but Gustave was ready. The Thunder Giant locked its opponent in a crushing embrace, accepting terrible damage to its own form in order to hold the demon in place.
Molten rock seared against crackling electricity. The Thunder Giant's left arm dissolved entirely under the assault, but its grip never loosened. Steam rose from the point of contact as two fundamental forces canceled each other out in violent equilibrium.
"Now!" Gustave roared.
Zhang Zhiwei's eyes snapped open, and heaven answered his call.
CRASH!
Lightning fell like the wrath of gods given form. Not a single bolt, but dozens—a concentrated barrage that turned night to day across three provinces. The sound was beyond thunder, beyond any natural phenomenon. It was the sky itself screaming.
The Magma Giant staggered under the assault, its connection to the underground lava sources disrupted by the massive electrical interference. For the first time since the battle began, it was cut off from its power source.
But the demon within was far from finished.
"Insolent insects!" the Fat Doll shrieked, his childish voice distorting into something bestial. "You dare! YOU DARE!"
The Magma Giant's mouth opened impossibly wide—wider than physics should have allowed—and something erupted forth. It wasn't fire or lava, but pure destructive force given form. The breath weapon struck the Thunder Giant center mass and simply erased everything it touched.
Gustave's scream echoed across the plateau as his avatar form collapsed, electricity scattering to the winds. He materialized in his human form fifty meters away, clothes charred and smoking, blood trickling from numerous burns.
The Magma Giant began sinking back toward the earth, seeking to reestablish its connection to the underground power sources. If it succeeded, the battle would begin anew—and Gustave lacked the strength for another transformation of that scale.
But Zhang Zhiwei had not been idle during their contest.
High above the battlefield, the Heavenly Master floated within a sphere of golden light, his arms spread wide as he drew upon power sources beyond the merely physical. His voice carried across the ruined landscape with terrible clarity.
"Tianlei Zhengfa—Jiutian Yingyuan Leisheng Puhua Tianzun!"
It was the ultimate expression of Longhu Mountain's thunder techniques—a direct invocation of the Thunder God's own power. The clouds above began to spin in a massive vortex, and lightning danced between them like living serpents.
The Magma Giant, halfway back to the ground, looked up just in time to see heaven's judgment descending.
This wasn't lightning as mortals understood it. This was the concentrated essence of celestial wrath, refined through generations of Heavenly Masters and given devastating focus. When it struck, the very air ignited. The Magma Giant's form didn't just shatter—it was unmade, its component matter scattered across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The explosion that followed could be seen from space.
A new sun bloomed on the earth's surface for exactly three seconds before collapsing back into mere nuclear fire. The shockwave leveled everything within five kilometers, turned sand to glass within ten, and shattered windows as far away as the provincial capital.
When the light faded and the dust settled, Zhang Zhiwei knelt on the scorched earth, every ounce of his spiritual energy expended. The Fat Doll sat nearby, no longer glowing with power but merely a charred child in a tattered red bellyband.
"Waaaaah!" the demon wailed, all pretense of dignity abandoned. "You're both bullies! I want my mama!"
Tears streaked down his sooty cheeks as he opened a dimensional rift with trembling hands. "I'm telling! You're both in big trouble!"
With one final pathetic sob, he tumbled through the portal and vanished, leaving behind only the echo of childish crying and a landscape transformed beyond all recognition.
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