Bones shattered, flesh exploded—everything in the path of that overwhelming brute force was reduced to dust.

Watching his right arm, armored in Armament Haki, get blown apart by a single punch from that human insect, a flash of shock and confusion crossed Michael's eyes.

Then came the pain—piercing straight to the bone.

"Day in, day out, you call humans insects. When did we ever offend you so-called immortals?"

Blood and chunks of flesh splattered across Daren's face and clothes, making him look even more savage and violent, overflowing with defiant arrogance.

He lunged forward, seizing the brief window before Michael's severed arm could regenerate—before his defense closed. Daren drove his knee upward!

The thunderous strike lit red flames in the air from sheer friction, streaked with a dark crimson glow, and slammed into Michael's jaw like a meteor wrapped in unstoppable force!

Bang!!

A white shockwave burst outward. Michael's head snapped back, a loud crack sounding from his jaw as blood burst from between his clenched teeth. His pale mane flew wildly in the air.

"Damn..."

His blood-red vertical pupils contracted violently, trembling, starting to lose focus.

The blow to his chin triggered a wave of dizziness that slammed into his brain. His eyes bulged, and his body was nearly sent flying by the impact.

But Daren was faster.

He'd learned his lesson back on Philseque Island during the fight with the Five Elders—never give these "immortals" a single moment to catch their breath!

Maybe only by doing that could they be truly killed!

The moment Michael's head tilted back, Daren reached out and grabbed it, eyes burning with ferocity as he smashed it straight into the ground below!

"Genkotsu Meteor!"

Boom!!

It was as if a meteor had crashed from the heavens. The immense impact caused the earth for kilometers around to collapse again. A violent shockwave ripped outward, instantly carving a massive, terrifying crater into the land.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the pit, mud blasted skyward, and the nearby sea surged into a towering tsunami over a hundred meters tall.

After taking such a devastating hit, Michael's face was nearly obliterated—nothing but a mangled mess of blood and flesh. Even shards of pale skull showed through.

He spat out a mouthful of blood. Then, baring his teeth in a grotesque grin, his fading pupils briefly refocused as he burst into maniacal laughter.

"Useless! Even with all that power... against this endless regenerative 'immortality,' there's no way you can kill me!"

As he spoke, those strange black flames surged again, rapidly stitching Michael's broken body back together—flesh visibly growing before the eye.

"A worm like you could never comprehend the power of a god!"

"I can regenerate endlessly, but your body's reaching its limit, isn't it?! Hahahahaha!"

"Whatever tricks you try—they won't work!"

Boom!

Another lightning-clad fist crashed down, slamming Michael's head into the earth once more. Dirt and shockwaves blasted into the sky.

"Then let's see which is stronger—your regeneration or my power!"

Blood continued to seep from Daren's mouth, nostrils, ears, the corners of his eyes, even from his pores—but he kept grinning madly.

"I refuse to believe that even after I rip you apart and blast you into a fine red mist, you can still come back!"

Boom!

Another punch!

His fist was like a falling star. Daren stomped down on the chest of the "strongest Celestial Dragon," pinning him into the pit below, unable to move. Then his fists rained down like a storm.

Each blow sent flesh and blood flying.

Each strike made the ground groan and shudder under the force.

Each impact triggered a shockwave, and the cracks spreading across the land grew deeper and deeper.

"If humans are insects, and insects can't kill you..."

"Then I'll stop being human altogether!!"

Daren roared, his eyes blazing red.

Rip!

Daren grabbed Michael's mangled left arm and yanked it with brutal force!

He tore off the Celestial Dragon's other arm right then and there!

The relentless storm of attacks kept pouring down, and Michael felt like his body was no longer his own.

His flesh continued to rot and explode, only to be restored again by the black flame cloud... over and over, in an endless loop.

He could feel it clearly—his body was going numb. Even pain itself seemed to be slipping away, and his pupils began to dilate.

Even with the formidable regeneration of an awakened Mythical Zoan, this kind of onslaught was unbearable.

A fear he'd never known before suddenly surged in his heart.

Unlike those five old monsters who had lived for 800 years, his regeneration had a limit!

Under Daren's furious barrage, his body was a wreck—decaying, twitching, nerves spasming in the last bits of remaining muscle.

"I refuse to believe you really can't die!"

Daren sneered, ten fingers curling at once as thunder flared and lightning burst around them—his hands now shaped like black dragon claws, swirling high above Michael's head.

The pitch-black claws hung in the air, poised to shred everything, flashing coldly in the dim sky.

"Magnetic Field Rotation... Dragon Claw!"

The claws roared downward, tearing through the air.

In that instant, a wave of lethal dread surged through Michael's chest.

His eyes flared with a strange red glow.

"No!"

With a roar from his broken maw, he summoned every ounce of remaining strength and blasted out his strongest beam of freezing light!

"Frostshock Burst!"

The black dragon claws crashed into the erupting blue beam. Ice crystals instantly formed across their surface, slowing their descent dramatically.

Even the surrounding space seemed to freeze under the extreme cold. The dragon claws' fall slowed to a crawl.

At the very last second, Michael's bloodshot eyes strained as he wrenched his head to the side with everything he had.

The claws of annihilation barely grazed the Celestial Dragon's face, carving a carbonized, black crystalline scar into the freshly regenerated skin.

Boom!!!

The claws struck the earth.

For a moment, the world went completely silent.

Then—

Rip!!

The island, already fractured and crumbling, could no longer withstand the impact of that blow. It split open with a deafening roar!

A massive chasm tore across the land, stretching all the way to the distant sea.

With a sound like the heavens collapsing and the earth being ripped apart, under Daren's full-powered strike...the entire island was cleaved in two!

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