Terrifying flames shot up from the center of Times Square, soaring into the sky. The concrete pavement erupted, transforming into billowing black smoke and molten lava. Within the fire, a gigantic figure rode the wind upward. Hurricane Monica, which had been circling above New York but hadn't unleashed its true power, suddenly surged with ferocity. The giant leapt high into the heavens, suspended in midair, arms outstretched, forming a perfectly mysterious cruciform shape.
The giant gazed at Monica in the sky, moved nearly to tears.
At last, I get to fight on my home turf!
"O storm, obey my command, answer my call!"
Violet light burst forth, blooming like a giant flower. An uncanny pressure expanded, blanketing everything.
Woooooo—at last, the unprecedented Category Five Hurricane Monica revealed its true power. It was supposed to be a sunny day on the East Coast, but endless black clouds churned and piled up, a mad ocean hanging over the sky, plunging all of New York City into darkness. Except for the stubborn traces of human life, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Gale, storm, tempest—an endless barrage of wind unleashed its terrifying might at this moment.
Greenery was the first casualty. The relentless winds swept across all of New York City, sending debris flying everywhere. In Central Park, countless trees were uprooted, spinning wildly in the storm and crashing into buildings of every size.
Next came cars and streetlights—anything above ground but not sturdy enough groaned and swayed in the gale, finally snapping off their bases and rolling down the streets like foam battered by ocean waves.
"Aaaah—!" No matter their status or skin color, every New Yorker hiding indoors shrieked in terror. The houses that once kept out the cold and made everyone smile were no longer "safe as a mountain"—thick glass cracked and splintered under the wind's assault. The wind speed kept rising, and it seemed like Hurricane Monica was about to unleash all the energy of the stars and atmosphere at once.
The ecstasy of getting what he wanted had only just surfaced, when it was crushed beneath a tidal wave of frustration and humiliation. Sure, he'd reached his goal—but not by his own hand. Instead, he’d been poked and prodded like a lab rat, with the High Priest of Nature pulling all the strings.
"High Priest of Nature…" A cold, burning hatred flared up inside the giant. "I will achieve true perfection, wipe out all your backup plans, then pay you a personal visit and tear you to shreds. That day is coming soon!"
And honestly, it wasn’t far off. Just one step away.
All he needed was to reclaim his old powers, to get back that seventh color.
With high-level energy flooding his body, the giant felt a powerful hunch: Once he got that seventh power back, he’d have a flawless Prismatic Halo of divine force, and all his problems would be toast.
And that seventh power? It was—on that person!
If it weren’t for that person, he wouldn’t be tripping at every turn, wouldn’t have lost the upper hand, wouldn’t have died once, wouldn’t be missing a chunk of power, and definitely wouldn’t be getting humiliated by the High Priest of Nature.
Everything—was because of that person!
My mortal enemy on the road to godhood!
"Prepare—to die!" Old grudges and new rage surged up at once. The giant lowered his head, ready to dive down and settle the score.
But then—
"Huh?"
Where’d they go?
Orange light flared in the halo, the magic eye snapped open, and the giant scanned up, down, left, right—everywhere. He looked once, then twice. Still no sign of them.
Furious, the giant roared; his voice thundered through the clouds and echoed over all of New York City: "Coward! Show yourself! Get back here and die!"
Meanwhile, down in a New York subway tunnel, our hero Yang was sprinting for her life.
"What am I, an idiot, just standing there waiting to get clobbered?" Armored up, Yang Qi touched down without a sound, a hundred years of internal energy smoothing the air so much that even the whoosh of her movement was barely a whisper. Sure, it slowed her down, but sneaking was way more important.
"Coward! Come out and die!!" The giant’s muffled roar rumbled down the tunnel, but Yang Qi didn’t even bother to reply.
Honestly, who cares about running away from a Nature-type cheat? No shame in that!
Even while running, Yang Qi’s brain was in overdrive: "So I ate the Nature-type Devil Fruit—how’s a pure fighter supposed to win against that?"
Quick, think! How did the Paramecia-types fight in One Piece?
Pretty sure they used Haki.
Haki, huh?
Too bad I never bothered to ask Li Yuncong for a crash course!
And anyway, is Li Yuncong’s Haki even the same thing as the Haki in One Piece?
Not much help when you’re dying of thirst and the water’s on the moon!
Wait, wait—hold up. The multiverse is a wild, chaotic place; there’s gotta be some way to counter a Nature-type. Suddenly, Yang Qi remembered the feeling from just now, when she punched the giant’s chest. That five percent damage—where did that come from?
Probably from the true energy packed into her fist.
True energy—somewhere between fantasy and reality, a force that rewrites physics and tweaks the constants of nature. It acts directly on living things, producing all sorts of weird effects. Should work against Nature-types, right?
And those spell-type powers should be able to hurt bodies that are all element-ified, too.
So that brat running his mouth up there isn’t totally invincible after all…
Crack! Just as she was thinking it, a giant explosion thundered overhead.
"Finally found you."
(Lines 44-53 are missing from the raw text view. Please provide these lines or confirm their existence for completion.)