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Chapter 471: Chibaku Tensei! Crushing Stars by Hand
Meruem's attention was drawn to Kuma's golden light shield below. A flash of extreme irritation crossed his emotionless compound eyes. He loathed that rule-bending power capable of ignoring his devastating strikes, wanting to figure out exactly what that layer of golden light was. Consequently, the constricting force of his tail loosened by a fraction.
For a top-tier powerhouse and seasoned veteran like Dragon, that half-second opening was enough to determine life or death. Dragon didn't even bother trying to pry off the hard, scale-covered tail wrapped around his neck. He knew full well that physical strength alone couldn't shake this mutated monster. Enduring the excruciating pain of his cervical vertebrae nearly snapping, he rapidly brought his hands together in front of his chest. His ten fingers blurred into afterimages, weaving an incredibly complex and bizarre hand seal.
The Chakra and life force within his body were frantically siphoned away like a bursting dam. Even the Armament Haki coating his body dimmed. The ripples in his purple Rinnegan vibrated violently, and the blood vessels around his eye sockets bulged as if they would burst from the congestion at any moment. A pure black sphere, no larger than a walnut, rose between his hands. Though inconspicuous, it exuded an absolute, overwhelming pressure that seemed capable of swallowing light itself. The moment the surrounding air touched the black sphere, it collapsed.
Dragon opened his blood-filled mouth.
"Chibaku Tensei!"
His hoarse roar detonated thousands of meters in the sky. The small black sphere left his hands, shooting straight into the higher firmament. It hovered above the clouds like an artificial black sun. Immediately after, a terrifying gravitational pull erupted—one that defied all common sense. In that instant, the gravitational laws of the entire NGL Autonomous Region were completely overturned.
The already fragmented bedrock below began to groan under the overwhelming strain. Tons of soil and shattered tree trunks were stripped from the surface as the earth's crust was violently torn apart, forming countless massive canyons. Even the underground rivers surging hundreds of meters below rushed upward, defying gravity in a mighty, uncontrollable torrent. The remains of the Chimera Ants buried in the ruins, broken weapons, and even the ambient dust in the air all flew into the sky. All these materials intertwined, forming a muddy tornado reaching into the sky, aimed directly at that black gravitational core.
Meruem immediately sensed something was wrong. Realizing his proudly unmatched speed had become unusually sluggish in the face of this gravitational pull, it felt as if countless invisible hands were desperately dragging at the space around him. He decisively released his tail from Dragon's neck and violently flapped the wings on his back, attempting to forcefully tear through the gravitational field and escape. Green Nen burned wildly across his body, warping and distorting the very air with its heat.
But how could Dragon let him escape? Two trails of crimson blood slid from the corners of his eyes, dripping into the wind along his resolute cheeks. He had pushed the Rinnegan's ocular prowess to the absolute brink of overexertion, causing his vision to blur. Under his control, the gravitational field rapidly contracted, focusing entirely on Meruem alone.
Having flown less than a hundred meters, the Ant King's body jerked to a sudden halt, as if an invisible giant hand had seized his ankle. His perfect body, fused with the genetics of the Royal Guards, began to fly backward uncontrollably toward the black dot high in the sky. Massive boulders converged from all directions. A giant rock weighing tens of tons smashed down directly onto Meruem's back. He let out a furious roar, shattering the boulder to dust with a backhanded punch.
But it was entirely useless. More earth and stone surged forward relentlessly. Mud mixed with groundwater plastered over his legs like cement. Massive tree trunks and rocks layered over him, one after another. Meruem opened his mouth, blasting a high-density Nen cannon that shattered the rock wall in front of him. Yet, the newly blown opening didn't even last half a second before being refilled by more rocks surging from the periphery. No matter how fast his fists swung, they couldn't outpace the speed of the gathering matter. His purple-green Nen dashed left and right through the cracks in the rocks, but it could never break free from this pure, heaven-shaking might.
In just a few breaths, a massive stone sphere over hundreds of meters in diameter had formed high in the sky. It hung there quietly, its surface continuing to attract the surrounding rubble. It looked like a suspended tomb prepared for a god.
Dragon gasped for air, his lungs burning with agonizing pain. The combined toll of draining both his Chakra and Haki made it impossible to even maintain his levitation. His vision went black as his tall body plummeted straight down from the sky.
Below, Kuma was still maintaining the Soten Kisshun barrier. Ivankov reacted swiftly. The makeup on his oversized face had long been ruined by sweat. He sharply flicked his ten fingers, and ten pink Hormone whips shot out like striking snakes, accurately wrapping around Dragon's waist and limbs. The whips drew a massive arc in mid-air, absorbing the terrifying impact of the high-altitude fall and pulling Dragon safely into the golden barrier.
Dragon stumbled as his feet hit the ground, his face as pale as a sheet of paper. He didn't even bother wiping the spurting blood from his neck. Chest heaving violently, he looked up at the artificial star blotting out the sun high in the sky.
"Dragon!" Ivankov shrieked, his voice trembling. "Just what kind of monstrous power did you buy from Shopkeeper Blake!?"
He stared at the massive stone sphere in the sky, feeling his worldview shattering. A bizarre deathly silence fell over the entire battlefield, and even the wind had stopped flowing. The once-dense forests of the NGL Autonomous Region were now nothing but a bottomless, massive sinkhole. Everything had been sucked into the sky.
Luffy tilted his head back, his straw hat long gone. His mouth hung wide open, completely oblivious to the drool sliding down his chin. His mind was a total blank. Ace's steel pipe clattered to the ground, and he forgot to even pick it up. He suddenly felt that the Pyro Element he was so proud of was nothing but a joke in the face of this kind of power. Sabo swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.
The three youths who fancied themselves geniuses in the East Blue had been thoroughly taught a lesson today. The sheer majesty of crushing a star by hand had completely shattered their understanding of the word "combat." This was a realm unattainable by humans. This was the power sold in Blake's tavern. This was the authority of the gods their old man had bought with money.
Kuma adjusted his small, round sunglasses and silently dispelled Soten Kisshun. The golden light shield dissolved into specks of starlight, vanishing into the air. The crisis seemed to have been averted.
.....
Far away in Partys Bar in Foosha Village, Blake leaned against the counter, holding a freshly mixed glass of juice. The virtual light screen floating in mid-air was broadcasting the battle in the Hunter world in real-time. Seeing Dragon use Chibaku Tensei, Blake took a sip of his juice, his gaze shifting to the massive stone sphere high in the sky.
Just when everyone thought the dust had settled, a terribly muffled cracking sound echoed from the surface of the massive stone sphere high in the Hunter world's sky. Immediately after, a blinding green light forcefully tore open a massive fissure along the sphere's equator.
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