As Dragon plummeted into the abyssal depths, his fate unknown, the towering tornado pillar that reached the heavens rapidly dissipated.
"The storm is dispersing! What about Dragon?"
Ivankov's eyelids twitched violently, his expression shifting repeatedly, before he gritted his teeth and dashed toward the dust-choked center of the battlefield.
Karasu and Lindbergh exchanged glances and hurried after him.
Hiyori, particularly worried about Caesar, stumbled forward with all her might, running unsteadily.
When the group reached the heart of the battle at Udon's Prison, they were stunned by the scene before them.
Where the steel mill once stood, there now existed a massive depression spanning over a kilometer, as if struck by a meteor, transforming the once level ground into a basin.
Within this sunken basin, anyone walking would find their legs sinking into the powdery surface.
The soil and rocks beneath their feet had been pulverized into fine dust, becoming loose and airy.
The slightest breeze would stir up clouds of choking dust, making it hard to keep their eyes open.
Ivankov's heart sank steadily, his concern for Dragon growing.
Lindbergh stared blankly at the loose earth before him.
Gazing at the white, hazy bottom of the deep crater, Lindbergh couldn't fathom what kind of weapon could create such a terrifying scene.
"This is what that monster and the leader clashing produced..."
"The winner must be the leader!" Karasu's eyes were somewhat dazed, but he forced himself to bolster his spirits, trying to dispel his fear of that monster.
The group waded through the loose soil in the pit, crossed several chasms, and finally spotted a figure standing straight and tall, like a colossal peak piercing the sky beneath the vast heavens.
Amid the swirling dust, a man of titanic stature, demonic and godlike, stood motionless over a bottomless fissure, his body wreathed in swirling currents of energy that coiled like black dragons.
The moment Ivankov and the other two laid eyes on this figure, their minds exploded with shock, their bodies trembled violently, and they became disoriented, losing all sense of direction.
"Caesar...!" In Ivankov's eyes, Caesar's form expanded infinitely, like an evil great demon blotting out the sky.
Lindbergh asked in a trembling voice, "If he's here, then where is the leader?"
Karasu, his face pale, gritted his teeth and said, "Look, he seems severely injured. That's it, the leader must have won. After his victory, he left, leaving this Caesar here to perish on his own."
Muttering to himself as if to validate his words, Karasu took a deep breath, quickened his pace, and cautiously approached to a spot not far from Caesar.
When Karasu saw the massive wound on Caesar's chest, a large area of flesh and blood corroded by black energy, revealing stark white bone beneath.
Caesar himself, however, had his eyes tightly closed, seemingly unconscious, standing motionless like a statue at the edge of the fissure.
"Hahaha! Just as I thought! Ivankov! Lindbergh! Come quick! He seems to be dying, he's gravely wounded!" Karasu's face finally broke into a smile as he laughed heartily and waved the other two over.
"What? Hiss...!"
Ivankov rushed over in quick strides, stopping before Caesar and looking up at the giant figure with shock in his eyes.
Just as Karasu had said, Caesar's aura was chaotic, his body covered in severe wounds that made it appear as though he had suffered a devastating blow.
In the distance, Hiyori, who was struggling to run over, heard Karasu's laughter and felt her mind go numb.
Her delicate body swayed, nearly losing its balance.
"No! He won't die! He can't!"
Hiyori bit her lower lip so hard it bled, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on the colossal figure in the distance as she stumbled forward.
Closer, ever closer.
Hiyori finally caught sight of Caesar's familiar form, and when she saw the horrifying wounds covering his body, she completely broke down.
This despair was ten thousand times worse than when Ulti had collapsed in her arms yesterday.
A gentle breeze lifted the strands of hair from Hiyori's forehead as a string of glistening tears fell.
"Caesar..."
Step by step, she moved faster and faster, completely disregarding the black energy swirling around Caesar, throwing herself at him like a moth to a flame!
"Silly woman, I'm not dead yet. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
A deep voice reached her ears as Caesar's mountain-like frame gradually shrank down to two meters tall.
An invisible layer of Armament Haki surfaced on his body, blocking Hiyori's desperate lunge.
Hiyori froze, then trembled as if struck by lightning, her gaze shifting to Caesar.
"Husband! You're alright... thank goodness... thank goodness."
Tears streamed even more freely from Hiyori's eyes as her body seemed to instantly lose all strength, collapsing to her knees.
"Wait a moment, I need to handle this."
Caesar spoke calmly as the Destructive Power continuously swirling around his body corroded his flesh, damaging even his indestructible physique.
Large areas of flesh on his chest had been dissolved away, revealing pale white bone.
Had it not been for Caesar's exceptionally vigorous life force constantly circulating through his body, engaging in a tug-of-war with this bizarre Destructive Power.
He would have already been reduced to a skeleton, dead before his time.
"Destructive Power is a formidable rule-based force. Although I still haven't managed to fully master it..."
Caesar extended his right hand, revealing a large mouth on his palm - toothless and tongueless, its interior pitch black as if leading to a dark abyss.
"...my body has always contained a similar Power of Rules - the power of Devouring!"
Caesar pressed his right hand against his chest, and immediately a strange scene unfolded.
The mouth on his palm opened wide, generating an immense, invisible suction force that instantly drew in the black energy swirling around Caesar.
Moreover, the Destructive Power that had been continuously corroding his flesh rapidly disintegrated, absorbed and devoured by the great mouth.
As the last wisp of Destructive Power vanished, Caesar's robust physique rumbled with the roaring sound of cascading waterfalls echoing within his body.
It was his surging vital essence furiously washing through his flesh, healing the damaged form.
Piece by piece, skin grew, muscle fibers stretched, and blood vessels formed, covering the pale white bones.
In the blink of an eye, the body that had resembled a decaying corpse was restored to perfect condition.
Moreover, Caesar felt that after devouring that Destructive Power, his own strength seemed to have advanced further, touching upon some kind of bottleneck.
If his body were restored to its original height, one would notice that he had grown another seven or eight centimeters, now approaching nine meters and thirty centimeters.
Caesar looked down at Hiyori, who was sitting limply on the ground, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth.
He slowly walked forward, extended his hands, and gently lifted the woman who was both crying and laughing.
Caesar's Observation Haki subconsciously swept over Hiyori's body.
He shuddered and said in astonishment, "Hiyori, you're pregnant?"
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