High Priest Lakis hovered in the turbulent waters, all traces of hesitation gone from his aged face. What remained was cold determination and blazing fury.
He watched the rubber giant rampaging through the streets. He watched the crimson mist spread across the sky like an ominous curtain.
The scene overlapped more and more with the vision of destruction from his prophecy.
He could wait no longer.
The source of everything had to be stopped.
That red-eyed man who commanded the blood mist.
Joy Boy: ????? What about me? Aren't you going to stop me too?
"You fiend! Pay for your crimes!"
With a furious roar, Lakis raised his staff. The massive gemstone at its tip erupted with brilliant azure light. Vast amounts of energy gathered and condensed into a high-pressure water lance that pierced through the sea and shot straight toward Ritter's face.
The attack carried enough force to punch through the armored hull of a warship.
Ritter looked at the incoming strike.
There wasn't a trace of tension in his crimson eyes.
Only boredom.
He didn't even move.
"Mist God Style... uh..."
A shield of blood mist formed automatically in front of him.
Pshhh!
The water lance, powerful enough to pierce steel, slammed into the seemingly thin mist barrier.
Then it vanished.
Like a stone sinking into the ocean, the attack was swallowed whole, broken apart and absorbed. Not even a splash remained.
"Old man, that's it?" Ritter dug at his ear lazily. "You think seeing a few seconds into the future means you can control everything?"
He couldn't even be bothered to give the technique a proper name.
If this was truly the extent of Lakis' strength, how had Fish-Man Island survived a world-ending war in the future?
Hiding underwater wasn't a reasonable answer.
Ritter knew the Sea King weapon had participated in that war. As a member of the losing side, Fish-Man Island shouldn't have escaped unscathed. Yet with strength like this, they wouldn't even qualify to join such a conflict.
Lakis' pupils narrowed.
The fact that Ritter had blocked his full-powered strike so effortlessly only confirmed how terrifying the intruder truly was.
But he refused to retreat.
Instead, his conviction grew stronger.
Such a dangerous power had to be stopped.
"Arrogant fool!"
The staff swung again.
This time, it wasn't a single attack.
Dozens of thinner, more agile water blades materialized around Ritter, shooting toward him from every direction.
Every angle.
Every blind spot.
Every possible escape route.
The trajectories looked as though they had been calculated by a perfect machine.
Each blade targeted where Ritter would move next.
Future Sight.
Lakis possessed an Observation Haki ability similar to Katakuri's. Through years of studying prophecies and resonating with the energies of the deep sea, his foresight may even have surpassed Katakuri's in clarity and range.
He could see several seconds into the future.
Then attack accordingly.
"Oh?"
Ritter finally looked mildly interested.
Good.
At least the old man wasn't a complete disappointment.
Anyone capable of seeing the future naturally possessed exceptional Observation Haki. In Ritter's opinion, Lakis' mastery might even exceed Katakuri's.
His figure flickered through the storm of water blades like a phantom.
Most missed by mere millimeters.
Those that couldn't be avoided were effortlessly dissolved by blood mist.
But Lakis' attacks never stopped.
Wave after wave.
Blade after blade.
Whirlpools.
Water spears.
High-pressure blasts.
He continuously predicted Ritter's movements and launched attacks before they happened.
His objective was obvious.
Not victory.
Delay.
Hold Ritter in place.
Buy time for the guards to recover.
Or perhaps wait for the true catastrophe from the prophecy to arrive and swallow both invaders whole.
Lakis had already accepted the possibility of dying alongside them.
He believed his evacuation plans and emergency shelters would allow his people to survive.
As for Fish-Man Island itself?
Where fish-men lived, Fish-Man Island would continue to exist.
"Do you see now?" Lakis said coldly. "Before true wisdom, your power is meaningless."
He had seen it.
In countless glimpses of the future, Ritter attempted to break through and reunite with the rubber giant to cause even greater destruction.
Every time, Lakis intercepted him.
Every time.
Ritter dispersed another water spear aimed at his blind spot.
The annoyance on his face grew increasingly obvious.
"Old fossil..."
He stopped dodging altogether.
Several harmless water blades struck the blood mist around him and dissolved instantly.
His crimson eyes locked onto Lakis.
It felt as though they were staring directly through time itself.
"Have you misunderstood something?"
"You can see a few seconds into the future."
"So what?"
The blood mist around Ritter began to change.
It no longer felt like a simple defensive technique.
A darker, stranger presence emerged from it.
Something deeply unsettling.
"But here's the thing..."
His voice carried an eerie quality that seemed to bypass the ears and speak directly inside Lakis' mind.
"What if the future you're seeing..."
"...is fake?"
BZZZZT!
An invisible force exploded outward from Ritter.
It wasn't physical.
It attacked perception itself.
The mind.
The senses.
Lakis' face changed instantly.
In the future he had just seen, Ritter was supposed to move left and launch a blood mist attack from the right.
Without hesitation, Lakis pointed his staff toward the predicted attack point.
Energy gathered.
Ready to fire.
But reality told a different story.
Ritter hadn't moved.
Not even an inch.
He simply stood there, looking at Lakis as if he were an idiot.
"What?!"
A shockwave ran through Lakis' mind.
Then the future shattered.
The visions he relied upon fragmented into countless conflicting possibilities.
One future showed Ritter advancing.
Another showed him retreating.
A third showed him standing still.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Every possibility appeared real.
Every possibility contradicted the others.
He could no longer identify the true future.
Ritter's Illusion World.
A technique designed to interfere with Observation Haki itself.
Unlike simple suppression, it flooded the target's senses with false possibilities until prediction became meaningless.
"Your so-called wisdom..."
Ritter's voice echoed like a final verdict.
"...is nothing more than a child's trick."
He slowly raised a hand.
The blood mist surged skyward, condensing into an enormous crimson palm that blotted out the sea above.
Its pressure was overwhelming.
Absolute.
Unavoidable.
The giant hand descended toward Lakis, who had lost his greatest advantage.
"Game over, old stubborn fool."
Ritter grinned.
"Now be a good boy..."
"...and get on the ship."
At that moment, the true gap between them became painfully clear.
Against Ritter's overwhelming power and bizarre abilities, Lakis' prophecies and future sight seemed insignificant.
Powerless.
Fragile.
Like paper before a storm.
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