"Kamehameha."
Lucien held his hands together in a chalice shape near his waist. A dazzling blue glow burst from his palms, lighting up the sky in every direction. Brilliant blue beams gathered into a massive tadpole shaped sphere of energy. The enormous projectile stretched forward with a long blazing tail as it shot toward Saitama.
The terrifying energy contained within the attack immediately made Saitama serious.
His expression hardened.
He tightened his abdomen, clenched his fist, and his eyes sharpened with focus.
"Killer Move: Serious Series."
"Serious Punch."
Just as the light projectile closed in, Saitama threw his punch.
The sky instantly turned as bright as daylight.
The Kamehameha split apart the moment it met Saitama's fist. Two enormous torrents of energy were forced apart and shot past him toward the moon.
Behind the attack, Lucien exploded.
His body burst apart instantly, turning into a rain of blood and shredded flesh that scattered across the sky.
A large amount of high temperature steam rose into the air. Multicolored threads twisted together rapidly, reconstructing his body piece by piece.
However, the regeneration was noticeably slower than before.
Far more importantly, the moon exploded.
Lucien could not destroy Earth in his current state, but destroying the moon was still within his power.
Although Saitama had split the Kamehameha, he had not erased it. The two separated torrents slammed directly into the moon.
Its destruction was inevitable.
"The... the moon exploded."
Across the planet, billions of people stared upward in shock.
They watched as the moon rapidly expanded in their vision.
Then it detonated.
With a deafening explosion, the celestial body shattered into countless fragments.
Meteor showers began raining toward Earth.
The sight was magnificent, yet everyone who understood the danger immediately turned pale and began screaming.
Only a few confused individuals clasped their hands together and made wishes at the falling stars.
Fortunately, Earth possessed an atmosphere. Many of the smaller moon fragments burned up while entering it, disappearing in streaks of fire.
Only the massive pieces posed real danger.
But that was not the most terrifying thing.
The most terrifying sight was that two figures were still fighting among the falling debris.
High above the atmosphere, the meteor fragments continuously exploded one after another. Pieces large enough to destroy entire cities detonated in mid air like fireworks.
At that moment, on the largest fragment of the shattered moon, red light flickered within Lucien's amethyst eyes.
During his nine years in the world of pirates, he had trained his Observation Haki to the point where his future sight extended from one second to two seconds.
Nine years for a single second of improvement.
That alone showed how difficult it was to advance such an ability.
"Oh?"
Saitama threw another punch, confusion appearing in his eyes.
Lucien had dodged again.
Lucien balanced on his hands and twisted his body, barely avoiding the strike. Behind him, a divine dragon materialized, roaring with immense power as it lunged toward Saitama's abdomen.
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon."
Blinding light erupted across the sky.
People across the world stared upward in disbelief.
Within the blazing meteor shower, a divine dragon suddenly appeared. Its massive body stretched across the heavens, covering the sky with its enormous form.
Fangs bared, claws extended, its overwhelming presence shattered every sense of normality.
The dragon drove Saitama downward with unstoppable force, sending him crashing toward the North Pole.
Moments later, a gigantic mushroom cloud erupted into the sky.
The North Pole was struck by catastrophic disasters simultaneously.
A magnitude ten earthquake.
A magnitude ten typhoon.
A magnitude ten tsunami.
The entire planet trembled.
"Cough, cough."
Lucien hovered in the air above a bottomless abyss.
Blood flowed from his seven orifices as he coughed violently. Large waves of high temperature steam poured from his body. Multicolored light flashed around him while golden lightning crackled violently.
The surrounding temperature had risen high enough to melt steel instantly.
Most of his energy had already been consumed.
Yet Saitama had not even coughed up a single drop of blood.
The realization filled Lucien with unease.
He had gone all out, yet the opponent had not even bled.
It was humiliating.
Not only was Saitama's attack power absurd, his defense was equally terrifying.
"So strong."
Saitama rose out of the abyss and landed on solid ground.
Aside from his torn clothes, he looked completely unharmed. His bald head still reflected the surrounding scenery.
After casually changing into a new outfit, he appeared exactly the same as before the battle began.
"Saitama, even though I expected it, I still cannot accept the reality in front of me."
Lucien descended slowly.
Compared to Saitama's clean appearance, he looked extremely battered.
Without waiting for a response, Lucien took a deep breath.
"I originally thought I could hurt you without using the war background music, but now it seems I was just dreaming."
"Since that is the case, I want to lose wholeheartedly."
Lucien clenched his fists. His eyes burned with fierce determination.
The battle had only just begun.
He wanted to fight without holding anything back.
At that moment, a grand and tragic battle soundtrack began to play.
Lucien's energy surged violently.
With a furious roar, the sky itself seemed to change color. Tremors spread across more than half of the planet.
Pressure waves expanded outward like halos.
White flames and golden lightning wrapped around Lucien's body. The two energies fused together, creating blazing golden white flames that incinerated everything around him. Thick smoke spiraled upward from the fire.
"Oh."
"So Lucien, you have not shown your true strength yet."
"What is this music? It sounds pretty intense."
Saitama casually picked his nose while staring at Lucien.
"Saitama, after this fight, I will treat you to hotpot for a month. If someone else tries to kill me in the future, I hope you will save me."
Lucien had avoided activating the war background music earlier because he feared that those reincarnator cheats might ambush him.
But he refused to let this battle end in such a disappointing way.
Even with this power, he knew he still could not defeat Saitama.
So for safety, he decided to exchange hotpot for Saitama's protection.
If it were anyone else with destiny on their side, Lucien would never bother doing this.
But Saitama was different.
He was absurdly strong.
Strong enough that Lucien had no problem shamelessly taking advantage of him.
As long as Saitama existed, even a swarm of reincarnators would likely kneel before him.
This perfectly matched Lucien's survival philosophy.
Gang up whenever possible.
"Really?"
Saitama only heard the first sentence.
The rest of Lucien's words did not even register in his mind.
Even if Lucien had not asked, Saitama would still save him.
In Saitama's mind, if someone treated him to hotpot, was not weird, and was not annoying, then they were a friend.
Most importantly, hotpot.
Because he was very poor.
"Yes. Because we are friends."
Lucien spoke with absolute confidence, as if the statement were completely genuine.
"I am motivated again. Come on!"
Saitama assumed a fighting stance, excitement blooming in his heart.
Boom.
The ground beneath Lucien's feet collapsed violently as golden lightning spread across the land.
In the next instant, Saitama's face distorted.
Mountains shattered.
Valleys split apart.
A massive scar tore across the land, piercing through several hills like a giant road carved by pure force.
Lucien pressed forward relentlessly. The atmosphere behind him exploded repeatedly from the speed of his movement.
But the moment he entered the dust cloud, his eyes flashed red.
Saitama appeared in front of him instantly.
His right fist looked ordinary.
Yet it carried the power to destroy everything.
Lucien activated his future sight through Observation Haki and twisted his body, barely avoiding the attack. Behind him, the divine dragon surged forward again.
Saitama looked confused.
He could not understand how Lucien kept dodging his attacks.
But when Lucien launched his own strike, Saitama simply stepped aside.
Only his afterimage remained.
In the next moment, the two figures appeared tens of thousands of meters away. Lucien's afterimage remained behind as well.
Both afterimages lingered for more than ten seconds before fading.
That alone revealed just how fast the two fighters were moving.
"Serious Punch."
"Great Might Heavenly Dragon."
The divine dragon expanded once more, growing even larger than before.
But the instant it collided with Saitama, Lucien cursed internally.
Even with the war soundtrack empowering him, he still could not withstand that punch.
The divine dragon collapsed.
Lucien's right arm exploded.
Cracking sounds echoed throughout his entire body as bones shattered.
Blood sprayed from his mouth while he shot backward like a beam of light. His face twisted in pain as multicolored threads struggled to repair his damaged body.
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