At a thought from Garen, the entire forest came alive.
Whether towering trees, blooming flowers, humble blades of grass, or inconspicuous moss, all of them erupted with an unimaginable vitality at that moment.
Amid the surging green tide, they grew wildly, swelled, transformed, their roots and branches intertwining until they finally condensed into one colossal whole.
In the blink of an eye, a Thousand-Armed Giant Buddha rose from the earth.
The giant Buddha towered even higher than the volcano before it. Standing atop its head, Garen could easily look down upon Akainu and the others at the volcanic summit.
The thousand enormous wooden arms around the Buddha formed a massive screen capable of blotting out the sky, completely shielding the town behind it.
The residents fleeing in panic through the town finally calmed down.
They stopped and turned back to watch, their expressions as excited as if they had seen a god sent to save them.
At that moment, the magma tide pouring down the mountains finally arrived.
Yet before the Thousand-Armed Giant Buddha beneath Garen's feet, the magma capable of destroying the entire island seemed as small and powerless as slow-moving water that had barely reached its feet, only managing to wet the Buddha's base.
The magma scorched the outermost wood black and set it ablaze, but newly grown plant tissue rapidly filled the gaps under the stimulation of Garen's Shove-Shove Fruit, clashing head-on with the incoming magma.
Plants were endlessly renewable and brimming with vitality, while magma was water without a source, with limited heat. The victor was quickly decided.
The magma soon cooled and solidified, while the Thousand-Armed Giant Buddha remained standing.
"Garen?"
Akainu looked up at Garen standing atop the Thousand-Armed Giant Buddha, his expression turning somewhat grave.
Although Garen had been the reason the End