Imu, whose soul had endured through the ages--
Had an extremely direct sense of the threat posed by Maud.
Especially that form of Conqueror's Haki entwined with light and shadow...
It stirred certain scenes sealed deep within her memories.
Or rather, certain dangers.
Imu's emotions instantly fluctuated violently.
She raised her sword, and her figure vanished like a phantom.
The next instant.
She appeared before Maud, sword slashing down from her hand.
But it only struck an afterimage.
The slash shot from the blade carved a massive ravine through the Holy Land's buildings below and to the side.
Maud, who had dodged that sword, appeared directly behind Imu.
"So you've reached your limit too..."
Maud stared at Imu's figure, gripping the blade formed from the fusion of black and white yin-yang energies with both hands.
Within the Conqueror's Haki aura revealed across his body, patterns resembling the scales of a black dragon spiraled and flowed.
This form, which connected all his abilities, could guide out all the power Maud possessed in a single burst.
Imu sensed the danger, which was why she suddenly launched an attack.
But she had only launched an attack; she had not taken any medicine.
From this, Maud concluded that Imu had probably reached her limit as well.
If she continued taking medicine, the system within her body might collapse from overload.
In other words--
"Let's stake everything on this move."
Maud leaned his upper body forward, gripping the blade with both hands and resting its back against his right shoulder. Then he suddenly smiled.
"It doesn't matter if you try to dodge, but on one condition... you have to be able to."
The black dragon scale patterns suddenly began circulating faster, drawing all the Conqueror's Haki, which had condensed almost into physical form, into Maud's