Fuck Heaven, Fuck Earth, Fuck Air

"Wah!"

Golden Lion Shiki suddenly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

Covered in wounds, he fell from the sky and crashed into the ruins on the ground, looking utterly disheveled.

He had never imagined the aftermath of this battle would be so terrifying. Especially when facing the final concentrated explosion, even though he had dodged at the first possible moment, it had been useless. The destructive force still severely wounded him and made him cough up blood.

Damn it, once I get back on my feet... I'll cut you down first!

Shiki refused to accept this. Even if his opponent had destroyed a layer of earth stretching thousands of miles, so what?

As long as he still had one breath left, he could still seize an opportunity to kill his opponent.

Whoosh!

A flash of light seemed to tear through space as it slammed toward Golden Lion Shiki, who was lying on the ground.

Boom!

A powerful explosion erupted on the spot, and the earth around Golden Lion Shiki continuously cracked and collapsed outward.

"Aah!!"

Golden Lion Shiki's screams rang out amid the explosion.

Once the thick dust and smoke had dispersed somewhat, Norse could vaguely be seen sitting astride Golden Lion Shiki, relentlessly swinging fists as hard as iron and pounding Shiki's entire body blow after blow.

"Aah!!"

Shiki continued screaming without pause.

Even though Armament Haki covered his entire body, and he had even received the comprehensive enhancement of Conqueror's Haki, he still could not endure the force of Norse's punches.

"Shiki, I'll ask you one more time. Do you submit or not?"

Norse roared.

His wildly unleashed fists kept raining down on Shiki, pounding him alive into the earth more than ten meters deep.

In the end, after an unknown number of further punches—

Half of Golden Lion Shiki's teeth had been knocked out, and his entire body had been beaten beyond recognition. Yet the bastard refused to submit even in death, finally passing out cold.

By then, Norse had no strength left either.

The Armament Haki had long since faded from his fists. He had no idea how many times they had smashed against the rock layer, nor how many times they had struck Shiki. In any case, both fists were already a bloody mess.

Not long afterward.

Hancock and the others hurried over and saw Shiki and Norse both lying in the deep crater.

"Quick! I'll go down and bring Norse up first. Then take the chance to tie up Shiki!"

Seeing blood flowing from Norse's wounds, Hancock felt a sharp pain in her heart.

Norse's face was also deathly pale, without the slightest trace of color. It seemed that the Demon Back's power had consumed an utterly terrifying amount of blood and vitality, leaving Norse severely weakened.

One night later.

Norse did not wake until the following morning.

However, his body was extremely weak.

If Hancock had not fed him, mouthful by mouthful, the special nourishing broth prepared by the herders of Long Ring Long Land to replenish some of his lost blood and vitality, Norse probably would not have woken up yet.

Because the Demon Back's power could only unleash its unimaginable might by consuming the body's blood and vitality, after suffering such severe exhaustion as Norse had, it was completely impossible to restore the blood and vitality in his body within a short time.

Norse turned over and got out of bed, feeling an incomparable ache throughout his body, as though he were about to fall apart.

Just as he was about to stretch himself properly, he noticed Hancock asleep beside his bed. She must have been so busy caring for him that she had not gotten any proper rest.

Norse did not wake Hancock. Instead, he quietly left the cabin.

Outside the cabin, Sonia and Gorud were guarding the heavily injured Golden Lion Shiki.

"Huh? Looks like that thing the herders here gave us really is a great treasure for replenishing blood and vitality."

Seeing that Norse had already awakened, Sonia finally breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. Then she pondered for a moment. "Then I'll go get some more later and make you more soup to nourish you."

"What are you muttering about?" Norse asked.

"Hehe, of course I'm thinking about something good to replenish your blood and vitality."

"What good thing?" Norse asked suspiciously, feeling as though Sonia were laughing at him.

"Mm... the eggs of those animals on Long Ring Long Land. The herders here say that boiling them into soup is the best thing for replenishing blood and vitality.

"So last night, we tried boiling some for you to drink. Who knew you'd wake up early this morning? And your complexion has recovered quite well too! Wasn't that because of those eggs?"

"Eggs? What kind of eggs? You're using some folk remedy, aren't you?"

Norse was a little dumbfounded at first, but after thinking carefully, they could not possibly mean eggs with shells. They were most likely talking about the two fresh eggs down there.

"What? Why do you look so disgusted? We know Big Sister fed them to you mouthful by mouthful, and she didn't complain at all."

Sonia pouted, but quickly smiled again and continued, "Later, I'm going hunting in the forest to take out their fresh eggs and boil them into soup for you. Big Sister ordered me to do it."

Norse merely shook his head. This was the first time he had heard that eggs replenished blood and vitality. Weren't they supposed to help with kidney deficiency?

"Hey, Norse, where are you going now?" Sonia looked at Norse, who seemed unhappy, unsure what she had done wrong.

"I'm going to bask in the sun. Is that not allowed?" Norse replied irritably.

My blood and energy are merely depleted. I could recover just by cooking some seafood and eating it. But they insisted I listen to the island's herders and use some folk remedy by eating fresh animal eggs. I've never even heard of such a thing!

"Oh, then can I come with you?"

Sonia asked timidly, thinking she could hunt along the way. Her sister would definitely need it when she woke up later!

"Do whatever you want, but don't interfere with what I'm doing!" Norse said flatly.

"Oh, then wait for me to bring the Golden Lion over too. I'll tie him to a tree later, and you can keep an eye on him for me. I was afraid he'd wake up and run away all night yesterday, so I barely slept at all!" Sonia said, sounding aggrieved and helpless.

"Where's Gorud? Aren't you going to wake her before coming with me? Hancock is still sleeping inside—doesn't she need someone to look after her? This island is full of wild beasts. Isn't that dangerous?"

Norse shook his head. The nearby woods were full of herders watching them, clearly unable to forget Hancock's beauty.

So Sonia woke Gorud, who had fallen asleep on the deck, then led the still-unconscious Golden Lion into the woods with Norse.

"Norse, I'll tie the Golden Lion to this tree trunk, then. Make sure you keep a close eye on him. I'm going hunting for you!" After calling out to him, Sonia hurried away.

Norse did not really care, but he saw Red Pipi, the pet snake, slither out.

"Come here. Use your snake body to wrap tightly around the Golden Lion. Your master is about to activate Sun-and-Air Mode. I'm worried he might wake up and run away after being touched by it!" Norse said.

Red Pipi was very intelligent. It nodded in front of Norse, then slithered to the other side to carry out its task.

At that moment, Norse activated Sun-and-Air Mode.

This mode required him to operate completely naked in order to better commune with the environment, merge with it, and sense it, ultimately achieving the best possible blessings.

Although Norse had to remove every piece of clothing from his body, when endless dazzling golden light erupted from him, it covered an area spanning several thousand meters.

Therefore, no one within that range could possibly ignore the blinding light, much less see any trace of Norse himself.

As for the ability known as Sun-and-Air?

It was actually a large-scale output technique. In return, it drew even more life-element matter from the surrounding area back into his body, rapidly healing his injuries and replenishing certain elements his body lacked.

Its targets were the elements needed by the human body within the air, drawn through the effects of sunlight; the energy produced by all things through photosynthesis; and the geothermal energy mixed into the soil.

Half an hour later.

Norse finished the large-scale output of Sun-and-Air, only to see...

P.S.: Please vote, please vote! There are no votes again—only a little over forty per day?

I'm flopping so miserably... sob...