Earth God's Power!

That power was still spreading.

It wasn't wind.

It wasn't a shock wave.

It was something more primal.

It surged from Imu's body and spread across the ice. An invisible giant hand pressed the entire earth down.

The shattered ice stopped drifting.

Snowflakes hung in midair.

Still.

Iron Thunder braced himself against his knee, half-kneeling at the edge of the ice pit, his body trembling violently.

The force pressing down on his head was too heavy.

So heavy that even a battle-hardened warrior like him felt his knees weaken, wanting nothing more than to lie on the ground and kowtow.

"What is this..."

Iron Thunder's teeth ground loudly, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

He raised his head.

That figure floating in midair.

Dark-golden patterns covered Imu's entire body, like ancient layers of rock, like congealed magma. The weight of that power did not belong to the human world. Every inch of it carried the majesty of one looking down upon all living things.

"Is this... the power of a god?"

Iron Thunder's voice was hoarse and distorted.

Even he wasn't sure whom he was asking.

When his words fell, the few Giant warriors still standing nearby turned deathly pale.

No one answered him.

No one could answer him.

Everyone's bodies were answering in their place.

Their knees weakened.

Their chests felt stifled.

Their spines seemed pinned down by something, unable to straighten.

This wasn't Haki.

Haki was a clash of wills, a struggle between powerful individuals.

But this power wasn't.

It didn't struggle with you.

It was simply there.

Just like the earth existed.

You had to submit whether you wanted to or not. Struggling was useless, because the land beneath your feet had never cared about reason.

Loki propped himself up with his shattered armor and barely raised his