When Kaido flew to where Caesar had landed, he saw a towering skeleton floating on the sea.
Strands of flesh and blood still clung to the surface of the ten-meter-tall skeletal frame.
The dragon's eyes widened in shock, and Kaido let out a sorrowful roar.
His massive tail plunged into the sea, wrapping around the skeleton and lifting it up.
"Impossible! Caesar!"
Feeling the familiar aura, Kaido's heart twisted with piercing pain, and he couldn't help but wail mournfully at the sky. Large tears rolled down the dragon's eyes.
"Kaido, why are you still acting like a child? Stop crying all the time. I'm not dead yet, you big oaf."
Suddenly, the skeleton spoke.
The dragon froze, staring in disbelief at the skeleton entangled in his tail.
From within the robust bones, a waterfall of crimson blood gushed forth but did not fall into the sea.
An invisible force guided the massive amount of blood, swiftly enveloping and weaving around the skeletal frame.
The blood contained boundless life energy, causing Caesar's muscles, blood vessels, internal organs, and skin to regenerate madly, reconstructing his body.
The moment Imu's fist struck, Caesar had been shaken so violently that all his flesh was stripped away, leaving only his bones intact.
He should have died then and there.
But now, the power of the Devour Rule and the Kunpeng Fruit revealed their might.
The Devour Rule imprisoned Caesar's soul within his skull, while vast reserves of life essence, as if stored in another dimension, were continuously consumed, allowing his lost tissues to regenerate at lightning speed.
From afar, a streak of light approached in the blink of an eye.
Before Kaido could intercept it, it landed directly on Caesar's newly restored body.
"What is that?!" Kaido exclaimed in alarm, reaching out with his claw to grab it.
"It's Joy Boy! Kaido, leave now! That guy is coming! Go find Shiki and the others!"
Caesar shouted, his powerful muscles breaking free from Kaido's tail.
A pair of golden wings spread from his back, carrying him into the distant sky.
Kaido watched his figure disappear into the distance, gritted his teeth, and without looking back, charged toward the direction where Shiki had been blown away.
Caesar's mind echoed with Joy Boy's voice.
"Not bad, not bad! Your body is dozens of times stronger than that fool Roger's. As expected of an Oni tribe member, this reminds me of the Oni princess's resilience... cough Anyway, with the assistance of my incarnated Creation God Armor, you can step into the B-Class superhuman stage and gain the qualification to face her! I hope you won't be as useless as Roger. Oh right... eat that sword of yours. It should at least provide some energy."
The streamlined battle armor was full of sci-fi aesthetics, with red and blue lines tracing every joint, emitting pale flaming light from the contours.
Sharp spikes extended from the elbows, knees, knuckles, head, and shoulder blades, making it resemble a perfect weapon of slaughter.
The head was completely covered by an integrated helmet, with two incandescent lights glowing where the eyes would be, flames spraying from the corners of the eyes.
"Eat Candle Dragon?"
Caesar was stunned.
"I already possess two Devil Fruit abilities. If I eat another, wouldn't my body explode and die?"
"What body explosion death?"
Joy Boy was puzzled.
"It's..."
Caesar explained some rumors about Devil Fruits to him, which immediately drew Joy Boy's scornful laughter.
"Rule Fruits never had any limitation on quantity! That's just because the souls and bodies of those low-level lifeforms on your planet are too weak to contain overly powerful rules! As for matching souls, that's complete nonsense! In the cosmos, powerful superhumans can advance by absorbing energy from Rule Fruits of the same type."
"And rules like Chaos Law and Devour Rule can recklessly consume rules from other systems! As long as you can absorb them without having your soul burst or your body explode! How do you think you absorbed the Memory Fruit ability?"
Caesar was somewhat dazed. After silently pondering for a moment, he still asked doubtfully.
"Then what about Blackbeard, he..."
"Either he's not an ordinary person, or there's also a powerful soul like me hidden within his body!"
Joy Boy answered without hesitation.
"Rocks!"
Caesar blurted out.
"Forget about that! Imu is coming! Quickly devour the Candle Dragon Fruit! The Candle Dragon race in the universe is an incredibly powerful civilization, no weaker than the Kunpeng race, far surpassing our Celestial Tribe Civilization!"
Joy Boy shouted urgently.
Caesar looked at the sword that had accompanied him for most of his life, still feeling somewhat reluctant.
But he wasn't an indecisive person.
After only hesitating for a moment, a black sun emerged behind Caesar.
An unprecedented, terrifying suction force far exceeding anything before surged out, grabbing the longsword Candle Dragon and dragging it into the dark depths.
The longsword shattered section by section, revealing a hundred-meter-long purple giant dragon that then disintegrated into strands of pure energy, absorbed by Caesar's body!
"Hssss haaaa..."
Caesar took a long breath, his body swelling up section by section, finally breaking through the ten-meter barrier.
His eyes suddenly shot out hundreds of meters of pale flames, his entire aura blazing like the sun, violently sweeping across the sky!
Powerful!
An incomparably powerful feeling filled Caesar's heart.
Coupled with the creative power flowing from Joy Boy's incarnated Creation God Armor, after being continuously devoured by him, it transformed into his devouring power.
He felt his life had undergone a sublimation, transcending the mortal level and entering a new realm.
B-Class!
A human-shaped natural disaster, a powerhouse capable of making a name even across the universe!
"Excellent! Your power has roughly reached the mid-stage of B-Class, barely enough to fight her without being instantly defeated in a single move!"
"You possess B-Class strength, so why don't you fight her yourself?" Caesar asked, puzzled.
"Because I'm a scholar, not a warrior of the Celestial Tribe Civilization! Those of us who cultivate the rules of creation are all support types—living divine armors, war drums that summon anchor points! Otherwise, how do you think I fell in love with her? I was her close-fitting garment, I was..."
"Enough, enough! I can picture it now!"
Caesar hastily interrupted Joy Boy's words.
If he continued, Caesar feared he wouldn't be able to focus on confronting Imu.
After all, his fully restored body was currently completely naked.
At this thought, an inexplicable chill ran down Caesar's spine.
He wondered if there were any women in the Celestial Tribe Civilization who cultivated the rules of creation...
The black sun behind him grew larger and larger, like a black hole, pulling in the space within hundreds of meters around as if it were a curtain, distorting space itself.
Though Caesar was a thousand meters in the air, the seawater below formed into numerous waterspouts, drawn upward by the black sun behind him, creating a spectacular sight.
"She's here!"
From behind the distorted curtain of space, a woman with a frosty expression stepped through the air.