Alice's expression changed slightly as she understood what Rosen was implying. He ant that it had always been the demonic land preying on them, not the other way around.
"I want to see what you are, sothing that can turn a human body into dust in an instant," Rosen said, pressing his hand against the ground, activating his Sand-Sand Fruit ability.
If he had been unsure before about whether there was a living creature beneath the surface, the fact that the dust was being devoured confird it. This land—or whatever lay beneath it—was a living entity with predatory instincts.
"Erosion Reincarnation!" The ability to drain all moisture from anything was one of the more brutal aspects of the Sand-Sand Fruit.
However, Rosen rarely used this ability against strong opponents. The only ti he had used a similar technique was during the incident in Wine Capital. Absorbing an enemy's moisture and causing them to wither required ti, making it impossible to achieve instant absorption.
Thus, while powerful, the ability was awkward. Against weaker enemies, regular attacks sufficed if he didn't want to resort to cruelty. Against stronger foes, they wouldn't give him the ti needed to use the ability, as battles often consisted of brief clashes.
Rosen had studied this ability many tis but still couldn't figure out how to instantly absorb soone's moisture. The ti requirent was an unavoidable hurdle. In most battles, he used the ability to turn the ground or stones into sand, creating sandstorms, which proved more effective.
But after witnessing the instantaneous storm, Rosen began to ponder. If his ability could, like the flash, instantly turn enemies into sand or dust—or even just instantly drain their moisture—that would be enough.
He wanted to investigate the creature beneath the ground or the nature of the land itself, hoping to understand its principles and apply them to his Sand-Sand Fruit ability.
If the withering or sandification ability could be activated instantly, Rosen's Sand-Sand Fruit power would beco unprecedentedly strong, akin to a demon like Charles. If a single touch could corrode an opponent, or cause them to wither or disintegrate, his combat prowess would beco terrifying.
Rosen activated his ability, causing the ground to tremble violently. A small area around him began to dry up and turn to sand, but as he tried to expand the range, he encountered resistance.
At the sa ti, a spike of rock shot out from the ground, piercing Rosen's body.
"Are you okay!?" Alice exclaid, startled by the sudden attack.
"I'm fine," Rosen said, smashing the rock spike with his fist. His sand body, now with a hole, began to regenerate. He had anticipated such an attack.
However, Rosen still wasn't sure whether a massive creature was lurking beneath the surface or if the land itself was alive.
"Keep watch around us," he instructed.
"Got it," Alice replied. She was usually sensible in serious situations, but agreeing so naturally felt a bit off, though she couldn't pinpoint why.
"Sand Erosion!" Rosen unleashed his full power, rapidly expanding the area of sandification as the ground's moisture was drained.
Everyone in the demonic land then witnessed the ground churning violently, far more intensely than before, as if it had gone berserk.
"Sothing has rged with this land—a massive entity, like a sli or a blob!" Rosen could sense a gigantic presence beneath the surface, fused with the ground. Its size was imnse.
Rosen could feel his drying ability absorbing the creature's moisture. Since it was fused with the land, it couldn't escape when Rosen activated his ability. This was indeed a strange life form.
Though he hadn't seen its true form, it didn't resemble the sli monsters Caesar had created on Punk Hazard. However, there were similarities in their life forms, possibly influenced by experints conducted by the Celestial Dragons.
But the fact that it was fused with the land was peculiar. Did its ability have sothing to do with sand, or was it just a coincidence?
Being one with the ground, even the most advanced Observation Haki couldn't detect it.
"The colored clouds are gathering, and the flash is forming. We need to leave... Huh? That's strange. Why does the flash seem slower than usual?" Alice looked up and saw the colored clouds converging above them, with the flash descending much more slowly than before.
Rosen also looked up and turned to Alice. "Use your full power to disperse it."
"That's impossible. We've tried attacking it before, and it didn't work at all," Alice shook her head, preparing to pull Rosen away.
"Do as I say. Look closely—this flash is different. It's weaker and slower. If I'm not mistaken, the creature beneath us has the ability to control this instantaneous storm. The reason the flowers and animals weren't hard earlier was likely to keep them as bait. We're the fertilizer it wants. Now that it's under attack, its control has weakened..." Rosen quickly deduced a possible scenario based on the current information.
"Phantom Thousand Blades!" Alice frowned but, hearing Rosen's confident tone, she felt he might be right.
If they guessed wrong and failed to disperse the flash, they would turn to dust. But there was no ti to think further. She decided to try one strike. If it didn't work, they could attempt to escape.
Against the flash, Alice used her most suitable technique. Daggers flew around her, spinning rapidly to form a dense shadow. She focused intently on the flash, which was moving far slower than before.
"Still resisting?!" Rosen felt the ground heaving violently, trying to throw him off.
But he was a Sand-Sand Fruit user. At full power, he reclaid control of the ground, slowly expanding the area of Erosion.
The strange creature beneath the surface could influence the flash but didn't seem to have strong combat abilities. Fused with the land, it couldn't erge from the ground.
In a sense, the ground *was* the creature, its sli-like body intertwined with the earth, inseparable.
As Rosen absorbed the moisture from the sand, he was also draining the creature's moisture—or its life force. It resisted fiercely, even attempting to influence the colored clouds to unleash a flash to eliminate this threat to its life.
But its body was too massive, intertwined with the entire demonic land. Caught off guard by an ability that posed such a lethal threat, it was helpless.
It had faced weapons, explosions, and even a woman who had once split the entire demonic land in half with a single sword strike. It had always recovered. But this ability to directly absorb its moisture left it at a loss.
Worse, it couldn't escape, as it was one with the land.
"Full Replacent!" Alice activated her ability. With a hiss, the daggers before her vanished, only to reappear in the center of the flash, tearing it apart. The strange light dispersed into particles and vanished into the air.
(End of Chapter)
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