My provoking words must've spurred her to take action as I was suddenly hit with a massive amount of weight that slowed my movements, but not only that, I began to rapidly slow down as if I was moving in slow motion to make things worse, my strength began to seep out of my body while I was hit with intense drowsiness.
'T-This is b-better… I'm tired.' Thought Diddy with a feral grin as he stared at Imu, only to yawn.
Imu speedily lunged toward me with quick movements, her legs having morphed into large, muscular versions of various beasts combined into one, granting her a massive increase in power as she reached me in but an instant. Raising her hand into the air, which transformed into a massive steel mallet while her arm was a combination of numerous beasts, further increasing her strength, even when my nervous system was subjected to an increase in electricity, thanks to all of Imu's early, nonlethal attacks, I was barely able to block her attack, which caused me to grit my teeth as my wrists felt like they were going to snap.
With the aftershock leaving behind a massive crater atop the Redline, I was sent crashing deep into the crater as my body carved through nearly half of the Redline.
"O-Ouch, that fucking hurt." Muttered Diddy softly as he wiped blood from his mouth while rubbing his wrists, only for the surrounding stone to violently.
Sensing something dangerous was about to happen, I pushed off the ground and quickly leaped out of the crater I had made, moving as fast as I could despite the numerous debuffs I was currently affected with; once I finally exited the crater, Imu was nowhere to be seen, but all of a sudden a massive feminine face made entirely of stone erupted from the ground and completely towered of me.
No words were exchanged as she swung her massive arms, which, despite being made entirely of stone, still had the chimera-like appearance, meaning she was still channeling who knew how many zoan devil fruits through her body. Evading her attacks, which were incredibly fast despite their size since on the opposite side of her arms, flames propelled them, greatly increasing her speed and making it difficult for me to evade; to make matters worse, two more arms suddenly sprouted from out the ground behind me and began attacking me, pushing me to the very edge as I struggled to handle her onslaught of attacks.
However, instead of being worried, I was smiling like a madman; it was situations like this where I would grow in strength and overcome my opponent.
Laughing, I narrowly slipped through a small gap between both arms before I spun in the air and violently swung my bo-staff at Imu's stone face.
"Beastly Incursion!" Yelled Diddy with a feral grin as he swung with all his might while his bo-staff danced with lightning, only for a massive explosion that threatened to disperse Dragon's storm erupted.
Just as I had hit her, she had done the same, her powerful fist slamming into me as I coughed blood while I was sent flying through the air, though I quickly regained my bearings and wiped the blood leaking from my mouth as I glanced at Imu, yet what I witness caused me to grin. Her face was covered in blackish diamond, and only a small scratch was present; I had hit her with one of my strongest attacks, yet I merely made a scratch.
"Hehe, I suppose she'd need to be at least this strong to fight a God on equal footing." Muttered Diddy with a smirk as he licked his fangs before kicking the air, propelling himself towards Imu, who suddenly sunk back into the ground.
Furrowing my brows at Imu's sudden disappearance, I looked around, searching for her, only for me to suddenly frown as I turned around and gazed over the edge of the Redline.
'The ocean, it sounds far too close… No, it's getting closer.' Thought Diddy lightly as he clenched his bo-staff, and not even a few seconds later, a gargantuan tsunami that engulfed the entire sky suddenly appeared.
Eyeing the hundreds of seakings riding the tsunami, I took a deep breath and loudly roared, grabbing every Mink's attention, though who I was calling was Pandemonium, and when they heard me, they looked directly at me.
"Take care of those seakings." Said Diddy with a faint smirk, only for a massive water pillar to engulf him, causing his figure to vanish.
"Roar!" "Hiss!" Said Mony and Pandy, respectively, as the former eagerly rushed towards the numerous seakings with a bloodthirsty gaze.
Finally exiting the water pillar, I leaped off the ground, evading a tree root from piercing my chest as I landed, only to notice we were in a weird yet massive room with hundreds of mirrors.
"Brulee?" Said Diddy with a raised eyebrow as he glanced at Brulee in the far distance, who was a far cry from her previous self, having let herself go after the loss of the Big-Mom pirates.
"H-Have you finally come to kill me, Chaos Kong?" Asked Brulee blandly as she emotionlessly gazed at Diddy, who raised an eyebrow, though before he could respond, water began gushing into the dimension from every mirror.
Ignoring Brulee, who was currently drowning to death, I was suddenly punched in the stomach, causing me to grunt in pain as blood leaked from my mouth; shaking the pain off, I tried to find Imu, yet this time I was kicked in the face, slamming me into the wall.
'Figured it out… She's the water. Heh, what a useless but incredibly powerful devil fruit.' Thought Diddy with a smirk as he rubbed his neck before leaping out of the wall and tilting his head to the left, narrowly dodging an attack headed for his face.
Grabbing Naga-sa with both hands, I infused it with lightning, using it as a medium to increase the power of my lightning. I then released it, electrifying the water as Brulee was instantly burnt to a crisp, though as for Imu, my lightning condensed around her figure, creating an outline within the water as I quickly found her position.
Grinning, I speedily lunged towards her as I outstretched my hand, grabbing her by the neck before throwing her out a window while I followed after her.
Exiting from a random mirror in the massive mansion where Imu's throne resided, I raised Naga-sa above my head and slammed it atop her with all my might.
"Beastly Extinction!" Yelled Diddy as his bo-staff slammed into her stomach, creating a massive explosion that engulfed the entire Mansion, completely destroying it and killing every Celestial Dragon.
Once the smoke cleared, a massive crater several hundred meters deep was present where the mansion used to be, and kneeling before me was Imu, holding her stomach while she bled onto the ground; she had reinforced her body with diamond, stone, numerous beasts, and even absorbed some of the force into her body, yet it seemingly wasn't enough to completely stop my attack.
"What's wrong with you? Don't tell me a simple attack like that was enough to take you down; that can't possibly be right." Asked Diddy with a slight frown as he spat blood onto the ground before kicking Imu's face, sending her crashing into the wall.
I was about to chase after her, but I couldn't help but frown as I gazed down, only to spot a piece of her face on the ground; grabbing the brown piece, I squinted, intensely looking at it before crushing it, causing it to crumble into ashes while the wind blew it into a random direction.
Shifting my focus to Imu, I slowly approached her, only to see a hole in the middle of her cheek emitting an ominous dark glow.
"What's the meaning of this?" Asked Diddy as he looked at Imu, who didn't respond and merely attacked him.
Blocking the massive fireball with my bo-staff, I leaped into the air, narrowly dodging her lunge before slamming my foot onto the back of my head, pushing her into the ground while I landed atop her.
"Tsk, what was that? Where was that strength from earlier?" Asked Diddy with a frown as he eyed Imu, who attempted to attack him once more, though he slammed his bo-staff onto her back, causing her to grunt in pain.
"My vessel… it's breaking… The human body can only handle so much… Our battle is pushing it past the limit." Replied Imu lightly as she looked at Diddy, who raised an eyebrow before suddenly grinning.
"Hehe, vessel? Let me take a wild guess: if your vessel breaks, you can access your true strength. Because there is no way in hell the power at your current disposal was enough to battle a God." Said Diddy with a ferocious grin as he dangerously eyed Imu, who furrowed her brows while opting to remain silent.
Although I got no response, my instincts told me I was correct, though it was also warning me of immense danger like no other, along with a potent feeling of death; however, that alone caused my heart to beat in excitement.
"Hehehe, I'm going to force you out of that vessel no matter what!" Stated Diddy with a feral grin as he stabbed his hand toward Imu, who teleported away to safety at the last possible second.