"That should do it!"
Raising her arm, which was missing a section, to wipe the sweat from her forehead, Sakura stood up from beside Shiki.
Earlier, because Shiki's heart had been completely pierced, and Sakura's own Yang Release could not yet arbitrarily reconstruct others' organs.
So she had to use her own tissue, in coordination with the Evolution Technique, to handcraft an artificial heart for Shiki. Later, when time and conditions permitted, she would use directional induction cultivation with stem cells.
"Tch, I owe you another big favor!"
Clutching his chest and wincing in pain, Shiki stood up. The needle-like pain conducted through his blood to his entire body. "But this is really uncomfortable!"
Because Sakura's cells were used as the raw material for the artificial heart, the transformed sage cells would slowly release Senjutsu Chakra.
On one hand, this would put a load on Shiki's body, causing the Senjutsu Chakra to erode any tissue where blood flowed, producing continuous pain.
But on the other hand, the effect of the Evolution Technique - Return, which restored things at the cellular level, if it could slowly act on a person like this, the results need not be elaborated.
'Tch, it seems I've accidentally become a longevity medicine~'
"Tch, it's good enough that I saved you!"
Sakura swung her arm. The Creation Rebirth %echnique caused the tissue at the severed edge of her arm to grow actively. "Alright, I need to go save people. Find a place to recover yourself."
"Wait. I'll help you!"
Shiki's expression was sinister. His gathered Haki suddenly surged. The furious will contained within, carried by dark thunder, rose together.
Clearly, being ambushed by the God's Knights this time, and even being used by them as a tool to delay Sakura, had made Shiki furious.
He raised his hand, using his ability to dig two weapons out of the Tenshukaku, then operated the entire Flower Capital, making it drift toward the distant Onigashima.
"Are you sure? It's the world itself we're facing."
Sakura glanced at Shiki in surprise, not expecting him to make this decision.
"Hmph, mere world. I already met him forty years ago!"
Lighting a cigar for himself, Shiki showed a contemptuous smile. "And they have a weakness. I don't think you know it!"
Sakura sat cross-legged on a stone platform created by Shiki. "Isn't it just that only higher-level Conqueror's Haki can counter their immortality?"
"No. You just need to delay them. I'll think of a way to weaken them!" Shiki showed a mysterious smile.
Wano was, after all, his territory. Now that there were rats in his home, he naturally had to find a way to drive out these dirty things.
Completely, once and for all!
…
Elsewhere, on the Leviathan.
"Sign the contract. Mu will endow you with an immortal body."
Her long, thin, triangular arrowhead-shaped tail raised, the blue-haired girl bearing two black wings surged with the strongest spirit, raising a pitch-black grimoire as she walked step by step toward Sato Sakura.
"No good. Facing that creature, Sato Sakura has no will to resist at all!"
His body, oppressed by the Conqueror's Haki, was heavy. Ace gritted his teeth and raised his head. "Damn it! How can I let you take our companion away like this!"
Boom!
At this moment, the heavenly drum resounded.
The boy's unyielding will ignited the radiance of Haki. A clear, tolerant Conqueror's Haki burst forth. Though weak and at a disadvantage.
But indeed, for that instant, it countered Imu's Conqueror's Haki, propping open a space of freedom enough to breathe within that domain that almost dominated all creation.
"D?"
A flicker of doubt appeared in Imu's crimson pupils. Then, she turned her gaze to Ace.
And Ace, having broken free from this heavy pressure, took a deep breath. The power of the nightmare drifted from his body. His entire being, burning with black flames, transformed into a dozens-of-meters-tall divine steed.
Yahihihihihi—!
A long neigh echoed across the entire sky. His iron hooves, surrounded by black flames and Hiki, stamped down toward the small blue-haired girl below.
"Nightmare. As always, you favor rebellious hosts."
Imu's finger lightly traced the spine of the grimoire. A black pentagram rose from it. A double-barreled shotgun emerged from it. Cradled in her arms, it rapidly expanded. "Perfect. I'll reclaim you all together!"
The cold gun barrel emitted a gloomy aura. The next moment, its trigger was pulled by Imu, cradling it. A loud crash burst forth.
The bullet it fired instantly pierced the iron hoof of the giant nightmare as it stamped down, also blowing through its abdominal cavity.
But strangely, though its body was pierced and its abdominal cavity hollowed out, the giant nightmare did not shed a single drop of blood. Instead, it slowly drifted away like smoke.
"Dreams?"
Seeing this, Imu directly recognized Ace's technique. Her fierce Conqueror's Haki exploded again, causing a clear crack to appear on the Leviathan and in space.
As the crack spread, as if waking from a nightmare, the surrounding environment underwent an earth-shattering change.
A giant curtain of darkness formed, covering the sunlight projected from the sky, turning the entire land into night. And the burning black flames emitted wisps of smoke, as if trying to drag all intelligent beings into a dream.
Imu and the others were already floating in the air, while Leviathan had transformed into a night raven, desperately leaping through the shadows, carrying Ace and Sato Sakura.
Among the hundred arts, this is… you give the road, get oil!
"Another mythical beast?"
The Sovereign of the World's brow furrowed slightly. She raised Gunko's arm and lightly clenched it in the void.
After a low, buzzing sound, the moving world suddenly stopped.
All creation fell silent.
Then, Imu's arm disintegrated into countless arrows, like a pale tide rushing, rising into the sky.
Her pure, extreme fruit ability wantonly distorted the surrounding reality. Rolling arrows swept and spread in all directions, swallowing everything within a radius of several kilometers with the power to dominate the trajectories of all creation.
Then, Leviathan, leaping through the shadows, suddenly had her forward trajectory manipulated, turning in a large circle as she fled forward recklessly, plunging headlong into the tiger's mouth.
"What..."
Leviathan's pupils trembled. She looked incredulously at the blue-haired demon girl who had appeared before her.
"Mu has had enough fun. Game over."
High in the sky, a blurry figure whistled by.
Countless arrows intertwined, forming a giant black pentagram.
A god, or perhaps a demon, dwelt within the pentagram, overlooking, beneath the dust of the world, the struggles of insects.
More and more arrows coiled around Leviathan's body, determining her forward trajectory, pushing her bit by bit toward Imu's palm.
Just as the night raven was enveloped by a vast number of arrows and about to completely fall under Imu's domination.
A pale color spread. The clouds trembled violently as they were torn, but soon closed again.
A vast shadow, following the trajectory manipulated by the fruit ability's arrows, howled forward with unparalleled mass.
In the bulging eyes of Shamrock, Maffey, and Leviathan, Sakura raised her delicate face and gave them a radiant smile in return.
With the terrifying power of an adult demon, she carried the entire Flower Capital and, toward the Sovereign of the World, who turned her head in confusion, violently smashed it down.
"Hello, Sakura Express Delivery! Who ordered an island? Please... sign... for... it!"
Boom!!!