Guns and cannons roared. Amidst the grating explosions, dense gunfire was mixed in. Dust and mist burst forth from the metal storm that had turned into a death web. A figure emerged from the smoke, a bit of gray haze clinging to the edges of her limbs.
The girl's tall figure spun in the sky, finally using the technique of treading on air to counteract the impact, stopping her backward momentum.
Though she was a bit disheveled, Sakura was unharmed, and could even swing the giants' battle technique to counterattack in the intervals between bombings.
Clang! Clang! Clang!...
The intense and dense sound of metal clashes pierced through the explosions. Two streaks of light passed through the pouring rain of shells, sometimes colliding, sometimes chasing.
"How did you do this? This is not the power of a Devil Fruit!"
Raising her long leg, wrapped and extended several meters by arrows, Imu, possessing Gunko, kicked at Sakura.
"Who knows, maybe it's because I exercise!"
Blazing Haki burned between her five fingers. Sakura extended her open palm, blocking the strike head-on.
Then came another dense concentrated bombardment and hail of bullets, bursting forth with countless brilliant lights. The atmosphere wailed. Water boiled and evaporated.
And in that terrifying, burning hell, the girl's figure slowly emerged, still without a scratch.
How was all this achieved? The principle is actually simple.
Senjutsu is a miracle where Natural Energy responds to the prayers of living beings, producing various variations. In theory, it can continuously innovate.
Take the Evolution Technique, passed down by the Shikkotsu Forest lineage.
The founder of the technique, Katsuyu Sage, in response to her simple wish to survive, manipulated the evolution of organic matter in living beings, thus giving birth to the initial stage of the entire technique: Senjutsu Evolution - Return.
Later, in her contract with Sakura, responding to the will of the fruit that remained on her, wanting to destroy everything, she gained the power to accelerate the destruction of cells at the state level. This was the second stage of the technique: Senjutsu Evolution - Decay.
Now, after Sakura brought Katsuyu to the sea, combining the miraculous medical knowledge of this world with her own desire to fight her opponents continuously and for a long time, she developed the third stage of the technique: Senjutsu Evolution - Adaptation.
The essence of this stage of the Evolution Technique is to utilize the strongest ability of cells within living organisms… iteration!
No matter what kind of attack, toxin, radiation... as long as one batch of cells is destroyed, the remaining cells will undergo a collective iteration based on the type of damage received, generating antibodies, enhancing defenses, etc., specifically against what harmed the user.
'Obstructive... It seems Mu needs something to share the pressure.'
Stopping her high-speed flight, Imu's cold gaze swept over the entire land of Wano, coming to rest on the faces of the oppressed and confused samurai of Wano, their faces muddled.
She raised her arm and condensed a pitch-black grimoire. The domain used to distort space and prevent Sakura's Space-Time Ninjutsu began to spread, winding out a large number of arrows that fell to the ground.
"Mu needs soldiers. Those who sign the contract, Mu will endow with immortal bodies!"
Imu looked down upon the dusty earth, where the insects were so restless. Her cold, haughty voice sounded in their ears. Many samurai, not knowing the truth, nodded in their ignorance.
Accompanied by a fierce spirit, a huge dark thunder once again affected the entire land of Wano. The pentagrams that followed directly appeared beneath many people's feet.
—Domi Reversi!
The bodies of the samurai enveloped by the pentagram array began to rotate, until their upper bodies were swallowed by the pentagrams.
Before long, dark rotation samurai, growing horns and bearing wings on their backs, flipped up. Their confused faces transformed into ferocious postures.
"Go. Convert more of your kind, then go hunt that woman."
With the god's command, dense masses of monsters eagerly broke free from their cages, attacking the surrounding residents and other samurai. Everyone connected by their line of sight would be converted. Soon, various regions of Wano were engulfed in flames of war.
And the converters, having freed up their hands, spread their wings and flew toward the direction where Sakura and Imu were fighting in the sky. Before long, a samurai army of five to six thousand had gathered.
"Tch, an army of immortals?"
Sakura's gaze swept over the many samurai, even finding two underworld leaders whom Shiki had sent to attack other regions.
Imu, having already assembled her army, did not give Sakura much time. She led the newly born dark rotation army straight toward her, shooting.
"No more swords. Use Mu's weapons!"
Holding the grimoire, Imu ordered the army. Then, pentagram arrays blossomed in the sky one after another.
Guns and cannons fell from the sky, landing in the hands of each dark rotation soldier, then uniformly aimed at Sakura.
"Again? But hasn't this technique already failed against me?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow. The effect of Senjutsu Evolution - Adaptation fell back upon herself. Her skin immediately transformed into a defense layer under the technique's effect.
Bang!
The muzzles of the pitch-black double-barreled giant guns spewed flames. Pitch-black bullets cut through the air flying toward Sakura, but unexpectedly tore through the skin, embedding themselves in her flesh.
"I see... they're coated with Haki..."
Squeezing the bullets out with newly regenerated flesh, Sakura narrowed her eyes and swept her gaze over the army before her. "This is really troublesome!"
Imu, at the center of the many dark rotation soldiers, saw the crimson hue on Sakura's shoulder and nodded slightly, ordering all the dark rotation warriors.
"Extinguish her flame of life! Sever the inheritance of the traitor's will!!!"
The dazzling, eye-stinging flame light of guns and cannons rose. Destruction descended from the sky!
…
Elsewhere, Mount Kuri, Wano.
Sensing the terrifying burst of Conqueror's Haki for a second time, Shiki used his ability to speed across the land, his Observation Haki carefully probing every inch of the earth, hurrying his movements.
Then, the generation of the dark rotation army made him so angry his eyes were about to burst, his heart felt as if stabbed by a knife.
'Mine! These are all my people, damn it! Stop converting them!!!'
"Lion: Thousand Slice Valley!"
Grabbing his fine-grade swords with both hands, coordinating with the famous blades on his feet, Shiki spun.
He unleashed giant golden slashes at the dark rotation warriors coming to obstruct him, severing their limbs and bodies, then left these continuously regenerating warriors behind as he intensified his search.
"Where is it? Not on Mount Fuji in the Flower Capital, and the other four regions, only Kuri fits the conditions!" Shiki anxiously looked left and right.
Finally, after he again swung his blade, cutting through the swarm of demonic warriors gathering like locusts, he saw the giant black pentagram array on a high mountain shrine in Kuri.
"Shihahahaha! There it is! Newgate didn't lie to me!"
Seeing the thing he had been painstakingly searching for appear before him, Shiki couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Then he raised his hand and clenched it hard toward the sky, pulling down a giant ball of water.
His sharp blade aimed at the shrine below, swinging out a several-hundred-meters-long flying slash.
Clang—!
He cut down the entire mountaintop. The collapsing mountain was then wrapped by Shiki with the water ball and thrown together into Wano's inland sea.
Having done all this, Shiki lit a cigar for himself, took a deep drag, showed the most satisfied expression of his life, then raised a middle finger toward the direction from which the previous terrifying aura had come.
"F**k you, World Government!"