Chapter 376: Ancient Weapon, Holding Up the World!
Up until now, although Roy had long confirmed the incompatible relationship between him and Imu.
But he had never truly met Imu face-to-face—in Dressrosa, he merely confronted Him through the Source Energy of Lineage Factor, and in Doflamingo's memory, he only looked at Him from a distance across the barrier of memory.
Until this moment.
Roy finally saw with his own eyes the posture of this King of the World.
Even though Imu at this time was clearly still just a phantom.
But one could still faintly see the appearance of this King of the World, the God of the Abyss.
Just as previously stated, His appearance was a figure akin to a demon—His entire body was wreathed in pitch-black flames, and on His back were wings and a long tail.
Those overlapping golden eyes, resembling the Rinnegan from "Ninja Village Brawls", were currently looking at him coldly.
"Caught you, enemy of God."
He said like this.
These words were not without basis.
Because right now, Roy had also noticed.
The abilities on his body were rapidly being suppressed—he wanted to leave using the Door-Door Fruit, but he couldn't find the feeling of being able to casually slice open space like before no matter what.
Even the Drums of Liberation of the Nika Fruit, he seemed unable to make them sound at this moment.
Or to be more precise—Roy could feel that the essence of those abilities, those "wishes", still existed within his body. But...
"The Source Energy of Lineage Factor cannot be mobilized—no... it is being 'suppressed'."
He keenly captured the fact.
Accompanied by Imu's appearance, the Source Energy of Lineage Factor he originally could mobilize would inexplicably "vanish" the moment it was mobilized by him. That of course was not a true vanishing, but because all the Source Energy of Lineage Factor diffusing around was all "Abyssal Power" belonging to Imu.
And when Roy's Source Energy of Lineage Factor was mobilized, it was like a drop of transparent water appearing in a pitch-black cup of water, naturally it would be dyed black immediately—on the surface it seemed to have vanished, but in reality it was merely suppressed by the darkness.
"It's the Five Elders..."
And up to this moment, Roy's heart became more awe-inspiring than ever before.
He had realized what happened.
This was a conspiracy—when the Five Elders descended, their bodies clearly carried an amount of Source Energy of Lineage Factor exceeding the normal amount. And the purpose of this was not that Imu wanted the Five Elders to fight Star Lord, but solely for this moment...
"Sacrificing the Five Elders, releasing the 'Abyssal Power' within their bodies... using those powers symbolizing Imu's essence to form this formation?"
And not even just this.
VMMM!
Right now, centered on the massive magic circle where Roy and Imu's phantoms were.
Rumble!
The entire Onigashima abruptly began to undergo drastic changes at this moment.
The ground began to bulge, and massive pillars began to rise from beneath the ground, dragging this very small part of "Onigashima" where Roy was located into the sky, like an "execution platform".
A pitch-black dome of light wrapped this massive execution platform.
And whether it was Harald or Yamato and Ace, they were all blasted away the instant this execution platform rose.
"Hey, who are you guys!?"
Although Ace didn't know the situation, he could naturally judge that the current situation was clearly not good.
So he also gritted his teeth forcefully, turning into a ball of flame and flying backwards.
But...
VMMM!
Just as he approached that pitch-black dome of light, he discovered in horror—his figure, which had originally completely elementalized, actually reverted back to a body of flesh and blood the instant it approached that pitch-black dome of light.
"Wha—Ah!"
Ace instantly frowned, but the next moment a powerful rebounding force instantly sent him flying, crashing heavily onto the ground below. Even though Ace forced himself to stand up from the ground enduring the pain on his body a moment later, the look in his eyes as he looked at that "execution platform" flying higher and higher into the sky carried clear horror.
"What on earth is that—Hey, Star Lord! Can you try to escape!?"
He roared lowly like this.
He couldn't escape.
And at the same time, Roy, who was watching this scene, had already made a simple yet clear judgment.
He couldn't use the Source Energy of Lineage Factor, so he couldn't escape from the inside.
At the same time, a sufficient number of Pillars of the Abyss ensured that rescue from the outside couldn't be accomplished either.
"I see... Not only sacrificing the Source Energy of Lineage Factor within the Five Elders' bodies, but even utilizing the cooperation with Kaido—was everything for this moment?"
He nodded thoughtfully, looking at Imu in front of him: "Truly ruthless."
Yes.
At this time, he had already realized.
Everything happening in Wano Country currently was entirely a conspiracy.
A conspiracy to make Star Lord appear and trap Star Lord.
Cooperating with the Four Emperor among the pirates, using the name of cooperation to send the "Pillars of the Abyss" to Onigashima, then inciting Kaido to attack Totto Land, plus Harald...
"To be able to die for Mu in exchange for the chance to kill another God—this is their honor."
Imu looked coldly at Star Lord below.
"And you... after knowing Harald's soul still exists, would inevitably go save him."
He seemed to have a considerable understanding of Roy.
Whether out of the alliance relationship between The Zodiac and the Giant race, or out of his appreciation for Harald in the original work, or out of Harald's power itself... Roy would indeed go save him.
"You even temporarily left your divine kingdom, for that lower-realm country named 'Totto Land'."
"This is your shortcoming."
Imu looked calmly at Roy.
Over this long period of time, He rarely spoke so much to the same person, let alone in such an equal manner.
But towards Roy it was different—He acknowledged that Roy was indeed qualified to be called a "God" like Him.
So in the past, He had been waiting for a chance.
He could tell at a glance the Source Energy of Lineage Factor existing within the "Aster", He could tell that was Star Lord's divine kingdom, so He never made a move against the Aster—with His current state, even if He dispatched the army under His command together, it would be impossible to kill the other party within Star Lord's divine kingdom.
But He knew very well Star Lord's biggest "weakness".
"As a 'God', you are too soft and young—confined by some boring and useless things."
"And that is exactly the reason for your failure."
At this point, Imu's cold eyes seemed to have already ensured His victory.
And at the same time...
Roy could also see.
That red light slowly lighting up from the sky above.
Or to be more precise...
VMMM!
At this time, it wasn't just Roy.
The entire Onigashima, the entire Wano Country, and even the entire surrounding sea area could see the endless energy gathering above the sky.
"That... what is that!?"
And at this time, Ace and Yamato widened their eyes.
Their Observation Haki was madly telling them right now—that thing above the sky was dangerous to the extreme.
That was absolutely not lightning or any other natural phenomenon.
But some kind of irresistible, unbelievable... powerful weapon!
And right now, beneath the mask surrounded by the radiance of stars.
Looking at that crimson radiance above the sky, Roy had already recognized what it was.
That was the weapon that had appeared in the original work, which completely wiped the "Lulusia Kingdom" out of existence with a single strike, causing the sea level of the entire world to rise.
Even Roy wasn't exactly sure what that thing specifically was—he only knew that that thing seemed to be some kind of ancient technological creation that required the "Mother Flame" as an energy source to activate.
However, since Vegapunk had already betrayed the World Government and joined The Zodiac before inventing the Mother Flame.
So Roy originally thought that Imu perhaps couldn't use this terrifying weapon anymore.
But looking at it now...
"Imu still has the Mother Flame in His hands... no, it should be the 'Eternal Flame'?"
Roy thought rapidly in his heart: "But if that's the case, why didn't He use this thing to deal with The Zodiac before—whether it was Egghead Island or Dressrosa, He clearly had the chance..."
Halfway through his thoughts, he already realized.
The answer was very obvious—the reason why a weapon powerful to the extreme is used with extreme caution is nothing more than two reasons.
First, it would cause the entire world to suffer a massive disaster—but for Imu, who as the "Abyss" originally intended to let the sea submerge the world, this clearly wasn't the reason.
So, there was only one answer.
"This weapon, or the 'Eternal Flame' in Imu's hand, is only enough to be used once."
"So He must be cautious—He must be certain that the Star Lord appearing is truly the 'main body', He must be certain that He can completely kill the other party before He can use it."
Because of this, so even losing Kaido and the Source Energy of Lineage Factor on the Five Elders was worth it.
And exactly at the same time Roy thought of this.
He also strikingly saw.
Above the sky, that massive red light, which originally illuminated the entire sky so brightly that it was enough to completely wrap the entire Onigashima along with half of Wano Country, was rapidly shrinking.
Or to be more precise—that power was being compressed.
It got smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller.
But at the same time, the sense of threat it brought grew stronger and stronger.
Up until the very end.
When that red light was compressed to the point where it could only shroud the range of the "execution platform", the terrifying power contained within even caused the surrounding space to continuously distort.
And looking at that distorted red light, everyone present had no doubt—the power contained within that red light could destroy everything in this world.
"In the distant past, the People of the Moon would plant the seeds of creation in the world, create the world, and enslave everything in the world."
"When the creatures of the world developed hearts of resistance, they would reshape everything, including the Pillar of Creation, with the 'Rainbow Light of Judgment'." "Until in that distant past, the warrior of liberation named 'Nika' led and overthrew everything—the First World, the era ruled by the 'Moon', was able to end, and the Rainbow Light was eternally extinguished."
"He destroyed the world, and also reshaped the world."
Seeing that His kind, who had troubled Him for decades, was about to meet his end, Imu seemed to be in a mood to talk.
He softly recounted that secret from the past, even though almost no one in the world could understand it.
"And now, the Rainbow Light shines again."
"It will announce—the eras from now on, all belong to the era of Mu."
"The era belonging to... the 'Abyss'."
The words fell.
From above His head.
That red light representing destruction, abruptly... fell!
"!!!"
That red light was very fine and dense, but it brought Roy an unprecedented feeling of "coldness".
"Source Energy of Lineage Factor!!"
He instantly captured the essence of that ball of red light—that was some kind of manipulated Source Energy of Lineage Factor, dense to the extreme. And as it fell, Roy even clearly saw the darkness symbolizing Imu's power being easily sliced apart.
"People of the Moon..."
And Imu's victorious declaration just now caused a huge shock in Roy's heart.
Because if he didn't mishear Imu's meaning.
"This world was once ruled by the People of the Moon—they brought the 'Pillar of Creation' from beyond the sky, created and enslaved everything in the world."
"Whenever the civilization of the world grew to a certain level, they would 'destroy' the Pillar of Creation of that generation, destroy all creatures, and then plant a new 'Pillar of Creation' again?"
Roy could almost imagine the despair of that era.
The world was like a petri dish, or a potted plant—all things were casually shaped, destroyed, and then shaped again.
"Until Nika led all races in the world to rebel against them, did that long era, non-existent in historical records, finally end." "And the shadow born from the last remaining Pillar of Creation not destroyed by the People of the Moon in that era, is 'Imu'?" He finally seemed to have caught a glimpse of the oldest origin of this world.
But clearly, this was not the crux.
The crux was.
According to Imu, this "Rainbow Light of Judgment" was the weapon the People of the Moon used to destroy everything in the world, including the Pillar of Creation, in the past. And being able to destroy the Pillar of Creation meant—anything in this world would be absolutely destroyed by it.
Any fruit ability, any Source Energy of Lineage Factor and wishes, under this power, might all be "invalidated"!
"No matter what, I cannot be hit!"
Roy had already realized this point in his heart.
At this very moment, perhaps it was the most dangerous instant since he came to this world.
But the more dangerous the time, Roy found that his heart seemed to become even calmer.
Abilities couldn't be used, there was no outside help—everything seemed to be a dead end.
But...
"It's not a dead end."
The words fell.
BOOM!
From beneath the sea surface in the distance, a deafening massive sound had already come—that sound came from below Wano Country.
And accompanying the massive sound.
Rumble!
Was a tremor massive to the extreme.
"Imu."
At the same time, Roy's gaze looked at Imu.
He called God's name directly, without any fear at all.
"This world will not be dragged into the abyss by you."
"I will hold it up."
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