A massive mouthful of icy flame was spat out. After churning in Roy's stomach, the blue icy flame had turned into black hellfire. Similarly devoid of temperature, the feeling it gave was completely different. If the icy flame was cold, then this mass of black flame was pure danger.
Unimaginable danger. Touch it and you die.
That's what all the Five Elders felt. Contact meant death.
"Don't touch it!" Kong's face paled with terror as he hastily dodged to the side.
Even faster than him was Nusjuro in his skeletal horse form. The old guy was inherently swift, and he flashed away instantly. But Warcury, behind him, was out of luck. His massive size, coupled with slow movement, made it impossible for him to dodge the hellfire spat by Roy.
"ROAR!"
The giant boar let out a shrill, agonized scream. The other four Elders turned to look, and the scene that met their eyes filled them with horror.
The black flames clung like maggots to rotten flesh. No matter what action Warcury took, he couldn't shake them off. The black flames instantly covered his entire body. The devouring speed of the inferno was terrifyingly fast; large swathes of flesh evaporated, quickly revealing bones and the organs beneath the skin and muscle.
"Lord Imu, save me..." Warcury screamed, pleading for something.
His eyeballs, now exposed without eyelids, were streaked with red veins. Finally, under the consumption of the black flames, his body was completely engulfed by the black inferno, leaving only a pile of bones.
From the moment he was touched by the black flame to his end, it took less than ten seconds. One of the Five Elders, Saint Topman Warcury, was reduced to a pile of bones. Crucially, he was burned to death while still in his zoan form.
This meant Roy had killed not only him, but his Devil Fruit along with him. Normally, Zoan Devil Fruit users revert to human form at death, releasing the fruit's power back into the world.
But Warcury was human, and yet even in death, his remains were those of a giant boar. This meant the fruit's power itself had been killed with him.
Saint Garling, as the Warrior God of Science and Defense, understood this. Seeing Saint Ju Peter's fate, he turned to look at Roy.
"What is your power? How can you even kill a Devil Fruit itself?" Garling stared at Roy.
"Didn't I tell you? I don't know either. So I just gave it a name: Black Sun," Roy said, spreading his hands.
"To think a cloned ability from the Nika Fruit could kill the demon inside a Devil Fruit…" Saint Ghandy Gryphon realized that the World had made its third choice.
The first was when the Earth God raged and the Forest God summoned forth demons.
The second was when the Sun God perished, and the Sea God raged.
Now, the third man-made change had birthed an ability not belonging to this world, capable of cleansing the demon within the fruits. The order of the world would once again be redefined.
Perhaps it wouldn't be Nika defining the world, but this guy in front of them.
Initially, they thought the biggest threat was still Straw Hat Luffy. But after truly encountering Roy, he began to realize.
Perhaps they were wrong. It's true that Straw Hat Luffy ate the Nika Fruit, but compared to the man before him, there was still a huge gap.
This man's ability could annihilate all Devil Fruits.
The sea could only weaken fruit users; it couldn't strip their powers away.
Roy's ability erased them permanently, never to appear in the world again.
If he could destroy Devil Fruits, then he could also destroy their master.
They had always believed that Lord Imu was unkillable.
Because Imu was true demon incarnate. Nika might be able to defeat her, but not truly kill her. Yet Roy, however… Roy could. Which made him an even greater threat.
"We absolutely cannot let you live."
Garling understood in an instant. Anyone who could threaten Imu's existence must be killed. The Celestial Dragons' lineage, lasting until now, relied entirely on Imu. If Imu were lost, the Celestial Dragons would be destroyed.
Indoctrinated since childhood with family honor and the supremacy of the Celestial Dragons, to die fighting for the family's glory, they were willing to make any sacrifice for Imu.
"Wind Thunder Slash!"
Garling once again launched a slash at Roy, the attack imbued with the power of wind and thunder.
"My swordsmanship may be average," Roy said, raising his black blade, "but the stronger you become, the more you realize, when you reach a certain level of power, you can do whatever you want."
As he spoke, Roy raised the black sword in his hand and swung it towards the incoming slash.
Hum!
The air vibrated. A black flying slash shot out from the blade.
The black slash was crescent-shaped. Looking closely, the leading edge was tinged with black flame.
The two slashes collided in mid-air. The violent explosion caused Uranus to shake intensely.
Saint Ju Peter also charged forward. The others understood that if they didn't fight with everything, they would all die.
"It's no good! We need to make an emergency landing! Staying airborne is dangerous!"
The operators on Uranus saw all indicators sounding alarms.
If this continued, there was a risk of Uranus falling from an altitude of ten thousand meters.
Once Uranus fell from such a height, even if it were made of sturdy metal like Pluton, it would likely be shattered to pieces.
"Should we inform the Five Elders?"
"There's no time! The Five Elders are in combat!"
"Descend! Otherwise, everyone will die if this continues!"
"Agreed!"
Uranus had no choice but to descend. When Momonosuke and the others saw the ship...
"The ship seems to be descending," Denjiro said.
"Is it because of the battle above?" Kin'emon wondered.
"Never mind that, we just need to charge over!" Inuarashi said.
"Right, we can't wait for Luffy and the others anymore," Momonosuke made the decision, leading the samurai of Wano to charge forward.
Seeing another dragon appear, the faces of the World Government forces turned grim.
Cloning the Fish-Fish Fruit was actually difficult. Otherwise, Roy would have wanted to clone all of them into Fish-Fish and Phoenix users. There wasn't enough time, and there was a certain probability of failure due to the difficulty.
Those like Atmos who ate the cloned Fish-Fish Fruit possessed considerable strength. Now, with an additional dragon, it meant the Whitebeard Pirates' side had gained more combat power.
"Pink... it's Momo," Ace looked up, saw the pink color, and immediately recognized it as Momonosuke.
"Boro Breath!"
Momonosuke spewed a blast of Boro Breath towards the World Government side. Kin'emon and the others leaped down from his back.
As Uranus began to lose altitude, the combatants clearly felt the change in breathing.
The higher the altitude, the thinner the air, and naturally, the less oxygen. Why were the Skypieans so confident about defeating people from the blue sea?
Different altitudes required some adaptation time. When the altitude decreased and oxygen increased, their strength would return to normal levels.
Roy had trained them to fight at high altitudes on Sky Island for this very reason.
At the same time, the great battle on Lodestar Island was about to begin.
...
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