Whether Imu still had a trump card or not did not matter in Magnus's eyes.
As long as he killed her, it would all be over.
Yes, Magnus was soft-hearted toward women, but only toward normal women.
Imu was a lunatic. Even if she threw herself at him, Magnus would only be wondering when she planned to stab him in the back.
Killing her was the cleanest option.
Imu only looked at Magnus coldly.
A trump card?
She had nothing left to play.
If she had anything else, she would not be here trading blows with Magnus.
Knights of God, the Five Elders, the Heavenly King…
For anyone to even glimpse her, they had to pass layer after layer of defenses. But Magnus had killed the deputy commander of the Knights of God, fought his way through the Five Elders, and finally blocked her plan to power up the Heavenly King.
Every one of her means had failed to stop Magnus. By the time she stood before him personally, her last card was only herself.
Fortunately…
No matter how strong Magnus was, no matter how vast his forces had become…
"You are still not Joy Boy."
Endless shadow spread from under Imu's feet. Black fire rose. Massive fleshy wings tore open her cloak, and the horns on her head punched clean through her hood. Just like a Zoan user with full beast and hybrid forms, Imu had her own full demon form.
Magnus did not know what Devil Fruit she had eaten, but in her demonized state, though her face and figure remained unchanged, the aura pouring off her body was pure, bone-deep malice.
In the flames, a magic book formed in her hand.
But before she could act…
Boom.
A slash spanning a thousand meters appeared in front of her in an instant.
Just as Magnus had said from the start.
Whatever Imu wanted to do, his goal was to kill Imu.
He kicked the air in Moonwalk, step after step.
He did not shift into full beast form, nor did he take on a half-wolf hybrid. Even in his human shape, Magnus was as fast as a lightning bolt.
Imu's gaze stayed flat and cold.
"Magnus, I acknowledge thy strength. Yet just as I cannot slay thee, with only the two of us, what right hast thou to slay me?"
Her wings snapped wide. Magnus was fast, but up here in the sky, he could not move as freely as she could. No matter how quick he was, he could not control the air itself like she did.
His slashes, though…
A single strand of hair was sliced away, then instantly reformed.
Magnus's "vision kill" had no effect on her.
They both wielded top tier Conqueror's Haki. As they chased and clashed, their Conqueror's Haki collided again and again.
Magnus could not erase her ability to glimpse the future.
Even then…
She could not fully predict his attack lines either.
Magnus's Observation Haki surpassed hers.
Not only that. Their Armament Haki, their Conqueror's Haki, every collision between them left Imu more and more shocked. In just a few years, Magnus had broken through yet again.
Five years ago, at the Battle of Acropolis Port, his strength had only been equal to one of her avatars. Even when he finally broke through their encirclement, it had clearly been some desperate trump card, a power-up that came at great cost.
It had boosted his body, but not his Haki.
Even if he grew stronger in that state, that strength had not truly threatened her.
Now, five years later, his power had advanced again. Without using that life-risking technique at all, relying purely on Haki, he could already fight her to a standstill.
Fortunately…
Just as she had said.
Magnus was not Joy Boy. In all this world, there was only one man she had truly loved, and only that same man she truly feared.
Because only Joy Boy's fruit ability perfectly countered hers.
"Black Sun."
The magic book in Imu's hands finally changed shape. Normally, reshaping her grimoire took no effort at all.
This time…
She had traded feints and blows with Magnus for several minutes before the transformation completed.
And what it became was…
A black sun.
The moment the black, flame-wreathed sun appeared in her hand, it began to infect the sky, turning dawn toward night.
Her normal "Dark Conversion Dominion" let her strip away the lifespan of weaker foes and convert them into her demon soldiers.
Effective against single targets, but not efficient.
When the Black Sun rose in her hand, Magnus felt his consciousness blur for an instant. But his body's instincts were too strong. He exploded with Conqueror's Haki, tearing apart the invisible chains Imu had thrown over him.
Imu was not surprised.
With the level of power Magnus was showing, she could hardly gain any edge over him in pure close combat.
She had already given up on the idea of her ability working on Magnus himself.
But Magnus was only Magnus.
"Without the Drums of Liberation, thou mayest save thyself, but how wilt thou save others, thy comrades, thy wives?"
Below them, millions were locked in battle. Top fighters clashed, common soldiers hacked at each other. Everyone, ally and enemy, was tangled into one vast melee.
In a scene like that, even Magnus would find it extremely hard to unleash a wide-range attack that could wipe out the enemy without ripping through his own forces.
Conqueror's Haki could manage it, but Imu would never just watch him do it.
Magnus's large-scale moves could all be read.
He would block, or she would dodge. Even as she continuously avoided him, not a single one of Magnus's blows actually landed on her.
Once the black sun rose, the flow of the battle below shifted in an instant.
Countless ordinary soldiers spontaneously burst into flames.
Not only Magnus's soldiers. Imu's own troops burned as well.
Imu did not care.
In her eyes, everyone but herself was expendable. If she could trade one of her soldiers for one of Magnus's, that was already worth it.
And it was not a trade.
Black Sun Dominion.
Under the black sun's light, in just a few breaths, at least half the soldiers on the field ignited.
The dark flames did not burn them to death.
When the black fire consumed them, they became her thralls.
Ally or enemy.
"Oh, it is finally here."
"Our power grows greatly under the black sun."
"Foolish mortals, you have no idea what you are facing."
"…."
As the black sun rose in the sky, all those who had signed contracts with Imu, all those who were ageless and undying, felt their power surge.
For a moment, even Rocks and Newgate were forced onto the back foot.
"What is going on?"
"Why do I have these black flames on me?"
They had just finished settling into the rhythm of the fight. Neither of them was simply fighting. They were enjoying it.
But as the black sun rose, the Five Elders' strength swelled, and even Lucas and Claude Fegarland felt their power jump.
The black sun strengthened Imu's contract-bearers.
At the same time, it spread like an invisible web over those who had not signed contracts, trying to convert them, to turn them into her thralls as well.
That was why flames had sprung up on Rocks and Newgate too.
They flared their Haki, shaking the fire off.
Even so, when they looked around and saw just how many had already been twisted into those demon servants under the black fire, they understood.
They would have to keep pouring Haki out just to keep themselves from being swallowed.
With their foes empowered and themselves forced to constantly burn energy to resist, the nearly even battle began to tilt. The Five Elders pressed harder, while Rocks and Newgate were forced onto the defensive.
Only then did Imu's lips finally curl into a dazzling smile.
"When thy wives and comrades are all mine, how wilt thou fight me then?"
"Like this."
Magnus could not deny that this move disgusted him. He had not expected Imu to still be able to influence the battlefield even after he had dragged her up into the sky.
The closer you were to the black sun, the stronger its effects. At this distance, even Magnus felt the pressure. But farther away, any soldier who knew how to use Armament Haki could resist its pull.
The problem was that even in the New World, mastery of Haki was rare.
Of the three million fighting below, those who could actually use Armament defensively did not even reach one percent.
In other words.
When Imu's Black Sun rose, ninety-nine percent of the battlefield was affected.
Stronger fighters might not be transformed immediately, but unless they wrapped themselves fully in Armament or constantly projected Conqueror's Haki outward to burn away the Black Sun's influence, they would fall eventually.
And even if you saved yourself, you could not protect everyone around you.
If ninety-nine percent of this battlefield fell under Imu's dominion…
The war would be over without another swing of a blade.
Fortunately…
Magnus and Imu were still close enough.
Fortunately…
Magnus's Conqueror's Haki was already strong enough to blanket the entire battlefield.
Boom.
His Conqueror's Haki erupted, not to clash with Imu's, but to wash down over the armies below.
If every normal soldier became a thrall, even Magnus would be helpless. No matter how strong his Haki was, he could not restore them one by one.
Right now, though, there was still hope.
Imu only watched coldly, unimpressed by his choice.
Not unimpressed.
Amused.
"No wonder they call thee White King Magnus. I acknowledge thee. Thou hast the right to stand before me. But this alone is not enough."
Her usual dominion ability targeted the weak and untrained. Anyone whose Haki was not strong enough would have their life span shaved away and be forced into a contract with her.
Single target. Strong, but slow.
Black Sun Dominion was something else entirely. It covered not ten or fifteen kilometers, but tens of kilometers. It did not stop at the armies. Even the Sea Kings in the depths felt its influence.
To sustain it, she was burning her own lifespan.
The longer it remained, the more she spent.
But with nearly endless years behind her, losing a few decades meant nothing.
Magnus, on the other hand…
When his Conqueror's Haki exploded, he did suppress the Black Sun's effects. Countless ordinary soldiers who were on the brink of becoming demons blinked back to their senses.
But…
"How long can thy Haki last?"
Imu's lifespan was effectively eternal. Her black sun could hang in the sky forever.
Magnus's could not.
Conqueror's Haki cost stamina to unleash.
Once upon a time, there had been another man who had done exactly what Magnus was doing now, his Drums of Liberation beating the Black Sun down.
In the end, she was the one standing here.
Even Sun God Nika had been outlasted and worn to death.
Simply unleashing Haki put a greater burden on Magnus than it had on Joy Boy.
Joy Boy had failed.
Why would Magnus succeed?
"Choosing full war against me was thy greatest mistake."
With victory seemingly within reach, Imu relaxed for the first time.
What did she fear most?
She feared that Magnus would combine this strength with a warrior of Nika, one who could beat the Drums of Liberation.
Two against one.
She might actually lose.
"You really think you have won?"
Magnus's voice cut in, sudden and cold.
"If staying this close affects the war, then we just have to move farther away, do we not?"
Her logic was sound.
Even Magnus would burn out if he kept releasing Conqueror's Haki to push against her power. His stamina was not infinite.
His Haki suddenly drew back, no longer resisting the Black Sun.
In that same instant…
Rocks, Newgate, Harald and Linlin all erupted in Conqueror's Haki even more overwhelming than before.
Individually, none of their Haki surpassed Magnus's.
Combined, even he could not match what they unleashed.
He had not been scattering his power carelessly just now. While he was suppressing Black Sun's influence, he had also been linking his Haki to theirs across the field.
Imu did have the power to reverse the tide.
But Magnus's side had already seized the initiative. Even with the Five Elders powered up, suddenly crushing the White Wolf alliance outright was out of the question.
So.
When Rocks and the others took over the job of countering Imu's fruit with their own Haki…
Magnus moved.
He pulled all his power back into his body and forced himself into his peak burst state.
That state could not kill an undying Imu.
It could suppress her.
In an instant, his speed almost doubled. Imu moved fast, already trying to dodge as he closed.
Magnus's hand suddenly expanded.
A giant wolf's paw closed around her and crushed her body in its grip. Magnus's frame began to swell.
He knew very well.
Just grabbing Imu was useless. As long as that black sun remained, it would continue to twist the battlefield below.
So he…
Let his body grow, turning into a giant wolf tens of meters tall. His massive frame arced across the sky.
His head tipped back.
And he swallowed the black sun whole.
(End of Chapter)
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