It's well-known that those with absolute defense or immortality have a bad habit: they often let opponents attack them to show off their resilience. It seems they think this is arrogant and cool. So, on the way here, after recalling the Five Elders' fighting styles in the original work, Roa brought a Seastone bullet. This thing, of course, isn't useful against normal top-tier Devil Fruit users.
But for these guys who like to show off in front of people, it's probably a perfect counter! Like to act tough? Like to show off resilience? Go tell that to my Seastone! After all, isn't it foolish to go head-to-head with an immortal enemy if you can't counter their ability?
And Saint Thomas is very strong. Extremely strong.
"Roa!!"
Thomas's body was weak and limp. Even with his immortality, he couldn't resist the highest purity Seastone's debilitating effect on Devil Fruit users. This noble Holy Knight could only writhe weakly on the ground, struggling to even manage an angry expression.
"You're too much of a baby!!"
We're all Mythical Zoan users, can't you have a passionate, blood-boiling, true man's 1v1 battle with me?
"What are you talking about?" Roa said, a little surprised. "Are you calling a pirate—oh no, are you calling a merchant despicable?"
As is well known, real business warfare is simple and brutal, doing whatever is convenient, quick, and deadly.
"Fortunately, I brought Seastone. Fortunately, you're a Devil Fruit user. Otherwise, I really wouldn't know how to deal with an immortal like you."
Right! This guy saw the Holy Knights at God Valley. He knows about immortality! How unlucky!
Thomas grit his teeth. Why, of all people, did this bastard happen to be carrying Seastone?
Almost at this instant, the CP0 agents, realizing the situation was dire, charged at Thomas like madmen. How could things have come to this? The noble Holy Knight was taken down by Roa in an instant! They had to free Saint Thomas quickly, or all of them would die here! Roa's power was beyond their ability to contend with!
But.
Boom!
Boom!
Two loud bangs.
Massive mercury fists and surging fire dragons instantly blew them all away. From behind Roa, Douglas Bullet and King shot out, directly pursuing the CP0 agents.
"Be careful," Roa warned as he watched their backs. The other fodder was fine, but the two CP0 cadres were not weak.
Then, Roa casually walked up to Thomas.
"How does it feel to look up, Holy Knight?"
"Roa!" Thomas glared at Roa. "Don't get too cocky, kid! Since you know we possess immortality, you should understand that nothing can affect me!"
"Talk, don't try anything funny," Roa sternly admonished.
The nearby wall collapsed with a roar. On the ground outside the wall, black patterns were spreading, seemingly about to form a magic circle. But at that moment, the ground began to crack and weather, causing the half-formed magic circle to vanish into thin air.
"You didn't think I hadn't seen the Five Elders' teleportation array at God Valley, did you? That giant bird even tried to teleport in front of me to intercept me," Roa asked, a little surprised. "If you really wanted to call for help, you should have done it earlier."
Thomas's face instantly stiffened. Now he was truly helpless! He couldn't move, had no chance to call for help, and the CP0 couldn't possibly defeat this guy. All he could do was wait for Mary Geoise to notice something was wrong and summon him back.
Thomas's eyes darted around frantically, then landed on Stussy standing behind Roa. Right! There's still this woman! Stussy noticed his gaze, her expression slightly changed, and she instinctively wanted to step forward. But Roa had already instantly turned back. "Auntie, what do you want to do? This guy is my prisoner."
"No, I, I'm just curious…" Stussy stammered, retreating. Thomas's eyes dimmed a little. Right, this woman couldn't forcibly save him either. She could only look for an opportunity.
"I was already very curious at God Valley. Is your immortality truly absolute immortality?" Roa looked down at Thomas, his eyes eager. "Let me properly verify it."
"Hey! Mortal! What do you intend to do to a great Holy Knight!" Thomas blustered, trying to sound fierce. "I advise you to calm down! Otherwise, I will absolutely not spare you!"
"Don't bluff; that will only expose your powerlessness." Roa casually quoted a famous line, then lightly flicked his finger.
A small volcanic eruption occurred beneath Thomas's right leg, where he lay on the ground.
"Wahh!"
The surging lava instantly engulfed his right leg. With no way to defend himself, in a few breaths, his right leg had been melted away.
Does it hurt? Roa looked at Thomas, who was slightly grimacing.
Then.
Black substance condensed out of thin air from the severed end of Thomas's right leg, assembling like floating cotton into a new right leg.
"Tsk." After seven years, seeing this scene again, Roa couldn't help but click his tongue. Too much of a cheat! Are you Demi-Humans? Even when suppressed by Seastone, it doesn't hinder your recovery? It's almost as if this ability doesn't belong to the same system as Devil Fruits.
"I told you—"
Just as Thomas was about to say something, Roa stomped on his head, crushing it.
Would losing his brain have an effect?
It proved not to. In the blink of an eye, as black substance condensed, Thomas's head quickly returned to normal, and the half-sentence he hadn't finished saying naturally spilled out.
"—you that our immortality is absolute!"
Since he could recover even after his head was crushed, destroying other parts shouldn't make much difference. After all, the source of this immortality wasn't the Holy Knight himself, but Imu behind them. This was a passive ability that didn't require them to actively activate it.
Thomas looked up at Roa, his eyes containing a hint of provocation. "Do you see, kid? This is the power we Holy Knights possess. Now you know what you refused!"
"A prisoner of war still spouting nonsense." Roa stomped on his head again.
It truly was absolute immortality. Aside from requiring some time to recover, there seemed to be no weakness at all. It was almost like the Impure World Reincarnation from another series.
"Hahahaha! Powerless rage, utterly meaningless, Roa!" Thomas burst into laughter. "It's too late for you to regret it now! I'll kill you sooner or later!"
Roa looked at this guy; he truly wasn't afraid at all. Was it because he could be teleported away at any time?
Although he really wanted to take this guy back for Judge to thoroughly research, there probably wasn't enough time. So, he would use the simplest and most brutal method.
"There can never be a perfect ability in the world," Roa said slowly, looking at Thomas. "Even your immortality must have some kind of weakness."
"Hmph!" Thomas scoffed in return. "Stop dreaming. Our ability is truly perfect!"
But Roa curled his lips. "The smell of a lie. I knew it, even you have weaknesses." Language could deceive, expressions could deceive, but the emotions surging deep within couldn't. Roa saw it clearly.
Imperceptibly, Thomas's expression stiffened slightly, then he continued to sneer, "Idiot, you must be out of your mind! Our ability is the most perfect!"
"Seastone has been proven ineffective, so, is it some kind of Devil Fruit ability?" Roa didn't bother to reply to Thomas, merely speaking to himself. "Oh, no, is it some kind of special weapon? Even the great demon lords in legendary stories need corresponding weapons to be defeated." "Not that either. Your abilities are somewhat like legendary magic. Does it require corresponding magic to dispel your immortality?"
"Still not it," Roa sighed. If only Redfield hadn't left, he wouldn't need to use brute force here. A memory read would have been a happy ending, wouldn't it?
But Thomas was already a little bewildered. Had this guy really gone mad? What was he muttering to himself?
"Then, is it Haki?" Roa continued his exhaustive list. "Haki is used to counter Devil Fruit powers. If your ability comes from some Devil Fruit ability, then Haki should be able to counter it."
To be honest, when Roa mentioned Haki, he didn't hold much hope. Luffy's Haki on Egghead Island was useless against the Five Elders, and Auntie Linlin's Haki-infused attacks at God Valley also failed to achieve anything.
But.
"Hmph," Thomas snorted.
Roa's eyes suddenly lit up. "You're nervous! Is it really Haki?"
"…" Thomas's face finally changed slightly. No, is this guy... reading his mind? In that case—
"Oh! Getting more and more nervous!" Roa curled his lips. "I see, it really is the most common Haki? Then, is it Armament? Observation?"
Thomas gritted his teeth, trying hard to think of random things in his mind. He decisively started cursing Figarland Garling. It was that bastard who sent him here, otherwise, how would he have ended up in such an awkward situation? But emotion is something that the more you try to control, the more uncontrollable it becomes.
"Of course, it's Conqueror's Haki," Roa raised his lips. "Ultimately, it still comes down to Conqueror's Haki coating."
"But the problem is, why was Auntie Linlin's Conqueror's Haki coating ineffective against the Five Elders seven years ago?" Although he had to flee too quickly to observe the battle between the monsters and the Holy Knights in the central battlefield, Roa had witnessed Linlin's fight with the Five Elders.
"Is it because the intensity of the Conqueror's Haki wasn't enough?" Roa meticulously observed Thomas.
Thomas's inner cursing target had already shifted from Garling to Roa.
"Or was Auntie Linlin's Conqueror's Haki coating technique simply insufficient?"
"I see," Roa had already found the answer from the surging negative emotions in Thomas's heart. "Both, is that it?" He nodded slightly in satisfaction. "In that case, Holy Knight, is that all there is to you?"
He thought the weakness would be so hard to find, but it was just this?
Those possessing Conqueror's Haki were already one in a million, and those who could truly master Conqueror's Haki coating were perhaps fewer than twenty in the entire sea. It could be said to be a high-class technique only true powerhouses could master. However, among these few who mastered Conqueror's Haki coating, pirates accounted for a large portion. No wonder the Holy Knights rarely ventured out into the high seas.
He wondered if Golden Lion knew about this. If he didn't, fine. If he knew but didn't tell him, that would be too stingy!
Just as Roa was feeling pleased, Thomas's gaze, fixed on him, was practically murderous. "You ant!!"
Damn it, his secret was exposed! If Lord Imu knew about this, wouldn't he be in big trouble?
"Thank you for enlightening me," Roa genuinely thanked him. "This is truly important to me." Since Conqueror's Haki coating could handle the Holy Knights, what was there to fear? Roa felt he was very close to mastering Conqueror's Haki coating, especially after his recent fierce battle with Redfield. He was already close, only lacking some control, and after mastering internal destruction with Armament Haki, he was even closer.
"As a reward, let me give you a taste of a new move I just came up with." Roa bent down, grabbed Thomas, and looked up at Bullet and King's battle.
The massive mercury giant was continuously swinging its enormous fists, and King, transformed into a Tengu, was wantonly unleashing huge wind and fire dragons. Only two of their CP opponents remained alive: the two CP0 cadres. It had to be said that their strength was solid; both were Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit users, one a type of ancient rhino, the other a Stegosaurus. Coupled with powerful Haki and meticulously honed Six Powers, they were fighting Bullet and King to a standstill. Roa estimated that without outside interference, they could fight for days without a clear victor.
So.
"Oi, look over here," Roa called out.
As the two CP0 agents looked over, he casually crushed Thomas's head.
"Saint Thomas!"
The two Celestial Dragon lapdogs' expressions instantly changed drastically. It was at this moment that their minds wavered.
"Maximum Cannon!!"
A fist as massive as a small mountain slammed the rhino into the ground.
"Blade Under Twin Emperors!"
At the same time, a blade wreathed in flames and raging wind suddenly ripped through the sky. Enhanced by the Tengu Fruit's attack-strengthening ability, it instantly sliced through the Ankylosaurus's shell, creating a massive wound.
The battle ended.
"Alright, Bullet, King, head back up to the sky," Roa said.
"Yes." Although neither of them had fought to their heart's content, this was Boss's order. Bullet turned into steam, and King flapped his wings, both flying towards the sky. Their opponents, surprisingly, hadn't lost their fighting capability. The one smashed into the ground laboriously crawled out, and the one sliced away struggled to use Life Return to forcibly close the wound.
"Roa!" Thomas's head had already regenerated. He sneered, "Don't waste your effort; you can't do anything to me!"
"Let's try again." He was indeed very troublesome. Immortality aside, he could also be teleported back at any time. He couldn't be killed, nor could he be kept. There wasn't even time to experiment whether he could be killed by external forces, or by starving or suffocating him. Mary Geoise would likely react and teleport Thomas back at any moment. It was quite annoying.
But Roa wondered, could there be limitations to the teleportation? If Thomas remained disfigured, could he still be teleported back? Roa decided to try.
With a flick of his finger.
In the sky, a giant meteor plummeted.
"Hahahaha! Idiot, do you really expect to crush me to death with a meteor?" Thomas roared with laughter. Forget a meteor, even if Roa smashed the moon down, he wouldn't care.
"Don't rush, it's just getting started." Roa took a deep breath. Thankfully, the concentration of dark energy on this island was high; otherwise, he'd collapse after using this move.
"Hm?" Thomas noticed something very strange: the plummeting meteor in the sky was rapidly shrinking! What did that mean?
"Go!" Roa grabbed Thomas and threw him towards the plummeting, shrinking meteor.
"Saint Thomas!"
The two heavily injured CP0 agents instantly rejoiced, using Moonwalk without hesitation to rush towards Thomas. Meanwhile, Roa had already grabbed Stussy and shot into the sky. "Hurry, hurry! Disaster is coming!"
Thomas's bewilderment in his eyes grew even stronger. Just as he approached, the meteor had shrunk to a size almost invisible to the naked eye. Then, it completely disappeared. He couldn't see anything! The light was slightly swallowed, unable to reflect and be seen by human eyes, so Thomas couldn't see it. That meteor had shrunk into a very, very small point. So much so that space itself began to collapse, with the final result being…
"Wahhh!!"
Thomas screamed. A powerful force, from an unknown source, instantly pulled him in. His body instantly twisted and deformed under the immense compression, then directly exploded, forcibly crushed into a sphere by an invisible force, and still continuously being compressed. The two CP0 agents who tried to save him also couldn't resist this force; they too were pulled in, and under the powerful gravitational suppression, they couldn't even move, adding two more layers to the sphere that Thomas had become.
Then.
The ground began to shake, houses, trees, and even the earth itself began to crumble, forcibly dragged into the sky by a powerful force. Large amounts of rocks, dirt, and structures began to be forcibly kneaded together. In just a blink of an eye, a massive sphere had appeared in the sky.
"This—" Stussy was dumbfounded. What was this?
Roa curled his lips. "A micro black hole, or rather,"
"Chibaku Tensei!"
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