The bald Elder laughed, a ragged, hateful sound. His eyes burned with loathing for Rakuya.
"Old man, you really believe this shoddy Spatial Prison can hold me?" Rakuya lifted his chin, as if he were not caged at all.
"Boy, even I cannot slip this prison. You escape? Unless the Death Attendant releases it, you have no way out. Surrender and I might be merciful. Hand over your eyes and I will grant you a clean death."
"Big talk." Rakuya's Mangekyo Sharingan spun faster.
"Kamui."
Whoosh.
Space in front of him twisted. A black vortex bloomed over his right eye, and his body drew into the whirl. The cage stood empty.
It was Uchiha Obito's Mangekyo power.
It warped space.
"What… he is a spatial user too?" The Elder's eyes went wide, his face bleaching with shock.
"Damn it. He can shift through space?" The Death Attendant's voice dropped cold behind his mask.
His power was unique. Even a Five Elder could not force an exit. Space had rules no one could break.
Yet this boy had slipped away before their eyes. The Death Attendant was rattled in a way he had never known.
The Elder felt his cheeks burn. He had barely finished boasting when the boy humiliated him.
Whoosh.
Space rippled behind the Death Attendant. A vortex opened and Rakuya stepped out.
"Careful," the Elder snapped.
A chill raced up the Death Attendant's spine. He flung a door open in front of himself even as the cold seized him.
"Amaterasu."
Rakuya did not waste words. The Death Attendant had ambushed him. If not for Kamui, he would have been caged. Mercy for an enemy was not in his creed.
Black fire blossomed. In the Elder's horrified gaze, the Death Attendant's arm caught with a flame that devoured heat itself.
"Aaah!"
The scream tore the air. A blade flashed in the Death Attendant's left hand. He chopped through his right arm in a single desperate stroke and dove through the door, vanishing. The seam sealed behind him.
"Heh."
Rakuya studied the rejoined space and let a small smile show. "Decisive. A moment slower and it would have taken more than an arm."
He lifted his eyes to the Elder again. The old man's bravado had drained away. For the first time, doubt crept over his face. Those crimson eyes were far too dangerous. He wanted them more than ever, yet feared them in equal measure.
Creak.
A door opened again.
"My lord."
In the same breath the Elder turned to light and darted for the portal.
"Next time, boy, you die," he hissed, voice like ice.
"Running?" Understanding clicked in Rakuya's eyes.
"Kamui."
Space warped before the Elder. A whirling void yawned open and swallowed him whole. The seam knit shut.
Only Rakuya remained in the sky, along with the other open door the Death Attendant had made.
"Where did you take him?" The Death Attendant stayed hidden in his pocket of space. He did not dare step out.
"Him? Dead." Rakuya's tone was flat, almost bored.
"Dead? Hah. My lord cannot die. Wait, boy. The other lords will take your head."
"Small fry should not strut." Rakuya's eyes turned like dark whirlpools and his figure blinked out.
A beat later, space rippled behind the Death Attendant. A vortex unfurled and Rakuya stepped out into the man's own pocket.
"Amaterasu."
This time he took no chances. Black flame coiled around the Death Attendant from every side.
"When did you get in here?" The man's pupils blasted wide. His mask twisted with pain.
"Ants do not need to know." Rakuya's voice was cool. He did not watch it end. He stepped back into open air.
The Death Attendant would not live.
"Hm. Still fighting?" Rakuya looked down. Where a hundred ironclad battleships had been, barely twenty remained, and most were one breath from breaking.
Marines still clawed at the Sea Kings in a frenzy.
Rakuya stepped through the air.
"Stand down."
His voice rolled across the sea. Every Sea King paused mid-attack and lifted its head.
They saw the master-shape in the sky. One keening cry answered another. They slipped beneath the waves as one and vanished.
On the surviving decks, Steel Bone Kong, Sengoku, Zephyr, Garp, Borsalino, Sakazuki, Vice Admiral Tsuru, and Kuzan leaned on rails, chests heaving, faces bloodless.
They could handle a Sea King. But against endless numbers, even the strong frayed. Kill one wave and another rose, on and on without end.
Even a martial grandmaster could crush a common man. Ten? A hundred? A thousand? Numbers alone could grind strength to dust.
Devil Fruit users needed to recover. They could not burn forever.
At a single order, the Sea Kings trilled as if reporting their tally to Rakuya and then disappeared. Silence fell, broken only by the slam of waves and the roar of fires.
"Rakuya. Where is my lord?" Kong looked up. He saw only one man in the sky.
"You mean the old ghost? I killed him." Rakuya's tone did not change.
"Killed? Do not joke. You kill a Five Elder? Even the 'God of Liuyun' could not. You?" Sakazuki's face was storm-black with disbelief.
"Believe what you want. You are dying anyway." Rakuya did not spare him another glance.
"Amaterasu."
His gaze cut like a blade. Mangekyo power unfurled.
Black flame leapt up across Kong's flagship and raced outward, devouring hull and deck in a heartbeat.
"Kong, your Marine Headquarters will be buried here." Rakuya watched like a judge at the end of the world.
[System Notification] Fault detected.
[System Notification] Forced update commencing. Warning to host: you will lose consciousness in three seconds.
Three. Two. One.
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