High above the earth, two figures, one white and one black, tore through the darkness.
Joy Boy gritted his teeth as he fled forward at full speed, while Lloyd followed relentlessly from behind. His expression remained unreadable, and the Demon Blade Muramasa was firmly gripped in his hand, its blade gleaming ominously as it pursued Joy Boy.
"Joy Boy, are you planning to run all the way to the end of the world?"
Lloyd's voice drifted leisurely through the darkness behind him.
Joy Boy's brow furrowed slightly.
The Drums of Liberation within his chest had gradually quieted, and his strength had recovered to roughly seventy or eighty percent.
Yet Joy Boy still felt no sense of relief.
The recovery ability provided by the Drums of Liberation was indeed extraordinary, but it could not be activated without limit.
This power was inherently idealistic. It depended upon people possessing an unwavering desire for freedom within their hearts. Unfortunately, compared with eight hundred years ago, there were far fewer such people in the world now, and their numbers were continuing to decrease.
The situation on the outer battlefield was the clearest example.
The Mink Tribe and the Giants were being slaughtered by the Navy forces led by Kuma, and every death represented another loss of potential strength.
The thought caused Joy Boy's expression to become increasingly grim.
He had remained dormant for eight hundred years.
He absolutely would not accept another failure.
Because Joy Boy understood better than anyone that this was his final opportunity.
Among the Celestial Dragons, someone like Lloyd had appeared.
If Lloyd were given even more time to grow, then this world would eventually be molded completely according to his will.
Joy Boy suddenly stopped and turned around.
His hands slammed together in front of his chest.
At almost the exact moment he turned, the Demon Blade Muramasa stabbed toward him. Joy Boy blocked the blade between his palms, preventing it from piercing his chest.
Lloyd looked at him with a faint, almost amused smile.
"Your sit-up speed is slower than Luffy's. Perhaps you should have changed your name to Joy Boy after all."
Joy Boy clearly did not understand what Lloyd was talking about.
Nevertheless, he immediately retorted.
"Nonsense! My name is Joy Boy, not Luffy!"
Lloyd smiled without comment.
He gave a slight nod.
"Exactly. Now go to hell with that name, Joy Boy."
"It's you Celestial Dragons who should go to hell!"
The instant his voice fell, Joy Boy launched a punch.
Lloyd answered with a punch of his own.
Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki erupted simultaneously.
The two overwhelming forces collided high above the earth, nearly ten thousand meters in the sky. Red-black lightning scattered in every direction, resembling the manifestation of a catastrophic storm.
The thunderous explosions continued without interruption.
The heavens themselves seemed to tremble beneath the impact, and the surrounding sky was violently torn apart, leaving behind an enormous rupture in the darkness.
The battle continued for a long time.
Eventually, Joy Boy unleashed the power of Nika.
His body rapidly expanded until a colossal, thousand-meter-tall Giant appeared in the sky.
He stretched out one enormous hand.
His palm seemed capable of covering the heavens themselves.
As his hand moved, the surrounding darkness was forcibly dispersed, and his enormous palm descended toward Lloyd with terrifying force.
Lloyd remained expressionless.
A dark tornado suddenly rose behind him.
The enormous vortex twisted violently through the sky before colliding with Joy Boy's palm.
The dark force firmly supported the incoming hand, preventing it from advancing even an inch further.
Joy Boy immediately felt the Dark Power within the tornado beginning to erode his palm.
He had no choice but to withdraw his hand.
Then he stomped heavily against the air.
The thousand-meter-tall body surged upward once again before disappearing into the endless darkness above.
However, darkness was no obstacle to Lloyd.
To the master of darkness, the surrounding night was no different from daylight.
The black wings behind Lloyd suddenly spread.
With a powerful flap, his figure shot upward into the darkness.
The next instant, the boundless curtain of darkness surged like a turbulent sea.
Several enormous beams of dark light descended from above, extending all the way downward until they connected with the Black Sea below.
On the battlefield beneath them, members of the D. Clan were still engaged in fierce combat against the Five Elders and the others.
Some of them were caught off guard and struck directly by the descending dark beams.
The moment the dark light touched their bodies, sizzling sounds erupted from their flesh, as though their bodies were being scorched over flames.
It was a clear indication that their Nika Power was being rapidly consumed.
Saint Nusjuro, who had already activated his Human-Beast Form, immediately seized the opportunity.
The First Generation Kitetsu in his hand flashed.
Cold energy and Haki condensed along the blade, forming a ghostly-white slash that tore through the battlefield.
A member of the D. Clan who was already struggling beneath the dark light was struck directly.
In an instant, his body was transformed into an ice sculpture.
The frozen figure then shattered with a deafening explosion, completely disappearing from the world.
Similar scenes continued to occur across the battlefield.
The God's Knights, Saint Saturn, and the others also took advantage of the dark light beams, successively killing several members of the D. Clan who had been weakened by their effects.
Elsewhere, Roger was forced to evade the dark beams descending from above while simultaneously dealing with Akainu's relentless magma attacks.
The saber in Roger's hand, which Ace had transformed into, was covered in blackened spots.
Those marks were left behind after the weapon had been struck by the dark light.
If Roger had not pulled Ace out of the dark beam in time earlier, Ace would probably have vanished completely by now.
Akainu and the others, however, were completely unaffected even when struck by the same dark light beams.
Instead, the Dark Power could even be considered a form of enhancement for them.
The contrast was extremely obvious.
The Dark Power exerted a powerful suppressive effect on the Nika Power within people like Roger, greatly slowing their recovery and making it much harder for their physical injuries to heal.
As this balance continued to shift, the D. Clan, who were already at a disadvantage, gradually began showing signs of collapse.
They were hunted across the battlefield like prey by the Admirals led by Akainu, the Five Elders led by Garling, and the God's Knights.
The only battlefield that remained particularly difficult was Lucia's.
She was facing Rocks.
Although Rocks had been deprived of his self-awareness, his innate physical strength remained terrifyingly powerful.
Even Lucia, fighting him alone, was having difficulty suppressing him.
Fortunately, after dealing with their respective opponents, Aokiji and Aramaki arrived to provide support.
With three Admirals joining forces, the situation immediately began to reverse.
Rocks was forced backward step by step beneath their combined assault.
There was no denying that Rocks truly deserved his reputation as the Pirate overlord who had once directly confronted the World Government and the Navy at God Valley.
Even while deprived of his self-awareness, he could still barely withstand the combined assault of three Admirals.
By comparison, Roger, the so-called Pirate King, appeared somewhat less impressive.
Rocks relied heavily on his powerful Observation Haki to maneuver through the attacks of the three Admirals.
However, he ultimately lacked his own consciousness.
Relying solely on the instinctive reactions provided by Observation Haki naturally had limitations.
Although he could evade most of the attacks, all three Admirals were top-tier Devil Fruit users with enormous attack ranges.
Avoiding everything was impossible.
Many times, Rocks had no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils, using his limited Haki to protect the most vital parts of his body while accepting lesser injuries elsewhere.
At this moment, Lucia and the other two Admirals also noticed the situation unfolding across the other battlefields.
They saw the suppressive effect the dark light beams were having on the members of the D. Clan.
All three were battle-hardened fighters.
No verbal communication was necessary.
A single exchange of glances was enough for them to understand what needed to be done.
Lucia possessed the strongest offensive power among the three and naturally assumed the role of the primary attacker.
She spread the wings behind her and flew above Rocks.
A Fallen Angel Hammer descended with overwhelming force and smashed heavily into Rocks.
Rocks raised his Haki to defend against the attack.
At that moment, Aokiji and Aramaki attacked simultaneously.
Ice pillars erupted from one side while thick vines surged from the other.
Rocks had already used a significant portion of his Haki to withstand Lucia's assault.
Faced with the attacks of Aokiji and Aramaki, he instinctively followed the defensive approach dictated by his Observation Haki, concentrating his remaining Haki around his vital points to prevent his body from suffering a decisive blow.
But that was precisely what Lucia and the other two had been waiting for.
The ice pillars and vines did not aim to inflict fatal damage.
Instead, they sealed and entangled Rocks' feet.
The dull, instinct-driven Rocks did not react in time.
Before he could break free, the combined force of the ice and vines violently hurled his enormous body backward.
His entire body plunged directly into one of the descending beams of dark light.