Demon Warder... unleash every ounce of your power.
With a single thought from Drake, the surrounding space froze solid in an instant. Everything grew exquisitely distinct, until every shifting current and micro-movement fell under his absolute dominion.
This was the feeling!
Drake snapped his eyes open, a brilliant beam of incandescent light flaring within his gaze.
With the Demon Warder's full amplification engaged, power so staggering it made his own soul tremble flooded unceasingly into his limbs.
In this moment, he stood peerless beneath the heavens!
Such was the unshakeable confidence that he could settle anything in this world!
As expected of an upgrade that cost a fortune. That money didn't go to waste after all, Drake mused silently, the lingering sting of his spent fortune easing considerably.
It was worth every single Berry.
BOOM!
His silhouette blurred. When he materialized again, he was already hovering inches before Im, driving an iron fist down with cataclysmic momentum.
The concussive shockwave alone warped the spatial fabric, yet Drake's mastery over spatial manipulation had reached an uncanny realm of surgical perfection.
Every ounce of the detonating kinetic force was concentrated onto a single, microscopic point—not a single thread of energy leaked into the surrounding air.
That singular focal point struck directly toward Im.
"Stop bragging!" Im's eyes turned crimson. Meeting the blow with a physical frame that looked minuscule compared to the Demon Warder, she hurled her own fist upward to contest it.
BANG!
Fist slammed against fist.
Terrifying atmospheric shockwaves billowed outward in violent rings.
Below them, the frozen ocean splintered into fractured webs before disintegrating into powdery mist.
The churning sea surged back into view as towering swells erupted skyward, battering the air as they rolled across every quadrant of the horizon.
"Bind!" Drake roared, immediately driving a second fist forward.
Before Im could initiate an evasion, crushing gravitational force converged on her from all directions, instantly compressing her skeleton. A sickening chorus of fracturing bones echoed through the air.
Her mobility was stripped away in a fraction of a second.
Right then, a concussive fist saturated with dense spatial energy crashed heavily against her chest.
KABOOM!
The spatial distortion detonated, carving an immense shockwave through the atmosphere behind Im that tore through the clouds until it vanished over the horizon.
Drake's gaze hardened. With the first decisive blow landed, the remaining sequence was simple.
Drive it home with another!
Giving Im no breathing room to stabilize herself, Drake drove a downward punch straight into her chest. He had to end this with ruthless efficiency!
Right on target, the strike detonated cleanly.
The downward blow blasted Im out of the sky, sending her hurtling toward the churning sea like a fallen meteor.
Demon Warder, maximum output!
"Spatial Suppression!"
VROOOM!
The surrounding space vibrated violently.
Drake's aura surged without limit, bearing down with an incomprehensible, godlike pressure.
"HAAAH...!"
As his battle roar ripped through the atmosphere, the descending pressure alone churned the ocean into mountainous waves.
"Freeze!"
The moment Drake spat out that singular command through clenched teeth, the surrounding spatial coordinates locked into absolute stasis.
The tempestuous swells frozen in mid-surge stood as rigid as sculpted glass.
Plummeting at terminal velocity, Im halted abruptly right above the surface of the water, suspended completely motionless in mid-air.
"Ain, now's the time!" Drake bellowed, snapping Ain out of her daze.
"Understood!"
Ain acknowledged the order instantly, stepping out from the Demon Warder with her resolve set.
Watching Drake's unyielding silhouette pouring everything into maintaining the suppression, Kuzan and the others felt their very souls shudder.
Too strong!
Standing closest to Drake, they perceived the depth of his power with terrifying clarity. Though that crushing pressure was not aimed at them, the instinctual dread welling up from the depths of their souls was undeniable.
Raw presence alone was enough to dominate all of creation.
"Conqueror's Haki... can actually reach such terrifying heights?!" Kuzan muttered in sheer disbelief.
To suppress an entity like Im purely through the weight of Conqueror's pressure was enough to leave any veteran speechless.
The operation had unfolded with flawless precision, yet it felt almost unreal—largely due to the overwhelming aura Drake radiated.
He looked like a supreme, primordial god of creation; merely standing there, he commanded infinite authority over heaven and earth.
"This finally ends it," Kenshin murmured, watching Ain approach the target with quiet relief in his chest.
"Secret Art: Soul-Sealing!"
Familiar silver needles cleaved through the air, burying themselves directly into Im's physical form.
Practice made perfect. Having rehearsed the technique against Im so many times, Ain had mastered the precise rhythm. A sealing art of such staggering complexity was executed from start to finish in a mere three minutes.
Discharging the final needle, Ain let out a long, shuddering exhale. Even with prior experience, the ritual had drained nearly every scrap of her remaining stamina.
"It's over!" Locke let out a relieved breath, a broad smile spreading across his face. "Ain, get back inside!"
"Right!" Ain turned her head back toward the ship, offering a faint, tired smile.
She hadn't anticipated the procedure going this smoothly either—no doubt a testament to the absolute suppression Drake had enforced.
"Look out! Sister Ain, get back—NOW!" Bell screamed at the top of his lungs.
Almost simultaneously, the figure of Im—who should have been locked into total paralysis—straightened up once more. In the blink of an eye, she dissolved into a blur of black tendrils surging straight toward Ain!
Locke's pupils contracted into pinpricks.
No one could have foreseen such a development. How could Im be entirely unaffected?!
"Sever!"
A shimmering wall of concentrated spatial light materialized behind Ain, cleanly cleaving the coordinates in two and walling off the tendrils of black mist inches before they could reach her.
"Ain, get back inside the Demon Warder. Don't worry—leave the rest to me," Drake commanded calmly, his spatial authority wrapping around Ain to warp her safely back into the cockpit.
Internally, he cursed his own carelessness.
To have lowered his guard for even a split second at such a critical juncture... If Bell hadn't sounded the alarm, Ain would have suffered a lethal strike.
Im's movements were simply too fast.
What baffled him was that Ain's needles had struck the fatal acupoints with surgical precision. How could she remain completely unharmed?
"Ahehehe... Your reflexes are surprisingly sharp," Im said, her eyes narrowing as she fixed a mocking gaze onto Drake.
Kaya's gentle, innocent features were twisted into a visage of profound malice—a sight that unsettled anyone looking upon it.
Had Usopp witnessed this grotesque spectacle, he would have charged in blindly to tear Im to pieces.
Just what the hell happened here?!
"There is no need to look so bewildered. Did you truly take me for a fool who would do nothing after learning her own weakness?" Im tilted her chin upward, gesturing with an idle flick of her wrist.
A thin outer layer of synthetic skin peeled smoothly from her frame, revealing writhing tendrils of dark mist beneath.
Embedded firmly across that discarded membrane were the silver needles, pulsing with faint, fading luminescence.
The needles hadn't failed—she had intercepted them using a decoy layer!
Drake's eyes lowered slightly, understanding dawning within his mind.
"Your strength is formidable, indeed. But if you think you can kill me, you are sorely mistaken." Im locked her gaze onto Drake, her lips parting into a cold, derisive sneer. "Allow me to share some delightful news: the East Blue... is about to be wiped from the face of this earth."
Drake's eyes widened, his expression darkening into a tempest of cold fury.
Seeing her bottomless composure, a terrible premonition took root in his chest.
What cards did she still hold that granted her such absolute confidence?!
Seconds ticked away in suffocating silence.
Purupurupuru...
Suddenly, the frantic ringing of a Transponder Snail broke the quiet within the Demon Warder.
The crew exchanged swift, tense glances. Stepping forward, Kenshin lifted the receiver.