A powerful and domineering gravitational pressure erupted instantly from the blade of Kokorowatari in Diarmuid's hand.
Under the force of gravity, the thick, seemingly impregnable walls of the Domain of the Gods began to twist and buckle. The defending troops stationed atop the ramparts looked as if they were being contorted by an invisible hand.
Pfft...
One defender spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. That single spray of red seemed to be the breaking point.
With a deafening roar, the wall collapsed. Scores of guards and defenders were buried under the rubble. In a mere heartbeat, the frontal defense of the Domain of the Gods had been utterly annihilated by a single strike from Diarmuid's blade.
This was exactly why top-tier powerhouses like Diarmuid understood that the decisive factor in true warfare lay in the disparity in quality and quantity between elite combatants. Low-level forces were merely "tools" used to maintain authority and order during peaceful times. In a world where individual military might reached such extremes, this was the inevitable reality.
Sheathing his sword, Diarmuid said in a low, heavy voice, "Let's go. Let's see what kind of ghosts are haunting this Domain of the Gods!"
Sakazuki, Borsalino, Gion, and Kuzan all followed Diarmuid as they began their advance into the complex. Garp and Tsuru intended to move as well, but Sengoku reached out and stopped them both.
"What are you doing? Isn't Hina-chan in charge over here?" Garp grumbled, clearly dissatisfied.
"Diarmuid overlooked one thing: if we all head in, there will be no one left to oversee the 'big picture' in all of Mariejois. He made assignments for every front but left no one at the center to coordinate," Sengoku explained.
"Me?" Garp blinked, stunned.
"Of course not you. It's Tsuru. However, to prevent any new surprises, Garp, you will remain at the rear. You'll deal with any unforeseen situations and follow Tsuru's arrangements," Sengoku commanded.
Indeed, Diarmuid had missed this detail. While Hina possessed enough prestige to keep the other Vice Admirals in line, she still lacked the strategic flexibility and macro-perspective required for such a massive operation. It was partly Diarmuid's fault; he had kept Hina by his side as his primary "aide-de-camp," never truly sending her out to gain independent experience.
Consequently, while Hina was a top-tier expert in internal affairs, having essentially performed the duties of an Admiral for years while handling Diarmuid's business, her ability to adapt on a dynamic battlefield was insufficient. Diarmuid hadn't noticed, but Sengoku saw it clearly.
Thus, Sengoku chose to keep the master strategist, Tsuru, behind to oversee the entirety of Mariejois and coordinate maneuvers, while Garp remained as the ultimate "anchor" at the rear.
The contrast in styles was evident: Diarmuid favored bold, decisive strikes, while Sengoku was seasoned and cautious.
Soon, Diarmuid's group entered the Domain of the Gods.
This area had always been the exclusive domain of the Celestial Dragons. Under normal circumstances, no non-Celestial Dragon was permitted entry, save for their slaves and servants, who, in the eyes of the Celestial Dragons, weren't considered human anyway.
Four years ago, during the Great Fire of Mariejois, Dragon had breached the Domain of the Gods and plundered a vast fortune, which he later split fifty-fifty with Diarmuid. Back then, much of it had been reduced to a shambles, but it had since been fully restored, appearing even more formidable than before.
Whether it was Diarmuid or Sengoku's group, this was actually their first time stepping inside. Previously, they had no right to enter.
The Domain of the Gods was massive. Passing through the breach in the collapsed wall, they were met with a vast plaza and garden. The plaza was swarming with heavy reinforcements, all standing in battle formation, waiting for them.
"Fire!" a guard commander bellowed.
Small-caliber cannons, rifles, and various firearms erupted simultaneously. In an instant, a curtain of lead and iron,as dense as a rainstorm, whistled toward Diarmuid and the others.
However, neither Diarmuid nor Sengoku paid the projectiles any mind. Instead, Diarmuid pulled out a schematic and leaned toward Sengoku. "Is it here?"
"How should I know? I've never been here before!" Sengoku complained, sounding equally uncertain.
The map they were holding was the "hand-drawn" guide provided by Doflamingo. Since the Domain of the Gods had no intelligence leaks, and because of the massive renovations following Dragon's raid, Doflamingo's memory-based map was proving to be outdated.
"Great Eruption!" Sakazuki suddenly roared.
He threw a punch forward, which transformed into a massive molten fist. The sheer area of the magma was enough to intercept the entire incoming barrage. The magma swallowed the cannonballs and bullets whole, continuing forward with terrifying momentum toward the plaza's defensive line.
Sakazuki's technique was peerless when it came to clearing "fodder." A single Great Eruption turned the entire plaza into a scorched hellscape, instantly wiping out the sizeable guarding force.
"I think it should be here..." Kuzan pointed to a symbol on the map.
"Impossible. We just broke through the outer wall; how could we be there already? Look, it should be opposite Pangea Castle. This is the spot, it's just that there wasn't a plaza here before..." Diarmuid countered.
"If you ask me, why don't we just call Doflamingo and ask him? Didn't he want to storm this place too?" Gion suggested.
Diarmuid paused. "...Wait, where is Doflamingo?"
He glanced up at the Birdcage in the sky. After setting that up, where did the man disappear to? He wasn't worried about betrayal, at this stage, Doflamingo had no way back. Unless he was a complete fool, he wouldn't turn traitor now. He was just worried the guy had played himself and died right on the eve of victory.
Without Doflamingo acting as their guide, the high-ranking Marine officers stood there over a crude hand-drawn map, engaged in a heated argument. It was a comical sight: could these legendary Marines really not read a map?
In truth, they really couldn't, at least not this one. Doflamingo's drawing was rudimentary at best, and the area had been redesigned so many times for the Celestial Dragons' whims that it no longer resembled his memories. Finally, they were more used to reading sea charts than what looked like a preschooler's doodle.
"Damn it, forget the map! Let's just push through everything!" Diarmuid finally snapped.
Before anyone could object, he bent his waist, crouched low, and slammed his hand onto the ground. A dense, dark aura exploded from his palm, spreading across the ground at an incredible speed.
"Abyssal Darkness!" Diarmuid growled.
As the words left his lips, the dark power within him surged even more violently, turning into a tangible wave of black that rolled across the surface like a literal tide. Within seconds, everything within the group's line of sight had been stained black by the Abyssal Darkness.
"What are you doing?" Sengoku asked, startled.
"Eternal Sinking," Diarmuid whispered.
He stood up. Simultaneously, the dark power shifted. The ground became like a swamp, a bottomless vortex of shadow that began to swallow everything on the surface. Buildings, Sakazuki's leftover magma, the ruins of the wall, corpses, cannons, trees, and flowers, everything standing was pulled under. Even the bluestone paving the plaza didn't remain.
Then, the dispersed darkness flowed back toward Diarmuid's feet, returning to his body. When the darkness cleared, the area for two or three thousand meters around them was completely barren, revealing only the unique red wasteland soil of Mariejois.
The magnificent buildings were gone. It was as if everything had been devoured by a giant maw from the abyss.
With the dense clusters of buildings gone, their line of sight was wide open. Diarmuid pointed to a castle in the distance. "That should be the one, right?"
Sengoku and the others finally understood. Diarmuid's move might or might not be his strongest, but the visual impact was absolutely explosive. Kuzan's ice or Sakazuki's magma could destroy everything in sight, but they always left traces behind.
Diarmuid's strike felt like "erasure." The feeling that all life and existence could be wiped out by the darkness was overwhelming. He hadn't even left a floor tile!
"You..." Sengoku began.
But before he could finish, his expression shifted violently. Golden light burst from his body as his ability activated instinctively. Gion and the others did the same; at their level of power, their instincts were honed to a razor's edge.
Not far away, in the area near the castle Diarmuid had just pointed out, a beam of energy, identical to the "Mini-Pluton" beam that had attacked the Reverie, was streaking toward them.
It was incredibly fast. Because the distance was much shorter than at the Reverie, there was only a single heartbeat between sensing the attack and it appearing before them. By the time they saw it, the attack was practically on top of them.
At this moment, they truly experienced the terror of that speed.
In that instant, Sakazuki, Kuzan, Gion, and Diarmuid all realized the true threat of the Mini-Pluton. It wasn't just the destructive power, which was formidable but survivable if prepared. The true threat was this horrifying speed! It was in no way inferior to the movement speed of Borsalino or Gion.
Diarmuid was fast, but in that split second, his darkness only had time to spread outward; it didn't have time to absorb the beam.
The only two people present who could react in time were the two fastest among them: Borsalino and Gion!
"Hikari no Ryo Hashira!" Borsalino made a rectangular frame with his thumbs and index fingers in front of his chest. A pillar of light shot forth. (ltrlly. Light Prism Pillat)
"Pierce it, Thunderbird!!" Gion's speed kept pace. She whipped out Konpira, and a blast of lightning erupted from the tip of her blade.
The plasma-like lightning and Borsalino's light pillar struck simultaneously, precisely hitting the incoming Mini-Pluton energy beam.
For a brief moment, the three forces collided, halting the Mini-Pluton's advance. Then, the three energies began to swell together. Under the violent conflict of their meeting, a chain reaction started, threatening to create an even more terrifying explosion.
But that brief stalemate was enough.
"Abyssal Curtain!" Diarmuid leaped to the front, extending both hands. A thick curtain of dark aura instantly formed a shield before the group.
Then... it exploded!
The lightning, the light pillar, and the energy beam detonated as one. The force was unlike anything seen at the Reverie. A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky, yet strangely, the energy didn't scatter.
To Diarmuid, this hit, combining the Mini-Pluton's power with the full-strength attacks of Borsalino and Gion, was incredibly potent. Fortunately, the power of darkness did not disappoint him, eventually pulling all the explosive force into the infinite void.
"Damn, that was too fast," Diarmuid said with lingering fear once the crisis had passed.
He wasn't the only one. Sengoku, still glowing with golden light, wiped non-existent sweat from his brow and nodded. "Too fast. It felt even faster than Borsalino!"
Borsalino: "???"
Who are you looking down on?
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