"Compared to Devil Fruit abilities, it seems this Domain of the Gods leans more toward the power of technology," Sengoku observed.
"What is the point of this barrier anyway?" Kuzan muttered, brow furrowed.
By now, Diarmuid and the others had slowly paced their way to the front of the shimmering shield.
Diarmuid raised a finger and lightly touched the barrier. It was transparent and invisible, yet it felt solid, as if he were touching a film made of pure light.
"This tech is impressive. Does the Special Science Group have this?" Diarmuid asked, genuinely intrigued. If they could get a set of these for their warships, wouldn't they become practically invincible?
"No. I've never seen it, nor have I even heard of it," Borsalino replied with absolute certainty.
Just as he finished speaking, he felt a sudden surge of heat beside him. While the others were curiously observing the barrier, Sakazuki, true to his short-tempered nature, had no patience for such things.
"Great Eruption!!" Sakazuki roared, throwing a punch.
His arm transformed into seething magma, imbued with the crushing force of Haki, as he slammed it into the barrier. In the original story, Sakazuki used this level of power to tear through even Whitebeard.
A violent shockwave erupted from the point of impact. To the naked eye, exaggerated "cracks" appeared on the invisible shield, looking like shattered glass.
But ultimately, Sakazuki's strike failed to break through.
"Such immense defensive power!" Sakazuki retracted his fist, sounding somewhat incredulous. Even his magma couldn't breach it?
But remembering Gion's earlier Raimei Hoho, it wasn't so hard to accept.
"Fury of the Buddha!" Sengoku didn't hold back either. He slammed a palm forward, sending a massive shockwave mixed with golden Buddhist light into the shield. It wavered, but it held.
"Incredible! This barrier is simply incredible!" Diarmuid laughed loudly. To block the combined successive attacks of Gion, Sakazuki, and Sengoku without breaking was a rare feat of defensive might.
"Let's attack together. If we focus on a single point, we should be able to break it," Sengoku suggested after a moment's thought. Judging by the way the castle had ceased its offensive, this barrier was likely two-way: those outside couldn't get in, but those inside couldn't fire out either.
"Just because you guys can't do it doesn't mean I can't. Everyone, back up. Leave this to me!" Diarmuid laughed.
"Right, maybe the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit can absorb the barrier?" Kuzan said, catching on.
"No, I intend to break through head-on," Diarmuid corrected him, raising an eyebrow.
"In terms of pure destructive power, Sakazuki's Magma-Magma Fruit is arguably the strongest in the world. Your gravity and darkness aren't quite as ferocious as his. Even my Rumble-Rumble Fruit is a bit flashy by comparison... unless you use Abyssal Devourer," Gion reminded him.
Though she didn't say it outright, she was clearly questioning if Diarmuid had the raw output for this. Diarmuid knew the strength of the Magma-Magma Fruit well; Oda himself had acknowledged its offensive power as being at the pinnacle.
However, compared to what he was about to do, even that had its limits.
"Just spread out!" Diarmuid waved them off without explaining.
After Kuzan and the others gave him space, Diarmuid began to retreat as well. Two minutes later, Sengoku's eyelid twitched. He cursed impatiently, "Hey, brat! How far back are you going?! You're hundreds of meters away!"
Just as the words left his mouth, everyone's eyes widened in shock.
Behind Diarmuid, a massive black void tore open like an abyss, bottomless and terrifying. From within the shadows, a colossal cannon barrel slowly extended outward...
"This is...?" Sengoku was dumbfounded. We were talking about Devil Fruit abilities, why are you using high-tech weaponry? What on earth is that?
Gion, however, knew. She gasped, "I almost forgot... the real Pluton is in your hands!"
"Pluton!?" Sengoku exclaimed.
No one answered him. All eyes were glued to Diarmuid. The massive muzzle of the cannon began to gather a terrifying amount of energy, even pulling in the surrounding dark elements from the air.
At that moment, Diarmuid finally understood: Pluton's firepower came from absorbing the various ambient energies in nature. Crocodile's Sand-Sand Fruit couldn't provide "elemental factors" to charge it properly, which is why his firing rate had been so slow.
While it took Crocodile five or six minutes to charge a single shot, Diarmuid, bolstered by the infinite dark elements of the Dark-Dark Fruit, had the Pluton cannon ready in less than a minute.
Without a moment's hesitation, Diarmuid fired.
The energy beam that erupted was even more exaggerated than Gion's. Wherever it passed, the ground turned to ash. This unstoppable force slammed into the barrier!
The shield flickered violently and began to shrink, collapsing inward under the pressure of the Pluton's blast. It seemed to be concentrating its energy into a smaller area to increase its defense.
Just as the observers thought even an Ancient Weapon might fail to pierce it, they heard a sound, the distinct, sharp crack of breaking ice or shattering glass.
In the next instant, the Pluton's attack exploded. A massive shockwave of air and dust swept everything away. The sound was so deafening that it moved beyond hearing into a realm of pure, silent vibration.
As the aftershocks threatened to level the surroundings, an endless tide of darkness surged from Diarmuid, acting like a tsunami to swallow the residual energy and dust into the abyss.
Five minutes later, the smoke settled.
"It's gone. The barrier is gone," Kuzan confirmed.
The strike from Pluton had been enough to shatter the shield completely.
…
Inside the castle, by a window, Imu looked on from afar. Her features remained noble, cold, and hauntingly beautiful. As Diarmuid had guessed, the recent events, including the bombing of the Reverie, were her doing.
"Pluton, is it?" Imu murmured softly.
Though she possessed technology derived from the Ancient Weapons, like the "Mini-Pluton," comparing it to the original's power forced her to admit the replica was lacking. The Mini-Pluton would have taken ten shots to do what the original did in one.
"As expected... only an Ancient Weapon can defeat an Ancient Weapon," Imu said, a faint smile touching her lips.
It seemed the barrier was indeed a power of the Ancient Weapon: Uranus.
"Go. All of you. Stop them and buy me more time," Imu commanded, her voice cold.
Kneeling behind her were four people: the remaining members of the Gorosei who had narrowly escaped Diarmuid earlier. After fleeing, they had somehow managed to regroup at the Domain of the Gods.
The Gorosei hesitated. They were expected to fight those monsters out there? It seemed like a joke. But a single look at Imu, whose power was far more terrifying to them than the Marines, made them choose obedience.
"Yes!" they responded in unison before hurrying away.
"Just a little longer..." Imu whispered to herself after they left. "Let me see how far you can go."
As she spoke, her finger gently pressed a button on a remote control panel in her hand.
…
Having breached the barrier, Diarmuid and the others moved toward the castle, remaining vigilant. The dust from the explosion hadn't fully settled, leaving their surroundings hazy and blurred.
"Someone's coming..." Diarmuid said suddenly, his Observation Haki flaring. He paused, frowning. "Wait, they don't feel human?"
"Two of them. One on the left, one on the right," Gion added.
Suddenly, a figure appeared beside Sakazuki. It was massive, nearly seven meters tall, and it slammed a palm down toward him. As the palm cut through the smoke, the Marines recognized the silhouette.
"Bartholomew Kuma?" Gion cried out in surprise.
"No, it's a Pacifista." Borsalino corrected her, though he was shocked. In his memory, the PX-Pacifista project was still in its prototype phase and far from complete.
However, shock was only temporary. Borsalino knew that while a Pacifista could crush ordinary pirates, it was mere fodder for those standing at the pinnacle of power.
"Volcano Rock!" Sakazuki, unfazed by the ambush, countered with a magma-imbued fist.
But as his magma touched the mechanical palm, Sakazuki's expression changed. His strength suddenly drained away.
"Watch out! It's Sea—" Sakazuki started to shout.
Before he could finish, the "Kuma" slammed him into the ground. Simultaneously, its other arm clamped around Sakazuki's neck, pinning him down with immense force. The machine then opened its mouth, gathering a laser beam.
Seastone! This Pacifista was made of Seastone!?
Top-tier experts like Sakazuki usually had some resistance to the stone's effects, but the ambush had been too sudden for him to react.
Borsalino faced a similar attack but, warned by Sakazuki's plight and aided by his own superior speed, he avoided being pinned.
"Pierce it, Thunderbird!" Gion fired a bolt of lightning straight into the mouth of the Pacifista pinning Sakazuki. The internal explosion tore half the machine's head off, revealing a mess of complex circuitry.
Before Sakazuki could even counter-attack, Gion had already saved him.
"Ice Time Capsule..." Kuzan exhaled a breath of cold air.
The Pacifista with the blown head and the one attacking Borsalino were both instantly encased in solid ice. Even Seastone could be frozen by Kuzan's absolute zero.
"What the hell are these things...?" Diarmuid muttered.
Before he could continue, a powerful slash erupted from the smoke, aimed directly at his throat. Diarmuid didn't have time to draw his sword, but his reflexes were peerless. Under the control of his gravity powers, his cursed blade, Kokorowatari, unsheathed itself to block the strike!