The Sword Saint's Domain of God!
Upon hearing Rayleigh's threatening declaration, Imu was standing in the air, was not surprised but delighted. He had long been looking forward to testing his skills on someone.
Although his past life's memories gave him a basic understanding of his skill level, and he often practiced swordsmanship, ultimately, memories are just memories, and practice is still practice.
Isn't Rayleigh, the 'Pluton' standing right in front of us, the perfect test subject?
Although I don't know what this guy was doing in Mary Geoise, since he's courting death, I might as well send him on his way.
What's that saying again?
Everyone dies eventually, but some people need a little help!
As for danger, it can only be said that a single top combatant could not bring him such a rare feeling.
At the same time,
The air crackled with rapid whooshing sounds once more. Although the sounds weren't very loud, they were quite clear because there was no other noise and it was nighttime.
Upon seeing this, Rayleigh roared, unleashing his full power and Haki without reservation. Waves of energy emanated from him without wind, causing his brilliant blond hair and clothes to flutter wildly.
"Underworld Prison!!"
In Setsuna, his whole body swelled up, his bones, muscles and skin bulged, and his bones cracked and popped in a series of sounds. The muscles on his right arm swelled by three-tenths of an inch.
The moment the longsword, crackling with countless silver lightning bolts, slashed Setsuna, a dazzling light burst forth, illuminating the entire arena, before culminating in a massive crescent-shaped Flying Slash vertically downwards.
The air affected along the way was transformed into surging energy under extreme pressure, forcibly pushing away all the Formless swords around it. The Adam Wood field on the ground, worth hundreds of millions of Beli, was cut open with deep cracks as if it were tofu.
In that instant, Mihawk understood the feelings of the crowds who witnessed him swing his sword at Whitebeard during the Marineford War in the original timeline.
All they could see was silver light. The three of them stared blankly as the enormous, astonishing blade of light hurtled toward Saint Imu of Saint Nerona, as well as the Five Elders upstairs and the numerous CP men in black standing guard outside the castle gates.
"Um?!"
Yet, this powerful, ferocious Flying Slash, crackling with dangerous electricity, was 'flying' rather slowly, and slower and slower, which made everyone's eyes turn strange.
It was like a scene played in slow motion at ten times the speed, struggling to approach the air above where Imu was located amidst dense ripples in the air.
After an unknown amount of time, when it finally came to within three meters of him, it exploded as if relieved of a great burden, shattering into countless specks of silver light that scattered across the entire area like starlight falling from the sky.
The scene was so beautiful, but Rayleigh's expression turned extremely ugly, and his mood plummeted to the bottom of the Abyss.
"That's impossible."
Even Roger himself would have needed "Divine Departure" to counter his "Underworld Prison" attack, but this strange Celestial Dragons simply blocked it with his hands behind his back!
But Rayleigh is Rayleigh after all. As the vice-captain of the Roger Pirates, he has the ability to maintain basic rationality and calmness at all times, frantically analyzing the situation in his mind.
"Is that an air wall?"
"The Emission of Armament Haki!"
"How could there be such a terrifyingly powerful Armament Haki in the world?"
At this moment, as the 'Pluton' looked up at Imu under the full moon, he realized that the latter was not actually using his Devil Fruit ability to levitate, but rather 'stepping' on Formless Armament Haki!
But it was precisely this point that shocked Rayleigh, as it exceeded his Bleach of Haki.
While Haki can indeed Emission to influence physical matter, such Emission is explosive and cannot last. To maintain it in the long term, it can only be condensed on the body's surface, i. e., 'Hardening', or wrapped around the body and evaporated like gas, i. e., 'Coating'.
In fact, this was indeed beyond the Haki level of these top-tier combat forces from the outside world.
Over the past eight hundred years, his predecessor Imu has continuously honed, Haki, and studied Haki, cultivating Conqueror's Haki Haki, Armament Haki, and Observation Haki to near their limits before fusing them into one.
From then on, for him, Haki was no longer divided into any kind.
Armament Haki's Hardening, Emission projection, and inward penetration; Observation Haki's vast range, sensing auras, predicting actions, and Future Sight; Conqueror's Haki's intimidation, pressure, and Coating.
These characteristics are thoroughly integrated.
In addition, with the accumulation of knowledge and experience over the years, the sheer amount of Haki power he possesses has already reached the limit that his mind can contain, and ultimately, quantitative change leads to qualitative change.
Not only that.
Over the long years, the Swordsmanship of the former Imu had far surpassed that of Great Swordsman, and he called this Bleach 'Sword Saint'.
Over the centuries, he had witnessed countless brilliant swordsmen and geniuses, but only Ryuma of Wano Country had come so close to this Bleach.
This is also the main reason why Ryuma was able to defeat the then- Navy Admiral and was known as the 'God of Swords'!
However, in the eyes of his predecessor Imu, only when Ryuma fully entered the realm of Sword Saint would he be worthy of the title of Sword God.
Unfortunately, the latter did not possess immortality and ultimately succumbed to the slow decay of mortal flesh over time.
Since then, the former Imu has gone a step further, combining his swordsmanship with Haki to form these Formless sword energies that can appear anywhere within the range of Haki.
Its predecessor Imu, called it the 'Domain of God'!
"Ant, feel honored to die in this place; it is the greatest honor and blessing of your life."
Imu's abilities weren't complicated or flashy. Having personally experienced his own methods, his interest in Rayleigh gradually waned.
He intended to send this 'Pluton' to the true Nether Domain in a rather lavish manner; whether Rayleigh could become king there was none of his concern.
[Sizzle sizzle sizzle sizzle----]
The next moment, Rayleigh, standing on the field representing the first half of the Grand Line, saw sword beams flashing with golden lightning gradually gathering behind Imu.
Their numbers were increasing at a visible rate, and soon the night sky was completely covered by dense golden light.
Rayleigh's narrowed eyes revealed that the sword energy itself was actually Formless and transparent, only appearing and disappearing under the flickering light of the lightning.
"These sword energies can even Coating Conqueror's Haki, and their color is an unprecedented gold. This is really troublesome~~"
At that moment, Shakky's face appeared in his mind.
"If only I had known"
[Swish swish swish swish swish swish!]
All the lightning sword beams transformed into streaks of unparalleled speed, like a torrential downpour under the moonlight. A golden wind swept through, condensing boundless killing intent, completely engulfing, enveloping, and covering Rayleigh, who was wielding his long sword with all his might.
The silver lightning bolts were bombarded relentlessly by the golden lightning. Sword energies intertwined, engaging in fierce combat. Lightning bolts collided, exploded, and annihilated each other repeatedly.
The stadium beneath them, inscribed with the words "Grand Line," also crumbled and shattered, as if the all-out battle between the two had caused the sea to recoil and the Airquake.
After an unknown amount of time, the ball of light began to flicker incessantly, and streaks of bright red blood splashed out under the moonlight, only to be evaporated into specks of blood mist by a streak of lightning.
Sudden.
Mihawk and the others noticed that no more lightning sword energy was being added in the air. When the last bolt of lightning landed, they saw that 'Pluton' Rayleigh was already lying on the ground.
His back, arms, and legs were all covered with Formless sword energy crackling with golden lightning. His eyes were on the verge of death, and the long sword in his hand had already broken.
"Roger, it seems my voyage has come to an end. What an adventurous life!"
The title of Sword Saint is a real title, as readers familiar with Japan swordsmanship should know. Therefore, it is not wrong for me to regard Sword Saint as Bleach above Great Swordsman.
The author didn't make Imu's methods too flashy; they were mainly based on Haki and Swordsmanship, which is probably the most acceptable setting for most readers.
However, the protagonist's future powers will definitely not be limited to Haki and Swordsmanship, but I assure you I won't make it too chaotic, because I personally dislike protagonists with messy power systems.
Regarding the detailed descriptions of this battle, many people felt that Imu had little presence and wasn't involved much, so I had to let Imu occasionally take action. It's impossible to please everyone, so please be understanding, my generous readers. I really had to cater to all kinds of needs.
Also, let me reiterate that although I have said many times before, please refer to this book for any speculative settings in the original work or those of Oda that have not yet been confirmed. If these settings are later proven wrong, please treat this book as a parallel world that is not entirely true. This will not affect the story of the World Government's subsequent conquest of various worlds.
After all, how can you write fanfiction without getting slapped in the face? The fact that I managed to avoid the Nika Fruit incident once was already a testament to my intelligence and luck as a new author.
But please don't be like that Mr. Oda Eijiro in the comments section, who takes his own imagination and speculation as the original setting and then uses it to accuse others of messing up the original setting by imagining and speculating differently from him.
That's not fair!
Why is your interpretation based on the official setting, while mine is just a random alteration of the setting?
Finally, Dark King Rayleigh, died in battle. Shall we celebrate with some money?