A Sword Pointed at Imu

The giant sword came crashing down.

The momentum of its fall from ten thousand meters tore through the clouds. A deathly white Vacuum Tunnel plunged straight toward the battlefield. The sword had already passed beyond what the naked eye could track. White light flashed across the sky. The next instant, the pressure of the blade struck.

The invisible pressure became a transparent wall and swept across the battlefield. The Sun God's white flames burning around Luffy suddenly faltered, more than half their tongues of fire crushed out. The dark-gold demonic energy swirling around Imu churned violently, like columns of smoke caught in a hurricane. Pain stabbed through both their chests. Then the shockwave hit them head-on.

Boom!

The blast drove Luffy back more than ten meters, his feet gouging deep trenches in the ice. Imu staggered, cracks bursting across his dark-gold shield. Forced apart, they each steadied themselves and looked up.

The giant sword hung in the air.

It had stopped dead three zhang above the ice. The force of its sudden halt slammed into the frozen plain.

The ice exploded.

Cracks radiated from directly beneath the sword, each too deep to see the bottom. Dark-blue seawater showed through the ice. The sword's spine carved a hundred-meter trench across the frozen plain. Fierce winds swept shattered ice high into the air, where it caught the deathly white light and danced across the sky. The blizzard blew backward.

A cloud of ice dust surged skyward.

Everyone held their breath. Whitebeard gripped Murakumogiri's shaft. Rocks' eyes narrowed. Loki, badly wounded and sprawled on the ground, struggled to raise his head. They stared into the cloud.

The dust had not yet cleared.

The giant sword was already moving.

Without pause or hesitation, its blade, broad as a city gate, whipped around. Its edge