He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused. Ace clenched the Star Energy fragment in his right hand, ignited flames in his left, then brought his hands together.
"Starfire: Fusion!"
At Ace's low shout, the markings within his body suddenly lit up, and the flames in his hands shifted from orange-red to a deep purple. He spread his arms, and purple fire surged out like a tide, forming a blazing barrier along the shoreline. The flames looked ordinary, yet they contained special fluctuations aimed at Void Energy.
When the first wave of Void soldiers crashed into the wall of fire, they let out piercing screams. Their Voidified bodies could not withstand the Star Energy flames and rapidly disintegrated as if being corroded. However, Ace quickly realized that the expenditure was immense—maintaining the barrier required a constant output of enormous energy, and his control over Star Energy was still far from proficient.
"I can't keep this up for long," Ace gritted out, feeling the sharp depletion of energy within him. "But I can at least buy us some time."
Meanwhile, Luffy was busy around the observatory. Holding a Star Energy fragment, he moved swiftly, setting Dimensional traps at key points. At each location, Luffy pressed his palm to the ground, released a small stream of Star Energy, and used his mind to construct a miniature Dimensional Passage.
"Bridge of Connection: Collapse!"
Sweat beaded on Luffy's forehead. This technique was still unfamiliar to him, but his talent allowed him to quickly grasp its basic applications. Before long, more than a dozen invisible Dimensional traps surrounded the observatory. Anyone who stepped into one would be briefly transported into a miniature pocket dimension, unable to escape immediately.
Inside the Starheart Chamber, Lin Ye sat cross-legged on the floor, arranging three Anchor Stones