Saint Nusjuro's "death" instantly plunged the seething battlefield across Egghead
into an eerie, suffocating silence.
Luffy and the three Five Elders fighting him-Saint Mars, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter, and Saint Warcury-
stopped moving at the same time.
Luffy floated in midair in Gear Fifth, his snow-white hair swaying slightly.
He looked down at his hands, which had just been trading blows evenly with his opponents,
then at the pile of dust rapidly scattering on the wind in the distance,
and the First Generation Kitetsu lying alone on the ground. A bewildered expression crossed his rubber face.
"Huh..."
"That bone monster... actually... died?"
As far as he knew, these "Five Elders" monsters couldn't be destroyed. They were something akin to a "law" of the world.
The joy of his Nika Form and its will to "liberate" made him fearless,
but this was his first time seeing an enemy of that caliber utterly, cleanly "eliminated."
Someone had actually killed a guy even he couldn't beat to death!
As for the three Five Elders opposite him-
Itsumade, Saint Mars; Sandworm, Saint Shepherd Ju Peter; and Fengxi, Saint Warcury-
their reactions were far more intense and... shattering.
The instant Saint Nusjuro "died," everything froze completely.
In its place came a numb, bewildered stupor that sank into their very bones.
Had the abyssal contract... failed?
Had their immortality... been broken?
Could one of their own... truly "die"?
For eight hundred years, they had grown accustomed to standing above all others, treating living beings as ants and ruling the world at whim with their immortal bodies and supreme authority.
In their worldview, they themselves were synonymous with "invincibility" and "eternity,"
beings apart from all mortal life, bordering on "gods."
It was this deeply rooted, absolute arrogance and "fearlessness," born of their "immortality,"
that allowed them to