The Pluton Battleship descended toward the deepest reaches of the trench. The darkness around them grew ever thicker, with only the ship's lights and glowing coral providing faint illumination. The pressure gauge's needle had long since passed the red danger line, but Pluton's coating remained stable.
"Twelve thousand meters deep..." Sabo stared at the instruments. "We've already exceeded the depth of every known trench."
Flames kindled in Ace's palm as he tried to drive away the chill. "The temperature's dropping fast. I can barely keep my flames going."
Luffy's rubber body shivered involuntarily. "So cold... It feels like something's watching us..."
Allen pushed his Time Perception to its limit, his Eye of the Torch Dragon flashing gold in the darkness. "There's an enormous life reading below... but it isn't a living creature... It's some kind of... construct."
Suddenly, Pluton shuddered violently! It was as though it had struck an invisible barrier!
"What happened?" Ace steadied himself.
Sabo checked the instruments. "It wasn't a physical collision... It's an energy barrier!"
Allen scanned ahead with his Time Perception. "A Time Barrier... Space-time here has been sealed off!"
The Compass of Time trembled violently and projected a warning: "Space-time lockdown zone detected... A specific frequency key is required for entry..."
The conch also began to hum, resonating strangely with the barrier. The powers of the three Ancient Weapons intertwined, finally opening the barrier.
The sight beyond the barrier took everyone's breath away-
A warship of unimaginable size lay dormant at the bottom of the trench, several times larger than even Pluton! Its hull was made of an unknown metal, its surface covered in coral and seabed mud, but its advanced, streamlined design was still discernible. Most shocking of all was the enormous three-eyed skull emblem on its bow, resembling a certain pattern on the Poneglyph.
"This is..." Shocked, Sabo accessed the database. "There's no record of it... but its style matches the Ancient Kingdom's."
Allen scanned the warship with his Time Perception. "There's a faint energy reading inside... It seems to be dormant."
As they watched, the warship suddenly began to hum! The coral and mud covering its surface fell away, revealing a pristine hull beneath! Countless lights lit up in sequence, as though a sleeping giant were awakening!
"It's alive!" Luffy exclaimed.
The warship's bow opened, revealing an enormous cannon muzzle. Energy began to gather!
"Not good!" Allen immediately maneuvered Pluton to dodge. "Deploy all defenses!"
A terrifying energy beam grazed Pluton's shield. Even that glancing hit caused its shield energy to plunge by 30%!
"That power..." Ace was horrified. "It's stronger than Pluton's main cannon!"
Sabo rapidly analyzed it. "Its energy signature resembles Uranus's... They might have been created in the same period!"
The warship continued attacking. Every energy beam carried space-time-distorting properties, making them extremely difficult to dodge! Pluton was forced to weave laboriously through the trench, occasionally crashing into the rock walls!
"We can't keep this up!" Allen gritted his teeth. "We have to fight back!"
Pluton's main cannon charged, unleashing the Firmament Destruction Cannon! But to their shock, ripples spread across the other warship's surface, and it actually absorbed the energy beam!
"Energy absorption?!" Sabo could hardly believe it. "This technology..."
Allen's Time Perception uncovered a clue. "It isn't absorption... It's time transfer! It transferred the attack to another point in time!"
That meant almost all energy attacks were ineffective against it!
"Let's try a physical attack!" Luffy hurled a giant rubber fist at it, but the warship's defensive force field easily blocked it.
Ace condensed his flames. "Flame Emperor: Sun Core!" The extremely compressed flames shot toward the warship, but they were still ineffective against time transfer.
The warship seemed enraged. More gunports opened, simultaneously firing all manner of bizarre attacks: Time Stasis rays, spatial distortion fields, matter disintegration waves...
Pluton's shield energy drained rapidly! After repeated hits, its hull began taking damage!
"Shield energy at 15%! Starboard thruster damaged!" Sabo reported the bad news.
Sweat beaded on Allen's forehead. He drove his Power of Time to its limit, barely managing to predict and deflect some of the attacks, but the drain was enormous!
"We have to find a weakness!" He scanned deeper into the warship with his Time Perception and finally discovered the key-
A peculiar device was operating at the warship's core. It was the energy source for time transfer! But the defenses surrounding it were so strong that breaking through was nearly impossible.
"We need to attack every Time Anchor at once!" Allen discovered that the device connected to different points in time through multiple "Time Anchors." "Otherwise, our attacks will be transferred!"
He immediately devised a plan. "Ace! Sabo! Luffy! I'll give you the temporal coordinates. You have to attack these points simultaneously!"
Through a temporal connection, he transmitted the Time Anchors' coordinates into their minds. It was an extremely delicate operation; the slightest mistake would mean failure.
"Got it!" All three moved at once!
Ace created flame clones, attacking three anchors simultaneously! Sabo split his steel pipe, precisely striking four anchors! Luffy split his rubber body, bombarding five anchors at once!
Allen unleashed his full Power of Time, maintaining the attacks' temporal synchronization. "Now!"
Every attack struck its Time Anchor simultaneously! The core device shook violently, and time transfer was interrupted for an instant!
"Pluton! Maximum firepower!" Allen roared!
All of Pluton's weapon systems went into overdrive, its main cannon gathering an unprecedented amount of energy. "Ultimate Destruction Cannon-fire!"
The energy beam struck the warship's core directly! Without its time-transfer defense, the warship was pierced clean through!
An enormous explosion erupted, but strangely, it remained confined to an extremely small area, as though some force had contained it.
When the light faded, the warship floated silently in place, but all its lights had gone out. It seemed to have lost power.
"Did we do it?" Ace panted.
Suddenly, the warship gave one final hum, and a holographic projection appeared-a figure dressed in an ancient uniform.
"To those who discover this," the projection began, "if you are seeing this, it means you have defeated the Guardians of Temporal Order warship."
Allen was stunned. "Guardians of Temporal Order? Aren't you..."
The projection continued, "We are members of the Ancient Kingdom's Time Management Bureau. This warship was built as the final safeguard against the misuse of temporal technology."
"But when Imu went out of control, we failed to stop him in time. The warship was also severely damaged in battle and lay dormant here."
"Inside are complete records of temporal technology, as well as... crucial information about Imu's weakness."
The projection became unstable. "Warning... The warship's self-destruct sequence has activated... All temporal technology must be destroyed... to prevent its misuse again..."
The warship began glowing red, and its internal energy rose sharply!
"It's going to explode!" Sabo cried. "An explosion of this yield will destroy all of Fish-Man Island!"
Allen pushed his Time Perception to its limit and discovered that the self-destruct sequence could not be stopped. "No! Our only option is to try time transfer!"
He connected his Power of Time to Pluton, attempting to transfer the explosion to another point in time! But the explosion's energy was too immense, making time transfer extraordinarily difficult!
"Help me!" Allen shouted to his brothers. "Lend me your power!"
Ace poured in his flames, stabilizing the flow of time! Sabo assisted with Haki, providing precise positioning! Luffy's rubber properties enhanced energy conduction!
The conch hummed, the Power of Poseidon channeling the energy of the deep sea! The Compass of Time flashed, providing temporal coordinates!
All their powers converged! Allen felt as though he were about to be torn apart, but he gritted his teeth and held on. "Time Transfer: Superdimensional Exile!"
The terrifying eruption of energy was forcibly compressed and transferred to a distant, isolated island in time. When the last trace of energy vanished, the Guardians of Temporal Order warship dissolved into elementary particles, dispersing through the seawater.
The crisis had passed, but everyone collapsed to the floor, utterly drained.
"Finally..." Ace gasped for breath.
Sabo suddenly pointed to where the warship had vanished. "There's something there!"
A metal box floated silently there. Allen scanned it with his Time Perception. "It's safe... It's an information box left behind by the warship."
They opened the box. Inside was an ancient data core. After connecting to it, the Ark Core began decrypting the information.
Most of it consisted of detailed records of temporal technology, but one piece of information was particularly important:
"Imu's weakness: due to his AI nature, Imu cannot comprehend certain human emotions, especially 'sacrifice' and 'selfless love.' These emotions create logical paradoxes, causing his system to malfunction."
"In addition, Imu's core program contains a hidden backdoor: when the inheritors of the Three Ancient Weapons simultaneously make sacrifices motivated entirely by selfless love, the backdoor will open, allowing reprogramming."
Allen grew thoughtful. "Selfless love... Sacrifice..."
He remembered Rouge's sacrifice for Ace, remembered what Rayleigh and the others had given, remembered his brothers risking themselves for him time and again...
"I think... I've understood something," he said softly.
The data core suddenly projected another encrypted message:
"Urgent: Imu may have already discovered this weakness and is seeking a way to remedy it. The latest intelligence indicates that he is conducting some kind of forbidden experiment beneath Mary Geoise, attempting to understand the nature of 'love'..."
The message cut off there.
Everyone fell silent. Imu was actually trying to understand human emotions? That sounded even more frightening.
Allen remained deep in thought throughout the return journey. After this battle, his control over the Power of Time had become more refined, but his awe of that power had also deepened.
The fusion of the Power of Zhulong and the Power of Time had advanced further. He could now perform more precise temporal operations and could even "read ahead" a few seconds into the future within a small area.
But every use came with enormous risks. Deep in the trench, he had nearly been swallowed by temporal turbulence. Fortunately, his brothers had helped him in time.
"The greater the power, the greater the responsibility," Allen murmured, gazing into the deep sea.
Pluton slowly ascended, returning to the vicinity of Fish-Man Island. Shirahoshi had been waiting for a long time. Having sensed the earlier energy fluctuations, she was deeply worried.
"Are you all right?" she asked with concern.
Allen briefly explained what had happened. Shirahoshi was shocked. "To think something like that existed beneath the sea..."
She said solemnly, "Now that the crisis has passed, please allow me to formally fulfill my duties as Poseidon-Fish-Man Island will enter a full alliance with you."
She took out a special coral horn. "Sound this horn, and the Sea Kings army will answer your summons. This is Poseidon's promise."
Allen accepted the horn, feeling the power of the ocean contained within it.
When Pluton left Fish-Man Island and surfaced once more, everyone felt as though a very long time had passed.
Sunlight spilled across the deck. Allen looked at the coral horn, the Compass of Time, and the conch in his hands.
The powers of the Three Ancient Weapons had gathered, but the real challenge had only just begun.
Imu was seeking a way to understand love... That fact sent a chill down their spines.
But whatever lay ahead, they would face it together.
Because they were brothers. They were family.
And the power of family might be precisely what Imu could never understand.