Above Hachinosu Island.
Diarmuid's silhouette emerged from the darkness. Not far from him, the dark space was rapidly shrinking; it had compressed from the size of an arena to the size of a small room.
Charlotte Linlin and Kaido were trapped inside. He could feel the titanic force of their struggle to break free from the dark bindings. This confinement wouldn't hold them for long.
But it was enough.
Diarmuid simply wanted to see what it felt like to hit a Yonko with the Ancient Weapon: Pluton. Ever since he acquired Pluton in Alabasta, he had been itching to test its true destructive potential.
He couldn't test it on his own allies—what if he actually killed them? As for testing it on a random island, there was no point; he never doubted Pluton could vaporize a landmass. But then again, Sakazuki could destroy an island. Diarmuid himself could do it. Most top-tier powerhouses were capable of island-level destruction.
However, who could claim they could take down two or three top-tier legends with a single strike? No one, not even Diarmuid. Therefore, using "island destruction" as a metric was meaningless. It didn't truly gauge the weapon's combat effectiveness.
His only previous use of Pluton was at Mariejois, where he used it to breach Uranus's protective shield. But that was a clash between Ancient Weapons; it still didn't demonstrate how it fared against biological powerhouses.
Now, he finally had the perfect targets.
Kaido and Charlotte Linlin. One hailed as having "invincible defense," the other as the "strongest creature." Both were titans of this world, pirates standing at the absolute summit of the sea.
Perfect. They were the ultimate test subjects for his "test firing."
With a wave of his hand, a dark curtain manifested behind him. From within the pitch-black void, the massive cannon bore of the Ancient Weapon: Pluton slowly extended. Dense dark energy surged from Diarmuid into the weapon, rapidly completing the charging sequence.
The muzzle of Pluton began to emit an aura of pure annihilation, as if a terrifying force were converging at a single point.
Fortunately, Hachinosu had already turned into a literal hellscape. The island was a sea of magma and fire; the fierce battle between Sakazuki and Whitebeard raged on, further worsening the island's condition. Amidst the chaos, almost no one noticed the gathering lethal aura above.
Newgate and Sakazuki sensed it, of course.
Sakazuki knew it was Pluton, one of Diarmuid's trump cards. He knew that even if Diarmuid went mad, he wouldn't fire it at him. Having seen it before, he didn't care and continued his relentless exchange with Whitebeard.
Newgate wanted to investigate, but seeing Sakazuki so unbothered, he assumed the attack wasn't aimed at their sector, otherwise, Sakazuki would be caught in the blast too. Moreover, the "Mad Dog" Admiral was relentless, fighting with a suicidal intensity that left Newgate no room to look away.
In this vacuum of attention, Pluton's energy accumulation reached its peak. It stopped drawing dark elements from Diarmuid.
At that exact moment, the distant dark space finally shattered. Charlotte Linlin and Kaido burst out in a rage, only to find themselves face-to-face with Diarmuid and that massive cannon barrel.
"Why are we in the sky!?" Big Mom exclaimed in surprise.
Before Kaido could respond, Diarmuid's lips curled into a smirk. "Try your best to stay alive."
"What is that!?" Kaido cried out.
He didn't know what it was, but the aura of destruction and the suffocating sense of mortality it brought were unmistakable. Before he could finish his sentence, Pluton fired!
WHOOOOOM—!!!
An incomparable beam of energy, carrying the scent of the end of days, tore through the night and the dawn like the brightest meteor in the firmament, hurtling toward Kaido and Big Mom.
The distance was too short. They couldn't dodge!
Instinctively, Kaido felt the cold breath of death. He shifted into his Dragon-Human form, coating his entire body in a layer of Conqueror's Haki so dense it was near-solid. He crossed his arms over his chest and curled into a tight ball—a total defensive posture that looked almost ridiculous.
Linlin reacted similarly, terrified by the encroaching power. She donned a Conqueror's Haki armor, and her reattached arm swelled as if a massive amount of soul energy was about to burst out.
"YOU BASTARD!!!" Linlin roared. It was a cry of grief, fury, and unwilling defiance.
Before her roar could fade, Pluton's catastrophic beam swallowed them both, erasing even their shadows.
Given Pluton's range, the beam could likely reach the next island. However, as the light approached the edge of Hachinosu, another dark curtain appeared in the distance, slowly swallowing the remnant energy until it vanished completely.
As for Kaido and Big Mom?
Diarmuid watched as two charred objects, barely recognizable as human, plummeted from the sky after the beam passed. They crashed into the clearing where Katakuri had been previously.
After stowing away the great weapon, Diarmuid slowly descended. As his feet touched the ground, he gazed at the two scorched figures nearby.
One was missing an arm. From the silhouette and aura, it was clearly Charlotte Linlin.
And she was bald.
Indeed, Big Mom's long pink hair had been incinerated, making her look absurd. Her clothes were in tatters, and her bloated physique was a gruesome sight. Her body was covered in deep, charred burns. It seemed that in the face of Pluton, her "Iron Balloon" defense was just another target.
She was effectively disfigured; most of the skin on her face had been peeled away or burned off. Through the wounds, one could even see her pale cheekbones. It was a bloody mess.
Sensing Diarmuid's gaze, she struggled to stand, but her strength was gone. Defending against Pluton had taken everything she had. To even be alive was a miracle.
In fact, she had only survived by detonating her "trump card"—the arm she had intended to use as a surprise against Diarmuid. That arm, which Diarmuid had cut off with Abyssal Devourer and she had later reattached using her soul powers, was packed with immense spiritual energy. She had hoped to release it to shatter Diarmuid's spirit or cause a mental shock, allowing her to take his head.
But the opportunity never came. In the end, she had to self-destruct the arm to offset a fraction of Pluton's power.
"Cough... cough..." Linlin spat out mouthfuls of blood, her aura flickering like a dying candle. She glared at Diarmuid with pure hatred, wanting to curse him, but her vocal cords or mouth were too damaged to make a sound.
"B-bastard..." she finally managed after spitting out another glob of gore. "Cowardly... scum..."
"You're a pirate. Don't talk to me about 'honor' or 'fair play,'" Diarmuid said with a shrug.
Linlin clung to her last breath and asked with bitter resentment, "What was that? Is it... the Marines' new secret weapon?"
If the Marines had this, then the Great Pirate Era was a joke.
"Pluton. The Ancient Weapon. You know, the King of the Underworld," Diarmuid said cheerfully, seeing no need to hide the truth anymore.
"Pluton...?" A flash of disbelief crossed Linlin's eyes, followed by a strange sense of resignation. So it was an Ancient Weapon... no wonder it was so brutal.
Diarmuid walked up to her. Looking at her pitiable, monstrous state, he felt a slight regret as he had forgotten to bring a fruit from the ship. Otherwise, he could have let her "rest" right now while claiming her power.
However, the Soul-Soul Fruit was too valuable to waste. Diarmuid decided not to kill her just yet. Amidst her muffled curses, he extended his arm toward her.
"Planetary Devastation."
Just like Katakuri and Marco before her, Charlotte Linlin, one of the Yonko of the New World, was sealed away. From the start of the engagement to now, less than an hour had passed, and a Yonko had already fallen.
Diarmuid turned his attention to Kaido.
The man lay motionless, charred black from head to toe. There was no recognizable feature left, and his aura had completely vanished. He looked dead.
"Wait, did he actually die?" Diarmuid walked over and gave the charred mass a tentative kick.
As his foot landed, the black char on Kaido's body crumbled like ash, scattering on the ground. It looked as though his entire body had been carbonized.
"That's it? What happened to the 'Invincible Body'?" Diarmuid scratched his head, feeling a bit awkward.
Had Pluton really just one-shotted Hundred Beasts Kaido? Does that mean I just lost a Mythical Zoan ability? The thought was actually a bit painful.
Still, the test was a success. Pluton's power was absolute. An Ancient Weapon truly lived up to its name. Perhaps only Logia users, who could turn into elements and avoid the physical impact, could ignore Pluton. For everyone else, a direct hit meant death.
This was far more terrifying than simply destroying an island.
"Man, one shot, two Yonko," Diarmuid muttered, a satisfied grin returning to his face.