Saint Marcus Mars unfurled his Giant Bird Form, a torrential wave of fire immediately sweeping through the tea room.
The Ancient One waved her hand, opening a portal that swallowed the flames and redirected them straight to the Himalayan Snow Peaks.
Far away, a massive crater suddenly melted into the snowy mountains.
A mage meditating inside a cave opened his eyes.
"Who is burning the mountain?"
Back in the tea room, Imu raised a finger.
Red ki gathered into a condensed Energy Blast.
The Ancient One didn't take the attack head-on. She conjured the Mirror Dimension, pulling everyone inside at once.
The main hall of Kamar-Taj fell instantly silent, leaving behind only half a tea table and two cups of still-warm tea.
Wong arrived at the doorway, staring at the empty room.
He fell silent for a moment.
"Well, at least they didn't tear down the entire building."
The very next second, the roof of the main hall collapsed.
Wong looked up at the sky.
"I take that back."
Inside the Mirror Dimension, Kamar-Taj was folded into countless layers. Up, down, left, and right lost all meaning.
Imu stood on a hovering floor tile, the Five Elders arrayed behind her.
The Ancient One stood in the distance, a magical mandala slowly rotating beneath her feet.
She was in no rush to attack.
These outsiders were incredibly strong. Especially their leader, Imu. The energy radiating from her didn't belong to any known dimension. It wasn't the Dark Dimension, it wasn't the Vishanti, nor was it any conventional power system within the multiverse.
This put the Ancient One on high alert.
Imu raised her hand.
"Saturn, Mars, Ju Peter, Warcury, Nusjuro."
The Five Elders responded in unison: "Here."
"Take her down."
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn charged first.
His Gyuki Form shattered the dimensional floor beneath his hooves, billowing clouds of toxic gas expanding outward.
Saint Marcus Mars transformed into his giant bird, dive-bombing from the sky as flames blanketed the entire area.
Saint Topman Warcury shifted into a massive boar, his tusks coated in pitch-black Armament Haki. Every structure in his charging path was pulverized.
Saint Shepherd Ju Peter burrowed into the ground, his colossal sandworm body weaving seamlessly between the folded layers of space.
Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro sprinted through the air in his Hybrid Form, his longsword drawn, chilling frost and demonic aura entwining around the blade.
The Five Elders attacking together. In the One Piece world, this was a nation-destroying disaster.
But the Ancient One simply pulled her hands apart.
Golden mystic chains shot out from all directions.
Saturn's legs were bound.
Mars's wings were entangled.
Mid-charge, a portal suddenly opened directly in front of Warcury. He plunged headfirst into it—and fell right out above Saturn's head.
Boom!
The two Elders crashed into a tangled heap.
Ju Peter had barely erupted from beneath the Ancient One's feet when he slammed face-first into a mirrored wall.
His head collided with the barrier. The spatial wall cracked, but held firm.
"Why is this woman even more annoying than all those rules in Blake's shop!?" Ju Peter roared.
Nusjuro seized the opening, slashing his blade toward the Ancient One's back.
Right before the edge could touch the hem of her robes, the Ancient One's silhouette reversed, rewinding three seconds into the past.
Nusjuro's strike hit empty air.
The Ancient One raised her hand, a mystic whip lashing across his chest.
Nusjuro was sent flying backward, smashing through three layers of folded architecture.
He quickly stabilized his footing, his wound rapidly regenerating.
"It's not that she's overwhelmingly powerful. It's her rules. They're too troublesome," Warcury grumbled, climbing off Saturn with an ugly expression.
"You hit my head just now," Saturn snarled.
"She opened the door," Warcury replied coldly.
"Couldn't you hit the brakes?"
"Do I look like a horse-drawn carriage to you?"
Mars cursed from the sky: "ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!"
Imu watched with growing impatience.
The Five Elders were undeniably powerful in their original world. But plunged into a dungeon like this, facing the Sorcerer Supreme armed with the Time Stone, sheer physical invulnerability and brute strength were hard-pressed to gain the upper hand.
The Ancient One's offensive lethality wasn't absolute. But her ability to delay, divide, reset, and displace was top-tier.
Imu raised her right hand.
A red sphere of ki materialized in her palm.
The Ancient One's gaze immediately locked onto it.
Imu didn't aim at the Ancient One's physical body.
Instead, she hurled the Energy Blast directly at the boundary of the Mirror Dimension.
Boom!
The entire Mirror Dimension shuddered violently.
The Ancient One's expression shifted.
She hadn't expected Imu to attack the spatial structure itself.
The Mirror Dimension wasn't a standard cage. It was constructed from folded layers outside the physical dimension; normal physical attacks couldn't even dent it.
Yet Imu's Energy Blast forcefully cracked it open.
A second Energy Blast closely followed.
The cracks expanded.
The Ancient One brought her hands together, and the Time Stone glowed.
The fissures began to reverse and mend.
Imu smiled.
"So, you have to divide your attention after all."
Her figure instantly vanished.
It wasn't spatial teleportation.
It was pure speed.
The moment the Ancient One finished repairing the space, Imu was already in front of her.
A punch flew forward.
An Eldritch Shield materialized before the Ancient One.
The shield shattered.
The Ancient One was sent flying backward, crashing through several mirrored walls.
Saturn immediately burst into maniacal laughter.
"When Lady Imu makes a move, it truly is on another level!"
Ju Peter poked his head out from underground.
"Stop kissing up and chase her!"
Saturn glared at him coldly.
"I don't need your reminders."
The very next second, the Ancient One stood up from the shattered space.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
But her expression remained perfectly serene.
"Your power draws from your life force. You cannot maintain this indefinitely."
Imu rolled her wrist.
"It will be enough."
The Ancient One lifted the Time Stone.
This time, the emerald glow didn't just cover a localized area.
The entire Mirror Dimension began to invert.
The Five Elders' previous positions, their wounds, and their trajectories were all dragged back into the past.
Their consciousness remained intact, but their physical bodies were violently yanked backward by time.
"This isn't fair!" Ju Peter cursed.
Mars's wings were forcibly snapped back to where they had been a second ago, causing him to spew flames in frustration.
Nusjuro forcefully plunged his blade into the dimensional floor, desperately trying to anchor himself.
But time wasn't an ocean wave; it couldn't be physically grasped.
Even Imu was dragged back half a step.
The ki within her body erupted explosively.
"Tri-Beam."
She framed her hands together into a triangle.
A blinding white light blasted from her palms.
The Ancient One's expression finally broke.
She immediately moved to open a portal.
But the Tri-Beam wasn't standard energy. It carried the oppressive weight of Imu's burning life force; the portal shattered the moment it took shape.
The Ancient One pushed the Time Stone forward, deploying a green screen of temporal light.
The Tri-Beam slammed into the time screen.
Space splintered.
The flow of time briefly stuttered.
The Five Elders seized the momentary glitch to break free from the temporal rewind.
Saturn lunged at the Ancient One's flank, his venomous claws swiping down.
The Ancient One blocked it with a magical mandala.
Nusjuro's blade followed close behind, slicing into her shoulder.
Blood splattered onto the mirrored floor.
The Ancient One raised her hand, rewinding time to erase the wound.
But her complexion was noticeably paler than before.
Imu saw right through it.
"You are not the stone."
The Ancient One didn't deny it.
Imu continued, "By borrowing its power, you have a limit to what you can endure."
"The same applies to you," the Ancient One replied.
"Then we should both hurry this up," Imu said.
She reached out and made a grasping motion in the empty air.
Saturn, Mars, Warcury, and Ju Peter simultaneously pulled back.
Only Nusjuro didn't retreat.
He knew exactly what Imu was planning, moving at top speed to relentlessly entangle the Ancient One.
Flashes of his blade rained down.
The Ancient One was forced to rely purely on defensive spells.
The ki sphere in Imu's palm rapidly compressed.
This wasn't the Tri-Beam.
It was a highly condensed orb of pure energy.
The Ancient One looked up.
She peered into a brief, shifting fragment of the future.
If she took this attack head-on, the Mirror Dimension would be blown wide open.
Kamar-Taj would be caught in the crossfire.
She had to relocate.
A magical array unfurled beneath her feet.
The entire battlefield was instantly transposed.
They shifted from the mirrored Kamar-Taj to the Mirror Dimension hovering above New York.
Below them lay the crumbling battlefield of New York City.
Hela was still seated upon her Purple-Light Throne, the energy of the Power Stone entwined with her Necro-Energy.
Kaido, wreathed in golden flames, was still charging forward.
Shiki was steering his floating fortress down to crush his enemies.
Loki clutched the Tesseract, desperately trying to sever the stone's resonance.
───
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