Chapter 236: War Drums Echo in the Heavenly Palace, Saru Swings the Golden Staff!
"What... is this!?"
Looking at the towering Heavenly Gates and the banners fluttering in the wind, the three God's Knights stood amidst the swirling clouds and mist, completely bewildered.
They were born in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise; they lived in the "Heavens" above the world. Yet, they had never imagined that a literal heavenly palace—an illusory realm of such majesty—could exist in this world.
"So that's how it is..." Saint Fabian finally understood why his ability had failed. "Those four banners... this guy set up his ability long ago, didn't he?"
His Fruit Awakening, Eternal Stage, required him to be on a stage he had established. But looking at the current situation, the conclusion was inescapable. During the heat of battle, while they thought they were the ones in control, the Zodiac member had already claimed the "Stage."
This realm did not belong to Saint Jaygarcia Fabian. It was Saru's stage!
"A coincidence? Truly a lucky bastard!" Fabian hissed inwardly, his gaze instinctively drifting upward.
He desperately wanted to believe it was a coincidence. After all, he had never used his Fruit Awakening before; no one should have known its secrets.
But when he looked up, his heart tightened.
Saru stood atop a sea of clouds, clutching his golden staff. His divine armor reflected a sun that shouldn't exist, and the eyes between his brows blazed like twin torches. That sheer presence forced Fabian to reconsider his arrogance.
What if... what if it wasn't a coincidence?
What if the opponent knew his ability from the very beginning? What if Saru had known Fabian was preparing an Awakening and had simply toyed with them, waiting for the perfect moment to overwrite it?
If that were true, the purpose of this battle was terrifyingly simple.
"I want to beat you to death. How could I allow you to leave?"
Saru's low, cold voice echoed in Fabian's mind, making him dizzy with a sudden, localized vertigo.
"He wants to..." Fear, cold and unprecedented, rose in Fabian's chest. "Qilingorm! Pierre! Use your full strength! We have to escape!"
"This guy... he isn't right!"
Pierre and Qilingorm, who were still vigilantly gauging Saru's position, froze. They could see the raw panic in Fabian's eyes—an emotion that rarely, if ever, appeared in a God's Knight. But they trusted him. Fabian, the great-grandson of Saint Saturn, was the "brains" of the team. It was said that if it weren't for Saint Shamrock of this generation being so peerless, Fabian would have been the next Commander of the God's Knights.
"Fruit Awakening: Vector of All Things · Limit!"
"Fruit Awakening: Dream Creator · Swift Bird!"
The two did not hesitate. A giant bird composed of shimmering light and raging storms erupted from the dream realm. As it soared, the environment twisted—it was the fastest creature Qilingorm could manifest. Simultaneously, Pierre pushed his vector manipulation to the absolute limit, coating the bird in a propulsion field that transcended the very concept of "speed."
WHOOSH!
The bird tore through the atmosphere, leaving a vacuum trail in its wake. In the vision of the three Knights, the magnificent palace blurred into long, distorted bands of light. They couldn't even see the scenery anymore; they were moving so fast that the world was nothing but a smear of gold and white.
They saw the four Heavenly Gates flash by. They saw the golden figure on the clouds recede into the distance. Finally, their hearts began to steady.
"He didn't chase us," Qilingorm panted, breathing a sigh of relief.
"At this speed, we'll be clear of Dressrosa in seconds," Pierre added, his voice strained from the effort of maintaining the vector field. "Even that monster can't catch up to this."
The two "Gods," who usually looked down on the world with disdain, were now like cornered animals, breathing cautiously as they fled.
"No..." Fabian's voice was hoarse. "Look around us."
"?"
Qilingorm and Pierre looked. Their bodies stiffened instantly.
Forget leaving Dressrosa—they hadn't even left the room. No matter how hard the Swift Bird flapped its wings, no matter how much vector propulsion roared, the four massive Heavenly Gates still stood exactly where they had been. The golden figure atop the clouds hadn't moved an inch.
"Impossible..." Qilingorm gasped.
The bird came to a dead halt. The scenery of the Heavenly Palace remained unchanged. Saru was still there, leaning his iron staff against his shoulder, tilting his head as he watched them.
He looked like a human observing the frantic, meaningless struggling of ants.
"Destroy those four gates!" Fabian roared. "They are the key to this domain!"
He was right. The four banners that had transformed into gates were the anchors of the realm.
"Understood!" Pierre spread his arms. The blood mist around him condensed into thousands of hyper-compressed white bone spears. "God-Killing Spear: Ten Thousand Bones!"
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
A rain of spears, each capable of piercing an island, tore through the clouds toward the gates.
BOOM!
The impact was deafening. But as the smoke cleared, the Knights' faces fell. The gates were unscathed. Or rather, a layer of pale gold, translucent barriers had unfolded over the gates, absorbing every strike.
"Heh."
They finally heard Saru's voice. "You think the trivial skills of three idiots could break my Heavenly Palace?"
The three flinched, instinctively taking defensive stances—a reflex born from being smashed to pieces dozens of times over the last hour. But Saru was still in his Three Heads, Six Arms form. One pair of his arms was held in a strange hand seal, index and middle fingers overlapping.
[Barrier-Barrier Fruit LV5: Fruit Awakening · Infinite Barrier]
The creation area no longer has an upper limit. Barriers can be maintained indefinitely as long as the user remains conscious.
[Barrier-Barrier Fruit: Four Directions Heavenly Gates]
"If you want to escape, fine," Saru said, straightening up. "I won't let you die without a fair chance. There is only one way to leave this place."
He grinned, pointing the tip of his staff at his own chest. "Defeat me. If I fall, this palace dissipates, and you can go wherever you like."
The Knights felt the absurdity of the statement. If they could defeat him, they wouldn't be running!
"Just fight him desperately!" Pierre screamed, his body trembling. He remembered being reduced to just a head by the Marine named Roy. He would not endure such humiliation again.
"No!" Qilingorm stopped him. "Fighting him head-on is a trap! Our 'Deep Sea Protection' is failing. If he kills us a few more times, the contract power will break temporarily! We have to stall. Even a monster has limits to his stamina!"
Qilingorm was the calmest of the three. "We escape in different directions. Make it impossible for him to kill us all at once. We have the Deep Sea Contract—that is our ultimate advantage."
The power bestowed by Lord Imu was their safety net. Even if they couldn't win against Saru—who was bolstered by the "Fighting God Mode" of 2,000 victories—they could at least not lose.
"Our immortality is still intact!" Qilingorm urged. "As long as we aren't hit by continuous, high-intensity Conqueror's Haki, the contract will recover. We win the war of attrition! Right, Fabian?"
Fabian didn't answer. His face was pale, his eyes wide with a realization that transcended simple fear.
"No... Qilingorm, don't you see?" Fabian's teeth ground together. "He was 'playing' with us before... he was weakening the contract on purpose without letting us notice. This guy... he..."
"Indeed," Saru's voice whispered in their ears.
He had already descended from the clouds. "You guys don't have many skills, but your life-saving trick is a real pain to deal with. So, I asked the Boss for a little help."
Boss?
THUMP.
A sound echoed through the palace.
THUMP.
It was a drum.
THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!
A desolate, ancient, and vigorous war drum began to resound through the Heavenly Palace Wonderland. It penetrated the barriers of space, rumbling like muffled thunder across the sky. The statues of gods and buddhas within the mist seemed to begin a rhythmic chanting. High above the palace, a massive, unseen eye seemed to peer down.
Fabian shook violently. In that instant, the Deep Sea Contract on his left hand began to throb with a piercing, soul-deep pain. He felt his soul—which had long been submerged in the "Deep Sea" under the protection of Lord Imu—suddenly being dragged back to the surface.
"Th-this is..."
They looked at their glowing marks, then up at the stars. Above the palace, billions of stars had begun to shine with an impossible brilliance. And at the center of that stellar sea stood a figure, flickering between reality and myth.
The drumbeat was coming from the heart of those stars. The Knights finally remembered a name whispered in the deepest legends of the Holy Land.
"The Drums of Liberation?"
[Nika Fruit LV5 · Wish for Freedom · Drums of Liberation]
Beat the Drums of Liberation through the heart. When the drums sound, the user and all allies gain "Freedom"—their bodies and powers become unbound by all constraints and contracts.
(Thanks to the massive wealth gathered from the Big Mom Pirates, Roy had finally unlocked the staggering 80-billion-Berry Awakening of the Nika Fruit.)
[Swift Sound of Cloud Palace · Drums of Liberation]
Brilliance from the stars interwove with Saru's golden armor. Behind his mask, his fangs bared in a wild, predatory grin. He raised the iron staff high.
"Come. Let's see if you 'Gods' can actually die."
"DODGE!" Fabian screamed.
His figure began to flicker like a frame-skipping movie, trying to hide between the layers of reality. Qilingorm transformed into his full Mythical Qilin form, and Pierre's blood mist erupted so violently his own armor began to crack under the pressure.
But it was like ants watching a mountain collapse.
"No! No! NO!"
The three God's Knights wept—raw, ugly tears of terror. They were experiencing something they had inflicted on thousands of others but never thought would happen to them.
They were experiencing Death.
As Saru swung, the Jingu Bang expanded.
BOOM! It grew tall as a skyscraper.
BOOM! It grew wide as a mountain range.
BOOM! It spanned the heavens and the earth.
The staff now filled the entire horizon of the Heavenly Palace.
[Phenomenon of Heaven and Earth · Havoc in Heaven]
Wrapped in golden flames and black lightning, the staff descended.
"TAKE THIS!"
☆☆☆
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