The three All-Stars were not so fortunate. Despite being pirates with bounties exceeding one billion Berries, they were completely outmatched in a one-on-one fight against Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro. Their utter lack of coordination gave Nusjuro ample opportunities to pick them apart.
Fortunately for them, they were all incredibly durable, possessing immense vitality and powerful regenerative abilities. Even when Nusjuro's slashes found their mark, they could recover quickly.
By now, the most reckless of them, Jack, was already covered in wounds.
Queen, living up to his role as the comic relief, was constantly trying to lighten the mood. But whether he was launching his neck forward like a spring or swinging the massive mechanical claw on his tail, he couldn't even touch Saint Nusjuro.
King fared much better. As a Lunarian, his speed was extraordinary.
He moved as a blur of afterimages, causing Nusjuro's freezing slashes to always be a fraction of a second too late.
"King, I'll draw his attention!"
"You attack on my signal!"
"Mammoth Onslaught!"
Jack had finally realized the importance of teamwork. With a tremendous roar, he charged in his towering Mammoth form, aiming his sharp tusks directly at Nusjuro.
Hearing the call from the air, King gave a powerful flap of his wings. Flames erupted from his longsword as he dove toward Saint Nusjuro.
"Imperial Twin-Blaze Strike!" King bellowed, his blade, wreathed in terrifying fire, thrusting forward.
"Sparking QUEEN!"
Seizing the opportunity, Queen roared and fired a powerful, devastating laser beam from his mechanical arm, aimed squarely at Nusjuro.
"It seems you've finally learned to cooperate," Nusjuro said coolly. "However... I won't be giving you another chance."
"Let's see how you handle this!"
"Abyssal Frost Demon Slash!"
As Nusjuro spoke, countless strands of black and red lightning erupted from his body. The skeletal horse beneath him stomped a hoof, and a wave of chilling energy instantly burst from the ground.
With a whisper of displaced air, he brought the Shodai Kitetsu down.
Nusjuro's form became a white streak, crashing directly into Jack.
BOOM!
At that same moment, King and Queen's attacks arrived.
But against Nusjuro's blinding speed, Queen's laser missed completely, blasting a massive crater in the earth.
King, however, managed to swerve at the last second, slamming hard into both Jack and Nusjuro. A sky-full of flames detonated, setting off a chain of violent explosions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For a moment, dust and debris filled the air, obscuring the outcome.
Finally, as the smoke cleared, the figures of Nusjuro, King, and Jack reappeared. The onlookers could now see a gaping, penetrating wound in Jack's chest. He was frozen solid, an ice sculpture standing stiffly on the spot, completely motionless.
As for King, his longsword was embedded in Saint Nusjuro's back.
But the look on King's face was grim.
He could feel that his attack had done no real harm to the bald elder. Not only that, a bone-deep chill was spreading from his blade, creeping relentlessly up his right arm.
Seeing this, King immediately struck with an "Imperial Cinnabar Kick," his leg lashing out at Nusjuro's back. With a crackle of black lightning, King's flaming talons raked across the Elder Saint's body.
CRACK!
A shockwave erupted on impact.
Nusjuro's figure was sent flying by King's powerful kick.
"Brachio Bomber!"
Queen, who had been lamenting his missed shot, saw his chance. With a fierce shout, he aimed for Nusjuro's landing spot and launched his thick neck forward.
This was Queen's favorite attack.
His incredible strength combined with immense speed could produce an impact comparable to a meteorite strike.
Nusjuro had just smashed a deep crater into the grassy field when Queen's Brachio Bomber came hurtling down. In Queen's mind, the Elder Saint was about to be flattened.
But reality rarely aligns with imagination.
A flash of purple light flickered, followed by the glint of cold steel, and then a colossal impact.
Countless tendrils of black and red lightning shot toward the sky.
"How is this possible!"
An expression of utter disbelief spread across Queen's face. His massive neck, hardened like obsidian, had collided with Nusjuro's blade, his huge eyeballs nearly popping out of their sockets.
Down in the crater, Saint Nusjuro stood completely unscathed, holding his sword horizontally to block the blow.
"This immortality is just too broken!" King thought, hovering in the air as he watched the scene unfold.
This wasn't the first time the All-Stars had wounded Nusjuro, but no matter how severe the injury, he always regenerated at an astonishing speed. A sense of powerlessness washed over King.
Jack was already out of the fight.
Now, he and Queen had to face Nusjuro alone.
The pressure was immense.
Jean Bart, Hancock, and Van Augur were also finding their opponent troublesome. Jean Bart was covered in his own blood, held up only by his sheer force of will. As the one on the front lines, he had absorbed far too much damage.
Hancock frowned from the side. Saint Saturn's terrifying Gyuki form, cloaked in overpowering Conqueror's Haki, was not only immune to her Mero Mero Mellow, but was also incredibly fast. Her Pistol Kiss and Slave Arrow attacks couldn't hit him at all.
But perhaps this was also because Jean Bart was still too weak. He simply couldn't hold Saturn down.
Van Augur faced the same problem. His Ryuo-level Armament Haki was something the Gyuki form could simply endure without issue, thanks to its horrifying regenerative power.
After all, Lord Imu had granted them undying bodies. They would heal from anything in moments.
Jean Bart was also aware of this problem.
Their group lacked someone who could hold Saturn in place for even a few seconds. That person was supposed to be him, but he had failed.
Jean Bart charged forward again and again.
Driven by instinct, he was repeatedly struck by the spider legs of Saturn's Gyuki form. The wounds on his body multiplied, and blood flowed freely. Yet still, he kept throwing himself at the enemy.
"I... I must become stronger!"
With a furious roar, the blood in Jean Bart's veins began to boil, creating a strange resonance in the air.
In an instant, the sky itself took on a faint crimson hue.
A blood-red mist spread through the air with Jean Bart at its center. Within the mist's range, everyone felt their own blood begin to surge uncontrollably.
Jean Bart's hearing faded, and his vision was consumed by a sea of red. He found that he could somehow control the mist drifting through the air.
This was the awakened state of the Blood-Frenzy Fruit.
"Blood Sacrifice!"
As Jean Bart's cry echoed...
BUZZ!
The blood mist swirled into motion. The Gyuki's spider leg, which had just pierced his chest, began to wither at an incredible rate, crumbling into ash.
"His fruit awakened at a time like this?" Saturn thought, his body flashing with black and red lightning as he leaped away, vanishing from his spot. The instant he moved, a bullet tore through the afterimage he left behind.
It was Van Augur's attack.
"Slave Arrow!"
A delicate shout rang out. Before Saturn could even land, a storm of pink, heart-shaped projectiles rushed toward him.
Hancock's attack followed him like a shadow.
In that same instant...
Countless black lightning bolts erupted.
There was no more room to dodge. Saturn was forced to block, using his Armament Haki to endure the assault. With his mastery of Haki, he could form an invisible suit of armor around himself, deflecting all of Hancock's arrows.
This was an advanced application of Armament Haki.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of impacts rang out.
The air was filled with explosions as the pink light was shattered, scattering across the battlefield.
Clearly, an attack of this level was completely useless against Saturn. And in that brief exchange, the spider leg he had lost had already grown back.
The power of an undying body was truly terrifying.
"Blood Prison Assault!"
Jean Bart slowly rose to his feet. His face was now an emotionless, grim mask. He stared coldly at Saturn, his voice like the whisper of a demon.
As he spoke, the blood mist surrounding him surged forward, a tidal wave of red aimed at Saturn.
"What's happened to Jean Bart?"
"Is this a Devil Fruit awakening?"
"But this doesn't look like any awakening I've ever seen..."
Hancock and Van Augur watched the scene with bewildered expressions, their gazes fixed on Jean Bart.
Saturn, too, had guessed it was an awakening, but he dismissed it. It was just a Paramecia. He wasn't concerned in the slightest.
"Glare!"
With a sharp cry, the eyes of his Gyuki form turned blood-red as he focused on Jean Bart.
In an instant...
An immense wave of psychic force crashed down on Jean Bart.
Before his "Blood Prison Assault" could even reach its target, Jean Bart's own body began to erupt in small explosions. Splatters of blood shot into the air as his form began to slowly fade, as if being erased by some unseen rule.
This was the true horror of Saturn's power. His Glare was not just a powerful attack; it also carried a sealing effect.
It could make an enemy partially vanish from existence.
"Blood... blood! Blood!"
But at that moment, Jean Bart's face showed no fear or pain. He was like a demon from the depths of hell, staring at Saturn with ice-cold eyes, muttering the word over and over.
VWOOM!
At the same time, the space around him began to twist and warp.
Saturn's Glare attack was shattered. But it didn't end there. The blood mist before Jean Bart stopped its advance and began to violently slam against the fabric of space itself.
Crimson tendrils twisted through the air, expanding in an instant to fill the entire area, casting a sinister, gloomy light over the land.
"This feeling... it's so familiar!"
Saturn froze. From the distorted space before him, he sensed something he recognized.
ROAR!
Suddenly, a deafening roar shook the battlefield.
From the void in front of Jean Bart, a crimson arm stretched out of nowhere. The blood mist billowed, and soon... a massive figure with fangs and disheveled hair took shape, opening its mouth to let out another fearsome cry.
The figure was like a demon, dozens of meters tall and crimson from head to toe.
A powerful aura instantly washed over the battlefield.
"A demon?"
"Impossible! A direct Demon Awakening!"
"The last person to awaken like this was the Devil Child—Nico Robin!"
In that moment, utter shock appeared on Saturn's face. As one of the World Government's highest authorities, he knew that it was impossible for an ordinary person to awaken a demon. Nico Robin's awakening had stunned everyone.
That was why she was known as the Devil Child.
The probability was less than one in ten million.
To see it happen again now... how could Saturn not be shocked?
Hancock and Van Augur stared, feeling the terrifying aura emanating from the towering figure.
"What in the world is that thing?"
"A Devil Fruit awakening... turns you into a demon?" Van Augur thought, a glint of light reflecting off his glasses.
ROAR!
While Saturn was lost in thought, the towering crimson demon swung its massive hands, reaching for him.
As the demon moved, a torrent of blood mist spewed forth. Saturn felt the blood in his own veins run wild, and he completely lost control of his body.
This was the power of the Crimson Demon—mastery over blood!
"Lord Imu!"
Terror seized Saturn. Beads of sweat poured down his forehead as he instinctively screamed Imu's name into the sky.
It was a primal cry for help.
A purple light pulsed from Saturn's body, and a massive pentagram shot from his form into the sky.
BOOM!
In an instant, Saturn found he could move again.
THWACK!
With a powerful push from his sharp spider legs, his figure blurred, vanishing from his position just as the Crimson Demon's hands slammed into the ground where he'd stood, sending shattered rock flying everywhere.
"Crimson Demon Purgatory!"
At that moment, a ferocious cry came from Jean Bart's cold, impassive face. The Crimson Demon before him dissolved into thick, writhing dragons of blood that relentlessly pursued Saturn.
Their power was breathtaking.