Witnessing this, Cyrus did not press his attack.
Ultimately, this bizarre ability still belonged to Imu, the mastermind behind it all, but the ability felt all too familiar.
Just as this thought crossed his mind, his Observation Haki detected a terrifying surge of Conqueror's Haki.
"So you've finally come!" A smirk curled Cyrus's lips as his body transformed into flames and vanished.
Shamrock, sent flying by the slash, was nearly cleaved in two.
Had Cyrus not intended to merely repel him, that single strike would have bisected him once more. Within the pentagram, Shamrock's figure completely disappeared.
However, Killingham, who lay collapsed on the ground with the Seastone embedded in his head, did not vanish along with the light.
Doflamingo watched as the battle abruptly concluded with a look of utter confusion on his face.
...
At the Port Docks.
A terrifying Conqueror's Haki erupted from Gunko's body.
Black wings sprouted from her back, and a tail, strikingly similar to the arrowheads created by her ability, appeared behind her while two curved horns extended from her head.
Sensing this Conqueror's Haki, Issho's expression turned grave as he gripped his blade, holding it defensively before him.
Gunko glanced at Issho, and her tail abruptly changed direction, arriving before him in an instant.
Flames suddenly erupted, and Cyrus emerged from within the fire.
The arrowhead-like tail stabbed cleanly into Cyrus's chest, black lightning crackling wildly from the impact.
"Cyrus!"
Seeing Cyrus appear, Gunko retracted her tail back behind her, where it swayed slightly.
Observing the drastically transformed knight, Cyrus casually raised a hand to brush off his chest.
The clash of Conqueror's Haki had shattered the fabric of his clothing there, but it was of little consequence.
Gunko—or rather, Imu—stared at Cyrus's chest with blood-red eyes.
That strike had not left even the slightest wound on him.
'Why? What is the nature of this man's body? Why won't he sustain injuries?' The blood-red eyes fixed on Cyrus, filled with deep wariness.
Cyrus's offensive power was already sufficient to pose a genuine threat to her, and then there was this incomprehensibly powerful physical defense.
"Are you going to use her body to fight me?" Cyrus stepped forward, blade in hand, closing in on Gunko as he spoke.
This time, however, Gunko did not attack, merely staring intently as Cyrus approached until he stood right before her.
"Someone like this, who allows you to directly possess them, can't be easy to find, right?" Cyrus examined the transformation, then abruptly spoke.
"What do you know?"
As Cyrus uttered these words, Gunko—or rather, Imu—whose reaction had seemed delayed until now, suddenly widened their eyes.
A crimson light nearly shot forth from their gaze.
She took a quick step back, and a pentagram appeared beneath her feet.
This time, the pentagram was much larger than the one Shamrock had conjured earlier, and within a second, the two Celestial Dragons vanished within the light.
"Did I hit a nerve with my casual remark?" Cyrus was genuinely taken aback by Imu's intense reaction.
He had indeed spoken offhandedly, as he hadn't seen Imu possess anyone else, but the ruler's reaction seemed excessively intense.
'Or perhaps there is some deep psychological trauma involved?' Cyrus stroked his chin thoughtfully, but then his brow furrowed as he abruptly looked up at the sky.
"What's this? Planning to completely erase Dressrosa? Has the Mother Flame been developed?" Cyrus muttered with a frown, glancing over at Issho.
"You and Robin take the ship and get far away. I'm not sure if I can block the upcoming attack."
After giving the order, Cyrus's body transformed into flames and shot straight skyward.
Issho had been carefully observing Cyrus and Imu's conversation the entire time.
Cyrus's sudden reaction made the blind swordsman realize that the next attack might come from the sky itself.
Through Observation Haki, he could sense a terrifying amount of energy accumulating high in the atmosphere.
...
At an extremely high altitude.
'Uranus?' Cyrus frowned as he soared upward.
This thing seemed to have tremendous power.
He wasn't worried about himself, with Unyielding, nothing existed that could kill him in one strike, and in his invincible state, he could handle absolutely anything.
But he wasn't certain he could intercept this kind of wide-scale area attack.
Flames appeared in the sky, turning Dressrosa's clouds orange-red.
A fireball as massive as an island expanded and hovered in the air.
Boom!
A blinding white pillar of light descended from the heavens, directly striking the massive fireball in the sky.
Cyrus, transformed entirely into the fireball, gauged the raw power of this strike.
It was strong.
Strong enough to completely destroy Dressrosa below—the entire island would likely vanish under this single attack.
But it wasn't strong enough.
At least, not as powerful as Cyrus had originally anticipated.
Using his full power, the fireball grew increasingly massive, and his energy and the pillar of light from the sky mutually canceled each other out.
'Just as I thought,' Cyrus reasoned from within the flames, having roughly figured out the limitation.
The Mother Flame was the energy source, and only after the Mother Flame was fully developed could the so-called Uranus launch attacks at full power.
What was activated now was probably its own limited internal energy source.
The pillar of light didn't last very long.
After the attack disappeared, Cyrus within the flames expanded his Observation Haki to its limits, searching the sky, but found absolutely nothing.
Perhaps the weapon that launched the attack was still much higher up in the atmosphere.
...
Below.
Following Cyrus's instructions, Issho controlled the ship to move away, sensing the terrifying struggle of forces in the sky during that period.
"What was that?" Robin watched the descending pillar of light, deep in thought.
"Probably a contingency left by the Celestial Dragons," Issho reasoned.
Though he couldn't see the specific visual, he could feel the two massive forces wrestling in the sky.
"Uranus?" As an Ohara historian, she naturally knew about the three Ancient Weapons.
Seeing this apocalyptic scene, she immediately thought of one of the legendary weapons—the most mysterious Uranus.
"It seems Cyrus blocked it," Issho noted, steering the ship back to the dock harbor.
...
Meanwhile, Cyrus now stood before Doflamingo back at the palace.
"Aren't you going to resist?" Cyrus asked, studying the Warlord.
"Resist?" Doflamingo looked up at the sky, having witnessed the events unfolding above.
He knew that both he and everyone in Dressrosa had lingered on the absolute brink of death for a time.
Could Cyrus alone truly withstand that kind of power?
"I want to live!" Doflamingo suddenly declared as he looked at Cyrus. "No matter what it takes, I want to live. The conflict between us doesn't have to end with one of us dead. Of course, I should pay the price for provoking you."
Hearing this, Cyrus glanced at Doflamingo before turning and walking over to the half-dead Killingham.
"Speaking of which, why didn't you leave with the others?" Cyrus asked, looking down at Killingham lying on the ground.
As soon as he finished speaking, a pentagram appeared beneath Killingham.
But despite the black lightning of the pentagram flashing and the symbol disappearing, Killingham remained lying firmly in place.
"Is Seastone this effective?"
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