"Sentimental mercy?"
Roya let out a cold snort. He couldn't be bothered to waste words on someone whose entire mind was shackled to the dark laws of the jungle.
With a single thought, he linked himself with Starspirit and drew upon the planet's core energies, weaving them into a vast domed shield that covered more than half of Pirate Star.
The very next instant, the blazing white sphere from the Planet-Breaker Cannon slammed brutally against the shield.
In that moment, the entire hemisphere facing the blast turned into pure white—every color vanished.
The remaining half of the world too was nearly consumed, its hues leached away into ashen dullness, as if the sky itself were being erased.
At the dead center of the hemisphere opposite the impact, an uncanny phenomenon occurred—absolute blackness swallowed the sky.
All of Pirate Star fell into a silence as absolute as the blinding white. Even the smallest insects, devoid of higher consciousness, froze under the primal instinct of death's shadow.
The only sound left was the thundering of countless heartbeats. All beings held their breath, staring at the bleached heavens, waiting for the final verdict of fate.
Would the savior turn back the tide—or had the Creator descended to deliver apocalypse?
Every second at this moment stretched into an eternity, heavy as the entire history of a species.
The strongest among the living—Whitebeard, Kaido, and others—stared at one another, stunned beyond words.
Only now, under the Creator's true judgment, did they finally recognize their own frailty and helplessness.
Roya had poured every last strand of his spirit into the domed shield. The hyper-compressed solar ion cluster hammered into it, each wave like a massive hammer driving straight into his skull.
Every surge made his head ring.
Every impact forced into him the crushing conviction that the next strike would shatter his defenses.
And yet, with each blow, Roya only clenched his teeth harder.
Compared to the titanic spirit projections he had faced in the Subspace—mountainous, oceanic forces that eclipsed worlds—this level of attack was far from insurmountable.
If he couldn't even withstand this, then when true entities of the Subspace came, what chance would he have?
"No matter how strong you are—you're nothing but my whetstone!"
From the Throne of the Void, Roya rose tall, his will forged harder and harder. He wrung out his spiritual sense, not sparing even the faintest thread, pouring everything into the domed shield.
With his mind recalibrated, he realized the solar ion barrage was not just an assault—it was a forge. Each strike was the hammer's blow, beating out impurities, tempering his spirit into something purer, harder, sharper.
Little by little, he found himself mastering his control over his spiritual sense.
The power he had once force-fed into himself through attribute refinement—spiritual energy and resilience alike—was now fusing together, becoming whole.
No longer clumsy and rough, but fluid, seamless, perfected.
By the time the solar ion cannon reached its peak and began to wane, Roya had instead reached an unprecedented pinnacle.
Every particle of solar ion slamming into the shield—its speed, its force, its angle—he perceived in perfect clarity.
What had been crushing pressure now flowed like music—an orchestral symphony of power reverberating through his consciousness.
Immersed wholly in this state, Roya did not even realize that his spiritual sense had begun to shimmer with faint golden sparks.
Though barely one percent of his total energy, it was enough to transform the spirit he fed into the dome shield into a visible golden beam of light.
Whitebeard, Kaido, and the others were the first to see it: a golden pillar shooting from the Throne of the Void into the heavens.
One by one, all eyes turned from the suffocating white world to that streak of gold.
Not only because it pierced the consuming whiteness, but because the aura it radiated brought with it inexplicable peace.
Panic subsided. The dread of annihilation was soothed.
More than that—this golden light ignited something in their hearts. The will to fight, erased by the shadow of doomsday, flared once more.
Perhaps we were your creations once. But now we have our own faith, our own path.
Even if you were our creator—you have no right to strip away our future.
The universe is boundless. Anything is possible.
The long road lies ahead. Let's see who will rule the galaxy in the end!
"War! War! War!"
From every soul, fighting spirit surged, flooding into Roya's spiritual sense.
The golden beam blazed brighter, and even the dome shield shimmered with a faint gold hue.
Like the dawn after storm clouds, it tore through the white glare of the solar ions, scattering golden radiance into the void of space.
"What in the abyss is that?!"
The Seventh Overlord shot up from his throne, his face twisted in horror.
For thousands of years across the Third Spiral Arm, he had never seen anyone's spirit glow with gold.
Those who surrendered themselves to the Chaos Gods did indeed have their spiritual sense stained with their patrons' colors.
But gold? Which god bore gold as its mark?
Could it be that in the vastness of the cosmos, a new god had been born? A god he knew nothing of—and whose chosen champion he had now enraged?
Never, not once, had he imagined Roya could withstand the Planet-Breaker Cannon's full discharge.
By his calculations, Roya's spirit, though unusually refined, was far too weak in sheer volume to endure such force.
And indeed, at first, Roya had struggled against the cannon's energy. But then—his power had turned gold.
How could the Seventh Overlord not fear he had stumbled headlong into a divine champion?
The thought alone nearly made him piss himself—if he still possessed the biology to piss.
"Is it too late to back down now?"
That desperate thought had barely flickered when the sigil of green fire on his brow blazed violently.
An iron command tore into his mind, crushing the notion of retreat.
From his master—the Silent King, supreme ruler of the Fearless Dynasty.
"Attack. At all costs—attack!"
Please drop some power stones support me at my
PS: Access the complete/finished chapters/series at Patreon: NanamiTL