Creak.
The door slowly opened.
An eerie black mist spread through the room.
Mixed within it was a pale white fog, like drifting bone ash.
The door remained open, yet no one entered.
It felt like a scene torn straight from a nightmare. Every sound vanished completely.
The strange black and white mist crept further into the room, writhing like living creatures.
In mere moments, Imu and the Gorosei were surrounded by layers of shifting mist that twisted like a world detached from reality.
The once warm chamber gradually became unbearably cold.
Imu watched everything indifferently, showing no reaction.
Since Lord Imu remained calm, the Gorosei did not dare overreact either. They could only remain vigilant while observing their surroundings carefully.
Yet they sensed nothing.
Even their Observation Haki detected no presence.
Saint Warcury, the Warrior God of Justice, narrowed his eyes as he stared at the eerie mist.
"This is the work of a Devil Fruit ability. For someone to bypass the defenses outside and infiltrate this place... who is it?"
"War..."
Something shifted within the dark mist.
"...cury..."
A cold voice echoed through the room.
It sounded both unfamiliar and hauntingly familiar, like a voice dragged up from the depths of hell itself.
"Warcury... it's me..."
"It's you... no, impossible!"
Saint Warcury's expression stiffened.
Warmth and terror flashed across his usually emotionless face.
"This... this can't be possible..."
Within the drifting mist, he saw a familiar figure.
"Haven't you missed me all this time? My dear, I've returned just as you wished..."
A woman dressed in beautiful white clothing appeared before him with a gentle smile.
The lover he had personally killed decades ago.
After all these years, she stood before him once again.
"You... weren't you already dead?!"
Saint Warcury stumbled back in horror.
"No... I killed you myself! You... you..."
To prove his loyalty, he had slaughtered the woman he loved with his own hands before Lord Imu.
He had torn open her chest and removed her still beating heart.
Only then had he earned Lord Imu's trust and obtained a contract that ordinary Celestial Dragons could never dream of receiving.
"Oh? Is that really how you killed me?"
The woman smiled beautifully.
Then she reached into her own chest and ripped it open.
Blood poured down her body as she pulled out a beating heart and held it toward him.
Still smiling.
"My dear, come. Take my heart again and prove your loyalty to your master."
"..."
Saint Warcury stared blankly at the bloody heart before him.
The next instant, the woman's face twisted into something monstrous.
Like a vengeful spirit, she lunged at him while screaming:
"Warcury...!"
"AHHH!"
The other Gorosei and Imu watched as Saint Warcury suddenly stumbled backward in terror, his face pale as he shouted uncontrollably.
"Hm?"
Beside him, Saint Marcus Mars, the Warrior God of Environment, grabbed his shoulder firmly.
"Pull yourself together, Saint Warcury. What did you see?"
"I... I saw..."
Warcury's mustache trembled violently.
Cold sweat covered his spotted face as panic overtook him.
He squeezed his eyes shut before forcing himself to look again.
But the figure was gone.
Only the drifting black and white mist remained.
There was no dead lover.
No vengeful ghost.
Nothing.
An illusion?
Warcury frantically scanned the room, but he never saw her again.
Imu's indifferent voice echoed through the chamber.
"Saint Warcury, what did you see?"
Warcury took a deep breath before answering stiffly.
"Lord Imu... I saw someone who should already be dead."
Imu quietly repeated the words.
"Someone who is already dead..."
"I see it... true power..."
Saint Nusjuro, the Warrior God of Finance, suddenly stared blankly into the mist.
Holding his sword tightly, he slowly walked forward.
"Unmatched strength... unrivaled swordsmanship..."
"You've fallen into it too?"
Saint Peter, the Warrior God of Agriculture, frowned and grabbed Nusjuro's kimono.
"Saint Nusjuro, stop moving. There's nothing there."
But Nusjuro did not wake up.
Greed filled his eyes as he muttered obsessively:
"True power... power capable of changing the entire world... power greater than even Lord Imu's..."
Imu silently watched Nusjuro descend into hallucination.
No emotion appeared on that cold face.
"To affect two Gorosei without making a sound..."
Saint Marcus Mars frowned deeply as Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body and crashed down on Nusjuro.
"Wake up, Saint Nusjuro. Do not disgrace yourself before Lord Imu."
"I... just now..."
Under the pressure of Conqueror's Haki, Nusjuro gradually regained his senses.
Shock filled his face.
"I was trapped inside an illusion..."
Then realization struck him.
He remembered the blasphemous words he had spoken against Imu.
His expression instantly turned pale.
Nusjuro immediately dropped to one knee.
"Lord Imu, please forgive my disrespect."
"Desire..."
Imu finally spoke again.
"Those obsessed with power will see power. Those burdened by guilt will see the dead."
The Gorosei exchanged uneasy glances.
Imu already understood.
The ability to draw out greed, guilt, and darkness from the hearts of others...
This was undeniably the authority of a Devil Fruit.
Yet Imu had not activated any ability.
That left only one possibility.
Aside from Imu, there was only one person in the world capable of wielding the authority of Devil Fruits so freely.
Imu slowly rose from the throne and looked toward the twisting black and white mist.
"Shirogai, since you've come this far, show yourself."
Whoosh!
The mist surged violently.
Countless distorted figures emerged from within it.
"He is coming... He is coming... Let us welcome that Lord's arrival..."
They possessed twisted horns and sinister smiles.
Their whispers slithered into the mind like venom.
Amid the deafening screams and wails, thousands of demonic shadows began chanting together.
Their voices merged into a dark and majestic chorus.
"King of Kings, He sings within Hell itself. Black flames crown Him, and the abyss kneels beneath His throne..."
===
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