The black seawater also looked very ominous. Imu casually threw a person into it, and he never resurfaced.
Imu was certain that the person she threw in was not a Devil Fruit user, yet after being thrown in, he didn't even struggle, as if... he had been swallowed by the sea.
Both the sky and the sea were black. Imu decided to return to the Holy Land first. A magic circle instantly activated around her, and she didn't even plan to bring anyone else.
However, her proud magic circle failed. She looked for a long time before realizing that a corner of the magic circle had also been swallowed by the black mud on Teach's body.
So, the safest place right now... She frantically ran towards where Artoria and Mordred were sleeping. After reaching their side, she finally let out a slight sigh of relief.
Although she didn't quite understand the current situation, Teach's changes and the faint aura in the seawater, which originated from the black mud, made Imu realize that all of this was inextricably linked to Nero.
Everyone else also stopped fighting. The current situation was more abnormal than they had imagined.
Sakazuki used his Magma-Magma Fruit and Kuzan's Ice-Ice Fruit in conjunction to create new land.
However, whether it was the land, the magma, or the ice and snow, they were still slowly being eroded by the strange sea, bit by bit.
"Wha...what is that?"
Suddenly, someone pointed to the sky and shouted in shock.
Almost everyone, whose attention had been drawn to the sea, looked up at the sky upon hearing this.
Upon looking, they discovered that a strange change had also appeared in the sky at some unknown point.
The sky, which had been covered in dark clouds with lightning and thunder, suddenly showed an even deeper shadow.
The shadow was enormous, occupying about a third of the sky, with dim lights flickering within it like stars.
The shadow, even larger than a super-giant Sea Kings, made everyone's throats dry, and they couldn't help but swallow.
Imu was even more shocked. There should have been the ancient weapon uranus in the sky, which she had prepared for contingencies.
"What is that thing? Where is uranus?" Imu then realized that her connection with uranus had been severed at some unknown point.
Moreover, such a massive object was right above her head, yet her Observation Haki didn't sense anything.
"No! That thing is falling!" Nami squinted, feeling that the shadow in the sky was still expanding, and suddenly reacted.
"Nani?"
"Are you kidding me? This kind of thing is falling?"
"Is it a trusted user of the Float-Float Fruit?"
"Idiot! Even Golden Lion Shiki in his prime couldn't achieve this scale!"
"How can we stop something like this?"
Just as everyone was feeling uneasy, someone shouted out loud.
"Fighting is meaningless now. Everyone, we need to work together to escape!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and found that it was Koby, the new 'Marine Hero' from the Marineford War.
Seeing everyone look over, Koby didn't flinch this time and continued with a firm expression: "If that thing in the sky falls, all of us will die. Right now, we should cooperate to escape."
"No matter what the world becomes, only by preserving our lives will we have a future."
His words stunned everyone. Who didn't know that if that thing fell, it would kill people?
Even if it did fall, it wouldn't kill true powerhouses.
The remaining ones didn't have their own factions? And they still had to huddle together, to die faster?
And escape? Cooperate to escape? On the battlefield? Are you serious?
"Hahaha... Akainu, I think your 'Marine Hero's' idea is good!"
"That's right! Aren't you Marines Imu-sama's lackeys? Why don't you ask Imu if she can deal with the unidentified flying object above?"
Everyone was laughing, except Sakazuki and Koby himself. Sakazuki's face was as black as iron, while Koby looked bewildered.
Why was this happening?
During the Marineford War back then, there were clearly people who listened to him and later called him a hero.
It was clearly the same... why did everyone have such expressions this time?
Even the Marines, why was this happening?
This bewildered expression even made Imu laugh, but there was no warmth in her smile. She glanced at the Gorosei and said faintly, "Are these the people you manage the seas? Do such people deserve to be lackeys of the World Government?"
The Gorosei stopped laughing... and prostrated themselves in terror once again.
"Boy... you are not fit to be a Marine..."
Akainu used Soru to appear in front of Koby, and his lava fist pierced through his body, burning his internal organs.
"Ah... ah ah ah ah ah!" Koby looked down at Sakazuki's fist and let out a tragic wail.
Koby looked up and saw his cold expression, and his negation of his Marine career.
Finally, Koby desperately reached out to Garp, attempting to ask for help, but he saw Garp's complex expression, and the last thing that entered his vision was Garp turning his head away.
It was clear that in the end, even Garp had given up on him.
With confusion and unwillingness, Koby completely stopped struggling... And his only friend in the Marine, Helmeppo, had already died in an earlier war.
Sakazuki's expression didn't change at all, as if he was shaking off some trash.
Imu didn't pay much attention to this either. Her gaze was mostly still on the sky.
No matter how much she used her Observation Haki to perceive, there was still no reaction, as if the shadow was part of the natural laws, just like mountains and seas.
It wasn't until the shadow drew closer that Imu finally saw the true form of the dim stars.
"Is it... gold?" Imu exclaimed. In this world, there was only one place with such a large reserve of gold, and that was Nicuss.
"The vanished Nicuss? So these anomalies were initiated by Nero?"
"Nero? That golden empress, why is she doing this?"
"What exactly is happening now? Who is the enemy?"
Imu descended from the sky, her gaze sweeping over everyone. She spoke faintly to Luffy, who had somehow become lively again, "Joy Boy, let's cooperate."
"???"
"???"
The whole place was stunned. How did another cooperation suddenly pop up?
This time, no one mocked, and no one objected, because the one who said it was the most formidable person present.
"No!" Luffy didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that Imu was absolutely his opposing enemy.
"Heh~" Imu didn't continue to demand cooperation, but simply looked up at the shadow again.
Within the shadow was a seven-headed crimson giant dragon, its long tail connected to the enormous shadow, as if it was dragging it through the air.
Imu was the first to feel that pure malice, like a beast of ultimate destruction that would annihilate everything.
That was the natural enemy of all, the enemy of civilization. The Imu of the past had only felt that destructive tyranny.
But now, upon seeing Nero, she finally understood that it was nature itself, it was the apocalypse, it was the end...
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