The legendary sky of "Elbaf," which had stood for thousands of years, now looked as if it were being torn apart. From between the clouds split by Shanks' Haki, a glowing white entity descended. It looked exactly like Luffy in his "Gear 5" form; his hair floated like white clouds, and a wide grin was painted on his face, but his eyes didn't shine with joy. They were the cold red eyes of a Seraphim, and his dark skin and black wings (Lunarian genes) made him a terrifying monster.
"Zehahahaha! Look at this beauty!" Blackbeard shouted from afar as he watched the scene from his ship. "The Government has finally done it... they have cloned the God!"
But the real Luffy, standing atop the "Adam Tree" with his crew, was not laughing. His straw hat tilted over his eyes, and an aura of anger erupted from him that made the air feel heavy. "That thing... doesn't laugh for real," Luffy said in a low, serious voice. "I'm going to shatter that mask!"
Luffy lunged like white lightning toward "Seraphim Nika" (S-Nika), and their fists collided in mid-air. The explosion resulting from the clash of two "Conqueror's Haki" and "Rubber abilities" made the Giant Island shake as if it were about to split.
Below, inside the cave, Rayle watched the fight with burning eyes. "He is using the 'Mother Flame' as an energy source," Rayle whispered to Shanks. "If this fight continues, the energy emitted from the Seraphim will blow up all of Elbaf. Luffy isn't just fighting a machine; he's fighting a ticking time bomb containing the energy of the sun!"
Shanks, parrying Kyle's fiery strikes with his sword "Gryphon," shouted: "Rayle! Go and help him! I and Kyle have an old score to settle, but that thing in the sky... you're the only one who has the 'Eraser' to stop it!"
Kyle looked at his brother Rayle and laughed sarcastically. "Go, Rayle! Go and erase the version they made from your DNA! Yes... didn't anyone tell you? 'S-Nika' isn't just Luffy's genes... they used your 'Void Essence' as the vessel to contain Nika's power! You are fighting yourself, brother!"
Rayle froze in place. The shock caused the threads of the void around him to flicker. "They used my blood... to create this monster?"
In the sky, Luffy began to struggle. S-Nika felt no pain, didn't tire, and possessed an invincible Lunarian body. The Seraphim struck Luffy with a powerful "White Nika Laser," sending him crashing toward the forest.
"Enough!"
Rayle screamed, and a pillar of purple-black energy exploded from his body, blocking the sunlight. In an instant, Rayle vanished from his spot and reappeared directly above S-Nika.
"Void Field: Absolute Zero!"
A transparent purple-black aura spread around Rayle and the Seraphim, completely isolated from the world. Inside this field, physics stopped. The lasers disappeared, the blue fires went out, and even S-Nika began to tremble, his playful movements coming to a halt.
"You are not a god," Rayle said, grabbing the Seraphim's head with his bare hand. "You are just a distorted echo of our past. And since I am the one who gave them the key to make you... I am the one who will take it back!"
Rayle began absorbing the energy directly from the Seraphim. S-Nika screamed with a terrifying metallic voice as he saw his body "erasing" from the inside. But at that critical moment, a third party intervened that no one had calculated.
From behind Rayle, a black "Haki bullet" was fired with superhuman speed, piercing Rayle's shoulder and causing him to lose focus.
Rayle turned, blood dripping from his shoulder, to find Van Augur (Blackbeard's sniper) standing on a distant rock, and beside him was Teach, smiling mischievously.
"Zehahahaha! Thank you, Void Sovereign! You've weakened the Seraphim enough for me to steal its power!" Teach shouted, jumping toward the staggering S-Nika, stretching out his dark hand. "This fruit... this energy... will be mine!"
But before Teach could touch the Seraphim, something happened that terrified everyone.
S-Nika stopped trembling, and his body began to swell unnaturally. His eyes turned from red to pitch black, and a voice came out of him that wasn't a machine's voice, nor Luffy's... but an ancient voice, one Rayle had heard 800 years ago.
"Rayle... did you think you could run from me forever?"
Imu-sama had taken control of the Seraphim's body remotely! With one movement, the Seraphim grabbed the heads of both Teach and Rayle, and a shockwave erupted that evaporated the seawater surrounding Elbaf in a single second.
In Mary Geoise, Imu stood before his great window, moving his hand as if conducting a musical piece, and said calmly:
"Activate final protocol: Sink Elbaf.