The arm was gone.
Columbus's face changed. He could feel it clearly—his severed left arm had stopped regenerating.
"Impossible… how did you do that?!"
Ever since gaining an undying body, Columbus had run… experiments in Impel Down.
Carve open his chest and pluck out the heart?
Sever a finger and feed it to a Sea King?
Burn a limb to cinders?
No matter the method, the missing part always grew back—sooner or later.
But now—no growth.
That arm felt erased, as if the body had forgotten it ever existed.
"Fun, isn't it?"
Dimon smirked.
The immortality of these "undying" was power granted by the devil he commanded. All he'd done was reclaim a sliver of what he gave.
Of course, devouring a detached arm did nothing for him. For true returns, he had to devour the whole person—hand on the head.
Columbus's eyes sank into shadow.
So immortality had a flaw.
Most people couldn't kill an undying body… but another undying could.
"You're going to tell me that secret."
His gaze cooled; his mind settled like steel. If this "Dio" could do it—then so could he.
"Blood Barrage Spear!"
From his shoulder stump, a flood of blood erupted and wove itself into scarlet lances that streaked toward Dimon. Each spear, the instant it formed, wound itself in Armament Haki—its tip dark-red and lethal.
Dozens… then hundreds…
A forest of blood-spears screamed in. Dimon's eyes narrowed—seeing a few seconds into the future. He shifted in the air by hair-breadth margins, slipping past every line of death.
When space tightened and the spears grew too dense to thread, he merely flicked a wing and batted them aside.
The fight froze in a grinding stalemate.
Columbus kept up ridiculous firepower, hammering Dimon for ten minutes straight. In this world, monsters fought for days on end; stamina was an ocean.
But the longer it went, the heavier Columbus's heart grew.
"Lunarian? His defense is absurd…"
The Lunarians were once hailed as a "godly race."
When the flame burns, defense soars.
When the flame dies, speed surges.
This man didn't even light his flame—yet Columbus's probing strikes still couldn't break him.
"A troublesome foe. In the air he's too fast—I need a new field."
He snapped his jaw open and spat a mouthful of black blood.
Dimon's wing intercepted it; the impact hissed, smoke curling from the stain.
Dimon turned—and saw Columbus arrowing toward Enies Lobby.
"You think spitting at me is a getaway plan?"
Dimon's wings beat once. He closed the distance in a few breaths.
Columbus peered into the future—Dimon would cut his blood-wings from behind—so he twisted and spat another mouthful of black.
This wasn't his own power. It was Magellan's poison, stored in his blood—
a cocktail brewed from the Blood-Blood Fruit and the Poison-Poison Fruit.
A touch to skin, and it crawled inward—nerves numbed, muscles dulled.
Dimon tilted his head, letting the splash skim past his cheek. The gambit bought Columbus a flicker of space.
"Yare yare… did you really think you'd get away?"
Dimon smiled.
"Domain—Unfold."
Shadow poured from under his feet like the maw of a great abyss, racing outward. In a blink it swallowed Columbus—and then hardened, forming a vast black sphere suspended in midair.
"What is this?!"
Columbus slammed into the inner edge. Total black. Sight dead.
Only his Observation Haki could feel the presence behind him.
He turned slowly, eyes cold.
"What ability…? No. The presences are multiplying."
His face twitched. Within Observation's sense, more auras kept appearing. Not the "voices" of living people, but the same dead-calm hush he'd felt earlier when the bowl-cut brat blindsided him.
"This is a Domain," Dimon said, almost kindly. "A free answer. No thanks necessary."
His tone stayed pleasant, almost gentle. "First time trying it. You don't mind being my test subject, right?"
The words fell—
—and the undying he had manifested erupted like rabid hounds loosed from chains, all lunging for Columbus at once.
Columbus took a long breath. A curl of dread pressed at his spine.
He'd survived hundreds of battles. This was the first time his instincts told him: you might lose.
"Come on then, brat!"
—
With more Marine officers awakened to the fray, the battle's balance finally tilted toward the Navy. Facing three Logia on the same front, the pirates couldn't break through.
And then—everyone stopped.
Every eye turned to the far horizon.
"What… is that?"
"A moon? But black?"
"A black sphere… floating up there!?"
Faces blanked in awe.
On the Island That Never Sleeps, daylight never ends—no moon, ever.
And yet today, a black, perfect disc hung in the heavens, bold as a bruise.
Rayleigh, forced back by Gunzi, skidded to Jabba's side.
The upper half of the Judicial Tower—already cleaved by Jabba—had toppled into the yawning sea chasm. No sound of impact. No bottom.
But nobody cared.
All gazes drifted skyward.
From this angle, the black moon was half-hidden behind the ruined tower's jag of stone.
"What is that?" Roger breathed.
Garp's fist was already in Roger's face, sending him tumbling—yet even he spared a glance back.
"Black moon?"
Even Gunzi, eyes fixed on Roger's circle, flicked a look over her shoulder when everyone else stared the same way.
Judicial Tower, temporary command.
The ceiling was gone; open blue yawned overhead.
Vice Admiral Tsuru pushed herself up, grabbed a Den Den Mushi to resume command—and then caught it in the corner of her eye: the far-off black moon.
"That's… the direction Columbus was taken."
She froze.
At this range, the sphere was only a black coin in the sky.
"Will he be fine? Columbus is immortal. This phenomenon should be his opponent's doing. What ability is that?"
—
Inside the pitch-black domain.
"Is that your limit? Tch. That won't cut it."
The devil's vision wasn't blocked. Dimon saw Columbus perfectly.
"Hah… hah…" Columbus panted, heavy and ragged. "Who are you—what is this power?"
He was certain—this was the one who had stirred the sea into a tsunami.
"I told you. Dio." Dimon's voice was lazy. "Though not for long. Maybe you will be."
Columbus's brow knotted. Observation Haki mapped Dimon's footsteps, steady and closing—
—and plotted dozens more, the undying pressing in from every side.
He drew his Haki to the maximum; black-red lightning hissed over his skin. One last stand.
Only one of them was truly dangerous. The others had undying bodies, but they weren't this bowl-cut devil.
This was an army of immortals.
Dimon lifted a brow. "You think last-minute struggling changes the end? At best, you'll scrawl the word 'defeat' a few extra times in the dust."
"Nothing changes."
He shifted hosts.
Among the undying, Monroe's eyes flashed red. While Columbus's focus snagged on Kozuki Oden's ghostlike feint, Monroe moved like a thunderbolt.
Justice from behind.
Columbus's pupils snapped tight. His future-sense saw it—but too late.
He looked down—
—a hand had punched clean through his chest, holding a dripping heart in its fist.
"My Armament… how could you—?!"
Columbus stared, eyes wide, turning his head to meet Monroe's gaze—
—and felt something else close around him from the dark.
To be continued…
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
patreon.com/MugiwaraTL