Chapter 408: Fruit of the Stars, Ten Thousand Foxes of Qingqiu
"After so many years, Our Lord has actually recalled our souls from the Ancient Coffin."
"So to speak, has the era where the sea submerges everything and we rule over everything finally arrived?"
"Be careful, Limocifer—this is a battlefield, it's not over yet."
"Hm? You're right... there's also Our Lord's 'prohibition' around—these guys are rebels?"
Returning to the living world after eight hundred years, the initial twenty people didn't seem surprised by their return. Or rather, they were surprised instead by the surrounding situation right now.
While conversing, they also looked at Imu behind them, and Luffy who had already lost consciousness in front of Imu: "That is... the Joy Boy of this generation?"
Facing the inquiry of the twenty kings, Imu merely nodded calmly.
"According to the contract, Mu has retrieved a portion of power, thus recalling you."
"According to the contract, after the sea submerges the world and turns the world into Mu's Divine Kingdom, Mu will grant you the authority to rule over everything eternally."
"But now... Mu still needs your power."
He extended His hand, pointing at the rebels.
"These are the last rebels of the current world. Mu will retrieve the final portion of 'freedom' here. You need to prevent them from approaching Mu, and then... slay them all on behalf of Mu."
As the words fell, the initial twenty kings also looked at each other in dismay.
They also realized that the situation seemed to be somewhat different from their estimates.
"The Lord's situation is worse than we thought."
"Is it the aftereffect left by that bitch Lily back then?"
This was their unified thought at this moment.
Yes.
As the original contractors of the Abyss, the crucial pawns who betrayed Davy Jones and allowed the Abyss to rule the world.
They should have been unaging and undying existences—to the "Abyss" of that time, granting eternal life was as simple as breathing.
But the problem was, Queen Lily back then used her ability to seal the Abyss within "Imu's" body.
This directly led to the Abyssal Power required to maintain their eternal life being too massive, and for Imu at the time, it was impossible to bear.
So they made another agreement.
They would die, but Imu would resurrect them in the future after retrieving His power.
And that would also be the time when the sea submerged the world, and everything in the world was completely turned into their slaves.
But now, they found the situation didn't seem to be like this.
Although Imu brought them back, the war was still continuing.
And their Lord, although He had retrieved a portion of His power, clearly hadn't completely recovered His peak yet.
However, it didn't matter.
"Rebels? Just a bunch of traitors."
"Facing the Creator, you should obediently kneel... bugs!"
"Our Lord has already taken away their abilities and wishes... just relying on Haki to fight us? Ridiculous!"
They felt the familiar power bestowed by Imu inside their bodies, then looked at the opponents below whose abilities had been taken by Imu and whose power was suppressed by the Abyssal Magic Circle, still not taking them seriously in their hearts.
And facts were indeed so.
On the battlefield right now, the many powerhouses who had lost the enhancement of their fruit abilities instantly fell into massive crisis and passivity.
And correspondingly, many "Ancient Coffin" soldiers who originally had no abilities, and even some Marine Vice Admirals who had not been transformed, discovered right now that fruit abilities had begun to appear out of thin air within their bodies.
The situation on the battlefield began to show obvious changes.
Looking again at the descended Initial Kings, and Imu Himself whose power was still continuously rising.
The scales of victory seemed to tilt at this moment.
And right now, Imu was also finally relieved to begin the final absorption of Luffy's ability—He knew the abilities and strength of these eighteen Initial Kings.
Although they were betrayers, and also the progenitors of the Celestial Dragons, every one of them could be considered an outstanding talent of their time, absolutely sufficient to protect Him while He absorbed...
"Hm!?"
Imu's train of thought didn't even have time to finish.
Because at this time...
VMMM!
The battlefield, which originally appeared somewhat dim due to the execution of Imu's power, inexplicably became bright at this moment.
The rising starlight seemed like a sharp sword piercing through the dark night right now.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
Then they saw that "The Zodiac", which seemed to have been quietly waiting for something since it appeared, at this moment...
Actually finally made a move.
The ones to move first were "Dog", "Rabbit", and "Sheep".
Right now, the starlight around Dog spread out softly.
That starlight didn't have earth-shattering momentum, but instead rippled like waves, forming a massive, illusory scene behind him in just a moment.
That seemed to be a massive mountain range.
It seemed to be only an illusion formed by starlight, yet it also seemed to truly exist.
And from within that mountain, little foxes transformed from streams of starlight were currently appearing from the grass among the mountains.
"That is..."
And at this time, many people present, as well as the people who had been silently watching the live broadcast for a long time, instinctively let out involuntary gasps of exclamation.
They recognized that mountain—no, or rather, that mountain was actually quite famous on the sea not long ago.
"It's... it's one of the 'Twelve Trial Grounds' on the Aster!"
Especially some challengers who had previously gone to the Aster to participate in the trials could clearly recognize it right now.
"There's no mistake, I even specially went to the library in the capital to search after I left the Aster, but couldn't find any information..."
"That mountain is 'Mount Qingqiu'."
"According to the Trial Ground's statement, it is the 'Source of All Foxes'."
Amidst the exclamations.
Dog slowly raised his hand.
The next moment, his figure abruptly transformed into a massive giant fox growing nine tails.
But at the same time, his body also seemed to transform into countless things.
Flowers, grass, trees, birds, and beasts—the myriad things and phenomena within Mount Qingqiu seemed to all be his face.
[Fruit of the Stars · Qingqiu Fruit]
"Thousand Tail Incarnation."
Accompanied by his low murmur.
The nine massive tails behind him also transformed into countless scattered stardust in an instant.
And the countless foxes in Mount Qingqiu also abruptly leaped out from Mount Qingqiu at this moment.
Every one of them had a different appearance, and every one of them bore special patterns on their bodies.
They landed collectively on the battlefield, on the shoulders of the warriors belonging to The Zodiac's side.
Then...
"!!!"
Whether it was the Giant warriors, Kuja warriors, or Fish-Man warriors fighting desperately, all felt an inexplicable power begin to... inject into their bodies at this moment.
And for people who were previously ability users, the feeling was even more obvious right now.
Fwoosh!
For example, an illusory fox also crouched on Marco's shoulder right now.
Then, from his body... that cyan Flames of Regeneration began to burn fiercely once again.
"My ability is restored?"
He exclaimed.
"No, that's not right..."
But just a moment later, he noticed the change.
"It feels weird—it's slightly weaker than my ability, and a bit clunky to use—is it this fox..."
"It contains my ability inside its body, and granted it to me?"
While murmuring in a low voice, Marco clearly also knew now was not the time to think about this.
"It's enough."
He just gritted his teeth, looking at those foxes continuously flying around the battlefield—Jozu's body re-crystallized, and flames re-ignited on both of Ace's hands.
And more crucially, right now, even some ordinary warriors had some relatively smaller foxes on their bodies.
And visibly to the naked eye, when these foxes leaped onto their shoulders, their strength, speed, or some other aspects would also obviously become significantly stronger.
In just an instant, the battlefield that originally vaguely seemed about to collapse actually stabilized instantly.
"Truly capable, the guys from The Zodiac..."
And regarding this, Marco also revealed an excited smile.
Dog's move directly changed the battle situation.
And more importantly...
Whether it was Marco or the others, they all naturally knew—this was merely the beginning!