The instant Cyrus finished speaking, the black arrowheads were already upon him.
Boom!
Black-and-red lightning exploded across the space before him as the crimson blade in his hand collided with the incoming attacks.
Conqueror's Haki crashed against Conqueror's Haki, locking the two forces together for only a brief moment before the darkness below suddenly surged into motion.
The black mist that had been quietly churning around the palace rose like a tidal wave and swallowed Cyrus whole.
A crimson blade flashed from within.
The mass of darkness split cleanly apart.
Cyrus emerged from the opening and raised his left hand, studying the strange patterns that had appeared across his skin.
His gaze then shifted toward the enormous black creature still coiled above the palace.
Clang!
Without looking behind him, Cyrus drove his left fist backward.
The sheer force compressed the air and blasted a massive hole through the mist at his back.
A woman's silhouette formed entirely from black fog had been hiding there, and the punch obliterated her upper body in an instant.
Yet the darkness gathered again almost immediately.
Her shattered torso reformed, and before Cyrus could move away, the cold black hand closed around his wrist.
Black flames erupted across the back of his hand and began burning fiercely.
"So this is how you control those people?"
Cyrus could feel his vitality being consumed by the flames.
He casually flicked his wrist. His entire left hand dissolved, then immediately reformed from flame. When it returned, the black fire was gone.
"A portion of my power remains inside you."
Imu's voice came from the dark humanoid figure.
"You used that power to track me. I cannot allow it to remain."
She sounded almost pleased, as though she had finally gained a small advantage.
"Just as I thought."
Cyrus examined his restored hand and nodded.
"It really is gone. Looks like you burned it away."
"Do not think you can use my own power to follow me."
"I never planned to rely on it for that."
Cyrus smiled.
"Besides…"
Before he could finish, the darkness coiled above the palace suddenly erupted into violent motion.
It churned far more fiercely than before, like water brought to a furious boil.
Boom!
A figure burst through the black mist and rose into the air.
It was a woman, half of her body burning.
The black robes that had covered her were gone from one side, revealing pale flesh beneath. A translucent membrane clung tightly over her body, giving her an unnatural appearance.
Her face itself was ordinary, almost plain, and completely expressionless.
But her eyes revealed everything.
Shock.
Rage.
"Just as you deliberately used that attack to remove something from me, I took the opportunity to make a few adjustments of my own."
Cyrus's gaze lingered on the half of Imu's body exposed by the burned robes.
"So this is why you need so many replacement bodies."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"This one can't last very long, can it?"
The abnormalities were obvious enough for him to piece together part of the truth.
Perhaps it was a side effect of her ability.
Perhaps it was the price of extending her life.
Whatever the cause, every body Imu occupied seemed to undergo some form of mutation, and it was entirely possible that even she could not stop the process once it began.
Before Cyrus could say anything more, the half-burning figure shot toward him.
Her flaming fist arrived in front of his face in an instant.
"Every time you transfer your consciousness, there has to be some kind of loss."
Cyrus raised one hand and caught the punch.
His fingers tightened slightly.
The skin across Imu's fist cracked apart, already charred black by the flames.
Dark mist immediately surged around her body.
The burned flesh regenerated at remarkable speed beneath the black fog.
But Cyrus's flames refused to go out.
Burning and regeneration began cycling endlessly, one destroying the flesh while the other restored it.
Imu did not react.
Either she could no longer feel the pain of that body, or she simply did not care.
Perhaps that was why she no longer felt entirely alive.
Cyrus tilted his head aside as another punch passed beside his face, then swept one leg across.
His shin struck Imu squarely in the abdomen.
Her entire midsection exploded.
The force tore her body into two halves before it could fully spread through the rest of her.
Dark mist rushed in again.
By the time the separated pieces began falling, Imu's body had already reconstructed itself, even the destroyed abdomen restored without a trace.
"An enhanced regeneration ability."
Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
Then he vanished.
A crimson line flashed through the air.
Imu's head flew from her shoulders.
Before the surrounding darkness could reach it, countless slashes followed.
The severed head was shredded into fragments in midair, and those fragments immediately vanished into flame, reduced to smoke before they could fall.
The black mist failed to catch the head.
It only covered the remaining body.
Yet when the darkness dispersed, Imu's head had somehow regenerated anyway.
Cyrus stared for a moment, then turned toward the enormous salamander-like monster still sprawled above the palace.
Darkness immediately surged upward and obscured his vision.
It made no difference.
Cyrus swung his blade horizontally.
The slash tore through the black mist and struck the gigantic creature beyond.
Its body split apart effortlessly.
Cyrus lowered the sword and turned back toward the humanoid Imu, visibly intrigued.
"Stop guessing."
Imu sounded almost smug.
"My consciousness is here."
"And elsewhere."
Cyrus understood the implication immediately.
He laughed.
"Then I hope you can hold out for a while."
The words had barely left his mouth when terrifying light erupted from his body.
In an instant, the humanoid Imu, the vast darkness surrounding her, and the enormous black creature above the palace were all vaporized.
Heat descended upon Mary Geoise.
Not fire.
Not an attack.
Heat.
A genuine sun appeared above the Holy Land.
Everything beneath it began to melt.
The Red Line itself softened and liquefied, only for the molten stone to evaporate before it could even begin to flow.
And this was still not Cyrus attacking at full strength.
He had merely stopped suppressing the power inside him.
"Do not think you have already won."
The darkness had seemingly vanished completely, yet Imu's voice returned once more.
Below, from the melting surface of the Red Line, endless black mist began pouring upward.
It gathered in enormous waves.
"No matter how powerful you become, your strength still comes from a Devil Fruit."
More and more darkness erupted from the land.
Soon even the seas on both sides of the Red Line were covered beneath a vast blanket of black fog.
The mist surged upward and began wrapping itself around the artificial sun in the sky.
For a moment, darkness and sunlight reached a stalemate.
The black fog climbed from every direction, trying to swallow the blazing sphere whole.
But the sun was the natural enemy of darkness.
Before the upper layers of mist could even reach Cyrus, the darkness beneath them was already thinning and evaporating beneath the overwhelming heat.
'An ability that suppresses Devil Fruits?'
Cyrus almost found the idea amusing.
'What does that have to do with my sun?'
Boom!
The blazing sphere above Mary Geoise began to rise.
Cyrus stopped restraining the terrifying energy contained within his body and simply allowed it to pour outward freely.
From a distance, it truly looked as though a second sun had appeared in the sky.
As it climbed higher, the black mist below could no longer keep pace.
Under the brilliant, scorching light, the darkness covering the Red Line and surrounding seas rapidly thinned.
Yet it refused to stop.
Wave after wave continued rising, only to burn away moments later.
Heat spread outward.
Across the world, people began to feel the temperature rising.