"I'm thinking about your connection with my ancestor."
Carl remained calm and composed, voicing his thoughts without hesitation.
This caught Lily off guard for a moment. After a brief pause, she recovered and replied,
"Of course, it was an alliance. Your ancestor, myself, and the eighteen others we found later—our goal was the same: to destroy Joy Boy."
Carl watched Lily closely, noticing no shift in her expression when she mentioned Saint Cassilius. She seemed to be simply stating facts.
From what Lily implied, the twenty of them, herself included, came together in an impromptu alliance and went straight to war with Joy Boy—simple and brutal.
But if it really was a temporary alliance, then the members were remarkably reliable. When it came time to act, they didn't hesitate. They nearly took Joy Boy down with them.
Most notably, Carl's ancestor, Saint Cassilius, was the most sincere of all. From Lily's words and scattered records, Cassilius had been without a doubt the strongest among the twenty. Carl knew that if it had been him, he could never have sacrificed his life just to deal a fatal blow to Joy Boy.
There was still one thing Carl didn't understand—did all twenty of them really die in the battle with Joy Boy? Why was Lily the only one who survived?
But now wasn't the time for Carl to get all the answers. After all, Joy Boy was still floating nearby.
...
Hearing the exchange between Lily and Carl, Joy Boy let out a cold snort.
"So in the end, they all died... and you were the one who picked the fruit."
He glanced at Carl intentionally, trying to sow discord between them.
Of course Lily understood what he was getting at. She scoffed dismissively.
"Yeah, I picked the fruit. But it wasn't all that sweet."
Carl shook his head. The cursed blade, Muramasa, traced a thin arc of black light through the air. Narrowing his eyes at Joy Boy, he said,
"Lily-sama, I am very interested in the events of the past. But we've got time to talk later. For now, let's finish off this piece of trash."
Lily nodded in agreement. She raised a hand, and a spiraling, serpent-like pattern shot from her fingertip toward Joy Boy.
At the same time, Carl's form flickered like a ghost, suddenly appearing in front of Joy Boy. From behind him, dark energy erupted like a geyser.
The darkness was so intense it seemed to blur the line between reality and illusion. Joy Boy struggled to defend himself against the onslaught coming from all directions.
But he was clearly far weaker than before—even the power of Nika was greatly diminished.
The Nika barrier he managed to form was barely enough to encase his own body. It looked more like a small, elliptical shell—thin and fragile.
Even so, maintaining that tiny shell took everything Joy Boy had. Its glow flickered erratically, as if it would shatter at any second.
Lily, watching him struggle, stepped forward to add fuel to the fire.
She stood tall and regal like a queen. With a wave of her hand, the demons around her surged into motion, converging into a tide of black energy that twisted into a sleek, jet-black spear in the sky.
Dark, spiral demon sigils shimmered faintly in the air around the weapon. Its tip pointed directly at the shrouded figure of Joy Boy.
In the next instant, the spear shot forward like a black lightning bolt, slamming into the fragile barrier with brutal force.
Crack!
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the air. The barrier exploded, leaving Joy Boy fully exposed.
Eyes wide in fury, Joy Boy reached out to catch the black spear—but the demon sigils along its shaft crawled up his arm like living fire.
They burned into his flesh like molten brands, sizzling as they etched themselves into his skin.
Sensing the twisted, alien power in the sigils, Joy Boy grit his teeth and forced a glowing white ring to appear at the joint of his shoulder and upper arm, halting the spread of corruption.
Lily's lips curled into a wicked smile. With a twirl of her finger, the black spear began to spin violently, forming a miniature black vortex that tore through Joy Boy's body.
His scream pierced the heavens as the spear shredded one of his arms into motes of white light, which were immediately devoured by the darkness.
...
Countless tendrils of shadow emerged from the gloom, binding Joy Boy's broken form layer by layer. Clutching the seared stump of his shoulder, he struggled desperately within the cocoon of darkness.
A glint flashed in Carl's eyes. He held Muramasa upright before him and ran a hand slowly along the flat of the blade.
As he did, the cursed sword pulsed with a sinister black light. At the base where hilt met blade, a rapidly spinning vortex of darkness formed.
At that moment, both Lily and Joy Boy felt it—a chill of recognition.
Lily turned to Carl and murmured,
"It's coming, isn't it? That ultimate strike from back then..."
Joy Boy's unease surged into full-blown panic. He knew what was about to be unleashed.
He knew that if Saint Cassilius hadn't lost part of his original power, there would have been no chance to embed his will in a Devil Fruit and escape.
And he also knew—Carl's power was now complete. He'd seen it firsthand during their fight.
If he took that blow in his current state... he would be truly and utterly erased from existence.
Darkness—pure annihilation incarnate! A force that reduced all things to nothing. Even the sun could not escape such obliteration.
"No!!! I refuse to die!!!"
Confronted with true death, Joy Boy's sanity finally cracked. He howled like a madman, white beams of light bursting from his eyes as white flames engulfed his body.
Lily's brow furrowed. She summoned another blast of demonic energy and hurled it toward him. But Joy Boy seemed oblivious.
He now floated in the air, limbs spread in a cruciform shape, completely engulfed in white fire.
...
As the flames seared through him, Joy Boy's body began to dissolve. Eventually, nothing remained but a single golden heart, hovering in the air.
The golden heart continued to beat, each pulse stronger than the last. From it, pale white filaments unfurled like veins, spreading outward into the sky.
The sound of the Drums of Liberation burst forth like rolling thunder, shaking the heavens.
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+150 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg