# Chapter 141: The Sword Saint's God's Domain!
Hearing Rayleigh's threatening declaration, Im, standing in the air, was not surprised but delighted. He had long been looking forward to finding someone to test his methods on.
Although the memory of his previous self made it basically clear what his level was, and he often practiced Sword Dancing, memory was just memory; practice was still practice.
Wasn't this 'Dark King' Rayleigh before him the best test subject?
Although he didn't know why this guy ran to Mary Geoise for no reason, since he was seeking death, sending him on his way was all there was to it.
How did that saying go?
People eventually die, and some people just need a little help!
As for danger, one could only say that a mere Highest Combat Power could not bring him such a rare feeling.
At the same time,
A series of rapid whistling sounds echoed in the air again. Although the sound wasn't very loud, because there was no other noise and it was night, it was relatively clear.
Seeing this, Rayleigh roared. The Strength and Haki within him were no longer held back, erupting completely and violently. Waves of Air Current emerged without Wind, blowing his bright golden hair and his clothing to billow.
"'Nether Prison'!!"
In an instant, his entire body pulsed. His Tendons, bones, muscles, and Membrane all swelled up. His bones crackled loudly in succession, and the muscles on his right arm swelled by a third.
The moment the Long Saber, flickering with dense, silver electric light, chopped out in front of him, a brilliant Blade Light bloomed, illuminating the entire Court, finally forming a massive crescent-shaped Flying Slash Attack that slashed vertically.
The air caught in its path, under extreme pressure, transformed into surging Energy/Force, forcibly pushing away all surrounding Invisible Swords. The Adam Wood Court on the ground, worth hundreds of millions of Berry, was even sliced open with deep cracks like tofu.
At this moment, Mihawk experienced the feeling of the masses during the Summit War in the original Timeline, those who witnessed him swing a challenging Blade towards 'Whitebeard'.
Their eyes filled with silver light, the three stared blankly at the shocking massive Blade Light heading towards Saint Nerona/Lord Imu, including the Five Elders upstairs and the numerous CP Agents guarding outside the Castle Gate.
"Hmm?!"
But this Flying Slash Attack, so magnificent, violent, and fierce, constantly flashing with dangerous current, was flying somewhat slowly, and getting slower and slower. This made everyone's Gaze turn strange.
It was like a slow-motion Screen Feed slowed down more than ten times, struggling to approach Im in the air amidst the dense Air Ripples.
It's unclear how long passed. When it finally reached three meters in front of him, as if relieved of a burden, it completely exploded, shattered into scattered silver light filling the Sky, like falling starlight, scattering across the entire Court.
The scene was so beautiful, but Rayleigh's Expression became exceptionally grim, and his mood plummeted to the bottom of the Abyss.
"This is impossible..."
His move 'Nether Prison', even if Roger were alive, he would have to use 'Divine Avoidance' to deal with it. But... but this strange Celestial Dragon actually blocked it just by having his hands behind his back!
But Rayleigh is Rayleigh after all. As the Vice Captain of the Roger Pirates, he has the Ability to maintain basic rationality and calmness at all times, frantically analyzing the recent Situation in his Mind.
"Is that a Qi Wall?"
"Emission of Armament Haki!"
"But how can there be such incredibly thick, even terrifying Armament Haki in the world?"
At this moment, this 'Dark King' looked up at Im under the full moon and suddenly realized that the latter wasn't actually floating using a Devil Fruit Ability, but rather stepping on invisible Armament Haki!
But it was precisely this point that left Rayleigh doubly shocked. This had already exceeded his understanding of Haki's realm.
Haki can indeed be emitted to affect real Substance, but that kind of Emission is explosive, and cannot be long-lasting. To maintain it persistently, it can only condense attached to the Body Surface, which is Hardening, or wrapped around the body like gas volatilizing, which is Wrapping.
In fact, this indeed exceeded the Haki level of these outside Top Tier Combatants.
The previous Im over these past eight hundred years continuously polished Haki, refined Haki, researched Haki, cultivated Conqueror's Haki, Armament Haki, and Observation Haki respectively to near their limits, and then fused them into one.
From then on, for him, Haki no longer distinguished between types.
Armament Haki's Hardening, Emission, Internal Penetration; Observation Haki's super large range, Sensing Aura, Predicting Movements, Future Sight; Conqueror's Haki's Intimidation, Pressure, Wrapping.
These characteristics were completely integrated.
Coupled with the accumulation of Foundation over so many years, the thickness of Haki Reserves had long reached the limit that the Mind could contain. Finally, quantitative change produced qualitative change.
Not only that.
Over these long years, the previous Im's Swordsmanship Skill had long exceeded the level of a Great Swordsman. He called this realm 'Sword Saint'.
For hundreds of years, he had seen many incredibly talented Sword Master prodigies, but only Ryuma from Wano Country back then was infinitely close to this realm.
This is also why Ryuma was able to defeat the Marine Admiral at that time, the main reason for being called 'God of Swords'!
But in the previous Im's view, only when Ryuma completely stepped into the Sword Saint realm was he worthy of the title God of Swords.
Unfortunately, the latter did not have the Ability of Eternal Life, and ultimately lost to the Mortal Flesh slowly decaying under the erosion of the river of Time.
Since then, the previous Im went a step further, combined his own Sword Dao with Haki, and formed these Invisible Sword Aura that could appear anywhere within the Haki range.
The previous Im called it 'God's Domain'!
"Ant, feel honored to be able to die in this place. For you, this is already the greatest glory and grace in this life."
Im's Ability here is not complicated, not so many fancy things. Having personally experienced his own methods, his interest in Rayleigh also gradually decreased.
He wants to use a relatively magnificent scene to send this 'Dark King' to the true Underworld. As for whether Rayleigh can become King there, that's not his concern.
*Crackling crackling crackling crackling crackling crackling crackling----*
The next moment, Rayleigh, who was stepping on the Court representing the 'First Half of the Grand Line', saw one after another sword light flashing with golden light and Lightning gradually condensing behind Im.
Their number was increasing crazily at a Speed visible to the naked eye. Soon the night Sky in all directions was completely covered by dense golden light.
Rayleigh's narrowed eyes could notice that those Sword Aura themselves were actually still invisible and transparent, only constantly appearing under the flickering illumination of Lightning.
"Can these Sword Aura also wrap Conqueror's Haki? And the color is actually golden, never seen before... This is really a big trouble~~"
At this moment, Shakky's face appeared in his Mind.
"If I had known earlier..."
*Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish!*
All the lightning sword lights turned into streaks of incredibly fast golden electric light, like pouring Heavy Rain under the Moonlight, golden Wind blew, condensed boundless Killing Intent, completely submerged, enveloped, and covered Rayleigh, who was swinging his Long Saber with all his might.
The Light Mass of silver Lightning was crazily bombarded by golden Lightning. The Sword Aura tangled together, fiercely engaged in offense and defense. The Lightning continuously collided, exploded, and annihilated.
The Court below, engraved with the 'Grand Line', also cracked and shattered together, as if the full-scale battle between the two caused the Great Sea to roll back, and caused the Sky to shatter.
It's unclear how long passed. That Light Mass began to flicker non-stop. Streaks of bright red Blood Drop splashed open under the illumination of the Moonlight, and then evaporated by a streak of electric light that shot past, turning into scattered Blood Mist.
Suddenly.
Mihawk and others discovered that the lightning Sword Aura in the air was no longer increasing. When the last streak of electric light landed, they saw that the 'Dark King' Rayleigh had already fallen to the ground.
His back, arms, and Legs were all filled with Invisible Sword Aura surging with golden electricity. His Gaze was in its dying moments. The Long Saber in his hand was already a Broken Blade.
"Roger... It seems my Voyage has also come to an end here. This... this Adventurous Life was really good."
(Author's note: The concept of Sword Saint, familiar to readers knowledgeable about Japanese Kendo, is real, so setting Sword Saint as a realm above Great Swordsman should be fine.)
(Author's note: Im's methods, the Little Author hasn't made them too fancy. They are still based on Haki and Swordsmanship, which I believe is the setting most readers can accept.)
(Author's note: However, the protagonist's future Strength will definitely not be limited to Haki and Swordsmanship, but the Little Author guarantees it won't be too messy, because I personally dislike chaotic protagonist power Systems.)
(Author's note: Also, regarding the sense of presence in this battle, many people feel Im lacks presence and doesn't do much, so I have to let Im make a move occasionally. It's hard to please everyone, so please be understanding, generous Readers. I really have to take care of various demands.)
(Author's note: Also, I state again, although I've said it many times before, for the fan-fiction settings in this Book that are not yet confirmed by the original work or Oda, please take this Book as the standard. If it's proven wrong later, please treat this Book as a plausible Parallel World. This does not affect the World Government's subsequent story of conquering the Multiverse.)
(Author's note: After all, how can a person not be proven wrong? Being able to avoid the Nika Fruit incident once before is already considered the Little Author being smart and lucky.)
(Author's note: But please don't be like that 'Mr. Eiichiro Oda' in the Comment section, who regards his own fan-fiction and speculation as original settings, and then uses this to accuse others whose fan-fiction and speculation differ from his own fan-fiction and speculation of arbitrarily changing original settings.)
(Author's note: It's not like that!)
(Author's note: Why is your fan-fiction official setting, but my fan-fiction is arbitrarily changing settings?)
(Author's note: Finally, the Dark King Rayleigh has fallen in battle, how about some votes to celebrate?)
(End of Chapter)