Uchiha Puppet Master, Starting from One Piece.

The light from Lengominiad continued to fall.

It pierced through the Five Elders' first layer of defense, just as it pierced through a thin mist.

Those barriers, forged from eight hundred years of accumulated power, are as fragile as a sandcastle being washed away by the tide before this tower that connects the inside and outside of the world.

It penetrated the second layer.

The third layer.

Fourth floor.

The Five Elders' bodies began to tremble.

It wasn't because they were afraid, but because they were experiencing a backlash they had never felt before.

Their power was swallowed up the moment they came into contact with Lungominiad, and they were dragged into the tower at the end of time, becoming part of that tower.

Every second, hundreds of years' worth of energy flowed out of their bodies, being absorbed, transformed, and stored by the tower.

When the divine spear falls, the soldier will vanish.

It is not death, but it is more irreversible than death.

They will become specimens, beings preserved at the end of time, neither alive nor dead, waiting for Uchiha Hakuba to reshape the world.

The Five Elders did not want to see this outcome.

It wasn't because they cared about the lives of those soldiers, but because those soldiers were one of Im's sources of power.

With each soldier who disappears, Im's life force draws from this world decreases by one unit, and the energy pumped out by the dark golden sphere at the core of Pangaea City decreases by one unit.

At this moment when Im is about to return, the loss of even the slightest bit of power is unacceptable.

So the Five Elders continue.

Continue to block them.

Continue to burn through their eight hundred years of accumulated wealth.

They continued to use their bodies, their souls, and everything they had to resist that invincible light.

In their minds, no force in this world can truly defeat them.

No, not before Im, for as long as Lord Im is there, they will not truly die.

Then Lengominiad landed.

Not through them.

It's not about bypassing them.

Instead, it enveloped them all.

At this moment, the Five Elders finally understood the true nature of the tower.

It is not a weapon.

It is not intended for attack.

It is used for storage.

Chapter 249 King of Heaven

The golden pillar of light that Rungomminiad, the spear of the end, transformed into fell from the sky, growing faster and faster, heavier and heavier, and more and more unstoppable.

It covered the entire front square of Pangu City.

With a diameter of over a thousand meters, it pierced straight down from above the clouds, covering the Five Elders, thousands of elite naval troops, the remaining forces of the Knights of God, and the entire land in front of Pangaea City in its shadow.

The barrier formed by the Five Elders is collapsing.

One layer, two layers, three layers—the multidimensional defensive geometry, formed from eight hundred years of accumulated power, was collapsing layer by layer from the outside in. Each layer's collapse was not a destruction, but an absorption. Rungomminiad did not "destroy" them, but merely incorporated them into his domain, then made them a part of himself.

This is the essence of the interplay between the surface and the inner workings of the world.

It is not destruction, it is convergence.

Everything enveloped by it will be dragged into the tower at the end of time, preserved there forever as a specimen, neither born nor dying, neither increasing nor decreasing, until the end of time.

The Five Elders' bodies were trembling violently.

It's not because of fear.

It's not because they are losing, but because they are losing.

Every second, hundreds of years' worth of power drained from their bodies. That power wasn't consumed; rather, it was recorded by the tower, "collected" by it, and became part of the tower's collection.

Their bodies are weakening, their strength is waning, and their very existence is becoming blurred.

It wasn't out of loyalty, though they were indeed loyal, but because they knew that if they retreated now, the light would devour everything in front of Pangu City without hindrance—the soldiers, the weapons, and the life force that was the source of Im's power.

Lord Im is about to return.

At this critical juncture, any loss of strength is unacceptable.

"continue!"

The leader of the Five Elders, the old man with a long beard who held the first generation Kitetsu, issued a hoarse command.

The other four nodded in unison.

They didn't speak, they didn't communicate; their tacit understanding of eight hundred years was brought to its fullest extent at this moment.

The five individuals simultaneously unleashed the deepest power within them—not the kind of energy detectable by any instrument, but the primal power hidden deep within their souls, directly bound to the underlying rules of this world, and stemming from their identity as the founders of the World Government.

The force burst forth from their bodies, not spreading outwards, but contracting inwards, shrinking into an extremely small, almost infinitely dense point.

That point hovered above their heads for 0.01 seconds.

Then it exploded.

It didn't explode outwards, it exploded inwards.

Centered on that point, a completely new defensive field unfolded in an instant.

This defensive field is unlike any other defensive field before; it has no shape, no color, and no perceptible properties.

It is not made of energy, not made of matter, and not even made of any known physical laws.

The golden beam of light continued to fall.

It came into contact with the newly established rule-based defense field of the Five Elders.

There was no explosion.

There was no shockwave.

There was no flash of light from energy collisions.

There was only silence.

An absolute, complete silence, as if time itself had stopped.

The moment the golden beam of light made contact with the rule-based defensive field, neither of them changed.

The beam of light continued to fall, and the defensive field continued to exist. The two sides were like two parallel lines, not affecting or interfering with each other.

But this state lasted for less than three seconds.

Three seconds later, cracks appeared on the rule-based defense field.

Those cracks didn't appear from the outside, but from the inside.

It wasn't that Rungominiad breached it from the outside, but rather that Rungominiad's very existence rendered all the rules ineffective.

It's not like an arrow shot from a bow, with a definite trajectory and a definite direction of approach from point A to point B.

It's like the equals sign in a mathematical formula; the moment it's written down, the expressions on both sides of the equals sign are already equal.

The same is true for Lengominiad.

The moment it was summoned by Artoria, it existed simultaneously in every location in the sky, on the ground, in the square in front of Pangaea, and on all timelines related to these locations.

It does not need to be near Pangu City.

It's been here from the beginning.

The crack is widening.

The rules-based defense field is collapsing.

The Five Elders' bodies are enduring unimaginable burdens.

Their skin is aging at a visible rate, not just getting old, but time is being stolen by Lengominiad.

Every second, years of lifespan are lost from their bodies, dragged into that tower at the end of time.

If we just persevere a little longer, until Lord Im completes the final transformation, until that dark golden pillar of light disappears from the top of Pangu City, until their master returns to this land.

then.

Then everything changed.

It wasn't because the Five Elders succeeded.

It wasn't because Lengominiad was blocked.

Rather, it was an ancient, powerful, and irresistible force that awakened from the deepest part of Pangu City.

That power didn't come from any particular direction, but rather emanated simultaneously from every brick, every inch of land, and every breath of air in the entire Pangu City.

It was like the beating of a heart, or the breathing of an ancient behemoth—slow, heavy, and oppressive.

The five elders froze simultaneously.

It's not because of fear.

It was out of reverence.

A kind of awe that comes from the deepest part of the soul, has never changed in eight hundred years, and is more instinctive than breathing and heartbeat.

They both turned their heads at the same time and looked in the direction of Pangu City.

At the top of Pangu City, the dark golden pillar of light still exists, still stretching towards the sky, still drawing life force from every corner of the world.

But inside the pillar of light, at the deepest part of that dark golden light, a silhouette was emerging.