Uchiha Puppet Master, Starting from One Piece

Chapter 245 The Holy Sword and the Holy Lance

Bai Yu's gaze shifted for a moment as the light sphere bounced off.

He saw the orb of light.

He saw the trajectory of the ball of light as it bounced off.

He even saw the information encapsulated inside the sphere of light—data about his eyes, his power, and his very existence—compressed by Im into a fist-sized information packet using an encoding method that surpassed the technological level of this world.

The encoding method is so ingenious that no being in the world should be able to crack it, unless that being itself has already stepped into a realm outside the rules.

But Bai Yu did not stop the light sphere.

It's not because he can't, but because he chooses not to stop it.

Inside Susanoo, Shiraha's right hand slowly lowered.

The galaxy vortex in his Rinnegan began to slow down. The patterns that were spinning at speeds beyond the limits of vision seemed to be soothed by some kind of will, slowing down layer by layer and settling down until the eyes, which were between red and gold, regained their calm.

Three kilometers away on the ground, Im's avatar had completely disappeared.

It is not death.

It is not annihilation.

It is not any kind of ending that can be recorded, described, or understood.

It was simply removed from the attribute of "existence"—if "this incarnation of Im" had never existed in the world, then naturally there would be no trace of its disappearance.

There were no scorch marks on the ground, no residual energy fluctuations in the air, and no cracks in the space. Everything was spotless, as if the incarnation of Im had never been to this land.

But Bai Yu knew it had been here.

Because his eyes recorded every moment of its existence, from the first time it appeared in his field of vision to the last time it was removed from existence, every frame was completely preserved in Bai Yu's visual memory, as clear as if it had been carved into the hardest granite with the sharpest carving knife.

Susanoo began to shrink.

The massive black skeleton began to shrink from a height of hundreds of meters, its armor-like exoskeleton retracting piece by piece, and the chakra muscle fibers covering its surface dissipating one by one. The whole process was quiet and orderly, like a giant folding its body into a smaller space.

Shiraha's body emerged from inside Susanoo.

He stood in mid-air, the air beneath his feet like a transparent pane of glass, bearing his entire weight.

There was no fluctuation of chakra, no operation of abilities; he simply stood there, because the moment his eyes looked down at his feet, the air beneath his feet was imbued with the ability to stand.

It's that simple.

That's unreasonable.

The white feather fell from the sky at a moderate speed, landing without stirring up any dust or making any sound.

When his feet touched the ground, the ground actively adjusted its hardness to accommodate his weight. It wasn't that the ground was conscious, but rather that the ground was given this property when Bai Yu looked at it.

This was the first time Uchiha Hakuba had displayed this power in this battle.

It's not attack, not defense, not anything categorized as a combat skill, but a more fundamental, more basic, more unreasonable ability: his eyes can transform anything he looks at into whatever he desires.

No process is required.

No logic is needed.

It does not need to follow any known or unknown physical laws.

Just observe, then change.

In the distance, those comrades who had retreated to a safe distance before the battle began were rushing towards Bai Yu's location.

Artoria was running in the lead.

She held no sword, but her right hand was always poised to draw the holy sword at any moment. This was a muscle memory she had developed after countless battles, and even in the most relaxed moments, her body was never truly at ease.

This wasn't a lack of trust in Bai Yu, but rather a requirement she set for herself, a self-discipline ingrained in her very being.

Everyone arrived in front of Bai Yu almost at the same time.

The redhead was the first to speak.

His voice carried an undisguised shock, a shock that a soldier should have after watching a battle, but rather the sense of disorientation that inevitably arises when someone whose cognitive boundaries have been forcibly pushed open tries to understand a new world using old cognitive frameworks.

"Bai Yu, what you just used was—what exactly was that?"

The redhead's question was vague, not because he lacked the ability to express himself, but because he simply couldn't find the right words to describe what he had just seen.

He wasn't even sure if what Bai Yu had just done could be called "some kind of ability" or "some kind of skill," because those words sounded too specific and too limited, while what Bai Yu had just done seemed to have no boundaries.

Bai Yu turned her head to look at the red-haired man.

When those Rinnegan, somewhere between red and gold, looked at the red-haired man, the oppressive feeling that had been so chilling disappeared.

It wasn't that Bai Yu deliberately hid anything; rather, the aura his eyes exuded when facing enemies was completely different from when facing friends.

The former is like the entire mass of the universe compressed into a pinhead, while the latter is like a calm lake, deep and still.

It's quiet and reassuring.

"This is one way I use my eyes."

The amount of information implied in this sentence, if fully explored, could be enough for the world's top scholars to study for a lifetime.

Redhead opened his mouth, wanting to ask more questions, but swallowed the words back.

Because he suddenly realized that now was not the time to ask about these details.

They have more important things to do.

Artoria stood to the left of Shiraha, her gaze shifting from Shiraha's face to the empty space where Im's avatar had disappeared.

Her long golden hair swayed gently in the breeze, her emerald green eyes remained expressionless, but her senses were scanning the area at maximum power.

"He escaped; that's a strange ability."

Artoria's voice wasn't loud, but her tone was very certain, like the conclusion drawn by an experienced hunter after examining all the traces left by his prey.

Bai Yu nodded.

"His true form exists outside the rules; what remains here is merely an avatar."

Jabba narrowed his eyes slightly upon hearing this.

He pulled out the small flask he always carried with him from his waist, unscrewed the cap, took a sip, and then said unhurriedly, "Outside the rules—so that's what Roger meant back then."

Jabba's tone was relaxed, but his eyes were anything but.

He had lived in this world for so many years, seen Celestial Dragons, Marine Admirals, the Four Emperors, and the world's strongest and darkest people, but the phrase "outside the rules" was the first time he had heard it used to describe someone other than Roger.

Bai Yu looked up at the sky.

The fragments of the sky that had been shattered by his eyes began to repair themselves within seconds of Im's avatar disappearing.

The fragments that fell from the sky did not truly disappear; instead, they reintegrated into the sky as they fell, like a shattered mirror healing itself, the cracks gradually disappearing and the sky slowly returning to its original state.

This is the world's own repair mechanism.

Bai Yu doesn't need to do anything, because the world itself has the ability to maintain its integrity.

He had only temporarily severed the "existence" of the sky, but when he stopped looking at that shattered sky, the world would stitch its own wounds back together.

"Im definitely has more than one clone."

Bai Yu's voice was calm, but the content of his words made everyone present tense.

"His true form exists outside the rules, but he has multiple avatars within this world. The one that was just destroyed was only one of them, and it shouldn't be his strongest avatar. That avatar's mission from the beginning was not to defeat me, but to gather information about me."

The redhead's brows were furrowed tightly.

"So all those things he said earlier, about the rule limits and the restrictions on avatars, were just a delaying tactic?"

Bai Yu did not answer the question directly. His eyes were fixed on the northern sky, the direction of the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, the direction of Pangaea, and the direction where Im's true form resided.

"He doesn't need to stall for time. From the moment the battle began, his information gathering program was already running automatically. Every word he said and every action he took was just an add-on to that program. The real core was that ball of light, that information packet that he launched."

Artoria turned to Shiraha, a hint of seriousness appearing in her emerald green eyes.

"Can you track that data packet?"

Bai Yu nodded.

"able."

"But you didn't stop it."

"unnecessary."

Artoria remained silent for two seconds.

She wasn't thinking about why Bai Yu didn't stop him, because she knew Bai Yu had his reasons for everything he did, and she didn't need to ask why; she just needed to accept the fact.

Her silence was a sign that she was adjusting her tactical thinking, incorporating the variable of Im obtaining the information into her calculations for all her next actions.

"Bai Yu, you said Im is collecting information about you. What will he do after he's finished collecting it?"

Bai Yu's eyes were still fixed on the northern sky, but his gaze had pierced through the clouds, through the atmosphere, through the boundaries of this physical world, and reached the realm beyond the rules.

That realm contains nothing, yet it contains everything.

There was no space, so everything overlapped in the same place.

Since there is no time, the past, present, and future exist simultaneously.

Since there is no cause and effect, the cause and effect can be interchanged.

"He will analyze my information, try to find my weaknesses, or find a way to bypass my eyes. This process takes time because there are elements of my power that he has never seen before. Those elements do not belong to any power system he knows, and he cannot fully understand them with his existing cognitive framework."

"I can handle them."

Artoria suddenly spoke.

She is Artoria Pendragon.

She is the monarch of the Knights of the Round Table.

She was the queen who led a group of the most unruly knights to the light in the darkest of times.

Her tactical skills, her decision-making ability, and her ability to remain calm in dire situations were all honed through countless life-or-death trials.

These things are ingrained in her bones. She doesn't need to think or hesitate. She only needs one condition: she knows what she needs to protect.

Now she knows.

She wants to protect this world.

Bai Yu turned his head to look at Artoria.

"Artoria".

"Um."

"I have a question."

"Um?

'

Bai Yu's gaze shifted from Artoria's face to her right hand. There was nothing on that hand, but Bai Yu knew that if Artoria wished, a holy sword, a holy spear, or any kind of treasure that appeared in the legends of King Arthur could appear in that hand.

These things do not exist physically; they are the embodiment of concepts, the privileges that Artoria possesses as the bearer of the concept of King Arthur.

"If Im were to initiate self-destruction within this world, using all the power he has buried at its core for eight hundred years to shatter the entire world in an instant, would your holy sword and holy spear be able to be fully unleashed?"

The weight of this problem is heavier than all the previous problems combined.

Artoria did not answer immediately.

She is feeling it.

She was sensing the holy sword and holy spear within her body.

These two entities have been with her since the day she became King Arthur. They are not her weapons, but a part of her, proof of her as a king, and constraint on her as a human being.

The holy sword represents the "chosen king".

The Holy Lance represents the "cornerstone anchoring the world".

These two forces coexist in a delicate balance within her body.

The holy sword points outward, protecting everything she wants to protect.

The Holy Lance turned inward, fixing her as humanity's final boundary.

The mechanics of the Holy Sword and Holy Lance are triggered when she attempts to fully unleash both simultaneously; the Holy Sword and Holy Lance cannot be fully unleashed unless the world is destroyed and humanity is annihilated.

"After complete liberation, can you prevent the collapse of this world?"

"Once the Holy Sword is fully unleashed, the light from its scabbard can cover the entire world I want to protect."

That ray of light was not light in the physical sense, but rather a concrete manifestation of the concept of protection.

Everything enveloped by the scabbard's light is imbued with the attribute of being protected. In this state, no destructive force from the outside can penetrate the scabbard's light.

"Once the Holy Lance is fully unleashed, it will become the physical anchor of this world, not a spiritual anchor, not a conceptual anchor, but a physical, real, and unshakable anchor. All the physical laws, all the material structures, and all the energy flows in this world will be fixed in their proper places by the Holy Lance. Even if all the forces at the core of the world explode at the same time, the Holy Lance can confine the energy of these explosions within the core of the world, preventing them from spreading to other parts of the world."

"It doesn't matter. As long as I protect people with the scabbard and the holy lance, even if the world is shattered, I can rebuild it."

The conversation between Uchiha Hakuba and Artoria left Shanks, Loki, Mihawk, and Jabba looking at each other in bewilderment.

What do you mean by destroying the world or reshaping the world?

That's way ahead of its time!