Chapter 326: The Tremor-Tremor Fruit Shows Its Might

Ain crossed her hands in fluid rotation, tracing a Tai Chi stance in the air before her.

Gleaming silver needles materialized between her slender white fingers. With every graceful flick of her wrists, several needles pierced through space itself, embedding themselves with surgical precision into Im's acupuncture meridians.

Im's eyes bulged in shock, yet she could not twitch a single muscle.

Moments earlier, Drake had done far more than merely solidify the external space around her—he had manipulated the dimensional fabric within her physical body as well.

He had severed every neural and energy pathway governing her mobility. Her physical form was entirely immobilized; even without external spatial binds, she would be incapable of moving a finger.

Drake naturally had no intention of crippling his mother's body the moment she was rescued; everything remained strictly within his calculations.

One full minute passed.

Ain worked without pause. After sixty agonizing seconds, she completed the ritual and lowered her trembling hands.

"Demon Warder... return to the heights above," Drake rasped out, issuing his final command before sinking into unconsciousness.

The Demon Warder promptly shifted back into its galleon configuration, carrying Ain and Im as it ascended toward the crest of the Red Line.

The moment the ship touched down upon the Holy Land, nearly every surviving warrior on the battlefield converged around it, eager to witness the definitive conclusion of the war.

On the main deck, Ain stood vigil beside the motionless form of Im, monitoring her condition every second.

Inside the mindscape, the System performed an immediate diagnostic on Drake's vitals. His body had endured the absolute outer limits of physical strain, and combined with the sustained intensity of high-tier combat, he had blacked out.

There was no imminent danger to his life.

However, standing up to fight again in the short term was entirely out of the question.

Fortunately, the tactical gamble had paid off brilliantly: using the minimum number of moves to fully restrict Im's movements had allowed Ain to seal the parasitic soul residing within the vessel.

Indeed—the soul itself.

Through Drake's prior deductions with the System, they determined that while the precise mechanics behind Im's body-snatching remained unknown, the core constant was undeniably the soul.

Every living being possessed an individual soul.

The soul was the primordial anchor of existence—the sole metric by which one's true identity was defined.

Paired with Ain's specialized esoteric arts, the sealing operation had transitioned from theory to reality.

"How is the situation?" Kenshin was the first to vault onto the deck, his hand resting on his hilt. "That woman..."

"Her soul has been successfully sealed. There shouldn't be any further complications," Ain replied, her complexion drained of color.

The toll of executing such an esoteric technique was immense; after all, sealing an ancient soul was something she had only understood in theory, and this marked her very first live attempt.

From the looks of it, the sealing was a complete success.

The stabilization held firm.

"Are you alright?" Locke stepped up to Ain's side, offering a steadying presence.

"I'm fine," Ain shook her head weakly. "Hurry, go check on the Captain! His condition... it might be extremely critical."

"Drake!" Kenshin dashed into the inner cabins of the Demon Warder. The instant he saw Drake slumped on the floor, completely drained of vitality with fresh blood soaking his collar, his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

Not since the brutal clash against Akainu two years prior had Drake ever sustained injuries of this magnitude.

"Drake, hold on! Ain, get in here and examine him!" Kenshin shouted toward the doorway.

Bell was terrified by the sight, panic coloring his voice: "Drake-aniki, don't scare us like this! No... there's no way he won't make it! A monster as strong as Drake-aniki couldn't possibly..."

"Ain, can you still walk?" Locke asked, deep worry etched into his features. None of them had anticipated finding Drake in such a dire state.

"I can manage! Let me see him..." The moment Ain took a step forward, her knees buckled. Had Locke not caught her in time, she would have collapsed straight onto the wooden floorboards.

"Ain! Ain!" Locke gathered her into his arms. "Not good—she's passed out from exhaustion!"

"What?!"

"How is Big Sister Ain?!" Bell's panic reached a fever pitch. Ever since the Dragon Flag Pirates were formed, they had never faced a crisis like this.

In the past, no matter how severe their wounds were, they never worried because Ain stood behind them to heal every trauma.

No matter how terrifying the enemy, they never felt an ounce of fear because Drake stood as their unyielding pillar.

Now, that entire foundation had been thrown into chaos.

"Leave their treatment to me—it'll be fine."

A hurried figure burst into the cabin.

Weitian rushed over, genuine panic written across her face. She stopped before Ain first, crossing her hands as radiant, fiery phoenix wings unfurled from her back.

Concentric halos of gentle crimson flames washed over Ain's unconscious form.

"True Phoenix Bloodline: Rebirth from the Flames!"

As the restorative flames merged into Ain's body, a healthy flush gradually returned to her pale cheeks.

"Alright, let her rest. I'm going to examine Drake." Weitian moved immediately to Drake's side, extending her sensory perception through his body.

Her expression shifted through several shades of horror.

Given Drake's internal condition, that he was even drawing breath was nothing short of a medical miracle.

His meridians were severely swollen and covered in microscopic fractures, while his muscle tissues were torn and degraded throughout. Even a slight twitch of his fingers would subject him to agonizing pain akin to ten thousand ants devouring his marrow.

Just what did you put yourself through?!

How did you end up like this?!

"Rebirth from the Flames!" Setting all hesitation aside, Weitian poured the entirety of her healing energy into Drake.

A vibrant cocoon of fire enveloped Drake's frame. Drake's brows remained tightly knitted, his lips parting in faint, trembling murmurs.

"Must... save... her..."

Weitian leaned her ear close to his lips, barely catching the broken syllables.

Realizing that Drake was still agonizing over saving his mother even while comatose, Weitian's eyes welled with tears. She squeezed them shut to maintain her composure, yet the output of life energy flowing through her palms surged dramatically.

Don't worry anymore... You did wonderfully. You truly did!

You succeeded... You—

Just then, Weitian's eyes snapped open in absolute terror. A sinister plume of dark fog had bypassed every perimeter guard outside, surging violently into the cabin of the Demon Warder!

"Look out! Intercept it!" Kenshin and the others drew their blades to strike, but the instant their steel touched the mist, an overwhelming kinetic force locked their limbs in place.

"You're..." Ain, having just stirred awake, found herself smothered in dark fog, unable to move a single joint. "Impossible! I distinctly sealed your soul!"

She stared at the phenomenon in utter disbelief.

"Once I butcher that brat, you're next!" The writhing black mist gradually coalesced into Im's original, veiled likeness—the shadowy form they had first encountered.

Without a second's delay, the entity lunged straight for Drake.

Drake could not be permitted to live. The sheer, anomalous strength he had displayed far exceeded her expectations; he represented the single greatest threat to her eight-hundred-year reign.

"Die!" Im let out a grotesque cackle as a razor-sharp blade of dark mist extended from the cloud, aiming directly for Drake's heart.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Weitian erupted, focusing all the fire around her frame into a single concentrated point to meet the dark blade head-on.

Even if it costs me my life, I will not let you harm him again!

The crimson flames flared violently, clashing against the dark fog, yet the fire was rapidly pushed onto the back foot under the corruptive pressure.

Drake... if I die here, will you remember me...?

"Come on then!" Weitian transformed fully into a towering True Phoenix, soaring upward and thrashing wildly within the dark mist, the light in her eyes blazing with suicidal resolve.

Even in death, I will drag you down with me!

"For a girl so young to throw her life away... What a waste. Your era has only just begun, little lady..."

HUMMM... CRACK!

A concussive shockwave of spatial vibration slammed down like an anvil, shattering the dark mist into fractured, drifting wisps.

BOOM!

A colossal, mountainous figure dropped from the sky, landing heavily onto the deck of the Demon Warder. Whitebeard stood tall with Murakumogiri gripped firmly in hand, devastating tectonic vibrations continuously coalescing around the bisento's blade.

With a sweeping horizontal cleave,

the atmosphere fractured into jagged lines, dispersing the dark fog entirely as Im's agonizing screech reverberated across the entirety of Mary Geoise.

The Tremor-Tremor Fruit!