"Is that ugly, fat guy the king of Drum Island?" Bumblebee asked. Even though he'd already seen Dra. Kureha nod, he wanted to ask again just in case. After all, Wapol's appearance was far from that of a king.
...
"As much as it pains me to admit it, that guy is definitely the king of Drum Island," Dra. Kureha said disdainfully.
"This world is truly strange. How can someone who looks like that be king?" Bee said with a look of pure disgust.
Sebas Tian approached Rody and, with a slight bow, asked, "Mr. Rody, should we go inside this castle and take a look?"
"Forget it. These guys disgust me. Let's get this over with. The sooner, the better." "Did you bring all the fruits?" Rody asked Sebas Tian.
—I brought them all, just as Lord Roddy ordered me to—said Sebas Tian, lifting the basket full of assorted fruits.
"Very well, let's see if my idea works, haha…" After saying this, Rody grinned maniacally and made a strange gesture with his hands across his chest.
"Domain Expansion, Chimera Shadow Garden!"
"BUBBLE!"
The next instant, Rody's shadow began to twist and expand violently like a gigantic tide. The shadows were so dense they seemed liquid. The Drum Kingdom castle in front of him, including Wapol and others, was engulfed in the shadows. The expansion continued until it reached the astonishing length of 200 meters and the diameter of 400 meters.
At that moment, the white, snowy landscape was invaded by shadows, turning everything black, and a feeling of suffocation began to grip the hearts of those present.
"What... what's happening?"
"My God... Why has the sky turned completely red? I can't see anything!" Wapol cried, gripped by panic.
In that instant, Wapol tried to run, but he discovered that the shadows beneath his feet, so dense they seemed to form a substance, began to drag him down as if they wanted to swallow him whole. It was like an abyss that longed to plunge the entire world into darkness.
Wapol was right; the Chimera's Shadow Garden Domain certainly possessed such power.
Anyone caught in the shadows had to reinforce their feet with cursed energy or risk falling into the abyss. Within the liquid shadows, there was no buoyancy, no resistance, and no oxygen. Whoever fell into them would fall eternally.
"Lord Rody, please don't kill us! We are willing to give you everything, absolutely everything, please don't kill us!"
"Lord Rody, please spare my life," Cro-malimon pleaded, his eyes filled with tears. He looked at Rody, who stood before them surrounded by hundreds of shadows. Seeing Rody's cold and indifferent gaze, Cro-malimon felt that perhaps his pleas were useless, but he decided to beg anyway.
"Yes... yes, please."
"Lord Rody, please don't kill me, please." Wapol and the others reacted immediately and begged Rody, their faces contorted with horror.
If they could move, they wouldn't hesitate for a second to run to Rody, kneel, grab his legs, and plead endlessly until he agreed.
"Haha... How ugly you are! Disappear, you damned creatures!" Rody smiled contemptuously and looked at Wapol and the others with indifference; their pleas had clearly gone in one ear and out the other.
That smile of Rody's, that gloomy place bathed in shadows, and those strange black marks on his face... to Wapol and the others, it was like seeing a demon risen from the very depths of hell.
Vortex of the Shadow Dragon.
Rody's words, though a whisper, echoed throughout the domain, like an infernal demon ready to reap the souls of sinners. The next instant, beneath Wapol and the others, a terrifying vortex began to swirl and frenetically devour everything in its path, as if it were ravenous.
"Nooo, Lord Rody, please forgive us!" the three roared in unison as they felt the terrifying suction beneath them. At that moment, half their bodies had been swallowed up, and part of the castle as well.
"Humph, what a noisy pile of garbage, hurry up and die!. Maiden of shadows!" Rody muttered.
PLAF!
"AGHHHHH!"
PLAF!
PLAF!
"Noooghh!"
Hundreds of shadow spikes appeared in the dark vortex that absorbed everything in its path, and the next instant, at terrifying speed, the bodies of Wapol and his subordinates began to be pierced hundreds of times until they were like pincushions, from which blood gushed forth.
At that moment, even the castle of the Drum Kingdom was destroyed and practically unusable. After all, besides the hundreds of holes that had opened up in the castle, half of it had already been swallowed by the shadows.
BOOM!
In that instant, the castle behind Wapol was pierced hundreds of times by shadow spikes and reduced to ruins. The next instant, the castle's debris was devoured by the shadow vortex.
At that moment, Wapol, still somewhat conscious, extended his fat hand to try to escape the vortex, but it was impossible. The harder he tried, the stronger the suction became.
Wapol's hundreds of soldiers, along with him, his minister, and his brother, were swallowed by the abyss for all eternity.
CLICK!
At that instant, the crunching of hundreds of bones and the sound of flesh being crushed echoed through the silent realm, turning the scene into something utterly macabre.
Rody smiled with satisfaction as he watched Wapol and his henchmen disappear without a trace.
"Looks like making that binding vote was a good idea!" Rody, using his Observation Haki, perceived that his domain encompassed a total range of over 200 meters with a diameter of 400 meters.
The reason for his binding vow was to eliminate the barrier that trapped the enemy within it. After all, in this world, destroying a barrier with a rare Devil Fruit was possible.
It was better to sacrifice this and allow his domain to have a greater effective attack range.
Currently, Rody was certain that he was the only sorcerer capable of deploying two different domains thanks to his two innate cursed techniques. He wasn't like Sukuna, who had stolen Megumi's body and couldn't deploy Megumi's domain.
His body belonged entirely to him; his innate techniques were 100% his, so he could deploy whichever domain he wanted.
On the other hand, let's talk about the domain. The domain is an advanced barrier technique in which the user utilizes cursed energy to construct an enclosed space where they manifest their innate domain. Within this barrier, the cursed techniques imbued within the domain are unavoidable.
While the expansion is active, the user's strengths and abilities are amplified by the environment, granting them access to additional cursed techniques or enhanced versions of existing ones. Furthermore, the expansion guarantees that any technique used by the user will hit their opponent, regardless of the opponent's attempts to avoid it.
In other words, the Domain is characterized by guaranteeing the impact, no matter what the opponent does.
As for the Mastery itself, it varies from user to user. Even if two sorcerers possess the same innate cursed technique, upon achieving mastery, they will certainly not be identical.
For example, Megumi Fushiguro's Mastery focuses primarily on empowering the Ten Shadows Shikigami with an approximate 120% increase in their abilities, in addition to allowing her to manipulate shadows to a certain extent.
While the 120% increase to all Shikigami abilities and their massive use might seem excessive, it's not as far-fetched as it appears.
First, maintaining this power consumes a colossal amount of cursed energy. Rody is certain that if Megumi starts summoning all her shikigami en masse, she won't last more than a minute with the Domain open.
Second, this mass summoning of shikigami isn't exactly a mass creation; there's a limit, and again, it all depends on cursed energy. Furthermore, certain shikigami, like the Divine General Mahoraga, cannot be duplicated. This makes sense; imagine three Mahoragas fighting at once: it would be quite absurd. I'm afraid that if that happened, the entire JJK would be over in less than a minute.
Third, shadow control is limited, since Megumi's Domain is focused on empowering the shikigami.
Regarding his Chimera Shadow Garden Domain, it consists of absolute control over shadows. No matter what attack he imagines, as long as he is within the domain, he can execute it.
Furthermore, shadow movement is practically teleportation within the domain, so I didn't hesitate to make a binding vow to ensure that his domain encompassed a vast area. Even if the enemy tries to escape upon reaching the domain's boundary, I can teleport to their side and kill them with a single blow.
Finally, within this domain, the abilities of shikigami will be slightly enhanced, and if they die here, they will not disappear from the Ten Shadows technique; that is, they can be used without hesitation, regardless of whether they survive or not.
While Domain Expansion can be a terrifying and seemingly insurmountable technique, there are two types of people it doesn't affect at all: Toji Fushiguro and Maki Zennin.
Because it's a barrier technique, people with celestial restrictions of the cursed energy removal type don't suffer the effects of "automatic guaranteed hit" or "instant death," as the barrier detects them as objects, not targets. Therefore, this technique is quite useless against these individuals.
Perhaps that's why Sukuna decided to use a barrier-free domain, due to these types of individuals, although this is just speculation and the reason is unknown. Fortunately, this flaw can be remedied with Observation Haki; as long as the opponent's breathing can be perceived, the attack is guaranteed.
Furthermore, his domains were adapted so that his attacks will be guaranteed as long as the opponent possesses any kind of energy; otherwise, this technique would be useless in any world without cursed energy.
"Sebas, has anything changed?" Rody asked Sebas, who was standing behind him holding a basket full of assorted fruits.
Sebas Tian lowered his head and noticed that two of the fruits had changed. One resembled a piranha-shaped fruit with strange markings, and the other was a mushroom-like fruit, purple with black spots.
"Just as I suspected, Lord Rody. It seems there has been a change, and what's more, there aren't one, but two Devil Fruits!" Sebas Tian replied with a slight bow, looking at Rody as if he were a god on Earth.
"Really?" Rody responded, turning his head to look at the basket of fruit containing the two Devil Fruits. The piranha-shaped fruit looked familiar, but the mushroom-shaped fruit was completely unfamiliar.
"Hmm, was there another Devil Fruit user among Wapol's subordinates?" "—Rody murmured, somewhat bewildered.
"It's as Lord Rody says, it was that weird-looking pink-haired guy who apparently threw mushrooms that exploded in a cloud of poisonous smoke." "He tried to escape with his Devil Fruit, but it didn't seem to be very useful in these situations," Sebas replied quickly, seeing Rody's confusion.
"Ah, I see, that's right! I remember seeing him juggling earlier, haha. When I saw him, I thought it was a last desperate attempt to escape before he died. Besides, his attack was so bad I never thought he was a Devil Fruit user, haha," Rody replied with a sneer.
"The origin of Devil Fruits is quite strange. According to Vegapunk's most recent information before Rody's time travel: 'Each Devil Fruit is actually a wish or an accumulation of wishes from human beings. For example, if a large number of people desperately wish to control, say, trees, if the wish is strong enough, a Devil Fruit with this ability will eventually be born.'"
"This is quite magical, when you think about it. Does this world have a will of its own?" After all, these Devil Fruits can't just appear out of thin air simply because human desires coincide.
Anyway, Rody didn't know that. Let's get back to the point: while Devil Fruits are magical, they have several insurmountable weaknesses. Devil Fruit users lose their powers upon touching seawater, regardless of who they are. As far as he knows, this is due to their unnatural origin, something Mother Nature abhors.
Knowing this, Rody intuited that Devil Fruits are a product of human greed and desire. Knowing this, it's understood that desire and greed are primarily classified as negative human emotions, and cursed energy, as its name suggests, is simply a form of energy formed from these negative emotions.
In this realm brimming with pure negative energy, if someone who ate a Devil Fruit dies, will the fruit's "power" or the "supposed Devil Fruit demon" remain confined here? Or, as is usually the case, will it simply depart, causing the Devil Fruit to reappear somewhere random?
When Rody pondered this, he decided to give it a try; after all, he had nothing to lose. Now, seeing that his theory had worked, he smiled slightly.
"This seems possible. The will, the demon, or whatever resides within the Devil Fruit, will be unable to escape this space filled with negative energy." Unable to escape, it will opt to possess the nearest Devil Fruit!" Rody pondered for a moment, then, having accomplished everything, he stopped dwelling on the matter.
Rody released the domain, and the shadows that filled the space slowly faded, disappearing completely as if nothing had happened.
BOOM!
At that instant, a gigantic Nue, the size of a skyscraper, landed where the castle had once stood. Rody had summoned it earlier so that the others could escape its reach.
Ultimately, within this domain, unless you were by its side and enveloped by its cursed energy for protection, you would begin to slowly fall into the abyss.
At that moment, the enormous Nue began to shrink until Nami, Vivi, Carmen, Leo, José, and Dr. Kureha jumped off its back.
After this, the Nue became a shadow and vanished.