The sight left Drake utterly flabbergasted.
Throughout their relentless pursuit across the seas, even when he had unleashed his full power, he had never managed to draw such an ear-splitting, agonizing shriek from Im.
The blaze dancing across Sabo's frame appeared no different from ordinary fire on the surface, yet it radiated an overwhelming aura that warned everyone to stay back.
Dangerous!
Though Drake was still trying to piece together what had transpired, watching Sabo subdue Im single-handedly left him completely lost for words.
Sabo's flames... were nothing like they used to be!
[That's... the legendary Divine Flame!] the System's startled cry suddenly echoed through his mindscape.
Drake cast a puzzled glance toward the entity within his consciousness. "Divine Flame? What Divine Flame?"
The System seemed deaf to Drake's question, remaining stunned for a long while before finally recovering its senses. It murmured hesitatingly, [The Divine Flame... it is a thing of absolute legend.]
[There are far too many varieties of flame in this vast world, and the power dormant within each one differs vastly. In fact, they exist within a rigid hierarchy of tiers.]
Seeing Drake's half-comprehending expression, the System flicked its tiny paw and explained in exasperation, [Let me put it this way: the common fire ignited by ordinary mortals is considered low-tier.]
[The flame used to forge rare and specialized metals, owing to its terrifyingly extreme heat, can be classified as mid-tier.]
[As for Devil Fruits carrying mystical authority like the Flame-Flame Fruit, the absolute peak of their flames can reach the high tier.]
[Take your eldest brother Ace's Flame Mirror, for instance—that technique attains the threshold of the high tier.]
A look of understanding dawned on Drake's face.
Recalling the term the System had just uttered, he pressed further, "Then what on earth is this Divine Flame? Could it be..."
[Precisely,] the System nodded affirmatively. [Divine Flame, as the name implies, is the fire of the gods. It transcends conventional logic and defies mortal classification. However, it lacks a rigid tier system of its own.]
[Even among Divine Flames, differences in strength exist.]
[Yet regardless of its form, no ordinary flame can ever hope to rival it.]
[At the bare minimum... there is a tenfold disparity!]
"What?!" Drake's pupils contracted sharply, a wave of profound shock washing over him.
A tenfold difference!
What kind of absurd leap in power was that?
[Yes, tenfold! If not for that, the ordinary flames of the Flame-Flame Fruit could never have scorched Im into such a wretched state,] the System affirmed solemnly.
Simultaneously, the gaze it directed toward Sabo was brimming with an unmistakable mix of envy and deep reverence!
Watching this unfold, Drake's lips twitched violently. His System was carrying on like a complete provincial who had never seen the world. Shouldn't a proper system possess an all-seeing, transcendent perspective that looked down on all creation?
Faced with this reality, Drake could only let out a quiet sigh.
Still, learning that Sabo's flames had evolved into the legendary Divine Flame filled him with immense joy.
Judging by this revelation, the mysterious blaze that had descended from the heavens earlier—incinerating the dark tempest blanketing the East Blue—must have been Sabo's doing as well.
With that realization, every baffling piece of the puzzle clicked cleanly into place.
BOOM!
Im suddenly tore herself free from Sabo's inferno. Even so, tendrils of incandescent fire clung stubbornly to her form, coiling around her flesh without relenting.
Drake's nostrils flared as a dense, roasted stench reached him, making his eyelid twitch.
Just what kind of monstrosity was this Divine Flame? Even Im could not extinguish it, forced to endure its relentless, gnawing combustion with no way to shake it off.
"Damn you all! I will never forgive you for this!!" Im shrieked toward the heavens, her voice cracking with a horrifying, ragged agony Drake had never heard from her before.
To reduce an ancient sovereign like Im to such a pathetic state was an unprecedented spectacle, the first of its kind in hundreds of years.
[Drake! Move now! Under these conditions, you can definitely bind her!] the System barked in alarm.
[Use the Spatial Cage!]
Im surged into motion that very instant, hurtling toward the royal troops of the Goa Kingdom like a rampaging specter.
Drake's breath hitched.
Before she could close the distance, a figure flashed across the clearing, planting himself squarely in her path.
It was Luffy.
"Shishishi... Hey, long time no see!" Luffy grinned ear to ear at Im.
That iconic, familiar appearance materialized before Drake once more—the ascended form Luffy dubbed his Gear 5: the Nika form.
"Luffy!" Drake called out. Luffy merely offered a cheerful wave of his hand.
"AHAHAHA! Drake, leave this part to me!"
Luffy laughed freely in mid-air. His laughter carried not a single trace of negative emotion—no mockery, no haughtiness, nothing dark or twisted.
It was pure, radiant joy welling straight from the heart.
Basking in that laughter, the lingering frustration and turbulent anger Drake had accumulated over the grueling chase quietly melted away.
BOOM!
Vaulting through the sky, Luffy delivered a heavy, concussive kick squarely into Im's torso, blasting her downward into the earth with tremendous force.
"AHAHAHA...!"
Luffy's unrestrained, ecstatic laughter continued to echo across the clearing.
Within the yawning crater carved into the ground, Im dragged herself up with agonizing effort. Her face was ashen, her gaze locking with venomous intensity onto the four figures surrounding her from every quarter.
"Luffy..." Drake watched his younger brother laughing without a care, the corners of his own lips curving upward.
Suddenly, Drake's gaze sharpened. He sensed an indefinable change in Luffy.
The black cape draped over his shoulders, the iconic, timeless straw hat resting upon his head, and that ever-present, confident grin radiant upon his face.
It's confidence!
Yes, absolute confidence!
Drake realized that Luffy had grown remarkably more self-assured. Interwoven with that cheerful laughter was an unshakeable, rock-solid conviction!
A boundless certainty far greater than ever before.
Just what had happened during their time apart... for Luffy to undergo such a profound transformation?
"Oi! You're Im, right? We might not share any personal grudge from the past, but this is simply how the world works—the victor takes all, and the loser falls!" Ace swept his arm wide, a roaring cloak of flames erupting around him.
"This era no longer belongs to you. It's time for you to take your final bow!"
In that singular moment, Ace, Sabo, Drake, and Luffy formed a four-pointed perimeter, sealing Im within an inescapable encirclement.
Im's expression turned exceedingly grim as she scanned her surroundings with razor-sharp vigilance. Her combat strength was currently depleted to less than a tenth of its prime.
Doomed beyond salvation!
Such was the cold reality of her predicament.
Yet the greatest threat in her eyes was no longer Drake's bizarre spatial manipulation or overwhelming might.
It was Sabo's flames!
She could distinctly sense the scent of absolute mortality radiating from that fire.
Ever since she had attained this immortal authority eight centuries ago, this was the very first time she had stared so intimately into the face of death.
"Spatial Cage!"
Drake thrust his hand forward without warning. The surrounding fabric of space instantly locked into stasis, dense layers of dimensional authority constricting tightly around Im's coordinates.
A shimmering cage forged entirely of concentrated spatial energy materialized before everyone's eyes.
After throwing herself violently against the perimeter, Im's pupils contracted in pure terror. She... could not break free!
No matter what esoteric art or force she exerted, the spatial cage encasing her did not budge an inch.
"Damn you...!" A flicker of true panic seized Im's heart. For the first time in eight hundred years, she felt her life and death slip entirely out of her own control.
That cold dread flooded every fiber of her being in an instant.
[Magnificent! Now, just have your brother scorch her ceaselessly with that Divine Flame! Even an ancient monstrosity like her will be erased without a trace!] the System declared in fierce excitement.
Drake uttered no words. He simply cast a quiet glance toward Sabo, and Sabo responded with a firm, silent nod.
Between the brothers, unspoken understanding had never required words.
HUMMM—!
"Fire Dragon King!"
Sabo raised a single palm, unleashing a torrential dragon of flame that surged straight into the clearing, enveloping Im and the spatial cage in a roaring, incandescent inferno.
The golden-crimson flames burned relentlessly, consuming Im's metaphysical essence layer by layer.
Ace, Drake, and Luffy stood in silence, watching the blaze consume the ancient sovereign. As men who lived the unvarnished life of pirates, they had long since looked past the veil of mortality.
The death of this titan from eight centuries ago marked the absolute and final conclusion of the Old Era.