Whether Kota could kill the Demon King was a question he wouldn't have been sure about before yesterday.
However, after learning many truths last night, he was now certain.
After all, Kota stood beside a true deity!
And at this moment.
Shanks didn't need to answer. Everyone knew the answer.
Uta, who had been lying in Shanks' arms, fell completely silent. The pain on her face vanished instantly, and the gloom in her brow was swept away.
It was as if she had broken free from the shackles that had tormented her heart, and everyone could feel her relief.
Everyone quietly let out a sigh of relief, then collectively looked up, awaiting the boy's return.
Time rewinded slightly.
At the end of Uta's world.
The boy, obscured by the red mist, looked up. His azure eyes were filled with ice-coldness.
He ignored the silent red mist approaching him. Instead, he raised his blade, gathering the powers of time and space onto its edge, and with a fierce slash, struck behind the girl.
*Crack—!*
The sound of a shattering world echoed.
A bottomless abyss, as black as ink, spanned the entire world, slowly appearing behind the girl.
As if severing some connection, the distortion on the girl's face was instantly smoothed out. Her pretty face regained its usual beauty. The trembling of her eyelashes ceased, her clasped hands relaxed, and she then lay completely still, falling into a deep sleep.
It was also at this moment that the Demon King in the outside world shattered, and its power reversed.
*Roar~*
The roar of the true Demon King crossed the dark abyss, traveling from another world, one that Kota did not understand.
This sound was like gasoline thrown into a fire. The red mist and black tide that had been surrounding Kota's body, now infused with power from the outside, churned like boiling water.
They engulfed the girl and the boy, intent on devouring them completely.
But no matter how the boiling water churned, the space around Kota's body remained tranquil. He protected the girl, preventing the black tide and red mist from advancing even an inch.
With that single slash, Kota had completely severed the connection between the Demon King and Uta's world. From now on, this dream world, conjured by the Uta Uta no Mi, could no longer serve as a bridge for the Demon King to descend into reality.
Looking down at the sleeping Uta, Kota waved his hand. Silently, Uta began to disappear, bit by bit, as if being erased from a canvas by an eraser.
After sending this trace of Uta's spirit out of her world, Kota finally looked up at the raging power surrounding him.
Uta's world existed because of Uta's presence. Therefore, with Uta's departure, the world was experiencing its end. Rifts in space instantly tore through the entire realm.
Through the rifts, one could see the world outside this space, a void, just as Kota had sensed beyond the space formed by the Mero Mero no Mi.
At this moment, a strong pulling sensation washed over Kota.
Kota did not belong here. As Uta's world was about to shatter, the correction of space naturally rejected him.
But no matter how strong the pull, it could not move Kota an inch. The space around him, like tree roots firmly planted in soil, remained unyielding despite the spatial distortion.
At this moment, as if sensing something, Bian'an instantly appeared to Kota's right, his gaze fixed sternly into the depths of space.
Even with the red mist and black tide obscuring his vision, his gaze pierced through the spatial distance, spotting, in the deepest part of the space, a black gate that seemed to flow with blood.
"Is that the Gate of Demons you spoke of?"
"Mm!" Following Bian'an's gaze, Kota also saw the gate.
"I memorized the gate's coordinates then, but didn't go through it due to the unknown. Now that I know what lies beyond, I absolutely cannot go."
"I am not strong enough yet. If the one behind the gate were to find this world's coordinates by tracing my path, it would be troublesome."
The gate could indeed be seen, as if it had existed there for eternity. No matter how far, as long as one possessed sufficient strength and entered this void, they would surely see it, provided they weren't torn apart by spatial turbulence.
But seeing it was one thing; no one could pass through it, nor could it pass through them.
This was also why Bian'an remained calm upon seeing this Gate of Demons, which had ignited a divine war.
"Mm!"
At this moment, Kota suddenly turned his head, his gaze piercing through the distorted space outside his body, looking towards where Uta had disappeared moments ago.
There was a constantly distorting black hole.
Whether it was the power of spatial correction or the Demon King exerting force from the other side, the channel Kota had maintained with his time and space abilities was being repaired, bit by bit, by some unknown rule.
"Trying to escape?"
Staring at the black hole, Kota sheathed his sword, then extended his right hand, opening his fingers upwards, and suddenly clenched them inward.
The space in his palm, under his grip, rapidly collapsed inward from a single point.
This collapsing space formed a small black hole, seemingly connecting to another world. It instantly unleashed an overwhelming suction force that enveloped the entire space here, restraining the swirling red mist and black tide around Kota's body.
Kota could not effectively erase these powers completely, but he could seal them, to be slowly eradicated over time.
As Kota's right hand curved inward further, the suction force increased exponentially. Wisps of red mist and strands of black tide flowed like converging rivers towards Kota's palm, and were then swallowed by the collapsing black hole, vanishing completely from this space.
When Kota's right hand was fully clenched into a fist.
In this space, which once belonged to Uta's world, only Kota remained, along with the distorted black hole before him.
Then, Kota opened his hand, casually tossing the spatial sphere he held. He glanced up at the surrounding empty void and sneered, "If you had left from the beginning, with no spatial coordinates, I truly couldn't have done anything to you. But now..."
He lowered his head, catching the falling spatial sphere, and raised it to his eyes. Looking at the black tide inside the sphere, constantly colliding and churning, a cold glint flashed in Kota's eyes.
"Now, no matter how far you flee, no matter how you seal the spatial channel I opened, you can never escape my pursuit."
"Because no one can escape from me."
Placing the spatial sphere into his dimensional bag, Kota looked up at the black hole, stretched into a long, black line amidst the distorted, fractured space. He stepped forward without hesitation, his figure vanishing into this shattered space.