One hour had already passed since the initial attack was launched by the trio of Shanks, Guy, and Antares. Yet, the battle showed no signs of concluding.
Shanks lunged at Masashiki once more. His black sword tore through the space between them, and almost instantly, the strike fell directly upon Masashiki's body. However, just like every attack before it, not even a single scratch appeared on him.
It wasn't because Masashiki's body was durable enough to withstand the blade. Shanks' black sword attacks were powerful enough to level a massive plateau with a single swing. An ordinary defense, no matter how formidable, would never be able to continuously endure such terrifying onslaughts completely unscathed.
The secret lay within Masashiki's ability.
Every time Shanks' blade made contact, Masashiki transferred the entire force of the attack directly into another dimension. The slash had certainly landed, but the damage itself had been sent somewhere else.
Right at that moment, Raphael's voice suddenly echoed inside Shanks' mind.
"The analysis is complete. He is transferring all of your attacks into a single dimension. Clearly, that dimension is bound directly to his ability."
As soon as Shanks heard Raphael's words, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"So, you mean to say his ability is very similar to Kamui?" Shanks asked internally. "Like how the Kamui dimension was controlled exclusively by Obito? Something like that?"
Raphael answered immediately.
"Yes. It is highly identical in nature."
Shanks remained silent for a brief moment, his black sword held firmly in his hand.
"So, if we destroy that dimension, his ability to transfer attacks into it should disappear as well?"
"Affirmative."
A faint smile played on Shanks' lips. "Then let's do this."
For the first time in the past hour, Shanks stopped attacking.
Masashiki noticed the sudden pause immediately. He stood calmly in the distance, a smug smile gracing his features. Until now, not a single one of Shanks' attacks had been able to injure him. No matter how terrifying the swordplay, the moment it landed on his body, it was banished to the attached dimension. Not even a scratch remained behind.
However, beneath Masashiki's calm facade, a deep sense of apprehension toward Shanks still lingered.
The situation between them was entirely asymmetrical. Masashiki survived Shanks' attacks solely because of his dimensional translocation. Shanks, on the other hand, was directly tanking Masashiki's counterattacks.
There was no dimensional transfer for the Red hair. There was no strange ability redirecting the damage elsewhere. Shanks was simply enduring those strikes with his raw body and monstrous resilience.
Masashiki's attacks were undeniably powerful, yet even when a few managed to land on Shanks, their effectiveness was far lower than expected. Shanks continued fighting as if those blows were nothing more than a minor nuisance. This fact alone made Masashiki extremely cautious. He knew very well that if even a single one of Shanks' sword strikes truly connected with his actual body, his death would be virtually guaranteed.
One fatal strike. That is all he needs.
But the same rule didn't apply to Shanks. Shanks not only possessed terrifying offensive power, but his defenses were equally monumental. Even more troublesome was the fact that Shanks seemed capable of effortlessly predicting most of Masashiki's movements before they were even fully executed. Because of this, Masashiki's truly devastating attacks had never managed to touch him at all.
At the beginning after exchanging a mere three moves with Shanks, Masashiki had reached a chilling realization.
Shanks can see the future. At least, that is the only logical explanation.This is very troublesome.
Masashiki's eyes remained locked onto his opponent.
At this moment, however, a wave of confusion washed over him. Why did he suddenly stop attacking?
Just as Masashiki was pondering Shanks' strange behavior, the space directly behind the swordsman began to distort. A spatial rift silently tore open. Before Masashiki could fully comprehend what was happening, Shanks stepped backward, submerging directly into the void.
In the next instant, the rift snapped shut. Shanks had vanished.
A spatial rift opened within an unknown dimension, and Shanks calmly stepped through, entering the alien world.
The moment his boots touched the ground, his eyes swept across his surroundings. The entire landscape before him was barren and eerily silent. There were no trees, mountains, or any signs of life. Instead, the terrain was scarred with numerous massive potholes and deep gouges, some stretching far into the horizon.
A few of those craters and trenches were clearly fresh.
Shanks narrowed his eyes slightly as he sensed the residual energy lingering within them. It was his own chakra. There was no mistaking it. These were the remnants of his recent attacks.
"So, this is the dimension where he's been dumping all my attacks," Shanks muttered.
This dimension belonged entirely to Masashiki. Every strike Shanks had launched during their hour-long battle had been diverted here. The shattered earth was the direct result of his own devastating power.
Raphael's voice chimed in his mind once more.
"The material composing this dimension is extraordinarily dense and sturdy. Even your most powerful attacks have only managed to cause this much superficial damage."
Shanks nodded slightly, agreeing with the analysis. Although the trenches and craters before him were terrifying in scale, he understood the true destructive capacity of his blade better than anyone. If those same strikes had hit a mountain range in the real world, the entire geographic structure would have been entirely vaporized.
Yet here, the environment had endured. There were only potholes and long scars carved into the earth. Nothing more.
Shanks lowered his gaze to the ground beneath his feet. This dimension is definitely sturdy.
"So, you actually managed to find this place."
A voice suddenly resounded throughout the void. It didn't originate from a single direction; rather, it echoed omnipresently, reverberating across the entire barren world.
Shanks slowly raised his head.
High in the sky, the dense clouds began to twist and churn, coalescing into a colossal manifestation of Masashiki's face. The entity looked down at Shanks from above.
"You have made your gravest mistake by coming here," Masashiki declared, his voice causing the very air to tremble. "Because this dimension is me, and I am this dimension."
The cloud-formed face stared intently at Shanks as Masashiki's tone grew heavier.
"You can never destroy this realm. In fact, since you entered with the foolish intention of breaking it..." A smug grin formed on the massive face in the sky. "...you are going to stay here forever."
The instant Masashiki's voice fell, the entire dimension convulsed.
Rumble!
The ground beneath Shanks shook violently. He remained standing calmly as jagged fissures spread rapidly through the earth around him. The bedrock suddenly began to erupt upward, lifting him higher into the air. Within seconds, the terrain beneath Shanks transformed completely, morphing into the palm of an avatar of colossal proportions.
The massive fingers surrounding Shanks immediately snapped shut, curling inward from every direction into a gigantic fist meant to crush him into dust.
However, just before the fingers could seal his fate—Shanks vanished.
In the next instant, he reappeared high in the sky. His cloak fluttered wildly in the displaced air as he looked down impassively.
The dimension continued to writhe. The enormous palm rose higher, followed by a monolithic arm. Soon, a gargantuan body began constructing itself from the hyper-dense material of the realm. A titan slowly stood upright. Its colossal figure towered over the barren wasteland, a monolith composed entirely of the sturdy matter that had resisted Shanks' attacks for the past hour.
The titan immediately lunged at Shanks.
But it wasn't alone. The earth in several other sectors began to violently erupt. One titan. Then another. And another. Multiple titanic figures materialized throughout the dimension, their massive bodies rising from the ground in rapid succession.
Shanks briefly glanced at the advancing army before shifting his gaze back to Masashiki's cloud face in the heavens.
"Well, this technique of yours is certainly impressive," Shanks said evenly. "But do you really think a few oversized stone statues are enough to threaten me?"
The moment the words left his lips, his arm moved in a blur. He swung his black sword.
A massive, black flying slash was instantly unleashed from the blade, tearing forward at blinding speed. In a fraction of a second, it reached the foremost titan.
Slash!
The crescent of energy passed cleanly through the colossus's massive torso.
The titan froze. A microscopic line appeared across its waist before its upper torso slowly slid off its lower half. The entire giant had been bifurcated with absolute precision. The two massive halves crashed heavily onto the barren earth, sending another shockwave rippling through the dimension.
Shanks calmly lowered his sword, looking at the collapsing rubble.
"Although my standard attacks might struggle against the density of these giants, ultimately, they are still made of physical matter." Shanks slowly raised his blade once more, his eye glinting with absolute confidence. "And space reigns above matter."
His gaze locked onto the remaining titans.
"Space can cut anything."
The strike Shanks had just unleashed was no ordinary Flying sword slash. With that single swing, he had directly severed the fabric of space itself. The titan might have been formed from the indestructible foundation of Masashiki's personal dimension, but the moment the coordinates it occupied were cleanly cleaved, its durability became entirely irrelevant.
Space itself had been divided—and the titan simply fell apart with it.