One Piece: I am Imu-Chapter 296: A Duel of Magic and Steel

She only knew that Prince Wales was a valuable target, and that the man in front of her wanted to kill him.

If he was an enemy, there was nothing more to talk about.

Without warning, Chelsea took advantage of the moment when Wardes was preparing to continue speaking.

With a nimble movement, her right hand unleashed a black whip of peculiar design.

The sound of a dry snap rent the air, followed by a whistling sound that seemed to emanate directly from the breeze itself.

But Wardes was no ordinary adversary. He was the captain of the Tristan Griffin Magic Knights.

[Swish!]

The instant the black whip swung towards him, Wardes channeled magical energy into his sword.

A faint green light covered the blade, imbuing it with the power of the wind.

With a swift movement, he drew an arc through the air, seeking to split the approaching threat in two.

"Hmm?!"

To his surprise, the whip moved in an impossible manner, dodging the blade and encircling his wrist at an angle that defied all physical logic.

"Magic? Or a magic weapon?"

At the critical moment, he released the magic compressed in his sword, unleashing a gust of wind that blew him out of the whip's path.

Chelsea, however, had already seen his control over wind spells and was not at all surprised by the way he avoided her first attack.

Without missing a beat, she launched a second offensive.

Love Breathing, Second Form, Love Pangs!

With inhuman agility, Chelsea moved at top speed as the Sidewinder traced waves in the air, leaving behind flashes of pink light.

At such a display of power, Warder frowned. He knew he had to go all out.

"Electric Discharge Spell!"

Pointing the tip of his sword towards his opponent, Warder unleashed a blast of golden lightning.

In an instant, the area between them lit up with the shock of electricity and the pink waves of the whip.

"That elder sister is amazing... She's fighting on equal terms with Lord Wardes!"

Louise watched the scene with her mouth half open, completely amazed.

Beside her, Saito frowned and consulted Derfflinger, the rusty talking sword he held in his hands. "Derf, have you ever heard of a spell that transforms people into birds?"

"Never. I've never seen or heard of anything like it. If it really is magic, I can only assume it belongs to some kind of Void magic," the sword replied, its voice reflecting the same confusion as its owner.

In its six thousand years of existence, it had never witnessed a spell capable of turning someone into an animal.

For Derfflinger, any magic outside the conventional domain could be classified within the mysterious Void system.

Meanwhile, Chelsea, with her incredible speed, left behind multiple afterimages, completely surrounding Wardes. Her whip traced arcs in the air, forcing her opponent to remain on the defensive with great difficulty.

"This is as far as you go!"

Suddenly, a powerful voice resounded inside the church.

Instinctively, everyone turned towards the source of the voice. Chelsea also looked away. "The suspicious guy?"

However, in the next instant, a purple light enveloped her field of vision, and her consciousness began to rapidly fade.

"Not good!"

Chelsea suddenly felt that her body was out of control.

"Hehehe."

Everyone watched as a man with curly blond hair, dressed in green clothes and a green cap, slowly emerged from behind a stone column. On his right hand, raised with an air of superiority, shone a ring set with a square-shaped purple gem.

"My, my... What an impressive mage. Being able to put Lord Wardes in a bind like that is something to be commended. But, to be honest, what interests me most is your transformation magic."

The man spoke with a sinister expression while smiling.

"Ah! Red-haired sister!" Louise watched the man in green move his hand, and immediately, Chelsea's body froze, as if something had suddenly stopped her. Alarmed, she turned to Saito and shouted, "Saito! That ring has the power to control people's bodies and minds! We must break its spell!"

"So that's what it was!"

Hearing Louise's words, Saito suddenly understood everything.

He finally understood why Louise had agreed to marry Wardes in that place.

"Come on, Derf!"

"I'm ready, buddy!"

Saito took his sword in both hands and charged at the enemy at full speed.

However, at the last instant, the Derfflinger sword urgently alerted him: "Watch out to the left!"

Without hesitation, Saito swung his sword in that direction, just in time to block a fierce gale. The gust of wind, which would have been devastating, was completely absorbed by the blade of his weapon.

Saito gritted his teeth and shouted angrily. "Wardes!!"

But Wardes didn't even bother to answer him. With complete indifference, he continued to advance towards Chelsea, who remained motionless under the spell.

"Well... It may not be an honorable victory, but this is not a duel between nobles, so I don't need to worry about fairness."

He paused briefly before adding with a crooked smile: "Still, I must admit... You are the strongest woman I have faced so far."

Chelsea, however, were in a panic.

She couldn't move her body at all, but her mind remained completely lucid.

All she could do was watch helplessly as the silver-haired man came closer and closer. All the while he talked incessantly.

"Get away from her!"

At that instant, Chelsea saw the black-haired boy, dressed in those clothes strange to this world, lunge forward with his sword raised.

"How dare you play with Louise's feelings? I've said I won't let you off the hook, Wardes!!"

"Hmph, what a fool." Wardes looked at him with disdain and let out a mocking laugh. "Did you really think you could fall in love with a noblewoman? How ridiculous. Okay... I'll make sure you abandon that absurd idea once and for all."

Chelsea sighed inwardly. From her point of view, this boy was weaker than her, so his intervention didn't give her much hope.

Wardes, meanwhile, raised his sword and unleashed a torrent of golden lightning towards Saito.

But something incredible happened the next moment, on the back of Saito's right hand, a white glow suddenly appeared.

In an instant, the rusty sword he held was enveloped in a blinding glow, and as the light dissipated, it had been replaced by a gleaming, sharp blade.

But what left everyone speechless was not just the transformation of the sword, but the change in Saito himself.

His speed and dexterity increased tremendously, to the point that his silhouette became blurred to the eye as he moved.

Before anyone could react, a burst of light passed by Wardes.

A deep diagonal wound appeared on his chest.

With an expression of disbelief and unbearable pain, Wardes fell to his knees.

"Well done, mate! Remember this feeling! It's not me who fights, it's you who must brandish me with your own heart."

Derfflinger praised Saito enthusiastically.

Chelsea, still in shock, barely processed what she was seeing. "Does his sword... talk?"

She didn't understand what the sword was saying, but it was clear that it was communicating with Saito.

Cromwell, who kept his amethyst ring pointed at Chelsea, frowned as he saw what was happening. "Absorb magic?"

At the same time, he noticed that a young man with blond hair, wrapped in a black cloak and with a short wand in his hand, had just entered through the temple door.

At first glance, it was clear that he was not one of them, which made him feel like the situation was getting out of hand.

In the next instant, Cromwell raised his right hand above his head and injected even more power into the ring.

Immediately, the amethyst embedded in it emitted an even more intense violet glow.

The glow was so bright and dense that it pierced the temple windows, projecting outwards.

"Feel the power of the Ring of Andvari, you cursed rebels! You despicable heretics!"

Cromwell's eyes shone with fervor as he gazed at the rays of purple light spreading throughout the church.

Everyone present in the temple lost control over their own bodies under the influence of the violet light.

"Hahahaha! I'm sorry, Lord Wardes, I accidentally affected you."

Cromwell let out an arrogant laugh and ordered with satisfaction, "Take the letter the princess wrote for Prince Wales! We will take this woman who can use transformation magic."

"Understood, Lord Cromwell." Wardes, noticing that his body had regained mobility, obeyed the order without hesitation. He walked up to Louise and snatched the envelope from her hands.

By then, both Louise and Saito were still in a state of shock after hearing Cromwell's words.

On the one hand, they couldn't believe that the legendary Ring of Andvari, the lost treasure of the Spirit of Water, had appeared in this place... and, worse still, in the hands of a villain like him.

But what shocked them most was the identity of the man who controlled the ring, who was the very leader of the Church of Reconquista, the mastermind behind the rebellion that had plunged the kingdom of Albion into chaos!

"Excuse me, unknown powerful lady."

Wardes approached Chelsea with a slight smile and reached out to hold her waist.

But at that very moment, his right arm was suddenly paralyzed.

Wardes opened his eyes in astonishment as he saw the hand holding him firmly.

He hadn't felt anyone approaching him, he hadn't even perceived the slightest movement.

"Who gave you permission to touch one of my subordinates?"

A voice echoed through the room. Its tone was calm, but the words were completely incomprehensible to most of those present.

Wardes felt that from one moment to the next a man with long pink hair appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

His eyes, fixed on Wardes, exuded a chilling disdain. For the first time in his life, Wardes felt genuine fear.

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