When Liam appeared behind Kizaru, he slowly put his sword inside the sheath and helplessly sighed.
"You should reform yourself, Kizaru."
'Damn it! Even with such a powerful sneak attack, I wasn't able to catch him off guard. I thought the Invisibility Card would buy me a few more seconds from his Observation Haki.'
'But it didn't work. Sure enough! Those with strong Observation Haki can still use Future Sight to sense the action of an invisible person. Then again, if my enemy wasn't Kizaru, it would've worked.'
At this moment, the head of Kizaru slowly turned into light and merged with his body, reforming him into a person.
As Kizaru stood up, he looked at Liam with a serious expression and said.
"It seems like you have gotten quite a lot of fruit powers. Is it related to your Devil Fruit? So, Moria is dead, and his Fruit also fell into your hands, right?"
Liam didn't comment on it. Instead, he tried to plan his next move. While he still had Shadow Card, he wasn't sure it would work against Kizaru.
Besides, using the power of multiple Devil Fruits wasn't his style.
"Now, I can't let you do much damage. I have to be serious with this."
Kizaru muttered before his body suddenly disappeared.
He reformed in front of Liam before Liam could even sense his presence. If his Future Sight hadn't given him the picture of Kizaru appearing in front of him, he would've been completely clueless.
Bang!
A sword formed in Kizaru's hand, which he swung down.
Liam raised his sword and defended against Kizaru's attack. The ground underneath Liam's foot cracked. Liam felt a strong power from Kizaru that he hadn't felt before.
Splash!
Suddenly, he sensed another Kizaru appearing behind him, which was completely different than his usual clone. It appeared out of nowhere and stabbed forward.
It went through Liam's back and reached quite deep. If he hadn't sensed his presence on time and tilted his body to the side, it would have pierced through his spine.
[Galaxy Rotation]
Liam gritted his teeth, channeled Conqueror and Armament Haki into his left hand, and swung his left hand with every bit of strength he could gather.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He released a powerful air cannon around him that not only destroyed Kizaru's clone but also forced Kizaru to retreat several meters away from Liam.
When Kizaru appeared several hundred meters away, he looked at Liam with a serious expression and thought.
'Even with my Awakening, I can't take that move head-on. Sure enough! Every Conqueror Haki user is a monster.'
'More importantly, he is using Garp's moves but completely differently. Then again, their moves aren't that complicated. As long as one has the necessary conditions fulfilled, they can use their moves.'
'Even so, I now have an absolute advantage in speed. I can still defeat him.'
Kizaru took a deep breath and disappeared.
His body formed next to Liam, but this time, Liam was prepared. His Observation Haki was checking everything around him, giving him Future Sight of every movement that Kizaru made.
But even with that, he didn't expect five more Kizaru to appear around him, almost at the same time.
'No wonder, even my Observation Haki was showing his future only three of his clones.'
At this moment, Liam understood how Kizaru was appearing around him.
Awakening!
Only this made sense.
Just like how awakened paramecia could affect their surroundings, Logia could do the same, but their abilities were a bit different.
Unlike Paramecia, Logia Devil Fruit users could turn into an element, which would be strengthened to a whole new level after awakening.
This allowed Logia users like Kizaru to merge with the light around them.
Light is everywhere.
It existed all around, and with his Pika Pika No Mi, he could now control the light around him.
Because Logia Devil Fruits were elemental fruits. So, unlike Paramecia, which transformed other objects into their powers, Logia would be able to merge with the element related to their fruit.
That's why whenever they used their Awakening, the environment would change.
Awakening was a type of strengthening.
It would give one absolute control and increase their strength several times. This allowed Logia Fruit users to use their powers to affect their surroundings.
Just like how Akainu and Aokiji were able to turn Punk Hazard into an ice and fire island. By changing the environment, they could merge with the elements in the environment.
This was their awakening because, unlike Paramecia, they could turn into their powers.
Doflamingo could create a thread clone, but he couldn't turn into a thread.
Aokiji could not only create an ice clone, but he could also turn into ice, giving him an absolute advantage by merging with the element of their powers.
Kizaru was doing the same. By using Awakening, he merged with the light around him and used it to create several clones.
But this wouldn't be enough. Kizaru should know this.
When he attacked Liam with five clones, he should have been prepared for a counterattack because Liam was also no longer going to hold back.
He coated his sword with Armament and Conqueror Haki. He clenched his sword tightly and stomped the ground.
Before Kizaru could attack him, he jumped and appeared several meters above them. His sword swung down with an island-trembling force.
[Against the Gods]
It was an attack that could counter Kaido's Destroyer of Death Thunder Bagua. When this slash came down, Kizaru had no intention of using his intangibility to dodge it.
He couldn't take such a risk. Fortunately, with his awakening, he didn't need to do so.
Thousands of light particles emerged underneath the slash, turning into a gigantic sword.
[Holy Sword]
[Susanoo]
The gigantic light sword clashed against Liam's conqueror-coated slash, creating a powerful shockwave in mid-air.
But before Liam could react, Kizaru appeared behind him and pointed his palm at the back of Liam's head.
[Light Sword of Judgement]
Kizaru formed several light shards, with each light shard having four lines crossing it. These light shards attacked Liam from behind, making him unable to dodge.
Splash! Splash!
Several wounds appeared on Liam's back, but Liam was also going to respond with his attack.
As soon as he turned around, he raised his sword upward, releasing a powerful slash that split Kizaru in half, but it was just a clone.
Boom!
Liam's previous slash and Kizaru's Susanoo Sword released a powerful explosion and dispersed in the middle, creating a massive crater on the ground.
Kizaru appeared in front of Liam and condensed a massive light whip in his hand. Unlike previous light-based constructs, he could control the flow of this light whip.
Liam used Geppo to fly around while dodging the attack in mid-air. Sometimes, he would use his sword to deflect Kizaru's whip.
'Damn it! Awakening has pushed his power to another level. Just a simple touch of his light is enough to bypass my Armament Haki and injure me.'
'Not to mention, since he can control the light around him, he can form light in any shape he wants. This is troublesome.'
Just when Liam thought it was troublesome, Kizaru's clone appeared behind him and kicked him on the head, slamming him to the ground.
Bang!
Liam managed to create a large hole in the ground with his fall. He coughed out blood while trying to stand up.
That attack did cause him a lot of damage, but this level of damage was nothing compared to what he suffered while fighting Kuzan.
[Storm of Light]
Suddenly, the atmosphere around him brightened. When Liam raised his head, all he could see were hundreds, if not thousands, of light swords like before forming above him.
Facing so many light shards, Liam wasn't afraid in the slightest. Instead, his eyes only became clear as he clenched the hilt of his sword with his right hand and released two colors of Haki.
Alongside it, his body produced flame, and all of that flame entered his sword.
The blue Conqueror Haki spread out, forming a coating around his fire sword as he let out a wide smile on his face.
"Come on, Kizaru!"
Kizaru was standing below all those light swords. His eyes fell on Liam. This time, he no longer had those sunglasses covering his eyes.
His expression was dead serious as he spoke.
He had used this attack before, but during that time, he wasn't that serious. He didn't even put his full strength into his previous attacks, but it was more than enough to destroy Luffy's strongest attack.
This time, he was no longer holding back. Liam could feel it from the hardness to the size of these swords.
They were several times greater than what he used against Luffy.
[Holy Sword]
[Fire Demon Mode]
Kizaru pulled down his hand, throwing thousands of light swords towards Liam with full force.
Liam raised his sword, slashing towards the sky as if he wanted to cut the heavens apart.
[Burning Sword God]
Boom!