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The sword intent didn't just cut; it erased. It left a jagged scar across the air that looked as if the world itself had been unzipped, cleaving the void in its path.
As the strike hit the ground, the earth buckled and groaned. The energy surged forward in a chaotic, crisscrossing wake, vaporizing every building it touched. It was a brutal, unreasonable force, a tyrannical display of power that didn't care for physics or resistance. It roared straight for the command platform where Sengoku and Kong stood like anchors in a storm.
"Stop it! Now!"
The Vice Admirals who had survived the initial Haki blast roared, leaping into the path of the destruction.
The giants and the master swordsmen among them moved as one. They poured every ounce of their Haki into their blades and shields, throwing themselves against the incoming tide of energy.
BOOM!
The collision was deafening. Streams of sharp sword-ki and hardened Haki clashed with the Shiki's Slash Wave, finally slowing its relentless advance. But the victory was short-lived. The three Vice Admirals leading the charge went pale, their boots grinding deep furrows into the stone as they were shoved backward by the sheer kinetic weight of the attack.
"We can't hold it!" one of them screamed, his muscles tearing under the strain.
"Everyone together! Brace them!"
A dozen more officers swarmed in, adding their strength to the line. It took five agonizing breaths, the air screaming around them, before the Slash Wave finally dissipated. The officers stood panting, their hands trembling. Shiki had thrown a casual strike, and it had nearly broken the backbone of the Marine leadership. This wasn't just a pirate; this was a man who stood at the summit of the world, a rival to the greatest swordsmen of the age.
"You think that was the end?"
Shiki's sneer was audible even over the wind. He didn't wait for them to recover. He kicked out, his boots striking the edge of the floating island beneath him.
"Down you go!"
The island let out a tectonic roar. It lurched, shedding massive boulders as it accelerated toward the heart of Marine Headquarters like a falling moon.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
The gale whipped up by the descent was enough to throw men into the sea. In a matter of seconds, eighteen high-rise buildings were pulverized, reduced to gravel by the sheer mass of the island. Dust choked the air, and fire began to dance in the wreckage.
"Stop that island before it levels the base!" the giant Vice Admiral bellowed, raising his massive axe.
"Don't look away!"
A shadow blurred past him. Before the giant could move, a cadre from the Flying Pirates slammed into him, cutting off his path. The rest of Shiki's elite followed, raining down from the sky to pin the Marines in place.
"Ryūsei Kazan!"
A roar of pure heat cut through the chaos.
Suddenly, the sky turned a bruised, angry red. Thousands of fist-shaped magma meteors erupted from the ground, trailing plumes of toxic black smoke as they surged upward to intercept the falling island.
"Sakazuki! The elite Rear Admiral," A pirate laughed, his voice grating. "They say you've got the bite of an Admiral. Let's see if you can bark, too!"
As Sakazuki launched his assault, three silhouettes blurred through the smoke. Blades flashed in a coordinated dance, the air twisting around them as they sliced through the magma fists before they could even detonate.
"Scum who violate Justice... do not deserve the breath in their lungs."
Sakazuki's face was a mask of cold fury. He didn't just look angry; he looked like a volcano on the verge of a cataclysm. Half of his body had dissolved into bubbling, churning magma that hissed with a predatory sound. The ground beneath his feet turned into a molten sludge, the heat so intense it warped the vision of anyone standing near him.
"Kill him! Bring the 'Red Dog' down!"
The Flying Pirates' cadres shared a grim look and charged as one.
"Dai Funka!"
Sakazuki's roar drowned out the battlefield as his arm swelled into a massive, molten fist.
A geyser of molten slag erupted. The raw, volcanic power of the Logia fruit surged, swallowing one of the Flying Pirate cadres whole before he could even register the threat.
There were a few sickening, wet pops as the magma consumed him. The pirate didn't even have the chance to scream; he was simply incinerated, turned into a pile of ash and localized sunlight in a matter of seconds.
"This brat..."
The remaining pirates felt their blood run cold. Their expressions shifted from predatory to paralyzed.
"Die," Sakazuki growled, taking a single, heavy step forward. His speed was unnatural for a man of his bulk. In the time it took to blink, he was looming over the next crewman, his fist already cocked back and glowing with a white-hot intensity. "In the name of Absolute Justice, I will drag every one of you to hell."
The magma crashed down like a falling sun. The pirate lunged to block with his blade, coating the steel in his finest Haki, but it was like trying to stop a tidal wave with a toothpick. The heat bypassed his defenses entirely. His sword liquefied, and three breaths later, the man was nothing more than a wisp of oily smoke drifting on the wind.
Fear, cold and sharp, finally pierced the hearts of the Flying Pirates. The name 'Sakazuki' wasn't just a rank anymore, it was a death sentence.
"Contain him! Don't engage! Just hold him back!" A cadre leader shrieked.
They pivoted instantly, moving from an offensive formation to a desperate, stalling retreat. They realized, with a sinking dread, that the rumors were true: this young man already fought with the devastating efficiency of an Admiral. Against a monster like this, numerical superiority was an illusion. The Marines weren't just common soldiers; they were led by titans who thrived in the slaughter.
RUMBLE… RUMBLE… RUMBLE!
The conversation was cut short by the sky falling.
The massive floating island finally completed its descent, slamming into the heart of Marineford with the weight of a continent. The impact was cataclysmic. Rows of historic buildings, the symbols of World Government authority, folded like paper.
The shockwave didn't just rattle the ground; it buckled the very tectonic plates of the island. Marines were thrown through the air like ragdolls, their faces twisted in disbelief as they watched their home crumble.
"The Headquarters... it's gone," Someone whimpered.
It wasn't a total destruction, but the sight was haunting enough. Nearly a third of the base had been pulverized into a crater of dust and fire. The air blasts from the collision flattened anything within a half-mile radius.
Sakazuki felt the shadow of the disaster looming at his back. He knew, with a bitter clarity, that the Marines had lost this exchange. His eyes burned with a renewed, darker killing intent, the magma on his skin bubbling with a violent, hissing hiss.
"I will kill every last one of you," He whispered, the air shimmering with the heat of his rage.
"Hahahahaha!"
Shiki's laughter cut through the smoke, booming and manic. He drifted through the air, landing lightly atop the wreckage of the island he had just dropped. He stood there, silhouetted against the sun, looking down at the ruins of Justice.
"Next, I'll level the rest of this pathetic rock!"
His face hardened, the playfulness vanishing into a mask of pure ambition.
"Sengoku! Kong! Stop hiding behind your children and come face me!" Shiki roared, his voice echoing across the ocean. "Use your lives to tell the world who I am! Tell this era what its name is!"
On the command platform, Sengoku stared at the ruins of his base, his fists clenched so tight they bled. Kong didn't say a word; he simply crushed his chair into splinters with a single, bone-breaking punch.
"Arrogant bastard!"
"This era…" Shiki's voice rose to a crescendo, his Conqueror's Haki flaring one last time.
"...is the Age of the Golden Lion!"
He stood bathed in the golden light of the afternoon sun, hovering over the broken Marines and the shattered stone. In that moment, he looked like the undisputed master of the world, dazzling, terrifying, and impossible to ignore.
For a heartbeat, as the Marines looked up in terror, it felt as though he might be right. This was his world. This was his age.
(End Of This Chapter)