Putting aside the matter of the so-called Child of Destiny, Rowen clapped his hands as he finished speaking, arcs of lightning crackling around him as he began gathering power.
The two were briefly stunned, exchanging confused glances.
"What's wrong, Master? Is there something in the mountain?" Koby asked urgently.
"Aye, that's right... That lunatic Moria triggered the self-destruct mechanism of this hideout. I calculated the blast center and came to deal with it." As he spoke, Rowen lifted his eyelids lazily. "I suggest you both take a few paces back. One of you's an annoying rubberhead, the other a Logia... Still, who knows how far the shockwave might toss you."
At those words, the two froze, then bolted without hesitation, abandoning their fight and dashing to safety.
They understood Rowen well; if he was sounding the alarm, things had to be dire.
Luffy sprang down from the mountainside and slingshotted himself straight toward the villa using his stretched arms.
"Luffy San! Didn't you hear? The whole place is going to blow!" Koby shouted in disbelief.
"I heard ya, but my crewmates are still inside! I can't leave 'em behind!" With that, Luffy crashed through the retreating Marine soldiers and disappeared into the villa's dark interior.
Koby hesitated for a heartbeat, then clenched his fists.
"Master, I want to, "
"Then go, Koby. But don't expect me to hold back. Be careful you don't get caught in the blast." Rowen immediately understood and offered a faint smile. "Honestly, you two are more alike than you think..."
"You both put everything on the line for your friends."
"But he's a pirate, and I'm a Marine!" Flames erupted around Koby's body as he activated his powers, turning into a blazing Fire Human. "I won't pretend Marines are always just... but pirates can never stand for Justice!"
"That so?" Rowen chuckled. "Then prove it, Koby. I won't lift a hand against him unless he crosses a line. Consider it... a test. One, I'm leaving to you."
Koby froze, eyes wide, then turned around with tears welling up. He snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes, sir! I understand! Thank you, Master!"
In Koby's heart, the Straw Hat Pirates, an upstart crew shaking up the Grand Line, were a group Rowen, as a Marine, should have arrested on principle.
Letting them go would bring down heat from the Fleet Admiral without a doubt.
Yet Rowen, an Admiral, was choosing to shoulder that pressure, to give him the chance to confront them.
Koby was deeply moved. He couldn't find words to express the gratitude welling inside him.
"I won't disappoint you, Master! And… Luffy San, Nami San... since you've strayed off course, I'll bring you back to the right path!" With conviction blazing in his eyes, Koby launched himself skyward with a thunderous boom.
Rowen watched him go, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"Is it so wrong for a teacher to leave his disciple a bit of a challenge? This excuse... is just too perfect!"
"It spares me the trouble of explaining myself every time."
With a comment that would've made Koby explode in frustration if he'd heard it, Rowen's face turned grim. He pressed a lightning-clad hand against the frozen ground.
"Now then..."
"It's been a while since I used this move. Let's hope it still packs a punch."
BZZZZT!!
With a blinding flash, a piercing buzz exploded across the landscape!
The air trembled, thunder roared, and a thick surge of lightning spread out from Rowen's position like a storm flood, engulfing everything in its path.
'Billion Volt: Great Electricity Producer!'
A blinding white thunder pillar blasted into the sky, and a crushing pressure swept across the battlefield, sending chills down the spines of both the fleeing Marines and the Straw Hat Pirates deep inside the base.
After that flash, there was nothing but silence.
There were no roaring blasts, no crumbling stone, because the Thunder Pillar had vaporized everything. Air, dust, solid rock, it all turned to fine ash within that divine column of lightning.
"That's Admiral Soryu (Azure Dragon)! He's using the Thunder Pillar to punch straight through the mountain, to destroy the self-destruct core at the center!"
"He's tearing through the mountain?! That thing's at least a thousand meters high!"
Two nearby Marines were talking when they suddenly looked up, sensing something.
Zzzzzzt...
BOOM!!
The Thunder Pillar blasted through the broken ceiling of the villa, drilling straight down into the earth. The ground tore open, soil melted away, and it created a path as if nothing could resist it.
'Gulp…'
Standing at the edge of the glowing storm, the soldiers swallowed hard.
From the villa's valley floor to the mountain's summit, it was a full kilometer of rock, and they'd doubted he could do it.
But Rowen's actions had proven them wrong.
A thousand meters of solid stone?
It required him nothing more than a few seconds' work.
"Such terrifying lightning! I daresay... only a god could rival an Admiral!" As thunder cracked overhead, the soldiers murmured in awe and fear.
Tearing through a mountain and blasting one apart are two entirely different feats. Even the Marines' Super Electromagnetic Cannon, capable of leveling entire peaks, lacks the finesse to carve through a mountain's heart.
That's the difference between raw destruction and precise control!
An older Marine chuckled at their words.
"Isn't he already called a god? Among pirates, they whisper of the 'Thunder God' of the Marines."
But Rowen paid them no mind. His focus was absolute. With the refined perception granted by his Awakening's Third Stage, Assimilation, he could feel the Thunder Pillar's every movement. As if his very flesh extended through the lightning, he sensed all it touched.
"One layer of bedrock... the first underground vault... then the second... almost there. Just a little more."
With that, Rowen opened his eyes and roared:
"Great Electricity Producer: Thunder God's Judgment!!"
BOOM!!
The Thunder Pillar, wide as a grand bathhouse, flared once more, sending a searing column of light into the heavens. It could be seen from across the island's vast skies.
The perpetual storms of Thunder God Island fed Rowen's attack. The accumulated lightning, absorbed through Assimilation, surged into the earth like a divine spear.
And then,
Zzzzt... BOOM!!!
The entire island quaked! Tremors tore through the land as if an ancient sea beast had stirred. Solid ground softened like molten wax, buckling under the unnatural force. Standing upright became a challenge, even for veteran fighters.
"Something blew up, there was an explosion!"
"Yes! The detonator's gone! We're safe!"
But no one panicked. Quite the opposite, they cheered! Because if it were only a quake, then it meant the worst was over. The threat was neutralized.
"That's it... with lightning that fast and destructive, it could've set off a chain reaction. Could it have been... Dyna Stone?"
Hovering high above, Rowen looked down at the massive pit carved below, crackling energy fading from his hand.
The colossal Thunder Pillar began to fade, like mist in the breeze, revealing a vast, glassy crater with no visible bottom.
To Rowen's eyes, it resembled an abyss. The cliff before him had been hollowed into a dark, bottomless tunnel, like a gate leading straight to Hell.
"Let's narrow it down... It wasn't Teach. And it wouldn't be Zephyr Sensei..."
"That only leaves you, Orrick."
Buru Buru Buru... Buru Buru...
A familiar noise snapped Rowen's attention downward.
Shua!
He vanished in a blink, reappearing deep inside the mountain, in what used to be a luxurious lounge.
The tremors had shattered the room. The long table lay splintered, most of it obliterated by the lightning strike. And yet, miraculously, the Den Den Mushi on the desk had survived, eyes wide, antenna twitching, and still ringing.
Buru Buru...
Rowen picked it up, pressing the receiver to his ear.
Silence.
Then, after a long pause, a low voice finally spoke.
"So the Den Den Mushi's still intact. That means you really pulled it off."
"Now, now, Orrick San, don't be so humble," Rowen replied with a sly grin. "Compared to the little self-destruct surprise I left in G-10, yours was downright sloppy."
He leaned back casually. "Got anything more entertaining than that? Or is this all about that corpse?"
Orrick's voice returned, calm and steady: "Of course there's more. I've already arranged for Kaido to begin mass-producing the next wave of Cyborg warriors... enhanced with tech based on Vegapunk's Pacifista series."
"Oh? Then I suppose I'll have something to look forward to."
Though they were separated by oceans, islands, and the endless Void, in that moment, their eyes met.
Across the silence, across time, across the world, they clashed.
(End of this chapter)
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