The Marines stood paralyzed around the perimeter of the fallen island. They looked up at the golden figure perched on the summit like stars orbiting a cold, distant moon. No one dared move. It was the primal hesitation of a flock of sheep surrounding a lion, they could watch from a distance, but they lacked the spirit to challenge his majesty.
"I'll throw him into the deepest pit of Impel Down myself!"
Sengoku's voice was a tectonic grate. His body began to expand, a shimmering gold light bleeding through his skin until it looked as though he had been cast in molten metal. A heartbeat later, he had ascended into his Great Buddha form, a towering idol of divine wrath. He launched himself from the platform, a golden comet hurtling toward Shiki.
"Shiki! You've overplayed your hand!"
Sengoku's palm thrust forward, the air around it rippling before snapping into a concentrated, transparent shockwave.
POP!
"Slash Wave!"
Shiki's blade hissed through the air. A streak of blue-white energy intercepted the shockwave mid-flight. The collision was a physical weight that flattened the wind, sending Marines below tumbling across the stone like autumn leaves.
"Finally decided to join the party? I was getting bored!" Shiki's grin was manic, his eyes wide with the thrill of the hunt. "But if it's just you, Sengoku... you're bringing a toothpick to a landslide!"
Shiki slammed his heel into the floating island beneath him.
"Shishi Odoshi: Chimaki!"
The earth didn't just shake; it screamed. The three-thousand-meter expanse of the island groaned and liquefied, the very stone and soil rearranging itself at Shiki's command. In seconds, the debris rose into the sky, shaping itself into the likeness of colossal, roaring lions.
They were mountain-sized predators made of earth and fury, each one over a hundred meters tall. They prowled through the ruins of Headquarters, their mere presence casting shadows that swallowed the sun. Before Sengoku could land his next blow, he was encircled by a pride of stone titans.
The sky above the Admiral went black as the lions lunged.
"Impact Wave!"
Sengoku leapt, a divine shockwave erupting from his golden palm to meet the descending claws.
ROAR!
The lions bellowed as their massive limbs collided with the golden energy. One giant paw shattered into a rain of gravel under the pressure of the Buddha's palm, but it didn't matter. Within a second, the stone flowed back together, the lion regenerating its limb and lunging again with even greater speed. The light above Sengoku's head was snuffed out completely as the earth-beasts closed in.
"A Marine Admiral? Is that the best the Government can buy?" Shiki laughed, standing atop the head of his lead lion.
Suddenly, Shiki's instincts flared. His figure blurred, vanishing into the air just as a massive, calloused fist whistled through the space where his head had been a millisecond before.
The punch didn't stop. It slammed into the stone lion below.
CRACK… BOOM!
The mountain-sized beast let out a hollow groan and disintegrated. Under the sheer, raw power of that single strike, the lion collapsed into a landslide of dust and rubble, forming new hills across the shattered battlefield.
Sengoku leapt clear of the debris, landing neatly beside the newcomer.
"Ice Age."
A cold, clinical voice cut through the heat of the war. The temperature plummeted so fast the moisture in the air turned to needles. A wave of frost surged across the ground, and within two breaths, the crumbling hills of stone and the surrounding ruins were locked in a glittering, crystalline sea of ice.
"Hahaha! Sorry I'm late, Sengoku!"
A boisterous, hearty laugh rang out over the frozen wasteland. The man stood tall, his presence radiating a different kind of strength, one built on decades of chasing legends.
"Took you long enough," Sengoku spat, the golden sheen of his Buddha form rippling with irritation.
Only one man had the sheer audacity to show up late to a catastrophe of this magnitude. Sengoku had actually entertained the idea of promoting him to Admiral once the dust settled on his own appointment, but watching Garp wander in now? That promotion was officially dead in the water.
"Garp!"
Shiki hovered in the dead air, his eyes narrowing before a jagged smile split his face. "So, the old guard gathers. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"We aren't friends, Shiki. Don't try to make it sound like we're catching up over drinks," Garp replied. His voice was flat, devoid of its usual booming humor. He stood with his shoulders squared, his presence saturated with a level of Haki that seemed to anchor the very ground beneath him.
"You brought a war to our front door. Now, you're going to pay."
Shiki chuckled, shaking his head. "The two of you teaming up against me? I'm almost flattered. It's been a long time since I was deemed that much of a threat." He raised both Oto and Kogarasu, the legendary blades catching the sun as he pointed one at each man. "Fine then. Let's see if you've still got your teeth!"
"Uh... excuse me. There's also, well, me."
The voice was lazy, almost apologetic. A tall, lanky man with a sleep mask pushed up onto his forehead stepped out from the settling dust. He looked around at the leveled buildings and the mountain-sized stone lions with a listless, awkward expression, as if he weren't quite sure where he fit into the carnage.
Shiki's patience snapped. "And who the hell are you?" he demanded. Since when was his battlefield a playground for every stray that wandered by?
"Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral... Kuzan," The man introduced himself, his voice a bored drawl.
"I don't care. Fall with the rest of them!" Shiki flicked a casual Slash Wave toward the newcomer.
The blade of energy tore through the air, hitting Kuzan dead-on and slicing him cleanly in half. The shockwave continued past him, obliterating a row of ruins behind him in a thunderous collapse.
"Wow... you really are as strong as they say," A voice muttered.
With a dry crack, the two halves of Kuzan's body turned into jagged pillars of ice before fusing back together. He took three casual steps forward, the frost melting away as his flesh returned to normal.
"Shiki!" Sengoku roared, leaping into the air to bring a golden palm down like a falling moon. "This isn't a duel! You invaded the Holy Land of Justice, you don't get a fair fight. You get arrested!"
"Too much talk, Sengoku!" Shiki parried the golden palm with a cross-slash of his blades, the sparks flying like fireworks.
But he didn't see Garp.
The 'Hero' was a blur of motion, his Iron Fist already mid-swing. Shiki's eyes widened; he barely managed to snap his second sword horizontally to catch the blow.
CRACK!
The force was staggering. It traveled through the steel, through Shiki's arms, and dumped directly into the earth below. The ground shattered into a spiderweb of fissures, and the moment Shiki spiraled away to gain distance, the air where he had stood exploded, leaving a massive, smoking crater three hundred meters wide.
The three-on-one slaughter had officially begun.
…
Southeastern Sector
In the relative quiet of the edge of the base, Rojen's hand froze against his cheek. He could hear the tectonic shifts and the roars of the titans from across the island.
"Sounds like the main event has started," Rojen said softly.
Kizaru glanced toward the center of the base, his eyes narrowing behind his shades. "The Golden Lion has finally lost his temper... what a terrifying man."
"Then I suppose we should stop dancing," Rojen murmured. His fingers finally pressed against the skin of his face.
"I really hoped I wouldn't have to go this far..."
His voice changed. It wasn't human anymore, it was a layered, dissonant rasp, echoing with a hollow, predatory chill.
In a flash of spiritual pressure, a ghastly white porcelain surface surged over his features, etched with jagged, eerie patterns. Kizaru's pupils contracted as the light caught the bone-white finish.
It was a mask.
(End Of This Chapter)
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