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"Akainu,"
Ace looked at Akainu, who stood before all the Vice Admirals, half of his body transformed into magma. A crimson-black light flashed in his eyes.
Though they were on opposing sides, and their ideologies were as irreconcilable as fire and water—and though Akainu was the man who had killed his Pops, a grudge he and the entire former Whitebeard crew carried...
Ace had to admit, Akainu was a true, iron-blooded soldier.
He was far more respectable than the Nobles who relied solely on their status and privilege to lord over civilians. At the very least, Akainu possessed the soldierly quality of taking responsibility, and the courage to die on the battlefield.
Of course, that didn't mean Ace would show any mercy.
Killing Akainu would deprive the World Government of a crucial Admiral. And the Magma-Magma Fruit—the Devil Fruit with the strongest offensive power—would still be of some use to Rowen.
HE WANTS TO MAKE ROWEN THE KING OF THE WORLD!
Akainu was, without a doubt, a major obstacle on that path.
"LET'S GO! FINISH THEM QUICKLY!"
Ace led the charge.
Zoro and Sanji were right behind him.
They too had already made their preparations and their resolve.
They could appreciate the Marines' determination, but these Marines were still obstacles on the path to making Rowen the King of the World and Luffy the Pirate King.
THESE MARINES, ESPECIALLY AKAINU, HAD TO BE ELIMINATED!
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"Shishishi!"
Luffy laughed cheerfully, his body having already shrunk from its Ancient Giant form back to normal size.
The massive form of an Ancient Giant, which Luffy could achieve thanks to the special nature of Nika, granted him an incredible all-around power boost. But in exchange, the stamina and Haki consumption was immense.
Because of Nika's rubbery body, Haki could be directly integrated into it. This allowed Luffy, in battle, to simultaneously use Armament Haki, Haōshoku Coating, and Devil Fruit power—a trinity of fused power that naturally put Nika a tier above other combatants of the same level.
The trade-off was that once Nika Form's stamina was depleted, his Haki was also completely gone. He would become completely drained, shriveling up like he did in the original story.
With this characteristic, Luffy gained super-strong combat power, but moves that consumed a lot of stamina also consumed a lot of Haki.
Luffy's current stamina and Haki had already surpassed his Egghead-arc self from the original story. But Gear Fifth still consumed a massive amount of both. He had to conserve it whenever possible.
With the four of them working together—Akainu and his men wouldn't last long. Naturally, they had to choose the method that would preserve the most stamina and Haki.
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"COME ON! STRAW HAT! FIRE FIST! PIRATE HUNTER! BLACK LEG!"
Akainu roared, his entire body boiling with magma, looking at the four incredibly powerful figures.
All four of them had mastered Haōshoku Coating. They were all true top-tier powerhouses on these seas.
Even Akainu had to give these people his full respect.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A frightening amount of magma was drawn from the depths of the island, surging and boiling in the atmosphere around Akainu.
At this moment, Akainu was like a living, super-active volcano, erupting madly!
The power of a volcanic eruption, the most powerful localized destructive force among the three great disasters of the One Piece world, was pushed to its absolute limit by Akainu. For a moment, even Ace and the others' eyes turned grave—they didn't rashly approach.
With the four of them working together, even with Akainu fighting so desperately, they could break through. But the consumption of stamina and Haki would be too great.
The Five Elders had not yet made their move—
Akainu was currently drawing on the full power of his Magma-Magma Fruit, turning himself into an erupting super-volcano. A volcano is most terrifying when it erupts, possessing incredibly violent and destructive power. This was the source of the Magma-Magma Fruit's ability to clash with Haōshoku Coating using just its Devil Fruit power alone.
And just as a real volcano needs to accumulate energy for years before it can erupt, for Akainu to unleash the full power of a volcanic eruption required a horrifying amount of stamina. He absolutely could not sustain it.
They had no need to clash head-on with Akainu in his strongest state. They just needed to wait for the eruptive force of the volcano to weaken slightly, then attack.
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"WHAT AN AMAZING ABILITY... THE MAGMA-MAGMA FRUIT!"
Ace's Observation Haki was pushed to its extreme, his eyes shaking.
This magma wasn't coming from the depths of Egghead. It was from even deeper!
FROM THE SEA BENEATH EGGHEAD!
In the sea, there were vast submerged lands, with a massive number of submarine volcanoes.
Just like in the original story, when Luffy and the others first went to Fish-Man Island and encountered a submarine volcanic eruption.
Akainu—was using the Awakened power of the Magma-Magma Fruit to trigger the eruption of a submarine volcano!
He was drawing this magma up from the depths of the sea, for his own use!
Using the power of a submarine volcano, Akainu's combat strength at this moment was astonishing!
Even the four of them—Luffy, Ace, Zoro, and Sanji—were unwilling to clash with Akainu head-on at this moment.
The Magma-Magma Fruit... Worthy of being the Devil Fruit with the Highest attack power, one of the absolute strongest Devil Fruits of all.
To trigger a large-scale eruption of a submarine volcano and then use that power for himself—such an astonishing power made Ace, Zoro, and Sanji marvel.
Before this power, even their Haōshoku Coating attacks couldn't compete. The three of them, individually, were not qualified to fight Akainu in this state.
Among the four of them, the only one who could fight Akainu head-on in this state was Luffy in his full-power Gear Fifth.
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But the price of using this power was also obvious.
Even with Akainu's physique, the massive stamina consumption made it difficult for him to maintain this state.
BUT—
Akainu was prepared to die!
In this state, Akainu himself was a mobile, erupting super-volcano!
With this power, he would drag Fire Fist, Pirate Hunter, and Black Leg—one of them, or even two—TO THEIR DEATHS WITH HIM!
Once this move was used, it was an absolute, all-or-nothing gamble. It couldn't be sustained for long.
"FIRE FIST ACE!"
Akainu's chosen target was still Ace.
This sinful bloodline of the Pirate King had to be purged!
And Fire Fist Ace was a Flame Human of the Flare-Flare Fruit. In his current erupting volcano state, Ace had no room to resist.
In this state, he could easily break through Fire Fist Ace's not-yet-fully-matured Haōshoku Coating!
Killing Fire Fist Ace would be a worthy sacrifice for him, the Fleet Admiral of the Navy.
"ACE! DODGE!"
Luffy and the others immediately rushed to the rescue.
But Akainu, using the Six Powers' Shave, stacked with the power of a volcanic eruption, his speed at this moment was incredibly astonishing.
With killing intent, he charged towards Ace.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Ace also hastily gathered his Haōshoku Coating and coated his entire body with Armament Haki.
The Flare-Flare Fruit's ability was no help in resisting the Magma-Magma Fruit—it was even a disadvantage.
He could only rely on his Haki to resist!
BUT... Akainu in this state was an erupting super-volcano. Even Ace's Haōshoku Coating couldn't compete with it and began to crumble.
Even if Ace hardened his entire body with Armament Haki, it was still impossible to block Akainu's attack.
"DIE! FIRE FIST!"
Akainu's eyes were scarlet, as if he could already see Fire Fist Ace dying under his magma fist.
Countless globs of erupting magma flew from around Akainu, also carrying the force of the volcanic eruption, to delay Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji's rescue.
With his current attack power, he only needed to delay Luffy and the others for a moment to kill Fire Fist Ace!
BUT, THE NEXT MOMENT.
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VMM!
A dazzling cold light suddenly flashed.
WHOOSH!
The next moment, an endless, frightening freezing aura instantly exploded.
CRACK! CRACK!
The sea was frozen, the land was frozen!
Even the erupting volcanic magma was frozen solid.
Beneath the sea, the submarine volcano triggered by Akainu was also instantly frozen by this incredibly horrifying freezing aura.
Even Akainu, who was attacking Ace, was now frozen into an ice ball.
Ace seized the opportunity and immediately pulled back, rejoining Luffy and the others.
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"FLEET ADMIRAL AKAINU!"
Seeing Akainu, who had just been on the verge of killing Fire Fist with his desperate move, now frozen into a ball of ice, Gion and the other Vice Admirals' eyes looked ready to burst.
Especially the 'Dove' faction Vice Admirals like Momonga, had their eyes turn bloodshot.
This ability... THEY WERE ALL TOO FAMILIAR WITH IT!
The former Marine HQ Admiral, the absolute leader of the Navy's 'Dove' faction, who had died in battle during the Summit War, at the hands of Sky Sovereign—
—Admiral Aokiji, the ability to freeze all things, the Ice-Ice Fruit.
After the Summit War, this ability had also been taken.
Now, its owner was…
THE MAN WITH A BOUNTY OF 6,058,000,000 BERI. SKY SOVEREIGN!
ROWEN HAD MADE HIS MOVE.
"...." Gion and the numerous Marine HQ Vice Admirals' foreheads were beaded with countless beads of cold sweat.
If they had the courage to draw their swords against Straw Hat and the others...
Then against Sky Sovereign, they didn't even have the right to draw their swords.
It wasn't that they were cowards. It was that under that man's Haki, they couldn't even stay conscious.
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"That was close..."
Ace, rejoining the three, was still shaken.
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji also sighed in relief.
They had underestimated the terror of the volcanic eruptive force.
Akainu, who had triggered a submarine volcano and turned himself into a mobile, erupting super-volcano, his combat strength was even more outrageous than they had expected.
The most exaggerated destructive force of nature... was no joke.
Haōshoku Coating couldn't gain any advantage against such a force of nature.
Before this terrifying power, no power could gain an absolute advantage in a head-on collision... unless it was a Devil Fruit ability that countered it.
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BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
And at this moment, the ice ball freezing Akainu began to rapidly heat up, turning crimson red.
Then, magma exploded, vaporizing all the ice freezing Akainu.
"THE ICE-ICE FRUIT."
Akainu's face was incredibly grim.
Sky Sovereign was indeed on this island.
The Ice-Ice Fruit, the Devil Fruit of his former colleague, Kuzan, countered his Magma-Magma Fruit.
Just as his magma could burn through the flames of the Flare-Flare Fruit, Kuzan's Ice-Ice Fruit could freeze the sea, even an erupting active volcano. This had been directly demonstrated in the original story, when Kuzan, after leaving the Marines, had frozen an erupting volcano solid.
The true ability of the Ice-Ice Fruit was not ice, but the freezing aura that could freeze everything. And this freezing aura was the counter to the high-temperature erupting Magma-Magma Fruit.
Eating a Devil Fruit not only granted great power, but also came with its weaknesses.
Akainu was filled with unwilling rage.
HE WAS SO CLOSE!
But the appearance of the Ice-Ice Fruit had completely nullified his do-or-die strike.
Now his stamina was low, and with Fire Fist Ace and the others on guard, creating such an opportunity again was impossible.
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"Nika... and Sky Sovereign... have both appeared, have they?"
On a warship, Saturn stepped forward.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A bizarre magic circle appeared above Egghead.
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