The air itself seemed to shudder under the chaos. Lightning and light forked violently in the skies above, shaking the heavens. The snow of Drum Island was no longer pristine white, but blackened with soot, stained with blood, and torn open by the forces of multiple titans clashing.
The Angel Pirates had drawn out the protectors of the sea, and for once, the World Government's pride — its Vice Admirals, its strongest ships, even an Admiral himself — fought on the defensive.
Clang!Screech!
Steel screamed against steel as Benehime practically danced in Erza's hands, crashing against Konpira, Gion's own gleaming Great Grade blade. Every strike threw showers of sparks into the snow, steam rising where the white blanket met molten-hot haki.
"Your swordsmanship is… impressive," Erza admitted between heavy blows, her crimson hair whipping wildly as her eyes narrowed with sharp intent. "But predictable. You repeat patterns — and in battle, repetition is death."
Gion's eyes sharpened, her observation haki flaring to its limit. She twisted Konpira in her hands and parried an incoming slash, her feet digging trenches into the ground.
"Tch… and yours?" Gion snapped back, her voice cold but strained. "You move well but your blade doesn't slash as fiercely as one would expect from its power. Are you all flash and no bite, girl?"
Erza's lips curled into a smirk. "Is that what you think, Marine?" She had been holding back severely.
Their swords met again — and this time, Erza twisted, using the better blade to overwhelm her opponent temporarily. With a surge of her strength and haki, she drove Gion back.
The ground split open under the force, ice and rock alike breaking. Gion felt the impact ripple through her arms as she went flying backwards, her back smashing into a massive boulder. The rock cracked and snow collapsed on her form, burying her partially.
Blood trickled from her temple, staining the snow beneath her crimson. Gion cursed under her breath, wiping her wound with the back of her hand. Sloppy. That was sloppy. How could I allow that?… Aunt Tsuru would've had my head.
The Marines nearby rushed forward in a panic.
"Vice Admiral Moumosagi! Are you—"
"Stay BACK!" Gion barked, her voice cracking like a whip. "This is my duel! Don't interfere!"
But before her command could even settle, a deafening boom shook the battlefield.
Soundwaves, visible as rippling distortions in the air, exploded outward. Jirou stood with her palms forward, her metallic jacks thrumming violently as she unleashed another blast. The practically fodder Marines screamed as they were thrown like ragdolls, blood spurting from their noses and ears from the sheer pressure.
"It's disgraceful to interrupt a duel, y'know." Jirou muttered, flicking her jacks out of a hole in her hands temporarily. "Especially when you can't even withstand a whisper of sound."
It was no whisper. The vibrations alone were cracking rock and ice.
Hinata on the other hand, glided through the chaos like a phantom. Her pale Byakugan eyes surveyed the battlefield with chilling clarity. Each Marine's stance, each pulse, each weak point — exposed in perfect detail.
"Two steps behind," she murmured, pivoting lightly as a Marine lunged with his blade. With only two precise finger strikes to his chest, he collapsed, gasping for breath.
Another swung wildly at her side, but she had already twisted, her palm cutting into his pressure point. He fell silently into the snow.
The Hyuga race had a hereditary way of using Haki that allowed them to channel it into their opponent and prevent Haki flow. Everything had haki, even none living things. That's why there was a "voice of all things" afterall. It was why the Hyuga race could read the Poneglyphs. The eternal Haki of the Poneglyphs moved, spoke and read the same thing that was in their text constantly, without change or fail.
The Hyuga couldn't hear Haki speak, but they could see it move and inhibit it if possible. It generally caused unconsciousness or destruction depending on the target and was precisely why the World Government hunted them down in droves.
"Why not aim for their heads?" Jirou glanced at Hinata with a sly grin. "Still pulling your punches, Hyūga?"
Hinata's lips pressed into a firm line. "I've seen enough death in my life so I'll incapacitate them. Killing isn't necessary. It's not like you're any better."
It was true. Jirou was leaving the marines' lives up to fate. Whether they lived or not was dependent on their faith.
"Hah, fine. Just don't let them stab you in the back."
The two women moved as if choreographed — Jirou blasting soundwaves that disoriented enemies, Hinata weaving through the gaps and dismantling them with fluid grace.
Back in the duel, Erza dusted snow from her armor, her patience thinning.
"You should be honored, Marine," Erza said coldly. "Few see this blade unsheathed."
Her fingers curled around the hilt of Benihime. With a hiss, the sword's true power was unleashed— its crimson-black blade gleaming with a will of its own. The very air trembled around it, and even Konpira seemed to shudder in its wielder's grip.
Gion's pupils widened. That blade… impossible.
"That's—! A Supreme Grade Blade…!"
The Marines nearby gasped in shock.
"Benihime?! One of the Twelve Supreme Grades!?"
Erza pointed the blade toward Gion, its dark aura flaring. "If you're not ready, this will be your grave."
Gion's breath hitched. She could feel it. The oppressive will of the sword, its history soaked into its steel. Only a chosen few in history had drawn such weapons without being consumed by their wills. This went double with black blades in new users. And Erza… this young pirate wielded it as though it was made for her.
No… not made. Inherited. Gion's eyes narrowed. She must be… that woman's daughter. Belserion Irene's child. It explains everything.
Belserion Irene, or Irene, as she simply went, was the World's strongest swordswoman. That was until she retired from the blade and left the title up in the air to eventually be claimed by her student Dracule Mihawk, nearly 2 decades later.
Mihawk had once stated during a Warlord meeting that his master had passed away a few years after he completed his training. No one knew who or what could have killed a woman that strong, and in her physical prime of 40, so abruptly.
It was especially shocking because she was one of the few sword wielders in history to create a black blade, before her student followed suit. Many on the sea today still think Mihawk learned the process from his memory of her.
Judging by Erza's age, it must have been childbirth. It also explained how Erza turned to piracy despite being confirmed to be a Figarland by the Marines and World Government. It was in her blood, and though she was more than strong, Belserion Irene was still an outsider and a lone pirate just like her student grew to be.
Had she lived, she would have been guaranteed to be a threat just like the three emperors of the sea. She was an apprentice on that ship after all, a Gion could be willing to bet that the God Valley incident was where she acquired Benihime in the first place. Just what crazy Figerland Celestial Dragon would be willing to lay with a monster like that?
Her thoughts were cut short as Erza blurred forward, Benihime whistling through the air with killing intent and Haki that didn't fully belong to its wielder.
Elsewhere, the sun's rays reflected off melting ice — and there, the battlefield became a furnace. Escanor, radiating blazing golden heat, swung his fiery axe with destructive might. His opponent had activated a devil fruit ability; an awakened zoan devil fruit, evident by the black chain-clouds present in the transformation.
Tokikake, Vice Admiral "Chaton," gritted his teeth as his feline Zoan form bristled. His fur was scorched black in patches, his breathing heavy.
"Damn it… This monster's strength just keeps growing…!"
Escanor raised his chin proudly, his chest puffed out like a god among men. "Growing? Foolish Marine, this is not battle growth. This is my natural state. You are simply realizing the difference between a lion embraced by the sun… and a stray cat."
He swung his axe. A blazing crescent of solar fire cut through the battlefield, melting snow into steam despite traveling parallel to the ground. Tokikake barely leapt aside, his claws digging trenches as the ground itself burned.
"You'll endanger the island at this rate!" Tokikake roared.
Escanor's booming laughter echoed. "Then it is fortunate the island is mostly made of ice. It will cool the flames. Eventually. Tell me, Marine… do you still wish to fight? Or will you bow before the sun?"
Tokikake's only response was a feral growl as he launched himself forward again, claws flashing.
At the center of it all, high in the air the true clash of titans raged amidst the thunder clouds.
Bolts of lightning screamed across the skies, colliding with beams of light. The heavens themselves seemed to fracture under the assault. Enel, floating with his wings unfurled, his staff crackling with divine power, sneered as he sent down another El Thor.
"Borsalino…" he mocked, his voice reverberating across the island. "Do you feel it? Do you feel how insignificant your light is… in front of lightning?"
Kizaru, his body shimmering in golden photons, tilted his head lazily even as he blurred at immense speed across the battlefield. "Oohh~ scary. You sure talk a lot for a rookie. Light travels faster than lightning and sound, after all… and your voice is very slow."
He raised a hand, firing a deadly beam of light — Yasakani no Magatama — a rain of luminous destruction.
Enel spread his arms wide, his mantra guiding him as his body dispersed into electricity. The beams pierced only through storm clouds and crackling lightning. Reappearing behind Kizaru, Enel slammed down with a massive thunderbolt sending him straight to the ground of the island.
KRRAKOOOM!
The explosion swallowed the landscape, throwing snow and stone high into the air with a force most weren't expecting. For a moment, the entire battlefield froze, the Marines staring in horror.
Had Enel… struck down an Admiral?
But the dust parted, and Kizaru's form shimmered back into view, a lazy smile still tugging his lips — though a burn marked his shoulder, visible through the incinerated section of clothes in the bolt's path.
Devil fruits, -especially Logia- can ignore immunity if equal in power, or greater in direct heredity.This is well known fact amongst devil fruit users. This is excluding the level of mastery that comes with possessing a devil fruit power for a certain period of time.
For example, the Ice fruit and Magma fruit can clash due to providing similar levels in power to their wielders at consumption, but the Magma and Flame fruits, or Ice fruit and Snow fruit, will always be one sided battles due to the base levels of power provided by the fruits.
This also applies to devil fruits that represent existences in nature, but cannot be logia based devil fruits out of practicality. The Quake fruit and Sun fruit are examples that come to Kizaru's mind. If they both were to gain new users at the same time, they would be at the same level of power, but would grow differently due to factors like talent, race and training effort.
Lightning and Light? Their users have been fruit users for a similar amount of time, so they'll clash evenly, and render the other's passive intangibility moot. For now anyways.
"Yare yare… I haven't felt pain like this in a while." His smile faded, his voice hardening. "You're dangerous, boy."
Enel's grin widened, lightning sparking viciously around him, and thunder crashing above. "Dangerous? No, Kizaru. I am divine."
And once again, lightning and light clashed, their battle shaking the island to its core despite the aerial nature of the battle.