Bankai: Zanka no Tachi!
The instant Rosen unleashed the Bankai, the temperature of Mary Geoise skyrocketed to unbearable levels. Even the air itself seemed to liquefy with heat, warping the space around the Celestial Dragons' holy land. Rosen's previously sealed Arms-Arms Fruit burned with the white-hot intensity of a nuclear reaction, not just manifesting a Zanpakutō, but becoming the embodiment of the sun itself.
"Bankai!"
Rosen's voice cut through the scorching atmosphere like a blade. He reached out, grasping the air, and materialized the Zanpakutō. It was not a weapon of beauty, but of pure destruction—a charred, blackened katana that radiated an oppressive, invisible heat.
"Zanka no Tachi: Higashi no Kōtei, Fujin Kōkaku."
He held the blade aloft. Instantly, the raging inferno that had consumed Mary Geoise was drawn in, sucked rapidly into the length of the sword. The flames, the destruction, the burning palaces and gardens—all of it collapsed inward, vanishing into the Zanpakutō. The world didn't cool; it held its breath.
Imu, standing amidst the devastation, watched with eyes devoid of emotion. The purple beams of the National Treasure, Motherflame, continued to pulse with destructive energy.
"You seek to burn the Four Blues with that little spark?" Imu's voice was a cold whisper against the roaring silence. "A candle in the hurricane."
Rosen smiled, a cold, calculating expression that didn't reach his eyes. He didn't speak; he acted.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he swung the Zanpakutō to the side.
WHOOSH
The blade moved with lazy grace, yet the result was cataclysmic. It didn't unleash a wave of fire. It unleashed heat.
The temperature jumped from five hundred degrees to a million, then ten million.
The concept of "burning" ceased to exist. Matter didn't burn; it sublimated. Stone, gold, and flesh turned instantly to ash and vapor, stripped of their molecular bonds by the sheer thermal output. The sky above Mary Geoise turned a blinding, molten white. The Red Line itself, the very foundation of the world, began to weep tears of magma.
HISS
The air screamed as it was torn apart. The Knights of God and the Five Elders instinctively flared their Haki, their bodies trembling not from fear, but from the primal instinct of prey before a star. Sakazuki, the user of the Magma-Magma Fruit, gritted his teeth, sweat evaporating instantly from his skin. Even his magma couldn't withstand this heat. This was the heat of the sun's core, concentrated into a single point.
"It's not burning..." Admiral Kizaru murmured, his usual lazy demeanor shattered by the sheer terror of the sight. "It's... evaporating."
"Correct," Rosen stated, his voice amplifying by the heat waves distorting the atmosphere. "Zanka no Tachi does not burn. It steams. It reduces the world to ash through absolute thermal supremacy."
He turned his gaze to the National Treasure, the weapon spewing purple destruction into the seas below.
"You wish to flood the world?" Rosen asked. "Let's see you do that when the ocean itself is boiling away."
He raised the blade high. "Tenchi Kaizin."
He swung.
It wasn't a slash of energy, but a tear in reality. A crimson line of pure heat split the sky, piercing through the National Treasure's beam. There was no explosion, only a silent, absolute disappearance. The purple beam of the Motherflame was struck by the crimson heat wave, and instantly, the energy dissipated, unmade by the superior thermal output.
BZZZZZT—
The National Treasure shuddered. Then, like snow in a furnace, it vanished. Not destroyed, not broken—sublimated into nothingness.
"The sea is still rising," Imu noted, though a flicker of unease finally touched the abyssal eyes. "Your sword cannot stop the tides of destiny."
"Watch."
Rosen didn't look at Imu. He looked down at the sea, visible over the edge of the Red Line.
The sea level, pushed upward by the Motherflame's residual energy, was indeed rising, threatening to swallow the islands of the Four Blues. It was a catastrophic, world-ending tide.
Rosen simply pointed the Zanka no Tachi downward. The blade, now radiating heat visible to the naked eye—a shimmering, distortion-heavy aura—hung in the air.
"Se."
The heat descended. It wasn't a firestorm; it was a thermal blanket covering the entire circumference of the Red Line and beyond.
Below, the rising water did not stop immediately. Instead, the surface began to smoke. Vast plumes of white steam erupted from the ocean surface, rising high enough to touch the clouds of the Red Line's summit. The water level wasn't pushed down; it was eaten. The evaporation rate of the world's oceans skyrocketed, instantly balancing and exceeding the rate of the sea level rise.
The rising tide was negated not by force, but by the sheer energy absorption of the atmosphere. The ocean was being boiled dry.
Ichidan, the former King of the Earth, fell to his knees. His Observation Haki sensed the global change—the steam, the heat, the stabilization. Tears streamed down his face. "The world... is saved."
Rosen stood amidst the superheated ruin of Mary Geoise, the Zanka no Tachi humming with the power of a dying star. He looked at Imu, who stood frozen, witnessing the impossible.
"The National Treasure is gone," Rosen said, his voice cutting through the roar of the evaporating seas. "And the sea is being suppressed by the sun itself. Your plans end here."
Imu remained silent, the first true hesitation showing in the ancient sovereign's posture.
Rosen lowered the blade, the heat receding slightly but still oppressive. He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the Marines present—Sakazuki, Kizaru, Gion, and the others.
"Marines," Rosen commanded, his voice resonating with absolute authority. "Round up the Celestial Dragons. Secure the Five Elders. And prepare for the transition of power."
"Yes, Admiral!"
The Marines, emboldened by Rosen's overwhelming display of power, moved with renewed vigor. The era of the Celestial Dragons' absolute rule was ending, steamed away by the heat of the new dawn.
ROAR
Sakazuki, his magma flaring once more as the National Treasure's influence vanished, launched himself at Aramaki, who was still reeling from the thermal shock.
"Magma fist!" Sakazuki roared, his fist connecting with Aramaki's wooden defenses. The forest-Logia user's Haki-hardened trees shattered against the magma, the heat of the Magma-Magma Fruit far surpassing the resistance of the Forest-Forest Fruit. "Without the World Government's backing, you are nothing but a weed, Aramaki!"
Aramaki gritted his teeth, forced onto the defensive, the burning pain of the magma a stark reminder of the power hierarchy in this new age. The Marines, led by Rosen, had not just won a battle; they had seized the future of the world.
Rosen sheathed Zanka no Tachi, the heat dissipating as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind a scorched, silent Mary Geoise. The sun that steamed the world had set, and a new order stood in its wake.
—-
Enjoying the story? You can read 3-5 chapters ahead right now on Patreon!
New chapters drop there much earlier than Web Novel.
Join P@treon & Read Ahead → https://[email protected]/c/Ren_Saga
Thank you for your support! ❤️