Ze ha ha ha ha.
The Golden Lion Shiki's wild laughter cracked across the sky like thunder and tore straight through the roar of wind and rain.
He stared at the black-gold naginata that had just been drawn. He stared at the icy, final look on Kael's face. In his eyes a crazed light burst out, the kind of joy you only feel when you finally find someone just as insane as you are.
"I knew it. You and I are the same breed." He spread his arms wide as if to embrace this battlefield wrapped in storm and fire. "Come on, Kael. I am sick of their rules. You and I together, here and now, let's flip this fake tomb of so-called justice."
He pointed Sakura Ten at Garp and Sengoku. His tone had gone fully manic.
"These two old eyesores are mine. The rest of these Marine riffraff, from officers to grunts, are your appetizer. How about it."
Before the last word fell, a brutal, ferocious aura roared out of Shiki.
Golden red Haoshoku Haki surged like a real tidal wave and swept in every direction.
The ground groaned under the pressure and split open.
The air thickened like glue. Countless Marines did not even have time to scream. Their eyes rolled white, foam spilled from their mouths, and they hit the ground like felled wheat.
On the square, hundreds, then thousands of white capes collapsed in sheets.
"Shiki, you bastard." Sengoku roared. The light of the golden Buddha flared brighter. He and Garp released their own auras to hold back this domineering storm.
But that was only the opening note.
The next heartbeat, a deeper, vaster will descended.
Black-gold Haki seeped from Kael's body. It was quiet, but it was like an endless starfield lowering over the battlefield.
This domain came down without sound, endless, unfathomable, carrying an absolute intent to strip, to judge.
Shiki's golden red flames crashed into that black-gold night and were pressed down, then pushed back, then silently devoured.
If Shiki's Haki was a beast-king roaring over a jungle, then Kael's was a god above all things, casting down an indifferent glance.
"Ze ha ha ha. Interesting. Way too interesting." After a brief shock, Shiki's eyes burned even hotter. "So that's what level of monster you are."
Hum.
The pressure sank again, layer upon layer.
Those Marine officers who had somehow stayed conscious under Shiki's Haki now met something worse.
They felt their senses twist. The rain and thunder in their ears receded. The scene in front of them swayed. A primal fear, older than language, seized their hearts.
Even Vice Admiral Tsuru, and a few figures in the crowd who in the future would shake the seas, could only grit their teeth and stand their ground with everything they had. Cold sweat soaked their hair.
"Damn it." Garp's fist cracked like breaking ice. He glanced at the square full of bodies, then at the two monsters who looked at Marineford like it was nothing, and rage punched straight to the top of his skull.
He knew. It was out of control.
These two, either one could upend the sea. Now they had met.
"Sengoku. Stop Shiki."
Garp roared and stomped. Stone splintered. He did not charge the Golden Lion. He went straight for Kael.
The unpredictable one had to be restrained first.
"Your opponent is me, Garp." Shiki laughed like a madman and flashed in front of him, blades Sakura Ten and Kogarashi turning into a whirlwind of death. They clashed with the Fist of the Marines again.
On the other side, the Marine officers who had survived the double Haki finally shook off that soul-deep trembling.
They were elites who had fought a hundred battles. Mainstays of the Marines. Right now every pair of eyes was bloodshot, chests heaving, sucking air like men dragged up from the deep.
"We can't let him rampage."
"Don't let him succeed."
"Surround and kill."
Seven or eight figures launched Soru together, blurring from every direction toward the man standing with a blade in the middle of the square.
Kael did not even tighten his grip on the naginata.
He simply took one lazy step forward.
A Vice Admiral known for his Shigan was in the lead. Two fingers came together, Armament hardened, hard as steel.
The air shrieked around his strike. It was headed straight for Kael's throat.
Kael did not even look. He lifted his left hand and pinched with his index and middle finger.
Ding.
Like catching a needle.
The ferocity on the Vice Admiral's face froze and turned to horror.
His Shigan, the one that could pierce steel plate, had been caught so casually. The force coming back through his fingers said his bones would snap any second.
Before he could react, Kael flicked his wrist.
A strange, coiled power exploded.
The Vice Admiral felt an irresistible force grab him and his whole body spun into the air like a top. He slammed into the officer behind him who was about to unleash Rankyaku.
Bang.
The two of them rolled into a heap. Bones broke. Neither got up again.
Fast. Too fast.
Kael's silhouette cut through the rain in blurs. Every time he flashed, a Marine elite hit the ground.
No flashy techniques. No visible Fruit power. Just speed, strength, and combat sense turned up to the absolute.
A rear admiral saw his comrades fall and bellowed, setting himself. Every muscle in his body tensed and hardened.
"Tekkai Steel."
It was his proudest defense. He could take a cannon to the chest like that.
Kael just arrived after him and drove a slow-looking elbow into his sternum.
Pff.
The Tekkai shattered. His chest caved in visibly. He flew back like a broken kite and knocked down seven or eight Marines along the way.
A simple roundhouse kick turned rain and air into blades. Three officers were swept up together. Blood sprayed in midair before they even hit the ground.
In the blink of an eye the encirclement fell apart.
Kael appeared behind the last struggling Vice Admiral like a ghost. One hand closed around the man's neck and lifted him off the ground.
The officer kicked and clawed, his face going purple.
"Too noisy."
Kael tossed him like trash. The man became a black blur and smashed into a half-collapsed building. The wall bloomed into a man-shaped hole. Stone rained down.
For a moment, apart from the earth-shaking battle of the three legends in the distance, the square went silent enough to hear the rain.
Kael stood among a carpet of unconscious Marines and slowly turned.
That was when the killing intent came.
Kael tilted his head a fraction to the right.
Zzzzh.
A golden laser beam, condensed to the limit, ripped past his ear with heat and speed enough to punch through anything.
Where it passed, the rain was torn into a clear tunnel. Every drop that touched the beam vanished into steam.
The laser bored into the distant fortress wall and left a smooth, glassy hole still smoking.
Rain that fell on the edge of the hole turned to vapor with a hiss.
Kael paused. His golden eyes cut through the rain and locked onto the shadow in the distant clocktower.
He grinned, amused.
"Sniping people from the dark isn't a good habit, Borsalino."
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