Eli Winters gripped Oblivion tightly in his hand, and in a blur of movement, appeared before Akainu. The blade flashed with a cold, annihilating light as he swung it down with full force.
Akainu had long anticipated the attack. His right fist ignited into molten magma, coated in an obsidian layer of Armament Haki. Without a hint of fear, he threw his punch straight into Eli's descending blade.
Clang!
The clash of magma and steel sent shockwaves rippling through the battlefield. For a split second, the two forces seemed evenly matched until Akainu's expression shifted. He leapt back, landing hard, his arm trembling.
The magma receded, revealing a crimson line of blood across his knuckles.
Akainu's brows furrowed. That sword… it cut through my Haki?
Eli's attack hadn't even been his strongest, and yet it pierced Akainu's hardened defense. For the first time, the admiral realized just how terrifying this opponent truly was a swordsman whose mastery of space, Haki, and blade all intertwined seamlessly. Eli Winters had already surpassed the level of an admiral.
But Eli wasn't about to let him rest.
In the next instant, his figure blurred, vanishing from sight. A surge of killing intent tore through the air.
Akainu's instincts screamed danger. He tried to dissolve into magma and retreat, but his body froze mid-motion as if the very fabric of space had locked him in place.
What ? His eyes widened in horror. He struggled, muscles straining, but an invisible force held him tighter than iron chains.
"Not good!" he growled inwardly, trying to flood his body with Haki to break free.
But it was already too late.
Eli's blade cut through the air with divine precision, wreathed in an aura that seemed to consume all light. The world itself seemed to still for a heartbeat as Oblivion swung toward Akainu's neck.
Cold light flared.
Akainu felt death breathe against his skin.
He's… really trying to kill me!
At the very brink, pure survival instinct surged through him. His Haki flared wildly, and he forced his magma body to explode outward, breaking free of the spatial bind in a desperate burst. His head tilted back at the last possible instant just as the blade grazed past.
The attack missed his throat by inches, but his left shoulder was torn open, a deep gash spraying molten blood.
Akainu staggered back, clutching his wound, eyes burning with rage and disbelief. "Why… why are you going this far, Eli? You've never gone all out against the Navy before."
Eli didn't answer immediately. His voice, when it came, was cold enough to freeze the sea. "Akainu. Do you know why I hate you?"
Akainu stood tall despite the blood dripping from his arm, magma simmering at his feet. "If you think you can shake me with words, you're wasting your breath. I've devoted my life to justice. No man can sway my resolve."
Eli sneered. "Justice? Is slaughtering innocent civilians part of that justice?"
"You understand nothing," Akainu snapped. "If justice isn't absolute, it means nothing!"
Eli laughed, harsh and bitter. "You really have no humanity left, do you? Even CP cold and ruthless as they are spared the innocent that day. But you? You ordered the bombardment without hesitation. Thousands of lives erased in a heartbeat. Was that your so-called justice?"
Akainu's gaze hardened. "And what if scholars of Ohara hid among them? Would you have risked the entire world for their selfish pursuit of forbidden history? They defied the World Government. They were warned, yet they persisted. The Buster Call exists to eliminate all threats to peace."
His voice rose, fierce and unyielding. "Those scholars sought to dig up truths that could destroy the balance of the world! Their arrogance would've plunged the seas into chaos! Justice demands we act no matter the cost!"
Eli's expression darkened. "No matter the cost… even if it means burning the innocent along with the guilty?"
"The innocent die in every war," Akainu barked. "Their sacrifice ensures a safer future. That is true justice!"
Eli's fury erupted. "You're delusional! The world doesn't need your kind of peace, built on corpses and lies! You think yourself righteous, but you're just another monster hiding behind orders!"
Akainu's magma boiled violently, his temper finally snapping. "Enough! I have nothing to explain to a pirate like you!"
The air grew scorching hot. Magma surged from the ground like a volcano awakening.
"Hellhound!" Akainu roared.
His fiery arm extended like a serpent of molten rock, slamming toward Eli. The attack tore through the landscape, melting stone and soil alike.
Eli swung Oblivion, splitting the magma wave apart with a single arc of blinding light. But before he could follow up, another explosion erupted Akainu's magma detonated midair, showering the battlefield with molten meteors.
The force blew Eli's coat back, firelight dancing across his calm, icy face.
The sky rained with magma, a cataclysmic storm that would've annihilated entire fleets. Few in the world could survive such an assault.
But Eli Winters was no ordinary man.
He raised his hand.
The air shimmered.
Dozens of transparent blades appeared, forming a dome around him. Each one sliced through the incoming magma meteors effortlessly, reducing them to harmless sparks that vanished before touching the ground.
Akainu's attacks didn't stop. As the molten rain fell, he gathered even more power, twin fists glowing like miniature suns.
His face twisted with grim resolve. If I can't kill him… then I'll bury him!
"Meteor Volcano!"
Thousands of molten fists burst into the sky, then rained down upon the island in an apocalyptic storm.
From afar, even the Marines who were still fighting froze, eyes wide with terror. The sky had turned into a burning inferno.
"Admiral Akainu, he's insane!" someone shouted.
Kizaru's usual lazy demeanor vanished, his face grim. For the first time, he looked genuinely disgusted. You're willing to kill your own men for the sake of pride, Akainu?
On the other side, Big Pan and the others didn't falter. They kept fighting fiercely, unwavering in their trust that Eli would handle it.
Eli stared up at the crimson sky, anger blazing in his chest. "Akainu, you really are beyond redemption. You'd sacrifice your own soldiers for your twisted sense of justice?"
Akainu's voice boomed back. "For true justice, some sacrifices must be made! Die, Eli Winters!"
Eli smirked coldly. "You talk too much."
He rose into the air, space distorting around him. The sky above the island split open like a shattered mirror.
"Let's see how your justice fares against the void."
He extended his hand. A massive black vortex appeared, its pull devouring the falling magma meteors one after another, swallowing the fiery storm into nothingness.
Spatial Art Void Banishment.
Within seconds, the once-blazing sky went still. Only a soft wind remained.
Eli looked down, his voice calm yet cutting. "Your attacks are as empty as your justice."
Akainu's eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible…"
Eli appeared before him in the blink of an eye. Akainu tried to move but the spatial bind returned, stronger than ever. His body refused to obey.
"No…" he muttered, horror creeping in. "Not again "
"Space Art Cross Slash."
Eli's sword cut through the air, forming a radiant X-shaped fissure that crossed Akainu's chest.
Shhk!
Blood and magma sprayed as Akainu's body split in two, collapsing onto the scorched earth.
Yet even in death's grasp, his will refused to fade. His breath came in ragged gasps, and through the haze of pain, fragments of memory flickered a young recruit, a burning ambition, a woman's smile beneath the sunlight.
Betis…
He saw her face again. The woman who once fought beside him, who believed in his fire, before fate turned that fire into the hell he carried within.
Back then, he was a man of passion and hope a man who believed justice meant saving lives, not taking them. Until the day Betis died trying to save a hostage. From that day, his justice hardened into stone, his heart burned hollow.
The magma had become his armor and his curse.
Footsteps echoed softly beside him.
Eli stopped next to the fallen admiral, his shadow stretching across the ground.
Akainu coughed blood but smiled faintly. "Eli… believe me or not, everything I did… wasn't for myself."
Eli's gaze softened slightly. "I believe that."
He looked down at the broken man, the magma fading from his body. "But believing doesn't make you right."
He turned away, looking toward his comrades still locked in combat. The war wasn't over yet but for Akainu, it already was.
The era of false justice had just taken its first step toward collapse.
_________________________________________________
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