"Ready? Counting down from three… Three, two—"
The moment Ren uttered the word, Zala shot forward like a bullet.
Tailor's Thorn!
Spikes burst from the heels of her stilettos, propelling her speed to an explosive degree.
While sprinting, she didn't hesitate to jab her acupoints.
Thorn Therapy!
Her arms instantly bulged with power. By stimulating special meridian points, she could temporarily draw out tremendous strength.
At the same time, her forearms transformed, growing thorned hammers that swung down like meteors toward Ren.
But to her shock, Ren didn't even move.
He simply looked up at her, and at the instant before the blow struck his head, he raised one hand.
The thin-looking arm blocked the meteor strike effortlessly. Beneath the torn fabric of his sleeve, crimson-gold patterns glimmered faintly.
"What—? He's fine!?"
Zala's eyes widened in disbelief. Those thorns could pierce through stone walls!
"Don't overestimate yourself, Zala. Your thorns mean nothing to me.
"The only interesting thing about you is your keen sensory ability—but as an opponent, you're far too weak."
Ren swung his arm, and an overwhelming force shattered her resistance.
Zala didn't even have time to react before her body was flung like a ragdoll, smashing through wall after wall, tearing through several streets, and finally carving a long trench in the ground.
Just one swing sent her flying hundreds of meters away.
The power gap was absolute.
"Ready now? Actually, you can all come at once. Otherwise, I might accidentally kill you."
Ren ignored Zala and looked toward the nearby Candle Champion—encasing Galdino inside.
"Hahaha! I don't care who you are! Come and fight!"
Galdino charged forward with a booming laugh.
The reinforced Candle Champion armor was powerful—it once brought down a pirate with a 42 million bounty.
He would defeat the enemy, then interrogate how they learned of him.
There was no way this man could really be his boss... right?
Focus. Transcend your limits!
Ren lunged forward, Qi flooding into his cursed blade, gathering along its edge.
He recalled a line from Scissor Seven: "Focus your Qi at the tip."
It sounded simple—but it was the essence of control.
Qi could be compressed, concentrated.
He couldn't focus it to a literal point yet, but he could gather it into a sharper edge.
When that "Qi Blade" overlapped with the cursed sword's edge, Ren simultaneously activated Thunder Breathing—white steam hissed from between his teeth.
Click.
His thumb flicked the tsuba—azure steel flashed in a streak of light.
First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!
A thunderous roar split the storm apart. The lightning burst tore a hole straight through the rain curtain.
"!"
Galdino only felt a flicker of lightning before pain bloomed across his body and he was hurled backward.
Blood splattered into the storm, mingling with the rain as it fell.
But it wasn't the Candle Champion that was blown away—it was Galdino himself.
The blade had sliced cleanly through his supposedly indestructible steel wax, like a hot knife through butter.
Mr. 3 was down almost instantly. Marianne's face paled; she stood abruptly, trying to react—
But in that moment, through the heavy rain, Ren turned, holding the shattered remains of his sword.
The fragments streaked out like beams of light into the alley.
Before she could even blink, Marianne's cute twin tails fluttered down onto the ground.
She froze completely, breath catching.
In that instant, she heard Death breathing beside her ear.
Realizing how close she had come to dying, her usual carefree, aloof façade shattered.
Tears burst forth, her face scrunched in terror and sobbing.
"Hey, hey! A real man shouldn't bully little girls! Let this okama show you some justice!"
Bon Clay (Mr. 2) leaped out from the opposite alley.
Okama Kenpo: Summer Memories!
He spun in midair, using his body as the pivot, and unleashed a powerful rotating kick.
The raindrops in his path exploded into mist. If that kick landed on anyone normal—
It would shatter bones.
But Ren merely turned his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw Zala charging in again.
In his empty hand, a Mana Crystal quietly shattered.
Spell: Electrocution.
Targets Locked: Zala, Bon Clay!
A magic circle spread from Ren's feet. A lightning sigil appeared above Bon Clay's head.
A second later, the same sigil flickered above Zala.
Then came the explosion of thunder.
Lightning spears descended like divine punishment, slamming into the ground.
Bon Clay's spinning kick hadn't even reached Ren before he was struck midair, crashing face-first into the ground beneath the storm of lightning.
For a super-agent with monstrous endurance, one lightning strike was nothing.
But this wasn't just lightning—it was a sustained effect.
Each Mana Crystal cost a million Beli, and that price bought devastating power.
Within seconds, a dozen bolts rained down on Bon Clay, engulfing him in a storm of light.
Zala, who had been preparing another attack, turned pale and fled.
She dodged the first strike—but stray arcs of lightning licked at her leg.
Before they could fade, the second bolt struck. She barely avoided it.
But the residual arcs combined with the first, paralyzing her legs.
She stumbled—and the third bolt hit squarely.
She fell backward, body convulsing, her eyes filled with the blinding glare of lightning.
Boom!
Szzzt—!
Ren stepped calmly out of the storm zone and stopped beside the trembling Marianne.
"If you still want to fight, now's your chance."
He said it almost as a reminder.
"N-No, Boss," Marianne stammered, shaking her head so hard her pigtails flailed. She forced a nervous smile. "Boss, I'm only fifteen! Please, let me go!"
"Ordinarily, I'd treat you the same as the others. After all, I can't be sure if you truly surrender."
Ren slowly sheathed his blade, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
"I was wrong!"
Marianne yelped, dropping into a full dogeza bow on the soaked ground.
"Heh."
Ren snorted lightly, but didn't strike.
Instead, he was still savoring it—the feeling of that overwhelming victory.
The Baroque Works senior agents weren't weak. Each carried bounties in the tens of millions.
They had the power to destabilize nations.
By stats alone, Galdino's physical strength while controlling the Candle Champion was around D-rank.
Zala's strength, speed, and endurance averaged around E+, with her real edge being her Devil Fruit ability.
Bon Clay's power level was roughly the same.
Enemies of that class could demolish streets like toys, and their vitality was frightening.
Yet before Ren, they were crushed—utterly.
The reason was simple.
Two aspects—or rather, two sides of the same coin:
Base Attribute Growth.
The Purple Qi Rising from the East may have been a basic Qi cultivation art, but it was undeniably special.
His Qi had massively increased, merging with the Indestructible Vajra Body's energy.
Even though he hadn't yet completed the Purple Qi Foundation, the internal transformation was enormous.
Combined with Zoro's structured physical training and the tempering of Thunder Breathing, Ren's latent potential had broken through an entire threshold.
The result was clear: all his basic stats had risen.
From his old 3G-level stats, he'd now reached
Strength: E, Agility: E-, Endurance: E+
A level comparable to low-tier bounty pirates—say, someone like Alvida.
But don't forget—
His Calabash Brother templates scaled with his base stats; the higher the base, the greater the boost.
Under the First Calabash Brother Template, his stats were enhanced to:
Strength: E → D-
Agility: E → E++
Endurance: E+ → D+
Adding the Qi amplification:
Strength: D- → D
Agility: E++ → D
Endurance: D+ → D++
The Qi boost here came from the fusion of the Indestructible Vajra Body's refined Qi with Purple Qi Rising from the East—raising both quality and quantity.
And that wasn't all.
The Third Calabash Brother Template gave similar enhancements:
Strength: E → E++
Agility: E- → D
Endurance: E+ → D++
After Qi amplification:
Strength: E++ → D
Agility: D → D+
Endurance: D++
On paper, they looked similar—but then came the Potara Earrings, merging both templates into one.
Combining the First and Third Calabash boosts with all their Qi amplifications resulted in an explosive synergy.
Strength: C+
Agility: C
Endurance: C+
What did "Triple C" even mean?
Ren didn't have a precise scale—but after this battle, he realized what it felt like: overwhelming dominance.
Even without using his sword, he was confident he could smash through the Candle Champion's iron-like wax armor barehanded.
The enhancement wasn't just in numbers—it extended to traits and divine abilities.
His gigantification grew more potent. His Vajra body, harder than ever.
Roughly estimated, he was at a level comparable to pirates worth hundreds of millions—
Or perhaps slightly weaker Marine Vice Admirals, like Smoker from the original timeline.
However—
Smoker relied on his Smoke-Smoke Fruit, while Ren's strength was purely physical.
Ren's first thought now was: Could I take on Crocodile head-on?
But he quickly dismissed it. The man was a Logia user, and his true power remained uncertain.
Still, the thought lingered.
At that moment, his Shikigami Technique suddenly shared its vision.
Ren saw her—Robin, eyes wide in terror.
"Found you."
He turned sharply toward Marianne. "Handle things here. When they wake up, find a place and await orders. I'm going after Miss All Sunday."
"Y-Yes, Boss!"
Marianne forced a shaky smile, trying her best to look harmless.
The next blink—Ren was gone.
(End of Chapter)