Chapter 76: Ulquiorra VS Akainu!
The question hung in the air, heavy with authority.
Ulquiorra did not reply immediately. His hands remained in his pockets, his emerald eyes watching the Admiral with the same indifference one might show a storm cloud. To him, Akainu's rank, title, and justice were meaningless concepts. Dust in the wind.
"..."
This silence—this absolute disregard for his authority—thoroughly enraged Akainu.
To Sakazuki, the world was binary. There was Justice, and there was Evil. Pirates were the cancer of the sea, a chaotic force that needed to be excised with surgical brutality. And this pirate before him... this small, pale man... carried an arrogance that was offensive to the very concept of Order.
"Very well!"
Akainu roared, the veins on his neck bulging against his collar. His killing intent boiled over, matching the heat of his magma.
"Since you won't speak, then take your secrets to Hell and repent! All pirates deserve only death!"
He thrust his arms forward. The magma at his elbows exploded, propelling his fists at blinding speed.
"INUGAMI GUREN (CRIMSON LOTUS DOG)!"
The lava at the tips of his arms churned and writhed, taking shape.
ROAR!
In an instant, the molten rock condensed into two terrifyingly ferocious hound heads. They weren't just shaped like dogs; they moved with a predatory intelligence, snapping their jaws.
The giant magma hounds opened their maws, letting out silent snarls of heat. They dragged their long, serpentine magma bodies through the air, one flanking left, one flanking right.
With an aura that threatened to incinerate oxygen itself, they viciously lunged at Ulquiorra from both sides.
"Wh-what an astonishing technique!" Oimo, guarding the rear, couldn't help but exclaim, shielding his face from the heatwave. "He turned magma into living beasts!"
"Just the transformation of his arms generates enough pressure to crack the ground!" Kashi widened his eyes, gripping his club until his knuckles turned white. "He truly is a Marine Admiral! A monster among men!"
Dorry and Brogy looked even more serious. As veteran captains, they could clearly sense the density of the energy contained within those hounds.
Compared to the previous indiscriminate area attack, Dai Funka, which was like a shotgun spray, this strike was a sniper rifle. It was concentrated, lethal, and designed to melt a target instantly.
"Mr. Ulquiorra!" Dorry shouted.
However, facing an attack powerful enough to make even Giants tremble, Ulquiorra's expression remained completely unchanged. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets.
Just as the scorching hound maws were about to close around his body—just as the teeth of lava touched his white uniform—
"Enclose..."
Ulquiorra whispered the command. It was soft, barely audible over the roar of the magma.
"...Murciélago (Black-Winged Great Demon)."
BOOM!
An indescribably immense pressure exploded outward from his body.
It wasn't Haki. It was something denser, colder, and infinitely heavier.
Green and black Reiatsu (Spiritual Pressure) swept out like a physical storm. It shattered the stone beneath his feet and blew the magma hounds away as if they were made of paper. The dust and heat were scattered instantly, replaced by a suffocating chill.
The sky above Enies Lobby darkened.
"What...?" Akainu shielded his eyes against the sudden gale.
From the center of the green storm, a silhouette emerged.
Ulquiorra had transformed.
A pair of massive, pitch-black bat wings, leathery and terrifying, unfurled from his back, spanning nearly ten meters. The mask fragments that had been on his cheek extended upward, forming a sharp-horned helmet that covered the top of his head. His white upper garment had vanished, replaced by a form-fitting white robe that stretched from his waist down to his ankles, revealing the black hole in the center of his chest.
Two black lines trailed down his face from his eyes, resembling tears of eternal despair.
An aura, colder and stronger than anything Akainu had ever felt, enveloped the entire battlefield. It felt as if gravity had doubled.
"What is this..."
Akainu's pupils sharply contracted behind the brim of his cap. For the first time since arriving, a genuine look of shock appeared on his hardened face.
This ability to transform during combat... is it a Zoan Type Devil Fruit? A Bat model?
No... Akainu's instincts screamed at him. This isn't a normal Zoan. This ominous aura... it feels ancient. Could it be the even rarer... Mythical Zoan Type? A Vampire? A Demon?
Before Akainu could process his thoughts amid the shock, the black silhouette vanished.
ZWOOP.
It wasn't movement. It was teleportation.
Ulquiorra appeared instantly right in front of Akainu's face.
"Too fast!"
Akainu's Observation Haki flared too late. He only had time to cross his arms over his chest, instinctively hardening the magma into obsidian to block.
BANG—!!!
With a dull, massive thud that sounded like a cannon firing, Ulquiorra's long, graceful tail whipped around and slammed squarely into Akainu's blocking arms.
The force was cataclysmic.
"Guh!"
A terrifying kinetic energy erupted. Akainu's massive body, composed of heavy magma and muscle, was sent flying backward uncontrollably. He was launched like a baseball, smashing through three layers of stone walls before crashing heavily into the ruins of a tower in the distance.
CRASH!
Dust billowed.
"Admiral!" The conscious Marines screamed in horror.
"What?!"
Akainu struggled to his feet from the rubble. He looked down at his arms. The magma was unstable, flickering. His forearms were numb.
The shock in his heart was boundless.
He knocked me back? Me?
After transforming, this pirate's strength and speed had increased to a terrifying degree. He was no longer just fast; he was overwhelming.
"Who exactly are you..." Akainu growled, shaking off the debris. "Marineford knows absolutely nothing about you. You appeared out of thin air. What is your name, monster?"
Ulquiorra hovered in mid-air, his black wings flapping slowly, rhythmic and silent. He looked down at the Admiral with eyes devoid of victory or pride.
"My name is meaningless to you," Ulquiorra said, his voice echoing slightly in his new form. "Because you will not be my opponent for long. You are dust."
He paused, seemingly deciding that the dying person should at least know who extinguished their light.
"However... there is no harm in telling you."
He pointed a slender pale finger at the Admiral.
"I am the Fourth Espada. Ulquiorra Cifer."
"Ulquiorra..." Akainu chewed on the unfamiliar name, tasting the threat it represented.
The shock slowly faded from his face, replaced by an unprecedented seriousness and volcanic fury. His Justice demanded he erase this anomaly.
"Stop your arrogant nonsense, you damned pirate!"
Akainu roared. The magma on his arms bubbled violently, turning from red to a blinding white-hot.
"You think growing wings makes you invincible?!"
SHING!
This time, a layer of ink-black color rapidly covered his magma arms like a gauntlet.
Advanced Armament Haki (Busoshoku).
He perfectly combined his high-level Haki with his awakened Devil Fruit ability—this was the sign that the Admiral was getting serious. This was the power that could burn fire itself.
"As long as I am here, don't even think about leaving this place alive! ABSOLUTE JUSTICE!"
The ground beneath Akainu's feet melted instantly into a lake.
Carrying a body of pitch-black magma and towering rage, he shot toward the sky again like a rocket, proactively confronting Ulquiorra in the air!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The clash began in earnest.
Pitch-black Armament Haki fists collided with emerald Spiritual energy.
The fierce battle lasted for nearly an hour.
The entire front island of Enies Lobby—the Main Plaza, the bridge, the courtyards—had been completely reduced to a magma hell.
The earth was torn open, revealing the bedrock. Buildings were melted into slag. The air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur, ozone, and scorching steam.
To the Giants watching from the perimeter, it looked like two gods fighting. One of fire and rage, one of darkness and void.
However, the longer Akainu fought, the more alarmed he became.
Bam! He punched. Ulquiorra parried with his bare hand.
Swipe! He kicked. Ulquiorra dodged with a soundless step.
"Why won't you burn?!" Akainu shouted mentally.
After releasing that strange bat-like form, the man named Ulquiorra was able to contend equally with Akainu's full power. In fact, in terms of raw speed and aerial maneuverability, he seemed to have the edge.
This was unbelievable.
How could such a formidable person exist without the World Government knowing? Was the New World hiding monsters like this?
Just as Akainu was contemplating the opponent's origin, his mind wavered for a split second.
Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed.
Opening.
He raised his index finger.
"Cero."
ZMMMM!
A beam of emerald destructive light—condensed to the extreme—suddenly formed at his fingertip. It wasn't the wide blast from before; it was a concentrated laser.
It shot straight toward Akainu's chest with the momentum of tearing space itself.
"danger!"
Akainu's Observation Haki screamed. Relying on his battle-hardened instincts, he forcefully twisted his body in mid-air, turning his torso into fluid magma to dodge.
SWISH!
The Cero grazed his ribs, cauterizing the magma instantly. It continued past him and struck the only remaining guard tower in the distance.
BOOM!
A huge explosion instantly pulverized the tower and the surrounding cliffside, sending boulders falling into the ocean.
"Tch!" Akainu gritted his teeth. "That green light... it destroys everything it touches."
Witnessing the power of that strike, Akainu dared not be careless in the slightest. He reformed his body, preparing to counterattack.
However, he had dodged the Cero, but he could not escape the pursuit that followed immediately.
Just as Akainu's stance was unstable from the dodge, a shadow fell over him.
Ulquiorra's figure appeared beside him like a phantom.
"Luz de la Luna (Light of the Moon)."
Ulquiorra reached into the empty air. The emerald spiritual particles coalesced in his hand, forming a long, slender javelin made of pure energy.
It wasn't a sword. It was a lance of light.
He stabbed down without mercy.
PUCH!
The sound of a sharp blade entering flesh rang out clearly over the battlefield.
"Guh—!"
Akainu let out a muffled groan. His eyes widened.
He looked down.
The glowing spiritual particle rapier had pierced straight through his right thigh. It didn't just pierce; it burned. The energy disrupted his Logia fluidity, preventing him from turning into magma to escape the injury.
Dark red blood—human blood, not lava—flowed uncontrollably from the wound, sizzling as it hit the energy blade.
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