Author's Note:
The whole time I was writing this, I was listening to Dragon Ball music while typing away. Why, you ask? Well, that'll become clear in the main chapter... Here's Chapter 180. Enjoy.
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"Volcanic Eruption!!"
Akainu slammed his hands against the ground. The impact and extreme heat triggered an explosion, spraying Magma in every direction.
The indiscriminate rain of Magma assaulting everyone nearby was deflected mostly by Marco and me.
Marco used his regenerating body to bat it away with his wings. I swung my sword clad in Haki and Jade Flames, cutting down everything relentlessly. Then I stepped forward, loaded the momentum of that step into my blade, and thrust it straight ahead.
"Lesser Dragon... Bullet Roar!!"
A shockwave fired forward from the thrust like a bullet.
It punched through the Magma explosion and pierced Akainu's chest, blowing a large chunk away, but the shockwave carried little to no Haki, so it wasn't a devastating blow. At best it knocked him slightly off balance.
If anything, it only made him angrier. Akainu planted his feet on the Magma-covered ground and lunged at us with tremendous force, sweeping at us with a white-hot arm.
I blocked that with my sword, and in that opening, Marco's kick wreathed in blue flames drove into the side of Akainu's head. Another large chunk was carved away, but the Magma immediately writhed and regenerated his head, and he fixed Marco with a piercing glare.
Before he could follow up, my sword knocked his magma fist aside.
And from behind...
"Fire God: Shiranui!!"
Two flaming spears launched by Ace. Each one stabbed into his chest and shoulder, bursting into flames.
"Every last one of ye... what a nuisance...!! Can't ye understand... attacks like that... are useless...!!"
Even as he spoke, Magma overflowed from both arms and erupted skyward with tremendous force. The moment I saw that preparatory motion, I shot upward and began producing massive amounts of paper, converging them around me.
Countless volcanic bombs launched high into the air came raining down, ready to incinerate everyone below indiscriminately, across an area so wide it threatened to engulf even the Marines.
"Meteor Volcano!!"
"Lion Hurricane Scramble!!"
I instantly identified the ones that looked most dangerous if they landed and fired volley after volley of Paper Lions at them. The paper itself burned up almost instantly from the extreme heat, but the tornadoes and Air Cannonballs created before that didn't vanish. They slammed into the Magma masses, shattering them and deflecting their trajectories.
Whatever I missed and the smaller fragments were blown away by Iva-san and Crocodile.
I dove straight down, weaving past a massive Magma hand that tried to grab me, circling around behind Akainu. But reading the punch he threw as he spun around, I flipped upward to escape and drove my Haki-loaded sword down with everything I had.
Contact! It pierced through the Logia's intangibility!
"Nrrraaagh!!"
Ignoring the wound tearing wider, Akainu wrenched himself around and swung his arm through. I barely shot upward in time to dodge, then immediately dove back down!
I deliberately slashed at the other arm swinging up in a follow-up, knocking it aside, and kept flying forward with my guard completely open for a barrage of consecutive attacks!
"Exile: Slash Dance!!"
"Grrghh...!!"
Five, ten slashes pounded in within a single breath. Several of them definitely caught Akainu's true body, opening wounds and sending blood spraying.
Before any counterattack could come, I flew back to create distance... or rather, to clear the line of fire...
"Fire God: Shiranui... Spear Wall!!"
Multiple flaming spears just like before came flying in, stabbing into Akainu one after another. His entire front became a blazing hedgehog, and the instant it did, Marco's flying kick crashed into him from behind.
"Phoenix Brand!!"
Akainu stumbled and fell face-first into the Magma-covered ground. At the same moment, every last spear erupted in a blast of explosive flame.
The damage didn't look that significant, but the frustration was written all over him. Every single thing being thwarted, nothing going his way. His face was twisted in such furious rage the blood vessels in his head looked ready to burst. 'You could just drop dead from a brain hemorrhage right there, you know?'
Well, that wasn't going to happen. As I readied my sword again, Akainu channeled that fury into producing a massive volume of Magma, flooding the area around him. Then he pushed it forward like a tsunami, sending it surging at us at terrifying speed. He himself swam through it, charging at us together with the wave.
"I'll burn every last one of ye... till not even bones remain!! Great Lava Flow!!"
But right behind him,
"Ground Death!!"
Crocodile pressed his palm to the ground, transforming the entire surrounding area into sand at incredible speed.
With the ground now sand, far softer than before, the massive weight of the Magma worked against itself. It sank faster than it could advance, and together with all that Magma, Akainu began sinking into the earth. But by forcefully erupting even more Magma, he tore himself free from the sand.
Riding that momentum, he burst into the air and pulled off the incredible feat of flying by propelling himself with Magma jets... but it left him wide open.
"Kokujo Tengen Myo-oh!!"
"You... damn... brat!!"
The Giant, conjured once more. Its blade wreathed in flame, swung horizontally.
But not with the form of a sword swing... with a home-run swing. Instead of a satisfying crack, there was a heavy, dull thud, and Akainu went flying... but we're not done yet! How nice of him to fly right into the perfect position!
The impact of that home run had blown away most of the Magma covering his body, leaving his bare flesh exposed. And from directly beneath him, bursting through the ground...
"Come on out! Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo!"
A massive golden creature, a grotesque fusion of caterpillar and Buddhist statue that I'd kept hidden underground, emerged. (Well, not really a creature, but still.) While not just Akainu but everyone nearby recoiled in shock, Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo opened its enormous mouth wide and chomped down, swallowing Akainu whole.
Within less than a second, flames erupted from its entire body and it was burned to nothing.
But Akainu, emerging from within, had his face twisted in far more pain than before. He failed to land properly, crashing down shoulder-first.
'Yes, yes, yes... he took a massive dose of that poison...!'
Oops, better pull back so I don't get caught in the poison fumes.
That Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo was a Shikigami whose body was constructed from paper saturated with Magellan's poison. Its entire body was poison. Any part that was touched would instantly revert from paper back to poison. Think of it as working the same way as Magellan's Hydra.
The instant it swallowed Akainu, poison flooded inward from all directions toward him inside the body, compressed and converging. It was vaporized in an instant, but in that instant, he should have been dosed with an enormous amount of toxic liquid. It would seep into him through his many wounds, absorb through his skin, and even now as he gasped for breath, the vaporized poison fumes were being inhaled, eroding him from the inside.
And the dark reddish discoloration appearing across his body wasn't from internal bleeding. That was the Venom Demon's poison. It seemed like Magellan being knocked out had eliminated the contagion aspect, but within the body of someone already poisoned, it still spread normally.
Incidentally, I'd actually deployed this thing earlier, back when we were getting Ace out. Underground. I'd been planning to have it latch on and drench him in poison the moment I saw an opening, but there'd been no chance until now. The most I'd managed was converting small portions into poisoned Paper Flakes as Razor Blizzard.
Still, I was glad I hadn't dismissed it. This poison was my secret Weapon against Akainu, and since the poison fumes released after burning could harm the surrounding Pirates, I couldn't use it in the chaotic melee where a stray attack might set it on fire.
Now then... Akainu did look like he was suffering considerably. Hit with multiple types of poison, and if it was anything like the Original Work, there was no antidote. It had to be agonizing, painful, numbing, all at once, yet his fighting Spirit showed absolutely no signs of fading. That alone was worthy of respect. He'd spent decades fighting vicious Pirates on these seas and climbed all the way to Marine Admiral.
The "Absolute Justice" he championed must be incredibly heavy, something he could never yield.
But I couldn't let myself become its stepping stone.
Akainu could no longer even produce Magma quickly, his body refusing to obey. I closed the distance in one burst. Jade Flames on my blade, every last bit of Haki I could muster poured into it, a head-on charge.
Naturally, Akainu transformed his hand into a mass of Magma and clenched his fist, moving to meet me head-on.
'I'm not afraid anymore! And that's not a flag!'
I charged straight in. The fist hurled at my face, I deflected it wide with a horizontal slash. The other arm that tried to follow up, I knocked aside before it could even extend.
His front was wide open, and unable to kill his own attack's momentum, Akainu lost his balance. Realizing he couldn't dodge the next strike, he erupted Magma from his entire body to shield himself. Normally, it was an impenetrable, dual-purpose Magma Armor that made even approaching impossible, but...
"One Sword Style, Secret Sword..."
The Seven Star Sword, wreathed in an overflowing torrent of Jade Flames, the blade itself appearing a full size larger. The arc of the swing traced what looked like seven meteors streaking across a jade-colored starry sky. Gripping it tight... I went all in!
"Cross Over!!!!"
A single reverse diagonal slash leaving a gleaming emerald trail. It blew away every last bit of Akainu's Magma Armor while cutting deep into his body.
Without a moment's pause, I reversed the blade and loaded it once more with flame and every last drop of Haki I had. A crimson light pushed aside even the jade of the flames, illuminating the surroundings. Wait, crimson? Not black? ...Whatever. The air shrieked and crackled as if screaming.
The second slash, a diagonal cut from shoulder to hip, was unleashed trailing a deep crimson arc. With the trail of the first slash still clearly visible, the two combined to form a perfect "X" across Akainu's body, cutting deep into his flesh.
***
[Third-person perspective]
By anyone's reckoning, that was a clean hit. One strike, or perhaps two.
Marine Admiral Akainu, who with the power of Magma had repelled every attack and incinerated Pirate after Pirate without exception. A man who was at times the most reassuring ally, and at other times feared even by his own side, had now taken a sword blow deep into his body and sent blood spraying.
As Marines and even Pirates alike stared at the scene with expressions of disbelief, Akainu, bearing a massive "X"-shaped wound from chest to abdomen, began to fall backward...
...but didn't.
He caught himself at the very last moment, enduring the grievous wound and searing agony through nothing but his formidable body and indomitable will, steadying his stance. Then he turned eyes so terrifyingly sharp and filled with fury they seemed capable of killing on their own, glaring at Sue and the Pirates behind her.
Even Sue, who despite her own burns and various wounds large and small should still have had plenty of fight left, and even Marco, Vista, and the others who stood far enough away that his attacks couldn't reach, felt the pressure of his presence. It had nothing to do with Haki or anything else. It was the Spirit that existed simply because he was Akainu. That alone was this immense, this heavy. Those who felt it were forced to understand why this man held the title of Marine Admiral.
"Hffff... hrrrrgh...!!"
Magma erupted as if cauterizing the wounds. His body was covered in Magma, his body itself becoming Magma. Instead of breath, black smoke billowed from his mouth. Red heat and black smoke spread across his entire form, and what stood there now looked like a Devil risen from the depths of a volcanic crater, straight from Hell itself.
As if words were no longer necessary, he advanced on Sue and the Pirates with nothing but the intensity of his gaze, one step, then another. With each step, the ground burned and melted beneath his feet.
'...But well, everything up to this point is within expectations...!'
Sue, standing closest and bearing the full brunt of that Spirit, was sweating cold. And yet she didn't flinch, didn't retreat. She flashed a grin.
And then,
"About time... you ready, Ace?!"
"Yeah... leave it to me!! Great Flame Commandment!!"
In that instant, flames erupted from Ace's body with tremendous force. Throughout this entire fight, while Sue had been buying time, Ace had been stoking the fire within himself, raising its temperature and intensity higher and higher. Now he released it all at once, gathering it above his head, converging it into a massive fireball.
It floated above his outstretched right hand like a Sun, radiant and blazing.
"Flame Emperor...!!"
Confirming this, Sue sprouted wings and flew back from her position, retreating behind Ace.
"...So ye've decided ye can't kill me yerself, and ye'll leave the finishing blow to Fire Fist, is that it...?! How shallow of ye... no matter how much ye boost the firepower, my Magma won't waver against flames of that level... have ye still not figured that out!!"
"Don't underestimate me, Akainu... even I know that much. I've been burned to hell and back already, so yeah... you're right... as things stand, my power alone can't burn you."
But, Ace said, turning his gaze to the side.
There, Sue threw her hand upward, and...
At the edge of Akainu's vision, in one corner of the battlefield, something moved.
"...?"
It was quite far away, and the thing was terribly small and hard to see, but it appeared to be a bird. Not an ordinary bird, either. One made of paper. A Shikigami, presumably created by Sue.
The bird was flying with its body engulfed in flame, apparently having caught fire somewhere on the battlefield.
The next moment, the flaming bird flew in a straight line toward Ace, or rather, toward the fireball Ace held aloft, and dove into it. Naturally, the paper bird was reduced to ash the instant it entered, but the flames it had carried on its body melded into the fireball, giving the fire just a tiny bit more momentum.
"...?"
Akainu tilted his head, wondering what the point of that had been. But at the edge of his vision, something else moved. Again, a bird. A paper bird, on fire.
That burning bird...
"...What...?!"
From across the entire battlefield, they rose all at once, the flames on their bodies filling the sky, lighting it in a wash of orange as they soared.
Before the astonished eyes of Akainu, the Marines, the Pirates, Marco, Crocodile, Ivankov, and everyone else, every last one of them converged on the fireball Ace held. One after another they dove in, their bodies becoming fuel, their flames merging into the fireball, adding to its intensity.
One bird, ten, a hundred, a thousand.
Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, ten million...
Birds beyond counting that Sue had scattered across the battlefield while fighting, their flames now joining Ace's fire, lending their power.
It was like watching a meteor shower pour into a single point from across the entire battlefield. Or perhaps like an orange galaxy spreading across the sky. A scene so fantastical it hardly seemed real.
At the center of it all, Ace's Flame Emperor reigned like a true Sun. As the flames grew fiercer and the fireball swelled larger and larger, Ace quickly found he could no longer support it with one hand. He raised both arms to hold it aloft, compressing it with his control over the flames.
Yet even compressed, even as its density increased, the pace of its growth was overwhelmingly faster.
And the color of the flames began to change. As the temperature rose, they shifted gradually.
From orange to yellow, to white, then through light blue and blue...
Until at last it reached a level of brilliance that could no longer be called a color at all, an intensity of pure, raw light. Its size had grown enough to swallow a Marine warship whole with room to spare. The staggering heat it radiated made Pirates at a distance feel pain on their skin, and the light it emitted had become too intense to look at directly.
At this point, every eye on the battlefield was fixed on that enormous sphere of light.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku, the other two Admirals, the Vice Admirals including Hero Garp,
Blackbeard Teach and his crew,
And the countless citizens watching through Visual Den Den Mushi on the other side.
With every gaze gathered upon it...
"I'll say it one more time...! Clean out your ears... and listen well, Akainu...!!"
"Pops... Whitebeard... is no loser...! He wasn't... he wasn't fighting on some petty level like that!!"
"He built an era, he charged through it, he led countless people with his back! He protected so many islands, so many lives, so many futures! Someone who doesn't know a damn thing about that person's greatness, who won't even try to know... someone who'd mock the way he lived... even if Pops forgives it...!!"
"I won't!!"
"...!!"
"Go get him... Ace!"
And then Ace pulled the massive sphere of light back with his whole body, winding up with everything he had...
"So you never forget again... so you can't forget even in death...! Burn it into your Soul... and engrave it!!"
"The name of this era!!! Is Whitebeard!!!!"
He hurled it. It was released.
The sphere of light bore down, its heat so extreme that the surroundings became a sea of fire even before it landed. Akainu expanded the Magma across his entire body, transforming himself into something even more Monstrous, a colossus of lava, or perhaps a Genie. He thrust out both enormous arms, glowing dark red and trailing black smoke, and caught it head-on.
The instant they met, flame and Magma, two forces of heat collided and clashed...
"...Im... possible...?!"
His Magma hands began to crack.
Cracks formed, split open, and light leaked through the fissures.
As the cracks spread, a heat different from Magma's own, a heat that surpassed it, caused his hands and arms to begin bubbling, and impossibly, they lost their form and began to evaporate.
An unbelievable heat traveled down his arms, and the sensation of his own body being burned, for the first time in Akainu's life, the searing agony of feeling "hot" pierced through him. Yet even as his indomitable spirit refused to break, his body screamed.
"Damn you...!!"
His legs buckled. He dropped to his knees.
His arms cracked, the fissures reaching his shoulders.
The Magma he wore evaporated, his armor stripped away, bare human skin exposed... and burning.
"Damn you...!!"
His arms shattered.
His legs crumbled.
At the center of that hellish sea of flame, having lost every last ounce of strength to hold himself up, Akainu's body toppled backward, and from above, the Sun slowly descended...
"Damn you!! You filthy Pirates!!!!"
Before his back even touched the ground, the Sun swallowed him whole. A beat later it struck the earth, but rather than exploding, it simply continued to radiate heat and light with an intensity that threatened to overpower even the real Sun shining overhead.
After a time, the sphere unraveled as if coming undone, and from within it a tremendous column of flame surged upward, a pillar of fire reaching toward the heavens.
Minutes, or perhaps only seconds. The sight was so utterly beyond reality that most people lost all sense of time. Slowly, the flames weakened and faded away.
The Surface, finally visible again, was a hellscape.
The ground had melted into a Mud-Mud mess in every direction, transformed into a sea of Magma. Not from Akainu's Powers. Simply the result of the heat from the fallen Sun.
That much was obvious from the sight of Akainu lying motionless at the center of that Magma sea. Flat on his back, arms and legs spread, covered in wounds and charred beyond recognition. He did not appear to be conscious. Whether life even remained in him was impossible to tell from looking.
Without moving, he gradually began to sink, feet first, powerlessly into the Magma.
As he did, whether by reflex or driven by some unconscious tenacity, his burned right arm reached upward, moving as though trying to grasp something. But it caught nothing, cutting uselessly through empty air.
His feet, his waist, his abdomen, his chest, his shoulders sank into the Magma. His head disappeared beneath the surface, until only the arm reaching upward remained.
Then the elbow, the wrist, the fingers followed...
And finally, his fingertips slipped beneath the Magma and vanished from sight. Only silence remained.
In that instant, a scream, or perhaps a cheer, or perhaps both.
Sound returned to the battlefield that had fallen silent as everyone stood speechless, and it roared across the field.
To be continued...