The ferocious lava hound head bit down, its intense heat instantly piercing through the Armament Haki defense, threatening to turn Ryoma's left shoulder and the bone within into charcoal.
Just as Akainu's ferocious lava hound head prepared to tear further into his body, a strange ripple, undetectable to ordinary people, flashed out with Ryoma as its center.
Akainu felt the aura of the brat before him undergo a momentary, bizarre distortion. In the next instant, a scene that filled him with absolute horror unfolded.
He could clearly feel that his lava fangs had just moments ago torn through flesh and crushed bone. That realistic sensation was unmistakable.
Yet the lava hound head clamped onto the shoulder seemed to be biting into a void-like phantom. Aside from making a sizzling sound in the air, it did nothing at all.
Ryoma's figure, like a phantom that had never existed, shifted backward by half a meter with perfect timing.
The terrifying wound on his left shoulder, deep enough to see bone, along with his scorched and curled clothing, began to reverse at a speed visible to the naked eye. Ryoma's melted flesh reconsolidated, his burned bones and tendons reconnected themselves, and his vaporized skin returned to its original state.
What was going on?
An illusion? Or some special devil fruit ability?
Countless possibilities flashed through Akainu's mind at that moment, but he dismissed them one by one.
Furthermore, he could confirm that everything before him was real. His Observation Haki had long since locked onto the opponent. At that distance, there was no way he could have dodged.
That brat had actually recovered from a state of heavy injury to being perfectly fine in an instant.
In that split second of Akainu's distraction, Ryoma seized the opportunity.
"Akainu, compared to that Kizaru fellow, you are a bit slow, aren't you?" Ryoma's mocking voice rang out.
He extended both arms, and an invisible domain suddenly expanded with him as the center, covering a range of several thousand meters.
The air seemed to turn viscous instantly. Akainu felt an invisible force acting upon him, as if he had fallen into a quagmire at the bottom of a ten-thousand-meter deep sea. Every movement of his became heavy and sluggish. Even the lava churning around him slowed down at a pace visible to the naked eye.
"What... what kind of trick is this!"
Stormy waves rose in Akainu's heart. He let out a roar, the energy within his body exploding frantically in an attempt to break free from this restraint. But that sense of sluggishness remained like a shadow. This bizarre and incomprehensible ability completely ignited Akainu's fury.
"You damn brat!" Akainu let out a beast-like roar.
As the Marine's highest combat power, when had he ever suffered such playful humiliation?
Since he couldn't break free from this slowing sensation, he would use an unavoidable attack to completely destroy everything in this area.
"Brat, I don't care what kind of trick you're using!" Akainu's voice became scorching and tyrannical.
He gave up on close-quarters combat and suddenly raised both fists toward the sky.
"Before absolute power, everything is an illusion!"
Great Eruption!
The sky was dyed an apocalyptic crimson at this moment. Dozens of massive lava fists soared into the air, turning into burning meteors at the highest point of the sky. Trailing long plumes of fire fell indiscriminately toward the entirety of Galmoro Island.
The stone pavement of the pier was completely melted through the moment the first lava fist landed, turning into a churning pool of magma.
Then came the second, the third...
Hundreds and thousands of lava meteors covered the port area of the entire island, instantly turning the harbor into a living hell.
The earth wailed and buildings melted. Countless falling meteors completely transformed the pier into a boiling sea of magma.
"You really are a reckless madman."
Ryoma looked up at the apocalyptic scene and complained.
Facing this carpet-bombing strike, he lightly tapped his foot. The space in front of him rippled, and he stepped into it, his figure vanishing instantly.
Space Fold!
This allowed his figure to perfectly avoid the first wave of meteor bombardment.
The moment Ryoma reappeared, dozens of "Ryomas" made of ice separated from his body and fled in all directions. Each one carried an aura identical to his own as they rushed toward different points.
Ice Clone!
"Trivial tricks!"
Akainu's Observation Haki instantly distinguished the reality of these clones, but these hard-to-distinguish targets ultimately caused a moment of interference.
And that moment was enough.
Just as Akainu's attention was drawn by the Ice Clones, a lethal chill suddenly erupted from behind him.
Not good!
Alarm bells rang in Akainu's heart. He spun around violently, only to see an afterimage moving at extreme speed.
Within the time-space slowing domain, all his reactions were half a beat slow. In his eyes, Ryoma seemed to have activated some kind of acceleration, his figure so fast it was merely a blurred trajectory.
"It's over, Akainu!"
Ryoma's voice seemed to ring directly in his ear.
At this moment, Ryoma pressed his fingers together like a sword, and a pitch-black ice blade extended from his fingertips.
The ink-black Armament Haki granted it unparalleled sturdiness.
Red and black Conqueror's Haki lightning crackled wildly on the blade.
The extreme cold ice magic within the blade was compressed to the limit, radiating a desolation capable of freezing all things.
There was also an invisible layer of power brought about by time acceleration.
A quadruple layering of power!
This strike was the strongest blow Ryoma could currently achieve.
Squelch!
The sound of a sharp blade entering flesh was so clear it set one's teeth on edge.
That ice blade, fused with quadruple power, tore through Akainu's elementalized lava body, ignoring the heat that could melt gold and iron.
The Conqueror's Haki infusion forcibly broke through his defensive will, and the Armament Haki accurately slashed into his physical form hidden beneath the lava.
An immense force surged through, followed by an extreme cold capable of freezing the soul.
"What—"
Akainu only had time to utter a single word before an unprecedented agonizing pain and icy chill spread from his right shoulder throughout his entire body.
Then, he discovered to his horror that his proud magma body—the high temperature that could boil seas—was actually suppressed by the chill of this sword.
The magma at the wound not only failed to reconsolidate but was instead rapidly frozen by that strange cold air, turning into black solidified rock.
Splurt!
Scalding blood mixed with black-red magma gushed out as Akainu's entire right arm was severed cleanly from the shoulder.
The severed arm tumbled through the air, still dripping with blazing magma. Before it could even hit the ground, a grim chill spread from the cut, quickly covering the entire arm.
Crack! Crack...
The magma was extinguished, the flesh and blood froze solid.
In mid-air, the right arm belonging to Akainu was completely encased in ice.
Thud!
The ice arm hit the stone pavement, which was glowing red from the lava, letting out a dull, crisp sound.
The Marines in the distance who were still conscious were utterly stunned. Their mouths hung open, their minds blank, completely unable to comprehend the scene unfolding before them.
The invincible Marine Admiral... had an arm cut off?
Akainu slowly lowered his head, looking at his empty right shoulder in disbelief. At the cut, lava and frost intertwined, emitting a strange white smoke.
He looked at the ice sculpture formed from his own arm on the ground not far away. An unprecedented sense of humiliation and rage exploded in his heart like a volcano.