The ocean surrounding Grove 1 wasn't just boiling; it was screaming.
Massive plumes of thick, white steam hissed into the sky as the hull of the Marine warship literally melted into the bay. The steel groaned and warped under the apocalyptic heat radiating from the man standing on its prow.
Admiral Sakazuki—the Red Dog—stepped off the ruined vessel.
He walked onto the blackened cobblestones of the plaza. The ambient temperature in the grove spiked to unbearable levels. The few remaining pools of blood from Light's massacre instantly sizzled and evaporated into rusty brown stains. The scorched mangrove roots reignited, burning with renewed, desperate intensity.
Akainu stopped in the center of the ruined square. He looked at the shattered remains of the Human Auction House. He looked at the bodies of the Celestial Dragon guards embedded in the brickwork. And finally, his eyes dropped to the cutted head and body of the dead Saint.
The cigar in Akainu's mouth glowed a furious, blinding orange.
He slowly tilted his head upward, the brim of his Marine cap casting a dark shadow over his eyes, leaving only the glowing embers of his gaze visible. He locked eyes with the pristine, white-coated traitor who was now leisurely standing up.
"If it were up to me," Akainu rumbled, his voice a grinding, tectonic bass that vibrated in the chest of anyone close enough to hear it, "I would have already burned you to ash without a single word."
Akainu took a slow drag of his cigar. The right half of his torso began to bubble, the crimson fabric of his suit completely transmuting into thick, sludgy magma. Drops of molten rock fell to the cobblestone, melting straight through the stone like acid.
"But Sengoku wants to hear an answer," Akainu continued, his voice laced with an unadulterated, genocidal hatred. "So, "golden boy" want to tell us why throw your life away to kill some trash? Say your last words."
A hundred metres away, hearing this, Light lowered his head, and his shoulders began to tremble.
A low, quiet chuckle escaped his lips. The chuckle bubbled up from his chest, growing louder, harder, until Light threw his head back. He grabbed his own face with one hand, his fingers digging into his hair, and let out a manic, completely unhinged laugh.
"Hehehe... Hahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The psychopathic laughter echoed across the burning plaza, chilling the blood of the surviving Marines miles away. It was the sound of a man who had finally, completely shattered his chains. So much time of playing the perfect soldier, of smiling at cameras, of saluting bloated pigs—it all vanished. The mask was gone.
"Why you ask?!" Light gasped, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye, his dark eyes wide and blazing with a terrifying, arrogant euphoria. "Because the this world is a rotting corpse, Sakazuki! And the Marines are nothing but the maggots squirming inside it!"
Light leaned forward in the air, the pleasant facade entirely stripped away, replaced by pure, venomous disdain.
"Don't you know? Every single one of you sitting in Marineford is a hypocrite" Light spat, his voice carrying perfectly over the roaring flames. "You are fucking scum. You preach absolute justice, yet you act as guard dogs for bloated parasites who torture children for sport. You burn islands to the ground to kill a single pirate, but you turn a blind eye to the auction blocks right in front of your faces!"
Light spread his arms wide, the Force slowly lifting him in the air, Light hovering effortlessly in the sky, his god-complex finally unleashed in its rawest form!
"Disgusting. Ah... How disgusting it was taking orders from you all. I almost retched!!" Light sneered, his voice dripping with venom.
"Every time I stood in that office, Sakazuki, playing the loyal soldier... I had to actively suppress the urge to reach across your desk and rip your head off."
Akainu's jaw clenched. The magma on his body flared violently, illuminating the ruined plaza in a hellish red glow.
"But no matter," Light concluded, a terrifying, ecstatic smile stretching across his face. "I will do that today. I am going to clean this world."
"Now, be good and die, dog."
Akainu's face twisted into a mask of pure, demonic fury. The veins in his neck bulged as the magma completely consumed his right arm, expanding into a colossal, bubbling fist the size of a small house.1\
"You arrogant little brat" Akainu roared, the air around him violently distorting from the heat. "You are nothing but a dead man."
"DAI FUNKA!" (Great Eruption)
Akainu thrust his arm upward. A colossal fist of pure, apocalyptic magma erupted from his body, launching straight into the sky toward Light like a volcanic missile. The sheer radiant heat of the attack instantly ignited the oxygen in the air.
It was an attack designed to incinerate giant icebergs in a single blow. It was absolute, unavoidable death.
Light didn't blink. His Level 3 Observation Haki triggered instantly. The world slowed to a crawl. He saw the exact trajectory of the magma.
He wanted to test the limits of his new evolution. He didn't try to dodge.
Light raised his right hand, his palm facing the incoming meteor of molten rock. He unleashed his Force, completely uninhibited by the stamina drain thanks to his Level 10 Life Force. For the first time, he pushed his Level 3 Armament Haki (Emission) outward, weaving his dark, invisible spirit directly into the fabric of the spatial barrier.
Force Authority: Aegis.
The colossal magma fist slammed into the invisible wall ten feet below Light.
KRROOOOOOM!
The collision did not produce a normal sound. It was a deafening, bass-heavy shockwave that shattered every remaining pane of glass within a three-mile radius.
The physical push of the magma met the immovable object of Light's spatial wall. The magma fist flattened against the invisible barrier, splashing violently outward in a massive, terrifying umbrella of molten rock that rained down upon the ruined plaza, melting the surrounding buildings into slag.
Akainu's eyes widened slightly, the glowing embers of his gaze narrowing. Akainu analyzed quickly, his mind racing to categorize the threat. What is that Devil Fruit? Barriers? How is he flying? Gravity fruit?
High in the air, Light held his hand steady. The magma continued to press against his invisible shield, hissing and violently bubbling.
The physical mass of the molten rock couldn't touch him. The Force repelled the impact perfectly. But as Light maintained the barrier, a terrifying reality began to set in.
The heat.
His Level 3 Emission Haki was acting as an invisible armor, preventing the magma from instantly melting his skin. But Sakazuki was a walking natural disaster. The sheer, radiant temperature of the magma pressing against his shield was thousands of degrees.
Even hovering ten feet away behind an invisible wall, the air around Light turned into a blistering oven. The edges of his pristine white Marine coat immediately began to singe and turn brown. His skin flushed violently, the intense heat threatening to boil the blood in his veins despite his advanced Haki.
I see, Light analyzed coldly, managing the pain as his Level 10 Life Force rapidly repaired his blistering skin, though the manic grin never left his face. My Force can deflect physical mass and impact but it's not pushing away radiant heat. To fight him head-on is to fight the sun.
Light flicked his wrist, changing the angle of the spatial barrier and violently redirecting the remaining mass of the magma fist into the ocean, sending up a massive geyser of steam.
"Just a trick" Akainu growled, his arm regenerating from the dripping magma. He bent his knees, the cobblestone beneath him turning to liquid glass.
Akainu crouched and exploded upward, launching his massive frame into the sky. He didn't need to fly; the sheer propulsive power of his magma allowed him to rocket through the air directly at the floating traitor.
"DIEEEEE!!!" Akainu roared, both of his fists transforming into snapping, rabid heads of molten hounds.
The battle had just begun.