To fight at a distance was to die by a thousand burns. Admiral Sakazuki had the entire archipelago to melt and limitless stamina to draw from. If Light stayed in the sky, trying to block the Ryusei Kazan with walls of spatial Force, the ambient heat would eventually boil him in his own skin.
Light's dark eyes narrowed, his psychopathic grin stretching so wide it cracked the blistered skin on his cheek.
"You want to play in the dirt, dog?!" Light roared, his voice cutting through the deafening roar of the falling magma meteors. "Let's play!"
He didn't retreat. He deactivated his upward flight and let gravity take him.
Using his Proficient Observation Haki, Light plummeted straight down into the apocalyptic meteor shower. The world moved in slow motion. He saw the gaps between the massive, falling fists of molten rock. He wove through the air with terrifying, acrobatic precision, twisting his body to let a magma meteor brush past his shoulder, searing the fabric of his coat.
When a gap closed, Light swung his pitch-black saber, unleashing a crescent wave of Emission Haki that cleaved the magma in two, diving right through the molten rain.
He hit the ruined cobblestones of Grove 1 with a heavy, cracking impact, bending his knees to absorb the shock.
Akainu was waiting for him.
The Admiral surged forward, a towering tsunami of red magma and absolute hatred. "You are out of your depth, brat!"
Akainu swung a massive, molten right hook aimed to completely decapitate Light.
Light didn't block. He ducked under the blistering arm, feeling the hair on the back of his neck singe, and thrust his left palm directly at Akainu's chest.
Force: Crush.
An invisible, hyper-dense wall of Force slammed into Akainu's torso at point-blank range. The impact was monumental. It didn't just push the Admiral; it violently compressed the magma forming his chest, blowing a massive, gaping hole entirely through Sakazuki's body.
But it was a Logia body.
Before Light could even withdraw his hand, the edges of the gaping hole bubbled and snapped shut like a bear trap, trapping Light's left arm inside the Admiral's chest cavity.
"Got you," Akainu growled, the magma instantly wrapping around Light's forearm to lock him in place.
The heat was agonizing. Even coated in Level 3 Armament Haki, Light screamed as the temperature spiked, threatening to cook his arm to the bone.
Refusing to panic, Light gritted his teeth, his eyes wide and manic. He brought his black saber around in a brutal, two-handed vertical chop, aiming directly to split Akainu's skull down the middle.
Akainu raised his left arm, coating it in a dense, superior layer of his own Armament Haki.
CLAAAANG!
Black and red lightning sparked violently as the black blade collided with the Admiral's hardened forearm. The shockwave shattered the ground beneath them, creating a massive crater.
They were deadlocked in close combat. The heat radiating off Akainu was suffocating. Light's vision blurred from the smoke and the sheer pain of his trapped left arm burning inside the magma.
"You are a fake," Akainu spat, leaning into the blade, forcing Light to his knees. The Red Dog's sheer physical strength, honed by decades of fighting New World monsters, was overwhelming the younger man. "You posture like a savior, but you are just a murderer throwing a tantrum. You will die here, forgotten in the dirt, like a common street thug."
"I am... no thug!" Light hissed, coughing up a spatter of blood that instantly vaporized on Akainu's chest.
Light pushed his Force outward from his trapped left hand, creating a violent, expanding bubble of spatial pressure inside Akainu's chest. The sudden expansion blew Sakazuki's torso apart a second time, forcing the Admiral to release him.
Light tore his severely burned arm free and used Soru to blur backward, but Akainu was relentless.
Before Light could stabilize his footing, Akainu was already on him. The Admiral delivered a devastating, magma-coated knee directly into Light's ribs.
CRACK.
Light's eyes bulged as three of his ribs shattered instantly. The impact launched him backward, sending him crashing violently through the smoldering remains of a brick wall. He tumbled across the stone, his white coat ruined, his body covered in severe burns, soot, and his own blood.
He struggled to his feet, gasping for air. His Level 10 Life Force was frantically repairing the broken bones, but the agony was blinding.
Akainu walked slowly through the dust, his entire body radiating an apocalyptic glow.
"Justice is absolute," Akainu rumbled, his molten fists dripping onto the stone. "It does not bend to the arrogance of a rogue child. You looked at the world, saw its flaws, and thought you were better than it. You are not better, Yagami. You are a failure."
Light stood up, his breathing ragged. He looked at his badly burned left arm. He felt the broken ribs knitting together. He looked at the towering, relentless monster of the World Government walking toward him to finish the job.
A failure? Light's mind echoed, the words cutting through the pain like ice. Me? Evaluated by this... this blind, obedient dog?
A terrifying, profound disgust began to swell in Light's chest. It was not anger. It was not the fiery passion of a pirate protecting his crew.
It was sheer, unadulterated, arrogant indignation.
He remembered the 2,450,000 Karma Points hovering over Saint Valerius's head. He remembered the filthy, rotting, chaotic mess of the world he had transmigrated into. He was the only one who saw the board clearly. He was the only one with the will, the intellect, and the power to wipe the slate clean and build a perfect, sterile order.
And this guard dog dared to call him a failure?
Light was a genius. He made plans, he expected things. But at this moment, he was genuinely stunned at the audacity.
"A criminal..." Light whispered.
He gripped the hilt of his saber so tightly his knuckles turned white. He slowly raised his head. His dark eyes were no longer just cold, there was something else in there now.
"A FUCKING CRIMINAL!"
"JUDGING ME?!"
"MEE?!"
Light roared, his voice tearing from his throat, echoing with a terrifying, resonant baritone that bypassed the ears and vibrated directly in the soul.
The air in Grove 1 suddenly grew incredibly heavy. It wasn't the weight of the Force. It was something entirely different.
"I do not bow to your flawed justice," Light spoke, taking a step forward. The ground beneath his boot didn't crack; it simply crumbled into fine dust.
"I DO NOT FAIL!"
A pulse of energy erupted from Light's body.
"I WILL CLEANSE THIS FILTHY WORLD!"
The pulse exploded into a colossal, suffocating shockwave.
It wasn't the red and gold lightning of normal Conqueror's Haki. It was a wave of absolute, freezing, sterile darkness. It washed over the ruined plaza like an eclipse. The remaining intact glass in Grove 1 simultaneously shattered into dust. The ambient fires raging across the plaza were instantly snuffed out by the sheer concussive spiritual pressure, creating a massive, localized vacuum.
Akainu stopped dead in his tracks.
For the first time in the fight, the Red Dog's eyes widened in genuine, unmasked shock.
The pressure slammed into the Admiral. The sheer, overwhelming arrogance and unexpected dominance of Light's god-complex hit Akainu's spirit like a sledgehammer.
Conqueror's Haki?! Akainu's mind reeled. This traitor had the disposition of a King?
The absolute shock of the revelation, combined with the freezing density of the aura, caused Sakazuki to flinch. His relentless, mechanical advance halted for a fraction of a second as his mind tried to process the impossible variable standing before him.
Light stood in the center of the dark shockwave, his psychopathic grin returning, his eyes blazing with the ecstasy of pure, awakened sovereignty.
"I will hunt down every last one of you criminals." he spoke, a promise to Akainu.
"I WILL CREATE A NEW WORLD!" Light roared to the heavens and the pressure suddenly spiked, as if it was a second wave!
By now, the Admiral was shocked. He himself wanted to eliminate all pirates too, but the problem was this bastard classified marines, pirates, world government- EVERYONE as criminals! Who would even remain!
Today. He had to kill this lunatic today.