Grand Line, first half. Thousands of meters above the clouds, Sephiroth flapped the black wings on his back, speeding through the air. He passed through layers of clouds, leaving a straight cloud path, heading in the direction indicated by the Vivre Card in his hand. The Umbrella Corporation had dispatched specialized personnel, and after more than a month of extensive searching, they finally located Golden Lion Shiki. The Vivre Card in Sephiroth's hand belonged to the Company employee who had been sent to search.
As long as that employee stayed near Golden Lion Shiki's base camp, he could indirectly find Golden Lion Shiki's location through the guidance of the Vivre Card. After a long time, Sephiroth, who had set off from Water 7, finally saw more than a dozen floating islands in the sky after traversing thousands of kilometers. It was Merveille Island! Sephiroth had no intention of searching these islands one by one. He immediately activated his Observation Haki to its full extent, covering a radius of twenty kilometers.
Soon, he sensed a powerful presence in the center of these floating islands, on the top floor of a red palace built on a large floating island. He immediately rushed towards that palace.
When Sephiroth reached the vicinity of the top floor attic of the palace, he flapped his wings, allowing his body to hover in mid-air. Then, his gaze turned towards the golden-haired old man sitting and drinking in the attic not far away.
"You are Golden Lion Shiki, right...?"
"That's right! It's me!" Golden Lion Shiki put down the wine bottle in his hand and used the power of the Float-Float Fruit to control his body, also floating in mid-air. "Kid, state your name!"
"Karl D. Sephiroth."
"Hmm!? I seem to have heard your name somewhere..." Hearing this, Golden Lion Shiki raised his right hand, scratched his head, and showed a look of recollection. However, he seemed to be getting old lately and often forgot things, so he couldn't quite remember where he had heard this name before. "Forget it! Can't remember... Hey! You suddenly barged into my territory, what exactly do you want?"
"I'm here to collect a debt!" Sephiroth said coldly.
"Collect a debt? What debt?" Confusion appeared on Golden Lion Shiki's face. He had done too many bad things in the past and really couldn't remember what debt the other party was here to collect...
"Some time ago, you robbed and killed a merchant ship of the Umbrella Corporation. You should still remember this matter, right?" Sephiroth reminded him.
"Gyahahahaha! So it was about this matter... How do you want to collect the debt?"
Hearing this, a look of playful mockery instantly appeared on Golden Lion Shiki's face. He was ready to let this guy in front of him experience the true cruelty of a Pirate. At the same time, a wicked smile also appeared on Sephiroth's face. He said in an extremely cold voice:
"That is, of course... to kill you!"
As he spoke, Sephiroth extended his left hand and placed it on the hilt of the Nether Flame Blade.
Swish!
The fiery red saber suddenly unsheathed, a flash of orange-red fire light, and a flame sword energy slash shot towards the golden-haired old man in front of him.
"Lion·Shishi Kiri Valley!"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Golden Lion Shiki continuously swung the long swords on his legs, and dozens or even hundreds of golden sword energy slashes immediately flew out from the sword tips, meeting the flame slash.
Boom!
The moment the two sword energies collided, the flame sword energy instantly exploded. The strong air current shockwave devoured all the golden sword energy slashes and directly ignited the palace attic behind Golden Lion Shiki.
Golden Lion Shiki turned his head to look at the attic behind him that was completely ignited by flames. He said angrily, "Brat! You actually set fire to someone else's house, you are really despicable!"
"Heh! Likewise, you're not bad at robbing and killing!" Sephiroth sneered repeatedly, and once again raised the Nether Flame Blade in his hand.
Rolling orange-red flames spewed out from the blade, quickly forming a giant flame dragon a thousand meters long, looking down at Golden Lion Shiki below, and the red palace. "If you can't take this move, your home will be gone... Take this!"
As Sephiroth swung the saber in his hand downwards, the flame giant dragon soaring in the air immediately let out a high-pitched dragon roar and swooped down towards Golden Lion Shiki.
"Bastard!" Seeing this scene, Golden Lion Shiki couldn't help but curse in a low voice.
He grabbed the air with his right hand, and a rumbling sound immediately rang out from the ground. The earth trembled, and soil surged up.
Shishi Odoshi: Jizoku!
A thick earth wall, several hundred meters high, with several lion heads carved on it, instantly rose from the ground, blocking the path of the fire dragon.
Rumble!
When the extremely hot high-temperature fire dragon crashed into the thick earth wall, it immediately triggered a violent explosion. The lion heads on the wall shattered, soil splattered everywhere, and rolling smoke and dust filled the air. Fortunately, even though cracks had appeared in the earth wall in front of Golden Lion Shiki, under his desperate efforts to gather and control it, he finally blocked this attack and prevented the palace behind him from being destroyed. "Is the penetration power a bit lacking?"
Sephiroth whispered softly, black wings fluttering as he ascended rapidly. "Take another move... Bakuen Zan!"
As he spoke, Sephiroth held the hilt of the netherflame sword with both hands. A powerful aura and oppressive feeling erupted from his body, as if a terrifying demon god had descended. A solid pillar of flame, more than a meter in diameter, shot from the orange-red blade and into the sky, reaching the clouds a thousand meters above.
Buzz!
Sephiroth swung the saber with all his might, sending the blazing hot flame rainbow arcing downwards toward Golden Lion Shiki and the red palace behind him.
"Damn it! Is there no end..." Golden Lion Shiki's face twisted in rage. He wanted nothing more than to tear that young man into pieces. Watching the flame rainbow approach, Golden Lion Shiki felt an extraordinary destructive power emanating from the attack. He wasn't confident he could withstand it head-on. Furthermore, even if he did dodge this move, Sephiroth, the bastard, would simply attack the palace again. So, Golden Lion Shiki quickly made a decision. Rather than fight with his hands tied, it would be better to let him have his way... This way, he could go all out and end this battle quickly!
Thinking of this, Golden Lion Shiki reluctantly chose to retreat and dodge, flying toward the inland sea of the island in the distance.
Rumble! The ground trembled violently, and flames soared into the sky. Without Golden Lion Shiki's obstruction, the flame rainbow cleaved downward unimpeded, cutting through the ground of the island and causing a series of violent explosions. The red palace was devastated, blasted into a huge ravine two to three hundred meters in diameter, deep enough to almost penetrate the entire island!
Golden Lion Shiki glanced back hastily and saw that his magnificent palace, which he had spent several years building, was directly cleaved in half by Sephiroth's strike, blasted to smithereens, and turned into a fiery ruin. Except for the burning buildings on the periphery that were still relatively well preserved, all the buildings in the central area had been blasted into powder! In that palace, in addition to some of his insignificant subordinate lackeys, there were also the laboratories of Dr.
Indigo and IQ drugs, the latter being an important part of his plan to rule the world... All of that was gone now, and his plan, which he'd spent years preparing, was completely ruined! He never expected this move would cause such great losses!
"Brat! I'm going to kill you!!!"
Golden Lion Shiki roared, "Senjō!" A thousand-meter-long golden sword energy slash flew from the long sword on his right foot, cutting off a corner of the inland sea of his island. Immediately after, a surprising scene occurred.
The seawater that Golden Lion Shiki had cut open with his golden sword energy didn't fall from the sky. Instead, it quickly condensed into a huge and ferocious water lion, rushing towards the young man high in the sky at full speed, like lightning.
"Shishi Odoshi: Gosho Jizoku!"
Seeing this, Sephiroth's eyebrows shot up. He instantly dismissed the idea of playing cat and mouse and pressed his right hand on the hilt of the butcher knife, preparing to use his real skills. Although Golden Lion Shiki's strength wasn't what it used to be, thanks to his old age and the rudder inserted into his head... Even a starved camel was bigger than a horse. If he was too careless, Sephiroth might capsize.
For example, the seawater that had turned into a water lion in front of him was rushing towards him, ready to bite! No matter how strong he was, once his body was completely submerged and wrapped in seawater, he'd be powerless. At that time, he'd be fish on Golden Lion Shiki's chopping board, ready to be slaughtered at will!
In the future that Sephiroth's Observation Haki foresaw, the seawater lion controlled by Golden Lion Shiki was ready to split into ten, preparing to continue pouncing and biting him from different directions. If he only used an attack to scatter the huge seawater lion in front of him, then Golden Lion Shiki would control the scattered seawater, condense more water lions, and pounce and bite him. Once he was submerged in seawater, he would directly lose. Therefore, he couldn't directly confront this move, nor could he dodge!
If he dodged, Golden Lion Shiki would split the huge water lion in front of him into ten water lions, completely blocking his retreat from all directions! In this situation, if it were a normal Devil Fruit ability user, they would basically have to surrender obediently. But... Golden Lion Shiki's opponent now was Sephiroth! Since he couldn't attack directly and couldn't dodge, then he would transfer the attack... Sephiroth had been pondering how he could use the Door-Door Fruit ability to transfer all the attacks coming at him head-on.
Even though he had evolved from needing to directly touch the butcher knife to open a door to being able to open a door with sword energy, he still couldn't do this. The door of the Door-Door Fruit was a conceptual door. In normal space, there was no concept of thickness, and the door was connected to the world inside the door. Whether it was a folding door, a sliding door, a revolving door, or a wormhole door, they all needed to open the door at the front end of the force and could not open the door in the opposite direction at the front end of the force, violating the direction of the force.
In this way, Sephiroth could not open a spatial door in front of his body that he could not see but the enemy could see, and transfer the attack, while violating the direction of the force. For this reason, Sephiroth studied hard for a long time before finally coming up with a novel approach. Since the door could only be opened in the direction of its own force, could he make his sword energy attack change direction and turn...? The answer was yes! He had already done this a long time ago when he used sound waves to change the trajectory of bullets!
However, unlike bullets, using sound waves to reverse sword energy required extremely high timing and swordsmanship skills. Therefore, after working hard in this direction for many years, he finally created a move... "Secret Sword: Swallow Return!"
Sephiroth first shouted loudly, and an invisible sound wave instantly spread in all directions. Then he drew the butcher knife from his waist with his right hand.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three scarlet sword energy slashes, each over a hundred meters long, burst out from the blade.
Under the effect of the invisible sound waves, these three sword energy slashes meandered for a distance and then began to turn back, rushing towards Sephiroth faster than the water lion. Crack! Immediately after, a huge spatial door, a barely noticeable crack, opened in front of Sephiroth, which he could not see.
"!?"
In Golden Lion Shiki's surprised gaze, the seawater lion he controlled directly crashed through the spatial door and rushed in. Before he could react, a spatial door suddenly opened behind him, and the huge seawater lion, under the effect of inertia, pounced towards him fiercely.
However... Even though he tried his best to control the seawater lion and wanted to stop its momentum. But... The power he had poured into the attack was too great, and he couldn't retract it all at once! The next moment. Boom! The huge water lion, carrying a terrifying impact force, slammed heavily into Golden Lion Shiki, sending his entire body falling downwards.
The moment he was completely submerged in seawater, Golden Lion Shiki immediately fell into a state of weakness. The islands that could only maintain their floating state by relying on his Float-Float Fruit ability also lost their power and began to fall towards the sea.
"This is a fatal mistake, Golden Lion Shiki…" Sephiroth looked at the old man, soaked in seawater and sinking, and couldn't help but sigh softly.
No matter how strong a Devil Fruit user was, once their whole body was submerged in seawater, the water would instantly suppress their stamina, causing them to become weak and powerless. Now, Golden Lion Shiki had no power to resist and could only be slaughtered!
"Secret Sword: Swallow Return." This move could only be used when swordsmanship and Devil Fruit abilities were combined. Therefore, it had the possibility of failing when facing pure and powerful Haki attacks.
After all, Armament Haki might directly erase the fruit power used to open the door on the sword energy. This move was best used only against large-scale attacks that did not contain Haki, and it had limitations. Coincidentally, the water lion that Golden Lion Shiki manipulated with the Float-Float Fruit did not have any Armament Haki or Haoshoku attached to it, which allowed Sephiroth to completely transfer the attack.
"It's time to end this!"
As he spoke, Sephiroth unleashed four scarlet sword energy slashes entangled with Haki at Golden Lion Shiki, who was submerged in seawater and falling straight down.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Each sharp slash that passed over Golden Lion Shiki directly severed one of his limbs. In an instant, Golden Lion Shiki was reduced to a human stick, without any power to resist. Immediately after, Sephiroth used the Door-Door Fruit, swung a knife downwards out of thin air, and opened a small spatial door in the direction of Golden Lion Shiki's descent.
Splash!
The seawater, which suddenly reversed from bottom to top, passed through the spatial door under strong inertia, spraying into the high sky like a fountain. After Golden Lion Shiki's body passed through the spatial door, he immediately closed the spatial door, preventing the seawater from continuing to spray out. Sephiroth took advantage of Golden Lion Shiki's second descent, lifted the opponent's limbless torso, and inserted a Sea Stone nail into the back of his neck, suppressing his Float-Float Fruit ability, to prevent him from still having the power to resist.
Then, he lifted Golden Lion Shiki's body torso and disappeared into a spatial door that reopened...