Even though he had used an attack infused with two types of Haki, he still could not gain even the slightest advantage.
One had to know that he was far older than the enemy before him.
Saint Figarland Garling, who prided himself on being a genius of the Figarland family, truly had not expected to encounter an enemy far younger than himself, yet even stronger than himself.
And it was not just that.
That blade, which felt almost like the sun to his senses, was equally terrifying.
Every clash affected his own sword, forcing him to increase his Haki output just to ensure that nothing went wrong with his weapon.
At this moment, what surged within Garling's heart was an extreme sense of pressure.
"Getting distracted in the middle of a fight… don't you think you're looking down on me a little too much?"
Heavenly Might swept horizontally, the blazing light blade clashing against the rapier thousands of times. The battlefield exploded with another thunderous roar.
Ren clung tightly to Saint Garling like a maggot on bone, not giving his enemy even the slightest chance to breathe, all to achieve his intended tactic of wearing down the old man!
Yes.
The current situation was something Ren had deliberately created.
Saint Figarland Garling was a man from the same era as Whitebeard, Roger, and the others.
Judging from the level he had displayed in their exchange just now, his strength was only a step below Whitebeard's.
In other words, he was a powerful enemy on the same level as Ren. The gap between them was not so large that either side could crush the other.
Even a bottom-tier Yonko like Big Mom was enough for Ren to take seriously and fight at full strength.
So how could he possibly underestimate Saint Garling, who was stronger than Big Mom?
But likewise, the man had the same fatal weakness as Whitebeard.
He was old!
Although Saint Garling was different from Whitebeard and did not have a diseased body riddled with old wounds, one could tell from his completely white hair and beard that he was no longer the Moon Knight of his prime.
An aging body could not support the consumption of high-intensity combat, whether in terms of Haki or stamina. Rather, Haki output itself placed a burden on the user.
On top of that, the environment was the sea. Massive amounts of seawater were constantly surging back, endlessly creating an even harsher battlefield.
However, to Ren, this kind of consumption was meaningless. What he feared least was a battle of attrition in terms of sheer scale.
"Try this!"
Violent energy poured in, accelerated by the magnetic field, and transformed into a terrifying force aligned with Heavenly Might.
"Radiant Sun: Burning Star!"
Dazzling radiance shot into the sky, splitting the sea within dozens of kilometers like a sharp sword and forcibly tearing open a deep trench in the seabed, its depth impossible to measure.
Scorching energy erupted immediately after. Roaring waves of fire vaporized millions of tons of seawater, and then a mushroom cloud rose with a furious howl.
Tsunamis, shockwaves, searing waves of flame—all manner of natural disasters swept across dozens of nautical miles.
Even the warships along the coast of Sphinx groaned amid the surging sea, nearly being flipped upside down onto the island's shore.
Saint Garling, who had been struck head-on, was in an even more miserable state. Even the defense formed by two types of Haki could not resist that almost solar power.
His dark blue robe was torn to shreds, and his skin turned an unnatural crimson, like a boiled shrimp.
His entire body was blasted deeper into the sea by that violent power.
Five hundred meters.
One thousand meters.
Eleven hundred meters…
For an ordinary person, the water pressure at this depth would be impossible to endure. Saint Garling had no choice but to output two types of Haki to withstand it.
Before he even had time to catch his breath, the blazing sun within his Observation Haki perception came rushing toward him at extreme speed.
Whether it was water pressure or the marine environment, neither held any meaning for Ren in Meteor Burst state.
He did not need oxygen, nor did he need to worry about a fragile flesh-and-blood body. Merely by releasing energy, he could repel the surrounding water and create an empty zone.
The battlefield beneath the sea was, in truth, hostile only to Saint Garling alone!
"Radiant Sun: Flare!"
Once the distance closed, Ren raised his hand and released a black light sphere compressed to the extreme.
That was Heavenly Might, and also a technique formed from the combination of many traits.
Its foundational predecessor was World-Ending Horn: Abyssal Sun. Because of electromagnetic restraint, he had gained even stronger compression technology and developed this move.
The black sphere fell at terrifying speed, then erupted deep beneath the sea.
Endless black light spread out and erased everything it touched. Red lightning leapt within the halo as violently raging energy was released.
Saint Garling did not dare dodge. Dodging would only force him into an even deeper region of the ocean, where the water pressure was even more terrifying.
His rapier, along with the last breath in his chest, transformed into a Flying Slash covered in an enormous amount of two-colored Haki!
Boom—!
A muffled impact spread through the seawater. The aquatic creatures within several dozen nautical miles were all killed by the transmitted kinetic force in that instant.
If one looked from a higher vantage point, one would see a red blot appear within the raging sea, then expand madly and draw ever closer.
The next instant, a circular pillar of flame several kilometers wide shot into the sky, carrying millions of tons of boiling seawater around its outer edge. It rose like a colossal pillar thrust straight into the heavens.
It was a magnificent sight comparable to the Knock Up Stream of Jaya, and also a terrifying natural disaster wrought by human hands.
Saint Garling struggled to slash out with his sword, cutting apart the pillar of flame and seawater, then stepped through the air to escape that hellish zone.
At this moment, he was battered—or rather, he had already been heavily injured.
Yet the enemy's offensive still did not stop.
Ren swung his hand in a slash. The Heavenly Might blades that had scattered into countless sharp edges across the battlefield shot toward him in a concentrated barrage.
"Thunderflame Greatblade: Thousand Strikes in an Instant!"
The technique he had used back in Dressrosa now revealed an entirely different form.
Each blade was like an arrow of light, with arcs of lightning flickering along its exterior. They were clearly terrifying attacks refined by electromagnetic force.
"!"
Saint Garling's hair stood on end. Two types of Haki covered his entire body. In the next instant, light-arrow blades shot toward him from every direction.
High heat and high energy erupted, once again planting a fiery-red mushroom cloud in the air.
Six wings beat as Ren pursued him, while also throwing out two purple gourd earrings.
As the purple gourds fell, they released the surging thunder energy within, like a roaring tide.
"Sumeru: Divine Thunder!"
Two concise lightning beams surged forth like thunder spears thrust down by a god, descending from the sky with the destructive majesty of lightning!
Saint Garling only felt his vision turn white. His entire body was wracked with pain as he was blasted beneath the sea again.
The blazing sun plummeted past, and the cruel war of attrition entered another cycle.
Battle.
Battle!
Ren wantonly released his own radiance. The blazing high-energy, high-heat attacks forced Saint Garling to continuously use Haki for protection.
Although he had already realized that this was a battle of attrition aimed specifically at him, he had no way to break the situation for the moment.
The enemy did not fear Haki slashes, because he was not a Logia-type Devil Fruit user at all.
No matter how deep the water pressure became, it could not harm the enemy's body.
And after Saint Garling tested it, the seawater that specifically restrained Devil Fruit users had proven one thing.
The other party was not a Devil Fruit user at all!
This discovery was truly shocking. If he was not a Devil Fruit user, then how had such a form appeared?
As a Celestial Dragon, he had never heard of any race in this world that was so special.
Even the Lunarian race could not compare to what Ren had displayed.
And the enemy's self-healing ability was simply bizarre.
The damage he caused in one second would be completely healed in the next.
Trying to fight a battle of attrition against such self-healing ability was no different from courting death. At present, the only thing he could count on was Ren's Haki!
'He uses a huge amount of Haki in every attack, and the scale of his attacks is extremely large. It's impossible for his Haki not to run out. If I hold on a little longer, it'll be my turn to counterattack.'
Saint Garling made his judgment and struggled with all his strength within Ren's offensive.
He gave up on part of his defense and stopped pursuing an unscathed body, instead concentrating his main force into his slashes.
Whenever Ren launched a large-scale offensive, he would use slashes to destroy the most crucial part, avoiding death while enduring the effects of the secondary damage.
That moon-like hairstyle of his had nearly disappeared, and his dark blue robe was so tattered that it looked like beggar's clothing.
And yet… the opportunity he was waiting for never came!
"Radiant Thunder: Thunder Prison!"
As always, Ren unleashed another large-scale Haki energy attack.
Dazzling lightning leapt through the air, stirring up rolling thunder as countless berserk bolts several hundred meters thick indiscriminately covered Saint Garling's position.
Saint Garling, who had just cut open the seawater and gained precious air, felt his face twitch. He had no choice but to swing his rapier and trace out crescent-moon slashes.
The slashes accurately cut apart those dense, chaotic silver serpents. But what followed immediately was endless white light.
The rapidly rising temperature forced Saint Garling to sink back into the seawater to avoid that scorching radiance.
At the same time, he activated the breathing device within his clothes.
Very few people knew that the Celestial Dragons' clothing was, in essence, a diving suit. The glass helmets said to isolate them from the filthy air of the mortal world had, from the very beginning, been designed to block seawater and provide oxygen.
At the very least, in such a harsh environment, Saint Garling did not need to worry about oxygen for the time being.
Of course, in the end, he was still a human who could be wounded by bullets.
The moment he avoided the white-light offensive, he immediately stepped on the seawater to rise upward, while using slashes to force back Ren, who was charging at him.
The situation still did not change in the slightest. One round of attrition followed another, causing Garling to gradually become anxious.
Until—the black sphere formed by Radiant Sun: Flare once again fell into the sea, unleashing an attack similar to the previous one, but far weaker.
'His Haki is exhausted!'
With a sweep of his Observation Haki, Saint Garling caught the aura moving away.
Haki could recover. Given the other party's youth, he might fully recover in a dozen minutes or so.
But if Garling's side were forced through another round like this, he might truly not be able to survive it.
In that instant, Saint Garling seized the opportunity without hesitation.
He stomped hard against the exposed seabed below, gripping the rapier in his hand as he slashed out a hazy moonlight!
Ren, who was pulling away, instinctively turned his head, and that moonlight entered his eyes.
In a trance, he saw a crescent moon throw itself into his embrace—piercing straight into his heart!
At this moment, the Moon Knight revealed his sharp edge for the first time.
Ren's predictive ability had not captured any future fragment of the opponent's attack, as if it had not sensed it at all.
"Pay the price for your foolishness!"
Saint Garling twisted the sword hilt.
As the rapier shredded Ren's heart, the surging Haki slash rushed upward.
He intended to follow through and split Ren's head open, leaving him no chance to heal!
(End of Chapter)