Whitebeard was dead.
He died on Kuja Island, during the stage before the Buster Call had fully ended.
Ren had originally thought he would hold on for a little longer, perhaps even endure desperately for the sake of his family until the very end.
Unexpectedly, Whitebeard seemed to believe everything that came next could be entrusted to Ren, and chose to give up, causing the Word Spirit to lose effect.
Then he died on Kuja Island. Before his death, he left several Den Den Mushi behind and asked Ren to pass them to Marco.
Though Ren was somewhat surprised, he still carried out the original plan.
He threw Whitebeard into the conversion pool, and then an additional Gura-Gura no Mi appeared in the Lord of Devils' trait slot!
"Quake..."
Ren stood beside the pool, raising his fist as a white ripple covered his knuckles.
That was vibration. It was also one of the pieces of his final form.
No matter how the aftermath of this incident developed, one of the most core objectives had already been achieved.
Now it was time to see what kind of changes adding one more piece to the puzzle would bring.
An energy sphere appeared in his palm. Electromagnetic force emerged, confining the energy within a field, and then the electromagnetic force began operating, forcing the activity inside the energy sphere to intensify.
At the same time, he injected additional energy to ensure the consumption could keep up. Then the temperature of the energy sphere began to rise—climbing higher and higher.
In truth, Heavenly Might's essence also followed this operating logic.
However, there were limits to it. Ren's electromagnetic force was not profound enough, and he could not achieve operations that were especially precise.
But now, things were different.
The white ripple of the Gura-Gura no Mi covered the energy sphere. The power of vibration affected the fine particle motion, causing their movement speed to rise once again.
At this moment, the energy sphere in Ren's hand began changing color, finally settling on blue.
Just looking at it was enough to sense an extreme danger from this energy sphere.
"A temperature measured in tens of thousands, huh?"
Ren grinned. "Next, it's time to wrap things up."
Combat Dispatch activated, and Ren left Kuja Island, heading toward the Buster Call battlefield to begin cleaning things up.
The Angel Legion's radio waves intertwined, letting him roughly grasp the situation.
The first battlefield was Kizaru's continued battle against Marco and Kuma.
This Admiral's main goal seemed to be nothing more than stopping the high-mobility combination from destroying the warships.
His attacks did have a certain intensity, but not to the point where support was absolutely necessary.
It could be said that this fit Kizaru's personality very well—working, but slacking off.
The second battlefield was where Kuzan and Mihawk were fighting. The cold air spreading through the battlefield had frozen the sea, forming a stretch of land.
There, he clashed with the World's Greatest Swordsman. On the surface, their battle seemed intense, but in reality, it was steady and unhurried.
Just as Ren had judged, after being influenced by him many times, Kuzan could not accept the World Government's reasoning and slaughter a group of innocent civilians.
Being born in the New World was not their fault. It was the Marines and the World Government who had abandoned the New World.
Mihawk's thinking was much simpler. He had come to fulfill what he had promised: blocking Kuzan and preventing him from advancing was enough.
Between the two of them, an extremely subtle balance had been reached.
Of course, since it was a one-on-one situation, the other Marines were still carrying out their orders.
However, the Whitebeard Pirates' commanders on the attacked island were no pushovers either.
Mihawk would occasionally provide support as well. After a few slashes, he basically crippled that fleet's ability to carry out the massacre.
The third front was the battlefield between Akainu and Issho.
It was worth mentioning that because Issho had also joined Cross Guild, Ren had given him the code name Fujitora.
And so, the Fleet Admiral and Admiral from the original timeline were fighting each other in the timeline altered by Ren.
Sakazuki was indeed powerful. In the original story, he had once defeated Kuzan, causing Kuzan to lose his left leg, while he himself had only gained an extra scar.
In a clash of ideals like that, neither side could possibly hold back, so it was quite clear that Akainu was stronger than Kuzan.
Fujitora Issho, meanwhile, was a relatively less powerful contender among Admiral-level fighters.
There was actually a fairly large gap between the two sides.
However, the reason Ren had sent him to trade pieces with Akainu was because Fujitora held an advantage when attacking from above.
As a gravity human who had eaten the Paramecia-Type Gravity Fruit, as long as he was willing, even pulling down a meteor capable of destroying Mary Geoise would not be a problem.
And the objective this time was merely to stop a Marine fleet drifting across the sea from destroying an island.
Countless blazing, high-temperature meteors fell like rain, bringing with them the sensory terror of an apocalyptic natural disaster.
The terrifying pressure forced Akainu to respond.
An Admiral-level attack could only be blocked by a fighter of equal standing to ensure that no major problem occurred.
If he did not act, then even if the Marine Vice Admirals on the other warships stepped in, they could only deal with one meteor each, and they could not even guarantee they would be able to stop it.
Once all the warships were damaged, the Buster Call's slaughter would become nothing but empty talk.
Without cannon fire from the warships covering the area, was he supposed to go around destroying everything one by one himself?
There was still a brutal battle waiting on Sphinx Island!
Clearly, Akainu still did not know that Whitebeard was not on Sphinx at all.
Instead, Whitebeard had run to the Red Line below Mary Geoise to cause trouble, forcing the Five Elders to mobilize collectively.
Tsuru, who knew this, had not notified him. Instead, she had informed Sengoku, who had command authority.
As for Fleet Admiral Sengoku, he would have to wait until he escaped from the massive tsunami Ren had stirred up.
When Ren arrived beside Fujitora, what he saw was a clash between earth and sky.
Countless volcanic bombs rose from the ground, chasing the falling meteors, colliding with them one-on-one and shattering each other.
Countless bursts of fire exploded in the sky, as gorgeous as a meteor shower, but behind that beauty lay the dangerous clash of two great powers.
Earlier, Akainu had tried to pursue and eliminate Fujitora, the source of the problem.
But the speed and maneuverability of a gravity human were not something someone like him, who relied on volcanic eruption force to fly through the air, could match.
Even if he changed targets and aimed at the island, Fujitora would respond with unwavering resolve by destroying the other warships.
So in the end, they had chosen this almost attritional method of battle.
Whoosh—!
A hot wind rushed toward them. One volcanic bomb shattered a meteor and flew straight toward Fujitora and Ren.
Before they even had time to exchange greetings, Ren raised his hand and flung out a blue light sphere.
The extremely high-temperature energy sphere directly pierced through the volcanic bomb, detonating the heat inside it while releasing a massive amount of high-temperature energy, vaporizing the entire volcanic bomb!
Boom—!
A flash appeared along with the roar of an explosion.
Standing on a large warship, Akainu's pupils contracted sharply. His Observation Haki detected a new presence.
Comparing it to the flash he had just seen, a name matching his impression instantly appeared in his mind.
"Demon Ren!?"
Sakazuki furrowed his brows, feeling that things had become troublesome.
Before Marine Headquarters launched this Buster Call, they had considered all sorts of factors. One of them was whether Ren, who was suspected to have ties with Whitebeard, would interfere.
Marine higher-ups, including Sengoku and Tsuru, had unanimously believed there was such a possibility.
They had even believed there was a high chance Ren would stand together with Whitebeard.
However, when this matter was reported upward, the Five Elders' answer was that if Demon Ren sought death himself, then they would deal with him together as well.
But now... that very person had appeared before him.
"Ren."
Fujitora Issho called out in greeting, sweat faintly visible on his forehead.
Evidently, an attritional battle using meteors placed an enormous burden on his own stamina as well.
However, he did not take that to heart, and instead asked, "Has something changed?"
"No. Everything went smoothly. It's already the final stage now."
Ren said, "The Five Elders were forced back. They won't be able to come here for a short while. If the Buster Call meets more resistance, they'll probably give up this operation."
"Resistance?"
Fujitora froze for a moment, then understood. "So that's why you appeared here? But Akainu is very strong, isn't he?"
"It's precisely because he's very strong that I have to use him as the breakthrough point."
Ren shrugged. "I'll leave the other areas to you. Sink all those warships. The future world doesn't need the Marines for the time being."
After speaking, he looked toward the existence in his perception that resembled a volcano, and the corners of his mouth split into a grin.
"Next, it's my turn."
Buzz—!
A great sun suddenly appeared in the sky. Its energy, amplified a hundredfold, was incomparably vast, and large amounts of lightning arcs scattered around the blazing sun.
An electromagnetic field bound the solar wheel, followed immediately by spreading white ripples. Layer upon layer of vibrations accelerated the speed of the particles within.
In the eyes of the Marines who raised their heads in horror, and in Akainu's incomparably solemn gaze, that blazing sun hanging high in the sky transformed into a ghostly blue!
"This is..."
Akainu's pupils contracted. His Observation Haki detected a crisis, and the ghostly blue blazing sun in his line of sight suddenly began to—shrink!
Yes.
It did not expand like the one he had seen during the Marineford War. Instead, it contracted in a way that was deeply abnormal and chilling.
Endless energy surged within Ren's body. Both his black hair and his skin were emitting a ghostly blue light.
Within the light, even stronger, even more unrestrainable energy overflowed, forming radiant markings that etched themselves across his entire body.
These radiant markings, which resembled a magic formation, were formed and guided by Heavenly Might. They converged at his chest, forming a vertical eye filled with endless surging light.
Meteor Burst · Phase Four · Blazing Sun!
It was no longer named after an angel, because it had already surpassed the angel stage.
The reason Ren regarded the Gura-Gura no Mi as one of the puzzle pieces was that once he obtained it, it would produce a qualitative change!
From this moment on, Ren had truly used the original version of Meteor Burst!
'This guy... got stronger again.'
Beside him, Fujitora could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth. In his Observation Haki perception, Ren was even stronger than during the several times they had met before.
At the very least, compared to how Ren had casually handled him in Dressrosa, the current him was no longer certain whether he had any confidence in surviving a fight against Ren.
This kind of speed of growth could be called incomprehensible, yet it was also very much Ren's style.
It was precisely because of this uniqueness that the other party could step by step reach a point where he could easily influence the world.
However, Fujitora was, after all, a middle-aged man who had experienced many things, and he did not dwell on it for too long.
After confirming that Ren's strength had exceeded his expectations, he decisively gave up on the idea of joining forces to deal with Akainu.
He continued manipulating gravity to pull down meteors, heading off to deal with the enemies on those warships.
As for Akainu, he hoped the man really was strong enough.
Otherwise—
It felt like he would be beaten to death.
(End of Chapter)