After altering the trajectory of the dark red flying slash, El continued his pursuit of Rayleigh.
While El had been resisting that attack, Rayleigh had quickly located Shakky, whom he had hidden on Island 13. She still hadn't recovered consciousness.
Holding Shakky with one hand and his sword in the other, Rayleigh showed no intention of conserving his stamina. Instead, he accelerated, desperately trying to shake off the pursuing El.
At this moment, Rayleigh was filled with dismay—not regret for fighting El, but dismay at not heeding his advice to escape while he'd had the chance. He had never imagined that El, who had barely managed a draw a few months ago, would reach an entirely new level in such a short time.
Now, with serious internal injuries, the balance of victory had tilted toward El. If he continued fighting, he would surely die—and might even drag Shakky down with him. He could accept death in battle, but he would not let anything happen to her.
So, after receiving El's slash, Rayleigh abandoned all thought of revenge. Just as El had said, he was no longer his opponent. However, as El had also noted, it was already too late for Rayleigh to escape.
Just as Rayleigh carried Shakky at extreme speed, his Observation Haki detected a massive crescent-shaped energy closing in rapidly from behind.
Turning to look back, he saw a hundred-meter-high dark red flying slash—comparable to the one he had sent to buy time—bearing down on him.
It was the same type of attack, but several times stronger, consuming more Armament and Conqueror's Haki than his previous flying slash. Calculating swiftly, Rayleigh didn't hesitate. He abandoned any thought of blocking and changed his escape route entirely.
When the hundred-meter dark red flying slash struck the ground, the land formed by the mangroves proved as fragile as thin paper, tearing with a crisp sound.
The descending slash met no obstacles, cutting deep into Island No. 13 while simultaneously dividing the sea below it in two.
After the dark red flying slash carved through the island, the surrounding ground emitted violent sounds. Cracks, large and small, spread across the earth like a spider's web.
Finally, one-third of Island No. 13 could not withstand the shockwave formed by Armament and Conqueror's Haki. It collapsed entirely, while a towering ocean current—formed by countless tons of seawater—smashed through the ruined third of the island and surged to altitudes exceeding a thousand meters. Then it transformed into a heavy rainfall descending upon over a dozen surrounding islands.
A master swordsman's ordinary flying slash could destroy mountains and part the sea. When combined with Conqueror's Haki and the emission and internal destruction of Armament Haki, a master swordsman like El or Rayleigh could easily destroy a small island.
The dark red flying slash contained an astonishing amount of Haki. Beyond cutting anything in its path, the shockwave from high-level Armament and Conqueror's Haki caused secondary damage—and this secondary damage was area-of-effect.
This terrifying, surging ocean current was the result of the Haki explosion within the dark red flying slash.
However, by the time the ocean current shattered one-third of the small island, several minutes had already passed. While the ground still crackled, Rayleigh had already left Island No. 13 with Shakky in his arms, El in hot pursuit.
When El chased Rayleigh to Island No. 12, he grew tired of playing cat and mouse. As Rayleigh reached the island's center, El descended to the ground, crouched, and touched the earth—seizing control of the entire island. The moment his hand made contact, Island No. 12 began to vibrate violently.
Feeling this intense tremors, Rayleigh—still carrying Shakky at tremendous speed—seemed to recall some crucial information. His face drastically changed.
The next second, a sound like a snapping branch erupted from beneath the island. It was so loud it spread across the entire landmass.
Bounty hunters, human traffickers, pirates, merchants, and even ordinary people who had remained on the island and hadn't managed to flee—all heard the deafening crack. Then, their perspective rapidly rose, as if riding an elevator. In truth, it was no different from being on an elevator now.
After a moment, those near the shore witnessed a spectacular scene with their own eyes. They saw the tops of the towering Yarukiman mangroves slowly approaching their line of sight. Within ten seconds, their view surpassed all the mangroves, revealing the entirety of Sabaody Archipelago.
But Sabaody Archipelago, with its seventy-nine small islands, resembled a cake. From those seventy-nine slices, two were missing. One was the slice shattered by the surging ocean current; the other was where they stood—currently rising at tremendous speed.
Given the island's current rate of ascent, it would take less than a minute for people on other islands to watch the floating island shrink from large to small. At this pace, in just a few more minutes, this small island would become a black spot invisible to the naked eye, completely vanishing from everyone's sight.
Such an image was undoubtedly filled with visual shock. Those witnessing this phenomenon for the first time stood with mouths agape, expressions slack.
"This... isn't this too exaggerated?" The person who had just been ordered to Sabaody Archipelago to prevent the two combatants from destroying the Celestial Dragons' playground couldn't help but purse his lips and smack them slightly.
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