Bang!
A violent shockwave erupted, shattering the ice beneath Kojin's feet.
His figure vanished instantly, leaving only a streak of thunderlight tearing through the void.
One-tenth of a second later, the Thunderlight reached Kuzan. A black-gloved hand materialized, its surface shimmering with dark energy.
The massive hand lunged downward with terrifying speed and force, seizing Kuzan's head and lifting his entire body off the ground.
"What is justice?!"
A deep voice boomed, echoing with the roar of thunder.
Simultaneously, Kojin slammed his right hand down onto the ice.
Bang!
Kuzan was violently forced down, slamming his face against the frozen surface and shattering a large patch of ice.
A circular ripple radiated outward, spreading far across the frozen landscape.
Kojin spun around and unleashed another burst of Thunderlight.
"So justice is determined by one's position?"
In an instant, he materialized before Sakazuki.
He raised his right hand high and an blinding arc of electricity expanded rapidly. It flickered violently as it coalesced into a massive thunder gun, nearly 50 to 60 meters long. Lightning crackled across its surface while intricate thunder patterns covered the gun's hilt.
"Laughable!"
With a roar, Kojin gripped the thunder gun.
Crackling!
Black-red lightning infused with Conqueror's Haki surged through the weapon. In a split second, the tip of the gun pivoted to aim directly at Sakazuki's head.
"Get out of there!" Borsalino shouted frantically.
But Sakazuki stood frozen on the ice, his feet rooted to the spot as if paralyzed by shock.
"I'm not afraid of you!" he muttered.
With those words, his expression twisted into a frenzied, savage, distorted grimace.
"I'm not afraid of you!"
The next moment, Sakazuki roared furiously and a massive fist of magma formed and slammed into Kojin's body.
The searing magma fist struck Kojin, tearing through his flesh and leaving gaping wounds. Yet amid the flashes of lightning, his wounds rapidly healed, restoring him to his original state.
"Justice knows no partiality!" boomed a deep voice, echoing across the heavens and earth.
The colossal thunderguns surged with crimson-black energy and vibrated violently.
Suddenly, Kojin thrust his right arm forward with tremendous force, hurling the thunderguns toward Sakazuki's position.
Whoosh!
Longinus guns!
The radiant Conqueror's Haki–infused thunderguns arced through the air and reached Sakazuki in an instant.
Before his horrified eyes, the spears pierced his upper body with devastating force and carried him tens of thousands of meters away in the blink of an eye.
Boom!
A massive explosion echoed from afar, with countless bolts of thunderlight streaking across the sky.
"So-called justice!"
Kojin's figure shifted again and appeared before Borsalino in an instant.
"It's what people believe about good and evil, fairness, right and wrong, law, and politics!"
His calm voice echoed with an inexplicable weight of authority.
His fists blurred into a tempest of strikes, pummeling Borsalino like a relentless storm.
Sweat poured down Borsalino's forehead as he parried blow after blow with Ama no Murakumo, yet he was steadily forced backward.
The man before him was a monster among monsters; his power was overwhelming and seemingly impossible to resist.
After hundreds, then thousands, of exchanges, Kojin's fist suddenly twisted, knocking the light sword from Borsalino's hand.
"A judgment that retreats to the absolute bottom line!"
"This is the red line for life, a line from which there is no retreat!"
The punch struck Borsalino squarely in the face.
His head buzzed.
Immediately following that, a rainstorm of fists began battering his body in rapid succession.
"Justice!"
"This is good!"
With the final blow, Borsalino's head smashed into the ice, leaving a crater of shattered ice around it.
Kojin slowly stood up and exhaled deeply.
Whoosh!
A frigid wind swept across the frozen sea, and snowflakes the size of goose feathers drifted down and landed on his muscular body, bringing a chill.
"Will the civilians thank you?"
"Will they smile?
The defenseless women, children, and elderly?"
"Will they praise your actions?"
For justice?"
Kojin lifted his head and gazed at the sky, his expression grave.
Silence.
The entire frozen sea was eerily silent, devoid of sound.
After what felt like an eternity, Borsalino's body beneath Kojin's feet twitched. A blinding golden light erupted from him and radiated outward instantly. When the light dissipated, Borsalino had teleported thousands of meters away.
Immediately afterward, another figure rose and slammed his hands down in Kojin's direction.
"Ice Age!"
It was Kuzan.
Bone-chilling frost surged forth and transformed into a colossal blizzard. Countless razor-sharp ice blades swirled within the storm, sweeping over the battlefield like a tidal wave.
Crackle!
In an instant, Kojin was encased in ice.
The very next second, however, the ice shattered, and he stood there once more.
His eyes snapped open.
Buzz!
The ice beneath him shattered and the frigid aura dissipated. The overwhelming force of the Conqueror's Haki silenced everything.
After a few breaths, a searing heat filled the air. Sakazuki, with his abdomen charred and his body riddled with wounds, staggered to his feet once more.
The three admirals stood thousands of meters away from Kojin, battered and swaying in the biting wind. Yet they remained ready to fight, signaling an even more intense battle to come.
"You..." Kojin murmured, a faint smile crossing his lips. "You've truly surprised me!"
"Aside from a few quantitative shortcomings in some areas, you've already reached my level," he mused.
Kojin's body trembled slightly, and a bolt of thunderlight shot skyward. In an instant, the thunderlight expanded, and the void coalesced into vast thunderclouds.
Boom! Rumble!
Golden lightning snaked through the thunder clouds, flashing incessantly.
After a few moments, Kojin suddenly raised his right hand, his eyes turning cold and majestic.
His entire body began to glow, and electric arcs of Conqueror's Haki-infused lightning spread rapidly outward across his skin like glowing vines.
"Billion Volt!"
"Divine Punishment!"
The frigid voice echoed across the heavens and earth.
Countless lightning bolts erupted instantly, streaking out in elongated, undulating lines that converged on the three figures thousands of meters away.
This was an unimaginable force of destruction.
Kuzan witnessed the lightning bolts graze the ice surface during their approach, instantly carving away more than ten meters of ice in those spots.
All of this occurred in utter silence.
Almost simultaneously, the three figures sensed that this lightning was fundamentally different from anything they had faced before, utterly untouchable.
Its power was terrifying, likely the most terrifying they had ever witnessed.
The next instant, the three men shifted positions rapidly on the ice, sprinting, dodging, and weaving through the lightning strikes.
Bang!
A bolt of lightning crashed down. Sakazuki leaped across the jagged edges of the iceberg and turned to see, in horror, that the hundred-meter-long iceberg behind him had vanished.
Kuzan and Borsalino were even more cautious, focusing solely on evasion and daring not to touch the bolts.
In the blink of an eye, all three were forced into a purely defensive posture with no choice but to flee.
Thick bolts of lightning plunged from the thunderclouds, carving the frozen sea into countless fractured squares. In the Void, the bolts twisted into sinuous, crackling lines that snaked through the air.
They moved astonishingly fast and had immense destructive force.
Bang!
After dodging for barely ten breaths, Sakazuki was struck. He collapsed headfirst into the ice, motionless.
A few breaths later, Kuzan was struck.
Kojin stood on the ice, his mind stirring slightly. The countless twisting lines of lightning in the air slowly dissipated.
Only Borsalino remained, keenly aware that striking his opponent at lightning speed would be equally challenging.
Meanwhile, Kuzan and Sakazuki had fallen silent temporarily.
Logia Ability Users were among the most difficult to kill. Only by capturing their true form in a split second could a fatal blow be delivered.
Suddenly, his eyes flashed, and he whirled around.
Xiū!
The piercing sound of cannon shells echoed from the distance. Then, countless explosions erupted across Ohara Island, engulfing it in flames.
At the same moment:
"Why aren't you on the ship yet?"
Crocodile strode up to Bullet, his voice deep and urgent.
Their mission was to evacuate the island's civilians, including the group of archaeologists before them, as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Kojin was tasked with holding back the enemy's main forces.
Crocodile squinted slightly as he watched the terrifying explosions echoing from the distant sea and the relentless gales sweeping overhead. Even from this distance, he could sense the ferocity of the battle.
"Those bastards are determined to throw all the books into the central lake," growled Bullet, his face darkening.
If Kojin hadn't ordered restraint, Bullet would have already resorted to force against these fools.
"Books?"
Crocodile froze, peering through the burning Tree of Knowledge toward the lake. What he saw sent a shock through his entire being.
The entire lake was filled with densely packed books that were overflowing.
He whirled around and glared at the archaeologists, who were sweating profusely as they frantically carried and hurled books into the water.
"Those bastards!"
A faint realization dawned on him.
"Everyone!" Crocodile roared, taking a deep breath. "Help them move the books!"
Seeing the puzzled expressions on Bullet's, Eveya's, and the others' faces, he snapped, "Hurry! We don't have much time! I have a feeling the Marines have more forces than this!"
Instantly, everyone sprang into action.
With Bullet and the others lending a hand, the Ohara scholars worked much faster.
Dr. Clover watched the Marines work frantically before him and suddenly felt tears welling up in his eyes.
"There are still people in this world who understand the value of these treasures!" he choked out. "The will of Ohara will never be extinguished!"
But soon, the situation grew even more dire.
"Not good! Another Headquarters Battleship is approaching!" T. Penn announced gravely.
"Who's leading it?"
Bullet roared.
"Headquarters, Admiral Sengoku!"
T. Penn pursed his lips and continued, "The other one is Headquarters Admiral Zephyr!"
Everyone's expression changed drastically the moment they heard this.
In that instant, both Bullet and Crocodile felt dread sink into their hearts.
"How's the book relocation going?" Crocodile demanded loudly, taking a deep breath.
"All the books have been dumped in the sea!" a Marine subordinate shouted in response.
"Good!"
Everyone, move immediately to the rendezvous point with the Shore Battleship!"
Crocodile paused, then added gloomily, "We don't have much time left."
As Crocodile watched the Marine platoons swiftly evacuate the archaeologists, he glanced one last time at the distant sea, where countless lightning bolts crashed down.
"I hope you can still hold out!" he muttered.
Moments after everyone had boarded the battleship, another urgent message reached their ears.
"Admirals Sengoku and Zephyr have turned their ships toward Vice Admiral Kojin's location!"
Simultaneously, the Buster Call fleet began bombarding Ohara with cannon fire.
Instantly, towering flames erupted from Ohara, accompanied by explosions that shook the air.
"An entire island... obliterated!" Eveya collapsed weakly, her voice trembling with terror.
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.p*treon.com/darkshadow6395