After breaking free from the earlier clash, Admiral Kizaru and Admiral Akainu forced their battered bodies to move again. Ignoring their injuries, they rushed forward and launched another assault on Gol D. Roger, with Aokiji and several others following close behind.
Roger clenched his teeth and forced himself to stand upright. The strain placed on his body by the Nika Form had grown far heavier than before. The black, flame like cloud ribbons drifting behind him were already fading, their presence no longer as solid as it had been moments earlier.
Just then, Silvers Rayleigh arrived with several members of the Roger Pirates. Without hesitation, they threw themselves into the battle, intercepting the incoming attacks from Kizaru and the others and buying Roger some much needed time.
Bullet was nowhere to be seen among them.
When Akainu had previously launched his violent assault on Roger, Bullet had already reached his limit. Before he could recover, Kizaru struck him with a devastating beam of light that pierced directly through his chest. The blow sent him crashing to the ground, leaving him severely wounded and unable to continue fighting.
Rayleigh now held a sword in each hand. One of them was Roger's personal blade, Ace.
Ace was not like the cursed blade Muramasa, which possessed a strange level of awareness. Earlier, when Roger had entered his gigantic form, Ace slipped from his grasp and fell to the battlefield below. During the chaos, the blade had skewered an unfortunate pirate who happened to be in the wrong place. Rayleigh had retrieved it shortly afterward.
Rayleigh normally fought with a single blade. Using two swords felt somewhat awkward for him. Even so, he continued parrying the relentless attacks from the Navy while raising his voice toward Roger.
"Roger! Can you still hold on?"
Roger inhaled deeply several times before replying in a low, heavy tone.
"Give me Ace."
Rayleigh did not understand why Roger would need the sword in such a gigantic state, but he trusted his captain completely. Seizing a brief opening in the battle, Rayleigh leapt into the air and hurled Ace toward Roger with great precision.
Roger raised his enormous hand and caught the blade.
The moment he grasped it, he swung his arm. The sword instantly expanded to match the scale of his giant body. A massive blade over a hundred meters long whipped through the air before straightening in his grip.
Roger glanced at the enormous weapon in his hand, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Just as I thought… you are still the weapon that suits me best."
His grin widened slightly.
When Rayleigh saw that familiar smile, his eyes momentarily fell into a distant trance.
Crackle!
Bolts of lightning formed from Conqueror's Haki wrapped themselves around Ace's blade. At the same time, the black flame clouds behind Roger instantly solidified once more.
Roger lowered his voice and shouted.
"Rayleigh! Get out of here quickly! Do not forget what I entrusted to you!"
Rayleigh did not hesitate.
The moment he heard those words, he vanished from Roger's side and dashed toward the area where Shanks and Buggy were still trapped within the Navy encirclement.
Akainu and the others saw this but made no attempt to chase him.
At this point, they all shared a single objective.
Kill Roger.
From the beginning of the battle until now, Shanks and Buggy had not encountered any powerful opponents. Instead, they had been continuously surrounded by waves of ordinary Navy soldiers.
Rayleigh rushed straight into the encirclement. With one arm around each of them, he forcefully broke through the surrounding soldiers and dragged both boys out of the battlefield.
During this entire time, Roger kept his eyes on Rayleigh's movements.
When he finally saw Rayleigh regroup with Shanks and Buggy, a small sense of relief appeared in his heart.
Without another word, Roger swung Ace downward.
The blade carved a massive crack through the frozen battlefield. The thick layer of ice split apart, and seawater surged upward from below.
Akainu, Kizaru, and the others were all Devil Fruit users. The instant the sea water appeared, they immediately leapt away to avoid it.
Only Aokiji remained in place.
Cold air surged from his body as he released the power of his Logia ability. Freezing gas spread across the battlefield, instantly turning large sections of the incoming seawater into solid ice. Within seconds, a new foothold formed beneath the Marines.
Beads of sweat covered Aokiji's forehead.
Throughout this battle, his role had been incredibly important. In many ways, he had become the key support holding the battlefield together.
However, he was still young. His Devil Fruit ability had not yet awakened. Maintaining such a massive scale of freezing power continuously was draining his stamina at a terrifying rate.
By the time Akainu and the others landed safely on the newly formed ice surface, Aokiji had already dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.
Admiral Aramaki landed beside him and extended a hand to help him up.
Looking at Aokiji's pale face, Aramaki felt a trace of concern, although his tone remained rough.
"Hey, why do you look so weak? Can you still keep going?"
Aokiji placed one hand on Aramaki's shoulder and another on his own knee as he forced himself back to his feet.
"Of course I can," he replied, though his breathing remained uneven. "It is just… Senpai Lloyd…"
As he spoke, Aokiji's gaze drifted toward the ice cavern where Lloyd had disappeared earlier.
Within that cavern, Navy soldiers constantly surfaced from the freezing water, gasping for air before diving back down again. They were desperately searching the dark depths, doing everything they could to find Lloyd.
Nearby, Lucia's body trembled.
The moment Lloyd vanished beneath the ice, she had thrown herself into the sea without hesitation. Unfortunately, she was a Devil Fruit user. The instant her body touched the seawater, all her strength vanished.
A female Marine under her command had barely managed to drag her back out before she drowned.
After regaining a small amount of strength, Lucia used her flames to evaporate the water clinging to her clothes and wings. She immediately returned to the battlefield.
But even now, Lloyd had still not resurfaced.
A chilling dread spread through her heart.
When Aramaki mentioned Lloyd again, Lucia finally snapped.
Purple flames erupted violently from her body. She gripped Doom tightly in her hand as her wings spread wide. With a powerful beat, she shot into the sky and flew directly toward Roger.
"Give me back the Young Master!"
At this moment, no one paid attention to the strange way Lucia addressed Lloyd.
The instant she launched her attack, Akainu and the other Admirals moved as well, charging toward Roger once again.
However, before they could even reach him, they were stopped.
An invisible wall of power blocked their path.
No matter how hard they pushed forward, they could not advance even a single step.
The entire space surrounding Roger was now filled with crackling lightning born from Conqueror's Haki.
Roger gazed down calmly at the Marines below.
His eyes eventually settled on Kuma.
In a quiet voice, Roger spoke.
"As a descendant of the Buccaneer Tribe, you stand on the side of the World Government. You are a disgrace to your own people."
Kuma continued releasing bear paw shaped shockwaves, attempting to break through the overwhelming Conqueror's Haki barrier.
When he heard Roger's words, Kuma slowly lifted his head. Flames of hatred burned within his eyes.
"I only want to stand beside Lloyd. He is the Nika in my heart. I fight only for him!"
Roger paused briefly.
"He is Nika?" Roger asked. "Then what am I?"
Kuma raised both hands high into the air. Between his palms, he compressed an enormous bear paw shockwave, condensing its power to the absolute limit.
"You," Kuma roared, "are just a bastard trying to throw the world into chaos!"
With those words, he thrust his hands forward.
The compressed shockwave exploded outward and slammed directly into Roger's Conqueror's Haki barrier.
A violent explosion shook the battlefield.
Roger remained standing within the storm of energy created by the collision. For a moment, his expression became strangely distant.
After several seconds, he slowly shook his head.
"Hopeless…"
Raising Ace once more, Roger held the massive blade high.
The lightning created by his Conqueror's Haki began converging toward the tip of the sword, drawn together as though guided by an invisible force.
At the same time, the overwhelming Haki pressure surrounding him gradually faded.
Roger's voice became calm and indifferent.
"It is time to return this world to its proper course. I will use this attack to end it."
Boom!
Before he could finish speaking, the entire frozen battlefield suddenly trembled violently.
Roger's expression changed.
His head snapped toward the massive ice cavern where Lloyd had disappeared.
The seawater inside the cavern had turned completely black.
It churned violently, like a living abyss.
Moments later, the surrounding ice began collapsing inward as though something beneath the sea was devouring it.
The opening of the cavern expanded rapidly.
Then several massive black water pillars erupted upward from the depths.
The violent surges of water blasted every Navy soldier who had been searching below out of the cavern. They were thrown across the battlefield before crashing onto the frozen ground.
Each of them wore the same expression.
Pure lingering terror.
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