"Ah… Hot! It's so hot!"
Amid cries of alarm, the burning sensation on their skin jolted the unconscious jailers, prisoners, and guards awake one after another, sending them into a panic.
Only after they put out the flames on their bodies and crawled out of the scalding water onto the surrounding ruins did they have time to look around and figure out what had happened.
But what appeared before them was a scene beyond imagination.
Towering flames filled their vision.
In the world before their eyes, everything they could see seemed to be burning.
The scorching heat had melted the ice plain beneath them into a steaming ocean, and the sound of running water echoed everywhere.
"Huh?"
They rubbed their eyes, as if wondering whether they were dreaming.
Judging by the blazing forest in the distance, the surrounding prison cells, and the equally stunned prisoners and jailers around them, they were still in Impel Down. This place should have been Level 5, Freezing Hell. So what was with these flames and this heat?
Just then, an extremely dark voice came from behind them.
"Hey, you lot, stop blocking my view."
The jailers and prisoners all jumped in fright. When they turned around, they saw a prisoner inside a cell glaring at them with a ferocious expression.
Anyone locked up in Level 5, Freezing Hell had a bounty of at least one hundred million.
They were not comparable to pirates with only a few tens of millions in bounty.
Just then, the prisoners and guards noticed something else.
"Hey, isn't that Admiral Sengoku?"
"Shiki the Golden Lion… It really is Shiki the Golden Lion…"
"Great! Admiral Sengoku is here, and with the Director and the others too, Shiki the Golden Lion definitely won't escape…"
All the guards and jailers grew excited.
After all, judging from the current situation, with Admiral Sengoku, the Director, the Deputy Director, the Chief Warden, and that sleazy-looking Marine Vice Admiral they did not recognize, even if Shiki the Golden Lion was a legendary great pirate, he would not get away.
The prisoners, on the other hand, looked utterly dejected. They had finally gotten a chance to escape, only for a Marine Admiral to appear here.
But then, everyone sensed that something was wrong.
"Why… What are the Admiral and the Director looking at? Why aren't they moving to capture Shiki the Golden Lion?"
Looking over, they saw several people standing on pieces of debris floating on the water's surface, their eyes fixed on the ground that had already turned into a sea.
"What's going on?"
Just as everyone was confused, they clearly felt something was off.
The surrounding temperature began rising rapidly.
"So… so hot… What's happening? Isn't this Freezing Hell?"
The surface of the water began to boil, countless bubbles rising from it. The scorching steam made it difficult for them to breathe.
The scene reminded them of Blazing Hell above.
At that moment, Admiral Sengoku, who sensed the change from not far away, shouted at Borsalino with a grim expression.
"Borsalino, we attack together! Don't give him a chance!"
To be honest, Borsalino did not want to attack Yemu right now.
It was not because he had any special feelings toward Yemu. Rather, as a fellow Logia Devil Fruit user, he was deeply curious about the power that was about to appear, the legendary power known as Logia Devil Fruit awakening.
But as a Marine, obeying orders was his duty.
"No choice, then… Yasakani no Magatama."
As Borsalino flew into the air, countless dazzling golden light bullets shot toward Yemu's position beneath the water, guided by his Observation Haki.
Admiral Sengoku once again transformed into the giant Buddha, and a golden shockwave blasted straight downward. This time, however, he did not use Conqueror's Haki coating. He only used ordinary Haki, because LV6 was directly below. If he broke through and allowed the prisoners down there to escape as well, then they would be in serious trouble.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
The dazzling golden attacks bombarded the water's surface again and again. The massive explosions and impacts destroyed everything, and the entire world roared.
The surrounding prisoners and jailers could only cling tightly to the nearby cells to keep from being blown away.
"So… so terrifying…"
"Is this the power of a Marine Admiral?"
"This isn't power a human should have…"
"I don't want to be a pirate anymore…"
At last, after nearly five or six minutes of relentless bombardment, the attacks stopped.
Sengoku and Borsalino descended from the air and landed once more on the ruins.
At the place where the two had attacked, the surrounding water had long since been blown away by the explosions, revealing a massive pit where the pitch-black hole below could be seen.
"What exactly is going on?"
The surrounding prisoners and jailers stared at the sight, dumbfounded and completely confused.
Only the few people who had watched the battle from the beginning knew what had happened.
"Is it over?"
Borsalino looked toward the center of the pit and asked hesitantly.
But the moment those words left his mouth, throughout the whole of LV5, the Freezing Hell already filled with flames, every fire in sight suddenly seemed to gain a life of its own.
The flames began to burn fiercely, rising higher and higher until they gathered together, forming a tornado of fire that descended from above and plunged straight into the pitch-black hole.
Boom.
As the flames vanished, the temperature clearly began to drop.
It was as if all the heat in this world had been carried away by the flames and sucked into that pitch-black opening.
Visible to the naked eye, the ice field that had already melted rapidly froze again into ice crystals. The steam in the sky condensed into snowflakes. The cold wind howled once more, and hail and snow began to fall from above.
"This…"
"So cold… So cold…"
This miraculous sight stunned everyone around them, including Sengoku and the others.
Borsalino watched the changes with an extremely serious expression.
"So this is the process of Logia awakening?"
But this was torture for the prisoners and guards whose bodies were already soaked with water. In a single instant, their bodies were frozen into blocks of ice.
Shiki also stared at the scene in amazement.
Although the world of Level 5, Freezing Hell was nowhere near as vast as the sea, in terms of area, it was still about the size of a small island.
Changing the climate of an entire island so easily. Was this the power of a Logia Devil Fruit awakening?
At that moment, there was no need to think of any other explanation. Aside from the power of a Logia Devil Fruit awakening, what else could create such a miraculous scene?
And a Logia Devil Fruit awakening, something that only existed in legends, was not something anyone wanted to miss.
Of course, that did not include Sengoku. His expression remained dark.
He had thought that with the power of his Conqueror's Haki coating, he would absolutely be able to keep Yemu here this time and prevent him from continuing to threaten the sea. But now…
Just then, amid the rumble of the splitting earth, a pitch-black figure shot out and landed before everyone.
But that appearance…
"Did the awakening fail?"
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