Zzz—!!!
Red lightning tore through the sky. The air was filled with the sharp, burned smell of melted metal.
Aiden shot upward like a meteor, crossing hundreds of meters in an instant. He held the red sword he had just forged, still glowing with heat, and slashed down at Shiki's head with the terrifying heat of lightning!
There were no tricks in this attack.
It was nothing but extreme speed and terrible heat!
"Hmph!"
Facing this fierce attack, Shiki did not dodge. A cold and cruel light flashed in his eyes.
"Brat, don't get too full of yourself!"
He twisted in midair and kicked out with his famous sword, Oto.
Just as the two blades were about to meet, black and red lightning burst out from Shiki's body in a shocking wave!
Zzz—crack!!!
The air looked like broken glass.
Aiden's red sword stopped a few centimeters away from Shiki, blocked by that familiar barrier of Conqueror's Haki!
"That move again..."
Aiden narrowed his eyes. He had expected this.
Boom!!!
A huge shockwave burst out from the clash between them. The clouds around them were blown away at once, leaving a massive empty area in the sky.
"Ugh!"
Aiden let out a low groan.
Even though he had prepared himself, when that crushing power passed through the blade, his arms still went numb!
Even after seeing it once, that pressure still felt suffocating.
"What? You already can't take it?"
Shiki sneered and suddenly put more force into his right leg. "Get down!!"
Bang!
Aiden was blasted away like a cannonball, crashing toward the sea.
Just before hitting the water, Aiden forced his body to stop and hovered above the waves.
He looked at the long sword in his hand.
The metal sword, which had been completely red a moment ago, was now covered in black cracks. It looked as if that last blow had hit an unmoving mountain.
"Not having Conqueror's Haki is really a pain."
Aiden wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. But his eyes only grew brighter and colder.
"But it wasn't completely useless."
High in the sky.
Shiki looked down at his right leg.
Even though his Conqueror's Haki had blocked the slash itself, the blade's heat of several thousand degrees had still passed through the Haki barrier.
Part of his pants was burned. The place where his leg had been cut off hurt badly
Sizzle—
It felt like something hot had touched him even though it wasn't directly on his skin.
"Using high heat to make up for the Haki gap?"
Shiki spat out the half-burned cigar in his mouth. His eyes turned completely cold. The killing intent of a legendary pirate poured out without holding back. "I have to admit, you are a battle genius. But sadly, in front of absolute power, little tricks like that won't save your life!"
Whoosh!
Shiki's body blurred and disappeared.
Fast!
He was so fast that not even an afterimage was left behind!
The Float-Float Fruit did more than let objects float. It also let its user move through the air at high speed while ignoring air resistance!
"Right here!"
Aiden's Observation Haki gave him a sharp warning.
He swung his sword hard to the left!
Clang!!
Shiki's Kogarashi struck like a poisonous snake, wrapped in black and red lightning, smashing into the back of Aiden's blade.
Then Shiki launched a storm of slashes without giving Aiden even a second to breathe.
He turned into a golden blur in the sky. His legs became two tireless killing blades. Every hit carried enough force to cut through mountains, along with the destructive power of Conqueror's Haki.
Clang—clang—clang—!!!
Sparks burst across the sky. Lightning and red-black Haki clashed wildly.
Aiden was being pushed back again and again.
His sword was only a temporary weapon. Under Shiki's intense Haki attacks, the blade started to bend, twist, and spray drops of molten iron.
But that did nothing to slow Shiki down.
"Too slow! Too light! Too soft!"
Shiki shouted as he attacked. "You're too weak! Without the will to crush everything under your feet, are these weak attacks supposed to tickle me?!"
Boom!
Another heavy kick landed.
Aiden's sword bent into a "U" shape, and he was blasted away again.
This time, Shiki gave him no chance to catch his breath.
Like a falling meteor, he rushed straight down toward the wild sea with a sharp sonic boom!
Just before crashing into the ocean, he suddenly reached out and plunged both hands deep into the freezing seawater!
Normally, a Devil Fruit user would lose all strength the moment they touched the sea.
But this was Shiki!
He was a ruler of the old era, a man who had fought Roger for the top!
Using his terrifying body, he forced himself to endure the weakness from the seawater and activated the power of his Float-Float Fruit!
"Rise!!!"
With Shiki's roar, the sea for miles around began to boil!
Rumble—!!!
Under Gion's shocked gaze, thousands of tons of seawater broke free from gravity and shot into the sky the moment Shiki touched it!
And it wasn't only seawater.
The broken remains of the two giant floating islands, the small hills at the edge of Merveille Island, and even the hundred-meter-tall trees in the jungle below were all dragged up with it!
Soil, rocks, seawater, and forest.
Everything in nature that Shiki had touched became his soldiers in that moment!
It felt as if the whole world had turned upside down.
Then the seawater and rock began to twist together in the sky.
In the blink of an eye, five violent water lions over a thousand meters tall and three earth lions made of rock and giant trees appeared, blocking out the sun!
They did not just look like lions. They looked alive, roaring with the sound of grinding stone and crashing waves that shook the world!
These eight giant beasts surrounded Aiden from every side, sealing every path of escape.
Each lion's open mouth was large enough to swallow a massive warship.
This was the true power of a legendary pirate, one man acting like a natural disaster!
"Now let's see where you run!"
Shiki stood on top of a giant water lion. He looked down at the tiny Aiden and clenched his right hand. Haki instantly covered every part of the eight giant beasts, turning them into pitch-black monsters of steel!
"Roar!!!!"
The eight Haki-covered elemental beasts, each strong enough to destroy an island, charged at Aiden from every direction with a roar that shook the sea!
At that moment, it looked as if the sky itself was falling.
A huge shadow covered Aiden. Mountains and seawater crashed down around him. There was no way out!
"Aiden!!"
Gion, watching from below, could not stop herself from screaming. Against an attack at this level, even a Logia user would be badly hurt if they were caught in the crushing force of such dense, Haki-covered matter!
To Be Continued
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