Chapter 154 The Sun's Fireball Destroys Rayleigh"Bang!"
The divine axe and the black sword clashed again, creating a brief vacuum on the sea surface with their terrifying power.
The shockwave exploded, and Rayleigh used the recoil to nimbly leap onto a floating piece of wreckage.
Luffy, not to be outdone, raised his divine axe high, assuming a slashing stance.
A massive amount of magical energy surged into the axe blade.
"Dust Slash!"
Luffy's right arm muscles bulged as if inflated, veins throbbing like raging dragons.
A devastating magical slash roared out, its range absurdly large, more like wielding a tsunami than an axe.
"What kind of technique is this?!"
Rayleigh's expression changed drastically. No longer daring to hold back, he instantly enveloped his sword with advanced Ryuo Haki, bracing himself for the blow.
The immense impact sent Rayleigh flying backward, the entire sea seemingly cleaved in two by the axe strike.
A dozen warships rocked violently in the surging waves, the marines clinging desperately to the railings to avoid being thrown overboard.
Just as Luffy was drifting with the current, a dark shadow suddenly shot out from the water like a flying fish, aiming straight for Luffy's throat.
"Watch out for a sneak attack!"
Several vice admirals cried out in alarm.
Luffy, however, remained unfazed, swinging his axe downwards with a backhand motion, the magic colliding head-on with the longsword wreathed in Conqueror's Haki.
Rayleigh, soaked to the bone, had reached the peak of his power, black and red Conqueror's Haki lightning leaping wildly on the blade.
The two weapons seemed to have struck an invisible wall, locked in a stalemate in mid-air.
"That's not Conqueror's Haki at all!"
Rayleigh's eyes widened, staring in shock at the divine axe in Luffy's hand.
After several exchanges, he finally realized that Luffy's attacks lacked the mental impact of Haki; they were purely brute force and some unknown energy.
"Haki-based attacks?" Luffy looked at Rayleigh beneath his feet and laughed wildly, "That fancy stuff, I don't know!"
As he spoke, even more violent magical energy surged into his divine axe, and the blade began to emit a blinding golden light like the core of the sun.
"Boom!"
Another unreasonable, heavy slam, and Rayleigh was once again thrown back by the monstrous force, now slightly out of breath.
"Am I really getting old?"
Rayleigh used a technique similar to Moonwalk to adjust his posture in mid-air, landing on a large deck.
Luffy looked around and saw that most of the soldiers who had fallen into the water had been rescued.
Feeling his waning strength and the inconvenience of walking on water, he simply put away his divine axe.
Even with chakra to walk on water, fighting on the high seas was still too disadvantageous for someone like him who relied on pure brute force.
Moreover, he possesses a passive skill that guarantees he'll be caught bare-handed by a blade. To prevent such a melodramatic scenario, he must constantly imbue his weapon with magic.
Rayleigh watched Luffy sheathe his weapon, stroked his beard, and tentatively asked,
"What? Don't want to play with this old man anymore? Or have you reached your limit?"
The battle-hardened Rayleigh keenly sensed the weakening of Luffy's aura.
Luffy, however, disdainfully raised a finger, and terrifying magic began to gather frantically at his fingertip.
The surrounding seawater instantly boiled and evaporated, countless plumes of scalding steam obscuring Luffy's figure.
A miniature sun, containing destructive heat, rapidly expanded at Luffy's fingertip.
When the heat reached its peak, even the steam was instantly burned away, leaving a blindingly small sun suspended in mid-air.
"Merciless sun!"
Luffy looked down at Rayleigh as if he were looking at a lowly insect, his eyes filled with the arrogance of the sin of pride.
"Victory... belonged to me from the beginning!"
"Die!"
With a flick of Luffy's wrist, the terrifying fireball roared towards Rayleigh.
Rayleigh's face turned deathly pale. He squeezed out all the Haki in his body and poured it into his sword, instantly transforming the black blade into a demonic blade that devoured light.
"Bang!"
The fireball and the longsword collided violently.
The terrifying impact created a huge, bowl-shaped crater in the sea.
Luffy, manipulating his magic, engaged in a fierce struggle with Rayleigh's Haki.
Suddenly, Luffy clenched his outstretched hand.
"Exploding Pride!"
The terrifying fireball detonated like a time bomb!
The extreme heat, accompanied by the shockwave, exploded into a mushroom cloud right in front of Rayleigh.
After a deafening roar, countless drops of seawater rushed into the center, hissing loudly.
The Marines stared at the charred hole in the ocean in the distance, their faces pale with fear.
Gradually, the waves calmed, and a small, charred black dot rose and fell on the surface.
"Is...is he dead?"
The Marines stared at the black figure, whispering amongst themselves.
Luffy walked through the seawater to Rayleigh. Rayleigh was a gruesome sight, his body covered in burns; even top-tier Armament Haki couldn't completely protect him from the sun-like heat.
Rayleigh clung tightly to a piece of driftwood, looked up at Luffy, and gave a bitter laugh.
"What a terrifying newcomer. It seems it's truly time for us remnants of the old era to retire."
"Red-Haired Shanks once told me he met a brat in the East Blue who said the same thing as the captain."
"He probably never imagined that the person he staked everything on would become a Marine, right?"
Rayleigh didn't beg for mercy; instead, he looked at Luffy's tall figure with a relieved expression.
"Perhaps it really is too early. The dawn the captain has been waiting for hasn't arrived yet."
Rayleigh gasped for breath, each breath accompanied by excruciating pain in his lungs.
"Joy Boy?"
Luffy looked at Rayleigh indifferently. He hadn't disliked Rayleigh before, but Rayleigh's interference this time greatly annoyed him.
This was why he hated pirates; even the Roger Pirates, this so-called "adventure crew," were essentially a group of selfish individuals.
Rayleigh's willingness to risk his life for Ace, while moving, will only bring more chaos to the world.
Back then, Roger's lifespan was nearing its end, and even the legendary healer Crocus could only extend it by a few years.
Roger used that time to conquer the Grand Line, and before his death, he decided to use his life to usher in a new era, because he didn't have time to realize the future he saw on Laugh Tale.
Rayleigh didn't stop Roger from going to his death, but that didn't mean he wanted Roger to die. So when Ace appeared before him, he was still happy.
Rayleigh originally intended to stop Ace from going to his death, as Luffy had conveyed through Buggy, but the stubborn old man Whitebeard insisted on fighting.
At Ace's request, Rayleigh decided to come and rescue him, leaving Whitebeard a way out.