Chapter 400 - 239

Chapter 239: Cornered Beast's Struggle, the Admiral Approaches!"You're really looking for death!!"Golden Lion's raspy roar carried the fury of an overlord from the old era.Those eyes that once looked down upon the Grand Line were now filled with hideous bloodshot veins, like a shattered spiderweb.Before his voice faded, a Conqueror's Haki so massive it was almost tangible erupted from his aging yet still majestic body like a flash flood breaking a dam.Dark red lightning crackled, squeezing the surrounding air until it let out an overwhelmed wail.Without a moment's hesitation, he lifted his feet.Those two world-renowned swords, "oto" and "Withered Wood," carved out lethal trajectories!Swish! Swish! Swish!Dozens of brilliant golden sword beams tore through the sky, each entwined with dark red lightning snakes, forming perfect yet lethal crescent arcs."Lion: Senkyaku!!"At the critical moment!Buzz—A flash of deep blue light flickered without warning, and the space rippled like water.Sanji's figure blurred and vanished from the spot, replaced by a green figure standing as firm as a rock.Three famous swords were already unsheathed."Let me test your blade!!"Zoro growled, his right eye staring directly at the golden storm that flooded his vision, filled with Haoshoku and the peerless will of a Great Swordsman.There was no fear in his eyes, only a fighting spirit burning to the extreme and a near-greedy thirst!It was the pure joy and desire for challenge that instinctively erupted when a swordsman faced a higher peak.Whoosh—Pitch-black Armament Haki, like a living thing, instantly crawled over the three blades, the ultimate Internal Destruction power flowing and humming on the edges.At the same time, crimson ghost qi erupted from his pores, condensing into a tangible, hideously roaring Shura phantom that wrapped around him, resonating with the swords in his hands!The pitch-black lightning of Armament Haki and the crimson blood-light of the ghost qi frantically intertwined, tangled, and fused!In the next moment, facing the storm of destruction, he boldly swung a strike that condensed all his energy and spirit!"Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Hellfire Rakshasa—!!"Bang—!!!!The Shura phantom and countless golden sword beams frantically bit, annihilated, and exploded!The extremely compressed energy was released with a bang, turning into a visible, towering airwave mixed with black, red, and gold tri-colored Haki, rushing out in all directions like a tsunami!Crack!The clear sound of shattering was drowned out by the roar.The Hellfire Shura Zoro slashed out was eventually torn apart layer by layer by the subsequent golden sword beams under the absolute gap in quantity and quality!"Ugh—!"An irresistible force slammed hard into his chest, and Zoro was sent flying backward like a cannonball, his feet plowing two deep furrows into the ground.Several violent dark red lightning bolts containing the king's will raged and destroyed his meridians and muscles, trying to dismantle him from the inside!"Cough!"Zoro forcibly stabilized his body, his throat felt sweet, and he spat out a mouthful of hot blood onto the scorched earth, making a sizzling sound.The webbing of his thumb holding the sword had already split, blood flowed down his wrist, and his arm trembled slightly.But the light in his right eye grew brighter, even carrying an excitement like discovering prey.He slowly raised his head, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked at the golden figure standing proudly in the air, an exclamation mixed with pain and ecstasy escaping from between his teeth:"Is this... Conquerors Haki Coating?!""As expected... it's got a kick!!"...At the moment the lightning exploded, a blue meteor wrapped in thunder and fire tore through the air, its trajectory ending right at Golden Lion's defenseless back."Golden Lion, this isn't a place where you can run wild."Before his voice fell, Sanji's raised right foot was already entwined with violently dancing azure lightning, kicking out with a determination to crush everything!"Just you? A brat with shallow fruit development and not even any Haoshoku??"Golden Lion didn't even turn his head, his mouth curling into a sneer full of contempt and cruelty.On the edge of "Withered Wood," thick as blood and violent as thunder, black-red lightning burst forth!The blade dragged lightning from the depths of the Conqueror's domain, slashing back at the blue light behind him!Clang—!!!Sanji's kick, infused with conviction and fury, collided violently with that casual yet lethal Haoshoku strike!Time seemed to freeze for a frame.In the next second, an overwhelming force mixed with the will of a ruler transmitted brutally through his leg bone to his entire body.Sanji's pupils shrank; that black-red lightning seemed to have a life of its own, instantly defeating the lightning on his body and slamming hard into his nerves!"Argh—!!"He was sent flying like a broken kite, his leg letting out an overwhelmed wail of bones.Golden Lion's raspy mockery followed on the gale:"Brat, even a turtle is much faster than you!!"However, before the old era overlord's smile could fully spread, another aura, no less and even more wild and violent, crushed in from his left like an avalanche!"Thunder Bagua!!!"Yamato's figure broke through the smoke and dust, her Spiked Club "takeru" swung by both hands into a destructive arc.On the club's body, boiling dark red Haoshokulightning was also entwined!"Is it never-ending?!"Golden Lion's expression finally changed, anger and a hint of imperceptible anxiety exploding in his eyes at the same time.He suddenly turned, "oto" blocking horizontally, the black-red light on the blade surging again as he met that mountain-shattering strike without dodging!Boom—!!!!The Spiked Club and the famous sword "oto" suddenly stopped in the void, an inch apart!A ball of black-red energy emitting ultimate destruction and majesty was frantically born, compressed, and expanded in the gap between the two.Zzzzt—Crack!!Black-red lightning turbulence shot out in all directions like thousands of violent poisonous snakes, biting the air and letting out a soul-shuddering shriek.Rumble—!!!The sky and earth lost color, and the clouds rolled back!"Waah!""My eyes... I can't see!"Around them, whether it was the remnants of the Flying Pirates or the beasts fleeing in all directions, countless those with lesser strength foamed at the mouth and fell unconscious in heaps under the aftershocks of this pure Haki collision.A collision of Haoshoku was a domain that the weak could not step into!"Boom!!!"The black-red energy ball, compressed to its limit, finally reached its critical point, turning into a straight beam of light that soared into the sky, followed by a world-shaking explosion!At the core of the explosion, a golden figure was slammed away like a battered meteorite, trailing a wretched line of blood in the air!"Pfft—!"Golden Lion spat out blood, and the golden kimono that once symbolized flight and unruliness was instantly torn to shreds by his own blood and energy turbulence, revealing a body underneath that was bloody and charred in patches.Even though his swordsmanship was heavenly and his Haki cultivation was unfathomably deep!!Facing the simultaneous surprise attack from Sanji, the slash from Zoro, the full-force onslaught from Yamato, and the omnipresent battlefield suppression,His old-era body and a spirit that hadn't experienced such high-intensity death matches for a long time finally showed cracks of inadequacy.He tumbled and crashed into the distant collapsing ruins, kicking up a sky full of dust... Zoro leaned on his sword, his chest heaving violently, but his right eye stared fixedly at the violent aura slowly rising from the ruins.It was like a cornered beast driven to a dead end, about to go completely mad."Hey, Yamato,"Zoro didn't look back, his voice suppressing a near-anxious longing,"With you here, we can't 'break through' at all!"He could feel it very clearly,That invisible barrier called "the limit" standing between him and the top of the world had already shown strands of cracks under the pressure of Golden Lion's Haoshoku-infused slashes and the threat of death.Behind the cracks was the scenery he dreamed of.Stronger power, deeper slashes, a realm sufficient to carry his ambition.But it wasn't enough.The cracks weren't big enough for him to squeeze through.He needed more extreme pressure, he needed to truly walk on the edge of life and death.With Yamato's joining, the balance instantly tilted.She was powerful and reliable, an indisputable "Admiral-level" combat force.But it was precisely this strength that shared that lethal pressure."Ah~? Is that so?!"Hearing this, Yamato was obviously stunned.Her blood-stained hand instinctively scratched her messy silver hair at her forehead.Her face showed a nearly blank confusion, completely different from her previous berserker-like posture."Then... what should I do?! Do you want me to step back?"She looked at Zoro's tense profile, then at the golden aura growing stronger in the dust in the distance, appearing a bit at a loss."Of course it's..."Zoro grit his teeth, seemingly about to say "leave" or "don't interfere.""—Shut up, Mosshead!"A colder, sharper shout interrupted him.Sanji's figure appeared beside the two of them almost at the same time.He landed steadily, his lit cigarette flickering in the violent airflow, and his face was more serious than ever.Those eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, firmly locked on the distant horizon."Someone... incredible is coming!!"...On the sea dozens of kilometers away,Several Marineford standard giant warships boldly entered the territory of the Alabasta Kingdom."Found it! Golden Lion's floating island group!"At the front of the broad deck of the Juugaku, Vice Admiral Yamakaji put down the high-powered binoculars in his hand, the smoke from the cigar in his mouth blown messy by the sea breeze.Between his usually gentle brows, a seriousness that couldn't be dispersed was now congealed."But... what on earth is that?!"Vice Admiral Doberman beside him suddenly growled, his voice carrying a hint of imperceptible dryness.He stared fixedly at the "sky" above the island.Where there should have been an infinite blue or stretching white clouds, there was now a deep, twisting, and rotating darkness.What was even more heart-palpitating was that even at such a great distance, an indescribable sense of oppression, mixed with the lingering charm of destruction and dominance, still washed over everyone's nerves like cold tides.The veins on the back of Doberman's hand holding his sword bulged; this tough general known for his iron blood actually felt his arm trembling slightly."Up there... what is happening?!"His pupils contracted,"This level of energy turbulence... is Golden Lionfighting an entire Four Emperors crew?!"The deck was deathly silent, with only the roar of waves hitting the hull and the whistling of the mast ropes.All the Marine soldiers, even the most elite headquarters officers, felt their breathing become labored, their hearts gripped by an invisible hand.In this oppressive silence, a voice as calm as it was dull sounded, yet it strangely drowned out all other noise and reached everyone's ears."No matter what happened—"Fujitora Issho, this Admiral who kept his eyes tightly closed yet seemed able to "see" the truth of the world, slowly took a step forward.The seemingly ordinary cane sword in his hand lightly tapped on the hard deck of the Juugaku."...We must go up."At the moment his words fell, without any warning, a deep and heavy purple halo, centered on the contact point of his cane sword, suddenly spread out like ripples from a stone thrown into a quiet lake!Buzz... strange gravity fluctuations permeated.The halo gently yet irresistibly wrapped all the several huge warships.In the next moment, under the eyes of all the Marine officers and soldiers—some startled, some shocked, some determined—these massive objects carrying "Justice" boldly broke away from the blue sea surface!They began to accelerate toward the high sky, toward that lightning-filled, dark, and distorted floating island battlefield!The gale whistled and pulled at both sides of the steel hull, the military flags fluttering loudly, almost about to be torn apart.The soldiers grabbed onto everything fixed around them, looking at the sea below getting further and further away, shrinking into a blue mirror, and looking at the rapidly magnifying floating islands and the black sky ahead, which looked like a mythical battlefield.The Marine, the Iron Fist representing the World Government's highest military power, was about to forcibly break into that purgatory where peak powerhouses slaughtered each other with the force of thunder.