Chapter 405 - 244

Chapter 244: Kizaru Arrives!On the deck of the sunny, time seemed to freeze, held captive by the duel unfolding in the distance.Law, usually so calm and detached, could no longer maintain his characteristic stoicism.His arm, wrapped around kikoku, tightened slightly. His gaze remained locked on the emerald slash that pierced the heart of the explosion, watching until it tore through Golden Lion and split the mountains.He instinctively turned toward the man wearing the straw hat beside him."So..."Law's voice was dry, a dryness he hadn't even noticed himself, breaking the suffocating silence on the deck."They... have already crossed that 'threshold,' haven't they?"His question was brief, but every word carried immense weight.That "threshold" was the watershed between mortal powerhouses and the monsters standing at the world's pinnacle.Luffy raised a hand and adjusted his straw hat.The next moment, a brilliant, cloudless smile blossomed on his face."Yeah!"Luffy nodded vigorously, his voice clear and affirmative."That's right! Zoro, Sanji... those two have completely crossed that line!"He turned to look at his crewmates, his eyes shining like a father witnessing his child run on their own for the first time. Even though he was the most worrisome "king of children" himself.Law was slightly taken aback, and then, the corner of his tightly pressed lips seemed to relax by an imperceptible margin.He hugged kikoku tightly again and cast his gaze toward the smoke-filled ruins in the distance."Top-tier powerhouses... huh." He muttered to himself....In the heart of the battlefield, deathly silence prevailed.Dust and gunpowder smoke slowly settled, revealing the devastated earth.Zoro and Sanji stood back-to-back, their rapid breathing jarring in the stillness.Blood seeped from every wound on their bodies, dripping down their torn clothes and blooming into dark flowers on the scorched earth.Sanji barely managed to raise a trembling hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes remained locked on the ruins ahead, where ominous flames and thick smoke churned. His voice was hoarse and exhausted:"That old lion... he couldn't still be getting up, could he?"The vitality of a legendary monster was far more terrifying than anticipated.They had poured everything into it, draining the last ounce of their strength and Haki.The answer came in the form of a bone-chilling grinding sound emerging from the depths of hell."Hah... hah...""I really... didn't expect this..."The hoarse, cracked voice, like sandpaper rubbing against rotten wood, crawled out slowly from the depths of the smoke and flames, word by word.The voice was soaked in the resentment accumulated over years, the hatred of a fallen hegemon, and the overwhelming fury of being cornered by two "juniors."Whoosh!A violent blast of air suddenly exploded, scattering most of the smoke.The figure revealed caused the pupils of Zoro and Sanji to shrink abruptly.Shiki, the once-renowned "Golden Lion," no longer possessed the arrogant posture of a warlord.His signature golden hair, which reached the ground, was mostly scorched and curled, draped over his shoulders like withered weeds.The clothes on his upper body had long since turned into tattered rags, barely hanging onto his bloodied frame.His exposed skin showed ominous purple-black decay, with deep, bone-exposing wounds crisscrossing his body; in some places, one could even see the slightly reflective bone.His once-sturdy physique now appeared abnormally gaunt and hunched, yet it radiated a beastly aura even more dangerous and insane than in his prime.He was like a demon crawling out of an abyss of blood, having endured countless tortures without dying—tragic, hideous, yet containing the final, heart-stopping silence before destruction."Heh..."A very light, almost self-deprecating scoff spilled from his cracked lips.Then, the laughter spiraled out of control, surging from the depths of his throat like a bursting dam."Hehehe... Hahahaha... Jihahahaha hahahaha!!!!"The voice rose rapidly from a low, hoarse rasp into a wild laugh that tore through the sky.He tilted his head back, veins bulging on his neck, and his wounds sprayed even more blood with the laughter, yet he remained oblivious."You really did it... you damn brats!!!"The laughter stopped abruptly. He lowered his head, his eyes burning with a crimson light, locking onto the two of them. That gaze nearly turned into a tangible curse."It seems... my glorious life," he slowly raised his hand, his blood-stained fingers touching the old ship's wheel deeply embedded in his skull, "...can only go this far."His tone was terrifyingly calm, yet more unsettling than any roar.The next moment, under the gaze of Zoro and Sanji, whose nerves were suddenly taut, the Golden Lion's eyes became incredibly resolute and insane!"Since that's the case..."His five fingers gripped the edge of the ship's wheel, the symbol of his defeat and humiliation, and his arm muscles bulged!"Then let this sky... be my final tombstone!!!"Splurt!Amidst a tooth-aching muffled sound, the ship's wheel, mixed with dark red blood clots and bone fragments, was ripped out from the top of his head!Blood sprayed like a fountain from the huge wound on his head, instantly staining most of his body and the ground beneath his feet.However, the moment this self-mutilating act was completed!Boom!!!!An indescribable, terrifying presence, like an ancient beast waking from a deep slumber, erupted from the center of the Golden Lion!Substantial black-red Conqueror's Haki turned into countless thick bolts of lightning, dancing, surging, and exploding crazily!The sky was instantly dyed dark red, the earth cracked into deeper ravines in its wailing, and the entire archipelago of floating islands trembled violently under this pure, destructive will, as if an apocalyptic hell had descended!The cigarette in Sanji's mouth flickered violently.He remained expressionless, taking a deep drag to let the spicy nicotine numb the stinging in his nerves.Smoke exhaled slowly from his nose. His voice remained steady under the pressure of the Haki, but carried unprecedented gravity:"Looks like... the old man is starting to burn through everything he has left."This scale, this quality, this Conqueror's Haki that seemed to want to drag the whole world into the abyss...He had only felt such pressure from one person—their Captain, Monkey D. Luffy.That was the ultimate aura of an "Emperor" who truly stood at the pinnacle of the sea!"A legend is a legend after all," he added, his tone complex. "Even when the lamp is out of oil, he can still erupt with this level of power."The Oni Aura and Advanced Armament Haki on Zoro's three swords had long since dissipated, and his arm tremors were hard to suppress due to extreme exhaustion.He very slowly sheathed his three famous blades one by one.The collision of the tsuba and the scabbard made a light, clear "click." In this violent storm of Haki, it sounded like a silent declaration.Zoro slowly lifted his lowered head, sweat and blood dripping from his chin.There was no fear or retreat in his eyes, only bottomless calm, and beneath that calm, an extreme focus on this "finale of a legend" before him.The fountain of blood on the Golden Lion's head was still gushing, yet he seemed to feel no pain. He opened his arms, embracing the world he had dyed red with his Haki, and let out a final roar that echoed through the sky:"Come on!!! Let you brats of the new era see... how big a wave the remnants of the old era can stir up at the end!!!"The earth let out an unbearable moan. Countless chunks of land were ripped from the island's foundation by an invisible giant hand—rocks, soil, broken ancient trees...All tangible objects were captured by a power as immense as a tsunami, breaking free from the shackles of gravity and surging crazily toward the sky.Finally, in the reflection of Zoro and Sanji's constricted pupils, they coalesced into a terrifying creation that blotted out the sun!A rock giant lion, hundreds of meters tall, composed of fragments of the entire floating island!It stood silently beneath the firmament, its hollow eye sockets burning with the black-red lightning of the Golden Lion's will. Its mere existence radiated an oppressive force capable of crushing everything, as if a mythical beast that devours heaven and earth had descended.It slowly lowered its head, locking onto the two exhausted figures below. The raised "front paw" carried the shadow of an island-destroying blow, about to strike."Tsk tsk."A slightly frivolous clicking of the tongue, completely out of place with this destructive scene, sounded without warning.The very instant the sound occurred, a figure appeared abruptly and unreasonably in the void between the towering stone lion and the two, as if tearing through the curtain of space.The straw hat fluttered, and the figure stood tall.Monkey D. Luffy pulled his right arm back. From the forearm to the fist, deep, ink-like Armament Haki with a metallic luster coiled in layers, compressed to the extreme, like a living creature!Within that blackness, an indescribable, higher-level pressure faintly emanated."Hey, old man..."He tilted his head slightly, his gaze piercing through the rock giant lion like a sharp arrow, shooting directly at the blood-drenched, roaring Golden Lion behind it.The corner of his mouth curled into a fearless, even eager arc."You can't just... bully my crewmates like this!!!"The moment the words fell, he threw his fist!Rumble!!!!Wherever the fist touched, the space in front seemed to freeze, and then was forcibly "pushed" into collapse and explosion by pure, extreme physical strength!A hemispherical, visible transparent shockwave exploded, slamming into the giant paw of the rock lion and its entire head!Crack—Rumble!!!!The rock strata capable of supporting an island were as fragile as sand sculptures in the face of this impact.The contact point instantly turned into powder. The wave of destruction spread backward with unstoppable force. The giant lion's head, neck, and upper body... shattered and exploded section by section!The sky was filled with rock fragments ground into the finest dust, like a gray blizzard.One punch, just one punch, and the seemingly unstoppable creation of the end was half destroyed, its movements completely frozen.Luffy retracted his fist, shook his wrist, breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to Zoro and Sanji behind him, a brilliant and slightly smug smile on his face:"Yo! Good work! Leave the rest to me..."His words stopped abruptly.The smile froze on his face, replaced by a rare, extreme shock.Almost at the same instant he destroyed the stone lion!!Zoom—Boom!!!A dazzling golden beam, moving too fast for thought to catch, like a sword of divine punishment, struck straight down from the high firmament!It bypassed the trajectory of Luffy's fist wind with extreme precision and, at a speed and angle defying physical common sense, slammed fiercely into the twin blades "oto" and "Koku" that the Golden Lion was blocking with in front of him!Clang!!!!The golden light shattered into countless particles of light. The powerful impact caused the already crumbling Golden Lion to shake violently, his arms groaning under the unbearable load!"Ugh...!" Golden Lion groaned, the blood-red color in his eyes deepening."Kowa-ine..."A slow, leisurely voice with a unique inflection and undisguised sarcasm sounded, accompanied by falling particles of light."As expected of a legend who fought the Pirate King~ To fight to this point and still have such a dangerous aura, how scary~"His yellow striped suit was impeccable, and his snow-white Admiral cloak fluttered in the air currents stirred by his own energy.He tilted his head slightly, his brown sunglasses reflecting the phantasmagoria of the ruins and the sky below, a consistent, inscrutable, half-smiling arc hanging at the corner of his mouth.One of the highest combat powers of Marineford, codenamed "Kizaru," Borsalino.His seemingly relaxed words had just fallen when the right foot glowing with dazzling light, pressed against the Golden Lion's twin blades, not only didn't weaken but surged in power in an instant!"However, that's as far as it goes~"Hum—Boom!!A more intense and condensed golden light erupted!"Arghhhh!!!"Golden Lion finally could not withstand the attack that combined speed and power, a light-speed heavy kick.The twin blades were forcibly knocked away, blood sprayed wildly from his mouth, and his broken body was kicked fiercely toward the depths of the ruins below like a kite with a broken string, kicking up even more smoke.Kizaru slowly retracted his foot, his body naturally turning in the air. His gaze first swept over the battle-ready Zoro and Sanji below, and finally landed on the young man wearing a straw hat, whose expression had changed from stunned to sharp scrutiny.Particles of light jumped and flickered at his fingertips."My, my..."He drew out his tone, his gaze behind the lenses unfathomable."It seems I have interrupted your 'reunion'~""However, the 'game' that follows...""Can you let me join in too?""Straw Hat... Luffy."