White lava erupted from beneath his feet.
1800 degrees Celsius.
Ron didn't take the stairs, didn't go through the elevator shaft.
He pushed upwards with his right palm.
A column of white lava pierced through the ceiling of the 70th floor.
Reinforced concrete was like paper before 1800 degrees. Floor slabs melted through. The floor tiles on the 71st floor shattered. The white column continued upwards, burning through the 72nd, 73rd floors—each barrier turning into a scalding liquid mixture the moment it touched the white lava, flowing down the edge of the column.
Jessica grabbed Ron's back.
A cloak wrapped around her, shielding her from the deadly radiant heat.
The two were lifted by the force of the lava column.
Vertically upwards.
The 75th floor. The 80th floor. The 85th floor.
With each floor slab penetrated, fragments of rubble and molten metal flew in all directions.
The upper half of the Fisk Tower, viewed from the outside—the windows of the entire building shattered, starting from the 70th floor. Shards of glass scattered across the night sky, swirling in updrafts to form a silvery waterfall.
Red light shot from the broken window frames.
Then it turned white.
A white beam of light shot skyward from the top of the building.
Pedestrians on 47th Street in Manhattan stopped and looked up at the beam. The electronic screens in Times Square were distorted by the white light. Cars on the Brooklyn Bridge slowed down.
Half of New York City saw it.
The top of the Fisker Building was erupting.
Ninety-three floors.
Ron's body exploded from the floor.
The white lava receded the moment he landed, solidifying into a ring of black basalt that covered a three-meter radius around his feet.
Jessica jumped down from behind him, landing on the edge of the basalt.
Ron looked up.
The ninety-third floor was a vast, open space. All the floor-to-ceiling windows were shattered, and the night wind rushed in from all directions, scattering documents and shards of glass on the floor.
Right in the center.
A metal chair.
Lin Xiaowei was strapped to it.
Her gray prison uniform had been replaced with a clean white dress—Kingpin had given her. Silver-gray duct tape sealed her mouth. Her short hair clung messily to her cheeks.
She was trembling.
But a white light emanated from her. An extremely faint white light seeped from her skin, enveloping her torso and limbs.
It was her body instinctively resisting fear.
Ron's gaze shifted from Lin Xiaowei.
Before the floor-to-ceiling window.
Wilson Fisk stood with his back to him.
Two meters and five centimeters. Two hundred kilograms. A white custom-made suit stretched taut over his body, his shoulders bulging with muscle. Twelve percent body fat.
He turned around.
His right hand wore a silver-gray powered exoskeleton glove, the servo motors at the knuckles humming low. His left hand gripped a white cane, a vibranium blade concealed beneath the silver decoration at the top.
Three men stood behind Kingpin.
On the left, a Hydra scientist in a white lab coat held a portable device half a meter tall—a dimensional scanner. Three antennas at the top of the device were pointed directly at the basalt beneath Ron's feet.
On the right, two bodyguards, nearly the size of the Winter Soldier, stood guard. The veins in their necks bulged like earthworms, and the muscles beneath their skin were abnormally developed. They were products of the latest version of the Super Soldier Serum.
Kingpin looked at Ron.
"You burned down thirty floors of my building." His right index finger moved inside his exoskeleton glove, causing the servo motor's hum to rise a notch.
"The repairs alone will cost two hundred million dollars." Ron didn't look at him.
Ron was looking at Lin Xiaowei.
The girl's eyes were red-rimmed. Beneath the duct tape, her mouth moved. She couldn't speak. Ropes had drawn blood from her wrists. White light flickered around her.
Ron's gaze returned to Kingpin.
"One last time. Let her go." Kingpin smiled. His two-hundred-kilogram body remained motionless, only the muscles in his lips and cheeks moved. There was no warmth in his smile.
"You have no right to give orders in my building, Your Honor."
He slammed his cane on the ground. The end of the cane struck the marble shards with a crisp sound.
"Here—I am the law."
Ron closed his eyes.
Fifty-five seconds.
He opened them.
That surge of energy welled up from his chest. Not magma. Not Armament Haki. Not Observation Haki.
Something deeper.
Emerging from the deepest recesses of his soul—will.
No words needed. No movements needed.
A shockwave rippled outwards from Ron's body.
Invisible. Silent.
Two enhanced bodyguards collapsed first.
The serum-enhanced muscles were useless. Legs went limp, foam spilled from the corners of their mouths, and the backs of their heads slammed into the marble floor. Eyes rolled back. Not even a twitch. A direct overload. Blood gushed from the Hydra scientist's nose and ears simultaneously. The dimensional scanner slipped from his hand, shattering into three pieces on the floor. He staggered back two steps, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor, motionless.
[Conqueror's Haki - Awakened.]
[Conqueror's Haki - Beginner Stage Unlocked.] All the remaining glass shards on the ninety-third floor were reduced to dust in the shockwave.
A night wind rushed in.
The chandeliers on the entire floor shattered simultaneously, fragments falling everywhere.
Two ropes on Lin Xiaowei's chair snapped in the shockwave. White light enveloped her even more tightly. She didn't lose consciousness—her SSS-level willpower had blocked the collateral damage from Conqueror's Haki.
Jin didn't fall.
His entire body trembled violently. Blood flowed from his left nostril, trickling into the corner of his mouth. The servo motors of the powered exoskeleton glove emitted a sharp overload sound, the metal skeleton operating at full power to keep his legs from bending.
His teeth clenched so tightly they were grinding. A vein throbbed three times in his temple.
But he stood.
"You… what kind of monster are you…" Kingpin forced a smile through the blood mist.
"But you know what—" he spat out the blood, enunciating each word clearly, "When I was nine, I was scavenging in the slums' garbage dumps. My father beat my mother with a bottle. I smashed his skull with a hammer."
He crushed the white casing of his cane. The vibranium blade was revealed, gleaming coldly in the night wind.
"Building this empire from scratch. The number of times I've knelt—I can count them on one hand."
He inhaled the blood-stained air.
"Your 'will'—can't break me." Kingpin took a step forward.
The five fingers of the powered exoskeleton glove snapped shut simultaneously, the servo motors blazing at full power—five tons of output force concentrated in a single fist.
A punch aimed at Ron's face.
Two hundred kilograms of weight plus a five-ton mechanical arm. The speed wasn't fast. But the force was immense, the force of the punch sending shards of glass flying within a three-meter radius.
Ron met the punch with his right fist.
Armament Haki applied. Flowing Sakura infused.
The two fists collided.
A sonic boom.
The shockwave exploded from the point of impact, marble tiles shattering outwards from the center of the collision, cracks extending ten meters to the base of the wall.
Two alloy knuckles of the exoskeleton glove snapped in the impact. The hum of the servo motor abruptly changed, rising from a low frequency to a piercing shriek—overload.
Kingpin's right arm was thrown back by the recoil.
His entire arm swung in the air, a screw snapping off the metal hinge of his elbow.
But his feet didn't retreat.
His entire 200 kilograms of weight pressed into the balls of his feet, the soles of his shoes grinding against the shattered marble with a dull thud.
Standing.
Relying solely on his skeleton and weight. Standing.
Ron raised his left hand.
Magma gushed from between his five fingers.
Not orange-red. White. 1800 degrees Celsius.
His left hand directly enveloped the outer shell of Kingpin's exoskeleton glove.
The instant the white magma touched the silver-gray alloy, the alloy surface reddened, softened, and began to flow. The hum of the servo motors turned into the scream of metal being torn apart.
Kingpin's right hand was scorched inside the exoskeleton.
His skin blistered. Muscle fibers contracted under the intense heat.
He groaned, jerking his right arm back violently. A semi-molten remnant of the exoskeleton emerged from the glove opening, along with a layer of charred skin.
Ron didn't give him a chance to retreat.
His right fist followed.
Ryuo at full power.
The fist slammed into Kingpin's abdomen.
Two hundred kilograms of muscle were not armor before Ryuo—they were a medium. Shockwaves poured in from the surface of his abdominal wall, penetrating the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and internal oblique muscles, reaching his internal organs.
Three ribs shattered. The capsule of his right kidney ruptured from the shock.
Kingpin coughed up blood. He flew seven meters backward, his back smashing through the marble bar counter behind him. Bottles, glasses, and an ice bucket splattered from the counter.
Ron withdrew his fist.
He walked towards Lin Xiaowei.
A thin layer of lava seeped from his right hand as he pressed it against the rope on the chair armrest. The rope turned to ash in the intense heat.
Lin Xiaowei lunged at him.
Her arms wrapped around Ron's waist, her face buried in his chest. Her whole body trembled. Half of the duct tape had been rubbed off, revealing lips that were silently weeping.
Ron's right hand pressed against the back of her head.
Three seconds.
He handed Lin Xiaowei to Jessica behind him.
Jessica took the girl, her arms tightening around her. Lin Xiaowei then wrapped her arms around Jessica's neck, burying her face in the crook of her shoulder.
Jessica carried her back towards the elevator shaft.
She took two steps back, then stopped.
"Kidnapping a sixteen-year-old girl," Jessica said through gritted teeth without turning around. "He should rot in that pit for ten thousand years." Ron didn't reply.
The sound of rubble rolling came from the ruins of the bar counter.
Kingpin crawled out from under the shattered marble slab. The front of his white suit was soaked in blood, turning dark red. The skin on his right hand was charred, and his fingers were curled.
He used his left hand to push himself up, inching to his feet.
The vibranium blade was still clutched in his left hand.
A rib on his right side was broken, and each breath produced a soft grinding sound. Internal bleeding from a ruptured right kidney was gradually numbing his lower body.
But he stood up.
Kingpin raised his head, his teeth covered in blood.
His pride wouldn't allow him to kneel.
Ron walked towards him.
The system panel popped up on the right side of his vision, displaying the trial interface.
[Wilson Fisk. Sin Value: 12000] [Murder, murder-for-hire, drug trafficking, human trafficking, $3 billion money laundering, bribing three federal judges—]
[Criminal counts: 147.]
"Wilson Fisk. Kingpin." Ron stood before him.
Kingpin raised the vibranium blade in his left hand, aiming for Ron's throat.
Ron extended two fingers.
His Armament Haki-hardened index and middle fingers clamped the blade.
The vibranium remained motionless between his two fingers.
Kingpin's left arm muscles were stretched to their limit. The blade didn't advance a millimeter.
Ron twisted his two fingers.
The blade snapped off the staff handle.
"147." Ron tossed the broken blade to the ground. "Each one is enough to kill you ten times over." A dark red vortex cracked open from the ground beneath Kingpin's feet.
Kingpin looked down at the swirling spatial rift beneath his feet. Heat waves surged up from the rift—Level 4 of Impel Down, the scorching hell, a constant temperature above two hundred degrees Celsius. His body began to sink.
Ankles. Calves. Knees.
King didn't struggle.
He looked up, staring at Ron.
"This city will have a new Kingpin."
His lips twitched.
"And you—you'll never be a good judge." The vortex submerged his chest, chin, and lips.
Finally, his eyes surfaced.
No fear. Only resentment.
The vortex closed.
[Wilson Fisk successfully imprisoned. Impel Down Level 4 imprisonment: 1/10.]
[Sin Value +12000. Justice Value +15000. Total Justice Value: 17400.]
[Akainu template synchronization rate surged—current synchronization rate: 40%.]
[Conqueror's Haki - Beginner Unlocked.]
[Transcendental Source "Ultimate Willpower - Limitless Physical Ability" extracted. Put into the Devil Fruit Furnace—Smelting options loading…] Ron didn't have time to finish reading.
Outside the ninety-third floor.
Three blinding white spotlights shone simultaneously, illuminating the entire floor from three directions, leaving no room for concealment.
The roar of engines converged from the south, west, and east.
Three Quinjet fighters hovered outside the shattered windows of the ninety-third floor of the Fisk Building. The swirling air from their rotors sent shards of glass and documents flying everywhere.
A loudspeaker blared.
A cold female voice—not Natasha Romanoff.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Operations Group."
"Unknown entity inside the Fisk Building. You are surrounded."
"Drop your weapons and put your hands behind your head. Otherwise, we will use lethal force." Ron stood in the center of the ruins on the ninety-third floor, the night wind billowing his white cloak.
His gaze pierced through the white light of the spotlights, locking onto the open hatch of the last fighter.
A figure stood at the edge of the hatch.
Blonde hair. Blue uniform.
He carried a round shield in his left hand.
Vibranium.
The Stars and Stripes paint reflected a cold blue arc of light under the spotlight.
Steve Rogers jumped down.