Marco's unique Phoenix flames possessed another extraordinary quality—
They were an unmatched weapon for large-scale healing.
Wherever those blazing blue flames passed, critically wounded members of the Guard Corps began recovering at a visible rate.
Open wounds rapidly closed.
Faces that had been pale from blood loss gradually regained their color.
As strength returned to their bodies, the fire of battle reignited in their eyes, and without hesitation, they threw themselves back into the fight.
At the same time, Vista displayed his own extraordinary combat skill.
His twin swords flashed rapidly through the air, their edges gleaming with cold light.
The beautiful, sweeping sword energy he had used before was gone.
Now, every slash had undergone a fundamental change.
They had become incredibly concentrated.
Each black flying slash resembled a solid blade, packed with terrifying destructive power.
They pierced through layer after layer of dark defenses with ease, slicing through heavily armored Marines as cleanly as a knife through butter.
Men and armor alike were cut down as blood sprayed across the battlefield.
Kingdew, Squard, and the other commanders in their hybrid dragon forms were even more terrifying.
They had become moving fortresses of war.
They rampaged through the Marine formations without restraint, leaving devastation everywhere they passed.
Their razor-sharp claws and powerful dragon tails carried crushing force with every strike.
The defenses of ordinary Marine soldiers, no matter how solid they seemed, might as well have been sheets of paper before them.
One blow was enough to tear them apart.
With the arrival of these top-tier fighters, the pressure on the Divine Kingdom's Guard Corps immediately plummeted.
The fear and despair that had begun spreading among the Guardsmen disappeared, replaced by surging morale and renewed determination.
Their blood boiled.
With battle cries on their lips, they launched a ferocious counterattack and surged toward the Marines like an incoming tide, determined to crush them completely.
Everything had entered the final, most violent stage of the battle.
"It's over, Marines!"
Marco's powerful voice thundered into the sky.
He hovered high above the battlefield like a god overlooking the war beneath him.
His hawk-sharp eyes swept coldly across the Marine forces already beginning to collapse.
The chill in that gaze almost seemed capable of freezing the air itself.
A breeze tugged at his clothes, but Marco paid it no attention.
He simply watched.
Then he drew a deep breath.
His chest expanded as though he were pulling the strength of the entire world into his body.
Marco spread both arms wide.
The blue flames burning around him suddenly changed.
The familiar azure color vanished in an instant.
In its place came a deep, scorching crimson—
The color of molten lava from the depths of hell.
This transformation was no accident.
Through an exceptionally difficult and specialized method, Marco had learned to reproduce one of Akainu's most terrifying styles of attack.
"PHOENIX CRY!!!"
Marco threw back his head and roared.
His voice exploded across the battlefield like the tolling of an enormous bell.
Then both fists punched violently toward the sky.
BOOM—!
Countless enormous magma fists erupted around him like a volcano exploding all at once.
Flames and thick smoke surged upward and swallowed the sky.
The magma fists shot high into the heavens at incredible speed, leaving blazing trails of light behind them.
Then they turned.
Like a dense meteor shower carrying apocalyptic destructive force, they came screaming down toward the elite Marines regrouping across the beach in preparation for another charge.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Explosions erupted one after another.
The entire beach shook violently beneath the bombardment, as though the earth itself were trembling in terror.
Every impact threw towering clouds of smoke and sand into the air.
The scene resembled the end of the world.
Massive magma fists crashed densely into the Marine ranks and instantly transformed the beach into a sea of fire.
Explosions and splashing molten rock inflicted catastrophic damage.
The Marines who had only just reached the shore and had not even finished reforming their ranks were caught completely off guard by the disaster-level assault.
Screams immediately filled the air.
Casualties mounted at a horrifying rate.
"RETREAT! RETREAT!"
The desperate cries carried nothing but terror.
"We can't hold them!"
That shout spread like a wave through the beachhead until it seemed to come from everywhere at once.
The battlefield now truly resembled an apocalypse.
The Divine Kingdom commanders tore through the Marines like death gods unleashed from hell, every attack carrying overwhelming force.
And Marco's Phoenix Cry was even worse.
It descended upon the battlefield like a genuine natural disaster.
Scorching magma rained from above, devouring everything it touched.
The surrounding air distorted beneath the unbearable heat, hissing as though it were being burned alive.
Under the combined terror of the commanders' assault and Marco's massive bombardment, the psychological defenses of the once-disciplined elite Marines finally shattered.
There was no fighting spirit left in their eyes.
Only fear.
Only panic.
The survivors no longer cared about formations or orders.
One thought remained in their minds—
Escape.
They fled like terrified animals, throwing aside helmets and armor as they ran.
Some even abandoned their weapons entirely.
They sprinted desperately toward the sea.
Upon reaching the water, they jumped in without hesitation.
The freezing seawater did nothing to cool the terror in their hearts.
They kicked and clawed their way through the waves, struggling with everything they had to reach the distant warships that represented safety.
Every face was twisted with fear.
Every pair of eyes reflected the desperate instinct to survive.
Behind them, the beach had become a scene from hell.
Flames raged across the shoreline, heating the sand until it seemed ready to melt.
The glow of the inferno painted half the sky crimson.
Countless charred bodies lay scattered everywhere, some still frozen in the positions of their final desperate struggles.
It was a brutal testament to the cruelty of the war.
The fifty thousand elite Marines who had once marched forward with overwhelming confidence had completely lost their former discipline.
After the Divine Kingdom commanders entered the main battlefield, those soldiers had gone from an imposing army to helpless prey before giants.
At a terrifying speed, their offensive had turned into defeat—
And defeat into total rout.
...
The battle between Jozu and Kizaru had already reached its most intense stage, turning their corner of the battlefield into a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.
Jozu's awakened Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit granted him nearly unrivaled defensive power, transforming his body into an impregnable diamond fortress. At the same time, his control over light had reached an extraordinary level, as though light itself had become something he could manipulate at will.
With those two overwhelming advantages, Jozu was gradually gaining the upper hand.
His diamond body gleamed with a cold, mysterious brilliance, allowing him to withstand Kizaru's devastating lasers head-on without fear. More than that, Jozu could use the unique properties of his body to precisely refract and absorb incoming light.
Part of the destructive energy contained within Kizaru's attacks was even converted into power for Jozu himself.
Because of that, Kizaru's greatest advantages—his astonishing speed and terrifying light-speed kicks—continued running into one obstacle after another, never achieving the results he expected.
"Kizaru! Your light has lost all meaning before me!"
Jozu's booming voice echoed across the battlefield.
His enormous diamond body refracted the sunlight into countless brilliant colors, beautiful enough to dazzle the eye, yet beneath that splendor lay a chilling killing intent.
Kizaru had just completed another light-speed movement and materialized again when the tiniest opening appeared.
Jozu caught it instantly.
His right fist rose, completely coated in top-tier Armament Haki.
Scorching light energy absorbed from Kizaru's previous attacks surged around his knuckles, while the distinctive white halo of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit wrapped around the same fist.
The two powers merged together, releasing a terrifying amount of destructive energy.
Jozu punched.
"Diamond: Tremor-Light Impact!"
His fist shot forward like a comet tearing through the night sky.
The speed of the attack exceeded even Kizaru's prediction, while its power had been compressed to an unprecedented degree.
The space around Jozu's fist shook violently as though being crushed and twisted by an invisible hand.
Even the normally straight path of light distorted around it, as if the punch itself were powerful enough to scatter light from its path.
The compressed air screamed around the blow.
Dust erupted from the ground.
The entire battlefield seemed to convulse beneath its force.
Kizaru's pupils contracted sharply.
For perhaps the first time during their fight, genuine danger flashed through his eyes.
He instinctively brought his glowing sword across his body.
"Ama no Murakumo Sword!"
At the same time, he pushed the Glint-Glint Fruit to its limit.
Brilliant golden light enveloped his body as Kizaru attempted to turn elemental and slip away once more.
But Jozu's awakened diamond field had already interfered with the surrounding light far more severely than Kizaru had anticipated.
Within that strange domain, light itself had become distorted and chaotic.
It was like an invisible net wrapped around Kizaru, drastically slowing the process of turning his body into light.
Every time he attempted to disperse, the warped field dragged his light particles back out of alignment.
For the first time, his elemental transformation felt sluggish.
Too sluggish.
BOOM—CRACK!!!
The Ama no Murakumo Sword, reinforced with powerful Armament Haki, met Jozu's diamond fist head-on.
It shattered.
The cracking sound rang through the battlefield like a funeral bell announcing the collapse of Kizaru's defense.
Then the full force of Jozu's attack came through.
Tremor power.
Top-tier Haki.
Absorbed light energy.
All three crashed through Kizaru's defenses like a tidal wave and slammed directly into his chest.
"Ugh…!"
A muffled groan escaped him.
The lazy, teasing expression that almost never left Kizaru's face vanished immediately, replaced by pain and shock.
His body was launched backward as though he had been struck head-on by a Sea Train traveling at full speed.
Blood burst from his mouth, drawing a crimson arc through the air.
Kizaru flew through several Marine warships in succession, smashing through towering masts and reinforced decks.
Wood splintered.
Metal twisted.
Debris exploded everywhere he passed.
Only after crashing deep into a field of wreckage did he finally manage to stop himself.
Kizaru dropped onto one knee.
His legs trembled beneath him.
Both hands clutched at his chest, which had visibly caved inward beneath the impact.
He coughed violently, flecks of blood spilling from his lips with every breath.
His iconic yellow-striped suit was torn and shredded, exposing bruised and battered skin beneath it.
Blood remained smeared across the corner of his mouth.
There was little left of his usual carefree appearance.
Across the battlefield, Jozu remained exactly where he had thrown the punch.
He stood like an immovable mountain.
Sunlight and drifting smoke reflected across his diamond body, causing every facet to shine with dazzling brilliance.
Yet there was nothing beautiful about the gaze he directed toward the wounded Admiral.
Jozu's eyes were cold and razor-sharp as they locked onto Kizaru in the distance.
The killing intent behind them seemed powerful enough to freeze the very air.