In the river of magma, Ace opened his eyes and looked upward.
The sky wasn't visible anymore — everything above him was a swirling haze of molten yellow and boiling heat.
Lava bubbled and churned around him, glowing like the belly of a dying sun.
But this magma didn't hurt Ace.
In the original story, Ace died to magma only because Akainu's magma was infused with Haki — Armament hardening that bypassed his Logia intangibility.
This magma, however, was just natural volcanic heat.
Pure nature.
Ace could still elementalize it.
He wasn't burned…
but it was uncomfortable, suffocating, and heavy.
Ace slowly looked around the magma basin.
A dull disappointment pressed on his heart.
He still couldn't defeat Blackbeard.
Even though his Stellar Heart Explosion had broken through the Black Hole…
Even though he knew that one more Stellar Heart Explosion might kill Blackbeard for real…
He had no stamina left.
His body trembled.
He might faint any moment.
Then—
Ace heard that laugh.
Blackbeard's voice.
Muffled through the magma, but unmistakable.
"Zehahahaha…"
Ace felt pure irritation shoot through him.
He knew Yamato was there.
He knew Garp was nearby.
They could capture Blackbeard if needed.
But that laugh…
that was something the old Ace deep inside him simply couldn't stand.
And then—
A thought sparked in his mind.
What if I use something different this time?
What if I use everything around me? Not my flame… but this entire volcano's heat?
Every Stellar Heart Explosion/Implosion he had ever used relied entirely on his own fire.
But what if he didn't?
What if this time, he pulled the volcanic fire, the lava's heat, the earth's own fury,
and used that to strike Blackbeard?
Ace gritted his teeth.
He raised one trembling hand…
And began pulling the heat around him —
gathering, compressing, forcing the natural volcanic energy together.
A small ball of fire slowly formed in his palm.
---
A minute passed just like that.
Ace's body began to burn —
even though he was fire, burn marks started carving themselves along his arm and shoulder.
The sheer heat he was gathering was beyond his limits, beyond the definition of his flames.
But in front of Ace's hand…
A white sphere of fire had taken shape.
So bright it looked like it was burning reality itself.
So hot that the lava around Ace began cooling, hardening, turning solid like cracked black glass. ( Well it absorbed all the surrounding heat )
Ace knew one thing —
If he gathered even a little more,
he wouldn't be able to control it.
His hand trembled violently.
So Ace focused.
He located Blackbeard through heat — not Observation Haki.
Even with his tired body, even half-buried in magma, he sensed him.
For a moment, Ace felt something new.
He could feel heat signatures clearly — every living being, every flicker, every breath.
It wasn't just Observation Haki.
It was as if the entire volcanic field was Ace himself.
He could appear anywhere.
Move anywhere.
The whole region bent to him.
A single thought rose in his mind —
a term he had only heard whispers of:
Awakening.
Logia Devil Fruit Awakening.
A power where the user's surroundings became a permanent extension of their ability.
Like Punk Hazard — where Akainu and Aokiji's clash changed half an island forever.
Half fire.
Half ice.
Permanent.
Ace felt that same sensation now —
a new energy flooding through him, reshaping everything around him into fire and heat and life.
He locked onto Blackbeard.
And—
Ace appeared right in front of him.
Blackbeard, who was trying to gather his own energy, froze.
A towering column of fire erupted in front of him—
and Ace stepped out of it, hand stretched behind him…
as if he were preparing to punch Blackbeard with everything he had left.
AWAKENING STELLARRRER HEARTTTT IMPLOSIONNNNN!!!!!!!
Blackbeard was shocked to see Ace still standing. For the first time, he felt a true crisis—
a sensation as if death itself was standing before him.
Desperate, Blackbeard unleashed every last bit of strength and Haki inside him, coating his arm with the swirling darkness of the Dark–Dark fruit.
He roared and threw a full-power punch straight at Ace.
But this time, Ace didn't defend like Blackbeard expected.
Instead, Ace vanished—his body scattering like disintegrating embers—only to reappear right beside Blackbeard's incoming punch. In the same instant, Ace drove his fist hard into Blackbeard's chest, aiming directly for his heart.
The moment Ace's punch landed…
nothing happened.
On the Going Merry, Luffy and the others, who had just felt the temperature around them cool down and were ready to fight Blackbeard to the death, froze in confusion.
Seeing Ace appear alive had reignited their motivation. Hearing him shout his next attack had made them believe the world itself might crack from that punch.
But then Ace effortlessly dodged Blackbeard's strike—leaving them awkward and speechless.
And when his punch hit Blackbeard and seemingly did nothing…
they wondered if Ace's attack had failed.
Blackbeard on the other hand remained silent for a few moments.
Then, slowly…
a smile crept across his face.
"Zehahahaha… So this is it, Portgas D Ace?
Pirate King Gol. D. Roger's son… you really did it. But don't fool yourself… my era doesn't end with me. Darkness spreads… with or without Teach."
Blood and sweat on Blackbeard's body started evaporating as if a drop of water has been sprinkled on a red hot pan.
"I bet you think this victory means something. But the world… the world is about to drown in chaos. And you… you're standing right in the center."
Ace didn't reply to Teach, just calmy watched the death of his enemy with his own eyes.
" Zehahahhahahahhahha— "
Blackbeard's laugh suddenly stopped mid-way.
And then—with Blackbeard's body as the center—a massive column of fire erupted upward. But this was no ordinary pillar of flame. It looked as though the gates of hell had been torn open. Above, the clouds darkened and shifted into a deep, violent red, as if the sky itself was transforming into an inferno.
Within moments, the entire island vanished inside the blazing vortex.
A red pillar hundreds of meters high connected the ocean and the sky.
The Going Merry was blasted backward once again, thrown hundreds of meters away. It survived only because Yamato held it steady.
Everyone stared at what used to be an island—now nothing more than a towering crimson flame stretching endlessly upward.
Even Garp was shocked. A strike of this magnitude… even he, Garp the Hero, would have needed to go all out to achieve something like this. And Ace had done it at the age of nineteen or twenty.
Then Garp burst out laughing.
"You really are his son, huh?"
" Bwahahahahhaha "
---
Inside the inferno, as Ace watched Blackbeard's body crumble into ashes, he lifted his head. In the blazing sky above, he felt as if something was calling to him—or conveying something only he could understand. And suddenly, a laugh escaped his lips.
"Yahahaha!"
" Yahahahhhaaahahhahahahha"
He laughed inside the column of fire, and everyone outside heard it clearly, as though he was speaking directly into a microphone.
Luffy and the others felt relieved… though completely confused about why Ace was laughing.
Then Ace emerged from the pillar.
His entire body was steaming like he was in Gear Second. His right arm glowed red, the skin charred and spreading toward his shoulder and half his chest—but he didn't care. His upper clothes had burned away completely. His pants, however, remained intact.
(Well, what logic can you expect in a world where someone can breathe fire just by eating a fruit? Kaido's clothes didn't burst when he transformed into a dragon either.)
---
Ace summoned a pair of flaming wings behind him, flew straight toward the Going Merry, and landed lightly on its deck.
He smiled at Luffy.
"Luffy, so… how was the fight?"
Luffy's eyes sparkled with stars as she shouted, "Ace! You're too strong—and that last attack was so cooooollll"
Ace smiled and then looked towards another direction and said to Luffy
"Luffy… looks like we'll have to part ways soon."
Luffy was confused as they hadn't been together for even two hours.
" Ace are you leaving so soon?
Let's have a party tonight.
You can go after the party."
Luffy looked at Ace as if he would not take NO for an answer.
" Well, Grandpa is here."
" What, how is he here. Ace we have to escape."
"I'll help you escape from Gramps, one last time."
Ace forced a bright smile, though his eyes softened with something heavier.
"After that… you'll be on your own again."
He reached out and flicked Luffy's forehead gently.
"Take care of yourself, okay? Don't push too hard. And don't cry when I'm not around."
After saying this, Ace didn't give luffy any time to react to her own words.
"Well, Yamato… we also have to go our own way," Ace said softly.
Yamato nodded firmly, understanding more than she let show. She stepped onto the ship's railing and jumped off the Going Merry. Ace rose into the air beside her, wings of fire flaring open.
In Ace's hand, a fiery spear began to form—dense, bright, and spinning like molten metal.
AWAKENING: SCORCHING FIRE SPEAR
He hurled it down toward the seabed as if he carried a lifelong grudge against the ocean itself.
The sea beneath the Going Merry began to boil instantly. Steam roared upward, waves twisted wildly, and then—
BOOM!
Just like the Knock-Up Stream that once sent them to Skypiea, a massive pillar of pressure blasted upward, launching the Going Merry straight into the sky.
Ace cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted to Luffy.
" Luffy, I will become the next Pirate King."
Luffy, standing at the bow smiled and also shouted
" ACE, I will become the next King of Pirates."
He smiled, wide and bright,
"And—!!"
His voice was swallowed as the Going Merry shot upward, soaring into the the clouds.
At that exact moment, Garp's warship crashed through the waves and arrived.
"Ace!!" Garp yelled, but the shout came a second too late.
Ace only smiled. He wrapped his arms around Yamato, lifting her into a princess carry, wings blazing like twin suns behind him.
"Thanks for coming, Old man!" Ace shouted. "We'll meet again!"
And then—
BOOOOM!
A pillar of fire erupted beneath Ace, and he shot upward like a fighter jet, streaking into the sky until he was nothing but a fading spark of flame.
Garp stared blankly for a moment… and then chuckled.
"Hmph… really a good escape."
He sighed, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well, Pirate Portgas D. Ace escaped. Flew away. Can't do a damn thing about that."
He turned to his adjutant.
"But we can't just sit here for days and do nothing. Sengoku will tear up my vacation forms again."
Garp pointed toward the chaos left behind.
"Capture the rest of the Blackbeard Pirates. And every pirate around who came to nose around after the explosion."
The adjutant snapped to attention and began shouting orders as Marines swarmed the shore.
---