Chapter 26: The Golden Lion's Defeat
The world had been hollowed out.
In the aftermath of the apocalyptic clash between the flame sword and the Haki slash, reality seemed to warp. The ocean surface didn't just recede; it was violently displaced, pushed outward by a sphere of pure kinetic force until it formed a colossal, shimmering bowl of seawater. The walls of this liquid arena towered hundreds of meters high, held back by the lingering pressure of two conquering wills, creating a temporary, terrifying amphitheater in the middle of the ocean.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two figures materialized at the very bottom of this dry seabed, the damp coral and rock beneath their feet sizzling from the residual heat.
Shiki, the Golden Lion, stood panting. He was a completely different person from the arrogant pirate who had floated down from the sky moments ago. The casual disdain was gone, replaced by the savage desperation of a cornered beast.
His breathing was ragged, wheezing through his teeth. Blood from the self-inflicted wound on his forehead—where he had ripped out the steering wheel—streamed down his face, blinding one eye with a crimson veil. But he didn't wipe it away.
"Haa... Haa..."
He channeled every ounce of his remaining vitality. Thick, substantial, pitch-black Armament Haki flowed over his arms like liquid iron, solidifying into an armor harder than diamond. It didn't stop there. The Haki extended down to his legs, wrapping around the famous swords "Oto" and "Kogarashi" that replaced his feet, turning the blades into black voids that seemed to absorb the light.
He exuded an indestructible sense of power, but it was the power of a dying sun—violent, unstable, and terrifyingly bright before the end.
On the opposite side, Suzaku stood tall.
He had transformed into a living avatar of the Vermilion Bird. He wasn't just covered in fire; he was the fire.
However, the golden flames around him were not violently unleashed in a wild, uncontrolled inferno. Instead, they were extremely condensed, tightly coiling around his limbs and torso like a flowing, radiant liquid armor. The fire underwent extremely high-intensity compression and combustion, vibrating at a frequency that made the air around him hum. This compression provided him with explosive power and speed that defied the laws of physics.
Beneath the translucent golden flames, pitch-black Armament Haki covered his skin, forming a dual layer of absolute offense and defense. The heat and the Haki merged, creating a terrifying pressure that cracked the seabed beneath his boots.
There were no words. No taunts.
Without any hesitation, in this short-lived, peculiar underwater arena, Suzaku and the top-tier powerhouse Shiki once again clashed in the most pure and brutal manner!
BANG!
Shiki's sword-leg lashed out, a blur of black steel aiming for Suzaku's neck. Suzaku raised his forearm, blocking the strike.
The impact was deafening. It wasn't the sound of flesh hitting metal; it was the sound of a cannon firing at point-blank range.
BANG!
Shiki spun, his other leg slashing low. Suzaku leaped, spinning in the air, his heel crashing down onto Shiki's blocking wrists.
BANG!
They moved faster than sound, disappearing and reappearing in flashes of gold and black.
Each limb collision erupted with a heavy thud like a war drum beaten by a giant. The immense power caused scattered shockwaves to ripple through the compressed air, slamming into the walls of seawater surrounding them. The ocean water sprayed violently, turning into mist that was instantly evaporated by Suzaku's heat.
From a distance, from the deck of the Freedom rocking violently on the edge of the whirlpool, the fight looked like a kaleidoscope of violence.
Suzaku's figure, enveloped in golden flames, trailed brilliant and deadly fiery afterimages in the air due to his extreme speed. He looked like a phoenix burning and dancing in a deep pit, a streak of divine light intensely intertwining with Shiki's black figure, which stood as solid and unmoving as a mountain range.
"This weight... this is the weight of an era," Suzaku thought to himself as he parried another heavy blow.
Shiki's leg-sword slammed into his shoulder, the Haki clashing with a shower of sparks. His arm went slightly numb from the impact, the bones vibrating.
"I have to admit, this is the true strength of a legendary great pirate..."
Suzaku's eyes narrowed in focus. "Previously, he at most displayed the oppressive aura of a First Mate or a high-tier commander. But after breaking free from his self-imposed restraints, ripping out that limiter in his brain, and shaking off the rust of twenty years... the Golden Lion now... all three types of Haki have returned to their peak."
He gritted his teeth, pushing Shiki back with a burst of flame.
"He is undoubtedly a 'Yonko-level' existence standing at the pinnacle of this sea! Even injured, even old... a lion is still a lion."
Fierce fighting spirit burned in Suzaku's eyes, hotter than the flames adorning his body. Each direct clash with the Golden Lion gave him a deeper understanding of his own strength, a tempering of his soul.
"Indeed, only real combat, where life and death hang in the balance of a single millisecond, is the best teacher for honing strength."
He clearly felt that there was still a gap between himself and the opponent's peak combat power. Shiki's moves were honed over many years of bloodshed, instinctual and ruthless. Every strike aimed to kill, efficient and devoid of hesitation.
At this moment, Suzaku was mostly relying on the immense power granted by his Vermilion Bird Bloodline and his astonishingly resilient, superhuman physique to forcibly sustain himself. It was a battle of attrition, using his youth and regeneration to contend with the opponent's experience without falling behind.
However, under this immense pressure, something was changing.
The hammer of Shiki's attacks was forging Suzaku into something sharper.
His control over his recently surging power was becoming refined and condensed at an astonishing speed. The flames became hotter, the Haki denser.
What surprised him even more was that even his Observation Haki, which had been progressing slowly compared to his physical stats, found an opportunity for breakthrough in this extreme confrontation.
Flash.
He saw it. A phantom image of Shiki's leg moving before it actually moved.
The opponent's movements, the twitch of a muscle, the shift in weight, and the flow of his power were becoming increasingly clear in his perception!
He's going for the ribs.
On the other side, Golden Lion Shiki roared, his face twisted in exertion. He unleashed another heavy punch, his fist imbued with powerful Armament Haki, aiming exactly where Suzaku had predicted.
THUD!
Suzaku crossed his arms, absorbing the blow perfectly. He slid back several meters, his feet skidding on the coral, digging trenches into the seabed.
Shiki paused, his chest heaving. Sweat and blood mixed on his face, dripping onto his chest. His single eye gleamed with disbelief and a dawning horror.
"This brat...!" He was deeply shocked, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. "Not only is his Conqueror's Haki ridiculously strong, even the intensity of his Armament Haki is only slightly inferior to mine... And now? He's reacting faster?"
He realized with a jolt that his attacks were being predicted.
"Fortunately, his Observation Haki is still far from reaching a top-tier level... or so I thought."
But what truly alarmed Shiki was Suzaku's terrifying growth rate. It was visible to the naked eye.
"From initially only knowing how to rely on brute force and Devil Fruit abilities, to now having increasingly precise and seasoned execution of moves and timing... he's practically evolving in combat! He's learning from me! He's stealing my rhythm!"
A complex emotion welled up in Shiki's heart. It was a cocktail of awe, apprehension, and even a hint of indescribable envy.
"A terrifying brat... if I had such talent and strength at his age..."
Shiki's mind couldn't help but flash back. He saw the rain-slicked deck of a ship decades ago. He saw a man with a straw hat and a wide grin.
Roger.
The image of the Pirate King overlapped with the burning youth before him.
"Perhaps later... I really could have defeated Roger and ruled this world twenty years earlier!"
The fierce battle continued, lasting for an unknown duration. Time seemed to lose meaning in the vacuum of combat. Between the walls of the sea and the open sky, it seemed only the roar of their clashes and the overflowing energy currents remained.
However, the balance was shifting.
Golden Lion Shiki's offensive was still ferocious, his killing intent undimmed, but Suzaku keenly noticed a change.
The opponent's vast Haki, especially that which maintained his top-tier Armament Haki, was beginning to flicker. It showed signs of decline, like a candle burning low.
The cause was obvious. The dreadful, constantly bleeding wound on his head where the steering wheel had been was taking a catastrophic toll. Blood loss was draining him. The removal of the wheel had granted him a temporary burst of clarity and power, but it was a double-edged sword that was now killing him.
The prolonged, grueling battle greatly depleted his physical and mental strength. The weight of years and the backlash of old injuries quietly manifested at this moment. His breath was coming in ragged gasps. His movements were slowing by milliseconds.
For a master like Suzaku, a millisecond was an eternity.
"Now!"
A glint flashed in Suzaku's eyes as he seized the imperceptible moment of stagnation in the Golden Lion's Haki flow.
He suddenly clapped his hands together.
WHOOSH!
The surging golden Southern Bright Vermilion Fire around him furiously converged. It spiraled down from his shoulders, flowing like molten gold, and compressed into his palms at an unprecedented speed!
Ohm—!
A high-pitched resonance filled the air.
An extremely dazzling, yet seemingly shapeless, light sword suddenly formed in his hand. It wasn't solid metal; it was pure, concentrated plasma held together by will and Haki. The sword body was violently distorted by the extremely contained high temperature around it, looking like a blade made of the sun itself.
"Nirvana Sword: Shiranui!"
Suzaku roared, his figure transforming into a golden stream of light. He abandoned all defense, pouring everything into speed and offense.
He shot forward, the light sword in his hand aiming directly for a microscopic gap in Shiki's defense—a momentary opening under his left arm created by his exhaustion!
"You dare!"
Shiki roared, his survival instincts screaming. He twisted his body in mid-air, his leg-sword "Oto" hastily parrying.
CLANG-SIZZLE!
Although he barely blocked the main body of the light sword, the defense was imperfect. The highly compressed, extremely sharp flame energy still pierced through the gaps in his Haki defense like scorching needles.
Sizzle!
The heat fiercely impacted his body, singing his skin and burning his clothes!
BANG!
Shiki grunted, the force of the impact sending his entire body flying backward! He tumbled through the air, crashing into the wall of water before bouncing off.
However, before his body had flown far, before he could even regain his balance, a shadow fell over him.
Shiki's eye widened. "So fast?!"
His vision blurred. Suzaku's figure had appeared out of thin air behind him, moving even faster than Shiki's backward flight! It was a speed that transcended simple movement.
Suzaku was right behind him, suspended in the air. His right fist was tightly clenched, pulled back for a devastating blow.
Pitch-black Advanced Armament Haki (Ryou) flowed over his fist like a living entity, instantly covering his entire arm in a glossy, lethal sheen.
Not only that, but the blazing golden flames, as if alive, coiled and compressed in wisps over the dark Haki. The two powers—physical enhancement and elemental destruction—perfectly fused, emitting a terrifying, destructive fluctuation that warped the light around his fist!
"This ends now, Shiki!"
"Sparrow Martial Meteor!"
Suzaku's fist, shining like a burning black meteor, solidly struck Shiki's unguarded back!
CRACK!
The sound of ribs shattering was sickeningly loud.
"Puwah—!"
Shiki's eye instantly bulged from its socket. His mouth opened wide, and a mouthful of fresh blood gushed out, spraying into the air like a mist!
He clearly felt two distinct yet equally terrifying destructive forces explode simultaneously within his body!
Externally, there was an unimaginable high-temperature burning. The Vermilion fire seared his flesh, threatening to vaporize his skin and muscles directly.
But it was the internal force that was truly fatal.
Internally, there was the insidious and vicious Advanced Armament Haki. It bypassed his external defenses entirely. It acted like countless fine needles drilling into his internal organs, meridians, and blood vessels, performing the most thorough destruction from the inside out! His lungs, his stomach, his very heart were battered by the shockwave.
BOOM!!
Shiki shot out like a cannonball.
He smashed into the nearby floating island—one of the few large pieces of debris that hadn't been vaporized—at several times the speed of his previous backward flight.
CRASH! RUMBLE!
He plowed a deep, hundred-meter-long trench in the rocky ground, shattering boulders and snapping trees like twigs, before finally coming to a stop in a cloud of dust and debris.
Silence returned to the arena. The walls of water began to collapse, the ocean rushing back in to fill the void, but the island debris remained afloat.
Shiki lay slumped in the ruins of the trench. He was a broken mess. He coughed violently, his body spasming.
Cough! Cough!
Each breath was accompanied by blood foam and a burning sensation in his lungs. He tried to move his legs, but the famous swords felt heavy, disconnected.
He could feel the strange Armament Haki still raging wildly within his body, destroying his vitality, preventing him from healing.
"Heh... heh..."
In his prime, his profound Armament Haki could easily negate such internal destruction. He would have hardened his insides, repelled the foreign Haki.
But now... the old wound on his head continuously drained his strength and will. The prolonged full-power outburst had utterly exhausted him. He had nothing left. He couldn't organize a defense. He couldn't even stand.
"Cough... cough cough..."
He rolled onto his back, staring up at the sky. Through the clearing dust, he saw Suzaku slowly descending from the sky, wreathed in fading flames, like a deity returning to earth.
Shiki's single eye was filled with incredulous shock, a touch of resignation, and a hint of bitter envy.
"So fast..." he whispered, his voice raspy and weak. "He's already mastered the internal destruction technique of Ryou... Truly... a terrifying talent that makes one green with envy..."
He struggled to prop himself up on one elbow, but his arm gave way. Not a shred of strength remained in his body.
He could only laboriously lift his head. His blood-stained golden hair was matted on his forehead, sticking to the open wound. His gaze was somewhat unfocused as he looked at Suzaku approaching step by step.
The young man walked calmly, his breathing steady, his presence overwhelming.
In a daze, the black-haired youth's figure seemed to blur and overlap with a deeply etched memory from twenty years ago. A man in a red coat, with a straw hat and a smile that conquered the world.
Equally young. Equally irresistible. Equally from this weakest of seas, yet possessing the terrifying potential to overturn the world.
A name he had buried deep in his heart, a name he had chased and hated and admired, almost escaped his lips.
"Roger...!"
He blinked, shaking his head to clear the vision. He suddenly gasped for air, his vision refocused, seeing that the approaching person was indeed Suzaku, not the ghost of the Pirate King.
A huge sense of loss and absurdity instantly overwhelmed him. The grand ambition of twenty years, the plan to destroy the East Blue, the desire to rule the world... it all ended here, at the hands of a rookie.
He lowered his head, letting out a complex, hoarse chuckle. It wasn't a laugh of madness, but of acceptance. It was the sound of a legend realizing his time had truly passed.
"Roger..." he murmured, his voice filled with unwillingness and a hint of indescribable emotion.
"In the end... I'm actually... once again stopped by a man from the East Blue! Is this... fate?"