Ronan's gaze was as cold as ice.
"So, you Marines are planning to get involved too?"
Kizaru sighed inwardly. He understood the other party's rage, but many things could not be solved by anger alone. He continued to advise,
"Given the current situation, this is already the best possible outcome for you and for Lulusia."
He raised his hand and pointed toward the distance, at Beth, Teresa, and the others locked in fierce combat with the God Knights.
"Looks like the God Knights aren't going to get anything out of this. Once they're defeated, we Marines will have no choice but to prioritize escorting the Celestial Dragons to safety. This disaster might end with the smallest price paid.
"If you insist on attacking the Celestial Dragons now, it will become a completely different matter. The World Government will have no room left to compromise, and we Marines will be forced to take action as well!"
However, Ronan's answer completely shattered his line of reasoning.
"The best possible outcome?"
Ronan pointed at the corpses strewn all around and the burning ruins.
"In my kingdom, in my harbor, they butcher my people—and then you brush all of this off as 'the price to pay', and allow you executioners to just walk away?"
Ronan's voice was not loud, but it rang clearly across the entire battlefield:
"Admiral Kizaru, you're mistaken about one thing. From the moment they turned their blades on the civilians of Lulusia, this matter was destined to never end so easily."
He lifted his chin slightly, locking his gaze onto those Celestial Dragons. His tone was firm, leaving no room for doubt:
"Today, every last Celestial Dragon who set foot on this land and stained their hands with the blood of my people—
not. a. single. one… is leaving alive!"
The atmosphere on the battlefield instantly solidified!
Even the God Knights locked in fierce combat in the distance seemed to pause ever so slightly in their movements.
For the Marines and the Celestial Dragons present, this was an unimaginably arrogant declaration! For hundreds of years, no one had ever dared to say such a thing to the World Government. This was the most thorough declaration of war imaginable!
Kizaru's expression finally changed completely, filled with heavy complexity and a trace of helplessness. He understood that words could no longer shake the resolve of this young king. The moment the other party uttered those words, this incident had already risen to an entirely different level.
"In that case…"
Kizaru slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets, his entire body starting to emit a golden glow.
"Then there's no helping it. As a Marine Admiral, it's my duty to protect the safety of the World Nobles. I'll have to ask you to stop here."
"Laser."
Before his words had even fully fallen, Kizaru extended his index finger. A golden beam of light shot straight toward the center of Ronan's brow! There was clearly not the slightest hint of holding back in his attack!
However, just as that beam was about to pierce Ronan—
BOOM-CRACK!!!
A bolt of azure lightning descended from the sky without warning. The thunderbolt smashed head-on into the laser, and light and lightning collided violently, erupting into a massive explosion of sound and radiance!
When the light faded, Ronan was still standing where he was. In front of him, a new figure had appeared—
the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, Enel.
Enel stared at Kizaru in the distance, a hint of disdain on his face.
"Can't let you strike at our king that recklessly."
Kizaru's pupils shrank, his expression growing even more grave.
When he had been observing the battlefield earlier, he had already noticed this man who commanded lightning. At the time, he had only assumed the other party was some kind of powerful Paramecia-type user, since he hadn't seen him turn into an element.
Yet now, this man had intercepted his attack with such speed.
"What a frightening ability."
Kizaru's tone was drawn-out as always, but his eyes were locked tightly on Enel.
"Such pure lightning… Looks like you're not a simple Paramecia. Could it be you're a Logia—Rumble-Rumble Fruit?"
Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
A power that possessed ultimate speed and devastating destructive force!
Kizaru had seen the intel on the Lulusia Kingdom before coming here, and in that intel, there had never been any mention of a user of this Fruit appearing in Lulusia!
This was undoubtedly a massive intelligence oversight!
Everyone had believed that Lulusia's top combat forces were only Teresa, Beth, and Alicia. No one had expected that hidden among them was yet another Logia user capable of standing toe-to-toe with an Admiral!
"Hmph."
Enel snorted coldly.
At this point, Kizaru didn't continue thinking it over. His eyes sharpened, and the golden light around him flared again.
He uttered the line he often said in battle:
"Speed is weight. Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, Kizaru's figure had already turned into a golden streak, moving at a speed completely beyond human perception.
In an instant he appeared at Enel's side, his right leg wrapped in blinding light, kicking savagely toward Enel's head!
However, at the moment of impact, Enel's figure dissipated at once. The real Enel had already appeared behind Kizaru, a massive spear of lightning in his hand, driving straight toward Kizaru's back!
"Two Hundred Million Volts: Spear of the Thunder God!"
"Hmph. Yata no Kagami."
As though he had anticipated this, Kizaru didn't even look back. His body turned to light in an instant, and at the same time a mirror of light formed ahead of him. His body reflected through the mirror, his position shifting in a flash, narrowly avoiding the lethal thrust.
At the same moment, he flicked his hand in return, firing dozens of densely packed laser beams, covering every possible position Enel might appear in!
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
"Sixty Million Volts: Thunder Net!"
From the very first exchange, their battle had gone straight into a white-hot phase!
It was the ultimate showdown of speed against speed—
of light against lightning head-on!
"Whooosh—!"
"BOOM-CRACK—!"
On the battlefield, a golden streak of light and a blue arc of lightning streaked madly through every corner of the ruined harbor, appearing and clashing, parting, then colliding again and again at speeds beyond imagination!
The aftershocks of this battle even affected the other fronts. Whether it was the God Knights or the clone soldiers, they were all forced to divert part of their attention to avoid the light bullets and thunderbolts that could rain down from the sky at any moment.
The longer Kizaru fought, the more horrified he became.
He had originally thought that, even if the other party really was the Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, with his own strength and experience as an Admiral, it shouldn't be too hard to bring him down.
But only after clashing for real did he realize that this guy's strength far exceeded his expectations. Kizaru was forced to bring out every ounce of his focus to deal with him.
"What a troublesome fellow…"
Once again using Yata no Kagami to escape a thick pillar of lightning, Kizaru realized that defeating or capturing this Enel in a short time was practically an impossible task.
All the Marines present stared in shock at the scene before them.
This was the highest combat power of the Marines—
yet at this moment, he was trading blows evenly with a single opponent.
As Vice Admirals of Marine Headquarters, Strawberry, Yamakaji, Momonga and the others had their faces filled with stunned disbelief.
They had originally believed that sending one Admiral and five elite Vice Admirals would be enough to crush any force that wasn't on the level of the Four Emperors.
Yet they had never imagined that in this tiny Lulusia, besides the already-known top-tier swordswomen, there was still a hidden Logia user capable of fighting Admiral Kizaru head-on!
This Lulusia Kingdom was nothing less than a nest of monsters!
(End of Chapter)
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