Chapter 37: Shattering the Floating Islands with a Fist!
The cannon muzzles in the sky were like countless demonic eyes peering from the abyss. In unison, they aimed directly at the lonely figure on the surface of the sea.
The fanaticism on Golden Lion Shiki's face dissolved into pure killing intent.
"Jiehahahaha! Garp, you asked for this!"
"Since you refuse to stand at the peak of the world with me, then become the very first stepping stone for my New World!"
He slammed both hands violently onto the surface of the sea beneath his feet.
"Lion's Majesty: Earth Scroll!"
At that moment, the entire ocean seemed to be granted life.
The seawater rose frantically, twisting, roaring, and contorting.
Finally, it transformed into a ferocious lion's head, made entirely of water, several times larger than the floating islands themselves.
Its massive jaws opened wide.
Carrying the might to swallow everything, it crashed down toward Garp's head.
Garp didn't even look up.
He simply took the hand that had just finished the senbei—the hand still dusted with crumbs—and waved it casually forward.
He threw a single punch.
There was no earth-shattering noise. There were no flashy light effects.
There was only a fist wind—pure to the extreme, unreasonable to the extreme.
The instant that massive aquatic lion head made contact with the air pressure from the punch, it froze.
The next second.
BOOM!
It exploded completely!
It reverted into hundreds of millions of tons of cold seawater, pouring down like torrential rain, smashing countless massive waves into the sea surface.
"What?!"
The maniacal laughter on the Golden Lion's face stiffened.
The move he was so proud of—a technique sufficient to overturn an entire island—was neutralized so lightly?
"Lion Wave!"
He didn't have time to think. He kicked forward violently with the two famous blades replacing his legs.
Two massive golden slashes, hundreds of meters long, tore through the air. They sliced the sea surface open, crossing over each other as they flew toward Garp.
Garp stood still, neither dodging nor evading.
He allowed the two flying slashes—sharp enough to cut through a steel warship—to strike his body squarely.
CLANG!
A piercing sound, like metal striking metal, echoed across the sea.
The Golden Lion's pupils contracted violently.
Those two slashes shattered directly the instant they hit Garp's body.
They didn't even manage to cut a single thread of his cheap floral shirt.
"Impossible!"
"Those were my slashes!"
"Your body... is it made of steel?"
"Why are you unscathed?!"
"That is absolutely not a level of hardness a human should possess!"
The Golden Lion roared in terrified disbelief. He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.
Garp rolled his neck, making a series of cracks.
"I'm old. My body isn't as tough as it was when I was young."
His voice wasn't loud, yet it transmitted clearly into the Golden Lion's ears.
"But for trash like you? It's plenty."
The moment his voice fell—
Garp leapt up.
His feet kicked the air in rapid succession.
Using Moonwalk, as if walking on invisible stairs, he charged straight toward the fleet of floating islands in the sky.
"Fire!"
"Shoot him down for me!"
The Golden Lion snapped back to reality, roaring in exasperated rage.
In the sky, above the dozens of floating islands, ten thousand cannons fired at once.
Countless shells dragged long tails of flame behind them. Like a dense meteor shower, they dyed the entire sky a ruinous red.
Firelight and explosions completely swallowed Garp's figure.
However.
Garp's silhouette simply weaved through the curtain of death.
His pace was neither fast nor slow, like a man taking a leisurely stroll in his own backyard.
Every single shell passed him by a hair's breadth. Not a single one could truly hit him.
He rushed beneath one of the smallest floating islands.
Then, facing the underside of that island, he swung his fist.
KA-BOOM!
A loud noise, dull and heavy to the extreme.
The entire island was instantly pierced from the bottom up by an irresistible force.
Massive cracks spread frantically across the island's surface like a spiderweb.
The next second.
The entire floating island disintegrated in mid-air.
Countless massive boulders, like a rain of real meteorites, dragged flames as they plummeted toward the sea below.
"Impossible!"
"That is my ability! That is the power of the Float-Float Fruit!"
Watching the island shatter from a single punch, the Golden Lion roared in disbelief.
"How could you possibly destroy it!"
"Bastard! What exactly did you do?!"
Garp's figure appeared beneath another, slightly larger island.
Another punch.
BOOM!
The second island followed in the footsteps of the first, disintegrating explosively in the air.
"Bastard!"
"Die!"
The Golden Lion went completely mad.
His eyes turned blood-red as he abandoned all petty tricks.
He manipulated the massive main island beneath his feet—a landmass comparable to a small kingdom.
The entire island, carrying an unmatched sense of oppression, crashed down toward Garp like a true star falling from the heavens.
That massive shadow once again shrouded the entire sea region.
Garp stopped moving.
He hovered in mid-air, looking up at the colossal island that was large enough to crush everything.
He grinned, revealing a mouthful of forest-white teeth.
"Just right."
"Saves me the trouble of hitting them one by one."
He took a deep breath.
Around his fists, a pitch-black Haki wrapped itself tight—darker than night, seemingly capable of swallowing all light.
That Haki was so dense that the surrounding space began to emit a whine, overwhelmed by the burden.
"Fist Bone: Meteor!"
Garp threw both fists at once.
Two shockwaves, black as ink, merged into one the moment they flew out.
They transformed into a terrifying pillar of light, impossible to describe in magnitude, shooting upward against the current.
The pillar of light collided with the falling floating kingdom with a bang.
There was no sound.
Time seemed to hit the mute button at that very moment.
The whole world lost all sound.
The next second.
BOOM!!!
The massive floating island, comparable to a country, looked like glass struck by a god's hammer under the impact of the light pillar.
Starting from the center, deep, bottomless cracks spread like a spiderweb.
The cracks extended to every corner of the island in an instant.
Then.
The entire island disintegrated in the sky with a thunderous explosion!
"NO!"
"MY KINGDOM!"
The Golden Lion floated amidst the sky full of falling debris and dust.
Watching the crystallization of decades of his blood and sweat turn into nothingness, he let out a scream of ultimate despair.
A figure appeared behind him like a ghost.
It was Garp.
He raised his hand, fingers straightened like a knife.
A seemingly light hand chop struck the back of the Golden Lion's neck.
The Golden Lion's eyes rolled back, and all his noise came to an abrupt halt.
His tall body plummeted helplessly from the sky like a puppet with cut strings.
Garp extended a single hand.
Like grabbing a little chick, he effortlessly caught him.
He held the unconscious Golden Lion, who had only half a breath left, his expression showing neither joy nor sorrow.
"Old geezer."
He spoke coldly.
"How much do you know about that 'Empty Throne' in Mary Geoise?"
In his semi-comatose state, the Golden Lion's body twitched uncontrollably from severe pain and fear.
His consciousness was already blurring. Relying only on instinct, he stammered out a few broken words.
"Captain Rocks..."
"His... his target back then... was that throne..."
"He said... the person on that throne... isn't a Celestial Dragon..."
"But..."
"A 'Devil'..."
(To be Continued)