The gaseous blade shot toward the stunned Whitebeard at high speed. His Observation Haki caught the attack.
But he did not understand how to counter it.
Qi… could be used as a weapon too?
Boom—!
The slash erupted, instantly dragging them into the next round of a white-hot battle.
Both of them exerted their strength at the same time. Amid the roar, they crashed once more into the clustered peaks of Raijin Island.
The mountains trembled in the very next instant. Under the violence of their clash, a towering peak collapsed in the blink of an eye.
"A battle between monsters… He can actually fight Pops to this extent?"
Before Marco shifted his position, he cast a deep look toward the place where they had first met.
The center of that part of the island had originally been a flat plain.
But now, there was no such thing as flat ground left. All that remained was a pitted, cratered expanse stretching for several kilometers.
It looked just like yellow earth after being battered by rain.
And yet there was no yellow earth on Raijin Island. What existed there was metal ground that had stubbornly endured beneath the ravages of lightning.
Even under those circumstances, the battle between the two of them had left pit after pit across the land. Every single one was a massive crater over ten meters across—some dozens of meters wide—and more than ten meters deep.
Marco knew he could not do that.
In fact, all he could do now was watch the battle.
Of course, he still did not think anything would happen to Pops. The earlier setback had only been because Pops had subconsciously held back and had not used his Devil Fruit ability.
Boom—!
The distant cluster of mountains trembled again.
Whitebeard stomped the ground. The quake caused the terrain to rise and sink, destroying the balance beneath Ren's feet. Then Murakumogiri slashed toward Ren, who had been caught off guard.
There was no reason that strike, wrapped in Armament Haki, could be blocked.
The armor-like Protective Qi Barrier shattered. Murakumogiri's blade cleanly sliced through—
surging lightning particles, and then struck empty air!
Premonition Perception: Hyperactive!
Having foreseen a 0.5-second opening, Ren transformed into lightning and avoided the slash. Then he reformed, seizing the chance.
He brought his blade down in a one-handed chop, striking Murakumogiri's long shaft.
Then Ren released his grip, stepped forward—
and threw a punch!
Meteor Burst: Galaxy!
Boom—!
Whitebeard activated his Devil Fruit ability, intending to affect the ground, but he was blasted several thousand meters away instead. He slammed into a towering mountain, and then a vast surge of energy swallowed the entire place.
The towering peak trembled. Then its whole body turned red, melting into a flow of magma in the blink of an eye.
Whitebeard was embedded deep within layers of magma. A series of conclusions flashed through his mind, while the white quake sphere around him kept the molten rock isolated outside.
'Not bad at all. Future Sight? No, his Observation Haki's reaction speed isn't fast enough.
'Does that strange Devil Fruit ability of his have something like this too? It even makes him immune to my quakes.
'But it seems he's only immune to quakes. Against slashes, it doesn't work… That blade is interesting too. It can change the state of its edge.
'Just now, it even turned into gas to cut me, leaving more than a dozen wounds. The temperature of the attacks is absurdly high as well.
'Even with Armament Haki defending me, it still leaves injuries.'
Whitebeard lowered his head. Dozens of scorched scars had already appeared across his body.
The heaviest one was on his chest. Through the rolled-up flesh, one could almost see his heart beating powerfully within.
Those were the injuries left on him from several clashes.
But strangely enough, those wounds healed very quickly, and they did not have any real effect on Whitebeard.
'It's probably because of that ability, isn't it? It delays the arrival of negative outcomes such as death, injury, and bleeding.
'At the same time, it lets me possess the physical condition I had in my prime—even my vigorous vitality… What a terrifying thing.
'Looks like there really is no room to hold back anymore.'
Whitebeard straightened his back, exerted his strength, and swung his blade horizontally toward the direction his Observation Haki had detected.
Quake force erupted. Amid a crisp shattering sound, the lava mountain was smashed into tens of thousands of molten fragments with a single blow.
Amid that "meteor fire rain," a streak of light pierced through every obstacle in its path, crossing several thousand meters in an instant.
There were no techniques or tricks left.
At this stage, there was only pure slaughter.
Ren held his blade and unleashed thousands of blade lights. Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri to meet them head-on.
Clang—!
Amid the metallic tremor, Heavenly Might struck Murakumogiri, which was wrapped in Armament Haki—or rather, some kind of invisible field.
A continuous chain of explosions erupted beneath both their feet. The metal earth cracked inch by inch, spreading spiderweb fissures that stretched for hundreds of meters.
This was a contest of strength, and there was no way to change that.
Even if Ren wanted to play tricks and alter the state of his blade to bypass the defense, he could not pass through this incredibly heavy Conqueror's Haki Infusion field.
The previous battle had taught Whitebeard a lesson, allowing him to devise a countermeasure at astonishing speed.
And even now, it was the same!
During their deadlock, a chain of Airquakes erupted behind Whitebeard. Through skillful manipulation of his Devil Fruit ability, the impact force was stacked and applied onto Murakumogiri!
If it could not harm the enemy, then he would use it to amplify himself!
"Damn it!"
Ren's pupils constricted, but it was already too late to retreat—or turn into lightning.
Against an opponent like this, and in the face of such a sudden change, even his super perception could not foresee too far into the future.
"Brat, you're still too young!"
Whitebeard grinned ferociously. With both arms, he unleashed a swift and terrifying slash.
It was as if a mountain peak had risen from level ground. The terrifying slash wave tore through layer after layer of defense and crushed Ren into powder once again.
But countless high-energy lightning particles surged, then gathered in the distance to form Ren once more.
That strike could not decide the outcome between them.
The two sides remained locked in a state of equal footing!
"They're still fighting. His recovery ability is strange. It isn't self-healing—it's more like a nonhuman state of reassembly?
"And he has a way to target Devil Fruit abilities too."
Marco carefully observed the battlefield. The more he watched, the more he realized that Ren's strength far exceeded his imagination.
The other party had come prepared to challenge Pops. Pops's earlier movements had already proven that.
During that exchange where Pops had been injured, it was not that he did not want to use his Devil Fruit ability.
It was that he had no way to make it act on Ren.
But that made Marco even more shocked. His wariness and regard toward Ren also grew heavier.
Yet the one even more shocked than Marco was actually Ren himself.
'This is too ridiculous. His Tremor-Tremor ability has been immunized, stripping away a huge portion of his strength.
'But relying on only physical techniques plus Two-Colored Haki, he can still fight me to this extent.
'He even caught the details, made judgments, and countered me twice…'
While Ren exchanged blades with Whitebeard, engaging in a meaningless battle of attrition, he thought through the situation and faced the crisis before him.
Yes.
A crisis.
Right now, the scene was indeed one of equal footing.
But this was after Ren had used Designated Immunity!
Even after Whitebeard had given up using quake force directly against him, Ren still could not gain the slightest advantage.
Quake force had no effect on Ren, but all Whitebeard had lost was part of his power amplification.
He could still affect the earth just like in the original story, making the ground rise and sink, triggering earthquakes over a wide area to destroy balance.
At the same time, he could also manipulate small-scale air explosions, using himself as the medium to amplify his attacks.
After all, Ren could be immune to quake force, but he could not be immune to slashes!
Of course—
he could also designate kinetic energy for immunity. Just as he had guessed, that would grant him complete physical immunity and prevent him from taking damage.
But… that was only the best-case idea. In truth, Ren had tried it before.
The result had not been pleasant, because immunity was comprehensive. For example, Ren's own kinetic energy would also be immunized.
At its essence, kinetic energy was the force generated by the motion of matter. Complete immunity to kinetic energy meant negating the movement state between external matter and his own matter.
He truly would be unable to be harmed by the outside world.
But in that state, he would also be unable to move himself.
It could only be said that Designated Immunity was not broken to that extent.
And his opponent's current state was not something that could be worn down either. A billion-level Word Spirit: Don't Die was not just for show!
In this state, the only one who could kill Whitebeard was Whitebeard himself!
Ren's Designated Immunity lasted twenty-four hours, and its cooldown time was forty-eight hours. Once that duration ended… this equal battle would turn into a one-sided crushing defeat!
'Have I reached my limit?'
Ren swung Heavenly Might and exchanged blows, shifting and weaving as he and Whitebeard tore apart yet another mountain peak.
His slashes were becoming increasingly concise, and their power was growing more and more condensed.
Compared to Dressrosa, his current Phase Two had become far easier to control. The combination of Haki and energy had begun to form a state where one plus one was greater than two.
He rarely released vast amounts of energy, because low-intensity, large-scale energy blasts were meaningless against Whitebeard.
Armament Haki's defense was far too broken.
Instead, Ren merely used the combination and refinement of multiple traits to increase the temperature of his plasma, continuously raising the power of his slashes.
Even his swordsmanship had changed. He was using Heavenly Might's traits with greater flexibility, such as turning it into liquid in an attempt to bypass defenses.
Or turning it into gas and forming countless spikes for an attack with no blind spots.
It had produced results.
From that stage onward, every one of Ren's slashes was able to leave injuries on Whitebeard's body.
In the end, it forced Whitebeard to use full-coverage defense.
But… it still could not decide the battle in any true sense!
The pressure had always been there. Their current entanglement was nothing more than tremors before a landslide.
Once twenty-four hours passed and Designated Immunity disappeared, Ren would be met with power that could only be described as crushing!
One had to know that, during the Marineford War, Whitebeard triggered seaquakes that spread for hundreds of kilometers with two punches, while also raising a tsunami with waves over a thousand meters high!
Even if that kind of power was compressed and used in ordinary attacks, that would already be one thing. But on top of that, it would also have the buff of Armament Haki Coating!
At present, Ren had only one method left.
Master Conqueror's Haki Infusion!
If he mastered Conqueror's Haki Infusion, he would still have a chance to fight!
'This is also the opportunity I've been waiting for!'
Just as he had told Dragon before coming here, Ren had chosen an environment so high-pressure that one careless mistake would mean death, all for the sake of mastering Conqueror's Haki Infusion.
And that environment was this very battle against Whitebeard!
He had not laid all his cards on the table, had stated his request, and then had bestowed Word Spirit: Don't Die upon Whitebeard.
Then he had courted death with provocation and insisted on fighting even after being persuaded otherwise.
Was all of it not for the sake of this pressure, where failing to live meant dying?
Even if Whitebeard intended to spare his life, in a battle of such intensity, such ferocity, and without any reservations, Whitebeard himself had no possibility of holding back.
The opponent before him was not someone he could take down casually.
Boom—!
Metal clashed. Energy released. The earth trembled.
Boom—!
Mountain peaks collapsed. Hills became pits. Cracks spread across the wilds.
Boom—
Time quietly vanished amid their entanglement. The two who had gone red-eyed with battle unleashed power that seemed nearly endless, from sunrise to sunset.
Until the sky grew dark once more, and restless electric charges stirred within the clouds.
Ren, who had already lost count of how many times he had reassembled, suddenly pulled back and turned Heavenly Might into gas, thrusting it toward the sky.
(End of Chapter)