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Chapter 584: Kneel and Accept Judgment?
"Don't provoke him," Doctor Strange muttered.
"I'm currently trying my best not to provoke anyone who glows, catches on fire, or wants to dismantle the planet," Tony retorted instantly.
Before the words could settle, the space ahead rippled like water. A towering figure appeared on the red wasteland.
Thanos stepped forward. The purple-skinned cosmic overlord, the last survivor of Titan, descended upon the battlefield carrying a suffocating sense of despair that far exceeded any known Yonko. On his left hand, he wore the Infinity Gauntlet. The purple Power Stone, blue Space Stone, and red Reality Stone were already embedded within it.
Tony's breath hitched. Doctor Strange's face darkened. They had just been beaten to the brink of collapse by this monster. Now, an unknown magma man had joined the fray. The situation was as rotten as Tony's worst failed experiments.
Thanos glanced at Sakazuki. "Another lifeform brought here by the spatial turbulence. This battlefield is already crowded enough."
Sakazuki didn't ask who he was. Nor did he ask what the stones were. He saw the Infinity Gauntlet. He saw the stones actively emitting waves of reality-bending rules. The mission intel had stated it clearly: The Infinity Stones were the most crucial items in this dungeon. Whoever controlled the stones controlled the victory.
Sakazuki slowly drew his Asauchi, pointing the tip straight at Thanos's throat.
"Hand over the gauntlet. Then, kneel and accept the judgment of Justice!"
Tony couldn't help but look sideways at Doctor Strange. "He just told Thanos to kneel, right?"
Doctor Strange didn't answer. He realized he actually wanted to see these two fight.
Thanos stopped in his tracks. His purple face showed no anger, only the calm resignation of someone dealing with a nuisance.
"You are all the same. You gain a sliver of power and mistakenly believe you can alter the inevitable."
Sakazuki's right arm transformed into boiling magma. The molten rock crawled up the blade, looking as if it would ignite the very air. "Spare me your arrogant drivel about the inevitable! Pirates, criminals, thugs—I've seen plenty. Evil scum like you who use slaughter as an ideal deserve to be burned to ashes the most!"
Thanos raised his left hand. The Reality Stone glowed red. The magma that had just surged around Sakazuki's feet instantly transformed into a swarm of black bats. The bats flapped their wings and flew erratically, emitting ear-piercing shrieks.
Tony's eye twitched. "He turned magma into bats? That is completely unscientific."
Doctor Strange maintained the Eldritch Shield. "Now isn't the time to debate science."
Sakazuki looked down at the fluttering bats. His face darkened completely. Not from fear, but from absolute fury. Having his Devil Fruit ability warped was far more unacceptable to him than taking an injury.
"You dare turn my magma into such a disgusting thing. You damned bastard!"
His muscles began to bulge. A dark red aura erupted from beneath his skin. It was the Kaio-ken from the Dragon Ball dungeon. The reward Blake had given him originally required slow adaptation. But Sakazuki was never a man to take things slowly. He believed in suppression. Annihilation. Burning through the enemy in the shortest time possible.
"Kaio-ken Times Three!" Sakazuki roared.
The red aura exploded. Magma flowed back out of his body, mixing with the Kaio-ken's ki. The temperature on Titan spiked frantically.
The temperature alarms inside Tony's armor blared wildly. "J.A.R.V.I.S., or F.R.I.D.A.Y., whoever's online. Tell me my suit won't get roasted by Mr. Volcano over there."
"Sir, exterior temperatures are rising continuously. Evacuation is recommended," the system prompted shrilly.
Tony cursed. "Of course I know we need to evacuate, but the question is, where?"
Doctor Strange brought his hands together, deploying an orange mandala of light that shielded Tony and himself behind it. The heatwave crashed into the shield, burning the edges of the runes until they cracked.
"This man isn't with Thanos," Doctor Strange said, sweating.
Tony watched Sakazuki's back. "Right now, it looks like he really wants to kill Thanos. Is that good news?"
"If he doesn't kill us after he's done with Thanos, it counts," Doctor Strange replied.
Sakazuki stepped forward. The red soil beneath his feet turned into a molten pool. He held the blade horizontally in front of him, reining in his aura. The surging heat wasn't released outward; it was entirely compressed into the edge of the blade.
This made Doctor Strange's heart clench. Emitted fire could be blocked. Compressed, highly concentrated fire was the truly lethal threat.
Sakazuki spoke, his voice low.
"Bankai. Zanka no Tachi."
The flames on the blade vanished. There was no massive sea of fire. No spewing magma. Only what appeared to be a charred, scorched sword.
Thanos finally raised his eyes. He sensed the threat. That sword wasn't an ordinary weapon. It felt as if a piece of a sun had been hidden within its edge.
Sakazuki didn't say another word. He swung the blade.
"Zanka no Tachi, East: Kyokujitsujin."
The blade sliced through the air. No exaggerated trajectory. No excessive spectacle.
Thanos raised the Infinity Gauntlet, the Reality Stone glowing red as he attempted to warp the attack again. But the slash tore right through the red light. A charred fissure appeared in the space that the Reality Stone had tried to rewrite.
The golden armor on Thanos's chest was struck. Sizzle. A molten scar stretched from his shoulder to his abdomen. The metal was burned entirely through one layer. Thanos took a half-step back.
Tony's jaw dropped, taking a long moment to squeeze out a sentence. "He wounded Thanos."
Doctor Strange's eyes changed. In the fourteen million futures he had viewed, this man had never appeared. This wasn't just a variable. This was a meteor crashing directly onto the chessboard.
Thanos looked down at the scorch mark on his chest armor. His expression shifted. It wasn't fear. It was killing intent.
"You do possess commendable strength. But you do not understand the balance of the universe."
Sakazuki pressed forward with his blade. "Only a three-year-old child uses balance as an excuse for slaughter! I only know that evil must be eradicated entirely!"
The Space Stone on Thanos's gauntlet flared. He teleported instantly to Sakazuki's flank, throwing a punch. There were no tricks to the punch, but the physical force was enough to shatter a warship.
Sakazuki didn't dodge. He coated his left fist in advanced Armament Haki. The red Kaio-ken aura wrapped around his arm. Magma flowed between his knuckles.
The two fists collided. The surface of Titan blew open into a massive crater. The red soil was pulverized into dust, then flash-baked into glass by the intense heat. Tony and Doctor Strange were pushed back by the shockwave, sliding across the ground. The magic shield fractured in several places.
"Can you two please be mindful that there's an audience over here?!" Tony yelled.
Nobody paid him any attention. The sound of fracturing bone echoed from Sakazuki's left arm. The Kaio-ken's strain on his body was mounting. Yet, he didn't retreat.
Thanos's knuckles were also scorched by the magma. It wasn't normal fire. It was the absolute maximum heat generated by stacking Zanka no Tachi and the Mag-Mag Fruit.
Thanos kicked toward Sakazuki's abdomen. Sakazuki took it head-on with his knee, skidding backward for dozens of meters. The soles of his shoes plowed two trenches of molten lava into the ground. A second later, he charged right back.
"Great Eruption!" A colossal fist of magma blasted toward Thanos.
Thanos reinforced his arm with the Power Stone, smashing the magma fist apart. Purple light and molten rock exploded, dyeing the sky red. Sakazuki surged from behind the explosion, swinging Zanka no Tachi directly toward Thanos's neck. Thanos tilted his head to dodge, but another chunk of his shoulder armor was burned through.
Thanos reached out, backhanding the spine of the blade. Sakazuki immediately released his right hand, driving his left fist into Thanos's face. Thanos raised his own fist to meet it.
Bang. Another brutal clash. The crust beneath their feet couldn't bear the load and collapsed entirely, fracturing Titan's already ruined surface into a spiderweb of ravines.
Doctor Strange watched the boiling magma trenches in the distance, lowering his voice. "If they keep fighting, this entire sector is going to sink."
Tony gasped. "Doc, you got any way to send them somewhere farther away?"
Doctor Strange looked at the Space Stone on Thanos's hand. "Opening a portal in front of him is like handing the doorknob to the enemy."
Tony fell silent. "Then we'd better pray Mr. Volcano is tough enough."
Sakazuki was indeed tough enough. The 3x Kaio-ken was causing his blood vessels to burst. The Reality Stone's interference prevented his Mag-Mag Fruit elementalization, stripping him of his usual evasion tactics. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, quickly evaporating in the intense heat. But his eyes never wavered.
The stronger Thanos proved to be, the more certain he was of one thing: This man absolutely cannot be allowed to live! If a monster like this returned to the battlefield with the Infinity Stones, the Marines, the pirates, the Earthlings, the Asgardians—all of them would become victims to his lunatic ideals.
Sakazuki didn't like pirates. He didn't like undisciplined heroes like the Avengers either. But right now, he loathed Thanos more than anything.
"Again!" Sakazuki raised his blade. "If three times can't burn you to death, then we'll go four times!"
Hearing this, Tony's face went pale. "Wait, he can shift into a higher gear?!"
Doctor Strange's shield was nearing its breaking point. "His body will collapse first."
Sakazuki couldn't care less. The red aura surged even higher.
"Kaio-ken!"
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