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"Boom!"
A violent shockwave tore outward, shattering the ice beneath Kyle's feet.
His figure vanished in an instant—nothing left but a streak of lightning ripping through the void.
A thousandth of a second later, that lightning was already in front of Kuzan. A black-glossed glove flashed into existence—
—and a massive hand clamped down.
The speed was monstrous. The strength, even more so. Kyle seized Kuzan by the head and yanked him clean off the ground.
"What is justice?!"
His low voice rolled out with the thunder.
At the same time, Kyle drove his right hand down.
"Boom!"
Kuzan was smashed face-first into the ice, the impact fracturing the frozen sea in a wide ring that rippled outward for hundreds of meters.
Lightning flared again as Kyle spun.
"Is justice just a matter of perspective?"
In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Sakazuki.
He raised his right hand.
Blinding arcs of electricity exploded outward, condensing into a colossal spear of lightning—fifty, maybe sixty meters long. Black-red bolts coiled around it, runes of thunder crawling along its shaft.
"Ridiculous!"
With a roar, Kyle gripped the spear.
Crackling black lightning wrapped the tip as it swung down, locking onto Sakazuki's head.
"Move!!" Borsalino shouted.
But Sakazuki didn't budge.
He stood rooted to the ice, as if stunned.
"I'm not afraid of you," he muttered.
Then his face twisted—fury, madness, defiance.
"I'm not afraid of you!!"
He roared and lunged, magma surging into a blazing fist that slammed into Kyle's body.
The molten punches blasted holes straight through him—
—but lightning flickered, and the wounds sealed in an instant.
"Justice has no standpoint!"
His voice boomed across heaven and earth.
The massive spear trembled violently, glowing with dark crimson light.
Then—
Kyle hurled it.
The Spear of Longinus.
It crossed the distance in less than a heartbeat.
Sakazuki barely had time to widen his eyes before it pierced straight through his torso and carried him away—launched tens of thousands of meters across the frozen sea.
A distant explosion thundered. Lightning speared into the sky.
"Justice—"
Kyle turned again, appearing before Borsalino.
"—is humanity's judgment of good and evil, right and wrong. Law. Fairness. Politics."
His tone was calm, but it carried a weight that pressed down on the air itself.
His fists came down like a storm.
Borsalino's forehead beaded with sweat as he swung the Ama no Murakumo sword again and again to block—but he kept getting driven back.
The man in front of him wasn't human.
He was a monster among monsters.
Hundreds. Thousands of exchanges.
Then Kyle twisted a punch and knocked the light blade from Borsalino's grip.
"It's the final line you never cross!"
"It's the red line that protects life!"
The next punch smashed into Borsalino's face.
His ears rang—
—and then came the barrage. Fists hammered into him like torrential rain.
"Justice—"
"—is good!"
The last blow drove Borsalino's head straight into the ice, cratering the frozen sea around him.
Kyle slowly straightened and exhaled.
The wind howled. Snow drifted down in thick flakes, landing against his broad, lightning-wreathed body with a faint chill.
"Will civilians thank you?"
"Will they smile?"
"The women, the children, the elderly—those too weak to fight."
"Will they praise what you've done?"
"Call it justice?"
He lifted his head and stared at the sky, expression heavy.
Silence.
The frozen ocean stretched endlessly, utterly still.
After a long moment, Borsalino's body flickered with blinding gold light and shot away, reappearing thousands of meters in the distance.
Another figure rose.
"Ice Age!"
Kuzan slammed both hands down. A terrifying wave of frost surged forward, an icy tempest packed with countless razor shards, rolling in like a tsunami.
In an instant, Kyle was frozen solid.
The next second, the ice shattered.
He stood there untouched.
His eyes snapped wide.
The ice ahead exploded apart. The freezing winds died under the crushing force of his Conqueror's Haki.
Moments later, heat shimmered in the air.
Sakazuki staggered to his feet again, body scorched, wounds covering him. The three Admirals stood thousands of meters away, battered and swaying in the frigid wind—
—but still standing.
Which meant the real fight wasn't over.
"You three…"
Kyle smiled faintly.
"You've surprised me."
"In some respects—aside from lacking a certain measure of power—you've reached my level."
Lightning shot into the sky. Thunderclouds swirled into existence overhead.
Golden bolts twisted within them.
After a few breaths, Kyle raised his right hand. His gaze turned cold. Distant. Divine.
Electricity wrapped around him, arcs climbing his body like living vines.
"One billion volts."
"Divine Punishment."
His voice was ice.
Lightning detonated from the clouds—countless jagged lines tearing across the sky and surging toward the three figures miles away.
It was destruction beyond imagination.
Kuzan saw it clearly—just brushing the ice lowered the surface by more than ten meters. And it happened soundlessly.
All three understood at once.
This wasn't lightning they could touch.
They scattered, sprinting across the ice.
A bolt struck behind Sakazuki. He glanced back in shock—
The hundred-meter ice ridge he'd just leapt from was gone.
Kuzan and Borsalino did nothing but evade. Not a single counterattack.
In moments, they were reduced to fleeing.
Massive lightning pillars carved the frozen sea into countless broken grids. Twisting arcs stitched through the air at terrifying speed.
Sakazuki was the first to fall.
A bolt caught him mid-stride. He crashed face-first and didn't move.
Moments later, Kuzan was struck as well.
Kyle stood still, and with a thought, the storm faded. The lightning dissolved.
Only Borsalino remained—and at the speed of light, striking him wasn't simple.
As for Kuzan and Sakazuki… Logia users were nearly impossible to kill unless you caught their true bodies in an instant.
Suddenly, Kyle's eyes sharpened. He spun.
The shriek of artillery echoed from afar.
A second later, explosions blossomed across the island of Ohara. Fire roared skyward.
—
"Why aren't they boarding yet?" Crocodile demanded, striding up to Bullet.
Their mission was to evacuate the civilians and the archaeologists as fast as possible. Kyle was buying them time.
Bullet grimaced. "They insist on throwing all the books into the lake in the center of the island."
Crocodile blinked, then looked past the burning Tree of Knowledge—
The lake was packed.
Books—thousands upon thousands—filled it from shore to shore.
He turned sharply to the sweating scholars hauling and tossing volume after volume.
"These people…"
Understanding dawned.
"Everyone!"
"Help them move the books!"
When Bullet and the others stared in confusion, Crocodile barked, "Move! We're running out of time! I've got a bad feeling the Navy isn't done yet!"
With their help, the scholars' pace doubled.
Dr. Clover stood watching, tears streaming down his face.
"So there are still people in this world who understand their value…"
"Ohara's will… will never die!"
Then things got worse.
"More Marine warships incoming!" T-Bone reported grimly.
"Who's leading them?" Bullet demanded.
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
Silence fell.
"And… Admiral Zephyr."
The weight of it hit instantly.
Crocodile drew a slow breath. "How are the books?"
"All of them are in the water!"
"Good. Everyone—fall back to the ships at the shore!"
He glanced once more at the distant sea, where lightning still flickered.
"Hold on," he muttered.
Soon they were aboard.
Then another report came in.
"Admiral Sengoku and Admiral Zephyr have changed course. They're heading toward Vice Admiral Kyle."
"And the Buster Call fleet has begun bombarding Ohara."
Almost immediately, the island erupted in flame. Explosions rang without end.
Iphia collapsed to her knees, voice trembling.
"An entire island… erased."
"..."
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