Kizaru's body was instantly swallowed by the devastating lightning. The pillar of thunder smashed him directly from the sky deep into the landmass of the front island.
Rumble!!!
The entire island trembled violently under the force of heavenly judgment.
A bottomless cylindrical crater appeared before everyone's eyes. The rocks around its edges had instantly melted into glass from the extreme heat, releasing waves of scorching steam.
"What an incredible attack, Nami-san!"
Sanji descended using Moonwalk, his eyes filled with astonishment.
"Hmph, I spent a long time setting that up."
Nami proudly puffed out her chest.
"I finally caught him off guard and blasted him straight underground."
Yet before she could finish speaking, Kizaru's figure in the yellow-striped suit slowly reformed beside the crater.
He casually dusted off his shoulder despite there being no dust at all. Aside from slight damage to his clothes, he was completely unharmed.
"Young lady, using this kind of outrageous electricity against an old man is rather rude, you know."
"Still… I don't particularly enjoy being buried underground."
"How is that possible… it did nothing?!" Nami's pupils contracted sharply. That had been the killing move she spent so long preparing.
Kizaru pushed up his tinted glasses. With a flick of his finger, a laser beam shot toward Nami's forehead like a venomous serpent.
Just before the beam pierced her skull, Nami's body transformed into a streak of silver-blue lightning.
The laser tore through her afterimage and blasted a transparent hole through the distant courthouse wall behind her.
Nami reappeared atop a ruined structure over a hundred meters away, her face slightly pale.
"You people really are troublesome."
Kizaru tilted his head as light gathered at his fingertips once more.
"The troublesome one is obviously you, old man!"
A deep voice like rolling thunder erupted from the flank.
At some point, Ronan had already crossed the ruins. The terrifying amount of lightning inner energy flooding into his spear caused the weapon to glow dark red, as though heated in a blazing furnace.
The muscles in both his arms bulged like coiling dragons as his power exploded to the absolute limit.
"Xingyi Thirteen Spears: Thousand-Pound Horizontal Barrier!"
There was no fancy technique behind this strike. Only absolute weight and overwhelming power.
The spear carved a perfect crescent through the air. The pressure alone lifted nearby boulders into the sky before crushing them into dust.
Kizaru's expression darkened as he condensed another Ama no Murakumo Sword to block.
Clang!
The sound was less like metal striking metal and more like two iron mountains colliding head-on in empty space.
The terrifying shockwave exploded outward from the two of them, completely reducing the already ruined buildings of the front island into fine dust.
"What monstrous strength… worthy of a Navy Admiral!"
Feeling the tidal wave of force surging through his arms, the madness in Ronan's eyes only burned brighter.
Step by step, he pressed forward. His spear technique flowed like a violent storm, every move carrying terrifying force and explosive momentum.
"Ride the Wind, Pull the Banner!"
The sweeping strike instantly shifted into a direct thrust. The rotating spear tip generated a spiraling vortex of compressed air as Ronan forcibly drove Kizaru backward dozens of meters, pushing both man and sword together.
At the exact moment Kizaru and Ronan locked into a stalemate, an enormous shadow descended over them from above.
"Gomu Gomu no Giant Thunder Battle Axe!!"
Luffy, transformed into a ten-meter giant, brought down his massive leg coated in Armament Haki and wrapped in crackling lightning. The strike carried enough force to split mountains as it crashed down toward Kizaru's head.
Kizaru's eyes sharpened. His body instantly dissolved into particles of light, escaping the encirclement and reappearing on the opposite side of the island.
The moment he appeared, Zoro—who had been observing the battle all along—moved.
"Two-Sword Style: Climbing Tower Slash!"
Zoro let out a roar powerful enough to shake the clouds.
The muscles in his arms swelled like dragons while black Armament Haki flowed over both blades like ink. Silver-blue lightning inner energy crackled wildly along the edges, releasing sharp hissing sounds through the air.
He smashed the ground beneath his feet. The sheer explosive force created a massive spiderweb crater across the earth.
Zoro transformed into a black-and-red streak, crossing over a hundred meters in an instant to appear directly before Admiral Kizaru.
Two upward slashes rose from below, carrying the determination to split space itself as they tore toward Kizaru's head.
Clang!
The photon blade of Ama no Murakumo Sword appeared once again, sparks exploding between them like dazzling fireworks.
"Oh my… your eyes are getting pretty scary now."
Kizaru's lazy voice echoed within the golden light.
Not only did Zoro refuse to stop, he used the recoil to launch himself upward. His body flipped through the air as he instantly gathered power again.
"Double Slash: Responding Tower Climb!"
This strike embodied an even more savage form of violence.
The twin blades descended from above with overwhelming force, and the sword pressure alone pulverized nearby stone pillars into powder.
Zoro fought like a berserk tiger, completely abandoning all defense over his vital points. Every strike carried the weight of a mountain.
Even though Kizaru still held the advantage in both speed and power, Zoro's escalating battle spirit—growing stronger and fiercer the longer the fight continued—made even the veteran Admiral inwardly shocked.
"This feels incredible! Absolutely incredible!!"
After being blasted backward dozens of steps, Zoro steadied himself. Beneath his scorched skin, his blood and energy surged wildly.
Not only did the pain fail to weaken him, he burst into wild laughter.
"This feeling of my soul trembling… this is the evolution I've been chasing! Navy Admiral… come again!!"
Kizaru looked at Zoro charging toward him once more, then at the cold-faced Ronan and Luffy waiting behind him for another opening.
The faint smile on his lips finally disappeared.
He no longer felt like he was carrying out a capture mission.
He felt more like a high-level sparring partner being dragged onto an arena stage.
"Honestly… young people these days aren't just hard-bodied. Even their wills are troublesome."
Kizaru flashed away, turning into countless particles of light and vanishing before Zoro's incoming strike could land.
At the same time, Sanji stepped through the air with Moonwalk, his figure streaking toward Kizaru like a phantom.
"A relay battle now? Honestly, I really don't want to keep fighting anymore."
Faced with Sanji's endless barrage of thunderfire kicks, Kizaru finally showed a trace of exhaustion.
Just then, several figures rushed over from the direction of the courthouse.
Robin, Usopp, and Franky had arrived.
And in Franky's hand, dragged like a dead dog, was a man whose bones were shattered and whose face had been beaten beyond recognition.
The mastermind behind this entire incident.
Spandam.
Floating in midair, Kizaru looked at the nearly dead intelligence chief, then at the group of spirited young pirates below.
"Oh dear… now I really can't report back after this."
"In that case…"
"I'll use this move to bury all of you—along with the entirety of Enies Lobby—within this abyssal sea."
Kizaru slowly rose even higher into the sky.
His arms spread wide.
His fingertips, palms, and every pore on his body began radiating blinding light so intense it became impossible to look at directly.
"Super Yasakani no Magatama!"
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