Kizaru stepped over broken stones and ash, strolling over at an unhurried pace.
That yellow pinstriped suit still stood out even in the smoke and dust.
Hands in his pockets, his posture was so loose it looked like he hadn't even woken up yet.
His gaze fell to the ground first—luxurious Celestial Dragon clothing wrapped around a lifeless corpse.
Tch… this is going to be a headache.
Kizaru muttered to himself, but his expression barely changed.
He lifted his eyes, looking toward the man standing quietly not far away.
Rei Ao.
"Oh my, oh my…"
Kizaru dragged out the words theatrically, his mouth curling into a strange arc.
With only wind moving across the ruins, his tone sounded even more absurd.
"This is… really scary, you knooow~"
He narrowed his eyes, as if he were studying some rare animal.
Rei Ao didn't turn around—he only tilted his head slightly.
He glanced at Kizaru from the corner of his eye.
That look was as flat as if he were looking at a roadside rock.
"I suggest you don't make a move. You'll die."
His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear and icy—each word like a block of ice hitting the ground.
The air seemed to freeze for an instant.
Even the wind stopped.
"…"
Kizaru didn't speak.
A finger inside his pocket twitched almost imperceptibly.
The exaggerated smile on his face slowly faded.
He stared at Rei Ao's back, his gaze sharpening.
This guy… I can't read him at all.
What Observation Haki fed back was emptiness—like probing an abyss.
From far away came footsteps and shouting, growing closer and closer.
Reinforcements were arriving.
A Celestial Dragon was dead—World Government would go berserk.
And as the highest-ranking officer on the scene, Kizaru calculated quickly: his paycheck wasn't high enough to die for a Celestial Dragon.
Especially not against a monster he couldn't even begin to understand.
He suddenly smiled, shrugged.
The faint gathering of light particles around him quietly dispersed.
"Well… do what you want, then."
He slipped back into that lazy drawl, as if the earlier tension had been an illusion.
"But you'd better be quick, okay~"
Kizaru wandered to the side, found a broken section of wall, and leaned against it casually.
"Our Fleet Admiral… doesn't have the best temper, you know."
Tilting his head, he added,
"And he's almost here."
Before the words even finished—
BOOM—
A crushing pressure swept in from the direction of the port!
It wasn't sound. It was pure momentum, a wave of presence.
Even the rubble on the ruins trembled.
"All units! Battle formation!"
A deep, authoritative roar tore through the air.
Then a gigantic golden Buddha stomped down, shattering the ground as it descended!
Fleet Admiral Sengoku!
His face was ashen, golden pupils burning with fury.
A Celestial Dragon had been killed within the Holy Land!
A humiliation unseen in eight hundred years!
"Seal off every area!"
Sengoku's voice thundered, exploding over the ruins.
"Do not let a single person escape!"
Elite Marines poured in from all directions in a dense tide.
Rifles and cannons, blades drawn—instantly, the entire ruin was surrounded like an iron drum.
The killing intent was so sharp it seemed to scatter even the last scraps of cloud in the sky.
Sengoku's eyes swept the scene.
Kizaru leaned against the wall, looking like it had nothing to do with him.
On the ground lay the Celestial Dragon's corpse.
And the man standing beside it…
"Was it you?!"
Sengoku's golden pupils locked onto Rei Ao.
No need to ask—there was only one obvious answer.
He slowly crossed his arms as dazzling Buddha-light began to gather around his body.
The air wailed as energy compressed it.
"To dare commit violence in the Holy Land…"
Sengoku's voice was low, each word carrying a sea of rage.
"Today, in the name of Absolute Justice—"
The Buddha-light flared! Golden energy erupted like a volcano!
"—you will be eradicated here and now!"
"Fire!!!"
The moment the order fell, war exploded!
Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle—!
Hundreds of rifles fired in unison, bullets becoming a storm of metal!
"Tempest Kick: Chaos!"
"Finger Pistol: Speckle!"
Officers and commanders launched into the air, slashes and piercing strikes pouring down like rain!
Haki-laced attacks in every hue mixed with bullets, rushing at Rei Ao from every direction!
It was a net of firepower strong enough to annihilate an entire fleet in an instant!
Sengoku thrust both arms forward!
"Buddha Shockwave—!"
BOOM!!!
A golden beam tore across the ground, carrying world-ending force straight at Rei Ao!
All attacks arrived at the same moment!
Explosive flame swallowed everything!
Rubble blasted outward, smoke and dust shooting into the sky!
The earth was carved into a massive crater!
"Did we hit him?!"
A soldier shouted.
The dust slowly cleared.
And in that instant, everyone's pupils constricted.
Rei Ao was still standing there.
He hadn't moved even an inch.
Beyond three feet of his body, the ground was cracked, scorched, and sunken.
Within three feet, everything was untouched.
Even the edge of his clothes hadn't fluttered.
Every attack—bullets, slashes, Haki, even the Buddha shockwave—vanished the moment they reached that invisible boundary.
Silently.
As if swallowed by something.
"N… no way…"
A rifleman murmured, hands trembling.
Sengoku's pupils shrank, cold sweat seeping from his temples.
His full-power strike… couldn't even make the other man budge?!
Kizaru leaned against the wall, eyes widening slightly beneath his sunglasses.
Oh dear… now this really is…
He quietly adjusted his stance—putting a bit more distance between himself and the battlefield.
At last, Rei Ao moved.
He lifted his chin slightly, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings.
Towering palaces, extravagant buildings, World Government flags fluttering.
A stench hung in the air—one that disgusted him.
Privilege. Oppression. And rot.
"How boring."
He said it softly.
Not loud, yet perfectly clear in everyone's ears.
Then he yawned.
Surrounded by hundreds of elite Marines, under Fleet Admiral Sengoku's furious stare—
he looked like someone who'd just sat through a tedious performance.
"This place…"
Rei Ao spoke slowly, tone as casual as commenting on the weather.
"Stinks."
He raised his right hand and gave a lazy wave toward the front.
No charging up. No surge of aura.
Just… a light wave.
The sky split open.
Not metaphorically.
The blue canopy of heaven was torn into a pitch-black rift.
Along its edges, ominous violet-black lightning flickered.
The ground began to shake violently!
Not an earthquake—
the entire Red Line was wailing.
"What's happening?!"
"Hold your footing!"
The Marine formation collapsed into chaos, soldiers stumbling and swaying.
Sengoku steadied himself, golden Buddha-light shielding his body, horror filling his eyes.
He saw it.
That rift—that tear—stretched outward from the path of Rei Ao's hand.
It cut through the ruins, through the palaces, through all of Mary Geoise.
Then it ripped upward through the sky—downward through the earth.
"N… no…"
Sengoku whispered.
The rift kept widening.
The wound in the sky seeped a chaotic light.
The fissure in the ground was bottomless.
Rei Ao turned his head, looking toward Sengoku.
That gaze was calm in a terrifying way.
"This place doesn't need to exist anymore."