The surging tide broke like a shattered dam, ferocious and unstoppable.
The terrifying repulsive force erupted around Creed, blasting apart the layers of dark ice that had sealed him in, and even hurling away countless streams of flame from the earth's core.
The charging Hellhound was swept up as well, its form torn apart and scattered into nothing.
"What Devil Fruit ability is this? Fujitora's gravity fruit? No… Fujitora's power isn't this strong!"
Akainu sensed the nature of that repulsive force and could not help but be shocked.
Creed was releasing that terrifying repulsion in all directions, but Akainu could clearly feel that a considerable portion of it had been exquisitely focused onto his Hellhound.
That Hellhound had carried roughly ninety percent of his full power, yet in front of Creed's highly condensed repulsive force, it had still been stripped apart and blown away.
From this alone, it was obvious: Creed's fine control over power actually surpassed Fujitora's by a level!
"Boom!"
In the span of a heartbeat, not only was Akainu blasted away by the repulsion, but the flames from the earth's core over a range of more than thirty miles were kicked up and flung outward, splashing in all directions. Nearly a hundred miles of sea surface were instantly carpeted in raging fire, turning the entire area into a vast sea of flames.
In just that instant, Creed broke apart Akainu's magma hell and seized back control of this stretch of heaven and earth.
"Creed, it's useless! Even if you scatter the flames from the earth's core, as long as I'm still here, I can keep drawing up new fire from the planet's heart!"
Akainu steadied himself in midair, body turned into magma, his voice cold with disdain.
Answering his cold laughter, the flames from the earth's core far below the sea burst forth with a roar, their momentum swelling tenfold, a hundredfold in an instant!
"Is that so?"
Creed narrowed his eyes. Both hands clenched into fists. With a sharp crack, two pale halos appeared around his knuckles again.
He sank into a horse stance, then drew his arms wide to left and right and punched out in opposite directions!
"Gala!"
"Crack!"
Sharp, brittle sounds rang out, as if Creed had just shattered two immense, invisible glass panes. Lines of fractured air spread out from his fist-borne halos at lightning speed, racing outward and making the heavens and earth tremble.
"Again! Too bad it's useless!"
Akainu twisted his body slightly, narrowly dodging the most lethal line of vibrating force.
"Tch!"
Even though he avoided a direct hit, the aftershock of that slicing vibration still sent magma leaping off his elemental body, flames dancing wildly across him.
"Mm? The power's increased again? This bastard… how can he have such terrifying strength?!"
Sensing the level of power contained in that vibrating slash, Akainu was once more shocked.
Creed's true strength was simply unfathomable.
"Haha! Having an arch-enemy like you is fantastic. Today, I'm going to force out every last bit of your power!"
Instead of fear, Akainu only grew more frenzied and excited.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
As his will surged, the flames from the earth's core erupted even more violently. Pillars of magma rose once more from the seabed, trying to transform the ocean floor back into a magma hell.
"Creed, if you can't put me down, then sooner or later I'll just grind you to death!"
Akainu roared as he unleashed Ryusei Kazan (Meteor Volcano). Thousands of colossal magma fists rained down from the sky like a world-destroying downpour.
He wasn't wrong. With the Magu Magu no Mi (Magma-Magma Fruit) fully awakened, once those "channels" to the earth's core were formed, drawing up the flames from deep underground cost him almost no effort at all.
And the inferno at the world's core in this sea-faring world could practically be called inexhaustible. In a pure war of attrition, he really did not fear Creed in the slightest.
"Sakazuki, you seem a little too full of yourself."
Creed's expression darkened. His left fist suddenly hammered straight down. Countless cracks in the air stretched out, some even drilling straight into the crust beneath his feet.
Gura Gura no Mi: Handei (Tremor-Tremor Fruit: Shaking the Earth)!
"Gala! Boom, boom, boom!"
The sounds of shattering air and extinguished flames rose and fell together, merging into a deafening roar.
"Useless! Even if you shatter the seabed, you can't block my—what? Impossible!!"
Akainu had been wearing a cruel grin, but his laughter cut off abruptly, like a rooster having its neck suddenly clamped.
He immediately let out a furious roar.
He could not comprehend it at all. In an instant, Creed had driven his vibrations deep several miles into the ground, smashing apart and sealing every magma channel Akainu had opened.
And that was far from all. Creed had violently shifted the tectonic plates themselves, forcing the rock layers to clamp shut and further reinforcing the seal on the earth beneath. Without some exceptional method, there was no way for Akainu to make those magma veins and flames from the earth's core erupt anew in the short term.
"According to the rumors, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit can shake the heavens and the earth and destroy the world itself. This technique of his must be some kind of 'earth-shattering art'…"
Akainu's pupils shrank, flames blazing deep within them. There was no way he would admit that his Magu Magu no Mi could actually be restrained by the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"Creed!"
He roared, and his entire body transformed into a towering magma giant that dove down from the sky.
"Rumble!"
An endless wave of heat poured off his body. The magma flesh of his giant frame ignited with crimson-violet flames from the earth's core, causing his body temperature to soar past ten thousand degrees in an instant.
Even space itself seemed to melt under that horrific heat. Ripples radiated outward in all directions, slamming into the sky and carving out one frightening spatial fissure after another.
Crimson-violet flames leapt and danced through the air over a range of more than thirty miles. They seemed alive, cheering wildly for this ultimate technique of Akainu's.
This was the move with which Akainu shattered his own limits. In this moment, his overall combat strength was infinitely close to SSSS+ tier.
Do or die!
"Boom!"
In the blink of an eye, the countless tremors Creed had released were entirely suppressed and devoured by those red-violet flames.
Akainu dove straight down, hurling a punch as he came. A colossal Hellhound lunged forth from his magma fist, howling as it descended.
Yogan Kyojin: Dai Meinu (Magma Giant: Great Hellhound)!
The overwhelming might of that blow crashed down ahead of him. The pressure alone made Creed's body jolt, his feet being driven a full foot into the ground.
"Good timing!"
Creed's voice rang out low and steady. The power he had been gathering in his right fist had finally reached an absolute limit. He could no longer hold it back.
Gura Gura no Mi: Shinten (Tremor-Tremor Fruit: Shaking the Heavens)!
He locked onto Akainu with that single punch and swung it upward with all his might.
"Gala! Boom, boom, boom!"
Around Creed's fist, the pale halos twisted as countless fine, black cracks sprouted from them. These fissures were starkly different from the earlier pale fractures in the air.
These new cracks were dark, thin, and sinister. In an instant, they spread out to cover over ten miles of sky, weaving into a massive three-dimensional black net that surged up to meet Akainu head-on.
These black fissures were spatial cracks, their lethality hundreds or even thousands of times greater than that of mere fractures in the air.
Even with Creed's monstrous body and unparalleled power among those of his tier, unleashing this move still left him with a wave of fatigue washing through him.
Fortunately, his recovery was just as monstrous. Within a single breath, that exhaustion faded entirely.
"Boom!"
"Shrrrip!"
The black net of spatial cracks first tore the Great Hellhound apart into thousands of pieces, then continued on, slicing toward Akainu's magma giant body.
"Damn it!"
The chaotic, disordered forces within the spatial fissures wreaked havoc on elementalization. Even though Akainu converted his body to magma at the first possible instant, he still felt countless agonizing cuts tearing across him.
"Pffft!"
Blood sprayed wildly from his form, splattering half the sky in crimson.
He was just about to successfully complete his elemental escape, slipping through the gaps in the black net, reforming his magma giant and crashing down on Creed—
But at that critical instant, Creed suddenly drew back his right fist and then yanked hard.
The black three-dimensional net responded as if it were physically connected to his hand, collapsing inward all at once.
Closing the net!
It was like some primeval beast had been holding its jaws wide open, and now those jaws snapped shut and layered over themselves again and again, clamping down to swallow Akainu's magma giant whole.
"Pffft!"
"No—!"
Akainu let out a heartbreaking scream as the spatial fissures sliced across his body once more, carving him into a bloody ruin, flesh and magma shredded and indistinguishable, his form torn to pieces within that collapsing black net.
(End of Chapter)
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