The three main combatants, facing a life-or-death crisis, finally fully awakened their latent powers.
Their strength skyrocketed.
Luffy shifted back into Gear Fourth: Boundman.
Not only were his massive rubber fists coated in a thick layer of Ryuo armor, but jagged red and black lightning now coiled aggressively around them.
Conqueror's Haki coating!
His legs retracted and violently snapped back, creating a deafening sonic boom as he launched himself toward the black dragon like a missile.
A fist heavily imbued with Conqueror's Haki slammed directly into the giant beast's face.
Without even needing to charge up, the critical strike drove the dragon deep into the bedrock, instantly obliterating it into a mist of broken dreams.
Sanji and Zoro no longer needed to double-team these lizards.
Zoro, with his Three Sword Style now wreathed in dark Conqueror's Haki lightning, unleashed his secret technique.
"Three Sword Style Secret Technique: Sanzen Sekai!"
The terrifying, spinning slash diced the nightmare black dragon into four neat pieces that evaporated into the air.
Sanji's Diable Jambe underwent a brutal upgrade.
Blinding blue flames swirled around his legs, the heat so intensely concentrated it literally distorted the space around him.
Ifrit Jambe!
He struck a black dragon's body with a blinding, relentless flurry of kicks.
In seconds, a full-course roasted dragon meat dish was completed, and another beast was slain.
Only three dragons remained on their front, currently being held back by the other Grand Fleet officers.
Luffy landed, grinning fiercely.
He ordered Sanji to go mop up the remaining nightmare dragons, while Zoro coldly stated he was going to intercept Saturn.
Luffy, cracking his knuckles, charged straight for the Qilin, Saint Killingham.
As for the other ten monsters slaughtering civilians across the island?
Someone had already stepped up to kick their asses.
…
Chopper had already popped a Rumble Ball, entering his monstrous 12-meter-tall Monster Point.
His massive claws slammed hard onto a Nightmare Monster's foot, sending the beast stumbling backward.
In this colossal form, Chopper's physical strength was already absurd, and with the addition of Haki, he was easily holding his own against the beast.
But a deep helplessness washed over him.
Nine other monsters were still frenziedly slaughtering innocent civilians across the archipelago.
For a doctor, whose core medical ethics demanded he save lives, this bloodbath was the most terrifying, agonizing stimulus imaginable.
He could hear the desperate wails and pleas for help echoing across the island.
Images of the slaughter happening beyond his sight flashed in his mind.
An intense, throbbing headache violently assaulted his brain.
Though utterly agitated, Chopper didn't lose control.
Instead, the intense, pure rage granted him even greater, explosive strength.
He grabbed the Nightmare Monster's crippled leg and executed a devastating back suplex, slamming it into the dirt.
Then, Chopper leaped onto the monster's head, bringing his steel-crushing hooves down repeatedly.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Each brutal strike carried the resentment, unwillingness, and sheer fury of the civilians who had died.
Under Chopper's frenzied assault, the nightmare monster finally shattered into nothingness.
Panting heavily, Chopper sprinted deeper into the island.
In the distance, a supposed safe shelter stood.
But Chopper's instincts screamed at him—he could somehow foresee the shelter's imminent destruction in the future.
The little reindeer desperately wanted to save every single suffering soul he could reach.
Driven by an urgent, burning desire to preserve life, his Observation Haki pushed past its limits.
The shelter itself was crying out to him, begging Chopper to save the people inside.
...
Three minutes earlier, Franky had hauled ass back to the Thousand Sunny.
He carried a massive sack of cola on his back, rushing straight into the Sunny's weapon factory.
There, a familiar ship spirit waited eagerly.
Franky flashed a wild, SUPER grin at the Klabautermann.
"Merry, you're finally getting a physical body, bro!"
With that, Franky wildly poured his newly acquired Soul-Soul Fruit power directly into the Going Merry's hull.
Whenever his energy dipped, he just chugged cola from his chest compartment to refuel.
As long as the cola flowed, Franky's power was practically infinite.
This was a totally overpowered exploit that even Ray hadn't anticipated.
Absolutely fucking ridiculous!
Enhanced by the massive surge of soul energy, the Going Merry gained its own physical consciousness, capable of transforming its shape at will.
Guided by the ship spirit Merry, a mighty, 15-meter-tall warship mech descended upon the Sabaody Archipelago.
It wielded a massive steel blade in its left hand and a Cannon in its right.
Three giant turrets, each a meter wide, emerged from its chest.
With all built-in ship weapons gaining transformation capabilities, the Going Merry was now a literal, badass humanoid weapon of war.
Moreover, the ship spirit Merry was itching for a fight.
Ray had previously granted him a yokai body, and after training in Demonic Power for so long, this was the perfect time to let loose.
The chest turrets aimed and fired dense Demonic Power projectiles that exploded point-blank on a sharp-toothed monster's face.
KABOOM!
Each blast created massive 50-meter-wide dark flames, and the monster instantly collapsed under the terrifying barrage.
Without pausing, Merry charged toward another beast.
Dark Demonic Power violently enveloped his giant steel blade.
"Demonic Goat Slash!"
A red-eyed, sharp-toothed demonic goat phantom manifested behind Merry.
A 50-meter sword beam infused with pure demonic energy sliced straight through the monster, cutting the bastard clean in half.
Feeling a third of his Demonic Power depleted from the strike, Merry didn't panic.
He just needed to hold the line and stall these monsters until his tank ran dry.
Meanwhile, Franky kept chugging cola, desperately releasing soul power to create Homies.
In the blink of an eye, he transformed hundreds of trees and boulders into rugged transport warriors.
These Homies possessed immense strength, each capable of carrying several residents to safety, strictly prioritizing the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled.
It could be said that every single member of the Straw Hat crew was giving it their absolute all to survive and save others.
...
Back in the sky, Shamrock and Ray had been clashing for a long time.
Ray had to acknowledge the strength of this Shanks lookalike.
The guy was seriously powerful, solidly sitting at the Yonko tier.
But for Shamrock to be able to hold him off for this long? That was somewhat unreasonable.
Clearly, Ray was just using the brief breaks in their high-speed clashes to mentally analyze the World Government's next move.
So far, their faction had slaughtered four Celestial Dragons and four of the Five Elders.
It was safe to say they had officially skyrocketed to the very top of the World Nobles' shit-list.
And time was running out.
The deaths of the world's "Gods" absolutely must not be made public.
If Ray were in Imu's shoes, he would definitely try to completely erase the Straw Hat Pirates today, destroying the entire island in the process to bury the truth.
The execution method would be step-by-step.
First, send the heavy hitters (Elders/Knights) to exterminate the crew.
If things went smoothly, these Celestial Dragon elites would just wipe out all life on Sabaody manually.
But if things went south—like the current bloody stalemate—Ray knew exactly what they would do.
They would unleash a large-scale, island-erasing weapon!
In Ray's memories of the original story, there was only one option that fit the bill: that terrifying weapon in the sky that erased an entire country from the map.
Whether it was the Ancient Weapon "Uranus" or some destructive monstrosity fueled by the "Mother Flame," it didn't matter.
That thing could easily annihilate Ray, his crew, and the entire archipelago in one strike.
As for managing the subsequent public fallout?
The Celestial Dragons were experts at cover-ups.
Just pin the destruction on the "Demon God" Ray, and the ignorant world would buy it.
Problem solved.
And it happen exactly as Ray predicted.
Just as he brutally slashed Shamrock aside, forcing the red-haired knight back, dozens of ominous beams of light began to pierce through the dark clouds high in the sky.
Seeing this apocalyptic scene forming, Ray instantly fully unleashed his Demonic Power, his aura exploding outward.
He ignored Shamrock completely and flew at blinding speed toward the Straw Hat Pirates' battlefield below.
His target was firmly locked: Saturn, who was currently locked in combat with Zoro.
With the imminent descent of that nation-destroying light, Saturn and the remaining Celestial Dragons would inevitably activate their pentagrams to teleport to safety.
And that exact moment of retreat... was when Saturn would die!
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