Alarms blared across Lilith's Egg, the Black Order's headquarters.
Their sound traveled for dozens of miles, throughout the entire area protected by the World Government's guards.
That alone demonstrated how seriously they took the defense of Terminal Dogma.
They had deployed not only three Admirals, but also vast numbers of rank-and-file Marines. Layer upon layer of defenses covered the surrounding region for dozens of miles, ensuring that even an Emperor of the Sea would expend considerable strength before breaking through to the Admirals.
They had never imagined that the Thunder Angel could pass directly through space and appear inside the Black Order, making every defensive arrangement around the island meaningless.
This was the power of penetration. Its attacks could pierce any defense, enemy attacks passed through its body, and it could even pierce the distance between two points in space!
The Thunder Angel therefore traveled from the first half of the Grand Line to the Black Order's headquarters almost instantly.
Hum!
Another laser began gathering. This one contained its true power, enough destructive force to sweep away an entire district in an instant.
At that moment, a powerful voice suddenly thundered from the sky.
"Galaxy Impact!"
It was Garp!
Garp had already been in the New World. After learning about the Thunder Angel, he deliberately began traveling toward the first half of the Grand Line. Before reaching it, however, he happened to pass the Black Order and sensed the Thunder Angel's arrival.
That made matters more convenient. He no longer needed to cross the Red Line.
Boom!
Immense Haki gathered around his fist. Garp leaped high into the air, appeared directly above the Thunder Angel, and brought down an incomparably powerful punch.
Garp's strength was beyond question. Aatrox had once severed his arm, but Vegapunk later attached an even stronger replacement.
After recovering and becoming even more powerful, Garp had remained in the New World. With Ann at Marine Headquarters, it was already the safest place in the world and needed no additional powerhouse to defend it.
Naturally, his current punch contained astonishing power.
Before the fist could descend, its impact arrived. A diamond-shaped membrane resembling a barrier appeared around the Thunder Angel. This was its A.T. Field.
The A.T. Field could withstand a nuclear weapon, yet now it seemed compressed by some enormous force. The surrounding buildings shattered as though a mountain had fallen onto them.
The ground cracked inch by inch, and strands of black lightning scattered through the air in every direction.
"Garp!"
Sengoku sighed in relief when he saw Garp arrive, but the light the Thunder Angel had gathered was released at the same moment. A tremendous wave of energy blasted forward and destroyed everything in its path.
Vast numbers of buildings were erased, and the energy wave passed through the entire Black Order headquarters.
Sengoku failed to evade completely. The laser grazed his shoulder, and the flesh there immediately vanished. Neither Haki nor psychokinesis could defend against it. The force was overwhelmingly tyrannical, and its effect even surpassed that of Haki!
After releasing the attack, the Thunder Angel suddenly vanished from beneath Garp, whose fist had been struggling against the A.T. Field. Garp fell straight downward.
His terrifying punch struck the ground. Although much of its strength had already been consumed by the A.T. Field, it still blasted an enormous crater into the island.
Garp looked confused before retreating to Sengoku's side. "Is that the thing they call the Thunder Angel? What just happened?"
"How would I know?" Sengoku replied irritably. He had only just begun fighting it himself.
As the two stood side by side, one could not help recalling events from more than thirty years ago.
Back then, they had both been Marines and had defeated countless opponents together.
Even at God Valley, when they faced three legendary figures such as Rocks, Toguro, and Roger, the Marine side had consisted of only the two of them.
Those events seemed to have happened only recently, yet both men were now nearly eighty years old.
Time truly was a demon.
Sengoku put aside his nostalgia. "This monster appears capable of piercing space. That's how it bypassed Akainu, Aokiji, and the Thunder God and suddenly appeared at the Black Order's headquarters."
"Attacks also pass directly through its body."
"Through its body?" Garp recalled what had just happened. His punch had indeed passed through the Thunder Angel, but before that...
"My fist definitely struck it at first."
"It was attacking then," Sengoku said. "I understand. While it's attacking, it can't keep its own body in a penetrable state. That's why its barrier activated!"
In other words...
They needed to lure the Thunder Angel into attacking. Only then would they have a chance to defeat it.
The original X-Axis did not possess this weakness, but the Thunder Angel did not contain the complete Schrift. Its version of the ability was therefore flawed.
"Good! Then I'll be the one who attacks!"
Garp laughed heartily. His right arm expanded and directly tore through his sleeve. The limb became increasingly crimson, and dense scales emerged across its surface.
The arm of a Red Dragon!
Vegapunk had spent a long time combining Kaido's cloned Lineage Factor with demon cells to create an arm perfectly suited to Garp.
Garp's earlier punch had been rushed, preventing him from immediately breaking the Thunder Angel's A.T. Field. Now he intended to use his full strength.
Like every user of a Zoan-type Devil Fruit, Garp's right arm possessed three forms.
Its human form resembled an ordinary arm.
In its beast form, the end of Garp's arm transformed into a Red Dragon capable of breathing energy, summoning violent winds, and using other abilities.
Its human-beast form was the arm's current appearance, exceptionally savage and exceptionally powerful. This was Garp's true combat form.
His arm now seemed engulfed in blazing flames. Incomparably powerful Haki wrapped around it, making the illusory fire solidify and deepen in color.
Sengoku felt a headache coming on. He had not even finished speaking, yet Garp had already made the decision himself.
Given the present circumstances, however, there was no time for them to keep talking.
The Thunder Angel had begun moving again.
Garp's punch had failed to injure the colossal creature, but seemed to have activated some internal mechanism.
It transformed again. A spiraling drill appeared beneath it, while its sides connected with the ground to create a stable base, making the creature resemble an enormous cannon emplacement.
Hum!
At the same time, the drill bored downward as though attempting to pierce through the entire island.
Sengoku's pupils contracted. "Stop it!"
The true Black Order headquarters lay beneath the hollowed-out island!
If the Thunder Angel drilled down to it, if it reached Terminal Dogma...
Everything would be over!
But as long as the Thunder Angel did not initiate an attack, it could not be struck. How were they supposed to stop it?
It was not attacking at all!
"To hell with it!"
Garp grinned fiercely. "Dragon Fist Burst!"
Boom!
Powerful Haki gathered within his right arm. Red and black energy rapidly spread outward, creating an enormous hollow blast zone behind him like the exhaust of a launching aircraft.
The indistinct image of a black-and-red dragon appeared within Garp's right arm and roared. Since fusing with Garp, the limb had never fought with its full strength.
The Thunder Angel was clearly an opponent capable of forcing both the arm and Garp to give everything they possessed!
"Hey, Garp! Are you trying to destroy the entire Black Order?!" Sengoku roared.
The power Garp had gathered could probably sink the entire island with a single punch.
The greatest problem was the Thunder Angel's penetrable body. If the punch failed to strike it, all that power would pour into the island instead.
"Which do you want..." Garp stepped forward. The ground instantly split, and black lightning scattered everywhere.
"The world, or this island?!"
Boom!
Another deafening roar sounded as Garp moved with incredible speed and force!
His path resembled a colossal dragon. The dragon roared, howled, and devoured everything before it!
Sengoku gritted his teeth but did not interfere.
Garp was right. If they did nothing, the entire world would be destroyed.
Besides, it was already too late to stop him.
Garp's punch was powerful enough that anyone attempting to block it would be killed or critically injured!
The black-and-red dragon finally collided with the blue angel. Sengoku involuntarily closed his eyes, but the expected destruction never arrived.
As Garp launched his punch, the Thunder Angel appeared to sense the danger. It had already anchored itself to the ground like an artillery platform. Now, like a true cannon, it gathered tremendous energy.
Just before the Red Dragon formed by Garp swallowed it, the Thunder Angel successfully released its beam.
Two entirely different forms of energy collided.
The mere collision caused Lilith's Egg to sink several centimeters. Even the more distant sea was forcibly depressed, as though an invisible hand were pushing down upon the entire region.
The tremendous shock sent Sengoku flying dozens of meters. Only after opening his eyes did he understand what had occurred.
Despite being blown away, he was overjoyed. The Thunder Angel had chosen to block Garp with its beam, proving that Garp's attack was effective!
Although the Thunder Angel could allow attacks to pass through it, a sufficiently powerful attack could still force it to defend.
Sengoku formed the Heavenly Drum Thunderclap Seal with his hands, then unleashed the Buddha's Palm.
"Buddha Questions the Sangharama!"
Psychokinesis and Haki intertwined in an instant, but the attack contained far less hostility. Sengoku had not launched the palm to attack. He intended to neutralize the shock waves created by the clash between Garp and the Thunder Angel.
If their confrontation continued unchecked, its power could engulf the entire Black Order headquarters.
At the center of the collision, Garp ignored such concerns. Following his heart without restraint was the secret of his strength.
He was now extremely close to the Thunder Angel, but its beam remained between them. Although he pushed the energy backward one step at a time, his own strength was steadily weakening.
Garp grinned. With a roar, his black-and-red energy erupted and he suddenly stopped advancing.
All that immense power shifted toward "cutting." It split an opening through the center of the Thunder Angel's beam and divided the energy into two streams that passed on either side of Garp.
The separation could only be temporary. The two divided beams would soon reunite. But Garp had forcibly split the attack precisely to exploit that brief opening.
"Dragon Fist: Lightning Cross!"
Lightning, a naturally flowing current, was exceptionally simple for a Red Dragon to control.
Flames, lightning, and violent winds all belonged to a dragon's authority.
Kaido excelled at manipulating fire with his draconic body, while Garp preferred lightning.
In less than a second, countless bolts of lightning gathered around Garp's right arm. The sky turned incomparably dark, and bolts descended from the heavens to merge with the limb.
Electricity covered his arm while arcs of black lightning escaped from it. Garp resembled an ancient thunder god, his body filled with majesty and terror.
He was a benevolent deity who purified every calamity and an evil god who brought destruction and disaster.
Inconceivable power gathered within a single fist. Garp roared and punched forward.
He abandoned every trace of defense, transforming himself into pure offense!
The two previously divided beams reunited and struck Garp's shoulders as though attempting to force him backward. He ignored the energy battering his body and continued driving his fist forward!
The remaining energy ahead instantly dispersed, but even without its beam, the Thunder Angel still possessed its A.T. Field.
The creature released the field at full strength and began gathering another attack inside it.
This time, however, Garp's punch had completely exceeded the A.T. Field's capacity.
The crystalline layers of the barrier shattered like glass in an instant, and the remaining force surged directly toward the Thunder Angel.
It fired its incomplete beam, but even that could not stop Garp's fist.
A thunderous explosion rang out. The body of the Thunder Angel, which had transformed into an artillery platform and continued drilling downward, exploded as Garp's fist struck directly against its core.
Rumble!
The Thunder Angel initially showed no visible change, but behind it, or rather, in the sky beyond it, the heavens split beneath the force.
An enormous cross appeared in the sky.
A violent current forced the clouds apart, tearing open a deep and majestic cross of incredible size. Lightning surged through it like dragons, forming an omen of the world's destruction!
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