Ren silently observed the battlefield. In just a few seconds, he had already pieced together the situation.
He didn't know why Crocodile had suddenly appeared—none of the known intelligence suggested such a possibility.
The only explanation was that Crocodile possessed a kind of power Ren couldn't yet grasp.
Thinking carefully—if Crocodile had been able to maintain droughts across Alabasta for years—could that really be done with sandstorms alone?
Ren thought of Crocodile's ability to drain moisture, and then recalled what Nami had said earlier, along with the heavy rain that had fallen over Nanohana.
A faint thread began connecting all those clues, forming a realization Ren had previously missed.
It was known that—
When a Zoan-type Devil Fruit awakens,it greatly enhances physical resilience and stamina, while further amplifying traits of the animal it represents.
When a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit awakens,it evolves from affecting only the user's body to influencing the environment—even permanently altering it.
Then what of the third class—the Logia-type awakening?
No definite answer existed. But there was an example.
During the Punk Hazard incident, Kuzan and Sakazuki had battled for ten days and nights.
The fight permanently altered the island's climate—unchanged for years since.
Perhaps…
A Logia awakening represented an evolution of natural disaster itself—to become a moving catastrophe, like a hurricane, earthquake, or volcano in human form.
By that logic, Crocodile's sudden arrival could be explained.
He was a Logia-type Suna Suna no Mi (Sand-Sand Fruit) awakener, possessing large-scale environmental perception—not mere Observation Haki, but a domain-specific awareness tied to his element itself.
"Still underestimated him, huh…"
Ren sighed inwardly, though without guilt or regret.
As he had once reminded himself after crushing Robin—He wasn't a genius; he simply had information and the will to think it through.
Without detailed intel on Logia awakenings, his earlier misjudgment was inevitable.
In truth,he had already sensed Crocodile's power was ambiguous—his limits impossible to gauge.
That was precisely why he had brought the Revolutionary Army into play.
The current outcome stemmed from uncertainty in incomplete intelligence,not from negligence or poor planning.
It wasn't his fault—nothing more than that.
If he had erred at all, it was in underestimating his own swings of fortune.
When he gained what he desired, unwanted consequences would always follow.
That was the nature of balance.
Only this time, he'd been truly caught off guard.
But—!
That didn't mean Ren was about to roll over and die. Even before a Warlord of the Sea, he still had cards to play!
"I just need an opening… No Haki—then seawater and Seastone bullets will have to do."
Ren quietly circulated his inner energy, infusing his entire body with Qi through his radiant armor.
Protective Qi Barrier—!
A technique born alongside Phantom Wing Flight, finally refined through constant training into a rudimentary armor of energy.
Layer upon layer covered him—the outer light armor, the crystalline sub-layer, and the viscous Qi flowing between them.
To prevent sand infiltration, he even reactivated the long-unused Blessing of Arrow Avoidance.
All this completed within seconds.
Robin's retreat was the spark that ignited the cold, fierce battle!
"Good! Then don't regret it!"
Crocodile's laughter turned vicious as he raised his hand.
An endless torrent of sand formed countless blades, tearing through walls as they gathered around the Desert King.
Finer dust swept through the hall, blurring all vision.
A killing intent thick enough to choke filled the air.
Boom!
In the very next instant, Ren exhaled sharply—a thunderclap burst from his mouth!
Crackling violet lightning condensed into a sword of pure destruction.
With a deafening roar, it tore through Crocodile's protective sand barrier.
Flame and thunder danced together within the room.
Wherever the Thunder Sword passed,sand melted under the searing heat, turning to dark, glassy shards that shattered with sharp pops.
The first to react, Crocodile reinforced his sand shield—only for the lightning to rip it open, leaving a half-human-sized hole.
Inside that gap, Crocodile's upper body looked as though it had been devoured—his waist cut clean, the edges glassed over, light from outside shining through the wound.
But Ren dared not stop. Without Armament Haki, Logia users couldn't be slain!
The swirling sand reformed his body in an instant,Crocodile's sneering voice echoing from his half-formed mouth.
"Heh… no Haki, huh? So you really are just another East Blue nobody. Why don't you let whoever's behind you show themsel—"
He froze mid-sentence.
His newly restored eyes saw something unbelievable—a mirage-like surge of water swirling through the air.
The briny scent told him clearly—It was seawater!
"!"
Crocodile's pupils contracted. Sand around him hardened into blades, cleaving the floor open as he dropped downward, raising another sandstorm with a sweep of his hand!
Outside, the massive storm encasing the tower constricted inward. Walls groaned as rotating sand tore through them.
And then—
Endless sand met tens of thousands of tons of seawater.
Water and sand merged, then dehydrated under Crocodile's power, forming dense clumps—only to be hurled outward by the storm's rotation.
Just outside, Nami, holding her Magical Clima-Tact, had been frowning at the strange tingle on her skin.
A thunderous crash made her turn—and before her eyes, the once-towering hotel was shredded into fragments by the storm.
From its eye erupted a geyser of condensed seawater, raining down over Nanohana.
"Crocodile!"
"Long live the Desert King!"
"Kill those villains!"
The people of Nanohana cheered, hoping their "hero" would crush the intruders and bring peace to their city.
The irony was cruel.
Their so-called hero was the true source of Alabasta's suffering—and the "villains" were the only ones tearing away its false peace.
Neither side cared much for the words hero or villain.
Something's gone wrong, Nami realized at once. The weather anomaly she'd sensed earlier was a thunderstorm—and the cheers told her exactly who the enemy was.
Crocodile—the one we were supposed to face last!
Instinctively, she took a step forward, ready to rush toward the lightning-struck ruins. Even if the storm blocked her sight, she wanted to reach him.
Ren was a reliable man—and if someone made him this cautious, they had to be a terrifying foe,not one that could be defeated through numbers.
That was why he had struck a deal with the Revolutionary Army.
But…
She couldn't abandon the man who had taken such a place in her heart.
Nami started forward—only for Nojiko to grab her arm.
"Calm down! Don't rush in like an idiot. If you want to help Ren, use your Clima-Tact—change the weather!"
Nojiko was far steadier than the panicked Nami. She remembered Ren's words clearly: Crocodile wasn't someone they could defeat head-on—especially here, in the desert homeland of his power.
Charging in would only make them liabilities.
Better to support him from afar—to tip the scales in Ren's favor.
Thunder and Fire—!
Meanwhile, Zoro, sensing the chaos, was already racing back, joined by several Baroque Works elites. Their slow infiltration plan had collapsed into a sudden final showdown.
The tower hotel was now a mangled ruin.
The sandstorm's rotation twisted the structure like a giant's hand, grinding the walls apart until the ground cracked beneath them.
A four-winged angel burst through the rubble, sand flooding in from every direction like a tidal wave,forming countless blades that stabbed inward.
Ren was about to be skewered when he exhaled again—this time unleashing roaring flames that filled the narrow space.
Boom—!
Temperature soared; crimson fire surged like a tide,melting every sand blade into murky glass crystals.
As the shards flew, a figure emerged from the sand.
Crocodile swung his arm wide, enlarging it into a crescent-shaped sand blade—a cut so lethal that anything it touched would be drained of all moisture.
"Fwoosh—!"
Ren's scarlet eyes flicked. He turned his head and spat lightning.
Crack!
The incoming sand blade shattered into reflective fragments.
The remaining lightning speared through Crocodile's body, making him explode like a popped balloon.
But the scattered sand seemed to send a signal—dozens of sand spears shot back at the four-winged angel, scraping viciously across the radiant armor, leaving deep claw-like marks.
Not far away, Crocodile's half-reformed face sneered—only to be obliterated again.
Boom—!
Light outpaced sound. A spear of thunder detonated,its branching arcs spreading for hundreds of meters,melting tons of sand into crystalized glass.
Floors collapsed; rooms shattered—the clash of sand and lightning lighting up the night.
The battle of Sand and Thunderfire had truly begun.
(End of Chapter)