In other words, the principle that one would be forgiven for being too beautiful did, in fact, still exist.
It was simply that this man was far too special!
Without the slightest hesitation, she displayed the method she so often used: agreeing first, then tearing up the agreement afterward!
"The only one who agreed was you, was it not? This one never had any intention of using herself as the wager!
"And besides, what you will face next is an entire nation!"
Woooo—!
The horn of the Kuja sounded once more.
At the end of the ruins, the Kuja warriors appeared again.
Marigold and Sandersonia also emerged, and even the warriors who defended the nation had awakened as well.
In truth, the Kuja's Amazon Lily was a pirate nation. That was not merely a title, but a description of reality.
There were no true civilians on this island. Every citizen was a soldier.
Moreover, their physical qualities were all extremely strong, and roughly eighty percent of them had mastered Haki.
Even for Marine Headquarters, this force was not one that could be ignored.
In terms of peak combat power, they might not be able to compare to the Supernovas, but if they launched attacks as a group, they were still a tremendous force.
This was also the main reason Hancock had suddenly straightened her back.
If one person could not defeat him, then she would throw an entire nation at him!
The Kuja did not particularly revere one-on-one duels. Even when they hunted, they moved in groups.
'Too impulsive. You should have chosen your words according to the situation, Snake Princess. Did you truly never consider the possibility that the other side might win?
'But… there is no way to say anything. This is simply the kind of person she is.'
Granny Nyon somewhat disapproved, but she would not disturb morale at a time like this.
Instead, she helped relay the orders.
"Use the method for encircling and hunting high-danger creatures. Launch attacks in waves?"
"Understood. That person is indeed extremely dangerous. If we faint again, pull back and fight from a distance!"
The Kuja army began splitting into layers.
Hancock stood at the front, preparing to buy time. Harsh words were part of the method.
However…
"As expected, you really are a troublesome woman. Have you fallen back into that self-serving logic of yours again?"
Ren merely revealed an icy smile.
Because everything that had developed so far was still within his calculations.
Just as he had expected, Hancock was rather warped. Her values were built around the idea that "no matter what this one does, she will be forgiven, because this one is simply too beautiful."
And indeed, that had always been the truth. No matter what she had done in the past.
All she needed to do was put on a bit of an act, and she would be forgiven.
Up until now, there had never been an exception.
Trying to shatter that logic with a few words alone was impossible without enough impact!
"This one does not know what you are talking about, but this one does know one thing—I will kill you! No matter what happens!"
Hancock's beautiful eyes locked onto her enemy. "This one does not need the chance you offered, either. That promise was your own business!
"There will be no twelve hours. What awaits you is a war with this nation until one side perishes!"
She deliberately and repeatedly brought it up, all for the sake of returning the humiliation she had suffered earlier.
Yet the other side's response was… to point at the sky.
"I need to correct one thing. It isn't twelve hours. Because the sky… went dark a long time ago."
?
What was he talking about?
Right now, it was still only dusk. The color of the sky—
Hancock's thoughts froze, because the sky suddenly lit up.
The dusk sky that should have been there returned to the brilliance of noon. The scorching sunlight left everyone at a complete loss.
The heat and glare of the sunlight were even continuing to rise.
It was as if… the sun was drawing closer!
Under Hancock's horrified gaze, under Granny Nyon and the many Kuja warriors' stunned stares…
That "as if" seemed to have completely become reality.
A dazzling ring of light tore through the clouds and hung high above Kuja Island.
It recklessly released endless light and heat, overturning the common sense that it should have been dusk at this moment.
If one forced themselves to look at it with the naked eye, one would vaguely discover a humanoid figure within the solar ring.
If one sensed it with Observation Haki, one would capture a sensation nearly identical to the "sun," as well as an aura exactly like Ren's!
"You said it just now, didn't you? That you are unwilling to accept that chance. But there is one thing I need to warn you about.
"It wasn't only by relying on the power of this body that I left a scar on Kaido.
"You can sense the aura of that scorching sun, can't you? That is… a part of me."
Ren stretched out his hand and clenched it toward the solar ring in the sky.
Buzz—!
The blinding radiance vanished in an instant, replaced by a mixture of black and red.
The dazzling solar ring was smeared into black and crimson, returning the bright sky to the time it was supposed to be.
Just as Ren had said.
The sky—had already gone dark!
And yet, this was not the end. At that moment, the pitch-black solar ring released a terrifying power.
A familiar scene unfolded once more, except this time it was a Haki impact whose scale had been enlarged by an unknown number of times!
Boom—!
The black-red lightning-like aura around the pitch-black solar ring abruptly surged, stirring up an overwhelming tide in the sky!
Black-red lightning, carrying searing shockwaves, descended from above and arrived at the island in less than a second.
Amid the tremendous roar, the mountains of the Kuja shook, and countless dense cracks split open across the earth.
The vegetation on the island burned. The wild beasts wailed and sprawled on the ground, not daring to so much as struggle.
The mountain body of the inner city within the sea bowl trembled, and in the blink of an eye, streams of crimson lava flowed down from it.
It nearly buried the entire city beneath this pressure!
This was the final act of the Haki impact, as well as the superior version of "Crushing Pressure: Black Flash."
Ren watched quietly. This was the improvement he had made after the Dressrosa battle.
His judgment was that the best direction for development was still Haki, but he would not discard an energy system that had already produced results either.
By fusing the two together, the present scene had come into being.
If it needed a name, there was probably only one suitable choice.
"World-Ending Horn: Abyssal Sun!"
Of course, this was still not the complete version.
After obtaining the More-More Fruit, perhaps this move could truly be called Abyssal Sun.
Even so, the unfinished Abyssal Sun was already terrifying enough.
Aside from its excessive consumption, it had no flaws. It was especially outstanding in large-scale destruction.
This made Ren look forward even more to the moment when he obtained that Devil Fruit.
'The Devil Fruit ability of the More-More Fruit can magnify the speed and size of oneself and any object one touches by anywhere from one to one hundred times.
'With a hundredfold amplification, that would be equivalent to enlarging the scale of this current scorching sun by a hundred times. In a certain sense…
'The final version might truly deserve the name Abyssal Sun.
'Mm, taking the Kuja as an example, it would erase the island in a single encounter.
'If it reached that point, even Kaido would have to treat it cautiously, because that power might not be able to kill him, but it would be enough to completely destroy Wano, the foundation of the Beasts Pirates.'
At that moment, Ren thought of Kaido.
Meanwhile, the battlefield that had once been clamoring had already fallen completely silent.
"What… is that…"
Hancock raised her head in suffocating shock, unable to understand what that pitch-black sun was.
A Devil Fruit ability?
How could such a Devil Fruit ability exist?!
Just that movement a moment ago had nearly changed the landscape of Kuja Island.
If it were fully released, Hancock shuddered.
The Kuja warriors behind her, who had been preparing to attack, were also at a loss.
A scene of heaven and earth changing color had exceeded the limits of their knowledge and experience.
"We will be destroyed…"
At some unknown point, Granny Nyon had walked over. She spoke in a dry voice while blocking the path in front of the overly shaken Hancock.
Ahead of her, Ren walked over unhurriedly and said indifferently,
"You can refuse. You can also go back on your word after losing. You can even exhaust every possible method to deal with me.
"But you need to understand what price will come with it if you cannot prove your value.
"I will erase you, together with the entirety of Kuja Island, including the Kingdom of Amazon Lily, from this world."
At this point, Ren stopped at an extremely close distance.
He stared into Hancock's deep blue, limpid eyes and asked seriously, sincerely,
"I will ask you once more. Do you intend to refuse this mercy?"
"…No…"
Hancock squeezed out one word from her throat.
Granny Nyon gripped her arm, pleading in her eyes.
"Could you say that a little louder?"
"…I will not refuse!"
Hancock clenched her fists, a crystalline gleam welling around her eyes.
"Thank you for your answer. Then I'll see you later."
Ren turned and left.
The pitch-black solar ring began to move. It landed within the cliff wall above the main palace of the inner city.
Merely floating there, the terrifying heat it released created two boiling rivers of lava.
One on the left and one on the right, they crossed around the half-destroyed main palace and surrounded it.
Ren flashed over and sat down on a broken stone block.
He waited there like the final Demon King awaiting the "heroic army" that would come to challenge him.
Well…
He had merely given Hancock a chance—a chance to decide both her own future and the future of this kingdom.
After all, Ren was also very much looking forward to the high-intensity sparring that would follow.
Actual combat was the best test.
Though these punching bags were not exactly very strong.
A little more than ten minutes later, the warriors of Kuja Island still formed an army and launched their attack.
Their combat method had clearly absorbed the experience from earlier.
They were afraid that if they gathered too densely, a single wave of Conqueror's Haki pressure would wipe them out.
Thus, they attacked in wave after wave, while some others roamed the edges to carry away the defeated.
Ren did not care about this.
He simply used his Haki-wrapped fists to defeat them one by one, group by group.
During the process, he even rapidly absorbed experience, growing swiftly in the field of martial arts.
Boom—!
He struck again.
Ren's heavy fist was like a cannon, blasting several dozen Kuja warriors away with a single punch.
Blue hair twined toward him. He summoned thunder to ravage the direction where Sandersonia stood.
Marigold seized the opportunity to spit venom, but Ren did not dodge or avoid it. He charged through it head-on, each punch heavier than the last.
He smashed the blocking guandao apart by force!
Grasping the opening,
Ren spun, twisted his waist, and lashed out with a whip kick. The swift, fierce strike sent the enormous snake-woman flying.
A sharp whistle rose around him. Haki arrows came attacking.
His protective qi erupted, deflecting the Haki arrows off course.
In truth, earlier he had crushed them directly. But after fighting for so long, Ren discovered that if he did not conserve his strength a little, things would become troublesome.
Because his clothes would get torn.
Considering that these were clothes Nami had bought for him, Ren decided to increase the difficulty for himself and not allow any damage to appear on them.
At the same time, under this prerequisite, he would train his fine control over Haki.
The tremendous progress he had made several times in succession had brought about a negative effect: his control had clearly declined.
When fighting peak powerhouses like Dragon and Kaido, there had been no room for refinement at all.
(End of Chapter)