It was as if lightning were leaping.
In the blink of an eye, barely more than a daze, one of their own exploded into a cloud of blood mist.
A streak of lightning like flowing radiance darted through the crowd. Wherever it passed, no one could stop that seemingly simple fist.
Whether it was racial talent, Haki unleashed with all one's might, or Devil Fruit abilities—
None of it could stop him for even an instant. The moment they made contact, they were already headed for their end.
The terrifying Haki energy released alongside his fists had already exceeded the limits these elite core members could handle.
In a battle measured by the second, the elite backbone of the Big Mom Pirates kept falling.
Ren threw out a punch, and raging light and heat swallowed the turtle before him.
Pekoms, who was in the Zoan-Type Devil Fruit, Turtle-Turtle Fruit: Defensive Form, let out a scream.
His shell, as hard as diamond, was smashed apart by brute force. As spiderweb-like cracks bloomed across it, high-temperature energy poured into his body.
He could not even struggle for a moment before that scorching power blasted him down into the magma underground.
"Pekoms!"
Bobbin, wielding a large blade, roared in fury. In the next instant, Ren's figure appeared before him.
His five fingers spread wide, and boundless lightning erupted, covering Bobbin and every enemy within several hundred meters ahead!
The berserk lightning beams pierced through the defenses of countless enemies, turning them all into ash.
Bullets wrapped in Haki came flying, but the moment they touched the six-winged armor, they melted. Then the high-temperature energy inside the magnetic field blasted the remnants away.
Ren raised a hand and pointed. A bolt of lightning pierced toward the direction the bullets had come from.
The sniper in his perception had already withdrawn, but before he could get far, the lightning pillar that flashed over in an instant blasted away the upper half of his body.
That was already the twelfth sniper he had picked off!
This wanton slaughter was that swift. It was as if those standing in Ren's way were not seasoned veterans of the New World,
but fragile porcelain dolls that vanished at the slightest touch.
He paid no attention to the dead sniper. Rampant energy was released from the patterns across his body, enveloping him before transforming into a blazing "sun"!
The scene that had appeared on Whole Cake Island was reproduced once more. By sacrificing power in exchange for activation speed, he completed its eruption before Big Mom could react.
"World-Ending Horn: Abyssal Sun!"
Ren spread his arms wide and unleashed this attack without restraint.
The halo of the solar wheel turned pitch-black in an instant. Then suffocating black light erupted!
Bzzzz—!
The black light spread at astonishing speed. Every person and object it encountered along the way was erased in an instant.
Hundreds upon thousands of Big Mom's elites only had time to make expressions of utter terror before they completely vanished, merging into the black light.
That terrifying power devoured everything without mercy. From above, at least one-fifth of Cacao Island had been completely swallowed.
When the black light receded, the unstable high energy transformed into intense heat that ignited everything.
Heaven and earth trembled and shook at this moment. Layer upon layer of fire waves lifted a massive crimson mushroom cloud into the sky.
Beneath the cloud was a stretch of wreckage that had been completely turned into a molten lava belt.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
The lucky survivor Charlotte Joscarpone gripped her long naginata, her long neck topped by a dazed face.
She was not even twenty years old yet, and she was a girl, so she had been arranged farther back and had luckily escaped disaster.
But as a witness, she simply could not understand everything that had happened before her eyes.
Light?
An explosion?
And then everything was gone!
Amid her jumbled thoughts, Joscarpone saw it—the man who seemed like the embodiment of the blazing sun raised his hand once more.
He calmly and indifferently swung his fist forward. Then, tyrannical lightning energy came roaring forth.
Thunder shook the wilderness—
Majestic as divine wrath, oppressive as a prison!
At this moment, Big Mom finally realized something was wrong.
This man was not trying to pierce through the enemies blocking him from attacking her. He was simply using her to carry out slaughter.
Because the Emperor was here, her subjects would not retreat or flee.
Compared to bearing the immense cost of betraying the family, they were more willing to believe that Big Mom would be the final victor.
Though she did not know why he was wasting Haki on mere small fry, Charlotte Linlin, who had seized the time to recover her stamina, still made her move decisively.
Most importantly, she could not afford to wait any longer.
The Homies that had come to support them had been nearly wiped out. The members, officers, and children of the Big Mom Pirates had suffered losses of eighty percent!
If she waited any longer, she could directly become a commander without troops!
In truth, if she did not leave behind at least some seedlings, Totto Land could declare itself a fallen nation for the next ten years.
"Ren!"
With an enraged roar, Charlotte Linlin gripped Emperor Sword: Broken Blade. Prometheus transformed into waves of fire that covered the sword.
She leaped up, stepping on Zeus beneath her feet, and flipped forward in the air, turning into a streak of lightning.
A swift and ferocious heavy strike slashed toward the enemy in her Observation Haki in the very next instant.
"Isn't it a little late to make your move now?"
Ren raised his hand to block. Napoleon opened its sharp teeth and bit down on the armor.
A thunderous boom rang out as waves of fire stirred up a hurricane. The earth collapsed and caved in by dozens of meters, while spiderweb-like cracks spread hundreds of meters outward.
After the explosion,
Napoleon cried out with a weird shriek, its mouthful of sharp teeth glowing red-hot as if about to melt.
It felt as though that bite had landed on the sun itself. Even Prometheus had never given it this feeling!
Boom—!
A light-wrapped fist shot through the dust curtain and slammed viciously into Big Mom's face before she could dodge.
Conqueror's Haki clashed against Conqueror's Haki. Space distorted in an instant, and a sphere of light formed before bursting apart.
Ren stepped forward and drove out his strength. Under Meteor Burst, his terrifying power was as unstoppable as a volcano.
In the next instant, Charlotte Linlin was sent flying several kilometers by a single punch, crashing into a distant mountain like a meteor.
Six wings trembled, and Ren followed closely behind. Fist shadows filled the sky and smashed down in pursuit!
Thousands of punches engulfed the area in an instant. In just a few short seconds, that great mountain was disintegrated by the overflowing energy into flowing lava.
Charlotte Linlin's face was twisted as she lay sunken inside the massive crater. Her originally vicious eyes were almost unfocused.
Before her stood Zeus and Prometheus, desperately blocking the blows.
"Mama!"
Prometheus cried out anxiously. While releasing flames that burned toward his master, he coordinated with Zeus to form a fire-and-lightning offensive.
Ren threw out a clean, concise punch. Its overwhelmingly tyrannical force instantly tore the two apart.
The fireball and thundercloud shattered into mist-like states, and together with the volcano, were blasted outward in a radial wave.
Almost instantly, one-third of the mountain's mass disappeared.
He casually reached forward. Magnetic-Field Restraint activated, and the originally scattered Zeus was reassembled in his palm and firmly gripped there.
"Mama, save me!"
Zeus screamed in panic, feeling that he could not control himself at all.
The lightning that had once been part of himself and could be freely commanded now acted as if it had encountered its true master. It completely ignored him, and even turned around to control him instead.
"What an interesting little fellow."
This time, Ren did not throw Zeus out as a weapon. After reinforcing the magnetic-field restraint, he clenched his hand fiercely, compressing Zeus to the limit and turning him into a dazzling lightning sphere.
No matter how the other party struggled, unless Ren released his control over magnetism,
Zeus, as lightning, would never be able to escape this cage!
It was during this opening that Big Mom finally woke from her daze. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw Zeus crying for help.
His cries were as shrill as a child being abducted.
Rage rose from within her heart, but when she saw the enemy, she could not help but instinctively shrink back slightly.
Right now, she had no confidence in victory at all. The gap was far too great.
"You can feel it, can't you?"
Ren put away that lightning sphere and looked down indifferently at the Emperor below. "You are no match for me. You do not even have the qualifications to make me draw my blade.
"Whether it is your numbers or you yourself, all of you are merely goods that can be suppressed with my fists and feet.
"Still, I have to admit, as an iron balloon, you do have something worth mentioning. If it were any other fellow with an ordinary body, even with the defense of two types of Haki, it would be very hard to be struck repeatedly in the head like you and only lose consciousness."
Charlotte Linlin in his gaze was in an utterly miserable state. Her body, originally as tough as steel, now had numerous clear fist marks even through the defense of two types of Haki.
They had sunk into her flesh like branded imprints. The skin inside the fist marks was broken, and fresh blood flowed out, almost turning Big Mom into a blood-soaked figure!
"Demon Ren, it's true that you were stronger just now."
Big Mom swayed as she stood up. Her ugly face became incomparably ferocious, and scarlet light burst from her huge eyes. "But aren't you looking down on this senior too much?
"Don't get carried away, you damn brat!"
Soul Bestowal: Healing!
Her scarred body seemed to come alive. Amid cracking sounds, it rapidly repaired itself.
Whether it was broken skin, caved-in and necrotic flesh, or bones that had developed cracks, all of it was restored in the blink of an eye.
Soul Bestowal: Skeletal Reinforcement!
Her already incomparably solid bones rose to a higher level of toughness and hardness at astonishing speed.
Soul Bestowal: Flesh Reinforcement!
Charlotte Linlin's body, originally 8.8 meters tall, rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye, she reached sixteen meters—a massive size worthy of being called a small mountain.
Her strength rose continuously, and her previous sense of powerlessness quickly faded away.
Those scarlet eyes locked firmly on Ren. The hint of retreat in them immediately vanished.
Even without Zeus, even if the price she had to pay was shortening her lifespan by three years, right now, she had to—
Boom—!
Without warning, Ren erupted with extreme speed. His opened five fingers pressed down onto Charlotte Linlin's old face just as she was about to utter her threat.
A power even more terrifying than during their earlier clash surged forth. Under Big Mom's horrified gaze, it drove her toward another great mountain.
The distance of several kilometers passed in an instant, as if a high-mass meteor had fallen.
The mountain instantly erupted into a massive mushroom cloud mixed with waves of fire.
Within the cloud, Ren gathered all his strength and struck with both fists, unleashing power even stronger, more violent, and more overwhelmingly crushing than before!
At this moment, Big Mom, who had originally thought she still had a chance, instantly realized it—the other party had not gone all out at all!
Charlotte Linlin was instantly enraged. Her enhanced physical capabilities finally allowed her to endure the opponent's offensive.
She swung Emperor Sword: Broken Blade and used Conqueror's Haki Infusion, crazily exchanging blows with Ren. The battlefield between the two was restricted to a narrow area, as if they were competing to see who would be the first to fail to endure it and be sent flying.
(End of Chapter)