The battle raged from the blazing noon to the star-strewn night.
The whole island and the surrounding sea had become a dead zone.
The sky was painted a chaotic violet-black by torn clouds and lingering Haki vortexes;
The land was scarred, lava crawling in bottomless fissures;
The sea roared in ceaseless fury, as though mourning this world-shaking clash.
Bang—!!!
A muffled boom unlike any before detonated!
Rayleigh's figure shot down like a burning meteor, drilled into the earth by a fist condensed to the extreme.
The charred ground collapsed and crystallized, forming a radial crater; dust and stones were flung hundreds of meters skyward.
At the pit's center, Rayleigh leaned on his sword, kneeling.
A mouthful of scalding blood finally spilled, dripping onto hot rock with a hiss.
Every bone groaned; his mouth tasted of iron.
Yet—
"Ha... hahaha!!!"
Laughter—low, wild laughter—rose from the pit.
This pain, this blood, this razor-thin dance with death... instead of quenching his will, poured oil on a fire dormant for decades!
The thrill of sailing unknown seas with Roger flooded back in an instant.
He lifted his blood-stained gaze, locking onto the straw hat high above.
Pride—indescribable pride—smothered every ache.
—Look, Roger! This is the new era we dreamed of!
—The rowdiest sun carrying our will!
Buzz—!
A fiercer, wilder Conqueror's Haki erupted skyward.
Crimson lightning no longer coiled but snapped like ravenous serpents, gnawing air and earth.
His bloody fingers tightened around his sword.
It wasn't a simple grip.
In that clasp he poured every insight, every battle, every ounce of kingly will.
Meanwhile, high above.
Luffy hovered amid stars and vortexes, straw hat scorched yet still on his head.
Black hair whipped in the gale, tattered clothes streaked with dark blood like war-paint.
He looked down, eyes blazing with excitement, not pity.
His right fist clenched, black-red Haki writhing like a living beast.
Each clash with a legend fed the fire, the Haki growing denser, more terrifying.
He could feel the "voice" inside his fist growing louder.
"Come!!!"
One roaring laugh served as battle-cry.
The next instant—
"Whoosh!!!"
Crimson sword-will and black fist-might shot forth!
One pierced the heavens, the other slammed the earth.
Two meteors of will and legacy collided amid the ruined world—
No more probing—only the ultimate, limit-shattering—
Final clash!
Night had fallen, yet Kuja City's grand palace blazed like day.
On the lavish table, the once-steaming feast now sat cold, forgotten offerings under candlelight.
In the vast hush, two stunning figures contrasted sharply.
"Hancock, when is Luffy coming back?!"
Yamato's voice shattered the quiet.
Clad in a white kimono, she attacked the food with chopsticks, cheeks puffed like an irate snow-wolf.
Through mouthfuls she grumbled,
"If he doesn't show soon, it's all mine! He'll regret it!"
Across the table, Boa Hancock propped her chin, raven hair spilling across polished wood.
The world's most beautiful face looked even more alluring in candlelight, touched with a mature languor.
Yet her eyes held restless worry.
She sighed softly, almost to herself,
"I've sent the Kuja scouts to search nearby seas... wait a little longer."
"Oh? Really!" Yamato paused, set down her chopsticks, and wiped her mouth.
After all, devouring Luffy's share would feel childish.
She turned curious crimson eyes on Hancock and exclaimed,
"Hey, Hancock, you've... started to glow? It's like you're shining! What happened?"
The words dropped like a stone into still water.
Hancock froze; her hand slipped from her cheek.
Invisible flames shot up her neck to her ears, painting her face a blazing scarlet.
Her gaze fluttered, Empress poise evaporating into shy, sweet delight.
It was as though her soul had drifted to some secret, sweet corner known only to her and that one man, utterly lost in her own world.
"Hmm…?"
Yamato stared at this side of her—so different from her usual proud demeanor—and froze, an involuntary gasp escaping her lips… "Brr-ring—brr-ring—!"
The den den mushi on the table, crowned with a tiny tiara, suddenly shook violently,
its shrill cry slicing through the silent palace and yanking Hancock straight out of her pink, hazy daydream.
Almost by reflex she snatched the receiver with lightning speed; the languor and shyness vanished, replaced by the Empress's authority and an unconscious urgency. She cut straight to the point:
"Scout team, is that you? Have you found Luffy?!"
"Boom—!!!"
The answer was not a clear report but a deep, penetrating roar,
a mix of air-rending shrieks and mad howling waves, reproduced so faithfully by the den den mushi that the receiver trembled in her grip.
Hancock's delicate brows snapped together, her fingertips whitening under the pressure.
It didn't sound like an ordinary battle—more like… the prelude to a natural disaster.
A bad premonition seized her heart; her voice turned icy, brooking no defiance:
"What exactly is happening? Report at once!"
Across the line came ragged, heavy gasps; the signal was clearly unstable.
The loyal Kuja warrior's voice shook, raw disbelief breaking her words:
"R-Report, Empress! W-We've found Lord Luffy! H-He's on an unnamed reef about a hundred nautical miles northeast of Kuja City… o-only…"
The warrior needed all her courage to describe the scene. She sucked in a breath, then shrieked what she saw:
"Lord Luffy is fighting 'Pluton' Silvers Rayleigh!!!"
Cut to the raging open sea—
The Kuja scout ship tossed like a leaf on mountain-high waves, barely keeping balance, one breaker away from being swallowed.
At the bow the signal-clutching Kuja clung to the rail with one hand, the den den mushi white-knuckled in the other, her face bloodless, pupils shrunk to pinpoints from sheer terror and awe.
On the horizon where the island should have been, no outline remained.
Instead, a domain of destruction was wrapped in swirling violet-black Haki, crimson and dark-red lightning, dust and geysers of sea-water shooting sky-high.
Even at this distance the aftershock howled like a gale, the air reeking of scorched ozone.
The sky was torn, the ocean boiled, the land… perhaps already gone.
This was no human fight—it was a clash of mythic demons, a cataclysm that would redraw the nautical charts!
"The whole world… is being shattered…"
She whispered, voice lost beneath another world-shattering roar that cracked through the receiver… "Rayleigh?!"
Hancock's fingers whitened around the handset.
The rose blush born of sweet memories drained from her flawless face, replaced by a stormy scowl.
To her ears the apocalyptic thunder now sounded like some geezer's triumphant cackle.
"So—"
Her voice shot up, every word ground between clenched teeth, frost-edged and seething,
"the reason Luffy missed our candle-lit dinner is that shameless old fool meddling again?!"
"Hiss—!"
Yamato felt tangible black aura roll off Hancock and instinctively sucked in a breath, shrinking her neck.
Where was the blushing maiden of moments ago?
Those world-toppling eyes now blazed with dragon-scale fury!
Yamato gulped—this Hancock was scarier than an enraged Kaido on Onigashima!
Under that fearful gaze Hancock snapped upright.
Jeweled purple heels clicked like war-drums across the polished floor.
She didn't bother smoothing her disheveled skirt or hair; a queen marching to war, she strode straight for the palace doors.
Passing the dining table she seized Yamato's wrist without breaking stride,
grip like iron, brooking no refusal.
"Stop eating!"
Without looking back she snarled, fury like a tsunami and a hint of grievance at stolen time,
"Come with me!"
"Eh? Ehh—?! Wait, Hancock! My red-bean soup isn't—"
Yamato stumbled, face blank with clueless innocence, eyes wide with bewildered stupidity.
But the force on her wrist and the murderous aura from Hancock's back swallowed any protest.
She could only pout like a giant hound dragged off by a far larger beast,
casting mournful glances at the remaining feast while tumbling after Hancock's blood-thirsty stride.
The palace doors slammed open under Hancock's push; night wind surged, lifting her night-dark hair, unable to dim the battle-bound fire in her eyes.