Crackling...
The flames of hell were no longer a metaphor; they were a living, breathing reality.
An unimaginable heat wave slammed into the atmosphere, radiating outward with the force of a supernova. In the center of the devastation, a huge fireball with an impossible diameter appeared, expanding relentlessly as it consumed the very oxygen in the air.
Standing amidst this cataclysm was a ferocious and terrifying, yet majestic Dragon. This flame-wreathed beast stood tall, its claws appearing to hold a second blazing sun aloft, shining across the darkened sky and scorching the earth beneath its feet.
Gurgling...
The nearby sea surface was not merely dyed red by the reflection; the water was so intensely hot that it began to boil. Steam hissed into the air in massive plumes, obscuring the horizon. The entire sky had been stained a terrifying dark red, a hue so deep and ominous it felt as though the heavens themselves were bleeding.
For a moment, the entire unnamed island seemed to have been dragged into the depths of a red lotus hell. The earth beneath the Dragon's feet dried out, cracked, and decomposed, turning into a scorched, lifeless desert in a matter of seconds.
The sheer pressure of the scene was enough to make one's scalp go numb.
"Ahhhhh...!" "What is that thing?" "Gulp... A second sun has appeared in the sky!" "What on earth is happening over there?"
Far away, the Going Merry had not yet completely vanished over the sea level. Even at this extreme distance, the members of the Straw Hat Pirates felt waves of heat washing over their faces. The entire sea area's temperature was skyrocketing; it was becoming unbearably hot. A large number of fish, shrimp, and even massive sea beasts began to float to the surface, their bellies turned upward, cooked or suffocated by the sudden shift in the environment.
Luffy, Zoro, Chopper, Usopp, and the others could not help but widen their eyes. They looked in sheer disbelief at the dazzling "sun" hovering over the distant island. Cold sweat broke out on their brows, only to be instantly evaporated by the encroaching heat.
"Gulp! No, that's not the sun... that's a giant fireball..."
Nami adjusted her monocular, her pupils shrinking sharply as she focused on the center of the inferno. Swallowing hard, she whispered in disbelief, "It seems to have been made by Ren..."
"What!?" "Hiss—" "Is that his true strength?" "How powerful is that guy?" "Even an Admiral of the Navy Headquarters would have to be careful against a move that exaggerated, right?"
The Straw Hats were paralyzed by the shock. Their souls were reeling from the unimaginable impact of what they were witnessing.
It was almost impossible to believe that Ren, their companion who had adventured with them, played around, and shared drinks at their banquets, possessed this level of destructive power. Was this the true face of the world's strongest men?
"Ren..."
Nico Robin had gradually recovered from her initial stupor. She gripped the side of the ship tightly, her lips pursed as she stared at the battlefield. The island was now completely submerged in a blinding firelight that made it impossible to see anything clearly.
["You are not our enemy!"]
["A person cannot be deceived by whether he or she has murderous intent in his eyes!"]
["There is no way you and that guy 'Sand Crocodile' are on the same team!"]
["However, I still can't let you go! I'm sorry, but I'm going to force you to be our prisoner for a while!"]
...
["You're such a great beauty at such a young age, wouldn't it be a pity to die?"]
["Anyway, you don't even want your life anymore, why not just be my bed-warming maid for three to five years?"]
["Why are you staring at me? Don't forget, I am your savior!"]
["Let me introduce myself again, my name is Ren! There are still unknown, wonderful things in this sea, so don't seek death so easily!"]
["Don't be so pessimistic. The world is a big place and you can always find partners who are willing to sacrifice their lives for you and protect you to the death... like me!"]
["Hey, hey, don't turn around and leave, I'm serious!"]
Memories of the past kept flooding back to her. From their first strange meeting in the Whiskey Peaks to the dramatic events of Alabasta... everything that had transpired between her and the man known as the "Butcher" appeared in Robin's mind as if it had happened only yesterday.
Staring at the sky that was dyed a red so dazzling it was painful to look at, she subconsciously clenched her fists.
"Ren—" she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "You must be fine!"
At this moment—high in the sky above the nameless island.
The flames were blazing with a roar that drowned out the wind. The huge, ferocious, and majestic fire Dragon held the massive fireball aloft with terrifying power.
"Aokiji, I stole this move from Fire Fist Ace..."
With his ferocious, sharp teeth bared in a grin, Ren—transformed into his legendary Dragon form—stood upon the shifting clouds of his own heat. He looked down at the Admiral below and growled, "Take a good taste of it!"
He claimed to be stealing a lesson, but in reality, this move was fundamentally different from Ace's "Flame Emperor." The two were not on the same magnitude of destructive potential. To fuel this attack, Ren did not hesitate to tap into the innate abilities of the Lunaria tribe.
He had switched from his defensive form into his pure offensive state. The flames on his back flickered with a dark intensity, greatly reducing his own physical defense to maximize the range and temperature of his fire. It was the absolute limit of what Ren could achieve at his current level.
In this form, even with the inherent resilience of a Mythical Zoan Dragon, he was vulnerable. If Aokiji relied on his peak Haki to launch a concentrated counter-offensive, he could genuinely wound Ren. But because Ren's entire body was bathed in such astonishing, chaotic flames, Aokiji hadn't even noticed that the flame on Ren's back was behaving differently. He certainly didn't realize that the man before him belonged to the legendary, extinct race of the Lunaria.
"Ara ara... this doesn't look like a pirated copy at all," Aokiji remarked.
Though the Admiral's expression was serious, he did not panic. He could have easily relied on the elementalization of his Logia-type Devil Fruit to simply phase through the coming blow, ignoring Ren's exaggerated display of power. But as a Marine Admiral, his pride would not allow it. A rare sense of competitiveness flared within him, and his fighting spirit surged.
"However," Aokiji continued, his voice dropping to a chilly register, "I, a dignified Admiral of the Navy Headquarters, cannot afford to be underestimated by pirates!"
Huh... huh...
In an instant, a terrible cold began to emanate from his body. It wasn't a mere drop in temperature; it was a physical force. Like a frozen tsunami, the frost surged outward continuously. With Aokiji as the epicenter, the scorched land began to freeze at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Thick walls of ice soared into the sky, twisting and hardening into massive icebergs that defied the surrounding heat. The air itself seemed to crystallize, threatening to freeze the very concept of movement. The atmospheric temperature, which had been so intensely heated that it threatened to exterminate all life, began to plummet.
The ice rose to challenge the "sun."
"Bring it on, Aokiji!" Ren roared.
Holding the giant fireball—a sphere of pure, compressed destruction—the Dragon-formed Ren hurled it downward with eyes full of resolve. The massive "sun" descended like the sky was falling. It crushed through the air, pressing down with the weight of a dying star.
"Dai Enkai: Entei!!!"
Rumble...!
At that moment, time and space seemed to freeze. Then, the sound hit. A deafening, world-shaking roar that could be heard for miles across the Grand Line. The light was so blinding that even the clouds were bleached white before being incinerated.
On the battlefield, a scene of impossible contrast emerged. One half of the world was occupied by raging, dark-red flames; the other half was a wasteland of absolute zero.
Boom! Boom!
The island began to break apart under the strain. The distinct forces of ice and fire collided, squeezing against each other, grinding together with the force of tectonic plates.
Woo ho ho—!
The cold air surged, biting into the bone. The heat wave rolled back, searing the skin. Half of the island was transformed into a jagged landscape of snow and permafrost, making it feel as though one had been transported to a Winter Island in the middle of a blizzard. The other half was melted into liquid slag, turning into a lake of boiling magma.
The climate in the immediate area went haywire. The rapid alternation of extreme temperatures caused the atmosphere to buckle, generating a massive shroud of storm clouds that darkened the entire sea.
However, the chaos did not deter the two combatants. Within the center of the storm, two figures—one a towering beast of myth and the other a man of ice—collided once more.
"Aokiji—!"
"Butcher—!"
The Dragon's eyes were fierce and predatory. Bathed in dark red flames that could reduce even diamond to ash, Ren's scaly claws were coated in a thick layer of Armament Haki. He lunged, swinging a blow that carried the weight of a mountain toward the Admiral.
Aokiji, his body wreathed in frost, met him head-on. Both of his fists were encased in thick ice gauntlets that acted as unbreakable armor, infused with high-grade Haki. He roared as he met the Dragon's strike in mid-air, refusing to yield a single inch.
Boom! Boom! Boom!