The sky was filled with thunderclouds, the ground with firelight. The great army assembled by the Golden Lion had yet to make its move when it was dealt a heavy blow.
Fortunately, although the blast spread out, its impact was most severe only at the center. While some men were lost, most pirates were merely wounded.
As for the town, the original inhabitants had already been relocated to other islands, so the buildings could simply be rebuilt again.
But Shiki could not swallow this humiliation. He was no gentleman.
"You should be ready to die now?" he gritted his teeth, his fingers twisting into unnatural shapes.
"And you, are you ready to receive the gift I have for you?" A smile appeared on Ren's face, a smile that gave the Golden Lion a bad feeling.
"A gift? What do you mean by that?"
Ren pointed a finger toward the dim sky above. The vast thunderclouds now seemed even more sinister. "You don't think the thunderclouds above me are just for show, do you?"
Whoosh—
A bolt of lightning flashed, its white-purple light tearing through the darkness and briefly illuminating the Golden Lion's stunned face.
Ren didn't give him time to react. Instead, he raised his arm toward the sky. His right hand transformed into lightning and shot toward the thunderclouds. Instantly, the heavy clouds seemed to come alive, beginning to rotate endlessly toward the center, forming a vortex with no end.
The flashing bolts of lightning, their colors diffused by the thick clouds, looked like a pulsing purple heart.
To prepare this gift, Ren had been charging electricity for several days to reach this state.
"You bastard, are you insane?" Shiki roared, his eyes wide. The cigar in his mouth nearly dropped. If this thing came crashing down, wouldn't the entire island be torn to shaven pieces?
"The feeling's mutual. Didn't you evacuate the residents of this island yourself? You wanted to use this island to smash me, didn't you?" Ren replied coldly. The lightning had now fully gathered, and he calmly brought his arm down.
"Myriad—Thunder Burial!"
The world was instantly engulfed by endless lightning!
The dazzling purple-white light completely filled the space. Dense bolts of lightning fell like a sudden downpour, exploding upon hitting the ground. The pirates continuously dodged, diving into the town's ruins for cover.
But soon, the buildings that had shielded them were shattered.
It was as if divine punishment had descended. The endless lightning almost instantly pierced the island's surface by half a meter. This floating island trembled violently, the ground shaking and tearing apart.
Shiki roared. His blade's light cut through the lightning, but more lightning followed. Protected by his Haki, he himself was unharmed, though his appearance was rather unsightly, his body wreathed in black smoke.
"Don't you underestimate me, you bastard!" Shiki was submerged in the light, and even when he roared, he felt his tongue and esophagus being seared by the electricity.
"Lion's Pride: Great Earth Tornado!"
The island shook. The surface of the shattered city churned, as if a rushing river of rock and earth!
"No, stop it, Lord Shiki!"
"Run!"
"To the glider airships!"
The pirates felt the surging power beneath their feet, unable to even stand steady. The earth rose up toward the sky, yet the cloud of lightning-covered darkness rose from their feet. Heaven and Earth seemed to overturn in that moment.
Who knows how many were crushed to death by the river of rising rocks!
Shiki spread his arms as if embracing the sky. The great tornado shattered the dark thunderclouds and surged high into the air. The two vortices collided, their impact constantly clashing, a scene of apocalypse.
Soon, Ren sensed something was wrong. The thunderclouds, which had been rotating in one direction, were now reversing. The sky's thunderclouds churned like a tsunami, constantly undulating to form ripples. One vortex after another formed, and from their centers, ferocious, roaring monsters vaguely appeared.
"Is this? Has his Float-Float Fruit ability influenced the thunderclouds?"
Ren was momentarily dumbfounded. The Golden Lion's power couldn't affect his lightning, but it had seized control of the clouds, forming a pride of lightning lions from the black clouds in the sky.
"Hahahahahaha, this is my true power! Kid! You're still too green!"
Shiki laughed wildly. He swept his arm down, and the pride of lions occupied the sky, bursting forth with lightning to pounce on Ren.
"Lion's Pride: Roaring Thunderclouds!"
Ren drew his Ryū Tōbin Icchimaru, his blade wrapped in Haki. A thunder dragon erupted from it, piercing through the lions.
"Using thunderclouds to fight me? You really don't take me seriously, do you?" Ren said coldly, then flew straight toward the Golden Lion. In the end, the two of them would still have to settle things with Haki and swordsmanship; long-range attacks were ineffective.
Ren had almost completely shattered the island, but the fragmented pieces still floated in the air, becoming a weapon for the Golden Lion. When the intense lightning struck, the rock and earth became currents and walls to block the attacks for him.
Indigo and a large group of pirates had already fled to the port and boarded the pirate ships before the island completely collapsed. The Golden Lion's ships could float under his own power and also sail on the sea.
Now, without the Golden Lion controlling them, it was not difficult to make them glide through the air.
"So this is a Yonko? He's simply a monster!"
"Lord Shiki, will he be alright?" someone worriedly asked.
"Don't talk nonsense! How could Lord Shiki be in trouble? That guy has no way of harming Lord Shiki! We're just too weak!" someone immediately retorted.
And indeed, it was true. Although Ren's attacks were grand, even destroying the island, the actual damage to the Golden Lion was not great.
The two had fought in the air for a long time, but it was the Golden Lion who almost used a rock made of the entire island's dust to bury him in the sea. However, Ren had pierced through the rock at the crucial moment and burst out.
He wasn't afraid of seawater, but if he was crushed by rock and couldn't breathe, he would still die.
Meanwhile, the Golden Lion had gained quite a few wounds, all slashed by Ren. No blood flowed from the wounds, as it had all been turned to charcoal by the lightning.
"You've grown stronger..." The Golden Lion stared at Ren with his defiant eyes. He could feel that Ren's Haki had strengthened considerably since then. But...
"To defeat me, this is not enough!"
"Haō: Lion King, Lion Demon!"
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