So this is the strength of Garp and Sengoku in their prime?
Damn… terrifying.
Mo Wu pulled his gaze away from the two of them and naturally turned it toward the next target.
The lion standing in the void, mane and beard bristling, unbound by gravity itself!
"What a terrifying amount of hidden damage."
After only a single glance, Mo Wu's brows drew together slightly.
There was no helping it—this man's body was practically a museum of old wounds.
His internal organs were bleeding everywhere. The muscles throughout his limbs and body were constantly tearing under Mo Wu's eyes. Even his white bones were full of pits and damage.
And then…
Mo Wu's gaze shifted to the ship's wheel lodged in Shiki's head.
Through the Transparent World, he could clearly see Shiki's skull—and the part of his left brain that had been pierced through.
Thinking about how, even with such an injury, Golden Lion's only lingering effect in the future was occasional bouts of madness, Mo Wu could only feel disbelief.
As expected of a human from the world of One Piece.
If this body belonged to an ordinary human, he would've died a hundred times over.
How exactly did Luffy beat this monster in the future?
Mo Wu's mouth twitched. He drained his tea in one gulp, shut off the Transparent World, and resumed watching the battle with lazy interest.
"Hey, Sengoku!"
Shiki grinned savagely. The black-red lightning wrapped around Kogarashi collided head-on with Garp's iron fist.
"You really did hide quite an interesting little rat."
Recalling the sensation of being watched a moment ago, Sengoku glanced toward the distant upper floors of the tower and formed a guess.
Snapping back to the fight, he drove a fist wrapped in golden light forward, forcing Shiki back.
"Shiki, your opponents are us," Sengoku said in a deep voice, authority impossible to question.
Shiki let out a wild laugh. Power once again surged through Kogarashi and Oto, black-red lightning running across both blades with crackling snaps.
"Garp, Sengoku… don't look down on me too much."
A trace of madness flashed in Shiki's eyes.
The instant the words fell, his golden figure vanished from where he stood. In the next moment, he appeared right before Garp and Sengoku, his two swords crossing together as they came down with enough force to split the heavens.
Garp and Sengoku struck at the same time. Their fists, wrapped in overwhelming Haki, collided through the air with Kogarashi and Oto, producing a deafening explosion.
Black-red lightning burst outward.
The ground beneath them split once more, leaving behind another deep crater.
"Today, I'll show you what true power really means."
Shiki withdrew slightly, then borrowed the force to flip backward through the air, dodging the aftershock of the clash. A sinister smile spread across his face.
He drove both swords into the ground.
In that instant, Shiki pushed the power of the Float-Float Fruit to its absolute limit.
Invisible waves spread out from the blades into the earth beneath his feet. Shiki's power began affecting the entire surrounding environment. The air twisted. The ground let out a deep, ominous rumble. Endless cracks spread across the surface like a spiderweb.
Rocks and masonry shattered apart. Massive chunks of earth loosened and began to float into the sky.
"Sengoku!"
Garp shouted, and Sengoku instantly understood. Golden light flared brighter and brighter around his clenched fists.
"Great Buddha—Shock—?!"
But before the shockwave could even be released, Shiki's golden figure had already vanished from before their eyes!
When they found him again, he was standing atop one of the floating rocks.
At the same time, the sky above Marineford filled with a storm made of countless boulders and broken debris!
Boom!
"Try my power!"
Shiki clenched his right hand. The storm of floating rock answered instantly, rushing toward Garp and Sengoku at terrifying speed.
"Lion's Majesty: Prison Buddha Palace!"
Shiki's arrogant voice rang through the storm.
"You blond bastard!"
Garp roared and charged straight into the incoming tempest, every punch carrying enough force to split mountains as he tried to break through Shiki's blockade.
But under Shiki's control, the rocks were fierce and relentless—small in size, but endless in number!
Even Garp's iron fists began to go slightly numb from smashing through them.
At the same time, elsewhere—
The black clouds thick across the sky had been blasted open at some point by the clash of the three top-tier monsters.
A few rays of sunlight had broken through.
The enormous tower where Mo Wu had been standing had long since been torn apart by Shiki's Devil Fruit power.
Now, Mo Wu was dashing back and forth across the endlessly splitting ground, accompanied by a Marine who had appeared beside him at some point—a man with long blond hair hanging past his ears.
"Hey, kid. What's your name?"
"Mo Wu."
After slicing a flying rock in half with one stroke, Mo Wu answered the man's question, then turned to look at a house behind them. It hadn't been affected by the Float-Float Fruit directly, but it was still swaying precariously in the storm.
His expression darkened.
What the hell are the Marines even doing?
Why…
Why are there still over a hundred civilians hiding inside that house?!
The storm of rocks continued to rage.
But under the sweep of Observation Haki, Mo Wu could clearly sense hundreds of terrified people huddled together inside.
"Don't be angry. At least we can still protect them, right?"
As if sensing that Mo Wu was in a terrible mood, the long-haired man smiled faintly and tried to comfort him.
"My name is Rosinante. I'm currently a Marine Lieutenant Commander."
Mo Wu froze slightly. He hadn't expected the refined man before him to be the future Rosinante—Corazon himself.
"You didn't leave with the warships?"
"I couldn't stop worrying about the civilians still here."
While breaking apart the rocks flying toward them, the two continued chatting in fragments.
"Hiss."
Rosinante sucked in a breath. He had been careless for a moment and a fast-moving shard of stone had cut his arm.
Blood began to seep out.
Crack!
One of the house's small windows suddenly burst open, and a trembling but determined voice came from within.
"T-two big brothers, hurry and come inside!"
So some sound still got through?
Rosinante scratched his head. He had clearly used his Devil Fruit power long ago to create a silent barrier, making sure the people inside couldn't hear the chaos outside. But it seemed that barrier had already failed.
As Mo Wu cut another giant rock into pieces, he still couldn't hear the people inside very clearly. But instinctively, he glanced through the window.
Dozens of ragged civilians were staring at them with concern.
"Please, young Marines, come inside. The rocks can't break this house."
"That's right. It's dangerous outside, officers. Please come in first!"
"If you won't come in, at least have a few apples, officers!"
An apple flew through the air in a clean arc.
Warmth stirred faintly in Mo Wu's heart. As he looked at the apple sailing toward him, he reached out instinctively to catch it.
Hm?
His expression changed at once.
Alarms exploded in his mind.
Observation Haki was warning him?!
"Shave!"
Mo Wu instantly grabbed the girl standing by the window and yanked her out with all his strength. His figure flashed aside.
In the very next moment—
A sword slash wrapped in black-red lightning came from nowhere!
Boom!
The house exploded into fragments, becoming rubble in an instant.
"Glug… glug…"
Mo Wu used his blade to flick up the apple that had landed at his feet. His expression grew complicated.
Observation Haki told him everything.
Under the ruins…
No one had survived.
The sudden disaster left Rosinante frozen in place.
The people he had just been speaking with inside that house… the people who had been alive and safe only moments ago… were now all dead beneath the rubble.
I just promised I'd protect them!
"Th-this… can't be real…"
His bloody hands dug helplessly at the rubble, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"What am I even capable of doing?!"
"Shiki!"
Rosinante slammed a fist into the ground in rage, then collapsed onto the ground, both hands limp at his sides.
Whoosh!
Even as another boulder came hurtling toward them, Rosinante had already lost the will to resist.
Slash!
Sword-light flashed.
Holding the little girl in his arms—the girl who had fainted from terror the moment the sword slash came—Mo Wu shattered the incoming rock, then looked at the man sitting there motionless even as rubble struck his face.
He hauled Rosinante to his feet by force. Looking at the despair in the man's eyes, Mo Wu frowned.
Smack!
A sharp slap landed across Rosinante's face, shocking him back to himself.
"You—?!"
Rosinante's angry words died halfway as he stared at Mo Wu stuffing the unconscious girl into his arms.
It was almost as if he was afraid of waking her.
"Rosinante. Help me."
Mo Wu stared straight toward the center of the storm, his voice burning with rage.
"W-what?"
"Cover my body with your Devil Fruit's power!"
Rosinante jumped in fright at the ferocity on Mo Wu's face. Even though he had no idea how this man knew about his Devil Fruit ability, his hands began moving almost on their own.
"Until I die, none of your actions will be discovered."
Rosinante looked directly into Mo Wu's furious eyes and spoke with rare seriousness.
"Protect her."
Mo Wu mouthed the words silently, tucked the apple into his chest, then turned and began walking toward the center of the storm.
He couldn't endure this anymore.
"Target locked: Golden Lion Shiki."
"Current target status as follows."
Golden Lion Shiki
Sin: Red
Combat Level: Second Tier Intermediate → Second Tier Low (Declining)
Talents: Lion's Heart, Float-Float Fruit
Lion's Heart:
Possesses ambition and conviction like a lion.
Presence and physical constitution greatly enhanced.
Skills: Omitted. Three-color Haki (Declining).
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