094 Catastrophe-Class Devil Fruit

Crack... crack...

Black clouds pressed low overhead, and countless terrifying bolts of lightning tore through them. The thunderous detonations that ripped the very air left the heavens dark and chaotic, as though the world itself had been swallowed by a bottomless abyss of despair.

Far above, three figures were locked in mortal combat. Every collision between them carried the force of calamity, enough to shatter anything in its path.

“Lion. Thousand Bone-Cuts.”

Golden mane whipping in the wind, the Golden Lion was wrapped in a savage aura. Sword in both hands, he unleashed two slashes that stretched nearly a hundred meters.

Whoooosh...

Tearing through the air, a blinding white brilliance descended like light from the end of the world, cleaving straight toward Garp and Sengoku.

“Iron Fist!”

Garp clenched his hand, darkness coating his knuckles, and threw a single punch at the incoming slash.

Bang!

The impact was deafening. A storm of force rippled outward, Garp dropped one step, then shot upward.

At the same moment, a towering golden Buddha raised one palm to the sky and brought it crashing down. A beam bright as day erupted forth, brutally shattering the Golden Lion’s attack.

“Golden Lion, you seem to have grown old.”

His afterimage flickered again and again as Garp appeared beside the Golden Lion. His right fist was pitch-black, as if it held the power to split heaven and earth. With a roar, it drove toward the Golden Lion’s waist.

“Old man, you’re the only one who makes me take you seriously.”

The Golden Lion narrowed his eyes, sensing the immense power contained in Garp’s fist. He raised his sword at once and thrust straight at the punch.

Clang!

The sound rang like metal armies clashing on a battlefield. A hurricane of force burst outward, and the Golden Lion was sent flying backward, his gaze turning icy.

Meanwhile, a thread of blood dripped from Garp’s dark, bluish-black fist.

“Your fist is still as hard as ever!”

The Golden Lion’s expression darkened, and a trace of wariness appeared in his eyes.

“Damn you, Golden Lion!”

Sengoku’s hatred was deep and burning. Brimming with golden light, he pressed his hands together and fired a shockwave at the Golden Lion’s back.

“Sengoku, you’re only getting more and more useless. So now you’re resorting to ambushes?”

With Observation Haki flaring, the Golden Lion did not even turn around. He twisted in midair and, with the sword in his left hand, Sakura Ten, he slashed out in an instant. A brilliant white blade of light rose from the ground.

Boom... boom-boom-boom...

The sky shook. The black clouds were pierced apart, and everything vanished into annihilation.

“You are not leaving Marineford today!”

Standing in the air, Sengoku looked battered and furious, his eyes bloodshot.

“Just you?”

The Golden Lion sneered, swords in both hands, and said with arrogant contempt, “Then let Marineford disappear!”

As he spoke, he raised a single sword high. Lightning crackled through the sky. In the cloud-choked heavens, a shadow began to take shape, carrying a crushing weight as it ignited the air itself and fell from above.

“Damn it!”

Sengoku’s face changed drastically. Hearing the whistle overhead, he roared in fury, “Golden Lion, you bastard!”

“Today I will make all of Marineford be buried with Roger!”

Laughing wildly, the Golden Lion swept his sword once. The heavens exploded with a deafening crack, and the enormous meteor, nearly a hundred meters across, accelerated toward them.

“Garp, capture the Golden Lion for me. Dead or alive!”

Sengoku shot upward. He had to destroy the descending mountain of death, or if that island struck Marineford, the catastrophe it would unleash would be nothing short of apocalyptic.

Whoosh...

Without a word, Garp launched himself into the sky and charged straight at the Golden Lion.

“Hahaha... Garp...”

Plunging downward while the island continued its fall, the Golden Lion met Garp head-on, both swords in hand.

Clang... bang...

Sword aura burst forth, iron fist met iron fist, and for a time, the Golden Lion was actually driven into the disadvantage.

“Golden Lion, how many islands did you bring with you?”

High above, where lightning twisted through the clouds, Sengoku gritted his teeth. He had already destroyed one island, only for another to appear behind it.

“What do you think? Today I will destroy Marineford!”

Even while fighting Garp, the Golden Lion laughed recklessly.

If not for the need to control the islands in the sky, he would never have been forced into such a disadvantage.

“Iron Fist: Steel Seal!”

Eyes flashing with fierce light, Garp closed the distance. His right fist clenched around the power to rend heaven and earth, and with a roar he drove it at the Golden Lion’s head, carving through the air.

Clang...

Crossing both arms, the Golden Lion raised Sakura Ten and Withered Wood before his face. With a soul-shaking impact, he was once again blasted backward.

His arms tingled slightly. Planting his feet, the Golden Lion immediately unleashed two slashes.

Bang! Bang!

Air pressure exploded. Garp panted heavily, but with pure brute force he shattered both slashes with his iron fists.

“Garp, let me see how much strength you have to waste!”

Pressing in, the Golden Lion swept both swords across in a horizontal arc.

“Dealing with you is enough!”

Garp’s whole body tensed, and he grinned.

“Hmph.”

The Golden Lion let out a cold snort. In the sky, he was king.

As for Garp, fighting in the air meant he not only had to maintain Moon Walk, Shave, and Haki, but also remain constantly on guard against the Golden Lion’s attacks. Such an exhausting battle would drain even a monster like him in no time.

Meanwhile, Sengoku was in an even more miserable state. Breathing raggedly, he met one island after another with desperate force.

To the eye, his aura was already faint, his face deathly pale.

He had already smashed ten islands. That level of expenditure was enormous. If not for the need to protect Marineford, how could he have been driven to such humiliation?

“Damn it, how many islands did that bastard bring?”

Sweat pouring down his face, Sengoku moved through the air by Moon Walk and transformed into his Buddha form, his body blazing like the sun and illuminating the entire darkened sky.

Below, countless rear admirals and vice admirals were pulverizing the falling rubble, but even so, one stone would always slip through. And just one such stone, falling like a meteor, was enough to unleash a disaster no one could afford to underestimate.

Bang...

High in the sky, the Golden Lion coughed blood after taking Garp’s fist head-on, his eyes immediately turning red.

Hiss...

The air split apart as blood flowed from Garp’s pitch-black chest.

One hour.

Five hours.

Ten hours.

The whole of Marineford was hanging by a thread.

Above it, the Golden Lion was soaked in blood, breathing in ragged gasps, his arms nearly useless, his face devoid of color.

On the ground, Garp and Sengoku were swaying unsteadily, clearly pushed close to their limits. Even for them, such an intense battle was becoming unbearable.

“Golden Lion, you won’t escape. Zephyr is almost back. For the rest of your life, you’ll rot in Impel Down!”

Sengoku hated the Golden Lion to the bone. At that moment, he did not even dare look at the devastation below Marineford. Once this was over, his authority would undoubtedly be shattered.

And all of it was because of the man in the sky.

“Damn it... if this were a battle on the ground...”

Garp panted, his expression extremely displeased. He had to admit it: in aerial combat, he truly could not do anything to the Golden Lion.

If this were on land, and the Golden Lion did not leave with at least half his life, Garp would take his surname.

“Zephyr? So that’s why I haven’t seen him. He was out, was he? Good. I was holding back, but now...”

The Golden Lion suddenly twisted into a vicious grin. Raising both hands high, he plunged the entire sky into darkness. A shadow even larger than all the islands before it slowly revealed its true form.

“Golden Lion...”

Sengoku’s stunned face twisted instantly. He could not imagine what kind of devastation would be wrought if this island fell upon Marineford.

“This madman!”

Garp’s expression changed drastically, and his whole body trembled with fury.

Below, Marineford had fallen completely into chaos. Countless civilians were fleeing, their faces filled with despair and terror.

The island was enormous, nearly a quarter the size of Marineford. It was impossible to imagine what would happen if it came crashing down. Everyone there would die.

If Whitebeard’s Tremor-Tremor Fruit could destroy heaven and earth, then the Golden Lion’s Float-Float Fruit could do the same.

By creating meteors like this, he could unleash a disaster on the level of a natural calamity.

...