The dark-red Flying Slash seemed to drain all color from heaven and earth. Its razor-sharp wind pressure swept forth like the breath of an enraged dragon, bringing with it a suffocating sense of oppression and danger.
When Shanks still had both arms, he had been a swordsman on the same level as Mihawk, capable of crossing blades with him.
Even with only one arm, his swordsmanship was enough for him to sit firmly in the position of a Yonko. That alone showed just how extraordinary his skill with the blade was.
Moreover, out of seriousness and respect, Shanks had wrapped this strike in two types of Haki.
Although it was not his trump card, Divine Departure, it was still a serious attack.
And yet, faced with this strike, Ren did not raise his blade or do anything else.
He merely opened his mouth.
The Blazing Sun Furnace began to operate.
Golden lines spread from his chest all the way up to his throat, condensing into a golden sphere of light.
Then he opened his mouth, and a breath attack pierced heaven and earth!
The beam of breath shot out like a sword, colliding with the incoming dark-red Flying Slash.
Then—
It crushed it!
The incomparably condensed, incomparably powerful beam pierced straight through the Flying Slash, tearing it apart, destroying it, running through it completely, before continuing in a straight line toward Shanks.
"This…"
Shanks's pupils shrank. Two types of Haki wrapped around Gryphon as he swung his blade to block.
Then came a thunderous explosion.
Scorching waves of fire stacked upon one another, forming a fiery mushroom cloud that occupied one-fourth of Hachinosu. The raging shock wave cleanly flattened every building in its path, including Skull Castle.
The entire Hachinosu trembled beneath the release of that terrifying energy. Dense cracks split across the ground as the earth let out a groan-like wail.
And this was merely the result of one casual breath from Ren.
Rumble, rumble—
Shanks appeared several thousand meters away. The hand gripping his sword hilt was still trembling slightly, and parts of his clothes had been burned away.
Even with the defense of two types of Haki, he had been unable to emerge completely unscathed from that attack.
But he had seen it clearly. Ren had not launched a slash at all.
It looked as if he had simply breathed out.
"Does it feel wrong?"
Ren's voice echoed across the island, accompanied by a rapidly rising temperature.
Boom—boom—boom!
The buildings, furniture, and even the ground around Shanks ignited in that instant. The excessive accumulation of heat set the air itself ablaze, turning the place into a true fiery hell.
Five hundred degrees Celsius.
But that was not a technique.
It was merely the environmental change caused by a certain existence truly beginning to move.
Amid the flames, Ren walked through the raging fire with his blade in hand. The heat he released without restraint caused the temperature of the environment to climb higher and higher.
One thousand degrees. Fifteen hundred degrees. Two thousand degrees.
At this moment, the temperature of Hachinosu had already reached the level of a steelmaking furnace.
The surrounding buildings, as well as the earth itself, began glowing red. Given a little more time, they would turn into magma.
"What kind of technique is this? Did you obtain a new ability?"
Shanks tightened his grip on his sword hilt and frowned warily.
At the same time, he had no choice but to cover his entire body in Armament Haki to withstand an environmental temperature that ordinary people could not possibly endure.
"A technique? No. This is just… the effect of me moving around."
Ren tilted his head.
"Maybe this will make it easier for you to understand. Those Sea Kings ten thousand meters long near Fish-Man Island can cause disasters that are nearly destructive to ordinary people with the slightest movement.
"But to them, it is as natural as causing ripples in the water while swimming.
"I am the same. There is only a slight difference."
He raised one hand and tapped his glowing chest.
"After all, I used to just be human. Although my changed constitution can endure it now, I still feel very hot.
"So I release the heat through my abilities to make myself more comfortable.
"Once I get used to it later, though, it probably won't be much of a problem."
"…"
Shanks did not know how to respond.
He had never encountered anything so inconceivable before.
In the perception of his Observation Haki, the thing before him was no longer human.
It was a shining sun.
That was not a metaphor, but an extremely practical description.
Like the sun itself, he was releasing terrifying energy into his surroundings, bringing an unrivaled pressure.
"Do you still want to fight?"
Ren straightened his neck again and said calmly, "I would still rather put all my strength toward dealing with the World Government."
"Even though I killed you once?" Shanks could not help asking.
"I don't feel much about it. I'm not very concerned about those things."
After thinking for a moment, Ren said, "Compared to that, I'd rather twist off the Five Elders' heads first."
"I'm truly sorry." Shanks shook his head.
"All right. Then we fight to the end."
Ren sighed, then said, "You should get a little more serious. Maybe that attack just now was already serious for you.
"But… you had better bring out your trump card. Because that level, to me… is like children playing house.
"Controlling my strength so I don't kill you is extremely troublesome and extremely difficult. I'm still not very skilled at controlling my power."
It was an extremely subtle way of putting things. The other party had already placed himself in an absolutely superior position.
And yet, this also meant that the details Shanks had noticed did not seem to be imagined illusions.
They were actual facts.
Ren truly was so strong that he exceeded all expectations.
"What an… arrogant guy."
Shanks grinned.
"Then let me show you my trump card. I hope it can make you take this duel seriously!"
As soon as he finished speaking, an enormous amount of two types of Haki surged from his body, wrapping around Gryphon at high density.
An extreme sense of danger spread outward.
It was a terrifying attack capable of slicing through a Yonko-level opponent in one strike.
Even Big Mom would have had difficulty enduring the ferocity of this slash.
"Is it that one?"
Ren subconsciously tightened his grip on his sword hilt.
But after thinking about it, he still did not raise his blade. He merely stirred the Blazing Sun Furnace.
The golden lines on his chest once again spread toward his throat. A golden sphere of light brewed at the tip of his throat, before the coating of two types of Haki transformed it into an extremely compressed sphere of black, gold, and red light.
This was the advanced power of Radiant Sun: Solar Flare, because the energy supply of the Blazing Sun Furnace had become even more terrifying and powerful than before!
"Blazing Sun: Roaring Might!"
Observation Haki caught the crisis.
Shanks attacked without hesitation, kicking off the ground and erupting forward in an instant.
"Divine Departure!"
The dark-red blade light split the atmosphere, crossing more than a thousand meters in an instant.
And at that very moment—
A dazzling golden light surged out, erasing everything it touched. Black-red lightning leaped within the halo as incomparably violent energy transformed into a sharp sword that pierced straight ahead.
For both sides, this engagement distance was far too narrow.
Neither of them had any real possibility of dodging.
This was a true head-on collision!
Boom—!
First, dazzling light shot into the sky. Then it split left and right, becoming two surging torrents of violent energy.
Three-fifths of Hachinosu vanished in an instant. Across the sea, more than a hundred nautical miles of water were scoured by the raging energy and evaporated completely amid the violent release.
In the next instant, endless waves of fire piled up, raising a fiery mushroom cloud with a radius of more than ten kilometers from the seabed!
"Truly impressive."
Ren's figure appeared on the remaining wreckage of Hachinosu, quietly watching Shanks emerge from the massive explosion.
The other party was very fast. He had escaped from the scorching fire waves that had nearly destroyed everything.
Then he also landed on the island's final remains.
As soon as he stepped onto the island, Shanks leaned against a chunk of broken rock, his entire body radiating steam like something cooked through.
The distance between the two sides was roughly more than two kilometers, but for both of them, that was no problem at all.
"…Is this your idea of bad taste?"
Shanks panted as he gripped the scorching Gryphon. For the first time, he felt an extreme pressure in his heart.
That bottle of fine wine was very likely something he would never get to drink.
"No. I'm only very clear about my own strength. Even when it isn't a serious attack…
"Not just anyone is qualified to cut through Roaring Might and then force their way out through the explosion that follows."
Ren's clear voice echoed across the trembling island remnants. In the distance, the ocean was still roaring because of the clash just now.
A gathered tsunami tried to advance toward this place, but it was soon lifted and pushed away by the power of the Float-Float Fruit.
"So that wasn't your full strength?"
Shanks finally steadied his breathing. He stood up and locked onto the distant enemy with Observation Haki.
Indeed, in his Observation Haki's perception, the other party's aura had not weakened in the slightest.
But he could not understand this level of strength.
Even Captain Roger had never reached this realm.
"Of course not. Honestly, I'm somewhat troubled too. Once power becomes too great, fighting makes me feel restrained."
Ren sighed.
"Like Hachinosu beneath our feet. This island can support tens of thousands of people. It was a decent place.
"But from now on… No, I should say from this moment onward. Once this battle ends, it probably won't exist anymore."
"In other words, making you draw your blade is your full strength?"
Shanks tightened his grip on his sword hilt. The fighting spirit in his eyes grew even stronger.
After witnessing this power beyond all common sense, he might indeed feel emotions such as fear in his heart.
But as a strong man, he did not lack the courage to face everything!
"You could say that."
Ren's answer was somewhat ambiguous, because even using Zanka no Tachi was still not his full strength.
Zanka no Tachi was essentially a blade transformed from Heavenly Might. In theory, it was a weapon that could amplify combat power.
But for the current Ren, the only reason to use Zanka no Tachi was to prevent his movements from being too large and causing irreversible ecological destruction.
In other words, compared to his own power, what Zanka no Tachi could currently display was only a drop in the bucket.
This was a factual description, not a metaphor.
As for how powerful the endless energy poured into Walking Sun could be, one only needed to look at how he had illuminated a small half of the world before.
"Then—let me see it."
Shanks took a deep breath and said those words. At the same time, he squeezed himself to his limit, wrapping all of his Haki around his blade.
This… was his final gamble!
"All right."
Ren lightly stroked Zanka no Tachi with his hand, and incomparably violent light immediately bloomed.
"All things in the universe… turn to ash."
Amid the low chant came Shanks's sudden attack.
And also Ren's indifferent slash as he raised his hand and brought his blade down.
"Zanka no Tachi: Heaven and Earth End!"
Boom—!
Blazing light? Scorching fire? Or perhaps the sense of insignificance one felt when facing the sun?
It was difficult to describe what Shanks felt at this moment.
He had launched his attack.
What his Observation Haki captured was Ren's clean, decisive slash.
There was no Haki.
It was merely the simple act of raising his hand, swinging his blade, and then everything in front of that slash vanished completely.
The remains of Hachinosu disappeared in their entirety. Along with them vanished a patch of sea outside the island, including tens of millions of tons of seawater and even the seabed itself.
If one looked from a higher perspective, one would discover that an ugly scar stretching for more than a hundred nautical miles had appeared upon the sea.
And it was bottomless.
Endless seawater surged into that abyss, forming whirlpools that spread across hundreds of nautical miles.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, and other secondary disasters rose almost simultaneously.
If there was anything comparable to this display, it would likely be the scene of Uranus destroying the Lulusia Kingdom.
The difference was that Ren's slash did not raise the sea level by several meters.
It was not that he could not do it.
There was simply no need.
"I did my best…"
Ren ignored the spreading fire waves and flew straight upward.
He had done his best.
He had done his best to restrain his power.
So the destruction caused by this blade was merely limited to a little over a hundred nautical miles. However, because the power was simply too terrifying, it still created a scene almost identical to the aftermath of Lulusia Kingdom's destruction by Uranus.
That sea abyss would likely take who knew how many years to fill.
In any case, its depth had already exceeded the range of Premonition Perception.
After arriving high in the sky, Ren gazed at the destruction caused by that slash. Even through his dual perception, he still could not capture Shanks's aura.
The other party should be dead.
Dead beneath Zanka no Tachi: Heaven and Earth End.
In order to express his respect for the Yonko, Red-Haired Shanks—or perhaps simply to make the battle last a little longer—Ren had deliberately used a large-scale attack mode.
But unfortunately, Shanks had not endured that strike.
Ren could only treat this sea abyss, which would take who knew how many years to fill, as the other party's grave and bury this Yonko within it.
His perception swept outward. On the roaring sea, there was still a large ship desperately approaching.
It was the members of the Red-Haired Pirates.
Ren merely glanced at them. After thinking for a moment, he chose not to pay them any further attention.
He returned Zanka no Tachi into the Blazing Sun Furnace, then transformed into a streak of golden light and vanished into the horizon.
There were still matters on Nami's side that required him to handle.
The commotion caused by the battle here had been too great, to the point that the secondary disasters had affected the Cross Guild's fleet.
A group of powerful fighters worked together to deal with the sky-blocking tsunami, completely unable to understand what had happened.
But there were also insiders who had roughly guessed the truth.
This was the impact caused by Demon Ren's attack.
"Has he already reached this point?"
While helping stabilize a violently pitching warship, Smoker thought of what Kuzan had once said to him.
It was difficult to imagine that the massive tsunami before him, one that seemed about to bury the entire fleet, was only the aftershock of one person's battle.
Nami and the others had no choice but to act as well, preventing the fleet carrying a massive amount of spoils from being destroyed.
At this moment, golden light swept across the sky. Ren reached down and pressed his hand downward. The power of the Float-Float Fruit manipulated the air and pressed down.
Combined with the golden lasers he fired downward, it gradually eased the crisis Nami and the others were facing.
"The gap… really does seem to have become enormous."
After handling the situation, Ren belatedly realized this point.
But compared to that, he was more concerned about the state of the world.
And the only one who could answer his questions was… Robin.
(End of Chapter)