Saint Warcury was the one with the strongest defense among the five-man team. In the original work, his body's defense could withstand Luffy's Gum-Gum Red Roc head-on and even reflect the damage back.
Yet before Ren, he was nothing more than a hard persimmon that could offer the slightest bit of resistance.
Of course, that brief moment of delay was exactly what they wanted.
In the sky above, an Azure Dragon danced through the heavens, creating vast quantities of thunderclouds. A terrifying number of lightning bolts surged within the layers of cloud.
At the horizon, a gigantic "female figure" roamed toward the battlefield. It was the technique Big Mom had released—Tenjin: Misery.
This time, the Hellish Gyūki closed the distance. Deadly venom surged over its eight sharp limbs, its intensity rivaling the crimson venom Magellan used after Awakening.
"Somewhat interesting. But only somewhat."
Ren's crimson eyes turned, fixing on the Fengxi beast as they transformed into gold. Boundless heat gushed forth and gathered toward his target.
"Blazing Sun: World-Burning Eye!"
With a boom, the Fengxi beast was engulfed in scorching heat. The rapidly rising temperature had already exceeded 6,000°C, then crossed into five digits and continued climbing.
Even protected by two types of Haki, he was still swiftly vaporized into nothingness.
"It seems—"
Ren stomped down and vanished in an instant. When he reappeared, he was already before Saturn.
"—I haven't killed you yet?"
Saturn's expression changed. An invisible pressure bound Ren's body while red light erupted from Saturn's eyes, attempting to blow his enemy's head apart.
His eight venom-coated limbs crossed forward, trying to follow up and pierce Ren through.
His plan was sound, but… it was too late.
Ren ignored the restraint as ever and opened his mouth, exhaling a fierce gale.
It was a terrifying attack equivalent to solar wind, reducing the Hellish Gyūki to charred remains in an instant.
Then Ren reached out with five fingers, slipped them through the gaps between the bones, gripped Saturn's cervical vertebrae, and yanked hard, pulling out his entire spine.
Two types of Haki wrapped around it. With a swing of the bone whip, he smashed the Bakotsu swordsman and his frost slash away.
Ice crystals spread over Ren's hand, only to be erased by the high temperature in the next instant. Golden flames spread across his body and outward in all directions.
Whether it was the sandworm ambushing from below or the Itsumade descending from the sky, both were reduced to ash the moment they touched the golden flames.
"This is getting somewhat boring."
Ren seemed a little disappointed. The golden flames disappeared, and he looked up. Lightning filled his entire field of vision.
Great Virtue: Thunder Bagua!
Kaido descended from the sky once more. Lightning compressed to the extreme erupted like a nuclear explosion, and the thick lightning pillars that leaked outward tore through several kilometers of magma-covered ground.
Then it transformed into a kilometer-scale mushroom cloud of lightning that covered the entire sky above Onigashima!
Boom—!
Amid the roar, Kaido's pupils contracted sharply. In his line of sight, Ren had caught Hassaikai with one hand.
Golden flames spread across the steel wrapped in two types of Haki. Then… it melted into molten iron!
Kaido instantly let go, narrowly avoiding the surging golden flames.
Observation Haki told him that even the slightest touch would leave him with no chance of survival!
Tenjin: Misery entered the battlefield at that moment, scattering beams of lightning hundreds of meters in diameter, bombarding Ren without pause.
Yet in the next instant, a streak of crimson flame sank into Misery. A massive explosion followed, tearing it apart.
The raging waves of fire were then restrained, forming a crimson flame sword that stretched across the sky.
Big Mom dodged by the skin of her teeth, then recalled her Maser Sword and landed within the formation surrounding Ren.
At that moment, a sigh rang out.
"Is there nothing more interesting?"
Ren asked from the bottom of his heart, leaving everyone surrounding him feeling… speechless.
Such frequent and interwoven attacks. Such terrifying power. And yet they still seemed unable to stir even the slightest fighting fervor in the one being surrounded.
Buzz.
Shadows surged out of nothingness, filling in like matter and reconstructing Saturn's body.
He looked at the enemy before him with a gloomy expression, then said coldly, "Why keep pretending?"
"Hm?" Ren cast his gaze over.
"Whitebeard was killed by us. On the day he attacked Mary Geoise, the five of us were there, fighting him.
"Though we didn't kill him on the spot, and you interfered and took him away, he still died afterward, didn't he?
"I imagine one of your Devil Fruit abilities must allow you to continue fighting even after suffering fatal injuries."
Saturn voiced his judgment. He did not believe the man before him was invincible.
"That golden flame rarely appears either. I imagine it requires an interval between uses, correct?
"As long as we seize the right timing, you will definitely be injured, and then you will die just like Whitebeard.
"It is nothing more than a war of attrition. We can afford it!"
Eight against one. This was an unprecedented lineup. Even the Pirate King Roger had never received such an honor.
Saturn did not believe there could be a strong person in this world who surpassed the bounds of understanding.
The last one was Whitebeard, whom the five of them had surrounded and beaten. But Whitebeard…
Kaido and the others remained silent, but they also agreed with Saturn's statement. If Ren truly possessed such unimaginable strength, why not simply crush them outright?
This so-called "playing around" was likely only an excuse. Do not forget—Ren's greatest strength was schemes and plots.
"…"
Ren froze for a moment. Then he laughed, loudly and freely.
"So that's how it is. I gave you all the wrong impression.
"Good. Very good. Then—playtime is over."
The instant his words fell, he reached out and grasped Zanka no Tachi. His presence became incomparably sharp in an instant.
Conqueror's Haki pressure condensed over his body, forming the technique known as Observation Killing, making his movements impossible to capture with Observation Haki any longer!
Everyone present shuddered at once, their instincts sounding frantic alarms.
Kaido immediately transformed into an Azure Dragon. Flames ignited over his entire body, turning him into a fire dragon.
He realized something was wrong and revealed his trump card—Flame Dragon Torch!
The blazing flames could melt matter into magma with mere contact.
Big Mom likewise used her lifespan to strengthen herself, burning a full ten years in one breath. Her entire body transformed into a monster even larger than the giants.
Yet before she could make a move, a crimson blade light swept past!
In a single instant, after Zanka no Tachi passed by, Big Mom's figure vaporized within golden flames. Her enormous body turned to flying ash in the blink of an eye.
"Zanka no Tachi: Body and Soul Obliteration!"
"!?"
Kaido's expression changed drastically. Driven by battle instinct, he made his dragon body dive straight downward, the dragon head wrapped in all of his two types of Haki as it smashed down like a warhammer.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would not have done this, because it would wipe out all of Onigashima.
But now, after witnessing Big Mom being instantly killed, Kaido no longer dared to take the slightest chance.
However, while he had guessed Ren's route of attack correctly, he had not guessed whether he himself could withstand Ren's attack.
Zanka no Tachi slashed upward, and brilliant golden light bloomed.
"Zanka no Tachi: Heaven and Earth End!"
Within that boundless light and heat, the form of Flame Dragon Torch vanished in an instant, swallowed and erased by the fire of the blazing sun.
Along with him, more than half of Onigashima disappeared as well.
Immediately afterward, under the interference of the Float-Float Fruit, a blazing wave shot into the sky, following the direction of the slash toward the clouds.
Boom—!
Amid a thunderous roar that echoed across all of Wano, the clouds over the country were swept away in the blazing light. When the power faded, what appeared above was the sea of stars in space!
This scene brought endless shock and… fear.
When Conqueror's Haki clashed with Conqueror's Haki, the heavens would split. It was one of the great signs of a serious battle between peak powerhouses.
But never before had someone pierced through the entire cloud layer with a single strike!
"What kind of monster is this…"
The Hellish Gyūki froze in place. As the Warrior God of Science and Defense, Saturn understood very clearly what this scene meant.
That slash had pierced through thousands of kilometers of cloud, which was why the stars beyond the atmosphere had been revealed.
It was not that he had never witnessed such terrifying power before. Uranus's attacks could achieve the same.
But why… why could a mere human wield such terrifying power?!
Amid the flickering firelight, Ren stood with his blade in hand like a demon god. His crimson eyes swept across the entire battlefield like blades.
"Now, do you still think I'm pretending?"
Cold. Suffocating. The enemy they had sworn to purge simply stood there.
He was neither brimming with fighting spirit nor mocking the challengers' arrogance. He merely existed there in cold silence, then crushed them with contempt.
Perhaps a moment ago, Saturn and the others still had the desire to kill Ren in their hearts.
Perhaps a moment ago, they had already calculated how to take turns fighting a war of attrition, forcing Ren to follow in Whitebeard's footsteps.
But in this moment, the will to fight in the hearts of the Five Elders and Akainu dissipated like smoke. Replacing it was surging panic.
And fear of the unknown.
Impossible to understand. Impossible to think through. Impossible to predict. It was like facing a desperate situation from which even light could not escape.
They could obtain no useful information or intelligence at all. There was only an abyssal gulf of despair standing before them.
As long as they still held the thought of continuing to fight, the images of Kaido and Big Mom's deaths would uncontrollably surface in their minds.
"If you still don't understand, then I'll let you experience it more clearly."
Ren tightened his grip on Zanka no Tachi. With a step, he vanished.
Observation Haki could not capture him. Saturn and the others immediately grew tense, but before they could react, the attack arrived.
The Bakotsu swordsman's pupils reflected a blinding light. Saint Nusjuro instinctively raised his black blade to block, only to be split in two together with his sword!
No matter how powerful the Haki, no matter how formidable the black blade, before Zanka no Tachi, it was all meaningless.
Ren continued moving at a speed surpassing the reaction time of any of the Five Elders.
In the next instant, crimson blade light severed the head of Saturn's Hellish Gyūki. Then it shot straight upward, slicing the Itsumade hiding within the clouds into pieces.
High in the sky, Ren flung his hand, and Zanka no Tachi plunged into the ground, burning the sandworm to death.
Roar—!
Saint Warcury let out a roar wrapped in two types of Haki, seemingly believing he had seized the opening created when Ren threw away his blade.
But… Ren clenched his five fingers into a fist. In the next instant, he crossed a thousand meters and punched the Fengxi beast's head apart.
"Nothing more than this."
Having killed five people in an instant, Ren clenched his fist under Akainu's horrified gaze and struck the Blazing Sun Furnace.
The Blazing Sun Furnace, which had been operating at low power since the start of the battle, truly entered a fully efficient stage.
Boundless golden fire enveloped him, transforming him into a golden sun.
This was the proof that Ren had finally become serious—the power equivalent to the blazing sun.
"Walking Sun!"
Merely looking at it made one feel the insignificance of one's own existence, like a person contemplating space too deeply and realizing how tiny they were compared to the stars, how everything seemed meaningless.
Facing that golden sun, Akainu involuntarily developed fear of the unknown.
The light moved.
The man-sized golden sun arrived beside Akainu. No action was needed. Just approaching was enough.
The corona built from countless golden flames erased the volcano and the ability user himself.
In that gap, the Five Elders manifested once more, witnessing Sakazuki, the Logia Magma Fruit ability user, disappear within golden flames.
"This…"
Saturn stared fixedly at the golden sun, completely unable to understand this power.
A Devil Fruit?
No. The Devil Fruits they possessed were all carefully selected Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits, among the absolute pinnacle of the entire Devil Fruit system.
Even so, they who had walked to the end of that path were powerless to reach the golden sun's power.
"You can all go on your way too. I'm a little bored and want to find some other amusement."
The golden sun spoke. Heat far surpassing before was released, guided and spread by the Float-Float Fruit across all of Onigashima.
This was no longer a mere rise in temperature. The entirety of Onigashima was melting.
The Five Elders still wanted to flee, but the moment they began moving, boundless heat gathered toward them, burning them into charred remains!
The Float-Float Fruit's power activated and influenced the surroundings. Onigashima, melted into a ball of magma, was shaped by an invisible giant hand into a desperate prison trapping the Five Elders.
They were not killed completely, leaving intervals for regeneration, yet they had no way to escape.
Ren controlled the giant magma sphere with one hand while flying into the high sky, throwing out the Space-Time: The Creator card.
The pale golden card first transformed into temporal mist, spreading across all of Wano.
Then he formed his fingers into a gun and fired golden beams one after another, lighting up mushroom clouds of fire across the war-torn lands of Wano.
The forces belonging to the Beasts Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates suffered losses at an astonishing speed.
The units of time harvested by the temporal mist rapidly soared, reaching a number Ren deemed sufficient.
He gathered the Space-Time: The Creator card back, then repeated the operation he had used on Yamato, unfolding a pale golden domain and invading the Five Elders.
Although Saturn and the others tried to resist and struggle, they had no ability to break free from Ren's suppression. In the end, they were enveloped by the Creator Domain.
"First, I'll give you a buff."
Relying on Imu's name, Ren carried out a mental alteration, continuously influencing the Five Elders' thoughts.
At the same time, he changed the material of their bodies, transforming them into Seastone.
Yes.
A permanent combination of Devil Fruit users and Seastone.
When Ren withdrew the Creator Domain, five Seastone statues with varying expressions fell from the sky and smashed into the land of Wano.
He had altered the Five Elders' thinking ability and cognitive structure, rewriting their perception so that they believed their current state was normal.
He destroyed their cognition regarding the use of their Devil Fruit abilities, completely locking down the possibility of any abnormalities arising from the five of them.
At the same time, he turned their bodies into Seastone, using the curse of the sea to ensure that these five immortal monsters could never rise again.
After finishing all this, Ren looked at the black-gold card in his hand, then vanished above the firmament.
(End of Chapter)