Chapter 23: The Dark King's Gambit
"Pluton Rayleigh! Why is he here?!" The exclamation was torn from both Gion and Sentomaru simultaneously.
The name carried the weight of an era. The Dark King. The right hand of the Pirate King Gol D. Roger. A swordsman whose legend was etched into the world's history, used by the World Government as a dire warning of pirate might. Even in his advanced age, confronting such a figure demanded a psychological readiness for catastrophic loss.
His sudden appearance shattered any semblance of a routine cleanup operation.
Is this the 'change' he mentioned? Gion thought, her eyes darting to Levi, who stood unflinching before the legend. But how could he have possibly predicted this?
There was no time to unravel the mystery. Gion's tactical mind snapped into focus. The objective remained: capture the Straw Hats. If they were secured, Rayleigh's reason for fighting would vanish. He might simply withdraw. A man of his age and renown wouldn't throw his life away on a whim for rookies he'd just met.
"PX units! Contain Kuma!" Sentomaru barked, his own assessment aligning with Gion's. He was not a formal Marine, but his loyalty to the World Government and his combat intellect were sharp. He claimed the world's strongest defense; whether boast or fact, his mastery of Emission Haki was real. With a Pacifista under his command and his intimate knowledge of Kuma's original design, he could stall the damaged cyborg. That freed Gion, the sharper, more aggressive blade, to handle the rookies.
Gion gave a terse nod. As Sentomaru moved with the silent Pacifista to intercept Kuma's lumbering, persistent attacks, she turned her full, lethal attention to the trapped pirates.
Her gaze settled on Roronoa Zoro, who was gasping within the slowing mesh of Levi's light-forest.
"I will not show mercy. Block, and you live. Fail, and you die."
Her sword, Konpira, flashed. It was not a grandiose technique, but a perfect, efficient stroke born of decades of refined swordsmanship, its edge sheathed in the deep violet glow of advanced Armament Haki.
Zoro's instincts screamed. He crossed his three blades—Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu, Shusui—in a desperate parry.
CLANG-SHRIEK!
The sound was of overwhelming force meeting desperate resistance. Zoro's boots dug trenches in the earth, but the power behind Gion's single strike was monumental. He was hurled backward, crashing through several of the thin Reiatsu strands, each impact sapping more of his strength.
Such power… from a woman?! The thought was instinctive, followed immediately by the ghost of a memory—Kuina. If she had lived… could she have reached this height?
"Luffy! Jet Gatling!" A blur of streaking rubber fists filled the air as Luffy, ignoring his own sluggishness, launched a frantic barrage to cover Zoro.
Gion's sword became a violet blur. Clang-clang-clang-clang! Each fist was precisely, effortlessly deflected. With a subtle shift of her weight, she unleashed a controlled burst of Emission Haki from her palm, a concussive wave of air that struck Luffy's chest and sent him skidding back, coughing.
They were outmatched. Even undamaged, with full stamina, their lack of Haki mastery and refined combat experience against a pinnacle Vice Admiral like Momousagi placed them at a severe disadvantage. But they were not broken. They could still fight. They still would fight.
…
The true center of the storm, however, was the space between Levi and Rayleigh.
Rayleigh, despite his serious demeanor, was not aiming for a decisive duel. His goal was diversion. Tie up the Admiral, create an opening—any opening—for the Straw Hats to exploit and flee. Once they were gone, he could disengage. A prolonged, all-out battle served no one's purpose.
Thus, his first committed attack was not a pinpoint thrust, but an area-denial cataclysm.
"Have a taste of an old man's resolve!"
He raised his sword high. The black lightning of Conqueror's Haki-infused Armament writhed around the blade, denser and more terrifying than any Armament Haki alone. A spectral, fearsome aura—the ghost of the Dark King's prime—seemed to manifest behind him. The very air grew cold with a Shura-like intent.
The downward swing was deceptively simple. From simplicity emerged overwhelming complexity.
A vertical crescent of pure black-and-silver devastation tore through the air. It wasn't just a slash; it was a crushing wave of sword will, wide enough to cleave a hillfort. The void screamed in protest. The sonic boom was a physical wall of sound. The thin Reiatsu strands near its path didn't bend—they shattered, consumed by the annihilating force.
The world seemed to hold its breath before that majestic, domineering arc of destruction.
"No weaker than Hawkeye!" Gion gasped, the comparison forced from her by sheer, professional awe.
"A legendary pirate, brushing against the threshold of Admiral-tier," Levi observed aloud, his analytical tone untouched by fear. "A fitting sample."
He didn't elaborate. He simply took a breath.
"Ha!"
From Levi's form erupted not one stream of power, but hundreds. Tendrils of deep blue Reiatsu, outlined in crackling black spiritual energy, surged forward like a nest of furious serpents or the wings of a colossal, spectral crow. They met Rayleigh's monumental sword wave head-on.
KKKRRR-BOOOOOOM!!!
The collision was not an explosion, but a prolonged, grinding detonation of opposing wills. Light, dark energy, and distorted air tore at the sky. Shockwaves radiated outward in visible rings, causing the very mangrove roots deep below to groan. More of Levi's Reiatsu forest vaporized under the backlash.
Rayleigh pressed, his expression focused. "Barbarian Ghost Sword!"
The single, vast wave of energy fractured into hundreds of smaller, razor-sharp projectiles of black Haki, filling the air like a vengeful hailstorm, shredding towards Levi from every angle. It was an overwhelming, inescapable onslaught.
Around Levi, the remaining streams of Reiatsu whirled, forming a turbulent, defensive vortex. Each black sword-beam that struck it was met, contested, and crushed in a micro-explosion of light and dark sparks. Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam! The sound was a continuous, deafening drumbeat of high-level combat.
Through the storm, Levi began to walk. Step by deliberate step, he closed the distance to Rayleigh, the chaotic energy parting around him like a sea around a stone.
The ground between them became a wasteland of craters and scorched earth. The sheer intensity of the clash made Sentomaru pale and forced even Gion to widen her stance against the psychic aftershocks. This was power that could erase Vice Admirals caught in the crossfire.
As the gap narrowed to mere yards, Levi's eyes glinted. The nature of his pressure shifted subtly, seamlessly.
The swirling Reiatsu vortex condensed and then expanded in a different way. The crushing, physical weight lessened, replaced by a profound, soul-deep Deterrence. It was a pressure that bypassed the body to whisper of oblivion directly into the mind, to weigh down the spirit with the chill of the grave.
BOOM.
The wave of spiritual oppression hit Rayleigh. For the first time, a flicker of strain showed on the legend's face. Not fear of death, but the instinctive, primal recoil of a living soul confronted with a power that felt anathema to life itself.
Rayleigh gritted his teeth. In response, his own Conqueror's Haki roared to life from within—a crimson-and-black aura of indomitable will, the pride of a King who had seen the end of the world and laughed. It pushed back against the soul-numbing cold, creating a visible crackling boundary in the air between them.
In that moment of clashing supreme wills, Levi smiled. It was a small, knowing curve of his lips.
"As I expected. A strong man's confidence resides in his will." Levi's voice cut through the maelstrom, calm and clear. "Pluton Rayleigh… you really shouldn't try to match Conqueror's Haki with me."
The implication hung in the annihilated air: their powers were not the same. One was the will to conquer the world. The other was the pressure to erase the soul. In a contest of raw spiritual dominance, Levi held a fundamental, terrifying advantage.
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