Chapter 285

"So you've finally shown yourselves... the Five Elder Stars."

His massive dragon body gradually contracted, and under Steel Bone Kong's grave gaze, he transformed into the strongest human-beast form—half human, half dragon—ten meters tall, covered in scales from head to toe, sharp claws growing from his five fingers, shouldering a spiked club, burly and towering, his aura overwhelmingly domineering, enough to make one's heart tremble at the sight.

Having taken on his strongest form, he looked up at the Five Elder Stars, a wild grin spreading across his lips.

"You who stand at the pinnacle of the world's power—if you've got the guts, come try to kill me!"

He stomped down heavily, the earth shattering, and his enormous, hulking frame leapt high into the air toward the three Five Elder Stars atop Pangaea Castle.

Steel Bone Kong flashed and appeared before him, his pitch-black right fist punching toward him.

Kaido swung his club backhanded.

Two torrents of Conqueror's Haki collided violently.

Blood-colored lightning splashed in all directions.

"Don't get in the way!"

Kaido's eyes turned blood-red.

The force on the spiked club surged!

"What!"

Steel Bone Kong's expression changed.

Then he was sent flying by Kaido's club, smashing through who knows how many buildings in one go.

After sending Steel Bone Kong flying, Kaido charged up to the Five Elder Stars, his spiked club wreathed in endless monstrous strength, Conqueror's Haki, and Lei Ting, and slammed it down toward them.

"Lei Ming, Bagua!"

The bald Five Elder Star drew his sword and slashed.

The blond Five Elder Star threw a punch.

The mustachioed Five Elder Star raised his palm, strands of ability light flickering between light and dark in its center, space warping.

Kaido's Lei Ming Bagua clashed with the attacks of the three Five Elder Stars.

The entire Red Line seemed to shudder violently for a moment.

The space between the four warped under the collision of that tremendous force, and black spatial lines capable of slicing through anything appeared one after another!

Pangaea Castle gradually crumbled under that strike.

"Let's make our move too."

Lei Li said, raising his sword and charging toward the Five Elder Stars.

Zephyr followed close behind.

Akainu transformed into magma, bursting up from the ground, and after condensing back into human form, his expression was ugly.

"That old man—I never thought he'd betray justice!"

"They all deserve to die!"

Most of his body had become magma, and his fists transformed into enormous lava fists that punched toward the sky. The devastatingly destructive magma fists rained down like meteors, their range covering the entire battlefield.

"Meteor Volcano!"

Ma Erke the Phoenix, Ace, Empress Hancock, and Kuina dodged one after another, but the ground still turned into a sea of lava fire at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Akainu, who wielded the power of natural disaster, stood amid it all, his expression grim and terrifying, his aura like an erupting volcano, immensely oppressive.

The temperature throughout all of Mariejois began to rise rapidly.

"Die!"

Akainu simultaneously launched attacks at Ma Erke, Ace, Hancock, and Kuina.

Aided by the ground's magma, four enormous lava fists, carrying scorching heat and magma flames, came crashing toward the four.

Just at that moment.

A slash of purple sword energy imbued with gravity waves swept out horizontally, colliding with those four enormous magma fists and slamming them straight into the ground.

Akainu's pupils contracted sharply.

The others looked in disbelief at Fujitora, who stood not far away, gripping his staff-sword, draped in a justice coat.

"Fujitora... Admiral?"

"How could..."

"You're lying."

Ma Erke and the other three also stared at Fujitora in stunned, bewildered confusion.

Aokiji landed from the sky onto the ground, and his ice-formed body, shattered by Kaido, began rapidly regenerating.

He stared fixedly at Fujitora:

"Why?"

Fujitora held his staff-sword in a reverse grip, his eyes—entirely white—open, and said calmly, "I am a weak man. I cannot bear to witness suffering, nor can I bear to witness evil."

"That person once told me that the existence of the Celestial Dragons only breeds more suffering and evil upon this sea. I joined the Marines and came here merely to verify it."

"Now it seems that person was right."

"I lost that wager."

Fujitora, standing opposite Akainu and Aokiji, raised his staff-sword, and in an instant, purple gravity circles shot up into the sky one after another.

A sound came from the sky.

A meteor appeared suddenly in the heavens, plummeting toward this place with overwhelming momentum.

Aokiji's expression grew solemn.

Akainu's face darkened to the extreme.

"One after another... how dare you all act so recklessly!"

He raised his magma-formed giant fist and punched it toward the sky.

The giant lava fist collided with the meteorite that had come crashing down at extreme speed!

Heaven and earth fell silent, then the two terrifying pressures, condensed to their absolute limits, exploded violently!

Boom!

The tremendous shockwave and scorching hurricane swept in all directions!

Endless lava, along with the shattered island, smashed down toward Mariejois below!

Boom, boom, boom!

One after another, massive lava boulders ruthlessly smashed into the ancient castles of the Holy Land Mariejois, wantonly destroying this World Government headquarters that had stood for eight hundred years.

Accompanied by terrifying explosions.

Building after building and castle after castle collapsed.

To the World Nobles, who were terrified beyond measure, the scene before their eyes was as if the heavens themselves had fallen!

An unprecedented catastrophe they had not experienced in eight hundred years.

Several enormous boulders, wrapped in lava, smashed toward Vice Admiral Crane and the Marines' side.

Aokiji acted in time, creating a wall of ice in midair to block the lava boulders crashing down toward their heads.

"I didn't expect that fellow Fujitora would actually…"

Sengoku, who had transformed into a golden great Buddha, gazed at the scene of lava and meteorites crashing down over there, his face dark and ugly.

"Where are you looking?"

Sabo was instantly teleported by Bartholomew right in front of Sengoku, and a Dragon's Breath wrapped in Haki slammed into his golden body.

Sengoku was forced back several steps.

His eyes turned fierce. A sphere of condensed shockwave gathered in his golden Buddha palm, and he swung his palm toward Sabo.

Before it even landed, the powerful compressive force of that shockwave made the air around Sabo grow thick and dense, as though he were mired in a swamp.

"Xiong Zhang Impact."

The Tyrant Bartholomew appeared right in front of Sabo and unleashed a shockwave shaped like a little bear.

The instant those two attacks, imbued with terrifying force, collided.

It was like a nuclear explosion.

Boom!

—a tremendous roar.

The air within a hundred meters shattered completely, like a single pane of glass!

The earth collapsed!

Enormous fissures spread outward from the plaza across all of Mariejois.

Building after building near the plaza toppled, sinking into the collapsed ground and the massive fissures.