The fierce battlefield erupted into absolute chaos as the massive floating island began its catastrophic disintegration.
Every combatant abandoned their fights, all desperate to escape the devastation. The problem was that the island's collapse progressed with terrifying speed, leaving no time for even seasoned warriors to react properly.
They were falling from thousands of feet in the sky!
Countless figures plummeted through the air, accompanied by a deadly rain of massive stone fragments. The island's captive beasts, every living creature that had called this aerial fortress home, tumbled helplessly toward the churning ocean below, with nowhere to land safely. Dom and Lucci immediately sprang into action, sprinting through the cascade of debris as they navigated toward where their crewmates had been fighting.
Soon, they spotted Yurivich, Kaka, and the others through the chaos.
However, reaching them proved impossible, Golden Lion's power had completely obliterated the island's foundation, sending everyone into freefall. From this altitude, even with the ocean below to cushion their impact, most would face serious injury or death.
Dom watched in horror as the wounded Dolan sprawled helplessly on a massive chunk of stone, plummeting alongside the surrounding debris. Terror etched across his features as he called desperately for help.
Just as Dom prepared to activate his spatial abilities, he witnessed a figure moving with leopard-like grace. The silhouette darted impossibly through the tumbling rubble, leaping with superhuman physical prowess until finally landing on the stone where Dolan lay, lifting him with a single powerful arm.
It was Yurivich.
"What a shame," Lucci muttered under his breath as he observed the rescue.
Having mastered the Marine's Rokushiki Six Powers, particularly Geppo (Moonwalk), he naturally felt no fear in this situation. Geppo allowed him to kick off the air itself with superhuman force, enabling sustained flight. He had originally planned to exploit the God Slayer being overwhelmed by Golden Lion and seize this opportunity to eliminate the weaker members of the Hell Pirates. Now, that strategy seemed futile.
He understood Dom's spatial abilities could resolve their immediate crisis.
BOOM!
Soon, another floating island adjacent to the main fortress also crumbled, launching a dense barrage of enormous rocks toward the darkening sky.
"So it's come to this..."
Lucci, descending in controlled freefall, gazed upward at the surreal celestial phenomenon unfolding above.
The island they had been fighting on served as Golden Lion's primary headquarters. To eliminate the God Slayer, Shiki had gone so far as to destroy his own stronghold, demonstrating the immense pressure Oboro had placed upon the legendary pirate. Conversely, the assault being unleashed against the God Slayer defied imagination; there remained a genuine possibility that he might perish here.
"Let's see how this battle concludes... I'd rather witness his death here than face him again," Lucci thought grimly.
CRACK!
Suddenly, before the sky filled with falling figures, debris, and panicked beasts could crash into the ocean below, a massive black vortex materialized in the heavens. The next instant, a pillar of crackling black and crimson lightning erupted through the vortex's center, its devastating aftermath instantly pulverizing the dense mass of falling rocks.
They witnessed Golden Lion gripping Oboro's throat with one weathered hand, both combatants riding the shockwave as they crashed together onto a distant "safe" floating island. However, within mere seconds, the combined force of their Conqueror's Haki, manifesting as colored lightning, pierced entirely through the foundation of that island as well, their bodies boring through the thick soil like living projectiles.
Another island destroyed.
At even greater velocity, the devastated landmass plunged into the sea ahead of the other falling debris!
"God Slayer!! Die here!!" Golden Lion's maniacal laughter echoed across the battlefield, deafeningly loud.
Dom's expression darkened with shock and mounting anxiety.
From that brief glimpse of their battle, it appeared their captain was being overpowered by Golden Lion, clearly at a significant disadvantage.
Immediately, Dom activated his spatial manipulation abilities, leaping through dimensional rifts to appear beside each crew member in succession, gathering them together. Just as they were about to impact the ocean's surface, he used his power again to redirect their momentum and negate gravity's pull, allowing them to descend safely from the sky back to sea level.
However, overhead, countless objects continued their deadly descent.
They could only dodge and weave through the falling debris.
The vast ocean, disturbed by the massive and numerous impacts, churned with enormous white-capped waves. The island that had been "pierced" by Oboro and Golden Lion's combined assault plummeted from the heavens, crashing into the sea and creating near-tsunami-level destruction in its wake.
Fortunately, this also provided Dom and his companions with a foothold upon the water's surface.
The crash had created a new landmass rising from the ocean floor.
The battle between the opposing forces had reached a temporary ceasefire.
Looking around, all they could see was countless debris and wreckage floating on the churning sea. Some pieces were remnants of buildings from the former aerial fortress, while others included numerous survivors, both human and the various experimental beasts Golden Lion had been studying. The churning sediment and destruction had turned the water murky and stained with blood.
But Dom and his companions, having just averted immediate catastrophe, had no time to concern themselves with these details. Their entire focus remained fixed on the battle between their captain and the Golden Lion.
"Where are they?!" Dom demanded, scanning the horizon with growing urgency.
He understood one crucial fact: if Oboro fell here, facing the World Government's encirclement afterward, none of the Hell Pirates would survive.
"Over there," gasped Yingge, pointing toward the distant horizon where the ocean met the sky.
After all, Golden Lion had spent twenty years building his power base here, cultivating a truly staggering number of subordinates, including several formidable individuals. Therefore, he, Kaka, and Dolan had struggled significantly more than Yurivich during their battles. If not for Golden Lion's sudden activation of his powers, disrupting the battlefield and affecting everyone indiscriminately, the enemies they faced would have seemed endless in such a short timeframe.
This indirectly demonstrated the terrifying level of power that Golden Lion and their captain still possessed while engaged in their titanic struggle.
For combatants of their caliber, without even needing to lift a finger, simply unleashing their Conqueror's Haki could render approach impossible.
Thousands, even tens of thousands of people would be rendered unconscious instantly by their overwhelming presence.
"Look... what is that?" Dolan suddenly screamed in astonishment.
The others who followed his gaze were equally stunned.
The battlefield stretched far into the distance, but they could still discern some details of the ongoing conflict, because the fighting methods employed by both warriors were too extraordinary to ignore.
The boundless ocean split apart under a dazzling slash that seemed to divide heaven and earth itself!
If they hadn't witnessed it with their own eyes, Dom and his companions would have found it impossible to believe that anyone in this world could literally "cleave" the ocean through pure swordsmanship and personal strength alone! This wasn't merely a few hundred meters of separation, judging from what their naked eyes could perceive, the distance between the split sea surfaces measured at least several thousand meters!
The depth of the fissure was equally astounding.
Pirates had always held the sea in reverent awe.
And this devastating slash had obviously been executed by Golden Lion.
"Is the captain... all right?" Kaka asked hesitantly.
The next second, Dom's murderous glare fixed on him with deadly intensity.
"Haha... Senior, I was joking. I'm just worried about our captain," Kaka coughed nervously, immediately forcing a smile.
"We're going to assist the captain!" Dom declared with unwavering determination.
"We?" Dolan' eyes widened in disbelief.
What kind of joke was this?! If they interfered in that battle, it would be tantamount to suicide.
"Do you have any objections?" Dom's voice carried a dangerous edge.
Dolan was clearly losing his composure due to the urgent situation. If he continued spouting nonsense, Dom would definitely eliminate him without hesitation.
Dolan' face drained of color as he wisely shut his mouth.