Akainu saw Rakuya standing there unharmed, eyes a little unfocused, and his fury spiked.
"Is defense all you can do? Hiding in a turtle shell like a coward. Trash that does not even dare to fight back."
Rakuya was still quietly pleased about the five hundred points the system had just compensated him when that grating voice cut across his ear.
Sakazuki had unloaded everything he had, again and again, and still could not crack the barrier. Not a scratch on Rakuya. Rage boiled over and stripped away what little restraint he had left.
"What did you say?"
A shard of cold light flashed in Rakuya's eyes. He had not planned to bother with someone this average, but keep poking a sleeping tiger and even a patient man stops smiling.
"I said you are a coward. All defense, no guts."
"Universal Pull: Void."
Rakuya's face went still. The lazy air vanished. He became a drawn blade. His right hand clenched and a pitch black hole bloomed in front of Sakazuki.
"You want to see what a coward can do? Then taste it."
"Hmph."
"Great Eruption."
Magma detonated with a blasting heat wave. Flames roared as the molten mass hammered toward the void.
"If that is all you have, stop embarrassing yourself," Sakazuki sneered, full of confidence, as the molten boulder crashed into the darkness.
Thud.
No thunderclap. No earth-shaking blast. Every Marine stared, breath held, at the point of impact.
The lava did not explode. It did not even make a sound.
Space around the void warped. The red-hot mass touched the rim and did not push through. It simply folded and poured inward, like the hole was a bottomless abyss.
"Great Eruption."
"Hound."
Akainu chained techniques, but every blow vanished. The pull only grew stronger, the void wider. Trees behind him bent and tore free. The ground itself groaned and dragged toward the mouth. In a blink the black hole swelled to five meters across.
"Damn it. What is this technique?"
Sakazuki snarled. The force tugging at him surged again.
"Soru."
He stamped to break free.
"Running?" Rakuya's gaze flicked over him. His right hand tightened. The pull spiked tenfold and locked onto Sakazuki's body.
"Hah. I am a Logia user. You can never catch my element." Akainu smirked and dissolved into magma, slipping to the side.
"Is that so?"
A black hole does not let light pass. You think lava will?
"Gravity Black Hole. Devour."
Rakuya's voice cracked like a whip. The magma re-knit into Sakazuki's human form against his will. Only then did the danger sink in and cold prick his scalp. "What? You can ignore Logia intangibility?"
"Move." Zephyr's pupils pinched tight. He kicked into Geppo, sprinting through the air for a rescue.
Borsalino did not dare dawdle. He became light and flashed toward Akainu.
They both crossed the boundary of the pull.
Their bodies locked up and, disobeying every command, pitched toward the void.
"What is this power?"
"Damn it."
Their shouts rang uselessly.
Rakuya stood where he was, a sovereign over the field.
"Gravity Black Hole. Devour."
With that, Zephyr, Borsalino, and Sakazuki were all yanked in with a single scream apiece.
Rakuya relaxed his hand. The void shrank and faded from the world.
He had not killed them. That much was under his control.
But inside that darkness, the three of them learned what a wordless, endless kind of torment felt like.
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