Boom.
A thunderclap split the sky as one of the Five Elders, the swordsman, swung his blade.
A colossal ring of golden light flashed like a newborn star. Edges screamed. Power roared like a dragon as the slash tore upward toward the meteor that weighed as if it were ten million catties.
Stone exploded under that raging sword aura, but when a section sheared away it was barely one percent of the whole.
"Damn it. It's hard as iron. I can't bite into it at all." The swordsman's eyes tightened. Against any other boulder a single stroke could part sea and mountain. This thing might as well have been the world's spine. His cut felt like a scratch.
"Tremble. Despair. I am Flowing Cloud, and I will overturn this world."
Rakuya stood at the peak of the storm, lightning spidering across a doomsday sky. At his side, Momousagi said nothing, her gaze fixed on Mary Geoise.
"Die. Celestial Dragons, your very existence is an insult to this world."
At his ruthlessness, Momousagi felt no revulsion. Only release. She had seen those nobles' true faces. If it had been only one monster, perhaps she could have clung to the justice she was raised on. But rot ran through all of them. Her faith in the so-called World Nobles was already dead.
Across the world, pirates and Marines alike held their breath.
"Flowing Cloud. What a presence."
"I, Flowing Cloud, will overturn the world. That line is pure dominance."
"He's so handsome. I'm joining Flowing Cloud's crew."
Rakuya's one sentence stunned the globe. Pirates felt blood surge and slumbering ambition flare. Many Marines shivered under the weight of it.
The lower the meteor sank, the heavier every breath became. Skin prickled as that vast body blotted out the heavens.
"Sever it."
"Divine Fist."
Four of the Five Elders unleashed their techniques together, hammering the falling star. The instant their strikes landed they realized how wrong they were. The stone was far tougher than they had imagined. Worse, Rakuya's gravity kept deepening, dragging more rock from miles around to fuse into the mass.
It had started its fall from three thousand meters at a mere kilometer across. By the time it neared the ground, it had doubled in span.
It covered the sky.
It smothered the earth.
"Die."
Rakuya's lips moved, barely a whisper.
In Marineford, Steel Bone Kong and every officer went silent, eyes glued to the screen. As the meteor sank, despair crept in. Some vice admirals could not hide their fear. Rank and file Marines descended into chaos.
Pressure alone flattened the landscape into a vast oval. The Red Line split with dozens of ragged chasms, the sight grotesque and unreal.
It felt like the end of the world.
"No. The Celestial Dragons will never live through this." The square-jawed elder's voice shook. If the nobles all died, then they would truly die too, with no return. That could not be allowed.
In a blink, the four exchanged looks.
"There is only one choice."
"I have gone eight hundred years without dying. To think I must die today at Flowing Cloud's hands. But if I revive, I will exact ten thousand times the price."
"Enough talk. Move."
"I am coming."
They abandoned the sky and flashed to the ground.
"You came down?" The bald elder's eyes narrowed.
"We cannot stop it, only delay it. You cannot withstand that force either. Our only chance is to move them all. Spatial transfer requires all five of us."
"And us?" asked the bald elder.
"We die," said the swordsman, voice like ice, gaze already resigned.
"Die once?" The bald one let out a thin laugh. "So be it. We live again."
Death was a word they had not needed for centuries. Eight hundred years without falling once.
"Begin."
All five nodded. They took their positions, forming a circle around the massed Celestial Dragons. Fingers lifted. Five pillars of different hues rose from their bodies.
The light was uncanny. Those caught in it felt nothing at all.
The meteor dropped.
"Shift."
At the final instant, their voices crashed as one. Light flared to blinding white. A strange wave rippled and every Celestial Dragon vanished.
Only the five old men remained, faces unreadable.
Terror and a strange, long-forgotten anticipation flickered in their eyes. They were still human. They still feared pain.
"Come," one of them said.
They raised their chins and looked up at the falling sun.
Boom.
Impact. The world shook. Government spires had already been dust under that sublime force. The Red Line's crust shattered to gravel. Hundreds-meter fissures raced outward. Under the unthinkable pressure, the Red Line cracked and swallowed the meteor until the burning stone drove itself half into the continent.
Gales screamed. Millions of tons of seawater flashed to vapor. In seas near the Red Line, Sea Kings rolled belly-up and drifted, a macabre tide.
And the Five Elders, caught directly under that tyrannical force, turned to ash.
Dead beyond doubt.
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