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----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The final, thunderous boom of the steel walls locking into place was a death knell. A vast, metallic tomb had been erected around the bay of Marineford, sealing the pirates in a cage of the World Government's design. The brief, brilliant sunshine of their victory was eclipsed by the long, cold shadows of the barricade. Hope, which had soared so high only moments before, plummeted into the depths of a steel-lined abyss.
"The walls... they've trapped us!" a pirate screamed, his voice a cocktail of disbelief and terror. The triumphant roars of the Whitebeard alliance died, replaced by a rising tide of panic. They were fish in a barrel, and the men holding the guns were the most powerful fighters on the planet.
Ace and Luffy stood back-to-back in the heart of the chaos, a small island of defiance in a sea of encroaching despair. Luffy, ever the creature of instinct, simply glared at the giant walls. "So they wanna keep us here? Fine! We'll just have to break our way out!"
But Ace saw the truth of it. His mind, now a perfect fusion of a pirate's instincts and a modern man's strategic knowledge, processed the horrifying reality of their situation. This wasn't a cage to hold them. It was a crucible designed to melt them down to nothing.
It's a classic kill box, his mind analyzed with detachment. Limited space, no retreat, and overwhelming firepower about to be unleashed. Sengoku wasn't trying to stop a retreat. He was waiting for it. He let us taste freedom just to make the despair of this trap all the more absolute.
He clenched his fists, the flames around them burning hotter, brighter. His new game had just been countered by the old master's final, brutal gambit.
From the line of the three Admirals, one man stepped forward. His white suit was still immaculate, the pink flower on his lapel untouched by the horrors of the day. But his face was a mask of cold, implacable judgment. Admiral Akainu, Sakazuki, looked out at the trapped pirates not as a soldier views an enemy, but as an exterminator views a nest of vermin.
"So quick to run away the moment you got what you came for," Akainu said, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that seemed to emanate from the very core of the earth. "The Whitebeard Pirates are nothing but a pack of cowards, led by a gutless old relic from a bygone era."
The insult was a physical blow to the pirates. Marco, Vista, and Jozu all snarled, but Whitebeard simply narrowed his eyes, his grip tightening on his bisento. He knew what Akainu was doing. It was a provocation, a taunt to shatter their already fragile morale.
Ace felt a surge of pure, unadulterated hatred. This man, his very presence, was an affront to everything he held dear.
"But this is for the best," Akainu continued, raising his hands to the sky. His arms began to bubble and smoke, transforming into thick, glowing molten rock. "It makes the cleanup easier. It is the sworn duty of the Marines to enact Absolute Justice. Every last one of you, every trace of your sinful existence... must be thoroughly erased!"
He thrust his magma fists towards the heavens. "Ryusei Kazan! (Meteor Volcano!)"
The sky turned red. Dozens of enormous fists made of pure, incandescent magma were launched high into the air, hanging for a moment against the blue sky like a constellation of man-made suns before beginning their fiery descent. They did not target a specific area. They were an indiscriminate shower of annihilation, aimed at the entire bay.
The screaming began.
One of the magma fists slammed directly into the figurehead of the Moby Dick, melting the magnificent white whale into a molten, hissing ruin. Whitebeard roared in fury as his symbol, his home, was desecrated. Another meteor plunged into the thick ice, not just cracking it, but vaporizing a hundred-foot section in an explosive blast of steam, sending pirates and fleeing Marines alike into the now-boiling seawater.
This was not warfare. This was pest control.
As the meteors rained down, one came hurtling directly towards Ace and Luffy. It was a mountain of glowing rock and fire, promising an agonizing end. Luffy looked up, his eyes wide, preparing to try and dodge the undodgeable.
But Ace was calm. He stepped in front of his brother, his own eyes fixed on the descending projectile. The original Ace would have met it with fire, only to learn a horrifying lesson in elemental hierarchy. But this Ace was different.
Magma isn't just 'hotter fire,' Kenji's logical mind supplied. It's a different state of matter. It has mass. It has immense thermal energy, but that energy can be redirected. Don't fight its heat. Control it.
He coated both his arms in the shimmering, invisible sheen of his perfected Armament Haki. He then thrust his hands forward, his fingers spread wide.
"Kyokaen! (Mirror Fire!)"
Instead of a fist, he unleashed a spinning vortex of fire from his palms. It was not an attack, but a shield, a rapidly rotating disc of Haki-infused flame that met the magma fist head-on. The moment the magma made contact, Ace's true strategy was revealed. The vortex didn't just block the attack; it began to rapidly siphon its thermal energy. The spinning flames, guided by Ace's Haki and precise control, acted like a supernatural heat sink.
The pirates on the battlefield stared, their jaws agape. The glowing red magma fist began to cool before their very eyes. The vibrant, deadly light dimmed, the molten rock solidifying into black, brittle obsidian. The meteor, robbed of its binding thermal energy, lost all structural integrity. It crumbled against Ace's fiery shield, shattering into a hail of harmless, superheated pebbles that clattered onto the ice around him.
He had not just blocked a magma attack. He had unmade it.
He lowered his hands, the fiery shield dissipating into the air. He stood completely unharmed, a silent protector in front of his stunned younger brother.
Across the battlefield, Akainu's eyes narrowed. The slightest hint of surprise flickered across his stony features before being replaced by an even deeper, more profound scowl.
"Hoh... So Roger's bloodline has learned a few new party tricks," the Admiral growled, the magma beginning to drip from his fingertips. "A clever application of your power. But do not delude yourself into thinking it changes the natural order of things."
He took a step forward, his foot leaving a smoldering black footprint on the stone.
"Your fire is a candle flame against the furnace of a volcano. Your very existence is a crime against nature, Portgas D. Ace. And my justice demands that all such crimes be paid for in blood and ash."
The lines were drawn. The philosophical and elemental opposites of the battlefield had found each other. Akainu, the man of absolute, unbending order, and Ace, the man of inherited chaos and absolute freedom.
Ace met his gaze, the flames around his body coalescing, taking on a denser, whiter heat. The fun and games were over. The strategic maneuvering was done. This was the true fight. This was the man he had to stop, not just to escape, but to protect the two people who mattered more to him than life itself.