Rehn's icy voice, like a deep-sea cold current, instantly swept through the entire shopping center.
The terrifying pressure from the pulsating sphere of lightning at his fingertip, capable of destroying an island, made the souls of the Trident Claw tremble!
"M... Monster!"
Kama was scared out of his wits. He no longer cared about the priceless S-Class Mermaid on his shoulder.
With a plop, he dropped her to the ground and turned to flee!
Kaji and Kani couldn't even muster the thought of resistance!
This power!
This aura!
This wasn't something pirates of their level could contend with! This was the power of a 'god'!
"Trying to run?"
Rehn smiled, a smile infinitely grim.
"Beneath Lord Renzo's 'Sacred Decree,' right before my eyes, you dared to harbor the thought of capturing mermaids..."
He slowly raised the hand crackling with lightning.
"Your sins are so great that not even death is enough to atone for them."
"But," he changed his tone, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat troubled.
"If I blast you to bits here, it'll dirty the floor and cause trouble for Madame Shyarly, the owner of the cafe. Lord Renzo said we're on 'vacation' and shouldn't trouble the locals."
"This... this is truly... too 'inefficient'."
He seemed genuinely troubled about how to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way.
Listening to these demonic murmurs, the trio was nearly driven mad with fear.
"D-Don't kill us! We... we are..."
"Annoying."
Rehn interrupted impatiently.
He couldn't even be bothered to use the condensed lightning orb.
He simply snapped his fingers casually.
"Divine Observation: Electromagnetic Lockdown."
"Thirty Million Volts: Paralysis Package."
Zzztttt
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Just three streaks of golden arc, thinner than a hair and imperceptible to the naked eye, flashing by at a speed surpassing thought!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Kama, Kani, and Kaji's terrified expressions instantly froze.
Their bodies, as if all their bones had been removed, collapsed limply to the ground.
They weren't dead.
But the nervous systems throughout their bodies had been thoroughly "severed" by the precisely targeted electric current.
Their eyes were wide open, their consciousness clear, yet they couldn't move so much as a little finger.
They couldn't even scream, only managing hoarse, leaking sounds of "Hah... hah..." from their throats.
"Mm."
Rehn nodded with satisfaction.
"Much quieter this way. Keeps the 'trophies' and doesn't dirty the floor. Perfect, this is 'efficiency'."
He didn't even glance at the three writhing pieces of trash.
Instead, he turned, ready to pick up the terrified mermaid and take her back to the cafe.
However, the moment he turned.
"Clap... clap... clap..."
The sound of slow, heavy applause came from the shadows at the shopping center's entrance.
"Truly a splendid performance."
A voice, as dull as clanging metal, rang out. "Among those I've killed, you're the first to have developed your Devil Fruit ability to this extent."
Rehn stopped moving.
He slowly turned back. His small eyes, usually narrowed into slits, flickered with the annoyance of "trouble."
From within the shadows, the iron tower-like figure slowly emerged.
"Iron Wall" Barricade!
His five-meter-tall frame was completely encased in pitch-black heavy armor. The fierce scar on his face looked especially stark under the soft light of Fish-Man Island.
He simply stood there, and instantly, a terrifying aura, as heavy and immovable as a mountain, enveloped the entire area!
"Oh?"
Rehn raised an eyebrow. "So there was a big fish hiding in the back. You, the boss of this trash?"
"I am merely executing the 'will' of the Celestial Dragons."
Barricade's voice was cold. He glanced at his three completely paralyzed subordinates on the ground, his eyes showing no emotion whatsoever.
"Worthless. Can't even buy you a few seconds."
"You shouldn't have interfered."
Barricade's tone carried an undeniable authority. "This is a 'small whim' of the Celestial Dragon, Saint Jalmack. And you, a mere Marine..."
"Stop."
Rehn impatiently picked at his ear. "Celestial Dragon? Jalmack?"
His fat face twisted into an expression of extreme contempt:
"What the hell is that? Can you eat it?"
"On the turf of my master, Lord Renzo! I don't care if you're some damn Celestial Dragon! Even if one of the Five Elders came here, daring to make 'noise' on this turf!"
A terrifying flash of lightning erupted from Rehn's eyes.
"You'd still have to die!!!"
"Arrogant."
Barricade's tone finally showed a flicker of emotion. "It seems you don't know what true despair really is."
Barricade slowly raised his right foot.
"Rokushiki Ultimate Technique-"
BUZZ!!!
An unprecedented, concentrated wave of Armament Haki, like black ink, instantly coated his entire suit of heavy armor!
This wasn't ordinary Armament Haki.
This was an ultimate defensive form, perfectly fusing Haki with his own "Iron Body" defense to the absolute limit!
"Iron Wall: Absolute Defense!!!"
BOOM!!!
Barricade stomped down heavily!
The entire Fish-Man Island shopping center, no, the entire coral reef group, shook violently from that single stomp!
The ground cracked inch by inch, centered on him!
A visible, substantial aura, mixed with black Haki, shot up towards the sky!
Back at the cafe, Madam Shyarly was so frightened by this terrifying aura that she fell flat on the ground, her crystal ball rolling away.
"What... what kind of monster is this?!!"
"This is my strongest Defense!"
Barricade's voice seemed to come from an iron prison in hell.
"I am CP0's 'Shield of the Gods'! The strongest 'Iron Wall' of the World Government!!"
"Boy!"
His iron-clad giant fist, coated in Haki, slowly rose, aiming at Rehn.
On that fist gathered a terrifying power that stole one's breath.
"I'll show you what unshakable power really is!!"
"Rokushiki Ultimate Technique: Iron Wall Cannon!!!"
He didn't use any flashy moves. Just... a punch!
A plain, unadorned, straight punch, yet one that seemed to contain the weight of an entire island, he smashed it out!
The punch wasn't fast; it could even be called slow.
But wherever it passed, the air was compressed to an extreme degree, forming a visible, spinning white cone!
The surrounding buildings, coral, shops... even the light itself began to warp and collapse under the crushing force of this absolute power!
This was the pinnacle state of transforming defense into attack!
Under this single punch, nothing could stand against it!
"Oh?"
Facing this "Iron Wall Cannon" that seemed capable of crushing everything, Rehn's fat face, for the first time, shed all its zeal and sarcasm.
"Whoa!"
"What a strong aura!"
"Looks like I'll have to get serious too!"
He slowly raised his right hand.
Golden lightning began to gather in his palm.
"I need to deal with you in the most efficient way..."
His small eyes, usually narrowed into slits, snapped wide open!
Within his eye sockets was pure, golden thunder!
"...to completely 'silence' you!!!"
"200 Million Volts."
Rehn's voice was cold and divine.
"Thunder God!!!"
BOOM!!!!!
There was no gigantic Raijin form, no flashy transformation!
Rehn simply took the world-destroying 200 million volts of lightning, along with his Armament Haki: Extreme Breaker that could pierce anything...
...and compressed and concentrated it entirely onto his round right fist in an inconceivable way!
CRACKLE!!! It was no longer golden lightning, nor pitch-black Haki.
It was a kind of "Black Lightning" that seemed to devour light itself!
Rehn's right fist, at that moment, seemed to transform into a small black hole, radiating an aura of total annihilation!
"Die, you fat pig!!"
Barricade's heavy punch arrived with the force to crush everything!
"Quiet down, trash."
Rehn's fist floated lightly upward to meet it.
The pinnacle clash, under everyone's gaze.
BOOM!!!
The two fists, vastly different in size, collided with pinpoint accuracy!
No earth-shattering explosion.
No raging torrent of air pressure.
Even the sound was just that one dull thud.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
The unstoppable cone of air from Barricade's "Iron Wall Cannon," the moment it touched Rehn's "Black Lightning" fist...
...vanished.
"Wha...t?"
Barricade's cold pupils contracted sharply.
He felt it.
The power of his "Cannon" had vanished like a stone dropped into the sea, instantly "devoured" by an even more terrifying force!
And that wasn't all!
ZZZAP!!!
The 200 million volts of Black Lightningon Rehn's fist didn't engage in any contest of force with him at all!
It went around it!
The moment they collided, Rehn's Armament Haki tore through Barricade's Haki defense!
And then those 200 million volts of lightning, following Rehn's fist like floodwaters finding a sluice gate, ignored Barricade's proud defence... and poured straight inside!!!
Barricade's armor, far from providing defense...
Instead!
Became a perfect electric oven!
A "Faraday cage" that locked the lightning firmly inside his body!
"You..."
Barricade only managed to utter a single word.
BOOM!!!!!
The explosion happened inside.
Lightning detonated through his organs and bones.
"GAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"
A miserable shriek, inhuman in its intensity, burst forth from within the pitch-black armor!
In the distance, Madam Shyarly, who had just gotten up, fell flat on her bottom again!
The newly rescued mermaid's eyes rolled back, and she fainted from sheer terror!
The surviving fish-men in the shopping center were collectively petrified, as if witnessing a deity "cooking" a demon!
Barricade's five-meter-tall, colossal body convulsed like a giant ignited firework!
Dazzling electric light blasted wildly from the gaps in his helmet, the seams of his armor, even from under his fingernails!
Crackle, crackle!
Zzzzzap!
His proud "Absolute Defense" had become his most lethal instrument of torture!
"Im...possible..."
Barricade's voice had degraded into a charred, raspy scream.
"Too noisy."
Rehn's expression was blank as he slowly withdrew his fist.
"Thump."
Barricade's colossal body, still smoking with wisps of burnt odor, toppled straight backward.
CRASH
It hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
He wasn't dead.
Rehn had precisely controlled the voltage, simply cooking him from the inside out to a "medium-well" doneness.
Completely, utterly incapacitated.
...
The entire scene was dead silent.
Rehn slowly turned around, dusting off the non-existent dirt on his hands.
He glanced at the medium-well tin can on the ground, then at the three paralyzed pieces of trash in the distance, and finally at the shopping center they had turned into a complete mess.
His fat face twisted into an expression of extreme displeasure.
"Tsk."
He pulled out his Den Den Mushi and dialed a number.
"Hello, Prince Fukaboshi?"
"Yes, this is Rehn."
"Don't mention it."
"Um, we've got a bit of a 'sanitation' issue over at the shopping center."
"Yeah, one piece of 'large trash,' and three pieces of 'small trash.'"
"Could you send someone over for 'cleanup'? Move quickly, be efficient."
"I'm worried it might affect Lord R... I mean, affect Madame Shyarly's business."
"Ah, us?"
"That's right, you're the local hosts. Can't have the Marines handle every piece of 'trash,' can we? We're on 'vacation.'"
"Lord Renzo paid for 'accommodation,' after all."
"Oh, right, the one in the tin can is CP0. If you can't handle him, just tie him up tight. I'll pack him up and take him away later."
"Alright, bye."
Rehn hung up the snail and let out a long sigh of relief.
"Phew, nice and quiet again."
"Now I can go back and have Madam Shyarly's parfait."
"Perfect."