God's Knights' Junzi activated the Arrow-Arrow Fruit, extending attacks from the ground to pursue the fleeing Rayleigh and Jabba.
"They must also die here, whether it's Garp or Roger."
A Conquerors Fist tore through space from a distance, and a terrifying pressure instantly shot from Rune's fist, precisely striking her cheek the moment after she activated her fruit.
Junzi's entire head was blown apart by Rune, but no brain matter splattered; instead, it transformed into countless black flames floating in the air.
"You want to kill Garp too?" Rune grinned savagely at them: "He's a Marine, you know."
After her head was blown apart, the arrows Junzi had launched at Rayleigh and Jabba instantly vanished.
Watching the headless Junzi still moving, after all these years, this was the first time Rune had seen such an enemy, although he had long known many of this world's secrets.
Junzi knelt on the ground, seemingly in great pain. After her brain fully regenerated, she glared with a grim expression at Rune, who stood blocking their path.
"There's no reason not to kill him. That guy often acts on his own, disobeys orders, and is an unqualified pawn." Garling, sensing Rune's intense Conqueror's Haki, stepped forward alone, sword in hand:
"If we can eliminate him here, at most it just adds one more casualty number to the God Valley Incident disaster."
As the only God's Knight possessing Conqueror's Haki, Saint Garling infused his own Conqueror's Haki into his sword and swung a Conqueror's Haki sword slash at Rune from a distance.
Boom——! Rune clenched his fist, scorching flames violently burning on both fists, then threw a punch towards the incoming sword slash.
The terrifying high-temperature fist pressure instantly devoured Saint Garling's sword slash and surged straight towards him.
"What!" Seeing this, Garling was utterly shocked and hastily blocked with his sword: "That was my Conqueror's Haki!"
The fist pressure impact squarely struck the sword in Garling's hand, and a terrifying monstrous force instantly spread throughout his entire body. Rune's Haki pierced through his defenses, coursing through him from head to toe.
"Scum is scum. I really wouldn't stop you if you wanted to kill Garp." Rune stood blocking the four, the flames on his fists flickering on and off, as he said to them:
"But, did you just say you were going to kill Roger?"
Whoosh. As Rune's words fell, his entire body tensed and he vanished from the sight of Junzi, Saint Chirringom, Saint Mafi, and Saint Garling.
Almost instantly, he appeared before Saint Garling, who was trying to extinguish the flames on his body.
Garling, having just taken a hit from Rune, was attempting to put out the flames when he was kicked in the abdomen the next second.
The explosive force of that kick instantly pierced through his abdomen, even sending the bones and flesh behind him flying.
Blood gushed from Garling's mouth, his body in agony. As he instinctively tried to hunch over and hold his stomach to ease the pain, his moon-like hair was grabbed by Rune, who smashed him into the ground and began dragging his entire body across it.
The surrounding terrain was massively torn apart, fist energy spraying from the fissures.
Chirringom and Saint Mafi hurriedly dodged, their faces filled with shocked disbelief.
Junzi, already injured earlier, was struck by the fist energy spraying from a fissure. Instantly, she felt a searing Haki and high temperature spreading through her body, causing her to howl in agony towards the sky.
"Don't touch the hot air spraying from these fissures! It contains that guy's Haki!" Junzi urgently warned her companions: "This guy's Haki is unbelievably strong!!"
Chirringom looked around: "What are you saying? The range is too vast!"
"You damn speed bumps, your strength is nothing special, but your mouths run big!!" Rune channeled his third-layer liberation power into his fist, continuously pounding the head of Saint Garling, who was embedded in the ground before him.
Each of his punches now accelerated the sinking of this already precarious island beneath their feet.
Initially, after Rune unlocked the third layer of his body's limits, he could only maintain a burning state, allowing the liberated power to spread throughout his body.
Now he had mastered it completely. Whether it was muscle, nerves, or blood liberation, he could precisely control and use it in every part of his body, much like Haki.
This achieved the effect of slowing stamina consumption and drastically reducing energy expenditure.
"Garling!" Saint Mafi steadied herself and condensed a laser beam in her mouth, firing it at Rune: "Damn it, we must stop him! At this rate, even an immortal body will struggle to recover!"
The laser shot from her mouth directly towards Rune's side as he relentlessly pounded Garling with his "Explosive Fist."
As the laser approached, Rune snapped his head towards it, quickly stood up, and flames erupted all over his body in that instant.
Rune assumed a punching stance. His scorching flaming straight punch struck Saint Mafi's mouth from a distance. A massive Conqueror's Haki shockwave exploded from within her mouth, blowing her entire head apart.
Because it was Conqueror's Haki, even with their immortal bodies, the moment they were hit, their bodies would suffer excruciating pain, drastically slowing their recovery speed.
"Saint Mafi!" Seeing this, Chirringom shouted to her with a worried expression: "Hey, hey, hey! What on earth is going on! Why is he single-handedly crushing all six of us!"
Saint Chirringom, whose appearance was that of a long-necked Qilin, wore the Celestial Dragons' signature air-purifying helmet. His personality was rather lazy and humorous.
He was a Zoan-type, Mythical Beast, Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Qilin Form user,
capable of summoning creatures from others' nightmares and fears into reality.
Seeing his companions suppressed one after another, even his normally lazy self could no longer remain calm.
Saint Garling was down. Saint Somaz had been sent flying.
Junzi was restricted by Rune's Haki, and Saint Mafi's head was now shattered, showing no signs of recovery.
Chirringom watched as Rune slowly turned around, his entire body burning, and clenched his fists as he walked towards him. Fear welled up from the depths of his heart.
Who was the monster at this moment? This guy before them gave them no chance to even make a move, as if he knew their weaknesses, suppressing them with full Haki from the start.
Although they had been defeated once by Rocks earlier, depleting some of their strength, they shouldn't be in such a situation against anyone other than Rocks.
Rune clearly sensed his fear and lunged forward with force from his legs.
All the Haki surging from the surrounding ground gathered towards Rune's fist, condensing on his knuckles.
Panicked, Chirringom instinctively stepped back. Feeling the terrifying amount of Haki, he screamed in fear towards the sky: "Lord Imu!!"
"Conqueror's·Heart-Bursting Fist·Ashes!" The instant Rune closed in, he aimed at his heart and threw a punch.
Conqueror's Haki condensed to a single point at his fist tip, shattering Chirringom's physical defense.
The Haki and fist pressure impact instantly detonated within his heart.
"So painful...!" Chirringom cried out, blood violently spurting from his mouth. His chest and heart area were torn apart like molten fissures, instantly spreading throughout his body.
Rune observed his state. This single blow had forced him back to his original form, even his Mythical Beast Zoan form reverting to human shape.
Seeing his body hadn't exploded, Rune was inwardly shocked, forced to admit these guys' bodies were incredibly tough, just like their immortal physiques.
"Kill Roger?" After seeing Chirringom fall, Rune approached the kneeling Junzi: "With just you lot?"