On the other side of the battlefield, Erza stood clad in her Armadura Fairy armor. She held her sword with both hands, feet planted firmly into the shattered ground beneath her. The air around the blade twisted unnaturally, as if space itself were bending away from its presence. Slowly, the sword began to glow red, the light pulsing with raw killing intent, heat rippling outward in silent waves.
Opposite her, Raiga Kurosuchi was also preparing his strongest attack—the most devastating ninjutsu in his arsenal: Lightning Dragon Tornado. Chakra surged violently around him as thunder roared. A massive dragon, formed of raging lightning entwined with a spiralling tornado, coiled into existence behind him, its deafening howl tearing through the battlefield.
Finally, when Erza had fully charged her sword with chakra and Raiga's colossal dragon had completely taken shape, they both moved at the same time.
Their attacks collided at a single point.
A blinding flash erupted, followed by a devastating shockwave that tore through the battlefield, flattening everything in its path. The ground split apart, debris launching into the air as if gravity itself had been momentarily erased.
When the intense light from the collision finally faded, Erza's armor showed several cracks running across its surface. However, they were not the result of Raiga's Lightning Dragon Tornado. Instead, they had formed from the sheer recoil of unleashing her own sword attack—power so immense that even her armor struggled to contain it.
Despite that, Erza herself stood completely unharmed. Not a single wound marked her body. Her hair was slightly dishevelled, and her armor looked rough and worn from the cracks, but her stance remained steady and unshaken. That was within expectations, she thought calmly.
On the other hand, Raiga was in far worse condition.
His body was battered and broken, blood flowing from multiple injuries as he lay at the center of a massive crater carved into the ground. The surrounding terrain had been utterly pulverized. It was clear from the devastation that Erza's attack had not been a simple sword slash—it was a heavily charged blow, one that struck with overwhelming force, more like a colossal hammer crashing down than a sharp blade cutting through.
Raiga slowly lifted his head and looked toward Erza, his vision fading. With a weak, strained voice, he said, "You have become far more stronger than before."
Erza nodded silently in response, acknowledging his words without pride or regret.
Moments later, Raiga's body fell limp against the shattered ground. He was dead.
Erza stood alone on the battlefield.
She had won her battle.
…
On the other hand, Mereoleona was locked in battle against numerous Jonins who had surrounded her from all sides. She was using her technique, Mana Zone, expanding her presence outward as she created a vast area of control around herself. By drawing in natural chakra from the surroundings, she seized command of the space itself—not just across the flat earth beneath her feet, but in a full spherical radius that enveloped everything around her.
The chakra she gathered from the environment flowed relentlessly into her body, amplifying her power to terrifying levels. Every fire wave she unleashed from her fists burned far hotter and struck far harder than her normal attacks, each blow exploding with overwhelming force. The air screamed as flames erupted again and again, filling the battlefield with heat and pressure.
This was a very basic application of Sage Mode—though Mereoleona herself was not in Sage Mode at all. Instead, she was controlling the chakra outside her body, forcibly bending natural chakra to her will and using it to boost her output. By manipulating that external energy, she had formed a Mana Zone around herself, something that functioned like a domain. Within this space, her attacks could manifest from anywhere and strike anywhere inside its range, without warning.
If Jiraiya, or any knowledgeable toad from Mount Myoboku, had witnessed this scene, they would have immediately recognized it as a new and unconventional application of natural chakra. Mereoleona was not harmonizing with it in the traditional sense—she was dominating it.
(A/N: After reading about how Mana Zone works, I felt that it functions somewhat like Sage Mode in the Naruto world, so I am using the concept of Mana Zone as a pseudo–Sage Mode.)
Her physical strength, her firepower, her overall combat output—everything had been massively increased within the Mana Zone she had created. And because this space functioned like a domain, the Jonins trapped inside it were technically incapable of predicting where the next attack would come from. Flames erupted from blind spots, shockwaves slammed into them from impossible angles, and fire beams appeared where no one expected them.
Not that it truly mattered.
Mereoleona was far, far stronger than any of them.
One after another, the Jonins were overwhelmed, their defences shattered almost instantly. Each clash ended the same way—with bodies sent flying, scorched and broken, utterly destroyed by her relentless assault. Within her Mana Zone, there was no escape, no counter, and no mercy.
…
On a different battlefront, Gildarts sat quietly amid the aftermath of his fight. None of his opponents were still alive. Only severed and crushed body parts lay scattered across the ground—grim evidence of his Crush Magic at work. He rested there without urgency, breathing evenly, as if the battle had barely required any effort from him.
On another battlefield, Renji was engaged against three Jonins—and he was completely dominating them. He was currently fighting in his Shikai form. He could activate Bankai at any moment, but against these Jonins, he felt no need to go that far. They were not worthy of forcing him to use Bankai, nor was the situation dire enough to demand it.
Once these three Jonins were dealt with, Renji would be left without a single opponent. And even now, the fight was already decided. Among the three Jonins, two were severely injured, their movements sluggish and unsteady. They would die with Renji's very next strike.
His sword, capable of contracting and retracting like a whip, lashed through the air unpredictably. The jonins struggled desperately to track its trajectory, and even when they managed to anticipate its path, it made little difference. The sheer strength behind Renji's strikes was overwhelming. Each time they attempted to parry, the impact sent pain tearing through their arms, their defences buckling under the force as they were driven back again and again. This is pointless, one of them realized in silent despair.
Elsewhere, Makima sat casually atop one of the enemy ships, her posture relaxed as if she were merely observing from a distance. Her opponents had already been taken care of by her summons, leaving no immediate threats nearby. Her primary role in the battle now was observation—keeping a close watch on the forces of Kumogakure and Kirigakure, monitoring their movements. If any units from either village attempted to retreat or flee from any direction, she would immediately relay that information to the other Uzumaki siblings.
Multiple crows and various other birds circled high in the sky, their sharp eyes surveying every corner of the battlefield. From where she sat, Makima calmly shared their vision, seeing everything they saw as if she herself were everywhere at once. Whenever any of her summons noticed something unusual—a sudden movement, a retreat, or an irregular formation—they immediately relayed the information to her through the mental connection binding them together. Nothing escaped her awareness.
On another battlefront, Todoroki had frozen a vast portion of the sea solid. The ice spread endlessly across the water's surface, locking everything beneath it in place. The Kumogakure and Kirigakure ninjas who had fallen unconscious into the sea earlier—overwhelmed by the effects of Shanks's Conqueror's Haki—were now trapped within the ice. Frozen alive, they would inevitably die if left like that for too long.
And they would be left like that.
Todoroki had no intention of freeing them. Why should I? he thought coldly.
As for the remaining ninjas stationed on distant vessels, Todoroki turned his attention to them next. Activating Flashfire Fist, he thrust his arm forward, releasing a devastating beam of fire from his fist. The attack tore through the ships with ease, metal melting and splintering apart as flames engulfed everything in their path. Screams were swallowed by the roar of fire as both ships and ninjas were reduced to burning wreckage.
With this brutal display of overwhelming strength and unrelenting cruelty, the Uzumaki made their stance unmistakably clear. They were in no mood for surrender, negotiation, or acceptance of any kind. This was a slaughter.
They were on a killing spree—and they would continue killing until every last ninja from Kumogakure and Kirigakure was dead.