At this moment, the unrestrained frost had begun to expand once more, slow yet relentless, impossible to halt… spreading from the main island of Enies Lobby toward the outer edge of the massive waterfall abyss.
"Planning to run away, Higanbana?!!!"
Zephyr roared, raising his pitch-black iron fist and tearing through the wind and snow.
"How could I~." Sakura bared her teeth in a grin. "I still haven't learned your Observation Haki techniques from you yet, Zephyr-sensei!"
"Bastard, I told you already, I have no such disgraceful disciple!"
Zephyr bellowed in fury, lifting both arms. His entire body was like steel, forcibly enduring the assault of extreme cold, while using his Future Sight Observation Haki to dodge Sakura's flurries of punches.
Breaking through the long distance, he raised his hand while charging wildly forward and threw a full-powered punch!
Bang!
The unavoidable fist struck Sakura's chin once again, plunging her vision into darkness.
However, amid the flesh-on-flesh collisions, Haki was being honed, gradually allowing her to vaguely grasp Zephyr's silhouette.
Sakura spat out a mouthful of blood, closed her eyes, and spread her Observation Haki across the icy plain.
Zephyr, having landed a hit, had no intention of letting this chance slip away. Geppo and Soru alternated in use, his figure flickering across the snowfield like a blurred shadow.
In the distance, Akainu, his Logia body increasingly eroded by the rampant frost and covered in multiple frostbite wounds, felt his consciousness gradually fading.
Yet even on the brink of death, his final conviction continued to sustain his life.
'Pirates. I still haven't wiped out all those damn pirates. How can I fall here!!!'
As his personal will weakened to the extreme, the will residing within the Devil Fruit began to gain the upper hand.
Even though a Logia Devil Fruit's will was not as fierce as that of a Zoan, when the user's body and mind could still endure its ravaging power, a body taken over by the fruit's will would gradually unleash its ability to twist nature itself in an unfathomable way.
"Haruno Sakura!!!"
Amid Akainu's grim roar, lava like flowing blood seeped out. A volcano, transformed into a natural disaster, spewed into the sky, turning midair into burning rain that blanketed the snowfield and eroded the land.
The unreasonable power of the fruit's awakening distorted nature, permanently altering Enies Lobby's environment.
Within this hell of rampaging magma, a colossal lava beast slowly unfurled its massive outline.
"So this guy wasn't supposed to be training your Haki?" Zephyr said, forcing a bitter smile as he looked at the monstrous head drooping in the distance.
Immediately after, he was pushed away by the steam erupting from the clash of magma and frost, sent flying toward the far end.
"Hell Hound!"
Completely fused with the magma, Akainu opened his mouth as the magma beast, infused with the corrosive properties granted by awakening, charged forward at high speed.
From the darkness, exposed fangs carved crimson trails through the air, and razor-sharp claws slashed down toward Sakura's neck.
The instant she sensed it, Sakura sharply frowned. A chill rose from her heart, and she retreated without hesitation.
But the magma before her pursued relentlessly, suddenly turning and plunging underground.
The entire land immediately began to radiate searing light. The massive canine head, now merged into one, burst through the ground, jaws wide open as it snapped at the air.
Crack!
The jaws clamped shut, swallowing Sakura whole in a single bite.
"Drown in magma just like that, Haruno Sakura!"
Akainu's body slowly emerged from within the lava beast. Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately turned his sights on the other members of the pirate crew.
"Oh no!!!"
Tiger, Kuina, and the others, who are already surrounded by several Vice Admirals and locked in bitter combat, felt the ominous aura through Observation Haki and turned back with grim expressions.
"Haruno Sakura is dead. Higanbana Pirates trash, your voyage ends here. Meteor Volcano!"
Akainu raised both hands. The ground beneath him turned to magma, lifting hill-sized giant fists, which were then launched skyward by volcanic eruptions, transforming into burning meteors.
"This is bad!" Tiger's pupils trembled as massive Water Release Chakra gathered around his arms in preparation.
Kuina fearlessly raised her long blade, lightning flickering. "Bullshit! Sakura-nee would never lose to someone like you!"
"Ya-ha-ha-ha! If that woman's dead, does that mean we can disband?" Enel spun an iron pipe he'd found somewhere, slinging it over his shoulder.
Tiger and Kuina turned their heads at the same time and roared, "Shut up!"
Watching the noisy pirate crew, Akainu increased his output, as if he meant to drown the entire world in a torrent of magma.
"Hmph. Believe it or not, the facts remain the same!"
With the coat of justice fluttering behind him, he snorted and lit a cigar.
"Oh? I heard you're spreading rumors that I'm dead?"
A crisp voice rang out from the sky. Everyone looked up to see a white-haired girl riding atop a gigantic black bird.
"Haruno Sakura, you-"
Akainu's pupils contracted as he subconsciously looked toward the beast head that had already solidified into obsidian.
In that brief instant, his Observation Haki had indeed sensed her life presence vanish.
'But then why…'
Sensing Akainu's confusion through Observation Haki, Sakura smiled and explained, "Hahaha, Wood Clone. Pretty amazing, right~"
"Playing tricks. Since you're not dead, then just watch your companions get swallowed by magma!"
The awakened fruit power emitted invisible waves, causing the descending magma giant fists to grow ever hotter, even igniting flames across their surfaces.
"No one will die here today… and you will all meet defeat!"
The snowy white hue on Sakura faded as she coldly declared her will to the assembled Marines.
She raised Kumotsuna high. The Odo Odo no Mi heated the gases, colliding and ionizing them, causing dark clouds to erupt from the sword hilt and surge into the sky, linking with the colossal storm clouds covering the entire island.
In the endless blue waves and sea winds, black lightning streaked across the clouds, thunder roaring loud enough to shake heaven and earth.
"Fall… Myriad Thunder!"
Dark lightning surged and converged into a single flash, vanishing in an instant…
Accompanied by an unprecedented, violent roar, lightning connected sky and land, covering everything and enveloping all existence.
The power of hundreds of massive thunderbursts continued to escalate, bombarding the main island of Enies Lobby indiscriminately.
Whether it was the magma Akainu had launched into the sky or the falling lava meteors, all were shattered and dispersed under the thunder.
"Hahahahaha! Yes, this is it… this is exactly what I wanted!" Enel threw his arms open toward the sky, laughing hysterically.
The next second, a bolt of dark lightning struck his head, slamming him into the ground and knocking him unconscious.
Seeing this, Kuina's mouth fell open. "How can this be? Isn't that arrogant guy a lightning man?"
"Armament Haki… There's Armament Haki mixed into the lightning…" Tiger swallowed hard, his voice turning hoarse.
On the other side, unlike the Higanbana Pirates calmly admiring the falling lightning, the Marines both on and around the island were pale as death.
A black sea of lightning blotted out the sky. Lightning carrying Armament Haki, guided by Observation Haki, struck with meter-level precision.
Not only were the Marine officers on the island overwhelmed by the relentless lightning, but more than half of the twenty-plus warships encircling Enies Lobby were damaged or destroyed in a single round.
"Imbuing Armament Haki into lightning that covers an entire island… This is… this is insane!"
Akainu let out another unwilling roar, condensing a magma giant and launching himself ferociously at the girl in the sky.
But in the next instant, countless violent prismatic lights intertwined, effortlessly tearing through the magma and completely engulfing his figure.
On the main island of Enies Lobby, ground already scorched by the Buster Call bombardment was trampled further by lightning into glowing, cracked fissures.
One blazing flash descended, then another, a third, a fourth, a fifth…
Amid earth-shaking tremors, a clear cracking sound suddenly echoed from the island's foundation below.
"Crap, I overdid it!"
Sakura glanced down at the island beginning to collapse and pulled back Kumotsuna, withdrawing her hand.
Without her control and Observation Haki guidance, the storm clouds overhead began to riot, and the lightning strikes turned chaotic, no longer able to distinguish friend from foe.
Patting Leviathan beneath her, the Night Sparrow, linked to Sakura's will, beat its wings and dove toward Tiger and the others, swallowing them into its belly in one gulp.
"Damn it, don't leave!!!"
Several Vice Admirals, filled with hostility, even abandoned their defenses, struggling to keep them from escaping.
Standing atop Leviathan, the girl raised Kumotsuna, now transformed into a gigantic axe.
Filled with malice and ferocity, she bade them farewell.
[Eighty Tribal Leaders!]
"Haruno Sakura!!!"
Black eyes locked onto the girl's face as an iron fist smashed forward to meet the descending axe.
The former Marine Admiral, Zephyr, had caught up in pursuit.