Akainu gripped the seemingly ordinary Asauchi with both hands. The blade was dull, lacking any metallic luster or visible flames. It looked like nothing more than a piece of charred scrap iron.
Yet, the surrounding environment instantly underwent a catastrophic transformation. Namek's vibrant green sky warped and distorted. Every drop of moisture in the air was violently sucked dry in a fraction of a second. The rocky terrain beneath them completely bypassed the melting phase, sublimating directly into an invisible, superheated gas.
A massive, hemispherical crater rapidly expanded outward, perfectly centered on Akainu. The very earth beneath his feet had been erased, leaving him suspended in mid-air above a void of nothingness.
Down in his crater, Doflamingo gasped for air, feeling as though his lungs had been set on fire. The ambient temperature of the oxygen was absurdly high, severely scalding his trachea. Panic-stricken, he pushed the last dregs of his Cursed Energy to coat his entire body, struggling to hold back the pervasive, omnidirectional heat.
The dungeon Blake had sent them to was pure hell. Every random native they encountered possessed the power to beat him half to death. Now, even the Marine Admiral was pulling out weapons that defied all reason.
Standing thirty meters away, Goku noticed his signature orange gi beginning to smoke. The edges of the fabric were already carbonizing. He immediately flared his Ki to form a protective barrier over his skin. The crimson Kaio-ken aura clashed violently with the oppressive external heat, creating a relentless barrage of crackling pops in the air as the two highly dense energies crushed against each other.
"Your sword is really weird," Goku commented. "There's no fire on it, but it's tens of thousands of times hotter than regular fire. It's making my skin sting."
Akainu raised Zanka no Tachi. "This is the temperature of Absolute Justice," he declared. "Fifteen million degrees. More than enough to erase a clueless native like you from the universe entirely."
"Zanka no Tachi, East: Kyokujitsujin."
Without wasting another breath, Akainu swung the blade directly at Goku. The slash wasn't particularly fast, but as the edge cleaved through the air, it carved out a pure vacuum. An invisible, hyper-temperature arc of destruction tore straight toward the Saiyan.
Goku's instincts blared like a siren. Before his conscious mind could even process a tactical decision, his body reacted.
Pushing off the ground with explosive force, Goku lunged a dozen meters to his right. The invisible slash grazed past his left arm, continuing its path into the sprawling mountain range behind him. There was no explosion. No sound of impact. Just an enormous, yawning gap that abruptly appeared through thousands of meters of solid rock. The stone had simply vanished, leaving behind a smooth, flat cross-section. The path of destruction extended all the way to the horizon, vaporizing all matter it touched.
Goku glanced down at his left arm. The sleeve of his gi was gone, and a severe, blistering burn marred his skin. It had only grazed him. Had he taken that hit head-on, he knew his body would have been bisected and instantly carbonized.
"What an awesome move!" Goku laughed, his eyes wide with adrenaline. "You're way stronger than that guy in the pink! This is getting me completely fired up!"
He clenched his fists, feeling his Saiyan blood boiling through his veins. The genetic thrill of facing a vastly superior opponent had fully awakened.
"Tenfold Kaio-ken isn't going to cut it... so let's push it a little further. KAIO-KEN TIMES FIFTEEN!"
With a deafening battle cry, the red aura surrounding Goku skyrocketed, towering dozens of meters into the air. The sheer density of his expanding Ki forcefully pushed back the crushing heat. The ground beneath him shattered as he launched himself forward, transforming into a streak of crimson lightning. His speed had more than doubled.
Akainu's Observation Haki flared, successfully locking onto Goku's erratic trajectory.
"Fast," Akainu noted coldly. "But utterly pointless."
He reversed his grip and swept Zanka no Tachi horizontally. The catastrophic heat formed an impenetrable wall of death. Refusing to slow down, Goku pulled his right fist back, heavily compressing his blue Ki.
"Take this!"
He drove his fist directly toward the flat of the charred blade. The collision between his highly compressed Ki and the sword's absolute heat ignited the canyon in a blinding flash of red and blue.
A horrifying shockwave ripped outward. In his crater, Doflamingo was violently swept up by the gale, tumbling dozens of times through the air before slamming brutally into the dirt. He vomited another mouthful of blood and organ fragments. The clash between these two monsters was on a scale he wasn't even qualified to watch.
Goku's fist never made direct physical contact with the blade; a dense membrane of Ki served as a buffer. Yet, the heat of Zanka no Tachi was so oppressive that his protective layer was rapidly thinning, sending searing waves of agony up his arm.
Refusing to retreat, Goku morphed his left hand into a knife-edge and chopped viciously at the side of Akainu's neck. Akainu raised his left arm to block. It had already morphed into flowing, dark red magma coated with Armament Haki.
When Goku's strike connected, magma splashed in all directions. The sheer, terrifying physical force of the blow cracked Akainu's Haki defense. The Admiral grunted in pain, feeling as though he had been hit by a tidal wave. The physical resilience of this native was entirely beyond his comprehension.
Forcing his advantage, Akainu pushed forward with Zanka no Tachi, utilizing the heat to force Goku back. Goku executed a rapid series of backflips, landing cleanly on a protruding spire of rock. He shook out his severely burned right hand, the manic grin on his face only growing wider.
"Again!" Goku shouted, launching himself back into the fray.
This time, he didn't opt for a head-on collision. Utilizing his overwhelming speed advantage, Goku began moving erratically around Akainu, leaving a dome of afterimages in his wake. Every single afterimage fired off a barrage of rapid Ki blasts, raining hundreds of blue energy spheres down on the Admiral from all directions.
Akainu stood his ground, planting his feet firmly as he gripped his sword with both hands.
"Zanka no Tachi, West: Zanjitsu Gokui."
A localized aura of fifteen million degrees cloaked Akainu's body, transforming him into a blinding, miniature sun. The moment the incoming Ki blasts breached a one-meter radius around him, they were instantly vaporized by the sheer heat. They didn't even have a chance to detonate. It was an absolute, flawless defense.
Goku halted his high-speed assault, staring intently at the blazing avatar of destruction.
Ki blasts won't work, Goku analyzed. I have to break through that defense with a physical strike.
His breathing was growing ragged. Sustaining the Kaio-ken Times Fifteen was placing a horrific burden on his body. Yet, his fighting spirit only continued to soar. Pushed to the absolute brink, his Saiyan biology kicked into overdrive. Muscle fibers tore, only to be instantly repaired and fortified by his surging Ki, becoming vastly stronger in the process. He was rapidly adapting to the immense pressure of the technique.
Goku's power was climbing mid-battle, a fact that did not escape Akainu's Observation Haki. The spiky-haired native's aura wasn't dropping despite his injuries—it was expanding exponentially. It defied every known biological law.
Akainu decided to end it right then and there. He couldn't afford to let this freak evolve any further. He raised Zanka no Tachi high above his head, the tip pointing straight at the heavens. The residual heat punched a massive hole through Namek's atmosphere, revealing the cold starlight of the cosmos above.
"Zanka no Tachi, North: Tenchi Kaijin."
----
Support this fanfict by leaving Positive Review, Comments, and Power Stones.
For Advance Chapters:
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations