Chapter 43: The Unbreakable Fortress vs. The Piercing Light!
The battle aboard the sinking Saint Noros had transcended the realm of mortal combat. It had turned into a clash of myths, a collision between the physical laws of this world and an anomaly from another.
High above the wreckage, Admiral Kizaru hovered in the air, defying gravity with the ease of a balloon. His hands were tucked nonchalantly into the pockets of his yellow striped suit, his white Marine coat fluttering in the chaotic winds generated by his own power.
Behind his amber-tinted sunglasses, his eyes were fixed downward on the gaping, smoking crater he had just created in the deck.
It was a scene of absolute devastation. The kick, delivered at the speed of light, had pulverized the multi-layered hardwood, melted the gold plating, and snapped the ship's heavy keel like a dry twig. Smoke, ash, and pulverized wood chips billowed out from the abyss, obscuring the view. The ship groaned, a dying leviathan listing heavily to the port side as seawater rushed into its belly.
"Oh~ Is she finished...?"
Kizaru drawled the words, letting them hang in the air. His tone was light, almost bored, but his Observation Haki was screaming.
He knew better than to underestimate a pirate who possessed Conqueror's Haki. Anyone with the disposition of a King was troublesome by nature. But still... a direct hit from a light-speed kick? Even a Ancient Zoan user would have shattered bones. Even a master of Tekkai would be coughing up pieces of their lungs.
The smoke swirled.
CRUNCH.
A sound echoed from the darkness of the hole. It wasn't the sound of a body collapsing. It was the sound of something hard crushing wood.
Kizaru's eyebrows raised slightly.
From the edge of the smoking crater, a hand reached out. It wasn't a human hand. It was a gauntlet clad in pitch-black, segmented armor that seemed to absorb the sunlight. The metal fingers dug deep into the splintered remnants of the deck, crushing the solid oak as if it were Styrofoam.
With a fluid, terrifying grace, a figure leaped out of the abyss.
THUD.
Albedo landed steadily on a large piece of tilting wreckage. She didn't stagger. She didn't pant. She stood tall, an immovable object in a crumbling world.
Her appearance had changed completely.
Gone was the elegant white dress. In its place was her True Form's battle gear: Hermes Trismegistus.
It was a full suit of streamlined, abyssal armor that covered her entire body. The metal was unlike anything found in the Grand Line—darker than Seastone, smoother than steel, and radiating a pulsating, ominous aura. It gleamed with a cold luster under the sun, pristine and terrifying.
There wasn't a scratch on it. Not a dent. Not even a smudge of soot from the explosion.
Albedo casually shook her arm, brushing off invisible dust, as if she had merely walked through a spiderweb rather than taken a nuclear-level kick.
Through the narrow slit of her helmet, glowing golden vertical pupils locked onto Kizaru. They didn't hold fear. They burned with an offended rage so potent it felt like physical heat.
"Eh..."
For the first time since arriving, Kizaru's carefree mask slipped. A drop of sweat formed on his temple.
"She actually wasn't finished off? That's... quite unexpected."
He ran the calculations in his head. Impact force, velocity, heat... she took zero damage. Is that armor made of Diamond? No, even Jozu would have been knocked back.
"You truly are an impudent bug!"
Albedo's voice boomed, distorted slightly by her helmet, sounding deeper, metallic, and infinitely more menacing.
"Touching a maiden's body with such dirty feet... damaging the deck my Lord is standing on... Death is too good for you. I will peel the skin from your bones!"
Kizaru sighed, adjusting his sunglasses.
"Scary, scary~. But threats won't stop me."
He raised a single finger, pointing it at the armored valkyrie.
"If one kick didn't work, I wonder... what is the limit? Let's test the melting point of that pretty armor, shall we?"
BZZZT!
A blinding light gathered at his fingertip.
PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!
A barrage of laser beams erupted from his finger. They weren't just bullets; they were concentrated plasma, hot enough to melt steel instantly. They rained down like a golden storm, turning the air into a scorching oven.
Albedo didn't dodge. She didn't even raise her axe to block.
She simply stood there, chest out, welcoming the storm.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-HISSS!
Sparks flew like fireworks as the lasers impacted her armor. The sound was deafening, a cacophony of metal on energy. Smoke enveloped her again.
Kizaru didn't stop. He fired for ten full seconds, unleashing enough firepower to sink a battleship fleet.
"Hmm?"
Kizaru stopped firing, smoke drifting from his finger.
As the steam cleared, Albedo remained standing in the exact same spot. The armor was glowing slightly red from the friction heat, but it cooled down in seconds, returning to its abyss-black color.
Still completely unscathed.
"Is her defense absolute?" Kizaru muttered, his mind racing. "Taking so many consecutive attacks without a scratch... Is this a Devil Fruit ability? The Armor-Armor Fruit? Or perhaps some kind of ancient, lost Tekkai technique?"
He had fought Kaido. He had fought Whitebeard. He knew what toughness looked like. But this... this was unnatural. It was as if the concept of "damage" didn't apply to her.
"Hmph."
Albedo scoffed, the sound echoing inside her helmet.
"Are you done with your light show, bug? It tickles."
"Bugs should stop chattering endlessly!" she roared. "Though, I suppose you are a relatively annoying bug!"
BOOM!
The wreckage beneath her feet shattered into dust. Albedo launched herself into the air like a ballistic missile. Her black wings, hidden beneath the armor plating, spread out, propelling her forward with terrifying acceleration.
She shot straight toward Kizaru, her massive battle-axe—the World Item 3F—raised high. The green aura around the axe screamed of destruction.
"Too slow~"
Kizaru prepared to elementalize. In his mind, she was just a brute. A tank. Tanks were slow.
He prepared to shift his body into photons and dodge sideways.
But to his surprise, Albedo didn't fly in a straight line.
Mid-air, she twisted her wings. She traced a smooth, unnatural arc, changing trajectory with a G-force that would liquidate a normal human. She pursued him like a heat-seeking missile locked onto a target.
"Oh? Flight capability with high maneuverability?" Kizaru noted, genuinely impressed. "That's certainly convenient~"
Just as the axe swung down to cleave him in two, Kizaru dissolved.
Fwoosh.
His body scattered into millions of photons. The axe blade passed through empty air, slicing only the afterimage.
He reformed fifty meters away, hovering higher in the sky. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, his fingers forming a circle.
"You are tough, Miss. But can you defend against everything at once?"
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Countless orbs of light formed in the sky behind him. It looked like a star cluster had descended.
"Rain down."
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Thousands of light bullets poured down from the sky. It was a carpet bombing of pure energy. The ocean boiled. The remaining wreckage of the Saint Noros was vaporized. The area was turned into a blinding white hell.
Albedo was swallowed by the explosions.
Kizaru watched intently. He wasn't just attacking; he was analyzing data. Does she have a breath limit? Does the armor have joints? Does heat transfer through the metal?
But when the sea breeze cleared the massive cloud of smoke, his eyes widened behind his shades.
Albedo was hovering in mid-air, her black wings spread wide to stabilize herself.
The armor was still intact. Not a single scratch. Not a burn mark.
"Oh~" Kizaru clicked his tongue, a rare sign of frustration. "What a troublesome ability. Even a full-scale bombardment had no effect? Is she made of Sea Prism Stone? Or is she just invincible?"
Albedo didn't give him time to think. She accelerated, her silhouette turning into a black blur against the sun.
"I'm getting tired of your flashing lights!"
She slashed horizontally, the axe creating a vacuum blade.
"Scary, but you can't catch light," Kizaru said, his body dematerializing into particles again to flow around the attack.
But this time, Albedo anticipated it.
As Kizaru's particles began to reform to her left—his habitual blind spot—Albedo twisted her body with supernatural agility.
She didn't rely on sight. She relied on the primitive, bloodthirsty instinct of a demon.
There you are.
Her axe, coated heavily in Armament Haki, swept backward in a blind, backhand strike.
"Got you."
CLANG—!
The flat of the axe connected with Kizaru's reforming arm.
"Oh?!"
Kizaru's eyes bulged. He hadn't fully solidified yet, but her Haki forced him into solidity.
A shockwave exploded. The immense physical force—a strength stat of 100 from YGGDRASIL—sent the Admiral flying backward like a ragdoll.
He crashed through the main mast of the sinking ship, splintering the wood into toothpicks, before stabilizing himself in mid-air with a burst of light.
He looked at his arm. His yellow suit sleeve was torn. There was a faint red bruise forming on his skin.
"Heh..." Kizaru chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "Not only is her defense astonishing, but her strength is monstrous. To knock an Admiral back with brute force..."
He flexed his hand.
"And that prediction just now... Advanced Observation Haki? Or just animal instinct?"
"The death throes of a bug are somewhat entertaining," Albedo taunted, spinning her massive axe effortlessly in one hand. "But playtime is over. My Lord is waiting."
"I've been underestimated..." Kizaru rubbed his wrist. "It seems I can't just play around anymore."
FLASH!
Kizaru vanished completely.
He began moving at ultra-high speed around Albedo. He moved so fast he created a cage of afterimages—a sphere of golden light surrounding the black knight.
"Ama no Murakumo (Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven)."
A longsword made of pure, concentrated light materialized in his hands. It hummed with cutting power.
He attacked from all directions simultaneously!
CLINK! CLANG! CLASH!
The sound of metal clashing with light rang out like a frantic church bell.
Albedo hovered in the center of the storm, spinning and parrying with impossible precision. Her axe was a blur, a shield of steel and Haki.
Kizaru was testing for gaps. He was a surgeon of light.
Slash to the knee joint—Blocked.
Thrust to the visor—Parried.
Sweep to the wings—Dodged.
He attacked from above, below, behind.
But the armor was seamless. It was a Divine Item, crafted by the Supreme Beings. It had no weaknesses exploitable by mere physics.
"Tch," Kizaru thought, his speed increasing to the point where time seemed to dilate. "Even a Haki-imbued light sword struggles to cut this metal? What on earth is it made of? It's harder than Poneglyphs!"
Suddenly, he found it.
A micro-second opening.
As Albedo swung her axe wide to deflect a feint, her back was exposed. Specifically, the joint at the base of her neck, where the helmet met the pauldrons.
"Checkmate."
Kizaru materialized directly behind her. He thrust the Ama no Murakumo forward with lethal precision, aiming to pierce her spinal cord.
But just before the blade connected...
Albedo didn't turn. She didn't panic.
CLICK.
A hidden mechanism in her left gauntlet activated.
It was a dirty trick. A trap laid for exactly this moment.
Several sharp, black spikes—coated in a paralytic poison from the New World—shot out from her left elbow like the stingers of a scorpion!
They intercepted the light sword, parrying it aside with a screech of metal, and continued forward—aiming directly for Kizaru's face!
"Whoa!"
Kizaru jerked his head back, his reflexes pushed to the absolute limit.
The spikes missed his eyes by millimeters, slicing through his sunglasses. The amber lenses shattered, falling into the ocean below.
He retreated instantly, turning into a beam of light to put distance between them.
He floated there, blinking. A drop of sweat rolled down his temple. A thin line of blood appeared on his cheek where the wind pressure of the spike had cut him.
"Hidden weapons too?" Kizaru sighed, touching the cut on his cheek. "Madam... you are full of dangerous surprises. You fight like a pirate, not a knight."
Albedo retracted the spikes with a mechanical hiss. She turned to face him, her stance unshaken, her aura darker than ever.
"I am the Guardian Overseer," she declared, her voice cold as the grave. "I do not fight for honor. I fight for victory."
She raised her axe again.
"My defense is absolute. You cannot scratch me, Admiral. But remember..."
Her golden eyes glowed.
"...I only need to hit you once."
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