Chapter 39: The Speed of Light vs. The Shield of the Abyss!
The golden light didn't just appear; it invaded the very fabric of reality.
One moment, the sky above the entrance to the Grand Line was a pristine canvas of azure, dotted with fluffy white clouds drifting lazily in the trade winds. The seagulls cried overhead, and the scent of salt was fresh in the air.
The next moment, a blinding luminescence erupted from the horizon. It wasn't gradual. It was instantaneous. Shadows were erased. Colors were washed out into stark white. The contours of the ship, the waves, and the people on deck were flattened by a brilliance that rivaled the sun at its zenith. It was a light so intense it forced every living soul on the deck of the Saint Noros and the Vermillion Wing to squeeze their eyes shut in sudden, searing pain.
It wasn't natural light. It was dense, heavy, and carried the crushing weight of absolute authority. It felt like judgment day.
Seeing the golden particles rapidly condensing into a human silhouette mid-air, Albedo moved before her conscious mind could even process the threat.
It was pure instinct—the programmed loyalty of a Guardian Overseer coded into her very soul by the Supreme Beings of Nazarick. Her threat assessment algorithms, honed in the digital fires of YGGDRASIL, screamed a single warning:
Warning: Entity Detected. Energy Signature: Infinite. Threat Level: Catastrophic. Priority: Protect the Supreme One.
Swoosh!
She vanished from her position near the railing. The air cracked where she had stood, a vacuum left in her wake. She reappeared instantly in front of Suzaku, her back to him, her body becoming a living wall between her Master and the incoming deity.
Although the figure forming from the light appeared relaxed—slouching posture, hands casually tucked in the pockets of a yellow striped suit, a bored expression—the sheer density of the presence he emitted was suffocating.
It felt as if gravity itself had doubled in the vicinity. The air grew heavy and hard to breathe. The seagulls stopped crying. The waves seemed to hesitate.
This was no ordinary marine. This was the pinnacle of the World Government's military might. A living force of nature.
"An Admiral..." Albedo whispered, her golden eyes narrowing into dangerous slits behind her visor. Her lip curled in disgust. "A creature of light."
She recognized the danger immediately. In YGGDRASIL, light-based attacks were often Holy-attribute, which dealt extra damage to heteromorphic races like herself. She could not take chances.
CLANG—!
A crisp, heavy mechanical sound echoed across the ship, drowning out the screams of the dying Celestial Dragon. Albedo didn't hold back. She activated her trump card instantly.
Darkness erupted from her skin like a geyser of ink, swallowing her elegant white dress. In milliseconds, the fabric was replaced by divine metal. She was encased in a full suit of streamlined, pitch-black armor.
It was Hermes Trismegistus—her Divine Class Item.
The metal absorbed the surrounding light, emitting an ominous, abyssal aura that screamed of impregnable defense. It was a fortress in the shape of a woman. The armor plates shifted and locked into place with the sound of heavy machinery. Three layers of magical barriers deployed invisibly around her.
Relying on this armor, which had withstood the assaults of World Enemies and the magic of Super-Tier Spells, she stood firm, ready to reject any sharpness this primitive world dared to offer.
Simultaneously, Rem moved.
"Kiyo-san!"
Rem rushed toward the main mast like a gust of wind. Her target was the stunned girl holding the bloodied knife.
Kiyo was frozen, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at the man made of light hovering above them. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably, the knife clattering against her leg. She was a civilian; the pressure of an Admiral's Haki alone was enough to stop her heart. Her brain had shut down, unable to process the sudden appearance of a "god."
Rem's mission was clear: Evacuate the non-combatants. The battlefield of monsters was no place for a human.
"Hold on!"
Rem grabbed Kiyo around the waist, lifting the girl effortlessly. She kicked off the deck, retreating toward the safer side of the ship, putting distance between the fragile civilian and the epicenter of the coming storm.
Finally, the golden particles settled.
A tall man stood on the deck, looking completely out of place amidst the blood and ruin. He wore a yellow striped suit that clashed horribly with his purple tie, and a white Marine Justice coat draped over his shoulders like a cape. He was dusting off invisible specks of light from his shoulder.
"He arrived quite fast," Suzaku commented, his voice calm but his muscles coiled like springs.
He stepped up beside Albedo, golden flames licking at his fingertips. The heat from his body distorted the air, creating a shimmering barrier against the Admiral's pressure.
"So it was Kizaru who drew the short straw. As expected of the Glint-Glint Fruit (Pika Pika no Mi) user, his speed is even faster than the rumors suggest."
The Admiral's signature lazy expression and sleazy demeanor were exactly as Suzaku remembered from the anime, but seeing it in person was a different experience entirely.
The "laziness" was a mask for absolute confidence. It was the boredom of a man who had never been truly challenged, a man who viewed the world in slow motion. To him, everyone else was moving through molasses.
"Oh my~"
Kizaru tilted his head, the sunlight glinting off his amber sunglasses. He looked at Suzaku with mild curiosity, ignoring the armored knight in front of him as if she were merely scenery.
"The young man actually knows me? That's quite an honor."
He glanced around the deck, taking in the unconscious CP0 agents, the shattered observation dome, and the bleeding Celestial Dragon tied to the mast.
"And quite a mess you've made here. Sakazuki is going to be very upset about the paperwork."
ZZZT!
The sound of electricity crackling cut through the air. It was the sound of photons accelerating to the universal limit.
Before his sentence even finished, Kizaru vanished.
He didn't run; he dissolved into a beam of light. He bypassed Albedo and Suzaku entirely, moving faster than their retinas could track.
His target wasn't the Captain. It wasn't the Tank.
It was the girl who had stabbed the Noble.
"This is truly troublesome," Kizaru's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere, vibrating in their eardrums like a hallucination. "Attacking a World Noble cannot just be overlooked, you know~!"
FLASH!
He rematerialized right next to the main mast, towering over the terrified Kiyo whom Rem was trying to shield.
His leg was already raised. It glowed with the brilliance of a miniature sun. The photons gathered at his heel, compressing mass and energy into a singularity of destruction. The heat coming off his foot warped the air, turning moisture into steam instantly.
"Watch out!" Rem screamed, her hand outstretched, but she was still five meters away. Even in her Demon Form, she couldn't outrace light.
Kiyo's vision blurred. The world turned white. The aura of death descended upon her like a guillotine.
But just as the kick of light was about to vaporize her—
"Not on my watch."
HOOO—!
A torrent of gold and crimson flames erupted from thin air!
The fire didn't just burn; it roared like a beast. It was a wall of plasma, hotter than magma.
Suzaku materialized between Kizaru and Kiyo. He had used his own Mythical Zoan speed, boosted by Observation Haki precognition to predict the Admiral's target. His body was shrouded in the Vermillion Bird's Flames, acting as a divine shield.
BAM!
Suzaku's flaming palm caught Kizaru's light-speed kick.
The collision of Light and Fire created a shockwave that distorted the atmosphere.
BOOM!
The sound barrier shattered.
The heat was intense enough to warp the air, creating a mirage effect that rippled across the deck like water. The solid oak wood beneath them instantly turned to charcoal, vaporized by the residual energy.
"Go!" Suzaku roared over the sound of the clash, his muscles straining against the Admiral's immense force.
The brief stalemate bought the necessary second. Rem dove in, grabbing Kiyo's arm and pulling her away from the blast zone.
"Run!" Rem shouted, dragging the girl toward the railing where the Vermillion Wing was waiting.
Having missed his execution, Kizaru didn't seem annoyed. He retracted his leg, floating back a few meters. He looked at the burn mark on his yellow pants with mild interest.
"Oh?" Kizaru raised an eyebrow behind his shades. "Flames that can touch light? Scary, scary~"
He casually raised his other hand.
Brilliant golden light began to gather at his fingertip. It grew brighter and brighter, emitting a high-pitched hum that set teeth on edge. It was a laser, primed and ready.
"Young man, you are too impatient... Have you ever experienced the light..."
SWISH!
He never finished the sentence.
A pitch-black shadow tore through the air, aimed directly at his midsection. It was a silent, vicious strike from the side, moving with the force of a hydraulic press.
Albedo had flanked him. Her massive battle-axe, the World Item 3F, swung with enough force to cleave a mountain. The wind pressure alone sliced the deck boards in half.
However, against a Logia user who had mastered his fruit to perfection, physical speed had limits.
Fwoosh.
Just milliseconds before the axe made contact, Kizaru's body dispersed into millions of photons. The blade passed harmlessly through empty space, striking only afterimages.
The particles swirled like fireflies and reformed ten meters away, hovering in the air. Kizaru reappeared, dusting off his suit, his hands still in his pockets.
"Sneak attacks are quite rude, miss," Kizaru muttered, though his gaze behind the sunglasses had sharpened. He was no longer smiling.
Suzaku, surrounded by rising golden flames, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Albedo. The two of them formed an impenetrable wall against the Admiral.
"I've long wanted to experience the strength of a Marine Admiral," Suzaku grinned, his fighting spirit burning brighter than his fire. His blood was boiling. This was the test he had been waiting for since arriving in this world. "Your arrival today is perfect timing!"
Just as Suzaku prepared to summon his wings, his Observation Haki screamed a warning.
It wasn't a visual threat. It was a feeling. A drop in temperature. A massive, icy presence was approaching rapidly from the sea surface.
Aokiji is close. Too close.
Suzaku calculated rapidly. If they fought Kizaru together here, Aokiji would arrive and flank them from the sea. They would be pinned between Light and Ice. They needed to split the attention. One to hold the sky, one to hold the sea.
"Albedo," Suzaku commanded instantly, his voice leaving no room for argument. "He's yours! Hold him off! Don't let him near the ship!"
"Your command, Lord Suzaku!"
Albedo's voice trembled—not with fear, but with ecstatic excitement. Being personally entrusted by her Lord to confront the world's strongest was the highest honor a Guardian could receive.
"Please rest assured! This servant will not disappoint you! I will clip his wings!"
BOOOOM!
Before she finished speaking, a heart-stopping, invisible wave of energy violently erupted from her body.
It wasn't just Haki. It was Terror.
Conqueror's Haki: Death Spirit's Absolute Qi.
Unlike the majestic, kingly Haki of typical rulers like Shanks or Whitebeard, Albedo's aura carried the bone-chilling coldness of the Nazarick Underground Tomb. It was the essence of a Succubus, a demon of the highest order.
It was a wave of pure dread, despair, and madness that surged toward Kizaru like an invisible tsunami. The weak-willed Marines on the distant escort ships fainted instantly, foam foaming at their mouths.
The sky seemed to darken. The temperature plummeted. The light itself seemed to dim in the presence of such darkness.
Kizaru, who had been relaxed until now, felt his eyebrow twitch. The pressure pressed against his mind like a physical hand.
"Oh my~"
His lazy expression receded, replaced by genuine surprise.
"This is... quite something."
He looked at the woman in black armor with new eyes.
"A single rookie pirate crew actually harbors two possessors of the 'King's Disposition'? And..."
He paused, feeling the cold pressure eroding his mental defenses. It felt like a thousand screaming souls were clawing at his mind.
"Such a sinister and powerful Conqueror's Haki... emanating from a lady? Geez~ Girls nowadays are getting less and less cute."
Although his tone still carried his unique drawl, Kizaru took his hands out of his pockets. His posture shifted. He was finally taking this seriously.
"That's so scary~" Kizaru murmured.
Light began to gather around his entire body, illuminating him like a star. The ominous hum of the Pika Pika no Mi grew deafening. The photons condensed, becoming heavy, distorting gravity around him.
"But madam... speed is weight."
He raised his right leg again. This time, the light wasn't just a flash. It was blinding. The photons compressed to a critical point, turning his leg into a blade of pure energy.
"Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
FLASH!
There was no time to blink. There was no time to breathe.
Kizaru vanished and reappeared directly above Albedo.
The light-speed kick slammed down. It wasn't a physical strike; it was a pillar of destruction descending upon Albedo's head like the Hammer of God.
Before the light even touched her, the air pressure pulverized the wood shavings on the deck into dust.
BANG—BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted instantly, drowning out all other sounds.
Kizaru's kick, packed with the kinetic energy of light speed, slammed squarely onto Albedo's crossed arms.
The impact point glowed white-hot. A ring of terrifying, visible shockwaves expanded outward, shredding the railings and masts in its path.
CRACK... RUMBLE!
The Saint Noros, a ship the size of a small island, groaned in agony.
The gold-plated deck cracked inch by inch, then shattered violently. Wood fragments shot out like shrapnel.
The keel of the ship snapped under the unimaginable pressure. Huge fissures spread rapidly like a spiderweb, tearing the luxury liner apart. Cold seawater rushed in through the cracks.
The flagship of the Celestial Dragon was irreversibly destroyed in a single exchange between monsters.
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