Chapter 1516 Eyes in Volcanic Ash
While Sakazuki's consciousness was making a pact with Molten Lord Murgais and gaining the power of the primal demon, only a moment had passed in the outside world.
In that split second, Shiki the Golden Lion's terrifying slash wave, imbued with Conqueror's Haki, struck Sakazuki squarely on the head.
laugh--!
The wave cleaved through Admiral Akainu's figure in two without any resistance, as easily as a hot knife through butter. His dark red magma body was neatly sliced apart and separated to the sides.
"Hehehehehe"
Upon seeing this, Shiki the Golden Lion let out a hearty laugh, his eyes filled with smugness and disdain. "A Marine Admiral? So easily? What Captain Rocks could do, I can do too."
On the battlefield below, everyone who witnessed this scene, whether marines or pirates, was stunned.
"Aka...Akainu General"! !
"impossible"!!
"The general...was...cut in two."
The hope on the faces of many naval soldiers froze instantly, turning into extreme fear and despair. Some even broke down in tears on the spot. Even with the support of leadership qualities, they could not bear this contrast.
Their most trusted and pillar-like combat force was instantly killed by the enemy in a single encounter. This huge sense of disparity almost shattered their psychological defenses.
Kuzan's pupils contracted sharply, Borsalino's usual playful expression vanished completely, and even Aramu, who was doing his best to stabilize the island, couldn't help but look up, his eyes filled with disbelief.
They couldn't accept that Sakazuki, with his strong personality and unfathomable strength, would leave the stage so easily in this way.
Will Sakazuki die so easily?
The answer is of course no!
Just as everyone's shock reached its peak, the pirates began to cheer, and the marines were plunged into despair—BOOM!!!
A more profound and earth-deep tremor, different from the one the Golden Lion used to control the islands, emanated from beneath Marineford.
This shaking did not come from the power of the Float-Float Fruit, but from... the seabed.
"What happened?!"
"The sea... there's something under the sea!"
Everyone looked in horror at the sea surrounding Marineford. The sea, which had been turbulent due to the island's rise, was now violently churning and bubbling, as if it were being boiled.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, the deep seabed beneath Marineford seemed to be forcibly twisted and lifted by an invisible hand.
One, two, ten, dozens... The once desolate underwater mountain ranges, under the frenzied pull of some primordial force, suddenly cracked open at their tops, forming huge volcanic craters.
At the same moment, these volcanoes were injected with unimaginable, terrifying energy—bang! bang! bang! bang!
Deafening, muffled roars erupted one after another from the depths of the ocean, as dozens of newly formed underwater volcanoes erupted simultaneously.
The scorching magma instantly heated the surrounding seawater to thousands of degrees, creating a violent steam explosion, with countless huge white columns of gas rising from the sea surface.
The deep red lava flows, like angry fire dragons, broke free of the sea's restraints and surged straight up from the seabed.
The entire sea beneath Marineford was bathed in an eerie and terrifying red light, as if the gates of hell had been opened there.
A few seconds later, a pungent gas rich in sulfides, mixed with the salty smell of seawater, burst out of the sea, followed by a powerful torrent of magma, drawn by the same source.
In the sky, Sakazuki's body, which had been cut in two by Shiki and was about to fall, now seemed to have transformed into two enormous magnet cores.
Endless magma gushing from the seabed, like rivers flowing into the sea, frantically converged and merged with the two halves of the body.
Sakazuki's body, replenished by the magma, rapidly reshaped and expanded, radiating an even more terrifying heat and destructive aura than before.
Logia-type Devil Fruit awakening—assimilation of the environment—at this moment, the volcanic eruptions throughout the entire sea area have become part of Admiral Akainu's power.
This force was too violent; not all the erupting lava could be perfectly controlled. Large amounts of uncontrolled lava fell like meteors towards the tilting island of Marineford, threatening to cause a massive disaster.
Kuzan, who had already been warned, was filled with shock and doubt about Sakazuki's current state, but he did not hesitate to act.
He took a deep breath and exhaled an extremely cold breath that was enough to freeze everything into the sky. The icy breath instantly enveloped the falling lava rain.
When molten lava comes into contact with cold air, the surface quickly solidifies and turns black due to thermal expansion and contraction, while the interior contracts and cracks due to rapid cooling.
With a crackling and popping sound, like a black hailstorm, the frozen and extinguished magma rocks shattered into countless tiny powders in the air, like black snow, falling on the heads of everyone below who were dumbfounded.
Kuzan frowned as he gazed at Sakazuki in the sky, who was merging with endless magma and whose aura was becoming increasingly inhuman.
He thought to himself: Sakazuki, what have you become? Please don't lose your mind completely and become a heartless demon.
The collective eruption of an underwater volcano brings not only scorching magma and violent tremors, but also devastating secondary disasters.
The dense, scalding volcanic ash, rich in deadly gases such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, resembled a giant black curtain.
Rising from the sea, layers of gas rose and enveloped Marineford, which was suspended in the air, filling the air with a pungent, nauseating smell of sulfur.
"Cough, cough, cough!!"
"My eyes hurt so much!"
"I can't breathe... I can't catch my breath!"
Whether it's the navy or pirates, inhaling even a small amount of these toxic gases will cause severe coughing and a burning sensation.
Those with slightly weaker abilities immediately felt difficulty breathing, as if their lungs were on fire, and developed severe poisoning symptoms in a short time. Even if they were lucky enough to survive, they would probably be left with a chronic respiratory disease that would last a lifetime.
The entire battlefield seemed to instantly transform into a giant gas chamber, with screams of agony echoing everywhere.
Looking out from the waters surrounding Marineford, the once imposing naval headquarters has completely disappeared.
Instead, a gigantic, ever-expanding, terrifying cloud of dark gray volcanic ash and crimson lava glow appeared, like a cocoon bred with a world-destroying monster.
Even more despairing was that the incredibly dense volcanic ash quickly blocked out the sunlight, causing the Marineford battlefield, which was enveloped in ash, to visibly descend into an eerie darkness.
The light faded rapidly, the temperature began to drop, and only the red glow from the underground volcanic eruption remained, flickering like a hellfire in the thick smoke.
The oxygen levels dropped sharply, and a feeling of suffocation began to grip everyone's throat.
"It's over... it's over..."
Are we going to suffocate here?
Despair spread like a plague. Whether it was the navy, which had been full of morale just moments before, or the pirates, who were attacking frantically, they all felt their own insignificance and powerlessness in the face of the might of heaven and earth.
Just when darkness and suffocation were about to engulf everything, and everyone thought the end of the world had come.
A deep, resonant hum, seemingly emanating from the depths of the earth, pierced through the thick layer of volcanic ash, vibrating the eardrums of everyone present.
Deep within the dense, sky-covering volcanic ash, directly above everyone's line of sight, two enormous light sources suddenly appeared without warning.
The light was not holy, but rather a dark red light, like that emanating from the hottest, most primordial lava core deep within hell.
The light pierced through some of the ashes, outlining a massive silhouette so blurry it made your heart stop.
That... it looks like the outline of a face?! The Navy even felt the face looked somewhat familiar!
The two enormous light sources, located directly above the blurred face, exuded an aura of endless majesty and tyranny. They blinked slowly, and what flowed down was scorching magma like a waterfall—definitely eyes!
There's no doubt about it, those are two eyes that are unimaginably huge...
The diameter of a single eyeball seems to be larger than the entire island of Marineford, exceeding the scope of human perception.
Under the gaze of those eyes, Marineford, suspended in mid-air, appears as tiny as a sand table model played with by a child.
As for the humans in the sand table, they are about the size of ants.
