Chapter 1521 Shiki: Don't Be Human

The lava demon that Sakazuki had transformed into, with its enormous arm made of surging magma, slowly raised, seemingly in a sluggish manner.

Yet, it carried an irresistible, heavy pressure, enveloping Shiki the Golden Lion, who was struggling in the air like a golden moth.

Shiki's pupils contracted. Relying on the combat instincts of a top-tier fighter, he immediately activated the power of the Float-Float Fruit, attempting to retreat rapidly and create distance to avoid the devastating giant hand.

The next second, his expression suddenly changed drastically. "Something's not right?"

He was horrified to discover that his vision was severely distorted and deceiving; the giant hand made of magma was far larger than his eyes could perceive.

It's not that it moves quickly, but rather that the energy density it contains is so terrifying that it causes the space around it to fold and twist subtly.

The closer the distance, the more obvious the effect of this spatial distortion becomes. The image fed back to the brain is actually compressed and distorted. It may seem that there is still some distance, but in reality, the burning fingertip is already close.

Even more terrifying was the territorial influence of that giant hand. The extreme heat caused the surrounding air to distort and burn violently, and the pungent smell of sulfur mixed with the threat of death almost burned through human brains.

Under the pressure of life and death, the image of that man—Gol D. Roger—uncontrollably flashed through Shiki's mind.

Roger felt an overwhelming bitterness and resentment. Ever since that decisive naval defeat, his life seemed to have been living in the shadow of that man.

Despite having a massive fleet and great ambitions, Shiki the Golden Lion ultimately failed to prevent Roger from becoming the Pirate King, or even to take revenge himself. Roger ushered in a new era with his death, leaving Shiki behind as an out-of-place remnant of the old era, a laughable... stray dog!

"Ha, the last thing I thought of before I died was your hateful face..." Shiki couldn't help but grin self-deprecatingly.

Then Captain Rocks' even more domineering and arrogant figure flashed by, and Shiki couldn't help but sigh that when people are about to die, they really do become... sentimental.

But the next moment, all the memories, resentment, and bitterness were replaced by a more extreme and insane thought.

On his face, contorted with fear and anger, a ferocious look of utter despair appeared. If a human body cannot defeat a demon, then why not cease to be human?

“Heh ha ha…” Shiki suddenly let out a series of hysterical laughs, filled with mockery of his own fate and resolute disdain for the world.

Just when all the pirates below, including Whitebeard Edward Newgate who was about to lend a helping hand, thought he was going to make a final desperate attempt, Shiki did something that left everyone speechless.

He suddenly used his free left hand to tear open the clothes on his upper body, revealing his strong but scarred chest.

Instead of charging towards the Lava Demon, he abruptly turned his head and, with all his might, roared at the towering figure at the bow of the Moby Dick: "Edward Newgate..."

This roar drowned out the clamor of the battlefield, causing Whitebeard to pause in his movements.

Immediately afterwards, a bizarre smile, a mixture of madness, relief, and extreme danger, appeared on Shiki's face, and he continued to roar, "I'm not human anymore!"

"Keep the portion Kaido gave you for yourself; I don't need it."

A hint of surprise and confusion flashed across Edward Newgate's previously serious eyes.

What did that madman Shiki want to do before he died? A Devil Fruit user self-destructing—he had never heard of such an ability before.

But what Shiki did next was completely beyond his comprehension.

Shiki the Golden Lion, who was hovering in the air, tore open his shirt and then used his empty left hand to form a chop, plunging it into his own abdomen.

*Pfft!* Blood gushed out instantly, but Shiki seemed oblivious to the pain, his face displaying only an almost manic focus.

Under the watchful eyes of countless horrified people, he actually pulled out a fleshy bag, soaked in blood and woven from the internal organs of an unknown creature, from his own abdominal cavity.

The bag wasn't large, and with trembling hands, Shiki quickly unfolded it, revealing its contents.

At first glance, it doesn't look like a treasure at all; in fact, it's quite disgusting. It's inlaid with several fragments of a broken sword, which, like living beings, slowly rotate their eyeballs, and is made from someone's flesh and bones.

The Lava Demon's colossal, sky-covering hand was almost within reach, and the extreme heat caused Shiki's long golden hair to spontaneously combust, turning into a burning flame.

His skin was also covered in sweat from the high temperature, which evaporated instantly. The shadow of death had completely enveloped him.

"I don't have time, so don't lie to me!"

With a desperate madness on his face, Shiki no longer hesitated and shoved the broken sword fragments covered with strange eyeballs from the bag into his mouth, forcing them down.

The feeling was indescribable; the shards sliced ​​through my throat, bringing with them a cold, stinging pain and the terrifying sensation of countless eyeballs writhing inside my body.

A strange hoarse sound came from Shiki's throat. With his last breath, he roared, "If this doesn't work... I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"

Before the words were even finished, the giant hand of the Lava Demon God had already closed, completely swallowing and holding the tiny figure of Shiki the Golden Lion in its palm.

The dark red magma instantly enveloped Shiki, unleashing an extremely terrifying high temperature. Even though Shiki pushed his Armament Haki to its limit at the last moment to defend himself, the magma was still devastating.

But in the face of such absolute power and high temperature, human defenses appear so fragile and vulnerable.

"Uh ah ah..."

A brief but extremely shrill scream came from between the fingers of the giant magma hand, followed by a tooth-grinding sizzling sound as flesh and bones were instantly vaporized and burned.

A few wisps of black smoke drifted out from between his fingers; those were the remnants of Armament Haki that had been burned through.

To everyone else, Shiki the Golden Lion was a legendary pirate who was once on par with Pirate King Roger and Whitebeard Edward Newgate.

It had already been completely crushed, incinerated, and annihilated by the lava demon god in the form of Admiral Sakazuki.

The battlefield was deathly silent. The pirates were ashen-faced, while the marines were stunned, yet also dazed by victory.

A legendary pirate, despite his self-harm as a form of performance art, could not escape being killed by a Marine Admiral. Now, his next task is to deal with Whitebeard.

With Akainu's current terrifying strength, crushing a powerful human would be as easy as crushing an ant.

Edward Newgate was, compared to the others, merely a slightly larger slave.