Blood spilled from the corners of both their mouths.
Darren's face turned pale. His pupils wavered—just slightly out of focus.
"Jihahahaha!! You're not 'indestructible body'!! You're just 'body of iron'!!"
Golden Lion spat blood, yet he still grinned, eyes flaring with murderous light.
"I won!! You're centuries too early to think you can kill me, little Marine!!"
With those words, he suddenly yanked both blades free.
Shlick!!
Thick streams of blood burst from Darren's palm and abdomen, the blades tearing out in twin crimson arcs mid-air.
A muffled grunt escaped Darren's throat.
Already critically wounded—and burdened by his overuse of his Devil Fruit's power—his body had finally reached its limit. He faltered.
"Let's end this!!"
Golden Lion, blades dripping, let out a savage snarl and rushed toward Darren, who was staggering backward.
With Darren in his current state, one more strike would mean certain death.
"Not on my watch!!"
Sengoku's form reappeared at Golden Lion's side. Cloaked in brilliant gold, his palm thundered down.
"You're in my way, Sengoku!!"
Golden Lion roared in fury, crossing Oto and Kogarashi in a hasty guard, meeting Sengoku's strike head-on.
BOOM!!
The blast of their clash shook the sky. Golden Lion flew back like a cut kite, spinning through the air.
He twisted mid-fall, reversed his grip, and drove both swords into the ground to halt his momentum.
He didn't move a muscle—
But the earth beneath him convulsed.
Like a reverse tsunami, the land buckled upward, gathering into three monstrous lions—each dozens of meters tall—that crashed down toward Darren like collapsing mountains.
Lion's Wrath: Imperial Earth Surge!!
Pain flared in Golden Lion's chest wound. His gaze twisted with a wrath he had never known before.
In all his years ruling the seas, never had he suffered like this—at the hands of a single man.
Even in the legendary battle at God Valley, he'd walked away unshaken.
But now—he'd been bested by a mere Marine brat.
Unforgivable.
He would kill him.
Yet in that instant—
Sengoku vanished.
Soru!
A burst of speed beyond perception.
In the blink of an eye, Sengoku appeared in front of the kneeling, bleeding Darren. His golden light flared.
"Great Buddha Impact!!"
RUMBLE!!
The three charging lions exploded into fragments, scattered by a storm of golden punches.
But before Sengoku could react—
Golden Lion had disappeared.
"No!!"
Sengoku's face twisted. He whipped his head around.
"Jihahahahaha!! Let's see if any of you can stop me now!!"
Golden Lion streaked like a golden phantom—soaring toward the far end of the battlefield.
Toward the collapsed auction house.
The few remaining guards went white as sheets when they saw that monstrous pirate descending on their location.
They abandoned their weapons and fled, no longer even pretending to defend the prize behind them—the More-More Fruit.
"Stop him!!"
Sengoku roared, voice cracking with urgency.
"Yasakani no Magatama…!!"
A blinding flash lit the sky.
Borsalino had just repelled a panting King with a single swing. He transformed into light, soared upward, and spread his arms wide.
Endless bullets of light poured down like a hurricane of destruction.
RATATATATA—
The ground bloomed with explosions.
But Golden Lion was a ghost—dodging and weaving through the hail of light, his flight never once slowing. He surged straight toward the More-More Fruit.
"The fight's not over yet!!"
A gravelly roar cracked from the other side of the wreckage.
The auction wall exploded outward.
A monstrous figure broke through the debris and charged at Golden Lion like a battering ram—
Douglas Bullet.
But now, Bullet had transformed.
His body was coated in rock and dirt, his frame cloaked in a black-violet sheen of Armament Haki—like a walking siege engine.
"Fusion: Colossal Impact Cannon!!"
A fist one meter wide crashed down like an artillery shell.
"You're too damn slow, brat from Roger's crew!!"
Golden Lion sneered. A gleam of crimson flared in his eyes.
Mid-flight, he tilted, drifting into a graceful midair drift—gliding just past Bullet's strike.
Then—
His twin blades flared to life.
Shing!!
Bullet's motion froze.
A heartbeat later, his form shattered into rubble.
A massive, bleeding X slashed across his chest—blood gushing, limbs trembling.
For someone like Bullet—relying on brute strength and close combat—Golden Lion, with his speed and surgical blade work, was a natural counter.
"Jihahahahaha!!"
Golden Lion roared with laughter as he blasted forward.
A dozen Marines tried to block him, rushing from all directions.
They might as well have been paper dolls.
In a single breath, his swords cleaved through them—bodies flying like blood-soaked kites.
Closer…
Closer still!
Golden Lion's eyes burned with greed and ambition—flames roaring behind them.
Locked onto the Devil Fruit resting in the glass case.
He didn't care if his fleet was destroyed.
He didn't care if the Marine brat survived.
He didn't even care about this battle anymore.
As long as—
As long as he got that Devil Fruit…
Everything else was worth it.
With the power of the More-More Fruit, combined with his own Float-Float Fruit—
He could conquer the seas.
He could surpass even Rocks.
He could become the ruler of the world.
No one—
No one can stop me now!!
"No!!"
Sengoku shouted, his face ashen.
Ten meters.
Five.
Three.
One.
Golden Lion's grin widened. He reached out, laughing—
"The More-More Fruit is mine—huh!?"
His pupils shrank into pinpoints. The triumph on his face froze.
The platform—steel and silent—suddenly came to life.
It reared up like a living mouth—and swallowed the Devil Fruit into the earth.
Then—
The leftover metal twisted upward, forming into a giant metallic hand—
—and flipped him off.
One middle finger. Straight up.
Golden Lion's eyes filled with bursting veins, bulging in madness.
"...You little Marine brat who doesn't know his place!!!"
He howled in rage, turning sharply—his eyes bloodshot with murderous intent, locked onto a distant figure on one knee.
The Marine commodore.
Darren.
His face was pale. His breath ragged.
One palm pressed to the ground—flickers of faint lightning dancing across his skin.
His bloodied lips curled into a crooked grin.
"So close… What a shame."
Golden Lion's face turned purple with fury.
---
To be continued…