Nightmare Fist, Mera Mera Rekindled

King's Plateau

King's Plateau is the location of the Dressrosa Royal Palace. It sits at the highest point in the Dressrosa Kingdom. It is also the villa of King Donquixote Family, and only family members of the rank of official or higher are entitled to reside there. Its exterior resembles a raised resort.

"Is that the main gate?"

Luffy, Zoro, Law, and the one-legged Toy Soldier secretly glanced at the gate not far away. The one-legged Toy Soldier —who was actually Kyros, the former husband of the princess of the Dressrosa King Riku and the legendary 1,000-win Kyros of the arena—nodded.

"That's right, but we don't need to worry about the gate," Kyros the Toy Soldier turned to the other side.

"We can sneak in through this secret passage..."

"Wait! Isn't someone missing?"

Just as Law exclaimed in surprise, Luffy's familiar shout came from the side:

"Rubber- Gigant Pistol!"

Boom—

With a deafening roar, the palace gates and the walls on both sides shattered, Four-Point Separation into ruins like brittle cookies before Luffy's fist.

"Hehehe, the door is open."

When Law saw Luffy grinning with his teeth Luffy, his blood pressure spiked on the spot!

"Start what?!"

Our best option is to infiltrate and assassinate, not fight our way up! Do you guys even understand that...?

"Very well, my knife is itching for a fight."

Faced with Zoro's excited drawing of his katana, Law and the Toy Soldier Kyros remained silent, only turning their heads to look at him:

"Don't panic,"

The white dove beside him remained calm.

"The mission along the way was originally 'bait,' as long as we could hold off Doflamingo and Admiral Fujitora. — The more chaos the better, otherwise why do you think I Luffy here?"

Luffy's style of causing trouble wherever he Luffy is the best way to attract firepower!

"Then... what should I be careful about?"

When asked Luo's question, Bai Ge tilted her head.

"Success is not getting killed."

?!

Is this how exciting your Straw Hat crew's daily life is?

"Hehehe, let's go!"

However, Luffy had already spread his arms wide, using the "Rubber-Teleport" technique to grab the other three and rush straight towards the palace! This left Law in tears.

I was so stupid, so very stupid...

These blatant assassinations were impossible for anyone who wasn't blind or deaf to miss. So the Den Den Mushi in the palace immediately rang, and the tense shouts reached Doflamingo's ears!

"Intruders are at the front of the palace's outer wall!! It has been confirmed that the leader is 'Straw Hat' Luffy!"

?!

Doflamingo abruptly turned his head, his face grim as he watched the battle unfolding in the arena next to him. 'Lucy,' wearing a cape and helmet, was weaving through the ferocious fighting Fighting Fish leaders, as if selecting goods at a market with effortless ease.

"The intruder is the Straw Hat Kid?"

Who is that guy in the arena?!

"Fluctuation--"

?

Elbow strike!

With a loud shout from the tall and imposing Burgess, his right elbow, clad in strange armor, lashed out at Roman in mid-air!

A powerful, high-frequency oscillation caused the surrounding air to distort and fluctuate, hurling large sections of stone slabs from the arena into the air. A wide, unusually deep chasm, like a raging beast, sent a terrifying shockwave carrying massive debris, like a landslide or tsunami, hurtling straight towards Roman! But:

"Kami-e - Willow!"

In an instant, Roman, dressed as a magician, transformed from 'three-dimensional' to 'two-dimensional' and swayed abruptly to the side like a willow in the wind, dodging the path of this terrifying attack a step ahead! The shockwave that caused Burgess to miss its target crashed directly onto the stands.

Boom!!

The tremors spread, and the stands collapsed! Floor tiles turned to dust, and human figures and toys flew backward in a frenzy. As for how many survived the fall, only heaven knows.

"That bastard!"

"They even filled the audience seats..."

"Stretcher! Someone come quick!"

"This,"

Roman, who had just finished "took a tour" of the other three battlefields, glanced at the audience seats that had been blasted open with a huge gap, and touched his mask.

"What's this? Randomly selecting hundreds of lucky viewers to die from an area-of-effect attack?"

At the level of the Four Emperors' executives, a battle between top-tier fighters is a death sentence if you dare to 'watch' without some skill! While Roman has no obligation to cater to those 'spectators' who enjoy bloodshed and battle, however:

"Alright, everyone else has started, so I should 'put in a bit more effort' too. So—"

While continuing to dodge Burgess' attacks, Roman turned to look at Sabo, who had smashed Diamante's longsword with a steel pipe, and called out.

"Lucy, stop playing around."

"Let's take the Mera Mera no Mi and go."

?!

"Truly arrogant to the extreme—"

Diamante's face contorted with rage. These two Straw Hat crew, 'Luffy' and the guy who seemed to be the 'White Knight,' were so arrogant! It was as if the Mera Mera no Mi was already theirs, and they didn't take the other three people on the stage seriously at all.

He didn't know that Bartolomeo, who was just standing around with his phone "blocked," was the Straw Hat crew's number one fanboy, otherwise he would have been even more speechless.

However, on the other hand, after exchanging blows, Diamante immediately realized that this 'Luffy' in front of him was terrifyingly strong! He could easily suppress him without even using his 'Devil Fruit ability';

Meanwhile, the 'White Knight' effortlessly dealt with Burgess of the Blackbeard Pirates while seemingly distracted, making Diamante increasingly disheartened! If they were to get serious, perhaps...

Roman had no time to care about this guy's 'inner thoughts'. Instead, he took a step back and flashed more than ten meters away as if he had 'teleported', causing Burgess, who hadn't even been able to touch the hem of his clothes, to shout angrily.

"Coward! If you're so tough, fight me head-on. What's the point of dodging and weaving?"

"Don't rush,"

Roman, with his fists clenched, assumed a fighting stance.

"There will be plenty of opportunities to 'clash head-on' with you later, but for now:"

Thump! X2

He slammed his fists, which he had been holding back, onto the ring, surprising everyone!

Burgess and Diamante were on high alert, unsure of what attack methods Roman was using. Meanwhile, the audience, after being swept through the aftershocks several times, finally began to grasp the exaggerated techniques of these experts. Many instinctively stood up, ready to flee!

Then:

Nothing happened!?

"This--"

Just as one of the audience members was about to speak, a strange high-frequency vibration was transmitted upwards from his feet, instantly causing a buzzing vibration throughout his body!

The world before his eyes blurred and trembled, and all that remained in his ears was endless noise! In an instant, the audience member felt as if his brain had been shaken to its limit, and his eyes rolled back as he fainted.

This was not an isolated incident, but rather a widespread phenomenon where people collapsed! Those in the audience who were slightly weaker collapsed to the ground without even uttering a sound, leaving the others utterly astonished.

Hmm, not enough control; it still affected the audience.

Just as Roman was secretly marveling, the chaotic ripples around the arena turned the entire pool into a violently shaking drumhead! Tens of thousands of shocks raged and swept across the pool below the arena.

The destructive Tremor-Tremor Ability's is undoubtedly enormous. Everything has its own inherent frequency, and if a shockwave resonates with that frequency, it can even disintegrate any solid object. Before the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, nothing dares claim to be 'invincible'!

Splash! Splash! Splash!

The next second, the leaders of the Fighting Fish in the surrounding pools suddenly leaped out of the water! Their pained 'faces' no longer showed their usual madness and bloodlust, but only the deepest fear and dread of life.

"Tremor-Tremor - Infrasound shock wave!"

"Lucy,"

As soon as Roman spoke, Sabo, understanding immediately, glanced around and spotted a treasure chest on the back of a Fighting Fish leader.

Brush,

Leaping into the air and landing on the back of the Fighting Fish, Diamante chuckled coldly at the preemptive 'Luffy'. The chains on that treasure chest were made of Seastone! How could a mere Straw Hat possibly—

Tear

The sturdy treasure chest was casually torn open, and the Mera Mera no Mi fell into his hand. Diamante instantly transformed into a master of facial expressions, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"How is this possible?!"

How can you, a Devil Fruit user, ignore Seastone chains...?

"Put the fruit down!"

Burgess, unaware of this 'behind-the-scenes' scheme, immediately adopted the starting stance for his Wave Elbow Strike against Luffy, who had obtained the Mera Mera no Mi! However, a white figure flashed and effortlessly blocked his path.

"Hey, big guy."

A blinding white light began to appear on Roman's clenched fist. This familiar sign of the ability's activation caused Burgess' expression to change drastically in an instant!

"This is--"

The captain's Tremor-Tremor Ability?!

"Here comes the head-on confrontation you wanted."

Twist your waist, throw a punch

Click!

In an instant, the air itself seemed to shatter like glass under Roman's fist.

Fine black lines appeared out of thin air in the void, and behind those cracks was pitch black... no, indescribable darkness! Those were 'cracks' created by the Tremor-Tremor Ability of space itself.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

Faced with this terrifying punch, Burgess's hair stood on end. He instantly stopped paying attention to the so-called 'Mera Mera no Mi' and instead frantically activated his Armament Haki, gathering it on his right-hand armor regardless of the limits of his physical and mental endurance! He swung his body violently, elbowing the mysterious magician in front of him, armor and all!

"Unsinkable Fleet - Elbow Strike!"

Boom—

The two enormous forces collided violently, instantly causing half of the arena to collapse. Shattered fragments of rock shot dozens of meters into the air! The vibrations spreading through the air made everyone in the stands tremble, dizzy, and nauseous. This was the result of a slight resonance between infrasound and the internal organs of the human body. In more severe cases, it could even knock a person unconscious and cause serious internal bleeding, leading to death!

And this is merely a minor 'aftershock'.

"How... is this possible..."

As the armor shattered, Burgess's tall body flew backward, his right arm hanging limply from the wound. The opponent's Haki brought back that 'nightmare' to his mind—that punch that had tormented him for two years!

That's impossible! How could it be that navy's fist?

However, Roman couldn't hear his own thoughts, otherwise he would have nodded in agreement.

That's right, Roman's Armament Haki was developed through training by Garp... cough cough.

"Hmm, that was a pretty good punch."

Having obtained the Mera Mera no Mi, Sabo landed on the other half of the arena, watching Roman, whose punch had destroyed half of the arena. Sabo also crouched down, spreading his five fingers apart, his index and middle fingers, and his ring and little fingers together, covering them with Armament Haki to form a dragon claw shape.

"But let's finish the match first."

After saying that, he instantly Armament Haki—

"Dragon Claw - Dragon's Breath!"

Click click click click click!

In an instant, countless cracks spread everywhere, blasting the remaining half of the arena into countless rubble and broken bricks! The 'claw' power, honed to crush tyrannical authority, even penetrated deeper and deeper! And deeper still!

The pool beneath the arena was completely destroyed! Then came the darkness that lay buried beneath.

"Ugh, I can't get any strength in me..."

Losing their footing, Diamante and Bartolomeo fell into the pool, instantly becoming half-dead. Meanwhile, Roman, dressed as a magician, flicked his cloak and floated lightly backward, landing directly on:

The gladiator's second-floor window left Rebecca speechless.

The Mera Mera no Mi is right in front of you, and you actually—

Wait! Lucy is also his partner, so...

"Very good, everyone has fallen off the stage."

The entire shattered arena was reduced to a small section standing beneath Sabo's feet. Therefore:

"According to the rules, I am the winner."

Sabo tossed aside his helmet, beard, and cloak, revealing his true form, and took a bite.

"Ugh, this tastes awful..."

Boom--

Flames erupted from his body, confirming him as the owner of the Mera Mera no Mi!

"Aaaaaaah, that face!!!"

In the panicked audience, some people had already recognized him.

"It's Sabo, the second-in-command of the Revolutionary Army!"