**Uchiha! Go to hell with me!! Flame Lord!!!**

A moment of distraction can be fatal on the battlefield.

A Night Owl Guard member swung his Tachi, dodging the splashing lava around him, and aimed straight for Sakazuki's neck.

The Tachi, imbued with Chakra, traced a cold, white arc through the air.

Sakazuki snapped back to reality, his face contorted in a ferocious grimace, and his right fist, coated in lava, was about to unleash a powerful punch.

But his body froze for a moment. In the distance, another Night Owl Guard member's Mangekyō Sharingan slowly rotated, and his eye power silently locked onto his limbs.

The blade was less than half a foot from his throat.

At this critical moment, a yellow laser suddenly shot towards the Night Owl Guard member wielding Tachi.

The laser beam was moving at an extreme speed, scorching the air and leaving a charred mark.

The Night Owl Guard members wielding Tachi reacted with lightning speed, twisting their bodies and colliding their Tachi with the laser beam.

With a loud bang, he was sent flying more than ten meters away, his feet carving two deep furrows in the scorched ground before he regained his footing.

Then a yellow light landed beside Sakazuki.

Borsalino looked at the Night Owl Guard members around him with a serious expression, but the corners of his mouth still had that usual lazy smile, though there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.

"Hey, Sakazuki, if you die too horribly, Kuzan will definitely laugh at you."

"Borsalino, you bastard."

After breaking free of his restraints, Sakazuki looked at the Night Owl Guard members who were surrounding him with a grim expression.

His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth. "Why are you here?"

"Oh dear, if I hadn't come, your head would have been gone." Borsalino glanced at him, golden light flickering at his fingertips. "Don't overthink it, I was just passing by."

"Just passing by?" Sakazuki scoffed. "Where would you possibly be passing by to end up in a place like this?"

Borsalino didn't reply, but simply turned his gaze back to the Night Owl Guard members who were regrouping in front of him.

Uchiha Taki looked at Uchiha Ming, who had just arrived, with dissatisfaction, his tone tinged with reproach. "Hey, hey, hey, why haven't you stopped them yet?"

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Ming rolled his eyes speechlessly, his tone even more impatient than Taki's. "Can't you use your brain? Even the Fourth Raikage couldn't keep up with that guy's speed. How about we switch places?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" Uchiha Taki pouted, gripping his sword tightly again. "Since they're here, let's take them all down! Watch closely this time! Don't let that sleazy monkey get away!"

Upon hearing this from afar, Borsalino's forehead creased with annoyance. His face darkened as he muttered under his breath, "Damn it... what a bunch of filthy monkeys... what an rude bunch of brats."

Uchiha Ming ignored him and slowly Mangekyō Sharingan, his eye power silently spreading out to encompass the entire battlefield within his perception range.

The other two Night Owl Guard elites beside her also stepped forward at the same time, their three Mangekyō Sharingan merging into one in the dim light.

Six Night Owl Guard, each with a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, surrounded Sakazuki and Borsalino from six directions.

Sakazuki remained silent for a moment.

He glanced at Borsalino beside him, then at the Night Owl Guard members around him.

His breathing was heavy, his wounds were bleeding profusely, and he could barely lift his left arm.

He was aware of his own situation and also of Borsalino's speed.

The Glint-Glint Fruit —to date, apart from Uchiha Natsu, no one on this sea has been able to catch him.

If he wanted to escape, almost no one present, except for Madara Uchiha, could stop him.

The reason the other party didn't run away was actually because of themselves.

As fellow townsmen, the two joined the navy together, carried out missions together, and rose through the ranks together.

Although their shared ambitions had prevented them from having a proper chat in a long time, Sakazuki knew better than anyone how loyal and devoted his old friend was.

"Borsalino," Sakazuki began, his voice hoarse.

"Um?"

"I'll help you break through the encirclement; you can leave now."

Borsalino was taken aback by these words.

He stared in disbelief at Sakazuki, who was covered in blood, his eyes flashing with anger. "What are you saying, Sakazuki! You bastard!"

Even if anyone's going to run, shouldn't it be you?! I'm older than you! When did it become your turn to cover for me?!

"Borsalino, I can't escape." Sakazuki's voice was calm. "Your Devil Fruit ability is fast enough; they can't stop you."

Borsalino looked at him and remained silent for a long time.

Then his face darkened, and his voice crackled with a rare, almost overflowing rage. "Damn it! You bastard! I'm Marine Admiral! If I wanted to run away, I would have done it long ago! What do you take me for?!"

Sakazuki looked at him.

He stared at it for a long time, as if he had thought of something, his lips twitched, and then a very small smile appeared on his face.

"Ha, you bastard..."

He remained silent for a moment.

"In that case, let's all come at once, Borsalino."

"Don't die a horrible death."

"Flame Lord----!!"

"I am... Marine Admiral Akainu!!!"

"Uchiha!!! Come to hell with me!!!"

With a roar, lava began to surge around Sakazuki, engulfing everything in its path.

Crimson magma erupted from his body, seeping, spreading, and converging from every inch of his skin.

The magma surged, coalesced, and shaped around him, casting a dark red glow that illuminated the entire area.

The air around him was violently distorted by the high temperature, and even the gravel beneath his feet was silently melting.

"Roar----!!"

With a roar like that of a wild beast, a giant lava hound, hundreds of meters long, slowly materialized around Sakazuki.

The giant dog was formed entirely from molten lava and magma, its surface covered with crimson cracks, from which flowed a blinding dark red light.

Its eyes were two burning crimson flames, churning with some kind of madness and resentment.

It opened its enormous mouth, and molten lava dripped from between its teeth, falling to the ground and turning the rubble into lava.

The giant lava hound pounced wildly at the three 100-meter-tall Semi-Complete Susanoo around it.

The terrifying heat relentlessly scorched Susanoo's armor, emitting a sizzling sound.