Thunder Dragon: Heavenly Judgment

The thunderclouds above the training grounds were still multiplying madly, but the atmosphere... had shifted from shock to a fear bordering on witnessing a miracle.

Those terrifyingly dense thunderclouds hung so low they nearly brushed the tops of the walls. Lightning serpents constantly burst from the cloud banks, crackling and dancing wildly through the air.

The earth trembled faintly.

The air hummed.

The next moment, all of Marineford felt the oppressive might of a "judgment" descending from the heavens.

Outside the training grounds, countless Marines felt as if giant hammers were pressing down on their chests.

They staggered back, faces drained of color. "Th-this... is this really something a Logia can do?!"

"The scale is insane! Those thunderclouds... are covering all of Marineford!!!"

Even the mid-ranking officers felt their hearts pound, sweat beading across their foreheads.

Only Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru remained standing straight, though their expressions had turned extraordinarily grave.

Rubble kept bouncing lightly at their feet, trembling from the lightning pressure bearing down upon the ground.

Tsuru said softly, "This child... is practically the definition of a 'natural disaster.'"

Sengoku clenched his teeth. "That lightning pressure... if he harbored evil intentions, all of Marine Headquarters would become ruins."

Garp threw back his head and laughed, arms crossed over his chest, utterly unafraid of the might descending from the sky.

"Wahahaha! Now that's what you call a young man's romance!!!"

All three of their voices were swallowed by the thunder.

At the center of the training grounds, the soldiers' legs went weak beneath the suffocating thunderclouds.

But Zephyr looked as though some flame had been ignited within him.

"Rumble—!!!"

Lightning poured down from the clouds, illuminating his unbreakable figure.

Zephyr raised his head to look at the youth in the sky, who resembled a thunder god. There was no fear in his eyes, only pure ecstasy.

"The strongest Logia...?"

The corners of his mouth slowly spread into a beast-like grin.

"Interesting! Fucking interesting!!!"

"Rock, kid—!!!"

Zephyr slammed both feet into the ground!

"Boom—!!!"

The ground cracked apart, massive fissures spreading more than ten meters in every direction!

Armament Haki boiled all over his body like liquid black iron, his power erupting like a volcano.

Zephyr roared, "Let me see your full strength—!!!"

At the center of the thunderclouds, the youth slowly raised a hand.

It was a simple movement, yet it carried enough pressure to stop hearts.

Lightning flickered at his fingertips, every arc making the air tremble.

A wild, pure smile appeared on his face. "As you wish—!!!"

In an instant, he spread his five fingers toward the sky.

"Crackle, crackle, crackle—!!!"

The entire thundercloud mass shook with a roar like that of a wild beast!

Hundreds of lightning serpents crashed through the clouds, their radiance piercing the heavens!

"Thunder Dragon: Heavenly Judgment—!!!"

"Boom—!!!"

Lightning erupted from his body, gathering into a pillar of electricity several meters wide and blasting into the sky!

The lightning pillar instantly connected with the thunderclouds! The sky roared, and the earth shook!

The sky began to rotate.

No, it was the thunderclouds that were rotating.

The vast thundercloud mass seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand, forming a terrifying vortex of lightning.

Its center pressed steadily downward, as though it were about to smash the sky directly into Marineford.

Lightning raced madly through the cloud walls, each flash illuminating half of Marine Headquarters.

"Hummmmm—Hummmmm—!!"

The air vibrated like it was weeping. Electrical charges were forced together, arranged, resonating—nature itself was answering Rock.

Every Marine watching had goosebumps rise all over their bodies, their skin burning and stinging.

Someone trembled as he collapsed to the ground. "Th-this voltage... you'd die just getting near it...!!"

Someone nearly burst into tears. "You're being way too ridiculous!"

Even the officers were too shaken to speak. "This scale... it's completely beyond any Logia attack we've ever seen..."

The corner of Sengoku's eye twitched wildly as he shouted, "Rock! This is only training!! Not the destruction of Headquarters!!"

"Crack... crack-crack-crack—!!!"

The vortex's center suddenly caved in, as if some colossal beast were breaking through layer after layer of cloud.

The lightning was no longer chaotic. It began to be drawn together, entwined, woven like strands of thread.

First came the dragon horns.

They rose high, sharp and fierce, with lightning dancing over them like burning blue-white flames.

Then the outline of a dragon's head emerged.

Its enormous jaws opened in fury, lightning flames leaping between its teeth. In its dragon eyes flashed a radiance capable of scorching heaven and earth, like the will of the sky itself.

"Hiss—!!!"

Its lightning body extended after that. Every scale was a three-dimensional ridge formed from overlapping lightning, gleaming with the cold luster of plasma.

The moment its tail swung, the entire thundercloud mass shuddered.

This tangible thunder dragon, formed from pure lightning—

was both real and illusory;

both beautiful and deadly.

Its very existence instantly ionized all the moisture in the air into a blue-white glow.

The instant the Thunder Dragon fully took shape, the Marines around the training grounds nearly collapsed to the ground at once.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey—!!!"

"If that thing comes down, Marineford is going to evaporate, isn't it?!!"

"I-I don't want to die yet!!!"

"Shouldn't we stop this?!! If we don't, Headquarters is going to get blasted away!!!"

But the more Garp watched, the more excited he became. "Wahahaha!! This brat!!!"

The Thunder Dragon raised its enormous head. Its dragon eyes suddenly narrowed as though a god were gazing down upon Zephyr.

The pressure of thunder crashed down like mountains and seas, making Zephyr's heart pound heavily.

Yet rather than fear, his fighting spirit blazed even fiercer!

He stomped both feet into the ground!

"Boom—!!!"

The floor instantly split into deep trenches, dirt and dust erupting into the air!

Armament Haki continuously spilled from his body, so dense it looked like flowing black molten iron.

His muscles swelled, and his breathing roared like some giant beast.

"Rock, kid! Bring it on!!!"

At the instant the sky was torn apart by lightning—

all of Marineford lost its "sound," "shadows," and "air," leaving behind only the godlike aura of destruction.

Zephyr leaped violently, and the pressure of the high-altitude winds exploded against his face.

"Hah—!!!"

He coated his entire body in astonishing Armament Haki, his black arm as dark and heavy as an iron wall from hell!

But in the next instant—

the Thunder Dragon vanished.

There was no diving trajectory.

No afterimage of movement.

No sign of where it would strike.

There was only—a sharp "crack."

The world was directly pierced through by lightning.

All they saw was the world turning pure white.

It was not light, but the plasma glow produced when high-energy lightning instantly ionized the air!!!

The soldiers had no time to react at all.

"Wha—"

"Hiss—!!!"

Countless arcs exploded across the sky. That was not light, but the white plasma glow formed when high-energy lightning directly ionized the air!

The entire world was swallowed by pure white.

"Waaah! I can't see!!!"

Everyone was temporarily blinded.

Only the strong could barely make out Zephyr's iron fist colliding with the dragon's head in midair.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze into a single fragment.

The Thunder Dragon's horns, fangs, and eyes were torn apart by Zephyr's fist wind, but fine cracks also appeared across Zephyr's black arm amid the violent impact!

What followed was a roar as though heaven and earth were splitting apart!!!

"Rumble—!!!"

That was not thunder. It was the furious roar of the sky collapsing, the destructive shockwave of energy released to its limit.

"Aaaahhh—!!!"

Countless soldiers were thrown directly to the ground, their eardrums aching as though they had been sliced by blades.

At the point where the Thunder Dragon and Zephyr clashed high in the air, the temperature spiked instantly, and even the ground was baked red!

"Boom—!!!"

Then a ring-shaped shockwave burst outward. The massive ring of lightning exploding in the sky tore the roof tiles off a huge stretch of surrounding buildings!

Countless windows in the Headquarters building shattered at once!

If the Thunder Dragon had exploded on the ground... Marineford might truly have been wiped flat.

High in the sky, Zephyr looked like a trapped beast.

With astonishing willpower and Armament Haki, he forcibly held back this power capable of destroying an island.

His black Armament Haki kept cracking, reforming, then shattering again!

Zephyr gritted his teeth, veins bulging across his body.

"Uwaaaahhh—!!!

It's not over yet!!!

Hold—on!!!"

With an iron will, he forcibly redirected the Thunder Dragon's immense energy into the sky!

"Boom—!!!"

Lightning exploded high above into an enormous, blinding white thunder blossom!

Zephyr was blasted hundreds of meters away, falling like a cannonball—

"Boom!!!"

He crashed heavily into the training grounds, smashing a huge crater into the hard earth!

Dust and smoke scattered in every direction.

The air was scorching.

Zephyr knelt on one knee, bracing himself with one fist against the ground to barely steady his body.

His black arm was covered in cracks, trembling faintly.

Yet he still bared a man's grin.

He looked up at the thunder god-like figure in the sky.

"So this is... the power of lightning...?"

"Heh... what an incredible brat..."

The thunderclouds in the sky were still boiling, and the lightning still roared.

Rock hovered in the air, looking down over all of Marineford. Blue-white lightning flames flowed deep within his pupils, as though a god had descended.