Thunder Dragon: Heavenly Judgment

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

Those terrifyingly dense thunderclouds hung so low they nearly touched the tops of the walls. Lightning serpents kept bursting from the cloudbank, crackling and dancing through the air.

The ground trembled faintly.

The air rang.

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

Outside the training grounds, countless Marine soldiers felt as though massive hammers were pressing against their chests.

They staggered back, pale-faced. "Th-this... is this really something a Logia can do?!"

"The scale is insane! Those thunderclouds... they cover all of Marineford!!!"

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

Only Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru remained standing straight, though their expressions had become exceedingly grim.

Rubble kept hopping faintly at their feet, vibrations caused by the thunderous pressure bearing down on the ground.

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

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

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

"Bwahahaha! 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 pressure of the thunderclouds.

But Zephyr seemed as though some kind of flame had ignited within him.

Rumble—!!!

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

Zephyr raised his head toward the boy in the sky, who looked like the Thunder God. There was no fear in his eyes, only pure ecstasy.

"The strongest Logia...?"

The corners of his lips slowly stretched into a smile like that of a battle beast.

"Interesting! Fucking interesting!!!"

"Rock, you brat—!!!"

Zephyr stomped down hard with both feet!

Boom—!!!

The ground split in four directions, enormous cracks spreading more than a dozen meters around him!

Armament Haki boiled over his entire body like liquid black iron, his strength erupting like a volcano.

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

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

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

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

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

In an instant, he spread all five fingers and aimed them at the sky.

Bzzzzzz—!!!

The entire thundercloud roared like a wild beast!

Hundreds of lightning serpents collided within the clouds, their radiance piercing the heavens!

"Thunder Dragon: Heavenly Judgment—!!!"

Boom—!!!

Lightning erupted from his body, converging into a pillar of thunder several meters wide that shot into the sky!

The thunder pillar instantly connected with the clouds! The heavens roared, and the ground shook!

The sky began to spin.

No, the thunderclouds were spinning.

The vast sea of thunderclouds seemed to be churned by an invisible giant hand, forming a terrifying vortex of lightning.

Its center kept pressing downward, as though it would smash the heavens straight into Marineford.

Lightning rampaged through the cloud walls. Every flash illuminated half of Marine Headquarters.

Hummm—hummm—!!

The air vibrated as if it were crying. Electric charges were forced to gather, align, and resonate. Nature itself was responding to Rock.

Every Marine soldier watching had their hair stand on end, their skin burning and stinging.

Someone collapsed to the ground, trembling. "Th-this voltage... you'd die just getting close...!!"

Someone else was practically crying. "You're being way too ridiculous!"

Even the officers were too shaken to speak. "This scale... it completely surpasses every Logia attack seen before..."

The veins at Sengoku's temples throbbed as he shouted, "Rock! This is only training!! You're not supposed to destroy Headquarters!!"

Crack... crackcrackcrack—!!!

The center of the vortex suddenly caved inward, as though some colossal beast were breaking through layer upon layer of clouds.

The lightning was no longer chaotic. It began to be drawn together, twisted, and woven like threads.

First came the dragon horns.

They rose high into the air, sharp and pointed, lightning leaping across them like burning blue-white flames.

Then the outline of a dragon's head emerged.

Its huge jaws opened in fury, thunderflames dancing between its teeth. Its dragon eyes flickered with a radiance that could scorch heaven and earth, like the will of the sky itself.

Hiss—!!!

The dragon's body extended after it, each scale a three-dimensional edge formed from overlapping lightning, shining with the cold gleam of plasma.

The instant its tail swayed, the entire thundercloud sea trembled along with it.

This tangible Thunder Dragon formed from pure lightning—

It was both real and illusory;

Both beautiful and deadly.

Its very existence instantly ionized every drop of 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 will evaporate, won't it?!!"

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

"Shouldn't we stop this?!! If we don't, Headquarters is going to get struck out of existence!!!"

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

The Thunder Dragon raised its massive head, its dragon eyes suddenly narrowing as it gazed upon Zephyr like a god.

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

Yet rather than feeling fear, his fighting spirit blazed even more fiercely!

He stomped hard against the ground with both legs!

Boom—!!!

The floor instantly split into deep trenches, dirt blasting into the air!

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

His muscles swelled, and his breathing sounded like the roar of a giant beast.

"Rock, brat! Come at me with everything you've got!!!"

The instant the sky was torn open by lightning—

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

Zephyr leaped fiercely upward, the wind pressure in the high sky exploding against his face.

"Haah—!!!"

He covered his entire body in astonishing Armament Haki, his Black Arm as profound as an iron wall of hell!

But in the next instant—

The Thunder Dragon vanished.

There was no diving trajectory.

No afterimage of movement.

No warning of where it would strike.

There was only—a single crack.

The world was pierced through by lightning.

All they saw was the world turning pure white.

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

The soldiers had no time to react at all.

"Wha—"

Hiss—!!!

Countless arcs burst across the sky. That was not light, but a white plasma glow formed by high-energy lightning directly ionizing 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 on Zephyr's Black Arm amid the violent tremors!

What followed was a roar as though heaven and earth had split apart!!!

Rumble—!!!

That was not thunder. It was the furious roar of the heavens collapsing, a destructive soundwave created by energy released to its utmost limit.

"Aaaahhh—!!!"

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

At the point where the Thunder Dragon and Zephyr clashed high in the air, the temperature instantly soared, even turning the ground red from heat!

Boom—!!!

Then a circular shockwave exploded. The enormous ring of lightning bursting in the sky ripped the tiles from countless nearby 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 withstood this power capable of destroying an island.

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

Zephyr gritted his teeth, veins bulging.

"Uwaaaahhh—!!!

It's not over yet!!!

Hold on for me—!!!"

With an iron will, he forcibly guided the Thunder Dragon's immense energy toward the high sky!

Boom—!!!

Lightning exploded high above into an enormous, blinding white thunderflower!

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

Boom!!!

He smashed heavily into the training grounds, blasting a massive crater into the hard ground!

Dust and smoke scattered in every direction.

The air was scorched.

Zephyr knelt on one knee, one fist braced against the ground as he barely steadied himself.

His Black Arm was covered in cracks, and his arm trembled faintly.

Yet he still bared a manly grin.

He raised his head toward 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 still churned, and lightning still roared.

Rock hovered in the air, looking down over all of Marineford. Blue-white thunderflames flowed deep within his pupils, like a god descending into the world.