71: Chapter 71 Seizing the Demon-Slaying Order

Enies Lobby, Main Island Plaza.

The perpetually blinding daylight spilled onto the hard bluestone pavement.

A piercing, shrill alarm echoed throughout the entire island, while the roar of Marine commanders blared incessantly from the loudspeakers. Tens of thousands of fully armed elite Marine soldiers arranged themselves into dense firing formations on the plaza.

The dark muzzles of muskets and heavy cannons, glistening with a cold metallic sheen, were all aimed toward the coastline.

The massive dark gold hull of ship slowly docked at the edge of Enies Lobby.

The heavy wapol metal anchor smashed into the seabed rock, kicking up a murky column of water.

The going merry followed closely behind, anchoring to the right of ship.

Rice stood on the figurehead of ship.

His bronze-colored upper body was exposed to the sunlight, the bulging latissimus dorsi muscles on his back resembling two heavy cast-iron shields.

His black eyes looked down at the dense Marine phalanx below.

"Even Haki cannot perceive the lowest-ranking soldiers; stacking numbers is meaningless."

Rice's cold voice carried across the entire ship.

"Go ashore. Crush them."

He bent his legs slightly, and his quadriceps contracted at a high frequency.

Bang.

Rice's figure transformed into a black cannonball, crossing the tens of meters of sea surface and smashing heavily into the center of the bluestone plaza at Enies Lobby.

The massive mass combined with the descent erupted the moment he landed.

The hard bluestone slabs shattered like fragile biscuits, collapsing into a giant crater over a dozen meters in diameter. Spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly in all directions, and the powerful shockwave sent hundreds of surrounding Marine soldiers flying.

The sound of breaking bones and shrill screams instantly shattered the deathly silence of the plaza.

"Fire! Open fire immediately!"

The Marine commander drew his command sword, slashing wildly at the air.

Thousands of flintlock muskets pulled their triggers simultaneously.

Gunpowder exploded, and acrid smoke instantly enveloped the entire plaza.

A dense rain of lead bullets, like a deadly metallic storm, shot from 360 degrees without blind spots toward the bronze-colored man in the center of the pit.

Accompanying the volley of muskets, dozens of heavy cannons in the rear also roared.

Black cast-iron cannonballs tore through the air, carrying terrifying kinetic energy capable of destroying buildings, and smashed toward the coordinates where Rice was located.

Rice stood at the bottom of the crater.

He did not dodge.

The Qi and blood inside his body boiled, and his lightning cells released high-frequency bioelectricity.

The muscle fibers of his pectoralis major, rectus abdominis, and latissimus dorsi instantly crossed and locked. Jet-black Armament Haki surged from his pores like molten iron, covering his entire body.

[Iron Body: Steel] combined with full-body Haki hardening.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—!

Thousands of lead bullets struck Rice's torso.

The soft lead metal could not penetrate the high-density Haki defensive layer at all, instead being flattened into circular lead discs that slid off onto the ground along his muscle texture.

Immediately afterward, the cast-iron cannonballs from the heavy artillery whistled toward him.

Rice lifted his right leg.

Armament Haki wrapped around it.

He kicked out, meeting the falling cast-iron cannonballs.

A dull, metallic explosion rang out.

The solid cannonballs, weighing tens of catties, had their trajectories forcibly altered by Rice.

The cannonballs were reflected back along their original paths at a terrifying speed several times faster than when they arrived.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The reflected cannonballs smashed into the Marine artillery positions.

The hard cast iron smashed the cannon barrels and mangled the torsos of the artillerymen. The shockwave from the explosions completely tore apart the Marine formations, with severed limbs and arms flying everywhere in the smoke.

"A monster... that's a monster who can even be immune to attacks!"

The Marine soldiers looked at the unscathed Rice, and their psychological defenses began to collapse.

The ground shook violently.

Three massive figures, twenty meters tall, took heavy steps, shattering the bluestone slabs, and appeared in front of Rice.

Giant Race guards.

They wore heavy refined steel armor and held giant spiked iron clubs with a diameter of over a meter.

"Tiny human! This is the Domain of Justice!"

One of the Giant Race guards let out a thunderous roar.

He raised his giant spiked iron club high with both hands, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, and smashed it down fiercely toward the top of Rice's head.

The massive mass compressed the air, forming a suffocating, high-pressure gale.

Rice looked up, his black eyes fixed on the falling spiked iron club.

"Large size, equally large openings."

The muscles in his right arm piled up in layers.

He bent his knees slightly, his feet crushing the ground, and shot into the sky to meet the falling iron club.

In mid-air, Rice did not throw a punch.

He reached out with his left hand, fingers spread.

His palm pressed precisely against the lower end of the spiked iron club.

Boom—!

Two extreme forces collided.

Rice's body stalled in mid-air. His formidable bone density and Haki defensive layer forcibly withstood the Giant Race's full-power strike.

The cast-iron forged spiked club suffered severe plastic deformation at the point of contact with Rice's palm.

The Giant Race guard widened his eyes, feeling the massive recoil force traveling up his arm.

A cruel arc curled at the corner of Rice's mouth.

He pulled his right fist back to his waist.

Armament Haki was tightly compressed onto his fist.

He threw a heavy punch at the iron handle of the spiked club.

Crack—!!!

The thick cast-iron handle could not withstand this terrifying kinetic energy concentrated at a single point by Rice and snapped loudly from the middle section.

Cast-iron fragments flew everywhere.

Rice's figure passed through the broken iron club.

[Shave].

The air exploded.

Rice instantly appeared in front of the Giant Race guard's knee.

He lifted his right leg, Armament Haki wrapping around his lower leg.

He delivered a whip kick, sweeping fiercely against the Giant Race guard's patella.

Bang.

The refined steel knee armor was kicked to pieces instantly.

Massive kinetic energy was poured directly into the giant's knee joint.

The massive patella suffered a comminuted fracture, and the meniscus was torn apart.

The Giant Race guard let out a shrill scream, his right leg losing support, and his massive twenty-meter-tall body collapsed onto the plaza like a falling mountain. It smashed a large area of bluestone slabs.

The other two Giant Race guards were shocked and furious at the sight.

They swung their giant weapons simultaneously, attempting to pincer Rice.

Rice stepped onto the shoulder of the kneeling giant.

He jumped off, using the force.

His legs rotated at high speed in mid-air.

[Six Powers Profound Truth: Tempest Kick: Spiral Meat Grinder].

A massive, dark blue spiral vacuum slash shot out with a roar.

The edges of the slash were filled with high-density airflow serrations.

The chest armor of the two Giant Race guards was easily torn apart by the spiral slash, leaving two massive blood grooves on their chests that were deep enough to see bone. Blood gushed out like a waterfall, and their massive bodies fell to the ground one after another.

In less than three minutes.

All three Giant Race guards had been forcibly dismantled by Rice's violence.

On the deck of ship, the members of the White Dove Adventure Group began to land.

Nami wore a yellow raincoat, holding the complete clima-tact.

She pressed the red and blue buttons with her thumb.

High-pressure hot air currents and extremely cold bubbles converged in mid-air.

A pitch-black thundercloud quickly formed above the Marine phalanx.

"Thunderstorm descends."

Nami swung the clima-tact.

Rumble!

Several thick, blue-white bolts of lightning descended from the sky, striking the densest parts of the crowd.

Tens of thousands of volts of electricity instantly destroyed the nervous systems of the Marine soldiers. The high heat carbonized their flesh. Large numbers of soldiers fell to the ground, charred and twitching.

Raki lay on the lookout post of the main mast.

Her wheat-colored skin pressed against the metal stock of her heavy sniper rifle.

The crosshairs locked onto the Enies Lobby tower a thousand meters away. Elite Marine snipers were lurking there.

The windage formula and ballistic drop data taught by Usopp flashed through her mind.

She pulled the trigger.

The Wind Dial released a stream of air.

Bang.

The lead bullet broke the sound barrier, carving a straight trajectory through the air.

A thousand meters away.

A blood spray burst from between the eyebrows of a Marine sniper, and his skull was blown off by the kinetic energy carried by the lead bullet. Brain matter mixed with blood splattered onto the wall of the tower.

Raki didn't pause at all, quickly pulling the bolt, ejecting the shell casing, and aiming again.

One after another, the corpses of snipers attempting to fight back fell from the tower.

Nico Robin stepped down the gangplank in black high-heeled leather boots.

Her tight leather suit outlined her graceful curves.

Her azure pupils swept over the Marine soldiers rushing over with muskets.

She crossed her hands in front of her chest.

[Hundred Fleur].

Pink petals danced in mid-air.

Hundreds of fair arms grew abruptly from the backs and shoulders of the Marine soldiers.

There were no flashy attacks, only the purest destruction.

Those arms that grew out of thin air clamped tightly onto the Marine soldiers' mandibles and backs of their heads.

They exerted force and twisted in the opposite direction.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The crisp sound of cervical vertebrae breaking merged into one.

The heads of hundreds of Marine soldiers were forcibly twisted 180 degrees, and their cervical nerve cords were severed.

The corpses fell in droves, like harvested wheat.

The Straw Hat Pirates also rushed onto the plaza.

Luffy activated Gear 2, steam rising from his entire body, and charged through the crowd like an out-of-control internal combustion engine.

Zoro wielded his three swords, Sword Qi crisscrossing, slicing through the Marines' refined steel shields.

Sanji's legs turned into black afterimages, kicking the jaws of one enemy after another into pieces.

The plaza defense line of the main island completely collapsed under the joint slaughter of the two warships.

Rice ignored the scattered, low-ranking soldiers.

He strode with long legs, stepping over the corpses and blood covering the ground, and walked toward the massive building deep in the island.

The Enies Lobby Tower.

The location of the World Government's intelligence hub.

Hidden there was the Golden Den Den Mushi used to trigger the Buster Call.

...

The top floor of the Enies Lobby Tower, the Chief's office.

Outside the thick bulletproof glass window, one could clearly overlook the tragic state of the entire main island plaza.

Spandam wore a purple suit and a leather mask.

His hands trembled violently, tightly gripping a small snail-like creature crafted entirely of pure gold.

The Golden Den Den Mushi.

The activation device for the Buster Call. As long as the button on the snail's shell was pressed, ten Marineford warships could be summoned to completely erase the designated target from the map.

Spandam looked at the battlefield below, which resembled a meat grinder; his face was pale, and cold sweat soaked the lining of his suit.

"Lunatics... they're all lunatics! Ten thousand elite soldiers, three Giant Race members, and they didn't even hold out for ten minutes!"

Spandam gritted his teeth and looked at Rob Lucci, who was standing in the corner of the office.

"Lucci! Aren't you touted as the greatest Genius in CP9 history! Why don't you go stop that black-haired monster!"

Lucci was treating a puncture wound on his right shoulder with bandages.

He cast a cold glance at Spandam.

"Chief. That man's hardness has already surpassed the scope of an agent's assassination. His Six Powers evolution requires finding openings in actual combat. If I go out now, I'll just be throwing my life away."

Lucci put on a new black vest.

"There are other defensive lines set up by other CP9 members inside the Enies Lobby Tower. Once his stamina is depleted, I will naturally crush his throat at the final moment."

Boom—!!!

Before Lucci finished speaking.

The refined steel explosion-proof door of the Chief's office, weighing several tons, along with the load-bearing walls on both sides, shattered with a roar.

Metal fragments and concrete dust filled the entire office.

Valuable oil paintings were torn, and mahogany bookshelves collapsed.

The smoke had not yet cleared.

Heavy footsteps came from deep in the corridor.

Rice walked slowly into the office, stepping over the ruins.

His bronze-colored torso was stained with specks of blood.

His black eyes skipped over Lucci and locked onto Spandam standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze finally resting on the Golden Den Den Mushi.

"So this is the toy that triggers the Buster Call."

Rice twisted his neck, making a crisp cracking sound of bones rubbing together.

Spandam was so scared he backed up two steps, his back pressed tightly against the bulletproof glass.

He raised the Golden Den Den Mushi in his hand.

"Stop! Don't come any closer! You damn pirate!"

Spandam screamed loudly, his voice becoming shrill due to extreme fear.

"As long as I press this button, the Buster Call will be triggered immediately! Ten Marine warships will blow this island and your ship into ashes!"

Rice stopped walking.

With his hands in his pockets, his eyes were full of mockery.

"Press it. Press it hard."

Rice sneered.

"I... I was just worrying I wouldn't have a chance to test the anti-bombardment limit of ship's new armor. Call those warships over; I'll just happen to dismantle all their cannons and melt them down as scrap iron."

Spandam was stunned.

A madman like this, who wasn't even afraid of death, completely exceeded his scope of understanding.

"Funkfreed!"

Seeing that his threat was ineffective, Spandam drew the sword at his waist.

This sword had consumed the Elephant-Elephant Fruit and was a semi-beast-form weapon with its own life.

The blade instantly transformed, extending dozens of meters, turning into a thick elephant trunk covered in hard steel scales.

Carrying tons of kinetic energy, it smashed down fiercely toward Rice's face.

Rice stood his ground and did not dodge.

He reached out his left hand.

Fingers spread, he grabbed the falling steel elephant trunk precisely.

Boom.

A dull impact sound rang out.

Rice's feet plowed two shallow pits in the mahogany floor.

The biceps and triceps of his left arm instantly swelled.

Jet-black Armament Haki covered his palm like molten iron, spreading along the surface of the elephant trunk.

"A defective product of metal-mixed cells."

Rice's five fingers suddenly closed.

Terrifying grip strength combined with internal Haki destruction.

Crack!

Accompanied by a shrill elephant cry, Funkfreed's steel scales were crushed, and the flesh and blood cells inside were thoroughly destroyed by Haki.

The entire sword suffered irreversible breakage, falling from mid-air to the ground and turning into a pile of twisted scrap iron.

Spandam looked at the remaining hilt in his hand, his legs went weak, and he collapsed directly onto the floor.

The Golden Den Den Mushi in his hand rolled onto the floor.

Rice strode over to Spandam.

He looked down at the shivering piece of trash.

He lifted his right foot.

His leather boot stepped on the tibia of Spandam's right lower leg.

Crack.

The tibia suffered a comminuted fracture.

Spandam let out a pig-like scream, clutching his broken lower leg and rolling on the floor.

Outside the office door, the crisp sound of high heels approached.

Nico Robin walked into the room.

Her azure eyes looked at the wailing Spandam on the ground, the flames of revenge suppressed for twenty years burning in her eyes.

Back in Ohara, it was this man's father who had triggered the Buster Call and destroyed her hometown.

Rice retracted his right foot, bent over, and picked up the Golden Den Den Mushi from the floor.

He weighed the pure gold, then stuffed it into his pocket.

He turned his head and looked at Robin.

"This piece of trash is yours to deal with. Break every bone in his body. Don't let him die too quickly."

Rice instructed in a cold tone.

Robin nodded.

She crossed her hands in front of her chest.

[Six Fleur].

Six fair arms grew from Spandam's back.

They clamped onto his shoulder, elbow, and knee joints respectively.

Without any hesitation.

Robin controlled the arms and exerted force, twisting outward.

"Aaaaaah—!!!"

Spandam's scream tore through the air of the office.

His shoulder joint dislocated, his elbow ligaments tore, and the knee of his remaining left leg was forcibly snapped in the opposite direction.

His entire body was like a broken ragdoll, dismantled into pieces, having lost all ability to resist. He could only lie on the floor, twitching and foaming at the mouth.

Rice ignored Spandam's wretched state.

He turned around, his black eyes locking onto Rob Lucci standing in the corner.

The temperature in the air dropped sharply.

A murderous aura collided violently between the two.

"The bottom-tier cleanup is complete."

Rice clenched his fists, his knuckles making a crisp cracking sound.

"Next... it's time to send you agents, who fancy yourselves as the lapdogs of the gods, straight to the grave."