The plaza erupted into chaos as Akainu's magma fist collided with Crocodile's sand barrier, the impact sending shockwaves through the battlefield. Steam hissed violently where the two elements met, creating a dense fog that momentarily obscured the combatants.
"Desert Grande Espada!" Crocodile roared, his right arm transforming into a massive blade of compressed sand that sliced through the steam toward Akainu's position.
The Admiral didn't dodge. Instead, he raised his magma-wreathed fist and shattered the sand blade on impact, the superheated rock vaporizing Crocodile's attack instantly.
"Sand against magma?" Akainu's voice carried a note of disdain. "Did Impel Down rob you of your tactical sense as well as your freedom?"
Behind Crocodile, Ivankov launched forward with a thunderous war cry. "Death Wink Barrage!" Multiple pressurized air blasts hammered toward Akainu from different angles, each one capable of demolishing buildings.
Akainu's response was brutally efficient. His body temperature spiked, creating a localized heat dome that turned Ivankov's air attacks into superheated steam. The Revolutionary Army officer screamed as the scalding vapor engulfed them, their makeup running like paint in the deadly heat.
"IVANKOV!" Luffy started forward, but Daz Bones intercepted his path.
"Stay back, Straw Hat," the assassin growled, his arms transforming into gleaming blades. "This is our fight now."
Daz Bones launched himself at Akainu with surgical precision, his blade-enhanced limbs seeking vital points with mechanical efficiency. But his steel met molten rock, and the results were catastrophic. Akainu caught one of Bones's blade-arms in his magma fist, the metal instantly beginning to melt.
"Steel melts at eighteen hundred degrees," Akainu stated matter-of-factly as Bones screamed, his arm dissolving in the Admiral's grip. "My body temperature can reach over two thousand."
A vicious backhand sent the assassin flying into a nearby building, his body leaving a crater in the stone wall.
Inazuma tried to flank the Admiral, their scissor-hands moving to cut through his legs, but Akainu's Observation Haki had already tracked the movement. A magma-wreathed kick caught Inazuma in the ribs, lifting them off the ground and sending them crashing into the plaza stones with bone-breaking force.
"Is this the best Impel Down's Level Six could produce?" Akainu asked, not even breathing hard as he surveyed the fallen criminals around him. Steam continued to rise from his body, distorting the air like a heat mirage.
Crocodile spat blood, struggling to his feet. His desert powers were being systematically countered by Akainu's overwhelming heat, turning his sand into glass wherever they made contact.
"Sable: Pesado!" Crocodile threw everything he had into one final attack, a massive gravitational vortex of sand that should have crushed even an Admiral.
Akainu walked through it.
The sand simply couldn't maintain cohesion in the face of the Admiral's volcanic aura. What should have been a crushing technique became nothing more than heated particles that fell harmlessly around the Marine's advancing form.
"Dai Funka," Akainu said quietly, raising his fist skyward.
The magma fist expanded into a miniature volcano, molten rock building to critical mass before erupting in a devastating blast that engulfed the entire area where the Impel Down escapees had made their stand.
When the smoke cleared, Crocodile lay motionless, his body covered in severe burns. Ivankov was barely conscious, their flamboyant costume scorched beyond recognition. Daz Bones hadn't moved since hitting the wall. Inazuma's scissor-hands had warped from the heat, leaving them defenseless and broken.
"No..." Luffy whispered, his body shaking as he watched his allies fall one by one. "No, not again!"
Akainu turned toward him, magma dripping from his fists like liquid death. "Did you think numbers would make a difference? Justice cannot be overwhelmed by mere quantity of criminals."
The Admiral stepped over Crocodile's fallen form, his boots leaving molten footprints in the stone. "Your friends died because they chose to stand between justice and its target. Just like the fish-man. Just like you will."
**************************************
Meanwhile, at the eastern edge of the battlefield, Boa Hancock had been fighting her way toward the execution platform with single-minded determination. Marine after Marine fell to her petrification abilities, their last sight being her devastating beauty before stone claimed them.
"Move aside!" she commanded, her voice carrying the authority of an Empress. "Luffy needs me!"
But as she rounded the corner of a collapsed watchtower, her path was blocked by a figure she hadn't expected to encounter.
Vice Admiral Gion stood waiting, the famous sword Konpira gleaming at her side. Her pink hair was tied back for combat, and her expression was as sharp as her blade.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that, Boa Hancock," Gion said, her hand resting casually on her sword's hilt. "Fleet Admiral's orders."
Hancock's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You dare stand in my way? I am Boa Hancock! Men fall to their knees at the mere sight of me!"
"I'm sure they do," Gion replied evenly. "But I'm not a man, and I have a job to do."
The realization hit Hancock like a physical blow. Sengoku had anticipated her involvement and positioned the one high-ranking Marine officer who would be immune to her primary ability.
"Perfume Femur!" Hancock launched herself forward, her long leg crackling with Haki as she aimed a devastating kick at Gion's midsection.
The Vice Admiral's sword cleared its sheath in a silver blur, intercepting Hancock's attack with perfect timing. The clash of Armament Haki against Haki created sparks that illuminated both women's determined faces.
"You're skilled," Gion acknowledged, pressing forward with a series of precise sword strikes that forced Hancock to give ground. "But predictable. Sengoku-san knew you'd come running the moment your precious Luffy was in danger."
Hancock's face flushed with rage and embarrassment. "Pistol Kiss!"
Heart-shaped projectiles shot from her lips, each one capable of petrifying whatever it touched. But Gion's blade work was flawless, deflecting each attack with minimal effort while continuing her advance.
"The great Boa Hancock, reduced to parlor tricks," Gion taunted, her sword work never faltering. "Is this really the woman who was offered a position among the Seven Warlords?"
"Slave Arrow!" Hancock's rage manifested in a devastating barrage of petrifying arrows that should have overwhelmed any single opponent.
Gion's response was a technique that demonstrated why she was considered for Admiral rank. "Ittoryu: Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Her single sword somehow created the illusion of three simultaneous strikes, each one perfectly timed to intercept Hancock's arrows while maintaining forward momentum. The Empress found herself giving ground for the first time in years, her usually overwhelming abilities being systematically countered.
"How?" Hancock gasped, genuinely shocked. "How are you resisting my beauty?"
The Vice Admiral's next attack was her most serious yet, a downward slash that carried enough force to split the ground where Hancock had been standing. Only the Empress's superior speed saved her from being bisected.
"You're keeping me from him!" Hancock screamed, desperation creeping into her voice as she heard the distant sounds of combat from the plaza. "He needs me!"
"What he needs," Gion replied, pressing her advantage with a flurry of strikes that forced Hancock into an increasingly desperate defense, "is for his allies to stop making emotional decisions that get them killed."
In the distance, Akainu's volcanic eruption painted the sky orange, and both women could see the aftermath of the Admiral's devastating attack.
Hancock's heart clenched as she realized she was too late. Her beloved was facing that monster alone, and she was trapped here by this woman who seemed immune to everything that made her special.
"I won't let you stop me!" Hancock's voice broke with anguish. "Perfume Femur: Love Hurricane!"
Her most desperate technique created a whirlwind of petrifying energy, but Gion was already inside her guard, the blade of Konpira stopping just short of Hancock's throat.
"Yield," Gion said quietly. "You've lost."
Hancock's eyes filled with tears of rage and helplessness as she stared toward the plaza where smoke still rose from Akainu's attack. She had failed him when he needed her most.
**************************************
Back at the execution platform, Luffy stood alone before Akainu, his allies scattered and broken around him. The Admiral approached with certainty, each step bringing him closer to completing his mission.
"This is how justice works, boy," Akainu said, his voice carrying across the suddenly quiet battlefield. "The guilty are punished. The innocent are protected. And those who stand with criminals share their fate."
From his position on the execution platform, Ace struggled against his sea-stone shackles with renewed desperation. "Luffy! Run! Get out of here!"
Luffy looked up at his brother, then at the fallen forms of those who had tried to help him, and finally at the approaching Admiral who embodied everything wrong with this twisted world.
"I won't run," Luffy said quietly, his voice carrying despite its low volume.