Chapter 161: Justice (1)

The crimson dragon opened its bat-like wings wide.

Its size, reaching up to one-fourth of the entire Mariejois's size, far surpassed even that of the giants.

Then, it roared.

The ferocious wind was blown along with a cranky noise.

Smoker shielded his face. His feet skidded back from the sheer pressure of the wind.

'Imu—no, that isn't him. The most likely scenario is,'

Strangely, the voice that was noisily speaking within him wasn't speaking anymore.

'He gave up his soul to the devil of the fruit.'

Thankfully, the dragon didn't leave the area. Rather, its slitted, crimson eyes were locked onto Smoker with pure hatred.

As long as Smoker remains alive, the dragon won't leave.

'If so, the question is... is it possible for me to beat that thing in my current state?'

Standing back up alone was a taxing action to him now. After all, the utilization of 'Seimei Kikan: Zenith' had a huge energy requirement.

His eyes, staring back at the dragon with cold gleams in them, were back to that of hazel colour, being unable to maintain the aether draped around his eyes.

"..."

Smoker, standing under the world's worst calamity, could only draw one conclusion,

"...If it's impossible, make it possible."

Seimei Kikan: Ghost Body.

Smoker breathed out, and the trail of smoke exited his mouth.

If Smoker couldn't move in his current state, he simply had to make his body lighter—as light as a gas that freely floats in the sky.

The dragon opened its mouth wide. In front of its agape mouth, the dense, clustered, crimson energy appeared, enlarging by any second.

The light shone by such energy was so intense, intense enough to illuminate the entire area in red.

The temperature was escalating. The broken pieces of Mariejois began to smoke, being scorched by the heat generated from the light alone.

And then,

'...Soru.'

Right at the moment when such energy was blasted, drilling through the broken pieces of Mariejois and through the entire Red Line beneath, Smoker moved.

Evading such a vigorous beam of energy at the last second, Smoker then lost his balance due to the force of said beam and was sent flying.

"Huff... huff..."

Quickly regaining his balance, Smoker saw through his eyes that the dragon was about to blast another one of the same magnitude. Gritting his teeth, Smoker kicked his feet off the air.

Soru plus Geppo plus the additional propulsion granted by the Devil Fruit power—

SWOOSH!

His feet, morphing into smoke, blasted Smoker from his spot as if they were an engine.

—White Launcher!

The beam of crimson energy tailed Smoker as the dragon turned its neck towards him mid-flight.

Said beam flashed throughout the sky, splitting everything it came in contact with.

Be it the cloud, sea, or land whatsoever, nothing was left intact upon their contact with the beam.

The dragon then flapped its wings. One flap not only generated hurricanes but split the part of the Red Line which it was standing atop of.

Maintaining the continuous stream of energy beam out of its mouth, the dragon began to chase after Smoker who was moving at rapid speed—albeit much slower than when he was in the state of 'Seimei Kikan: Zenith'.

"Huff... huff... how ironic."

Smoker, watching as the dragon started its chase after him, remarked in between his quickened breathing,

"You, who value order above all, have become the very definition of destruction itself. Or..."

Smoker's eyes narrowed,

"Perhaps, this means that 'order' wasn't what you truly were seeking."

Imu's desire lied in that of 'control', rather than 'order'.

And order and control are two different things.

As the beam was continuing to chase after him, cutting and burning through the vast sea underneath, the crimson aura encased the Red Line just in front of Smoker.

Immediately after, such a gigantic Red Line crumbled down into thousands of pieces. Those pieces, instead of falling, were kept afloat by the crimson aura that surrounded them, and,

were simultaneously thrown at Smoker.

'Feel it.'

Thought Smoker, to himself,

'See through it.'

His eyes gleamed in red as he read the future.

From his back, the destructive beam was approaching.

From his front and sides, thousands of red pieces of Red Line were flying in at a rapid speed.

'Within this complex network of projectiles...'

Smoker gathered his focus on the operation of the Observation Haki. His nose bled from the stress that was induced in his brain, but he gritted through it.

'Find a path. If there isn't one, make one.'

Smoker's form blurred before appearing on top of one flying piece of Red Line.

Another piece then came in flying from right above, crashing onto the piece that Smoker was standing on. By then, Smoker was already gone, flying through the sky above.

The beam was blasted through the space on his left. The force caused Smoker to lose his momentum and get flown off to the side.

In this state, Smoker raised his hand upward and generated a huge hand of white smoke.

PUFF!

One piece of Red Line crashed down from the above as if resembling that of a meteor, but Smoker's smoke managed to cushion out the blow.

As this was happening, Smoker morphed his body into smoke and spread out, such that the piece of Red Line flew through him without inflicting any damage.

"Huff, huff,"

Smoker reformed his body to that of a human form and kicked his feet out of the air right away.

BOOOOM!

Hundreds of pieces slammed against one another a moment after he did so.

Smoker landed on the Red Line, which has become much shorter than what it used to be. Taking in a breather, he then blurred out of his spot,

BOOOOOM!

as the energy beam crushed the land on which he was standing.

The impacted region of the Red Line was broken into several pieces. A large crack appeared below it, traveling all the way down to its root.

The fallen pieces caused the eruption of water. The water splashed all over the area as Smoker flew through it, evading the never-ending chase of the beam and meteor-like pieces of Red Line.

Then, Smoker flinched as he read the future. He looked down and saw that the sea, now giving off a crimson glow, was churning unnaturally.

The water soared up high into the sky just as how knock-up streams do. Following its suit, several other regions of the sea all erupted in the same manner, traveling against gravity and logic.

Then, those pillars of water curved. They, changing their directions, began their chase after Smoker as well.

The storms, enlarged upon each flap of the dragon's wings, had become so large that Smoker was having a hard time trying to keep himself aware of the situation all around him.

The pieces of Red Line were ground into sharp specks of dust.

The dragon roared once more, momentarily ceasing the beam of energy. It then lifted its head to the sky and blasted a series of energy beams upward.

Those beams traveled in an arc, flying at the first moment before falling just as how shooting stars do.

Smoker stared at the incoming disasters.

Breathing out a huge puff of smoke, Smoker placed his palm at his back and blasted a huge load of white smoke, one that provided him enough force to propel himself toward the red dragon.

SWOOSH!

One energy beam fell past Smoker and crashed into the sea, generating a huge dome of energy followed by an explosion.

BOOOOOM!

Another one passed right by his side and struck another section of the sea.

Numerous beams of energy fell endlessly as the red dragon continued to fire the beams out of its mouth, toward the sky.

Those beams, falling to the sea and bombarding it, ended up generating a huge amount of boiling-hot steam.

Smoker, finding this to his advantage, held his hand out to his surroundings filled with steam in an attempt to control them.

However, they didn't budge.

BOOOOM!

Gritting his teeth, Smoker quickly moved. His form blurred, and right on the spot where he stood, tens of rock pieces flew from all sides and crashed against one another.

Smoker, appearing far back from where he was a second ago, realized that his inability to control the steam was not only the doing of the dragon's ability to 'control', but also its Haki—the combined will of Imu's final wish and the devil's pure ambition.

'...This won't do.'

Smoker, who was now standing at the top of another area of the Red Line, closed his eyes and thought to himself.

The steam that was floating all around the atmosphere was swirling along with numerous storms, and for the first time, Smoker couldn't see through it.

'Dodging like this without any plan will do nothing but deplete my stamina even further. Furthermore, I cannot tell for how long that creature can sustain these attacks.'

Smoker released Seimei Kikan: Ghost Body. With his eyes kept closed, he focused on his instinct, one that was empowered by his Observation Haki.

Though he couldn't see, he could sense. The smoke which he emitted during his long flight reached down his spine and told him, of what was going around the area.

Thousands of attacks, be it those energy beams, pieces of meteor-like rocks, wild storms, or scorching-hot steam, were flying toward Smoker, simultaneously.

Smoker focused on those attacks that contained the dragon's hate-filled intent to kill him.

And, right before they landed on Smoker,

"Seimei Kikan: Zenith."

Smoker morphed his body into that of aether for the second time—except that this time around, his entire body, even the skin, has turned into aether.

Within 0.2 seconds, all the attacks from the dragon struck Smoker at once. The bright explosion arose, taking over the entire chunk of Red Line that Smoker stood atop.

Then, after a second passed, Smoker—seemingly not having taken a single damage—released his Seimei Kikan.

"Huff... huff..."

Smoker huffed, choking for a breath. Through the cloud of dark smoke that was generated following the enormous explosion of Red Line, Smoker was found to have been knocked upward, straight at where the dragon was floating.

Be it the rock pieces that were flying everywhere or the rain of energy beams, they were all gone now.

"Aether... as I said before... doesn't belong in this world. By converting my entire body into that of it..."

Smoker muttered,

"I technically am placing myself in an alternate, separate dimension, one unreachable by anything that exists in this world."

Simply put, all the attacks earlier on phased through his body.

And now, Smoker was in front of the dragon, with his right hand clenched tight.

Though his Devil Fruit power didn't respond to his will due to him having overused it, the Haki surely did.

The black lightning, crackling vigorously, surfaced from Smoker's fist. He blasted said fist straight onto the dragon's head,

"Galaxy Impact!"

The air shook from the impact of the blow. The sky momentarily darkened. The wind blew out in a ripple-like fashion, centering the dragon whose head was crushed downward.

However, Smoker frowned. The dragon, instead of being blasted back, was glaring at him; it withstood his attack.

Then, it slammed its claw straight at Smoker's chest and caused him to fly all the way back at one section of the half-destroyed Red Line.

Smoker crashed into its side, and upon his crash, the dust arose.

"Huff... huff..."

When the dust cleared, Smoker was found with his back embedded into the wall.

Watching as the dragon was generating another beam of energy, aimed straight at where Smoker was stuck, Smoker grimaced.

Then, a gigantic blast of crimson energy was shot at Smoker. Smoker watched helplessly as his entire surrounding brightened up in crimson, and—

—two individuals suddenly appeared in front of him.

BOOOOOM!

A wall of magma appeared ahead, momentarily blocking the advance of the crimson beam.

"You are..."

Smoker widened his eyes.

Sakazuki and Borsalino—they were in front of him, wearing stoic expressions.

"BORSALINO!!!"

Then, Sakazuki, as his justice coat fluttered against the wind, shouted,

"I CAN'T HOLD THIS FOR LONG!!! HURRY!!!"

Borsalino's sunglasses gleamed as he quickly grabbed Sakazuki and Smoker by their clothes.

SWOOSH!

The three of them disappeared from the site at the last moment before the crimson beam broke through the magma wall and struck the Red Line behind.

Appearing on top of one piece of solid cloud that was floating on the sea—one that used to serve as the part of Mariejois—Borsalino released Sakazuki and Smoker.

Smoker, with no strength in his body, fell into a lying position, huffing.

"You two..."

Amid his heavy breathing, Smoker managed to mumble out.

"...We came here, seeking for an answer. Instead, this is what we get to see—no."

Sakazuki stood with his back facing Smoker, gazing at the dragon who slowly turned its body to face them from the sky.

"That creature... perhaps that thing was the answer that we needed. At the very top of the world, the apex which I believed to be justice... there existed nothing but a demonic creature of destruction."

Sakazuki spoke weakly as he looked at his shaky hands.

Glaring at the dragon, he then growled angrily,

"WHERE IS JUSTICE IN THAT?!!"

"..."

Borsalino frowned.

The dragon, looking down menacingly at the three of them, flapped its wings as it roared wildly.