“Drip… drip…”

  “Crackle…”

  Even the air itself was scorched and warped.

  Fmes roared skyward, dyeing the heavens a bzing red.

  With each collision between the two combatants, terrifying waves of heat rolled outward relentlessly.

  All around, the ground melted from the intense heat, turning into molten va that dripped and spttered everywhere.

  It made one’s scalp tingle just to watch.

  “Yikes! The rock is melting into va…”

  “The fmes they’re wielding are way too hot!”

  Witnessing this horrifying scene, Hajrudin, Francis Bangi, Ant King Quinn, and the others couldn’t help but gasp. Regardless of whether it was the Fme-Fme Fruit or the Mythical Zoan Phoenix form, both drastically amplified a Lunarian’s innate fire capabilities, and not just by a little. With temperatures even more extreme than magma, if any of them tried to close in, they’d be burned before getting near.

  And although neither side was exactly holding back, up to now they had only been exchanging basic blows, nowhere near going all out.

  “Whoosh…”

  Just then, after blocking a powerful strike from Sif, Fire Camity Afar sprang away in a fsh. He pressed his hands together, visibly condensing tremendous heat as columns of bzing fire erupted. In an instant, Armament Haki flowed forth; a gigantic pilr of fme shot upward into the sky, carrying unimaginable power and temperature, roaring straight at the enormous, ferocious phoenix in front of him.

  “Fme Ring: Fire Pilr!!”

  “Hot Breath!”

  Letting out a sharp cry, the phoenix opened her pointed beak wide, unleashing a burst of blinding azure-blue fire in retaliation.

  “Boom… boom…”

  Smoke billowed. Fmes raged.

  Sif, towering in height, now assumed a hybrid human-beast form. Most of her body remained humanoid but was drenched in blue fire. She bore both a pair of blue wings and a pair of bck wings on her back, each limb shaped like a bird’s cw, along with several splendid phoenix tail feathers.

  It gave her a breathtaking beauty, regal yet fierce in appearance.

  Suddenly—“Whoosh…”—the fmes behind her head snuffed out, signaling her shift into her most intense offensive state.

  “Wuhuhuh~!”

  Her four wings fpped mightily, kicking up waves of scorching air. In a fsh, she streaked forward at arming speed. Her right hand clutched a dazzling golden sword entwined with bluish fme. Locking onto Fire Camity Afar with her Observation Haki, she swung the bde from a distance.

  “Azure Fme Ssh: Dragon Emperor!”

  Blue fire Fired wildly. Roaring fmes spattered forth, morphing into the shape of a colossal fire dragon, fierce and lifelike—jaws gaping, cws extended. Charged with horrifying heat, it lunged at Afar.

  “Limit: Fire Fist!!”

  The fmes behind Afar’s head fred violently. He roared, his right hand swelling into bzing fire. The intense golden fmes darkened to a magma-like red, burning even hotter. Its shocking temperature began melting the ground beneath his feet. Wielding immense Armament Haki, he unched a mighty punch.

  “Boom… BOOM…”

  “Drip… drip…”

  Fire and sparks scattered. Lava churned and spshed. All around, the scorched nd had turned into a boiling ke of magma, bck smoke rolling off its surface, enough to make hearts pound in fear.

  “Great Fme Ring—”

  At that moment, Afar spread his jet-bck wings. His aura was overwhelming as he bellowed, unleashing a terrifying dark-red Fire that surged across the vicinity in an instant. Half the battered isnd was transformed into a molten ke. The waters surrounding it hissed under the scorching heat, steaming and evaporating in clouds of hot vapor.

  He raised aloft an unimaginably massive fireball, easily several kilometers in diameter, glowing like a bzing sun, radiating fearsome heat.

  “Fme Emperor!!”

  That gigantic “sun” compressed before everyone’s eyes, its size shrinking visibly. Then, with a powerful fp of his wings, Afar hurled it straight toward Sif, holding nothing back in his attempt to reduce her to ashes.

  He was, however, confident that if anything went seriously wrong, El—watching from above and possessed of near-unfathomable power, far beyond any of theirs—could foresee it with his Observation Haki and intervene in time.

  “Immortal Ssh!!!”

  High above in the sky, Sif assumed her complete phoenix form, wreathed in bzing fmes of brilliant blue. At tremendous speed, she winged her way straight toward the onrushing “sun,” colliding with it head-on.

  “BOOM!!!”

  A thunderous explosion rent the air. The rolling waves of heat were suffocating, their intensity almost unbearable. Gaelz was even forced to order Atntis to retreat farther away.

  “Crack… rumble…” The entire sky split into two colors, like a duel between two gring suns in red and azure, each colliding incessantly, leaving the viewers speechless.

  “Rumble… RUMBLE…”

  As a deafening roar shook the heavens, the two figures—one rge, one smaller—were blown apart like cannonballs, evenly matched. Neither paused, instead lunging at each other again, seemingly fearless.

  “—Great Fme Ring!!”

  In the next moment, Fire Camity Afar charged skyward. Both arms became searing fmes, igniting the heavens with fire. Before everyone’s stunned eyes, the entire sky ignited into a sea of fmes, engulfing all in sight.

  “Phantom Fire: Triple Dragon!!”

  “Crackle…”

  The ruined isnd below could no longer endure the infernal heat, dissolving into a sea of magma that bubbled and churned. Even more astonishing was how the endless fire in the sky congealed into three gigantic fire dragons, so massive they blotted out the sun, each jaw open wide, peering down at the phoenix below—now reduced in comparison to a “tiny” figure completely surrounded by a raging ocean of fire. From different directions, the dragons converged, hemming her in completely.

  “Good grief, that’s insane…”

  “So this is Fire Camity’s true power?”

  “It’s the first time I’ve seen Afar use that move!”

  “Wow! Uncle Afar is so awesome—he looks so cool!”

  “Mom, is Big Sis Sif gonna be in danger?”

  “Idiot, your sister Sif isn’t nearly as weak as you think…”

  On Atntis, Dal, Willie, Linlin, Gerd, Hajrudin, Shimotsuki Ushimaru, and others all felt their eyes widen in shock and awe. Many of the younger members of the Kukulkan family were struck speechless, unconsciously worrying about Sif’s safety.

  “It seems that over these past years, Cousin Afar has really developed his Fme-Fme Fruit to a high degree…”

  El, likewise hovering casually in the firestorm as if it were nothing, remarked with a small smile while watching the three fearsome fme dragons in the sky. “With a technique like that, most people would have no chance—certain death.”

  “But for that girl Sif, with her Mythical Zoan Phoenix abilities boosting her, it poses no great threat.”

  “Their fmes are pretty evenly matched… Neither side can easily hurt the other!”

  Bleam