Chapter 445: Clash of Titans: Sakazuki’s Rampage

“Vice Admiral Onigumo? Get to Sophia Kingdom and back us up—now!” Another member of the Holy Knights, shocked by his comrade’s grievous state, quickly pulled out a Den Den Mushi and called for Onigumo’s help from afar.

But no matter how fast he moved, distance couldn’t be bridged by longing alone—Onigumo was still two days away, even at top speed.

“Damn it!”

Hearing how far Onigumo was, he smashed the Den Den Mushi in fury. “We’re on our own.”

With Moonwalk, he dashed straight at Sakazuki and launched a fierce punch.

Sakazuki just sneered coldly. A gaping hole suddenly appeared in his body, letting the punch pass right through. Then he raised his right hand, coated in Armament Haki, and slammed it down on the Holy Knight’s head.

Sakazuki’s sudden shift caught him off guard. He was sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing through several buildings outside the castle and dragging a trail of wreckage dozens of meters long. At least a dozen buildings were reduced to rubble before he stopped.

“Tch, even his martial arts are this strong?” The Holy Knight sprang out from the wreckage, clearly rattled.

Most people think that if someone develops their Devil Fruit ability to the limit, they won’t have time to hone their physical strength.

So usually, their combat skills lag far behind their Devil Fruit powers. But with Sakazuki, it was like those rules didn’t apply—he was a true all-rounder.

“Damn, when did monsters like this start appearing on the seas?”

It’d been over a decade since he’d left Mariejois. Had the world outside really changed this much?

Sakazuki didn’t seem in any rush to finish things—after all, sandbags like these didn’t come around every day.

Very quickly, Sakazuki and the two Holy Knights were trading blows back and forth, fist for kick.

From the outside, it looked like an even match—neither side gaining ground.

But look closer, and it was clear: the Holy Knights’ attacks barely scratched Sakazuki. Every heavy punch Sakazuki landed left its mark on them.

“Commander is incredible!”

“Yeah, he really is!”

“Does anyone know who those two guys are?”

“I do, I do! Those are members of the Holy Knights from the World Government. I hear each one’s got power on par with an admiral—and there are maybe thirty of them!”

“So that’s who they are.”

“No wonder the World Government’s so terrifyingly strong! It makes sense we had to keep a low profile for over a decade.”

“But if we’re showing ourselves so blatantly now, doesn’t that mean we finally have a way to take on powerhouses like them?”

“Exactly, that has to be it!”

As the fight raged on, revolutionaries packed the city walls, watching tensely.

The king had already been publicly condemned and executed. The new king was a low-ranking revolutionary commander, there to unify the kingdom’s power and bring fresh blood to the Revolutionary Army.

But with the battle dragging on, the Holy Knight missing an arm finally began to falter.

One of Sakazuki’s strikes triggered magma to burst from the ground, instantly incinerating the struggling knight, leaving nothing behind—not even bones.

“You treating us like sparring dummies?” The last Holy Knight left was breathing hard, fear creeping in.

Sakazuki still had plenty of stamina, making the whole clash look like a game of house with kids. It was an insult they couldn’t ignore.

“Hahaha, sorry, guess you caught me!”

“But since you noticed… let’s end this pointless fight.”

Truth was, Sakazuki was starting to get bored. Their strength couldn’t challenge him at all—hell, he enjoyed sparring with Kuzan more than this.

The next instant, the Holy Knight seemed to sense danger and threw his arms up to shield himself.

Sakazuki sprang right in front of him, moving so fast his arrival cracked the air with a sonic boom.

He wanted to end things quickly without wrecking more of the land.

Sakazuki pooled all his strength into a single punch—a punch so powerful even he was surprised by its force.

When it landed, the air around them seemed to freeze for an instant.

The Holy Knight’s eyes went wide with shock as he stared at Sakazuki.

That fist loomed larger and larger, and up against that kind of terrifying power, he couldn’t even muster the will to resist.

Boom!

With a deafening roar, the knight’s body was obliterated into a spray of blood, leaving a crack in the earth stretching for hundreds of meters.

Just like that, the fight was over.

And similar battles ignited across three other seas, each led by Kuzan, Borsalino, and Kuma, turning the tables on kingdoms allied to the World Government.

With Den Den Mushi jammers in place, the World Government wouldn’t even know for a while.

Meanwhile in the New World, Karl stood silent, staring at the glowing System Panel before him.

[Host: Lux D. Karl (Bounty: 5,000,000,000 Berries)]

Integrated Templates: Outcast – Elder Heavenly Master, Steal Moon September – Liuxing, Black-Armored Garen!

Skills: Mastery of Eight Elements, Advanced Three-Color Haki, Golden Light Spell, True Fivefold Thunder, Silence (Rule Skill: Interrupts any attack being prepared by anyone or anything!)

Talent: Titan Strength

Wealth: Hundreds of millions of Berries

Items: 52 Rejuvenation Pills, Halberd (Lu Bu’s Halberd), Superman’s Underpants, Shrink Gun, Miss Qiu

Devil Fruit: Energy Fruit

Evaluation: One of the top fighters on the seas. Overall strength: Overlord class!

Ultimate Mission: Defeat Im – Completion 1%!

Today, Karl used up all his remaining lottery draws, landing on Black-Armored Warrior Garen. Loving the character, he instantly applied the template—and it turned out to be a fully awakened Garen.

With that, his strength took another leap, reaching true overlord status. Plus, he drew Miss Qiu.

But what really surprised him was that little red line at the bottom: the completion rate had gone from 0% to 1%.

Karl stroked his chin, deep in thought. “But I didn’t actually do anything… Did reaching overlord-level power bump the gauge up by 1%?”

“So does that mean I need to grow two more levels to take down Im?”

“Or did something happen I haven’t noticed yet?”

No matter how hard he thought, Karl couldn’t grasp what had triggered it. Not even that surge of power could lift his mood.

“Has anything big happened lately?”

Perospero, catching the question as he approached his father Karl’s seat, quickly replied, “Father, nothing major has happened in the New World lately. If anything big’s gone down, it’s likely out in the Four Seas—we haven’t heard much from there. I’ll personally go investigate.”

Karl waved him off. Right now the only thing he wanted was to figure out what could have nudged the progress bar up by 1%.

If he knew what caused that increase, he could speed up his strategy. After all, the jump from 0% to 1% was always the hardest.

Seeing Karl’s gesture, Perospero bowed and hurried off to look into whatever might have happened in the Four Seas.