EPIC: Path of Demons and Dragons

"Oh, my...it really is gone..." droned a more than three-meter-tall, notably slim man with prominent facial wrinkles, short and curly black hair, and a thin beard and mustache. His outfit consisted of a yellow and gold striped suit, a distinctive Marine coat that draped over his shoulders like a cape, stylish white dress shoes with golden bands, amber-tinted sunglasses, a blue-green dress shirt, and a pink tie. And, though his manner of speaking was notably slow, he was widely regarded as the fastest man in the world due to possessing the power to emit and turn into light.

"Such destructive power...and, according to the report, it was destroyed with a single attack..." remarked a tall, slender, and shapely woman with deep purple eyes and shoulder-length, somewhat curly black hair pulled back into a loose bun. A tiny mole adorned the right side of her face under her red lipsticked lips, and though she wore a Marine overcoat with pink sleeves and gold-and-pink epaulets, the rest of her outfit looked out of place as she wore a deep-cut, hot-pink top with pale pink frills over tight and incredibly short black shorts, exposing her inordinately long legs and the large spider tattooed on the outside of her left thigh. A katana with a white hilt, golden tsuba, and red sheathe adorned her left hip, so it wasn't difficult to imagine she was a capable swordswoman, given her status as a Marine Vice-Admiral.

"Power like that doesn't just appear out of thin air. It's more likely the enemy set up explosives in advance..." contended another Vice Admiral, a man with broad shoulders, an angular jawline, thin eyes, and a sharp nose. He also had a large mouth, high cheekbones, thick eyebrows, and, in place of an ordinary white Marine coat, his had a high collar and a non-regulation, leather-brown grided pattern, matching the base color of his fedora. The rest of his outfit consisted of a broad-collared blue sailor shirt, a sunny yellow haramaki, and leather-brown trousers that cut off halfway down his calves, leading into thin and hairy ankles and large feet adorned with geta-style sandals.

As the two Vice Admirals continued their exchange, the taller man, feared throughout the world as one of the three Marine Admirals, Borsalino, aka Kizaru, stared intently at the raging whirlpools that replaced the Gate of Justice. His opinion concurred with the male Vice Admiral's, but it didn't change that their quarry had destroyed one of the most enduring symbols of the World Government's power, a marvel of ancient engineering whose design and construction method had been lost to time...

'All this because some inbred apes had their feelings and pride hurt while breaking their own laws...' thought Kizaru, closing his eyes and exhaling a faint but profoundly exasperated sigh. He followed whatever order he was given without question, but that didn't mean he was fond of the Celestial Dragons or the World Government. He simply did as he was told. Life was easier that way.

"Oh, my..."

Just as his fleet finished forcing their way through the whirlpools that separated the Tarai Current from the markedly calmer seas of the Calm Belt, Kizaru and the two Vice-Admirals accompanying him, codenamed Momousagi and Chaton, raised their gazes to the sky. They expected him to appear since it was clear he was aiding the Straw Hats in rescuing Ace, but seeing Vahn materialize out of thin air before spreading his pure white and luminous angelic wings wide was a sight to behold.

"Hmm...he's pretty daring to face us over the sea like this..." remarked Kizaru, reaching up to caress his chin with his right hand. He, like many others, assumed Vahn's power was the result of consuming an unknown Devil Fruit, so all they needed to do was knock him into the sea, and that was that. Devil Fruit didn't simply lose their power when submerged; they also lost the ability to move, causing them to sink like stones.

"Shall I test his capabilities?" asked the female Vice Admiral, Momousagi, unsheathing her meito-grade sword, Konpira.

"By all means..." responded Kizaru, his expression and tone flat and lazy as Momousagi took to the sky with extreme speed. Vice Admiral Tokikake sighed behind him, but as he knew better than to get in Momousagi's way when she was on the warpath, he resisted the urge to join in immediately and instead began loosening up his joints...

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'She's fast...' thought Vahn, his expression relaxed as Momousagi closed the distance between them at approximately one meter per second. With his enhanced perception, this meant she was actually traveling closer to 2500m/s, roughly seven and a half times the speed of sound.

Turning his body slightly and bringing the wings on the right side of his body in front of him, Vahn allowed Momousagi to slash at them with her sword, curious to see if she could cut through them. To his surprise, she actually managed to clip one of his feathers, but the force he experienced was comparable to someone resting their palm on his shoulder.

'So only the excess damage bleeds through...that's useful knowledge...' mused Vahn, following Momousagi with his eyes as she attempted to slip into his blind spot and around his wings by kicking off the air. For a brief moment, her speed more than quintupled, but what awaited her when she slipped around his wings was his left hand, fingers spread wide and a tiny golden sphere of light forming in his palm.

BOOM

From the perspective of the observers on the battleship, Momousagi was sent flying as Vahn's ki attack exploded against her raised guard. Instead of crashing into the sea, however, she flipped over a few meters above it, kicking off empty air and producing a shockwave as she rebounded back at Vahn with only superficial damage to her clothing.

'This is new...' thought Vahn, his brows rising slightly as six slit-like eyes opened on the slow-motion Momousagi's forehead, wine-red in color with black sclera. At the same time, the lower half of her body metamorphosed into a large, surprisingly cute-looking spider covered in white fur with pink accents. It even had a head with eight wine-red eyes, two of which were large, glossy, and reflective.

Just as Vahn was wondering how Momousagi planned to attack him, her spider lower thrust its abdomen forward, revealing large spinnerettes that resembled a five-petaled flower. Unsurprisingly, a large quantity of spider silk abruptly discharged as a large net that unfurled nearly ten meters in diameter. He promptly stopped it using his domain, but that only seemed to encourage the now lavender-pink-haired Vice Admiral, who must have been some kind of jumping spider Zoan as she darted around in the air at high speeds, cocooning him with her silk.

(It would appear she consumed the Kumo Kumo no Mi, Model: Arachne, a Mythical Zoan that allows her to transform into an Arachne-Human with exceptional agility and the power to temporarily transform those she bites into Arachne-like slaves) revealed Sis.

'Oh? I can see how that would be useful when dealing with pirates and other criminals...' thought Vahn, half-turning in slow motion as Momousagi attempted to stab him from behind with her katana after creating a gap in the webs forming his cacoon. Infusing Armament Haki into the tip of her sword allowed it to puncture his wings and the lower right side of his ribs, but only a half centimeter.

"You're strong..." remarked Vahn, causing the determined grimace on Momousagi's face to intensify. Before she could retort that she didn't need compliments from a criminal, however, he opened his wings with considerable force, smacking her through the silk cacoon, which had a tensile strength exceeding reinforced steel. Then, as he felt it could be useful, Vahn stored the cacoon in his Inventory.

'Oh...'

Before Vahn could take stock of the situation at sea level, a golden light obscured his vision from his left side. His perception increased to be able to perceive it, but he barely turned his head and eyes a micrometer before a powerful impact sent him crashing into the sea.

'Yoruichi clearly wasn't going all out when she sneak-attacked me in the past...' thought Vahn, momentarily blinded as the left side of his face and head had been deformed by Kizaru's kick. It wasn't nearly as heavy as he was anticipating, the result of Kizaru having to slow down as he retook a physical form, but if not for his Aura of Karmic Protection and nonsensical regeneration, he might have been forced to respawn.

Regaining the integrity and structure of his face, Vahn surprised Kizaru, Momousagi, Chaton, and virtually every other Marine present by rising from the sea. However, as the seawater had been boiling around him due to the heat emitted from his wings, Kizaru, at the very least, assumed he had been protected by a layer of steam separating him from the water.

"I see you're going to be more troublesome than I assumed..." droned Kizaru, the soles of his white dress shoes glowing gold as he stood in the air as if it were solid ground.

"You have no idea..." responded Vahn, adopting a determined expression and a sly smile even as Kizaru appeared right in front of him instantly, the heel of the Admiral's right foot dropping toward the crown of his head like an ax or guillotine. This time, however, Vahn exuded blue Touki from his body, enhancing his durability more than ten times over as his hair shifted from gold-tinted white to inky black, matching the hue of his now bat-like wings.

Seeing Vahn tank his kick and the sea below indenting as if pressed down by an invisible bubble, Kizaru's brows creased ever so slightly. His ability to emit and transform into light didn't enhance his perception, but he had felt his attack slowing as if moving through thick molasses. He interpreted this as an extension of Vahn's apparent ability to manipulate the space in his immediate surroundings, but the dark-skinned youth's sudden change in appearance left him baffled.

"When you fight me, you're never fighting just me..." hummed Vahn, the smile on his face becoming more prominent despite Kizaru's heel visibly indenting his head. At the same time, he raised his hands, causing the sea around him to rise as multiple tendrils that quickly closed in on the empty space where Kizaru had been moments prior.

"Water manipulation...that's not something you see every day..." remarked Kizaru, a hint of severity flashing across his eyes as Vahn stared up at him with a smile, encircled by an accelerating vortex of seawater. The change in his appearance was the result of emulating the Demonic Power of Sona and Serafall, so while it was more difficult than he expected, he could feel and manipulate the water within his domain as if it were an extension of his body.

"You haven't seen anything yet..." hummed Vahn, six of the seven sets of wings on his back changing color and shape. Eight remained those of a bat, but their colors changed to crimson, silvery-white, dark blue, and a matte shade of purple, interspaced by pristine white, bluish-purple, and storm-black angel wings. Below were three flaming tail feathers, but the most notable change was to Vahn's hair and eyes, the former shimmering with the same colors as his wings while the latter burned with the seven-winged pattern that rotated behind him like a dharmic wheel.

Before Kizaru could take in all the changes to Vahn's appearance, his pupils contracted to the size of pinholes as he noticed his surroundings had changed. Rather than standing above the sea, he and Vahn were now high in the air with a tremendous quantity of seawater surging toward him from every angle like serpents. At the same time, the clouds around them rapidly condensed, darkened, and began crackling with thunder as Vahn appeared to manipulate the various elements of nature with a malicious grin on his face...

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