An endless swarm of soldiers, all wearing the same face, surged forward.
Faced with the conjured Biscuit Soldiers, Gloriosa and Kaie were finding themselves pushed to their limits.
"No matter how many we fell, there's no end to them... a truly troublesome ability," Gloriosa muttered, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
The soldiers were relentless; even when shattered, they were instantly restored, and their numbers only seemed to multiply with every passing minute. It was a war of attrition that was beginning to take its toll. Their opponent was "Thousand-Armed" Cracker, supported by Oven and Amande. While the crew members Kanata had raised were far from weak, holding their ground against such overwhelming odds was becoming an impossible task.
The Chess Soldiers had finally stopped appearing, but they were still vastly outnumbered. The disparity in military strength was undeniable.
"If you break one, I make two. If you break another, I make three!" Cracker boasted, clapping his hands together. "I'll acknowledge your strength for smashing so many of my Biscuit Soldiers, but you'll never reach me at this rate!"
To Cracker, damage was irrelevant. If they broke, he fixed them. If he needed more, he grew them. Even a power as simple as producing biscuits could become a terrifying force when mastered to such an extreme.
"Hey, Cracker! We're heading off to back up Katakuri! Can you handle things here alone?" Oven shouted.
"Don't worry about me, brother! I have this well in hand," Cracker replied with a smirk.
Brulee had sent word that the situation had shifted, and Oven judged that if someone of Katakuri's caliber was struggling, the variables must have changed significantly. He departed with Amande, leaving Cracker to maintain his dominance over the battlefield with his biscuit legions. The subordinate pirates who tried to swarm in were swatted away like flies; they couldn't even serve as a decent distraction.
"Is this all your 'executives' amount to?! Without the 'Giant Shadow' to stomp around, you're nothing!"
Cracker still felt the sting of their previous encounter, where Feyyun had spent the entire battle simply crushing his soldiers underfoot. He had been helpless then, but he had honed his skills since that day. He had grown stronger. And since neither of these two possessed Feyyun's overwhelming physical scale, he saw an opportunity to claim their heads.
"Honey Pretzel!!"
Cracker lunged, his famous blade Pretzel spinning like a drill. Kaie intercepted the strike with her great scythe, but the sheer force of the impact sent her skidding backward across the ice. As a Biscuit Soldier moved in for the kill, Gloriosa intercepted it, her Haki-clad staff clashing against its hardened shield.
Even for her, dealing with a single soldier required her full concentration. She could find an opening to shatter them, but they were repaired the moment they hit the ground. She had rarely faced a Power User this persistent.
"Lady Gloriosa! Are you alright?!"
George arrived just in time to cleave through one of the soldiers targeting Kaie, while Samuel shifted into his hybrid form to pin down another.
"What are these things... the same biscuit freaks Feyyun fought before?!" Samuel grunted, struggling against the soldier's strength.
"I wasn't there for that battle," Gloriosa replied, stepping back to gain some breathing room. "But these soldiers are incredible. They restore themselves instantly, and each one possesses the strength of a high-ranking officer. Do not let your guard down."
"The one I just cut was like stone," George added, gripping his sword tighter. "We need a specialist for this. David!"
"Understood!"
David stepped forward, leveling his revolver with a steady hand. It was a custom-made piece crafted by Katerina. The caliber was massive, designed for bullets they hadn't even managed to put into mass production yet—but for David, physical ammunition was unnecessary.
"Breeze-Breath Bomb!!"
David pulled the trigger repeatedly. No lead flew from the barrel; instead, he discharged the very air he had exhaled, compressed and primed to detonate.
"What? Invisible bullets?!" Cracker braced himself.
Because the projectile was made of air, it was nearly impossible to track, even with Observation Haki. Cracker instinctively raised his shield. The blast detonated on impact, the shockwave rattling his teeth even through his biscuit armor. The explosion was powerful, but against the sheer density of the biscuits, it wasn't enough to shatter them.
David realized he needed more impact. He sprinted directly at the nearest soldier, throwing his entire weight into a tackle.
"Full Body Detonation!"
A colossal explosion erupted at point-blank range, the blast wave buffeting George and the others. This time, the damage was undeniable. Cracker was thrown from within his biscuit suit, his skin scorched from the heat of the blast.
"Damn it! You just blew yourself up...!" Cracker spat, struggling to find his footing.
He glared at George's group, nursing his burns. He could respect the resolve to commit a suicide attack, but if the enemy died in the process, it was a waste.
"You took out one of my soldiers, but at what cost? My biscuits are infinite. Breaking one or two means—"
Cracker clapped his hands to begin the restoration, but a shadow moved through the smoke.
"Dammit, that didn't work...!"
"You're still alive?!" Cracker blurted out.
David stood up, brushing soot off his clothes. "I'm a Bomb Human. I ate the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. My entire body is a bomb—I don't die just because I go bang!"
"Tch... a troublesome power," Cracker muttered.
David's offensive potential was through the roof. Even if the biscuits could be remade, having someone who could ignore the structural integrity of his armor with high-yield explosions was a nightmare. However, David was clearly limited by his surroundings; he couldn't unleash his full power without risking his own allies.
As Cracker shifted his focus to David, a series of wet, snapping sounds echoed from where Kaie had been thrown.
"I don't particularly enjoy this form... but I suppose I have no choice," Kaie's voice had changed, taking on a cold, predatory hiss.
Her lower body had transformed into a massive, powerful serpent's tail, and her hair had writhed into a nest of living snakes. She was the living embodiment of the mythical Gorgon. In her towering beast form, Kaie loomed over the battlefield alongside George, Samuel, and Gloriosa.
"It seems the 'Witch' has plenty of monsters in her crew," Cracker said, his eyes narrowing. "Fine. I'll take you all on at once!"
Clap. Clap.
Dozens of Biscuit Soldiers began to rise from the ice. Facing an entire army commanded by a single man was a daunting prospect, but the Twilight Pirates had no shortage of Power Users themselves. The military strength was finally equalized. Now, they could only focus on the enemy before them and pray that Kanata finished her duel with Linlin quickly.
"We need to end this fast so we can deal with the rest of the brats," George said, readying his blade. "Give it everything you've got!"
"Wahahahaha! He looks tough. I haven't had a good rampage in ages!" Samuel roared.
"Shut up! I'm the one who's going to bury you all!" Cracker screamed.
The battle of Thousand-Armed Cracker versus George, Samuel, David, Gloriosa, and Kaie began in earnest, neither side yielding an inch.
+++
Fresh blood sprayed across the ice.
The blade aimed at Kanata's heart had missed by a hair's breadth, slicing deep into her arm instead. Streusen, having failed his opening gambit, parried a retaliatory thrust from Kanata's spear with his own saber.
Kanata leaped back, putting distance between them. She ignored the blood running down her arm, her eyes locked onto Streusen.
"...I almost forgot you were here," she said coldly.
The "Gourmet Knight" Streusen. He had been at Linlin's side since the very beginning of the Big Mom Pirates. He had survived the era of the Rocks Pirates—a time when killing one's own crewmates was a common pastime—and the fact that he was still alive and whole was the ultimate proof of his skill. He might have been spared for his cooking, but even in a crew of murderers, he had held his own.
"Your Observation Haki is exceptional," Streusen noted. "I thought this was the only moment I could deceive it... but I didn't expect to fail the kill."
Kanata's reaction time had exceeded his wildest calculations. He had intended his surprise attack to be a lethal blow, but the gap in their fundamental strength had saved her. If he had tried this on someone like Octavia, he realized, he would have likely been killed instantly.
"The assassination failed, but I've drawn blood. That will suffice," he said.
With the two of them working together, he believed they couldn't lose. Linlin leveled her weapon, and Streusen dropped into a low stance with his saber, moving in perfect sync with his captain.
"You underestimate me," Kanata said, her voice dropping an octave. "Did you truly think a wound like this could stop me?"
She shifted her grip on her spear. Before she could launch her counterattack, Streusen made his move. He closed the distance with startling speed, his saber whistling through the air. Kanata reacted instantly, manifesting a thick wall of ice to intercept him.
But the wall vanished in a heartbeat.
It wasn't shattered or cut. The ice had been transformed into jelly.
"What?!"
Her defense had failed completely. Kanata barely managed to bring her spear up to block Streusen's saber, the two blades clashing as she scrambled to regain her footing.
Streusen was a user of the Cook-Cook Fruit. In his hands, anything could be turned into food—even the constructs created by another Power User. No matter how sturdy the wall, it was no obstacle if he could turn it into soft ingredients. And with Kanata forced to focus on the Gourmet Knight, Linlin was finally outside her immediate focus.
"Thunder—"
Even as Kanata parried Streusen's relentless follow-up strikes, Linlin lunged forward to take his place. She held Napoleon in her right hand and the thundercloud Zeus in her left.
"—BOLT!!"
A colossal discharge of lightning hammered into the frozen sea. Kanata evaded the strike by a fraction of an inch, her brow furrowing. These two had been together for decades; their teamwork was seamless. It was more accurate to say that Streusen was perfectly reading Linlin's rhythm and filling the gaps.
"Troublesome..."
But Kanata wasn't without options. She manifested another ice wall in front of the agile Streusen, attempting to restrict his movement. He smirked, preparing to turn the barrier into food once again.
"What—?!"
Streusen's power failed to trigger. He slashed at the wall, but his saber simply bounced off.
"I specialize in Armament Haki," Kanata explained coldly. "A trick like yours won't work twice."
She had poured her Haki into the ice, turning it a deep, metallic black. By reinforcing the structure with her spiritual energy, she had made it immune to his fruit's transformation. Her Observation Haki was also sharp; she could see several seconds into the future and discern the truth within an enemy's heart. But it was her mastery over Armament Haki that truly set her apart.
Standing before the flame-wreathed Linlin, Kanata blackened her spear and met the Emperor head-on. Their weapons didn't even touch; the sheer pressure of their opposing Haki clashed in the air between them, the shockwaves causing the very atmosphere to groan.
"You little brat...!!"
"Your flames are lukewarm, Linlin. And for someone of your size, your strength is quite dainty."
Despite the massive difference in their physical statures, Kanata was holding Linlin back through sheer force of will. The heat radiating from Prometheus was intense, but Kanata funneled her Haki into the ice beneath her feet, preventing it from melting. Even the constant series of shockwaves, which would have shattered ordinary ice into a million shards, couldn't break her foundation.
Seeing the front-on assault failing, Streusen used his smaller frame to slip around and strike at Kanata's back. However, he was intercepted by a wolf made of black ice that materialized behind her.
"A wolf of black ice?!"
The very ground beneath him surged upward, forming the massive jaws of a wolf that tried to swallow him whole. Streusen narrowly escaped, leaping back into the air. If he couldn't cut, break, or transform the ice, he had no choice but to dodge. Unless he could overpower Kanata's Haki, he was effectively neutralized.
Linlin roared, swinging Zeus down again, but the lightning was absorbed by a Haki-infused ice shield. They were losing ground.
"Linlin! Don't hold back!" Streusen shouted.
"Don't tell me what to do, Streusen!"
Linlin's rage was at a boiling point. If there were a fire nearby, Prometheus could regain his full strength, but on this desert of ice, no flames could be found. Prometheus's current output wasn't enough to melt through Kanata's defenses.
As the weather worsened, Linlin allowed Zeus to consume the storm clouds swirling above, swelling his power to its absolute limit. She then channeled that energy into Napoleon.
"Flame-Bolt: Cognac!!"
She concentrated the combined might of Prometheus and Zeus into her blade, preparing her most devastating technique. In principle, it was the same as Kanata's God-Slayer—an attack that maximized the synergy between Devil Fruit and Haki. In Linlin's case, it was a strike specialized for pure, unadulterated destruction.
"Sovereignty!!!"
The ultimate technique of the giants. A flying slash of such concentrated power that it left a trail of fire and lightning in its wake. It tore through Kanata's ice walls as if they were mist. Faced with a strike that meant certain death, Kanata chose to meet it head-on.
"Rise, Jotun the Frost Giant."
Kanata funneled her Haki into the frozen sea. The black ice surged upward, reinforced by layer upon layer of Haki until the color shifted from black to a deep, ethereal violet. The ice took the form of the upper torso of a gargantuan giant, its movements perfectly synchronized with Kanata's own. The construct was easily the size of Linlin herself, radiating a chilling, oppressive presence.
"Behold my majesty. Behold my spear."
As Linlin's Sovereignty carved a path of destruction toward her, Kanata remained perfectly calm. Her icy construct mirrored her stance, leveling a massive spear.
She entered a throwing stance.
She extended her left hand to gauge the distance and pulled her right arm back, focusing every ounce of her being.
"Fimbulvetr Gylfi: The Great Winter Calamity."
The strike was like a thunderclap.
The spear, thrown at a speed that shattered the sound barrier, collided with Linlin's Sovereignty head-on. Flame and thunder met frost and steel. Because both attacks were imbued with such gargantuan levels of Haki, the impact blew away the storm clouds covering the island in a single, violent burst.
The frozen sea beneath them screamed as it shattered, unable to contain the energy of the clash. For a moment, time seemed to stop for the three combatants as the two attacks struggled for dominance. Finally, the two forces neutralized each other, leaving a massive, smoking crater in the ice as a testament to their power.
"...I assume you have no intention of retreating, Linlin?"
"Of course not! I'm not leaving until I've slaughtered you!!"
Despite the exhaustion of such a massive exchange, neither showed signs of slowing down. With Linlin wearing a feral, bloodthirsty grin and Kanata maintaining her cool, elegant smile, the two collided once more.
+++
The conflict between the Twilight Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates raged for three days and three nights, a relentless storm of violence that never wavered.
Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the Navy and the World Government issued emergency summons to all high-ranking officers, bracing for the worst possible outcome.
However, on the third day, the tides shifted irrevocably.
A massive reinforcement of Elbaf warriors arrived. There was no question whose side they were on. The Big Mom Pirates, already struggling against the Twilight Pirates' many Power Users and giant executives, found themselves facing the world's strongest army. The outcome was swift: the Big Mom Pirates were forced into a full-scale retreat.
Linlin survived, but her influence was shattered. Though her personal strength remained, her fleet had been decimated—reduced to a size that the opportunistic Navy felt they could finally push back.
In the years that followed, the Twilight Pirates continued their rise. They engaged in constant skirmishes with the ever-expanding Golden Lion Pirates, maintained a tense, unspoken pact of non-aggression with the free-roaming Whitebeard Pirates, and never ceased their hunt for Big Mom's head.
Amidst this delicate balance of titanic powers, a significant amount of time passed... and then, Gol D. Rogerachieved the impossible and sailed around the world.
***
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