"Ahhh!"
"Hah, hah..."
Harald suddenly sucked in a cold breath. His chest rose and fell violently, and cold sweat soaked through his clothes in an instant.
His body could not stop trembling, from his fingertips to his spine, as if a basin of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe.
The scene just now - his body turning to sand and scattering bit by bit into the air - had not truly happened.
It was the future predicted by his Observation Haki.
Now, he still stood where he had been. The giant sword was still held horizontally in front of him. The Tailed Beast Bomb had not yet fired.
The wind was still blowing. Snow was still falling. Nothing had changed. What had changed was his gaze.
"This guy... why does he have this kind of power?" Harald's eyes locked tightly on the golden Nine-Tails. His pupils churned with a shock he had never felt before. "Even Rocks couldn't kill me in one strike..."
Then Ron's voice rang out again, still carrying that light, casual sentence.
"Harald, as a giant, eating a giant-sized Tailed Beast Bomb is very normal."
This time, Harald made a completely different choice.
He did not stand in place and wait for that energy sphere to descend. He did not try to block it with his giant sword.
He turned sharply. The ground beneath his feet shattered as he stomped down, and his enormous body shot toward Rocks's direction like a mountain of stone launched from a cannon.
Whoosh.
At the same time, Ron's giant Tailed Beast Bomb was fired.
Rocks was moving away from the explosion range when he suddenly sensed an enormous object rushing toward him from behind at extreme speed.
He turned sharply. The long blade in his hand was already drawn, dark-red Haki wrapping and jumping along the edge as he locked his wary gaze on the giant figure approaching him.
"Harald, what are you doing?!" Rocks's voice carried questioning and caution.
"Don't be stupid, Rocks! I'm only dodging in this direction!" Harald answered.
Before his voice finished, the incomparably huge Tailed Beast Bomb had already swept past the area where Harald had originally stood, flying into the distance before exploding.
Boom!!!
With a tremendous roar, the entire Underworld shook violently. The ground rose and fell as if a giant rag had been crumpled. Cracks spread outward from the explosion center in every direction.
The freezing climate was completely thrown into chaos. Snow and wind were torn apart by scorching air currents, replaced by a dry hot wind carrying the smell of burned earth.
Snow no longer fell in the Underworld.
Most of the surface layer of the ground had vanished, leaving only thick, crisscrossing ancient roots spanning the jagged cracks like a giant net holding up the broken land.
"Screw your uncle! Playing dirty, are you, Harald?!" On the shoulder of the golden Nine-Tails, Kaido jumped in rage, waving his kanabo so fiercely that the air whistled. He wished he could smash Harald's face from half the battlefield away.
Silver Axe said nothing. He leaned against the inner energy wall of the golden Nine-Tails, his eyes resting on Ron's back for a long time.
Only one thought remained in his mind. This guy... was he really the same Ron who had first sparred with Kaido before?
"Doesn't count! Doesn't count! Again!" Kaido was still shouting.
But the distance was too great. Harald did not hear a word.
Harald panted lightly. After steadying himself, he forcefully suppressed the rise and fall of his chest and shouted toward the golden Nine-Tails, "The first move has passed. Next is the second move!"
"Screw your grandfather!" Kaido was still yelling. "I said it doesn't count! Are you deaf?!"
Ron ignored Kaido's shouting. The golden Nine-Tails lowered its giant head slightly. Its golden eyes looked down at Harald from above, and its mouth slowly opened. A low, clear voice emerged.
"What do you mean the first move passed?"
Harald paused slightly, and his grip on the sword tightened unconsciously. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much. That just now was only my first move, first form. After that, there are ninety-nine more forms."
Harald: "???"
Harald's hand froze around the giant sword. His entire body seemed nailed in place by that sentence.
What kind of joke was this?
You mean your one move has one hundred forms?
Are you messing with me?
Kaido stopped shouting too. He simply turned and looked at Ron in disbelief.
Whitebeard felt his worries had been completely unnecessary. If those one hundred forms came crashing down, forget Harald - the entire Elbaf might turn into hell.
Silver Axe stroked his chin and nodded from time to time, as if saying, Learned it. Learned it.
"What are you talking about?! Are you playing with me?" Harald roared.
"Got a problem? My one move can have as many forms as I want!" Ron fired back.
Meanwhile, in the Holy Land Mary Geoise, in the deepest part of the Flower Room of Pangaea Castle, sunlight passed through the tall arched windows and gently spread across the green grass.
A few blue-purple butterflies quietly flew between the flowers. Their wings shimmered with tiny rainbow flecks in the light.
The air was filled with the scent of soil, petals, and a warm breeze. Everything was peaceful, like a painting forgotten by time.
Imu sat on the grass, eyes slightly closed, breathing steady.
A butterfly landed on his shoulder, as if sleeping together with him in this silence.
Suddenly, those butterflies flapped their wings and flew away in panic, as if startled by some invisible force.
Imu suddenly opened his eyes. Dark-red arcs of lightning released around him.
He had dreamed.
The warmth of the scene still lingered at the bottom of his eyes. It had been a blurry man, with very pale skin, dressed in white, white hair drifting in the wind, and a strange black weapon in his hand.
The outline of that thing had been twisted and vague in the dream, yet carried a presence that chilled the heart.
Imu had not seen the man's face clearly.
But he did not need to.
He knew very well who that person was.
It was Nika.
The incarnation of the legendary Liberator. The name buried by history, washed away by time, and erased completely by him.
Joy Boy.
He had returned.
"Joy Boy..." Imu's voice was very low, so low it sounded like a sigh meant for no one. "You choose to return in this era? Do you believe this era is the best opportunity?"