Chapter 159: Divine Avoidance! (2-in-1)
[Akarin's Note: The "(2-in-1)" tag in the title is the author's original designation, indicating that two chapters have been merged into one. I hope you enjoy the long chapter!]
"Clang—!!!"
Sparks flew, instantly extinguished by the biting cold. A gigantic spike of ice, thick enough to impale a galleon, was sliced cleanly in two. The cut was so precise that the surface of the severed ice mirrored the terrified sky above.
Shanks retracted his blade, the famous sword [Griffin], just mere inches from his face.
A fierce gale, heavily mixed with razor-sharp ice shards, screamed past him. His black captain's greatcoat flapped violently behind him, snapping like a whip in the chaotic wind.
"Hah..."
Shanks exhaled, and his breath instantly crystallized into a cloud of white mist. He flexed his fingers around the hilt of his sword. His right arm was already starting to feel a subtle, creeping numbness.
It wasn't fatigue. He had fought battles lasting days against monsters like Kaido without tiring.
No, this was something else. It was the temperature.
Every time his blade clashed with her ice, a terrifying chill—an coldness approaching Absolute Zero—tried to invade his Haki defense and seep directly into his bone marrow.
Shanks' single visible eye narrowed, his gaze growing increasingly serious as he locked onto his opponent.
'Who exactly is this woman?' he questioned internally, his Observation Haki scanning the battlefield continuously.
Her fighting style defied all logic known to the Grand Line.
Usually, Devil Fruit users, even Logia types like Kuzan, required a moment of activation or a gesture to manipulate their element. But this woman... it was as if this entire frozen hellscape was a living extension of her nervous system.
The moisture in the air obeyed her before she even moved a finger. She could condense lethal weaponry from thin air, launching attacks from blind spots that even his Future Sight struggled to predict perfectly because the attacks had no "intent" until they manifested.
Her combat experience, her timing, and her ruthless efficiency did not match her remarkably young and beautiful appearance at all.
Yet, this unknown newcomer was able to prevent him—one of the Four Emperors—from closing the distance for nearly ten minutes.
Most crucially, the endless activation of her ability completely overturned his understanding of "Ability Users."
'She has been casting high-level techniques non-stop,' Shanks noted, watching the ice reform instantly. 'Yet her breathing hasn't changed. Her pulse is steady. How can her physical stamina be so formidable?'
He had originally intended to finish the fight quickly with a burst of overwhelming speed. But now, he found himself firmly dragged into a rhythm of attrition—a deadly dance that seemed to be her specialty.
Standing atop a massive, jagged pillar of ice in the distance, Esdeath looked down at the Emperor of the Sea.
She crossed her arms beneath her chest, her long blue hair dancing in the blizzard she created. Her lips curved into a sick, seductive smile that would have made lesser men tremble in fear.
She was enjoying this.
To her, this wasn't a duel for survival. It was a hunt. She watched Shanks dodge and slash through the storm like a cat watching a mouse navigate a maze of traps, admiring the heroic struggle of top-tier prey facing inevitable desperation.
"Don't waste your effort, Red Hair. You are no match for me!"
Her voice drifted through the howling wind. It was clear, pleasant, and melodious, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness that seemed to lower the ambient temperature even further.
"Kneel and surrender obediently," Esdeath suggested, tilting her head slightly, her eyes glowing with a predatory light. "If you do, I promise to let you be the first to experience my newest concept of the Art of Torture."
She licked her lips, her excitement palpable.
"It involves freezing the nerves while keeping the consciousness awake... It will certainly be... 'very interesting'!"
"Heh..."
Hearing this grotesque offer, Shanks actually let out a low, deeply amused chuckle amidst the life-and-death struggle.
"Swoosh!"
He casually swung [Griffin] in a blur of motion, shattering an incoming barrage of ice daggers into glittering dust. He lifted his head, his sharp gaze piercing through the blizzard to meet hers.
"I'm afraid that's too bad, Miss General," Shanks replied, his tone relaxed but his stance unyielding. "The word 'surrender' happens not to be in my dictionary."
As he spoke, he stepped forward.
One step. Two steps.
He ignored the biting wind cutting at his skin, his determination resolute as he slowly closed the distance toward Esdeath.
"On the contrary, it's you who should be worried," Shanks pointed out, his voice calm. "Using your power so unrestrainedly, condensing all this ice and snow... changing the climate of an entire island... your stamina shouldn't last much longer, right?"
This was a blatant maneuver, and also a test.
In the world of One Piece, any powerful ability—whether it was Law's Room or Luffy's Gears—came with a heavy tax on stamina. This was the irrefutable 'common sense' of the sea.
However, Shanks' 'common sense' sounded like the most ridiculous joke in the world to Esdeath.
"Pfft..."
Esdeath covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking.
"Haha... Hahahahahaha!"
She burst into loud, unbridled laughter, clutching her stomach as if she had just heard the funniest punchline in history. She laughed so hard she nearly doubled over, her voice filled with a mix of genuine amusement and condescending pity.
"Stamina? You... are asking me about stamina?"
Her laughter stopped abruptly.
The temperature plummeted.
The playful atmosphere vanished instantly, replaced by an absolute, crushing pressure that seemed to freeze the soul itself.
"Since you are so naive, Red Hair," Esdeath whispered, her voice echoing from every shard of ice around them. "Then I shall show you... what true 'Despair' is!"
She raised her hand, her white gloved fingers snapping open.
"Try this move next..."
"[Ice Cavalry]!"
The moment the words fell, the entire ice field seemed to let out a painful, grinding groan.
"Crack... BOOM!"
Centered on Esdeath, a visible ring of pale, cold aura exploded outward, sweeping across the battlefield in a heartbeat.
The solid ice surface beneath Shanks' feet vibrated wildly, emitting deafening cracking sounds.
But it wasn't breaking apart.
It was evolving.
Under Shanks' astonished gaze, the ice layer in front of him suddenly rose, twisted, and took shape. It was like watching a fast-forward video of creation. Water molecules aligned, hardened, and sculpted themselves into complex forms.
In an instant, a centaur warrior, constructed of pure, transparent diamond-hard ice and wielding a sharp ice spear, rose from the ground before him!
This wasn't just a statue. It moved. It breathed cold mist.
And this wasn't the end.
One became ten. Ten became one hundred.
They replicated wildly like a virus consuming the earth. In just a few breaths, an endless, shimmering Ice Army appeared all around Shanks, completely surrounding him!
Thousands of Ice Knights stood silently, their hollow eye sockets gleaming with a cold, faint blue light. The sound of thousands of ice hooves shifting on the glacier created a rhythmic, intimidating drumbeat.
The long spears tightly gripped in their hands pointed toward the same target—Red-Haired Shanks!
This was no longer a simple one-on-one duel between warriors. This was a war. A human wave tactic capable of making anyone feel suffocated and drowning in despair.
"This is big trouble..." Shanks muttered to himself, scratching the stubble on his chin.
His Observation Haki fed him terrifying feedback. He could feel that every single [Ice Cavalry] unit contained considerable density and power. Each one was roughly comparable to a Marine Headquarters Colonel or a Commodore in terms of raw durability and striking power.
One was nothing. But thousands?
Thousands of such entities were enough to flatten an entire island and wipe out a civilization in an hour.
"It's not just simple elemental manipulation," Shanks analyzed rapidly, his tactical mind racing. "She can also perform such precise shape creation, automate their movements, and endow them with kinetic energy... the level of her ability development is terrifying!"
He took a deep breath. The freezing air filled his lungs, stinging sharply, but instead of slowing him down, it only ignited a hotter, fiercer passion for battle in his heart.
The serious frown slowly faded from his face.
The corners of his mouth lifted, replaced by a wild, unrestrained, and fearless grin.
"You want to defeat me using human wave tactics?"
Shanks rested the blade of [Griffin] on his shoulder with one hand. The spirit of a man who had conquered the New World returned to him in full force. He looked at the legion of ice with the eyes of a king looking at rebellious subjects.
"It's a shame, missy. Because what I handle best..."
He abruptly swung his sword down, pointing the tip toward the endless Ice Legion.
"Zzzt—!"
Black and red arcs of Conqueror's Haki suddenly sparked into existence. They coiled around the blade like a violently thrashing flood dragon, emitting the sound of a thousand birds chirping and thunder cracking!
"...Is exactly this kind of grand spectacle!"
Before he finished speaking, Shanks pushed off the ground violently.
"Boom!"
The ice beneath his boot shattered into powder. His entire body transformed into a red cannonball, charging forward fiercely, plunging straight toward the thousands of soldiers and horses without a shred of hesitation!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the frozen wasteland, the battle was proceeding in an even more brutal, one-sided manner.
"Boom...!"
Albedo swung her massive black axe again. The strike missed her target by a hair's breadth, but the impact directly smashed the ice layer for dozens of meters around into pulverized dust!
The violent shockwave lifted countless chunks of ice, firing them like buckshot toward Benn Beckman.
"Damn it!"
Beckman's figure blurred as he retreated, showing a rare hint of distress on his usually stoic face.
Sweat mixed with ice shards on his forehead, freezing into ice flakes the moment they dripped down due to the biting cold wind. He panted heavily, his cigarette long since lost in the chaos.
The woman before him—this horned demoness in full black plate armor—completely overturned all the combat 'common sense' he had established throughout his decades of sailing the seas!
He was the First Mate of the Red Hair Pirates. He was known as the man with the highest IQ in the East Blue, a tactician who could dismantle enemies before the battle even began.
But against her, tactics felt meaningless.
Since the battle began, she had maintained a world-destroying level of attack intensity. Yet, her breathing, her movements, her raw physical strength... showed absolutely no sign of weakening.
She seemed to be filled with endless, inexhaustible energy. Maintaining such powerful, heavy attacks during prolonged combat was physically impossible for a normal human.
"What kind of creature is she?" Beckman gritted his teeth.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
After dodging the lethal axe blade once more with a nimble roll, Beckman raised his rifle. The muscles in his arm trembled slightly from the instantaneous exertion of maximum force.
He pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession.
Three bullets, condensed with his current strongest Armament Haki, spiraled through the air. These weren't ordinary lead; they were Haki-infused projectiles capable of piercing the hull of a battleship or blowing the head off a Vice Admiral.
They shot accurately toward the slit in Albedo's helmet and the joints of her armor!
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
However, the expected penetration, or even a momentary obstruction, did not happen.
The bullets, powerful enough to shatter a small mountain, hit the pitch-black armor of [Hermes Trismegistus] and were deflected instantly. They bounced off like pebbles thrown at a tank, failing to leave even a white scratch on the divine metal.
"Tsk..."
Beckman couldn't help but click his tongue, a sense of absurdity and helplessness nearly overflowing in his heart.
"Are you kidding me... What kind of defense is this? We've been fighting for twenty minutes, and I haven't even scratched the paint?"
His muttered complaint, carried by the wind, seemed to finally ignite Albedo's already impatient mood.
"You damned insect..."
Albedo stopped her pursuit. She stood tall, her black wings twitching with irritation. Beneath her helmet, her scarlet golden eyes burned with a mix of rage and utter disdain.
"How dare you waste this mistress's precious time!"
She gripped her axe tighter, the metal groaning under her grip.
"Every minute, every second of mine, should be dedicated to serving the Supreme Lord Suzaku! I should be by his side, attending to his needs, basking in his glory!"
She pointed a gauntleted finger at Beckman.
"Not spent here playing these boring games with a low-level, dirty creature like you!"
Hearing this, Beckman's brow twitched. He subconsciously retorted, his dry wit surfacing even in danger.
"This woman really has an awful personality..."
It was this sentence.
This simple sentence seemed to flip a forbidden switch inside the Overseer of the Guardians.
The air around Albedo changed instantly.
If before it was explosive rage, now it was an Absolute Zero state mixed with divinity and existential dread. A dark, purple aura began to leak from her armor, corrupting the air around her.
Her voice was no longer sharp; instead, it became deep, hollow, and distorted, carrying the majesty of a judgment from hell.
"...What did you say?"
She slowly raised her head. The helmet seemed to vanish, revealing her exquisite face now twisted into a sick, fanatic smile that promised eternal suffering.
"A mere lower creature... a worm... dares... to evaluate this mistress?"
The pressure she emitted caused the ice beneath Beckman's feet to crack spontaneously.
"In this world, the only one qualified to evaluate me, to judge me, to look at me, is the Supreme Sovereign, Lord Suzaku!"
Albedo screamed, her voice tearing through the wind.
"An insect like you, who doesn't even have the right to look up at the dust beneath his feet, dares to commit such blasphemy!"
"Die!"
With a furious roar that shook the glaciers, Albedo didn't use her axe this time. Instead, she abruptly raised one hand, palm facing forward!
"Buzz—!"
A magical beam of light, pitch-black like ink and condensed with a pure aura of negative energy and destruction, suddenly blasted toward Beckman!
It moved faster than sound. Faster than a bullet.
In that instant, all the hair on Beckman's body stood on end. His survival instincts screamed louder than they ever had in his life.
He pushed his Observation Haki to its absolute limit. He saw the future—his death.
"Dodge!"
Just as the beam reached him, he threw his body sideways at an unbelievable angle, defying gravity!
He dodged it!
His combat instinct as a top-tier powerhouse allowed him to successfully evade the direct path of this astonishingly powerful linear attack!
However, he avoided the 'line,' but he failed to account for the 'area.'
"BOOM—!!!"
The magical beam hit the ice behind him and exploded violently. It wasn't a fire explosion; it was a detonation of pure kinetic force and void energy.
A massive black sphere of energy expanded, devouring everything.
The terrifying blast shockwave hit Beckman's back like a physical hammer from a giant.
"Pfft...!"
Beckman spat out a mouthful of blood. He felt his ribs creak and snap. His entire body was instantly seized by the shockwave, and he was violently sent flying, rolling dozens of meters across the jagged ice in a sorry state.
His internal organs felt agonizingly displaced, shifting inside his torso. Pain flared in his lungs, but his veteran will forced him to move. He endured the injuries, planting his hands on the ice to push himself up immediately.
He had to move. If he stayed down, he was dead.
But just as he propped himself up with one hand and his vision cleared from the blur of concussion...
A pair of combat boots covered in pitch-black armor appeared before his face without warning.
Beckman's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpricks. He slowly looked up. Albedo was towering over him, her axe raised high, blotting out the sun.
"Too..."
The word 'late' didn't even leave his mouth.
"You lowlife insect, humble ant, vanish for me!"
Accompanied by Albedo's cold and merciless declaration, the massive battle axe descended.
It shrieked as it tore through the air, smashing down heavily onto his chest with the force of a falling thunderbolt!
"...BOOM!!!!"
This time, there was no explosion.
There was only a deafening, dull crash—the sound of meat and bone meeting divine steel.
Benn Beckman's body, the First Mate of a Yonko, instantly became a blur. Like a baseball hit full force by a bat, he was launched backward at a speed the naked eye couldn't track.
He flew for hundreds of meters, crashing through multiple ice pillars before finally hitting the edge of the ice shelf.
"CRASH!"
He landed on the thick ice layer, but the kinetic force was too great. The ice, thick enough to hold giants, was instantly pierced through as if it were made of wet paper.
"Splash!"
With a huge sound of water displacement, the cold, dark sea swallowed the Yonko's First Mate.
Bubbles rose to the surface for a second, then stopped.
Only a massive, jagged hole, constantly emitting cold air and dark water, was left on the sea surface to mark his grave.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
On the other side of the battlefield, Shanks was a whirlwind of steel.
His figure weaved through the seemingly endless array of [Ice Cavalry], every swing of [Griffin] causing a burst of ice shards to erupt like fireworks.
These ice creations, endowed with life, might not be individually powerful enough to kill him, but their characteristic fearlessness was annoying. They didn't feel pain. They didn't fear death. They just kept coming, dragging him into a quagmire of attrition.
However, just as he shattered dozens of Ice Knights in front of him and prepared to push forward again...
Shanks' movement stopped without warning.
He froze mid-swing.
He abruptly whipped his head around, his red hair whipping across his face. His single eye exploded with unprecedented shock and disbelief, his gaze fixed on the far horizon of the ice field.
He saw the massive hole in the ice.
But more importantly, he felt—or rather, stopped feeling.
That specific 'aura' that had sailed the seas alongside him for decades... that presence that was as familiar to him as his own right arm... had just vanished into the depths of the ocean.
His gaze just managed to catch the final mental image: the shocking hole in the ice, and the fading afterimage of his First Mate, Benn Beckman, being blasted into the sea by that woman's single, devastating strike!
The signal of his life force was flickering, drowning in the abyss.
"...Beckman!"
A low roar, suppressing a volcanic fury, was squeezed out from the depths of Shanks' throat.
Time seemed to stand still.
In an instant, an invisible, terrifying pressure exploded outward, centered on Shanks' body!
"Zzzzt... CRACK!"
It wasn't just wind. The very atmosphere cracked. Spiderwebs of black lightning began to tear through the sky above him.
That was not just simple Conqueror's Haki. That was pure, unadulterated rage, originating from an Emperor of the Sea who had just seen his family hurt.
The ice beneath his feet groaned and shattered, not due to the cold, but because the overwhelming physical weight of his rage seemed capable of crushing the entire island.
"Oh?"
Esdeath, standing on her high pillar, naturally noticed the conclusion of the battle on the other side. She also felt the astonishing change in Shanks' aura.
She watched him with intense interest, a cruel, satisfied smile curling her lips.
"Oh dear, it seems your 'companion' has been fed to the fish," she mocked, her voice dripping with poison. "What a pity. He seemed quite durable for a moment."
She looked down at Shanks, whose face was shadowed by his hair.
"What, do you want to be next?" she taunted, opening her arms wide. "You don't want to end up the same way, do you? It's simple: kneel, surrender to me, and I might consider being gentle when I torture you!"
"..."
Shanks did not reply.
He simply turned around slowly. Very slowly.
When he looked up, his face was terrifying.
His eyes were no longer the sharp and composed gaze of a duelist. They had transformed into a bottomless abyss burning with scarlet flames. The playful pirate was gone. The monster that stopped the Marineford War had awakened.
He glanced at the [Ice Cavalry] units he had just shattered, which were now squirming and reforming from the scattered ice shards under Esdeath's will.
The last trace of 'playfulness' in his eyes completely vanished.
A battle of attrition? There was no time for that anymore.
Beckman was in the water. He was a user of Haki, not a hammer like a Devil Fruit user, but the freezing water in this environment was lethal even to the strong. He needed to end this. Now.
When his companion, his family, was treated like this right in front of him... there was no room for reason, logic, or mercy in this world!
"You... and all of you..."
Shanks' voice was terrifyingly calm. It was the silence of the dead sea before a tsunami hits.
"You have indeed succeeded in making me angry!"
He gripped [Griffin] with both hands this time.
"BOOM!"
An aura far more terrifying than at any previous moment began to awaken within him. A pillar of crimson red Haki erupted from his body, piercing the clouds and scattering the blizzard Esdeath had created!
If the Conqueror's Haki before was merely lightning coiling around the blade, then now, the black and red energy torrent was like an ancient dragon breaking free from its chains. It roared, engulfing his entire body and his entire sword in a thick, viscous layer of power!
The air trembled. Space wailed in agony. The Ice Knights closest to him simply disintegrated from the sheer pressure of his spirit.
Shanks took a stance. The same stance that the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, once used to conquer the seas.
He looked at Esdeath and her army.
"Divine Avoidance!"
[Akarin Note:
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