Three days after the Flame Festival, the surface of Wano Country's inner sea had been completely frozen over by Kuzan's Hie Hie no Mi.
The sea that once shimmered with countless wavelets had become a crystalline, transparent ice plain. Under the sunlight, it refracted dazzling light, like a massive sapphire embedded in the earth.
The elite members of the Beasts Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates stood in neat rows on the ice, holding their breath as they watched the confrontation in the distance. The air was thick with a suffocating tension; even the sea wind seemed to have frozen.
Several dozen meters away, Kaido of the Beasts and Whitebeard Edward Newgate stood facing each other. The aura emanating from the two men collided on the ice as if it were a physical force, seemingly dropping the surrounding temperature another few degrees.
"Gurararara! Kaido brat, let's see how much that old apprentice has grown!" Newgate's hearty laugh echoed across the ice field. He gripped Murakumogiri with both hands, planting it lightly on the ice surface. The hard ice layer immediately cracked like a spider's web, fissures rapidly spreading out dozens of meters.
"Wororororo! Newgate, I also want to test exactly what level I've reached now," Kaido's voice was low and full of power. He slowly raised his right hand, clenching it into a fist before him. His knuckles cracked with a clear sound, as if he were crushing the very air.
When Kaido first crossed over to this world, he thought his "cheat" was simply an all-round enhancement of his abilities.
But as time passed, he gradually became aware of the terrifying nature of this enhancement. When he fought Zephyr, Kaido was still adapting to his newly gained power. It was in last year's battle with Garp that he truly understood the astonishing extent of his transformation. Even without using Haoshoku Haki infusion, relying solely on his seemingly inexhaustible Busoshoku Haki and terrifying physical attributes, he was capable of dragging Garp into a war of attrition. However, Kaido had chosen to hold back at the time because he deeply understood that the Beasts Pirates still needed time to grow. Revealing his full strength too early would only attract excessive attention from the World Government.
Beyond the leap in his physical attributes, Kaido's soul had also undergone a mysterious change. It was difficult to put into words, but he felt a fundamental elevation. This qualitative change at the soul level was undoubtedly a massive advantage for Kaido.
At this moment, Kaido's focus was entirely on the battle before him. He leaned his body forward slightly, took half a step with his left foot, and bent his knees into a perfect charging stance. The next moment—
BANG!
With a tremendous sound, the ice where Kaido had been standing instantly shattered. Spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly in all directions. His figure vanished from the spot like a bolt of lightning, the several dozen meters of distance rendered meaningless.
"Raimei Hakke!"
Kaido's voice exploded in the air. He appeared instantly before Newgate. The Hassaikai, gripped tightly in his right hand, was coiled with stark white arcs of electricity as it shot forth with destructive force straight for Newgate's head.
"Gurararara! Come at me!"
Facing this thunderous strike, Newgate showed not a hint of underestimation. He gripped Murakumogiri with both hands, a white halo shimmering over the blade as the power of the Gura Gura no Mi condensed along its edge. With a fierce shout, Murakumogiri swung out to meet the spiked club.
CLANG——!
The moment the two divine weapons collided, a terrifying shockwave spread outward. The deafening sound of metal-on-metal impact forced the distant spectators to cover their ears. The ice beneath Newgate's feet began collapsing over a large area. The ice surface for dozens of meters around sank by half a meter overall, with the core area where he stood dropping several meters deep.
"Rah!" Newgate let out a mighty roar. Muscles bulged all over his body, veins squirming like coiling dragons beneath his skin. Using the reaction force from the ground, he explosively exerted strength, swinging Murakumogiri and forcefully knocking Kaido's spiked club back.
"Kundali: Ryuseigun!"
Kaido, forced back several steps, didn't pause for even an instant. He closed the distance again. The Hassaikai in his hand became a blur of afterimages as he unleashed dozens, even hundreds of attacks in an instant, enveloping Newgate's entire body in a lethal barrage of club shadows.
"Gurarararara!" Newgate's hearty laughter echoed on the ice. The Supreme Grade sword Murakumogiri in his hand gleamed with a chilling light. The power of the Gura Gura no Mi completely covered the blade. As he swept it backhanded, the air before him began to shatter. A white shockwave of vibrations clashed head-on with the barrage of Kaido's club shadows.
In that moment, it was as if two separate worlds had opened up between Kaido and Newgate.
On Whitebeard's side, the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit tore through the atmosphere, white light waves descending like doomsday. On Kaido's side, the afterimages of the spiked club formed a domain of darkness, like the maw of an abyss devouring everything around it.
These two completely different powers deadlocked on the ice field. The residual shockwaves caused the ice layer between the two to fracture continuously, gradually forming a bottomless chasm. The clouds in the sky had been completely scattered at the first instant of their clash, revealing a clear azure expanse.
"Wororororo!"
Kaido's laugh was brimming with fighting spirit. He suddenly retracted the Hassaikai, the sky-filled club shadows vanishing in an instant. In their place was the spiked club, now wreathed in black-red lightning, its glow so dazzling it seemed to absorb all surrounding light.
"Borai: Hachibun!"
With a fierce shout, Kaido stomped hard on the ice, his entire body shooting toward Newgate like a cannonball. The Haoshoku Haki and Busoshoku Haki perfectly fused around the Hassaikai, forming a devastating attack.
"Gurarararara! Kaido, you brat! You still dare to hold back against me? That's looking down on me a bit too much!" Unruffled, Newgate dragged Murakumogiri behind him. His right hand clenched into a fist, the muscles on his arm bulging like steel. A shockwave of vibrations completely covered his fist, with rampaging black-red lightning coiling inside it.
"Break through!"
Newgate's fist, carrying world-ending force, met Kaido's spiked club.
The instant they made contact, the vibration shockwave erupted violently. Within the shattered space, black streaks of Haki ran rampant. The force was so immense it blasted Kaido's entire body away.
Kaido's body plowed into the ice layer like a meteor, carving out a gigantic trench nearly a kilometer long in the hard ice surface. Shattered ice flew everywhere, refracting brilliant light under the sun.
As the dust and ice settled, only a massive, bottomless crater remained on the ice field. Kaido's figure had vanished within it.
The officers of the Beasts Pirates watching from a distance were relatively fine. After all, they had witnessed Kaido's great battle with Garp before.
However, the newly joined officers of the Beasts Pirates, along with Kuzan, Kuma, Ginny, and the others, stared dumbfounded at the scene. They had thought Kuzan, who could instantly freeze a vast sea, was already incredibly strong. Who could have imagined that the clash between these two captains was what truly deserved to be called terrifying? Even though they had retreated again and again, the gale-force winds formed by the shockwaves of their confrontation still stung their cheeks painfully.
***
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