Just as Big Mom expected, the fallen Raiden Shogun rose again. This time, however, the weapon in her hand was no longer the naginata from before, but a tachi—one identical to the musou isshin in Big Mom's own grasp!
Big Mom's vigilance instantly peaked; her eyes locked onto every minute movement the other made as she silently repeated to herself:
"Here it comes—right now—!"
Before the words had even left her mind, the Raiden Shogun vanished. In the next instant she appeared without warning in front of Big Mom! The tachi tore through the air, violet lightning trailing as it slashed straight down. Big Mom whipped her blade up to meet it—
CLANG!!
A deafening metallic explosion rang out.
"So fast!"
Big Mom was shocked. If she hadn't long since learned the Shogun's attack patterns, her Observation Haki alone would never have kept up.
A titanic force surged through her blade, and the wild purple current carried by the Shogun's strike coursed through her body. Big Mom was flung violently backward, her feet carving a furrow dozens of meters through the void before she finally stopped.
Yet before she could draw breath, the Shogun was on her again, reappearing like a shadow and bringing the tachi down once more. The onslaught repeated itself, a relentless storm of lightning-fast strikes.
Defend long enough and you will falter. Finally, in the gap after a parry, the Shogun's icy edge slipped through the guard of Big Mom's Three Sword Style and ripped a huge wound across her abdomen. Agony flared; she staggered back, and the Shogun at last paused.
Had this not been a body woven of consciousness, the gash would have bared her organs to the outside world.
"Lightning… does not bend to mortal will," the Shogun's ethereal voice declared, affirming the immutable law.
She swept her blade horizontally, and three colossal ring-shaped lightning blades howled out, sealing every path left or right. Biting back the pain, Big Mom pushed her Observation Haki to its limit and contorted her body through an impossible angle, slipping between the three great arcs by a hair's breadth.
But an even vaster purple slash followed, locking on to her completely—there was no dodging; she had to meet it head-on.
"Three Sword Style: Thundering Storm!"
Black, violet, and red lightning coiled around her three blades as they crashed outward. A raging torrent of slashes collided with the Shogun's violet wave. With a deafening roar the great slash finally shattered, yet scattered shockwaves and stinging sparks still left countless new cuts across Big Mom's body.
"Ephemeral Moment!"
The Shogun's form melted into the Akasha; the next instant, four solid purple duplicates appeared around the battlefield. Every copy swung at once, and in that moment countless intersecting bolts of sword-light filled the entire mental space, weaving a net of destruction that left no refuge.
"There!" While her Observation Haki danced desperately between the blades, Big Mom searched for the true body. At last she locked on to the duplicate that was releasing crossing slashes.
SHREEEK!
She deliberately took several grazing cuts—dragon scales shredded, blood spraying—and burst straight at that figure, pouring every ounce of strength into a single slash that cleaved it in two.
"No thought, no desire—return all to stillness."
The stricken Raiden Shogun spoke impassively, and a vast Musou barrier snapped open. Big Mom's movements became sluggish as though trapped in amber.
RUMBLE—!
Within the barrier, endless bolts of annihilating lightning rained down, submerging her completely. The agony tore a scream from her throat; every inch of her felt shredded and scorched by the storm.
"Hah… finally… weathered it."
The lightning faded. Big Mom knelt on one knee, gasping, her dragon scales charred black.
"If I hadn't stacked lightning resistance beforehand… I'd be ash by now… Still, this should be about done, right?"
Before her eyes, the duplicate she had struck dissolved. High above, a gigantic eye of thunder snapped open, and from it stepped a reborn Raiden Shogun.
Her purple kimono had been replaced by a sleek, pale-violet combat skinsuit that outlined her figure perfectly; several huge, ornate mechanical arms hovered around her, radiating a fusion of cold metal and divine power. One primary arm gripped an enlarged musou isshin whose pressure shook the very air.
"If you're going final form, I can't hold back either!" Big Mom wiped blood from her lips, eyes blazing with fighting spirit.
"Demon Dragon—Rise!"
ROAR—!
A dragon's cry echoed from within her; the violet scales across her body blazed with savage crimson patterns, her frame swelling as terrifying power surged outward.
The final showdown erupted.
Both swung at once, no longer slender arcs of light, but mountain-sized blades of lightning.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Crimson and deep-violet gargantuan slashes collided and detonated, every impact shaking the entire mental space.
Big Mom had to unleash three blood-red waves in succession just to cancel one of the Shogun's titanic bolts. The sword-storms were like tsunamis, filling every corner of sight.
She leapt and darted—diving from the sky, skimming the ground—her three blades weaving an airtight defense against the world-ending assault.
A lull came. The Shogun hovered in the air, her majestic voice resounding:
"Let this be your prison."
A vast ring of lightning blossomed behind her, and two colossal hands of pure thunder appeared, clapping together from left and right to crush and imprison Big Mom.
"Three Sword Style: Black Rope – Great Twister!"
Big Mom spun, her blades whipping up a crimson-black tornado that shredded the two thunder hands to pieces.
Yet the very next instant, an even mightier hand burst from directly beneath her, blotting out the sky as it slammed down.
"Hmph!"
She had foreseen it; with a beat of her Dragon Wings she shot skyward, narrowly evading the apocalyptic palm. A proud snort escaped her:
"Heh, you won't catch me with that again!"
"Thousand-Armed Binding."
The Shogun returned to the center of the field, the lightning behind her flaring anew. Three enormous thunder-spikes condensed and drove into the void in a triangle.
CRACK—!
The spikes resonated, releasing an expanding ring of lightning that swept across the entire battlefield—an inescapable tide of ruin.
"Ugh, here we go again—an attack you can't dodge."
Big Mom resigned herself, coating her body fully with Armament Haki and weathering the continuous, terrifying barrage.
When the lightning finally faded, the spikes vanished.
Big Mom was barely recognizable: dragon scales shattered, her body charred and even giving off the faint smell of scorched meat. Pain nearly drowned her senses, yet her eyes blazed, fixed on the Shogun as she whispered in exhilaration:
"This is the end!"