"Magic Valley Town... still has a survivor?"
A faint glint flashed in Kuzan's eyes.
Five massive ships were currently on a classified mission, transporting the golden treasures of Skypiea to Alabasta. This operation was the first cornerstone of the Navy's newfound independence, the opening note of the new era Renn Hawk envisioned.
There was absolutely no room for failure.
Since someone had witnessed them... then there was only one choice.
"Ice Block. Twin Fang Spear."
Kuzan lifted a hand.
The moisture in the air froze instantly. Two razor-sharp ice spears formed out of thin air, their tips gleaming with a chilling blue light as they shot toward Teach, who stood among the ruins.
The speed was as fast as lightning.
Teach's entire chubby body trembled. He dropped his telescope and rolled to the side in a panic.
A spear scraped across his scalp, slicing off a clump of hair.
The second spear struck true and pierced clean through his calf.
"Awooooooh!"
Teach clutched his leg and screamed like a slaughtered pig. The drawback of the Dark-Dark Fruit made him feel pain far more intense than any normal person. The freezing agony twisted through his nerves, nearly knocking him unconscious.
Before he could breathe, two more spears burst through the air toward him.
Gritting his teeth, Teach thrust out his right hand, palm open. A mass of pitch-black darkness surged from his palm. The dark vortex expanded, pulling everything toward it with terrifying force.
The two ice spears were ripped from their trajectory and swallowed whole, vanishing into the abyss of darkness.
"Hmm?"
From atop the flagship, Kuzan raised an eyebrow, interest flickering in his eyes.
A Devil Fruit ability?
This type... absorption?
Not physical resistance, and not energy destruction. Something deeper.
Kuzan tapped the deck lightly with his toe and drifted into the air, gliding toward the ruins of Magic Valley Town like a falling feather.
Teach watched the blue figure approach, and his heartbeat seized. A Marine Admiral was coming straight for him.
His mind raced. Cold sweat soaked his back.
If he were still part of the Whitebeard Pirates, if he still had the Old Man's protection in the New World, none of the Admirals would even consider acting so freely.
But now he was alone. A wanderer. And this was Paradise, far from Whitebeard's reach.
His Dark-Dark Fruit was powerful, but he had barely begun mastering it. He was no match for Kuzan.
He had only one option: cause enough chaos to create an opening... and run for his life.
"Dark Vortex!"
Teach slammed his palm into the scorched earth.
Darkness surged outward like a tidal wave. Everything the shadows touched, whether charred wood or shattered ruins, even light and sound themselves, were pulled into the void.
Gritting through the agony in his leg, Teach detonated all accumulated dark energy beneath the ground.
"Dark Star!"
All the consumed debris, along with pure dark energy, condensed into a massive swirling black star that roared toward Kuzan.
Kuzan looked at the incoming mass calmly.
"If I'm not mistaken... this is the Dark-Dark Fruit."
His aura shifted.
An icy pressure burst outward, colder than an ancient glacier.
"Ice Age. Eternal Abyss."
Kuzan raised his hand and gently curled his fingers.
The massive Dark Star halted midair. From its core, a faint blue glow spread outward like crystalline frost.
Crack. Crack-crack. Crack.
The rotation stopped.
The gravitational pull faded.
The darkness itself froze.
In an instant, the raging Black Star transformed into a gigantic floating ice sculpture, flawless and deadly beautiful.
"What?!"
Teach froze.
His strongest move, the power he believed could consume anything, was frozen solid.
How was he supposed to escape now?
Before he could think, Kuzan appeared in front of him.
"Ice Coffin."
Cold surged up Teach's body from the wound in his leg. In moments, his blood, his bones, his organs, even the frantic terror in his eyes were all sealed in transparent ice.
Teach became a sculpture of horror trapped within a crystalline coffin.
Kuzan stepped onto the top of the ice coffin and looked down at the frozen pirate.
"It is over."
He raised his foot, ready to shatter the entire block of ice and the man inside.
A streak of blazing orange light ripped across the horizon. A small fire-propelled boat tore through the waves at incredible speed.
Standing at the bow was a young man with a bare torso and a cowboy hat. His gaze locked on the frozen figure inside the ice.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Then his eyes moved upward... toward the man standing atop the ice coffin, exuding a killing cold that turned the air to frost.
Marine Admiral Kuzan.
How? How could this happen?
He had chased Teach all the way here. Why had he run straight into one of the Navy's highest powers?
Kuzan noticed him as well. He tilted his head slightly, a lazy smile forming on his lips.
"Well now. If it isn't Whitebeard's Second Division Commander, Fire Fist Ace."
He slowly lowered the foot that was about to crush Teach.
His smile faded. His eyes turned cold enough to make the sea shiver.
"Since you're here... you are not leaving."