Saint Nusjuro's bony hooves thudded across the tower roof. The Shodai Kitetsu in his hand pointed toward Kael Grylls on the city wall, and the chill of his killing intent nearly froze the air itself.
"Aaron Kael." His voice held not a trace of warmth. "At Roger's execution, you ran your mouth without restraint. The World Government, considering your youth and ignorance, chose to let it go. So why, today, do you insist on seeking your own death?"
It was a question.
And it was a final ultimatum.
Kael heard him, then burst out laughing as if he'd just been told the funniest joke in the world.
His laughter echoed over the burning Holy Land, brimming with undisguised contempt and arrogance.
"When I do things, why would I ever need to explain myself to anyone?"
Before the last syllable faded, his figure vanished from the wall.
Almost in the same instant, Saint Nusjuro became a streak of icy light, shooting off the tower like a blade released from its sheath.
Clang!
In midair, a black figure and a white figure slammed together.
The black-gold naginata Nidhogg crashed into the Shodai Kitetsu. The flare from the impact outshone the inferno below, turning the night sky into something like midday for a heartbeat.
A violent shockwave spread in a visible ring, exploding outward in every direction.
Saint Nusjuro fought as one with his mount. That skeletal warhorse form granted him speed beyond reason, each movement leaving afterimages that seemed to tear at space itself.
Every slash of the Shodai Kitetsu carried bone-deep cold, a freezing edge that felt like it could lock a soul in ice.
Kael did not flinch.
Nidhogg moved in his hands with broad, dominating arcs, the swings hiding thunder and gale within them. The air vibrated and boomed, bursting with a roar like tiger and dragon answering each other.
Each collision shattered the creeping frost into fragments.
Clang!
After another brutal exchange, Kael borrowed the force and knocked Saint Nusjuro away with a single cut.
Saint Nusjuro steadied himself in the air, but inside, waves crashed like a storm tide.
This brat was far stronger than expected, by several times over.
Strength, speed, Haki, all of it had reached the very summit of the sea.
This man was a knife at the World Government's throat.
He had not even fully recovered his stance when a lethal warning surged from his rear flank.
A razor-green slash had already torn through the air. In the blink of an eye, it was at his face.
Saint Nusjuro's pupils shrank. No time to think. He could only raise his blade to block.
Boom!
The green sword pressure detonated against his steel, blasting him backward dozens of meters.
"Shameless!" Saint Nusjuro snarled. Two against one was a disgrace to any so-called strong man.
As someone seated at the peak of worldly power, he had never imagined a day where he would be surrounded and assaulted.
It was humiliation.
"Shameless?"
Kael's chuckle sounded right by his ear, three parts teasing, seven parts matter of fact.
"Are you kidding?"
"We're pirates."
The words had barely landed before a shadow was already in his space.
Hawk-Eye Mihawk gripped Yoru, his expression calm as still water. Endless black radiance rolled from his blade as it clashed madly with the Shodai Kitetsu. In an instant, it became a storm of steel and killing intent.
Kael sprang up, ready to join and crush this Elder under sheer violence.
But the moment he moved, the night sky above warped.
A magic circle appeared, larger than before, more intricate, an eight-pointed star hanging in the air and leaking an ominous blood-red glow.
Roar!
A bellow that was not human thundered from within.
Then a colossal monster burst out, blue-faced and tusked, massive as a mountain.
Saint Warcury of Mercury, the Warrior God of Justice, in Fengxi form.
His gigantic bulk carried impact that could not be resisted, crashing toward Kael like a falling meteor.
Alarm bells shrieked in Kael's head. No time to weigh options.
His arms swelled with coiled muscle, Armament Haki driven to the limit, and he crossed Nidhogg to take it head-on.
Boom!!!!
A brutal, unstoppable force slammed through the weapon.
Kael felt like a high-speed asteroid had hit him square in the chest. His arms went numb in an instant, and the air in his lungs was crushed out of him.
He became a black shooting star, blasted backward.
He streaked over the still-burning Mary Geoise and smashed into the Red Line below, carving a savage trench hundreds of meters long. Dust and debris erupted skyward.
"Damn it."
Kael climbed out of the crater, shook out his tingling arms, and cursed under his breath.
That raw strength dragged up a memory he really did not enjoy.
The day he was sent to this world, he had been smashed by a runaway truck.
Hell, this pig hit harder than that truck ever did.
He had barely steadied himself when danger surged up from beneath his feet.
Kael did not hesitate. His legs exploded, and he shot straight into the air.
Rumble!
The instant he left the ground, something enormous burst from below.
A monstrous sandworm, its body on the scale of a Sea King, erupted from the earth. Its ringed maw was stacked with layers of steel-crushing teeth. It snapped shut and bit nothing but shattered stone and empty air.
Saint Peter of Jupiter, the Warrior God of Agriculture, in sandworm form.
Kael was still midair. Old force spent, new force not yet born.
Before he could find a foothold, the sky to one side dimmed. A tide of black flames poured in like a breached river of the underworld.
Those flames were wrong. Where they passed, even space itself seemed to ignite, hissing like something dying.
Saint Mars of Mars, the Warrior God of Environment, in Itsumade form.
"Hmph."
Kael snorted. In midair, he twisted his body by sheer will, swung the black-gold naginata with one arm, and cleaved into the firestorm.
A domineering slash wrapped in black-red lightning tore the heavens apart. It struck like divine punishment, splitting the black sea of flames cleanly down the middle.
The sundered fire roared past on both sides of him. Using the recoil of his swing, Kael landed lightly on a massive boulder that had been shaved flat by the shockwaves.
He tore off the coat that had already started to burn, exposing a scar-laced, sharply defined torso.
He did not even have time to take a breath.
A faint tearing sound appeared behind him, silent and sudden.
A sharp, glimmering pincer, carrying venom capable of melting flesh in an instant, stabbed straight for his heart.
Kael did not turn.
He reached back and seized Nidhogg's shaft, parrying at a viciously awkward angle.
Clang!
Metal screamed. Sparks burst.
Kael braced and held the blow, then looked back.
An old acquaintance from God Valley.
Saint Saturn of Saturn, the Warrior God of Science and Defense, in Gyuki form.
At the same time, an icy sword light flashed.
Saint Nusjuro abandoned Mihawk and moved as one with his skeletal mount. With several blurs, he appeared outside Mary Geoise, the Shodai Kitetsu radiating frost that dropped the temperature around him by degrees.
Above, the massive black bird circled, refusing to leave.
The Fengxi that had slammed Kael away advanced with heavy steps, each footfall gouging an enormous print into the Red Line.
Below, the sandworm's presence lurked in and out of sensation, sealing off retreat.
Five figures.
One in the sky, one on the ground, one beneath the earth, each occupying a different direction, all locking onto Kael Grylls.
Skeletal warhorse.
Fengxi.
Sandworm.
Gyuki.
Itsumade.
Five myth-born monster forms, leaking an aura so terrifying even gods would tremble, turning this region into a dead zone.
And so,
the World Government's highest power arrived.
The strongest shield beneath Imu.
The Five Elders, all present.
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