RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
The sky over Dressrosa seemed to have been forcibly torn in half by an invisible giant hand.
One half was pitch black, rolling with purple thunderclouds of Conqueror's Haki, the domain of destruction belonging to Kaido.
The other half blazed with golden radiance, a sea of liquid lightning flowing endlessly, the absolute home field of Rehn.
Two powers so overwhelming that any strong figure in the New World would suffocate under their pressure collided wildly in the sky without any fancy tricks!
"Worororo!! This is great! TOO GREAT!!"
Kaido had completely entered the frenzied state known as "Drunken Dragon Bagua."
His gigantic hybrid-form body flickered through the air like teleportation itself. Every swing of his kanabo unleashed black shockwaves capable of pulverizing mountains.
"So this is that lazy bastard's subordinate?!"
The red glow in Kaido's eyes almost overflowed from his sockets. Not only was he not frustrated by failing to overwhelm Rehn, he was becoming more excited the longer they fought.
How many years had it been?
Since Kozuki Oden died.
Since Shanks became boring like some politician.
How long had it been since he experienced a fight where fists truly connected, where he could actually feel pain?!
"COME ON, FATSO! Stop running around in the sky!!"
Kaido stomped the air violently, the sonic boom sounding like war drums as his entire body transformed into a black meteor shooting into the heavens.
"Gundari: Dragon Swarm!!"
Countless arrows of black Conqueror's Haki sealed off all of Rehn's escape routes!
"Running? This is called tactical positioning! Learn some culture, you illiterate drunk!!"
High in the sky, Rehn's body wrapped in lightning looked both holy and savage.
His expensive tuxedo had long since disappeared somewhere, revealing a body layered with fat but now harder than Seastone itself.
Facing Kaido's killing blow, Rehn not only didn't retreat, he grinned ferociously.
"You wanna clash head-on? Fine by me!!"
"Rumble-Rumble Fruit Awakening Secret Art."
Rehn clenched both hands.
Lightning within a radius of dozens of miles answered his command like subjects obeying a king, crazily gathering into his palms.
At that instant, the lightning compressed to the absolute limit, even turning into a bizarre black color!
"Thunder God: Collapsing Star Cannon!!!"
BOOOOOOM!
A black lightning beam no thicker than an arm, yet containing hundreds of millions of volts alongside advanced flowing Haki, blasted from Rehn's hands!
Unlike his previous attacks, this beam did not spread outward.
It was condensed to the extreme, like a spear capable of piercing planets itself, directly colliding with Kaido's "Dragon Swarm Army"!
BZZZZT, BOOM!!!
The two powers exploded at a single point in the sky.
No dazzling fireworks.
Only twisted, collapsing space.
Then, a visible white shockwave ring instantly swept across all of Dressrosa!
The earth wailed.
The ocean boiled!
The remaining half of the King's Plateau mountain was instantly reduced to dust beneath the shockwave!
The already ruined SMILE factory was flattened completely by the secondary impact!
Even the distant coastline was pushed backward several hundred meters!
"Again!!"
"You think I'm scared?!"
The two figures collided once more before the explosion's aftershocks had even faded.
Fists crashing into flesh!
Lightning against Haki!
Even teeth became weapons!
Kaido bit down on Rehn's arm while Rehn retaliated with a "finger pistol eye gouge" charged with two hundred million volts!
What kind of battle between supreme experts was this?
This was clearly two completely rabid dogs abandoning all elegance and technique, engaging in the most primitive, savage, and hot-blooded brawl imaginable!
"DAMN THIS FEELS GOOD!!"
Rehn was completely drunk on battle now too.
"Kaido! Taste my new move!!"
Rehn flashed behind Kaido and grabbed both of his giant dragon horns.
"Two Hundred Million Volts: Overload: Electromagnetic Giant Windmill!!!"
BZZZZZT!
Terrifying electricity surged through the dragon horns into Kaido's brain while Rehn twisted his waist and actually swung Kaido's enormous body into the air, spinning him around like a top!
"Worororo… kinda dizzy… but this is awesome!!"
Though Kaido smoked from the electricity, not only did he not faint, he used the spinning momentum to smash his tail directly toward Rehn's kidneys!
"THE KIDNEYS AGAIN?! Can you bastards aim somewhere else for once?!"
Rehn screamed miserably and was blasted away, smashing through three mountains before stopping.
"PTOO!"
Rehn spat out bloody saliva and climbed out of the rubble.
The fat on his body trembled while golden lightning exploded outward once more.
"Looks like cracking your skull open is the only way you'll learn why flowers are red!"
"Boro Breath!!"
Kaido gave him no time to breathe.
A pillar of fire capable of melting islands erupted from his mouth.
"Thunder Metallurgy: Absolute Defense Wall!"
Rehn clapped his hands.
Countless metal scraps from the battlefield rose and melted together into a gigantic shield.
BOOM!!
The fire pillar slammed into the shield, molten metal spraying everywhere.
Their battle had completely transcended logic.
They fought from sky to earth.
From palace to harbor.
From harbor back into the city center.
Wherever they passed, nothing survived.
Every building crumbled.
The entire island of Dressrosa resembled a cake tossed into a blender, gradually shredded apart by these two monsters.
...
"They've gone insane… both of them…"
In the distant evacuation zone, Trafalgar D. Water Law could barely hold onto Kikoku anymore.
His heart pounded wildly.
Cold sweat drenched his body.
He had once believed his own plan was already crazy.
But compared to these two monsters, his schemes looked like children's pranks.
"So this is… a battle at the true summit of the world?"
Roronoa Zoro leaned against a rock, covered in injuries, yet his lone eye burned with unprecedented desire.
"That fat guy… actually can fight Kaido to this extent…"
"Not only hasn't he lost…"
"He's not even losing in momentum."
"Luffy-senpai…"
Bartolomeo looked toward wherever Monkey D. Luffy had been blown away earlier, then toward the battlefield center, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"This world is terrifying… but I'm SO HYPED!!"
However, among all the men boiling with excitement from the battle…
One person focused on something entirely different.
At this moment, Nami was kneeling atop a high platform.
In one hand she held binoculars.
In the other, a broken abacus she'd picked up somewhere.
She frantically worked the beads.
Her face was pale.
Her eyes hollow.
She muttered continuously like someone trapped in a nightmare worse than death.
"King's Plateau… 100% destruction… value… impossible to calculate…"
"SMILE factory… total loss… equipment damages… five billion…"
"Central commercial district… gone, all gone… shop compensation… eight billion…"
"Harbor facilities… destroyed by lightning… three billion…"
"And the flower fields… the specialty goods… those damned buildings…"
CLACK!
One abacus bead flew off entirely from how hard she was calculating.
But she didn't stop.
Her heart was bleeding.
No, it was spraying blood.
She had stayed in G-5 before.
She understood their rules far too well.
Rehn might be having fun fighting right now, but.
But this battle was happening in Dressrosa!
Doflamingo was now Renzo's business partner.
Every brick and tile here was, in a sense, Renzo's asset or future revenue!
And now these two lunatics were throwing Lord Renzo's "money bag" straight into the sea!
By the ton!
"Twenty billion… no, thirty billion…"
Nami looked at the ever-expanding ruins and those two maniacs who looked ready to sink the entire island.
Finally,
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!!!!!"
Nami suddenly stood up and snatched the loudspeaker from Usopp.
She inhaled deeply, channeling every ounce of strength in her slender body into her throat,
Then unleashed a shriek so sharp even banshees would feel ashamed:
"Rehn!!!!"
"YOU FAT IDIOT!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOINGGGGGGG?!!!"
That scream pierced through thunder and explosions alike, drilling directly into Rehn's ears just as he prepared another giant lightning sphere in midair.
At the battlefield center, Rehn froze instantly.
His lightning-filled brain, upon hearing that familiar voice, felt like someone dumped liquid nitrogen at negative two hundred degrees onto it.
Instantly, cooled.
"N… Nami?"
Rehn subconsciously turned toward the voice.
On the distant hill stood the orange-haired woman like a furious lioness, pointing hysterically at the surrounding ruins.
"LOOK AROUND YOU!! OPEN YOUR SQUINTY LITTLE EYES AND LOOK!!"
"The houses are gone! The factories are gone! Even the harbor is gone!!"
"THIS IS ALL MONEY!! THIS IS ALL LORD LEVI'S MONEY!!!"
"If you sink this island, who's paying for it?! Selling all your fat won't even cover the damages!!"
"If Doflamingo that idiot goes bankrupt, who's sending money to G-5 anymore?! Who's buying grapes for Lord Renzo?! Who's paying your bonus?!!"
"YOU SPENDTHRIFT BASTARD!! DO YOU WANT LORD LEVI TO SKIN YOU ALIVE?!!"
Every word, was like a knife stabbing directly into Rehn's heart.
Money.
Lord Renzo's money.
Bonuses.
Skinned alive.
"Bzzzz…"
The lightning around Rehn visibly dimmed.
He looked at the massive crater beneath him.
The burning streets in the distance.
The gigantic sunflower field symbolizing Dressrosa's wealth that he'd accidentally blasted apart.
"What… what have I done?"
Rehn's face instantly turned paler than when Kaido beat him up.
"W… we're doomed…"
His hands trembled.
"I got too into the fight… forgot this place was our protection-money source…"
"How much is this gonna cost…"
And while Rehn entered a panicked, frozen state,
Kaido had no such concerns.
He was having the time of his life.
Seeing Rehn suddenly stop confused him a little, but it was the perfect chance to attack!
"What's wrong, fatty?! Outta juice?!"
Kaido laughed wildly as his dragon tail whipped behind him and he launched into the sky.
Gripping Hassaikai with both hands, endless Haki compressed and wrapped around it.
The strongest secret technique of Drunken Dragon Bagua!
"If you won't move…"
"THEN DIE!!"
"Thunder Bagua!!!!"
BOOM!!!
The heavens changed color.
Kaido held nothing back.
This was enough power to erase an island entirely!
The kanabo wrapped in black-red lightning came within ten meters of Rehn's head!
At this speed, Rehn would become meat paste in the next second!
"LOOK OUT!!"
Law and Zoro shouted simultaneously.
At this distance, in this state, nobody could survive Kaido's finishing strike!
However, at that critical instant, Rehn, who had been in full panic mode moments earlier, suddenly raised his head.
He didn't dodge.
Didn't defend.
He simply, raised one hand.
That black-gloved hand faced outward in the perfect gesture of a traffic officer stopping vehicles.
Then, drawing from deep within his diaphragm, he unleashed a roar ten times louder than during the battle itself:
"STOOOOOOOP!!!!!!"
The shout was too sudden.
Too righteous.
Too completely unreasonable.
Even Kaido, charging forward at full speed with nothing in mind but "smash him flat," got stunned by the sudden scream.
Pure instinct made him unconsciously ease off slightly.
His movement stalled for a split second.
And in that instant, Rehn didn't counterattack.
Instead, he jumped upward, even higher than Kaido himself.
Then pointed directly at Kaido's nose, his fat face twisted with rage, saliva flying everywhere as he screamed at the Yonko:
"KAIDO!!! YOU BRAINLESS MEATHEAD!!!"
"YOU'RE STILL FIGHTING?! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!"
"DO YOU OWN THIS LAND?! DID YOU BUILD THESE HOUSES?!!"
"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH GOLD IS BURIED UNDER HERE?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY BERRIES ARE FLOATING THROUGH THE AIR RIGHT NOW?!!"
"I'M DONE FIGHTING!! I CAN'T AFFORD THIS SHIT!!"
"TRY BREAKING EVEN ONE MORE BRICK!! I SWEAR I'LL TAKE OUT LOANS TO BUY A NUCLEAR BOMB AND BLOW UP YOUR ONIGASHIMA!!!"
"STOP FIGHTING!! RIGHT NOW!! IMMEDIATELY!!"
"WE NEED TO, CALCULATE! THE! DAMAGES!!!!"
Black lightning from Thunder Bagua still crackled.
Kaido's kanabo remained suspended midair.
His huge eyes blinked while staring at the spitting, furious, utterly undignified fat man before him.
For a moment, the world's strongest creature… actually… didn't know whether he should bring the club down or not.