The battlefield was already barely recognizable after the previous exchange, with enormous sections of land destroyed and the atmosphere still trembling from the collision between Yoshiro's Erasure and Judas's Restoration. Neither of them had moved for several seconds, but the silence between them carried more pressure than the explosions that had come before. Yoshiro stood several hundred meters away, his eyes fixed on Prime Judas while black energy slowly gathered around his body. Judas remained completely calm, her feet touching the fractured ground as the distorted space around her gradually settled. The two of them had already pushed their abilities far beyond what an ordinary warrior could comprehend, but neither had reached their limit. The scale of their battle had already grown large enough that every serious clash was capable of devastating a vast region, and if either of them stopped controlling their attacks, the destruction would no longer be limited to a battlefield. Entire portions of a continent could disappear beneath their combined power, while a sustained exchange at full output could threaten an area comparable to a small country.
Yoshiro slowly raised his hand and looked directly at Judas. "You keep restoring everything I erase, but you're forgetting something important. Restoration doesn't automatically mean victory. You can bring back what I destroy, but if I keep increasing the amount of Erasure I'm producing, eventually you'll have to spend more power restoring reality than you can possibly maintain." His voice remained calm, but there was a clear confidence behind his words. Judas listened without interrupting, then slowly raised her eyes toward him. "That's what you believe?" she asked, and Yoshiro gave a small smile. "It's not a belief. It's the natural conclusion." Judas's expression barely changed. "Then you've misunderstood my ability again. I'm not restoring everything because I'm struggling to keep up with you. I'm restoring it because I can."
The moment she finished speaking, Judas vanished.
WHOOSH!
Yoshiro barely managed to turn his head before her fist struck his side and sent him flying across the battlefield. BOOOOOOM! His body crashed through the remains of a massive structure, continued through the debris, and finally slammed into the ground hard enough to create a gigantic crater. Before the dust could settle, Judas was already above him. Yoshiro looked upward and immediately released an Erasure field, but Judas twisted the space around herself and appeared behind him instead. Her next strike launched Yoshiro upward, and she followed him into the air before striking him again from the opposite direction. The exchange happened so quickly that the battlefield below seemed to flash every time their positions changed.
Yoshiro suddenly stopped himself in midair and released an enormous wave of Erasure outward. "Enough!" he shouted as black energy spread across the sky, consuming everything within a massive radius. Judas disappeared inside the attack, and for a brief moment Yoshiro believed he had finally forced her back. Then the black field began cracking from the inside. Judas emerged through it with her arm extended, having bent the space around her body so that the Erasure had been redirected away from her. She looked directly at Yoshiro and said, "You're making the same mistake over and over. You're attacking the space I'm standing in, but I don't have to remain connected to that space."
Yoshiro's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll erase the space you're connected to."
Judas smiled.
"Try."
Yoshiro released his power.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The attack spread across the battlefield like a black storm, swallowing mountains, destroying the remaining structures, and creating an enormous region where nothing remained. The destructive force was so immense that the ground across a vast area disappeared, leaving behind a landscape that looked as though an entire portion of the continent had been carved away. Yoshiro stood at the center of the devastation and watched carefully.
Nothing moved.
Then a voice came from behind him.
"You're still thinking too slowly."
Yoshiro's eyes widened.
Judas was standing there.
He turned immediately and attempted to erase her, but Judas grabbed his wrist and bent the space between them. The distance suddenly collapsed, and her other hand struck him directly in the chest. CRAAAAACK! Yoshiro was launched across the battlefield again, but Judas didn't allow him to recover. She appeared beside him before he could stop himself and slammed him downward.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact created another enormous crater.
Yoshiro tried to stand.
Judas was already there.
She struck him again.
Then again.
Then again.
Every attack was delivered with enough force to destroy massive structures, while her Reality Bending made her movements increasingly difficult to predict. Yoshiro attempted to counter with Erasure, but Judas kept changing the distance between them. Whenever he created an attack, she bent its trajectory. Whenever he attempted to disappear, she altered the space where he intended to reappear. Whenever he erased the battlefield, she restored it before using the reconstructed environment against him.
For the first time in the battle, Yoshiro was being completely dominated.
He finally managed to create distance and stood several kilometers away, breathing heavily as black energy gathered around his body. Judas remained where she was, completely composed.
Yoshiro looked at her with genuine irritation. "You've gotten stronger."
Judas slowly walked forward. "No."
She looked directly into his eyes.
"I've stopped holding myself back."
Yoshiro's expression changed.
Judas continued, "You were so focused on trying to discover the limit of my Restoration that you never bothered asking yourself what would happen if I used my full physical strength, speed, and Reality Bending at the same time."
Yoshiro's aura suddenly exploded.
"Then show me."
Judas disappeared.
Yoshiro immediately raised both arms.
CRACK!
Judas appeared directly in front of him.
Her fist struck his left arm.
The impact shattered the defensive layer of energy around it.
Yoshiro's eyes widened.
Judas followed with another strike.
BOOM!
His right arm was thrown backward.
He attempted to counter, but Judas bent the space around his movement and appeared above him.
"You're too slow."
She drove him downward.
BOOOOOOM!
Yoshiro crashed into the ground again.
Before he could recover, Judas appeared beside him and grabbed his arm.
Yoshiro's expression changed.
"Wait—"
Judas twisted the surrounding reality.
The space around his arm began collapsing.
Yoshiro attempted to erase Judas's hand, but she restored herself faster than the Erasure could completely remove her.
Then she released another burst of power.
CRAAAAAAACK!
Yoshiro's left arm was erased from existence.
For the first time, silence fell over the battlefield.
Yoshiro stared at the empty space where his arm had been.
Judas stood several meters away.
"You've spent this entire fight trying to erase me."
Her aura intensified.
"So now..."
She raised her hand.
"...I'll show you what it feels like to lose something you thought you couldn't lose."
Yoshiro's expression became cold.
His remaining arm gathered an enormous amount of Erasure.
"You think removing my arm means anything?"
Judas looked at him.
"It means I've started winning."
Yoshiro immediately fired his Erasure.
Judas bent reality.
The attack missed.
She appeared behind him.
Her hand moved toward his remaining arm.
Yoshiro turned.
Too late.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact sent him flying.
Judas followed.
Yoshiro attempted to regenerate his missing arm through his own energy, but Judas struck him again before he could finish.
Then she appeared beside him.
Then above him.
Then behind him.
Every movement was followed by another devastating attack.
Yoshiro tried to erase her.
She restored herself.
He tried to escape.
She bent the distance.
He tried to change the battlefield.
She restored it.
He tried to overwhelm her.
She overwhelmed him instead.
The battlefield shook violently as the two continued fighting, and every collision produced another destructive wave powerful enough to devastate enormous portions of the surrounding region. Their fight had surpassed the scale of ordinary warriors entirely. A single uncontrolled attack from either side could destroy cities and reshape hundreds of kilometers of terrain, while their strongest exchanges were reaching continental to small-country levels of destructive potential.
Yoshiro finally stopped in the air.
His expression had changed completely.
Judas looked up at him.
"You understand now?"
Yoshiro stared at her.
"You're not trying to survive my Erasure anymore."
Judas smiled.
"I'm trying to overwhelm it."
Yoshiro's remaining arm trembled as an enormous amount of black energy gathered around him.
"Then I'll erase everything."
Judas raised her hand.
Reality began bending.
"Go ahead."
The two powers began expanding across the sky.
The ground below them cracked.
The clouds disappeared.
The atmosphere shook.
Judas looked at Yoshiro with a calm expression as the pressure between them continued rising.
"You wanted to know which of us would reach our limit first."
Her aura became overwhelming.
"Now you'll find out."
Yoshiro's eyes narrowed.
Judas disappeared.
WHOOSH!
The next collision was so powerful that the shockwave spread across the horizon, tearing apart the remaining landscape as both monsters finally released a level of power that could no longer be contained by the battlefield.
And this time, Yoshiro wasn't the one chasing Judas.
Judas was chasing him.
The battlefield was already collapsing beneath the pressure of Yoshiro and Prime Judas, but neither of them showed any intention of stopping. Yoshiro stood several kilometers away, surrounded by an enormous black aura that distorted the space around him, while Judas remained completely calm despite the destruction spreading across the horizon. The previous exchange had already proven that Yoshiro's Erasure could destroy enormous areas of land, but Judas had stopped trying to simply defend herself. She had begun forcing Yoshiro backward, and every exchange made the difference between them more obvious. Yoshiro could erase almost anything he touched, yet Judas was becoming increasingly difficult to catch because her Reality Bending allowed her to manipulate the battlefield itself, while her Restoration meant that even devastating attacks were rarely enough to keep her down.
Yoshiro raised his remaining hand toward her and released an enormous wave of Erasure. The black energy spread across the battlefield like a collapsing horizon, swallowing everything in its path. Judas didn't retreat. Instead, she stepped forward and bent reality around herself, causing the attack to curve away from her body. Yoshiro immediately changed the direction of the Erasure, but Judas had already disappeared. WHOOSH! She appeared directly beside him, grabbed him, and before Yoshiro could react, the space around them folded violently.
"You're still trying to fight me on the ground," Judas said calmly as the world around Yoshiro distorted. "So let's take this somewhere your battlefield advantage doesn't matter."
Yoshiro's eyes widened.
"Judas—"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Judas launched him upward.
Not into the sky.
Not into the atmosphere.
She sent him beyond the planet.
Yoshiro's body shot upward with such overwhelming force that the atmosphere split around him, clouds disappearing instantly as he accelerated through the upper atmosphere. The blue of the planet rapidly became smaller beneath him, the curvature of Earth appearing in the distance as he continued flying faster and faster. He attempted to stop himself, but Judas's Reality Bending had already altered the space around him, preventing him from properly establishing a position. The planet became a distant sphere beneath him.
Then Earth disappeared behind him.
Yoshiro had been thrown into the outer reaches of the galaxy.
He finally managed to stop himself, floating alone in the darkness of space. Stars stretched across the enormous void around him, distant galaxies appearing like tiny clouds of light. Yoshiro looked back toward the direction of Earth and slowly clenched his remaining fist.
"You threw me this far?"
His voice echoed only inside his own mind.
Then a voice came from above him.
"Yes."
Yoshiro's eyes widened.
Judas was standing directly above him.
She had somehow followed him through the impossible distance without hesitation.
Yoshiro looked upward.
Judas looked down.
"You wanted to know how strong I became."
Her fist slowly pulled backward.
"Now you know."
Yoshiro's expression hardened.
"Don't think—"
Judas punched him.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The impact was so powerful that the surrounding space seemed to distort around Yoshiro's body. He was launched downward at an absurd speed, traveling from the outer reaches of space toward Earth like a meteor that had been fired directly at the planet. Judas remained above for a moment before following him, manipulating reality so that she could keep pace with his descent.
Yoshiro tried to stop himself.
He couldn't.
He attempted to erase the space ahead of him, but Judas had already bent the distance around his body, preventing him from using the surrounding space normally.
"You're not stopping me," Judas said as she appeared above him again.
Yoshiro looked upward.
"Then I'll stop you!"
He released Erasure directly toward her.
Judas bent reality.
The attack curved around her.
She raised her fist again.
BOOOOOOM!
Another punch.
Yoshiro accelerated toward Earth even faster.
The planet grew larger beneath him.
Continents became visible.
The atmosphere rushed toward him.
And then—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Yoshiro slammed into the ocean.
The impact created an enormous circular wave that expanded across the surrounding sea, while water was thrown hundreds of meters into the air. The ocean shook violently as Yoshiro disappeared beneath the surface.
Judas descended after him.
She landed on the surface of the ocean as though gravity itself had forgotten to apply to her.
For several seconds, she simply waited.
Then Yoshiro erupted from beneath the water.
WHOOSH!
He shot into the air, surrounded by black energy.
"You think throwing me into space was enough?"
Judas looked at him.
"No."
She pointed behind him.
"I think you landed somewhere interesting."
Yoshiro turned.
His expression froze.
There was a small wooden ship floating across the ocean nearby.
And standing on it was a familiar group of pirates.
A young man wearing a straw hat stared at Yoshiro with wide eyes while the rest of the crew looked equally confused by the enormous figure that had just fallen from the sky.
For a moment, everyone simply stared at each other.
The young pirate slowly looked toward the enormous crater in the ocean.
Then toward Yoshiro.
Then toward Judas, who was floating above the water.
"What the heck was that?!"
Yoshiro stared at the ship.
"...What?"
Behind him, Judas looked toward the boat and briefly raised an eyebrow.
"This wasn't planned."
The straw-hat pirate leaned forward with an excited expression.
"Hey! Are you guys fighting?!"
Yoshiro's face became completely expressionless.
"Stay out of this."
The pirate grinned.
"Okay!"
He paused.
Then pointed at Judas.
"Can I fight her too?"
Judas stared at him.
Yoshiro stared at him.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Yoshiro slowly looked back toward Judas.
"...Where did you send me?"
Judas crossed her arms.
"Somewhere in the Grand Line, apparently."
The pirate's eyes widened.
"Grand Line?! You know about it?!"
Judas looked at him.
"No."
The pirate smiled.
"Then welcome!"
Yoshiro's aura immediately began expanding again.
The ocean beneath him started trembling.
The pirate's crew immediately reacted, realizing that whatever had just arrived was not an ordinary person.
Judas looked toward Yoshiro and sighed.
"Ignore them."
Yoshiro's black aura intensified.
"I wasn't planning to fight them."
He raised his remaining hand.
"I'm finishing our battle."
Judas smiled.
"Good."
She disappeared.
WHOOSH!
Yoshiro looked upward.
Judas had already appeared above him again.
His eyes widened.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Judas pulled her fist backward.
"Round two."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The entire ocean exploded beneath them as Yoshiro and Judas collided again, while the pirate ship remained in the distance watching the impossible battle unfold.
And somewhere in the middle of the Grand Line, a completely unrelated pirate crew had just become spectators to one of the most ridiculous battles the sea had ever witnessed.