Facing Gern Reginald Sigmar's icy interrogation—an intent so sharp it felt like tangible killing pressure—Kaido not only failed to retreat…
He was ignited.
For a split second, he froze.Then—
An even more deranged, more exhilarated burst of laughter exploded from the crater in the mountainside, the sheer force of it shaking loose rocks that rained down all around.
"Wororororororo…!!!"
Laughing wildly, Kaido raised a massive hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The pain etched on his face vanished almost instantly, replaced by a rapturous frenzy—the ecstasy of a predator that had finally found worthy prey.
"It hurts! It really hurts!!!"He savored the sensation, his voice trembling with twisted delight."How long has it been… since I felt pain strong enough to shake me like this?!"
As his laughter echoed, Kaido's already enormous body underwent an even more terrifying transformation.
His frame expanded further.Muscles writhed and swelled like living creatures beneath his skin.Dark blue-black patterns—hard and jagged like dragon scales—surfaced across his body.
The curved horns flanking his head thickened, becoming more grotesque and savage. Scalding white vapor blasted from his nostrils and jaws.
Below the waist, parts of his limbs began to take on unmistakable draconic traits.
Then—
WHAM!
A massive dragon tail covered in rigid scales lashed out, pulverizing the mountain wall behind him into dust with a single sweep.
[Zoan-Type · Fish-Fish Fruit · Mythical Model: Azure Dragon · Hybrid Form]
The instant Kaido entered his strongest combat state, an even more violent, even more feral wave of dark-red Conqueror's Haki erupted skyward from his body—
Like a blood-colored tsunami, it crashed head-on into Gern's dark-violet aura in midair!
Zzzrrkk—!!
At the point where the two supreme wills collided, space itself twisted. Black-red lightning and dark-purple arcs intertwined violently, ripping through the air with a shriek that made the soul shudder.
Kaido gripped the kanabo Hassaikai with both hands, black-red lightning crawling across it as his gaze locked onto Gern.
A savage grin spread across his face—one that fused pain, exhilaration, and desperate hunger.
"Someone who can fight me properly…and make me feel pain this easily…"
His grin widened grotesquely.
"There aren't many like that left on this sea!"
He sounded half as though he were talking to himself, half as though he were proclaiming to the world:
"That old man Whitebeard… he's already starting to rot. Fighting him is boring.Wang Zhi? Just a slimy rat hiding in the shadows.Linlin? Hmph—she never goes all out with me. And I still owe her favors…"
Kaido's voice rose higher and higher, battle intent erupting like a volcano.
"So—"
He suddenly thrust the kanabo toward Gern and unleashed a roar that shook heaven and earth:
"That leaves only you!!! Heaven-Shaker!!!"
"Come!!! Let's slaughter each other!!!Show me just how much pain you can make me feel!!! Wororororororo!!!"
Watching Kaido fully enter his hybrid form—his presence skyrocketing, his eyes filled with nothing but maddened lust for battle—
The expression on Gern's face vanished completely.
What replaced it was a gravity he had never shown before.
The black blade Bahuang clenched in his right hand seemed to sense its master's resolve. The dark purple-black patterns along its surface flared to life like awakening veins—
Greedily devouring the Conqueror's Haki surging through Gern's body.
The space around the blade twisted more violently than ever, exuding a chilling, abyssal glow.
"No hesitation," Gern thought grimly."Not even for a moment…"
No one understood better than he did what the monster before him truly represented.
At this point in history—before Red-Haired Shanks fully took the stage, before the balance of the Sea Emperors had completely stabilized—
Kaido might not yet command the greatest forces.
But in terms of pure, individual combat power?
He was without question the most terrifying "king of single combat" alive!
Because standing before Gern now was not the Kaido of more than a decade later—the one battered by repeated failures, mentally eroded, obsessively seeking death.
This was Kaido in his prime.
Body.Stamina.Haki.Devil Fruit.
All of it at absolute peak condition.
To be acknowledged by the entire sea as the "Strongest Creature in the World" was no empty boast.
That title meant near-immortal vitality, mastery of all three forms of Haki, and the overwhelming physical amplification granted by a Mythical Zoan—
On top of the Azure Dragon's innate elemental control over wind, fire, lightning, and more.
This was a being with no weaknesses.
A true, flawless hexagonal warrior.
Gern even recalled the "story" he had once known before crossing worlds—how without Luffy's utterly unreasonable protagonist luck, endless mid-fight recoveries, and relentless gauntlet of attrition battles—
Defeating a full-power Kaido in a straight one-on-one was pure fantasy.
And now—
No protagonist halo.No wheel battles.
Only Gern Reginald Sigmar, standing alone before a Kaido at absolute peak.
"Come on… Kaido!"Gern growled, purging every stray thought as his spirit, body, and will fused completely with Bahuang.
"Let me experience it for myself—the weight of the so-called strongest in single combat!"
The moment the words fell—
Gern stomped down hard.
Vibrational power detonated beneath his feet as he advanced instead of retreating, transforming into a streak of dark-violet lightning that tore through space itself—
Charging straight at the oncoming azure dragon shadow!
"Worororororo!!!"
Kaido laughed madly. His draconic hybrid body shattered the ground beneath him as he kicked off, using the recoil to propel himself forward.
He became a hurricane of destruction—wrapped in black-red lightning and compressed azure wind pressure—barreling toward Gern with brutal dominance!
The massive kanabo Hassaikai was swung to its absolute limit.
What wrapped around it was no longer just Armament Haki—
But Kaido's ferocious Conqueror's Haki fully fused with the Azure Dragon's inherent lightning!
Black.Red.Blue.
Three torrents of energy boiled together, transforming the iron club into a thunderous judgment straight from the underworld.
"Ragnaraku: Draw Down to Naraka!!!"
With a furious roar, Kaido brought down a strike infused with his peak power straight toward Gern's head!
Facing the blow—
Gern halted instantly, feet rooting into the ground like iron stakes.
Both hands tightened around Bahuang's hilt as the blade let out a deep, resonant hum from the sheer volume of Haki it had consumed.
At the exact instant the kanabo descended with world-crushing force—
Gern twisted his body sideways, pouring every ounce of strength, vibration, supreme Conqueror's Haki, and advanced Ryuo Armament into a single slash!
"Soul-Shattering Quake!!!"
He roared.
Bahuang's blade neither dodged nor retreated. From bottom to top, it carved a flawless dark-violet arc—
Perfectly intercepting the falling thunderous kanabo!
CLANG—!!!!!
What rang out was not mere metal striking metal—
But a cataclysmic collision of annihilation!
The sound itself condensed into physical shockwaves that expanded outward in concentric rings, crushing the distant sea surface into massive depressions!
Then—
The anomaly erupted.
At the single point where blade and club met—
An ultra-compressed, pure-white spherical vibration field suddenly formed, its interior crawling with countless fractured lightning patterns.
And then—
It expanded.
"BOOOOOOM—!!!"
The spherical shock burst outward from the impact point!
The ground below wasn't merely cracking—it surged and buckled like violent waves, heaving upward before shattering layer by layer!
Sand and rock tore free of gravity itself, floating into the air!
The surrounding atmosphere was completely evacuated and pulverized, forming a fleeting vacuum zone!
Kaido's mountain-shattering Ragnaraku, and Gern's space-breaking Heaven-Shaker—
Collided, annihilated, and crushed against each other at the heart of that spherical quake!
At the crossing of their weapons, space warped to its absolute limit—on the verge of collapse.
Dark-violet Conqueror's lightning and black-red apocalyptic thunder entwined like two colossal serpents, locked in a murderous death spiral—
For a moment—
Neither side could advance even an inch.