Varin found himself rather comfortable talking to Loki, the giant actually being genuinely cool to be around once you got past the sheer existential weight of conversing with something that massive. The conversation had drifted into storytelling territory, the kind of casual exchange that came naturally when two people decided they were willing to exist in each other's presence without immediate hostility.
Though Loki had admitted partway through, if it wasn't for Nidhoggr, if it wasn't for the serpent's grounding presence in his mind, he would have been considerably different. He was named after the trickster god for a reason, after all. The name carried expectations and tendencies that apparently came with the territory of being a giant named after one of the primordial chaos forces.
That had led into a story about Loki's birth, about how he'd been abnormally small in the womb, so small that even his mother had struggled to tell if she was actually pregnant or if it was all some elaborate false alarm. His growth had been stunted, a source of concern for everyone involved. And yet now, decades later, Loki was easily one of the largest giants in existence. The transformation had been gradual and then sudden, like something had switched inside him and just kept growing and growing until he'd reached the scale he occupied now.
Varin had shared his own stories in return, tales of his childhood in the Marine family, the relentless training that had come with being born into the Styrnvald name, the expectations that had been placed on him from the moment he could understand language. He'd talked about the day he turned ten and was given the chance to consume a Devil Fruit, the ceremony that came with it. Then Varin had stopped, because he had just realised something.
"How do you have a fruit that's supposed to be from Yggdrasil?" he'd asked, Loki was young by giant standards. In their late teens, which would have made him 60 or so. Meaning sometime in the past sixty years, a giant, or giants would have had to come to his home, and he definitely would have heard about that.
The story Loki had given him was frustratingly vague in some ways and surprisingly detailed in others. The fruit had always been in his family line, apparently. It was passed down from giant to giant across generations, a treasure that Elbaf had coveted for centuries but had never managed to acquire by any conventional means. Through events that Loki didn't elaborate on, through circumstances that he clearly considered either too complicated or too personal to go into detail about, Loki himself had acquired the fruit and consumed it.
And then, shortly after, he'd been imprisoned. The timing couldn't have been coincidental, Varin suspected, but Loki didn't offer clarification, and Varin had learned that pushing too hard on certain topics just resulted in the giant going quiet in ways that suggested the conversation had hit a boundary it shouldn't cross.
"The chains keep me from using the fruit's power," Loki had said simply. "Since seastone nullifies Devil Fruits. I've been imprisoned long enough that I barely remember what it felt like to use it.
Varin understood that well enough. At least Loki had had company, had had Nidhoggr to talk to, to keep him sane from the crushing weight of isolation. Varin had only had silence and the slow erosion of will that came from being alone long enough, that kind of quiet that wore away at your sanity like water wearing down stone.
He opened his mouth to respond to the giant's words, to say something that might bridge the gap between understanding and acceptance, when suddenly the world lurched sideways with enough force to knock the breath from his lungs.
Then he was sitting, near a shoreline. The transition was so abrupt and so complete that for a moment Varin's mind couldn't process what had happened. One second he'd been in an underground cavern speaking with an imprisoned giant who carried the consciousness of a primordial serpent, and the next second his boots were scraping against sand, and the smell of salt water filled his nostrils.
"Oh shite," Varin said out loud, shooting upright fast enough that his vision briefly swam. Life apparently, or rather the Norns themselves, had decided that he didn't deserve even a moment's reprieve. He could see Luffy down the beach, no longer grinning his ridiculous grin, and beyond the crew there was a figure that made every instinct Varin possessed scream immediate warning.
There was a tall man, as tall as Varin was, reaching toward Robin, who was visibly, completely, and utterly terrified. Her composure had completely shattered, and the normally composed archaeologist looked like she'd regressed a decade in the span of a heartbeat. The man reaching for her was someone Varin recognized immediately, someone he'd known since before he'd joined the Straw Hat Pirates, someone he'd spent time with in a different life entirely.
"Uncle Kuzan," Varin said out loud, drawing the attention to himself with enough force that the admiral's hand stopped mid-motion. The figure turned his head slowly, lazily, with the kind of movement that suggested he had all the time in the world and wasn't particularly concerned about anything happening around him. When his eyes landed on Varin, something shifted in his expression, barely noticeable but definitely there.
Kuzan, known as Admiral Aokiji, now, standing on a beach with his hand still extended toward a terrified Robin, his expression remained remarkably calm. The sleeping mask was pulled up on his forehead, as his ice-cold eyes studied Varin.
"Well, well," Kuzan said, his voice carrying the tone of someone who was perpetually unsurprised by almost everything happening around him. "I saw the poster. Your sister is, or well would be, gunning for your blood if she wasn't ordered to deal with some trouble elsewhere. Though this does add to my conundrum." He hummed those last words, watching as Varin made his way closer to him, stepping directly between the admiral and the crew with the kind of movement that communicated clear intent.
"Varin, you know this man?" Sanji asked, his voice tight in a way that suggested he could feel the aura this man gave off even passively. It was like staring at a mountain, one you could never climb no matter how strong you became. The cook's hand had drifted toward his pockets, a nervous habit that suggested his body was preparing for conflict even if his mind hadn't fully committed to the idea yet.
"I don't like him," Luffy said simply, his eyes narrowing as he stepped up beside Varin, his usual cheerfulness replaced with something far more focused. "Robin doesn't, and that's all I need to know."
Kuzan's expression didn't change, but there was something that flickered behind his eyes, some calculation that seemed to be running in the background of his lazy demeanor. He looked at Robin for a long moment, then back at Varin, and Varin could see the moment when the admiral made a decision. Not a sudden decision, but one that had apparently been forming since the moment he'd seen Varin.
The movement that followed happened so fast that most people wouldn't have been able to track it at all. Kuzan's arm extended past Varin without appearing to accelerate, his hand moving with the kind of speed that belied his lazy posture. Ice crystallized in the air as his Devil Fruit activated, not the slow creeping spread of ice that gave people time to react, but a violent burst of freezing power that encompassed everything in its path.
Robin's scream was cut off mid-sound as the ice seized her, encasing her entire body in solid crystalline cold that froze her mid-stride. The archaeologist's expression was locked in shock and terror, her hands still raised in a defensive posture that hadn't been nearly fast enough to matter against an admiral's power.
"No!" Chopper's voice came from somewhere behind them, the small reindeer doctor's anguished cry echoing across the beach as he realized what had happened.
Varin moved without thinking, his entire body coiling and releasing in the span of a heartbeat, but Kuzan was already stepping back, his hand withdrawing with the same lazy motion that had launched the attack. The admiral's expression remained remarkably calm, almost serene, as he'd just performed a small favor rather than nearly killed one of the Straw Hat crew.
"She's not dead," Kuzan said flatly, his tone carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "Just frozen. The ice will hold her in stasis for several minutes. Plenty of time for you to make a choice about whether this situation is worth escalating."
Luffy was moving before anyone else had fully processed what was happening, his rubber body already stretching, his fist pulling back with enough force to suggest he was done with conversation. The captain's eyes had shifted into that focused intensity that only appeared when he'd decided mercy was no longer on the menu. "Zoro, Sanji!" he barked, his voice cutting through the tension with absolute clarity. "Help Chopper save Robin!"
The swordsman and the cook didn't need to be told twice. Zoro was already moving toward where Robin's frozen form stood locked in stasis, his hands going to his sword hilts not as a threat to Kuzan but as a tool to help him navigate toward the archaeologist. Sanji's leg, which had been aimed at the admiral's midsection, instead pivoted and redirected toward the woman, his kick shifting from an attack into an attempt at liberation. Their priorities had shifted in an instant from offense to rescue, which was exactly what Luffy had intended.
That left Luffy and Varin facing down Kuzan, and the admiral's expression remained remarkably unbothered by the development. His lazy gaze tracked Luffy's approach with the kind of passive interest that suggested he'd seen countless iterations of this particular scenario play out before, and none of them had surprised him yet.
Luffy's fist came forward in a stretching arc that defied conventional physics, his rubber body allowing him to generate force from positions and angles that shouldn't have been possible. The punch moved with enough speed and power to suggest it would tear through most conventional defenses, and Kuzan simply stood there and let it happen. His body didn't dodge. His arm didn't come up to block. He simply accepted the impact directly against his torso. The fist never hit; instead, the section of Luffy's arm that went through the man, whose body turned into ice, froze and flaked off painfully.
Varin moved in while Kuzan was still focused on Luffy, his approach direct and brutal, claws already extended and sheathed in the black armament of Haki that made them into actual weapons. His claws came up in a series of strikes aimed at the admiral's chest and shoulders, each one carrying force, Varin knew from experience, could sever limbs.
Kuzan's hand came up to meet the first strike, and ice crystallized around Varin's wrist where their attacks met. But instead of the freezing spreading up his arm the way it had with Robin, the ice simply formed a shell around him, encasing his entire body in crystalline cold that didn't penetrate his skin or slow his movement in any meaningful way. It was like being wrapped in a block of ice rather than frozen solid, the difference between imprisonment and mere inconvenience.
Varin flexed as he kept up his assault. The ice shattered outward in a spray of crystalline shards that scattered across the beach, each fragment glittering in the sunlight as it fell. His body was completely unharmed, and his momentum carried him forward without hesitation. His claws raked across Kuzan's shoulder, and the admiral's expression finally shifted into surprise, a brief surprise, but surprise nonetheless.
Kuzan didn't block the follow-up strike. He simply pivoted slightly, letting Varin's claws rake across his arm instead of his torso, and then he drove his fist forward with a casual brutality that only came from someone who knew exactly how much force they could generate without actually caring about the consequences. The punch was faster than Varin had anticipated, faster than his body could properly dodge, and it connected squarely with his chest hard enough to knock the wind from his lungs and cause Varin to fly backward, his boots scraping against the sand as he tried to maintain his footing and failed, his body tumbling across the beach before he managed to plant himself and stop his momentum. The impact had been solid, had been the kind of blow that would have killed most people, but Varin's physiology was significantly more resilient than baseline human. He straightened up, ignoring the crater and broken ribs, his breathing coming hard, but he was still standing.
Luffy was coming in again from a different angle, his fist stretching around Kuzan's body in an attempt to catch the admiral from the side while he was still focused on Varin. Kuzan simply sidestepped, his movement economical and controlled, and let the punch sail past his head without bothering to acknowledge it beyond a casual glance.
The temperature around the admiral continued to drop, ice spreading across the sand in a steady advance that wasn't directed at either of them but simply existed as a byproduct of his presence. The cold was intense enough that Varin's breath was beginning to mist in front of his face, and he could see the way Luffy's movements were slowing slightly as his rubber body became less flexible in the decreasing temperature.
Kuzan brought his other hand up and drove it toward Varin in a palm strike that moved with deceptive laziness. But the force behind it was genuine, and Varin raised his arms to block, his Haki flaring up to defend against the impact. Ice formed where their attacks met, not spreading onto Varin but crystallizing in the space between them, and when Kuzan pulled his hand back, he was already moving toward Luffy with that same unhurried pace that somehow managed to be faster than it should have been.
The admiral's fist came up in an uppercut aimed at Luffy's jaw, and the rubber captain stretched backward to avoid it, his body bending at angles that would have been impossible for a normal human. But Kuzan's hand simply followed the trajectory, his ice spreading out in a wave that caught Luffy mid-dodge and froze him in place, his body suspended in ice just as Robin's had been.
Luffy's expression was locked in concentration, his fists still clenched, his determination visible even through the crystalline prison. But he was immobilized, caught in stasis the same way the archaeologist had been caught.
That left just Varin. The admiral turned his attention fully to the Styrnvald, and his expression remained exactly as it had been from the beginning, lazy and unbothered and completely certain of his own capability. Varin was breathing hard now, his body still recovering from the previous exchange. "Why Kuzan?" he asked. "These pirates did nothing warranting you. If you want me, just take me, and let them be, their all good people, especially the two you've frozen.
Kuzan let his hands rest at his sides, like he didn't even view Varin as a threat anymore. His expression remained that same lazy calm, but there was something different in his eyes now, something that suggested the fight had accomplished exactly what he'd intended. "High praise from you, to be honest," Kuzan said, his voice carrying no particular inflection. "Today is simply luck, but I made a promise years ago, and I'm seeing if it came through. Your presence here is just an added bonus."
He turned around and began walking toward the shoreline without waiting for a response, his movements unhurried and lazy. A bicycle was waiting there, the kind that shouldn't have been seaworthy, and beside it stretched a line of ice that extended across the ocean's surface like a frozen pathway leading somewhere distant. The ice caught the light as it stretched out toward the horizon, a testament to the sheer scale of power Kuzan could command when he bothered to use it.
"Tell Robin I've completed my promise," Kuzan said, not looking back at Varin as he spoke. His voice was quieter now, carrying something underneath the casual tone that suggested genuine emotion that was carefully controlled. "And that I'm glad she found people worth protecting." He paused, his hand coming to rest on the seat of the bicycle, and when he turned his head slightly back toward Varin, there was something in his expression that was almost vulnerable. "I was angry when I heard what happened to you," Kuzan continued, his voice steady and measured. "Angry after I learned about the exile. For you, and maybe at you from what I was told. But I'm glad you found a family again. I'm glad you have people who would die for you and who you would die for in return."
He looked away, turning his attention back to the frozen path stretching across the ocean, and something in his posture suggested the conversation was ending.
"Next time we meet, Varin, don't call me uncle. That's in the past," Kuzan said simply, his voice carrying finality. "You've made your choice about who you are now, and it is against my own."
He mounted the bicycle without waiting for a response and began pedaling across the ice, moving with unhurried purpose across the frozen ocean. He said one last thing just before leaving earshot: "She would be proud of you." Varin's eyes widened; he felt his body tremble slightly from the meaning as he watched the admiral disappeared into the distance, leaving only the ice path behind as proof he'd ever been there at all.
Varin didn't waste any more time processing. The moment Kuzan was out of sight, he moved back toward where Luffy's frozen form stood locked in crystalline stasis. The captain's expression was still set in determination, his fists still clenched, his eyes still open but completely unresponsive. Moving him incorrectly could cause damage, break bones or tear muscles if Varin wasn't careful about how he handled the frozen body. But standing here wasn't an option either.
Varin positioned his arms carefully, supporting Luffy's neck and back, keeping the body as straight and stable as possible as he lifted him. The frozen captain was heavier than expected, the ice adding weight to his frame, but still nothing Varin would usually have struggled with. He held Luffy against his chest like a child, cradling him with the kind of gentleness that seemed incongruous with his massive frame, even with his own broken ribs protesting the action.
"Chopper!" Varin called out, already moving back toward the shoreline where the Going Merry was anchored. "I really hope you know how to fix this, or we'll be down a captain."
He ran, moving faster than someone carrying a frozen body should have been able to move, his powerful legs eating up the distance across the sand. The in front of him, he could hear shouting from the ship. Nami was directing Usopp toward Robin, her voice cutting through the chaos with more than a few panicked breaks from what had just happened, but commanding the best she could.
Varin reached the ship and didn't slow down as he bounded up the ramp and headed straight for the interior, before he vaguely heard someone yell that Robin and Chopper were in the bathroom. He knew the layout of the Going Merry well enough by now to navigate it even in a panic, and his boots thundered against the wooden decking as he made his way toward the bathroom. The door swung open, and he carefully laid Luffy down in the bathtub beside Robin, positioning him with the kind of care that would have seemed almost reverent if it hadn't been for the urgency underlying every movement.
Chopper was already there, his tiny reindeer form scrambling to adjust the shower controls. The doctor's eyes widened at the sight of Luffy, but he didn't stop his action, his hooves adjusting the water to whatever temperature he deemed perfect for Robin, and now Luffy.
"Easy, careful," Chopper muttered to himself, his voice taking on that clinical tone that appeared whenever he was in full doctor mode. "Too hot and it could shock his system. Too cold and it won't help at all. Slow and steady, but I have to account for the ice cooling the water as well"
The warm water cascaded over Luffy and Robin's frozen forms, and very gradually, over the course of minutes. The ice began to melt. It wasn't dramatic or fast. It was painstaking and slow, the crystalline shell breaking apart in small pieces that fell away as the warmth reached the captain's body. Varin stood there watching, his massive frame filling most of the bathroom, his presence somehow comforting despite the circumstances.
"Are they going to be okay?" Varin asked, his voice rougher than intended.
"I don't know yet," Chopper replied, not looking away from his work. His small hands worked methodically, adjusting the water temperature, checking Luffy's pulse periodically, his expression focused in that way that made him look far older than his actual age. "This ice is special. It's not normal freezing. When you're frozen by a Logia user, it affects your entire body, not just the surface. Heart, lungs, everything stops. If we don't thaw him properly, his systems might not restart. I've dealt with hyperthermia a lot, but this is different. Flash freezing shouldn't even be possible under normal circumstances"
The minutes stretched out as Chopper worked, as the water continued its patient work of returning warmth to Luffy and Robin's bodies. The ice melted away completely, revealing skin that was frighteningly pale and still. Chopper placed his hoof against each chest, his expression intense as he focused on feeling for any sign of heartbeat or breathing.
"Come on, you two," Chopper whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. "Come on. Come back. V-Varin, can you tell the others it's going well, and that we need to get going? We shouldn't stay here anymore."
Varin understood immediately what Chopper wasn't saying out loud. The doctor needed space to work, needed to focus without the weight of a massive presence looming in the bathroom doorway, needed to concentrate on the delicate work of bringing two people back from the edge of freezing death. Having Varin standing there, waiting and watching, was adding pressure that Chopper couldn't afford to carry right now.
So Varin nodded and stepped back, closing the bathroom door behind him as he left. The moment he was away from the immediate crisis, the adrenaline that had been carrying him through the fight with Kuzan began to wear off. His ribs screamed in protest as he moved, sharp stabbing pain with every breath suggesting that the admiral's punch had done significant damage. Broken, probably. Possibly more than one. But that could wait. Everything could wait until they were away from this island and safe enough to breathe without looking over their shoulders.
He made his way up to the deck, moving carefully to avoid jarring his injured side, and stepped out into the afternoon light to find the Going Merry already in motion. The ship was pulling away from the shoreline with steady momentum, the sails catching wind that suggested someone had made the decision to leave without waiting for explicit confirmation. Zoro was at the helm, his arms stiff but functional enough to handle basic steering. Nami was moving around the deck checking lines and making adjustments, her movements quick and efficient despite the tension visible in every line of her body.
Sanji was leaning against the railing. His expression was dark in a way that suggested the cook had plenty of thoughts he wasn't currently sharing. Usopp was pacing near the bow, his movements restless and agitated, like his body needed to move to process what had just happened. And Vivi was standing slightly apart from the others, her arms wrapped around herself, her expression caught somewhere between shock and something that looked dangerously close to heartbreak.
"Chopper says we're good," Varin called out, his voice carrying across the deck in a way that made everyone turn to look at him simultaneously. "We need to keep moving, though. He's working on getting them stable."
Nobody responded immediately. The silence that followed was heavy with unspoken questions and emotions that nobody seemed quite ready to voice yet. They were all processing, all trying to understand what had just happened on that beach, all attempting to reconcile the casual cruelty of what they'd witnessed with the fact that they'd somehow survived it.
"Who the hell was that?" Sanji finally asked, his voice tight with barely controlled anger. "That tall bastard, the one who just froze Luffy and Robin like they were nothing and then walked away like it didn't matter. Rode away on a fucking bicycle."
"An admiral," Varin said simply, because he wasn't one for sugar coating. and the crew deserved to know what they were actually facing. "Marine admiral. One of the three, sorry, four highest-ranking officers in the entire World Government military structure."
Nami's expression shifted into something that looked almost physically pained at that revelation. "An admiral," she repeated, her voice hollow. "He just showed up and froze our captain and our archaeologist like it was a game to him, and he was an admiral.m, why aren't we dead?"
"That's why he was able to do it," Varin said, his voice carrying exhaustion that came from a day that had somehow managed to contain multiple layers of impossible situations stacked on top of each other. He leaned back against the railing, letting the wood support his weight while his ribs screamed in protest at every slight movement. "Even Enel, if the lad was competent, wouldn't've been a match for him. And Kuzan is probably middle of the line for admirals, if my decade-old, unreliable memory counts for anything. There's stronger ones out there, and weaker ones, but he's solidly in the range where he can destroy most things without particularly trying."
"Not exactly a vote of confidence," Sanji snorted, taking a long drag from his cigarette. But there was understanding in his tone underneath the sarcasm, a recognition that Varin wasn't trying to be pessimistic so much as he was being accurate about what they'd actually witnessed on that beach. "So what you're saying is that we just got our asses handed to us by someone who was barely trying."
"Basically," Varin confirmed, closing his eyes for a moment as the weight of everything that had happened in the past hour began to settle into his bones. An hour. That's all it had been. Somehow, it felt like the entire day had passed in that span of time. He'd gone from stupid games, to speaking with a giant who carried the consciousness of a world ending dragon, to fighting an admiral on a beach while his entire crew watched him lose. The transition had been jarring enough to leave him feeling slightly disconnected from reality, like he was experiencing everything through a layer of glass that prevented him from fully engaging with what was happening.
Vivi had moved closer during the exchange, her arms still wrapped around herself but her eyes tracking Varin with the kind of focused attention that suggested she was making calculations he probably didn't want to know about. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet but carried an intensity that made everyone turn to look at her.
"You're hurt badly," she said simply, not bothering with preamble or politeness. "More than just the ribs. I can tell by the way you're breathing, the way you're holding yourself. Chopper needs to focus on Luffy and Robin, and I can help patch you up well enough to keep you functional."
"I appreciate the thought," Varin said, opening his eyes to look at her directly, "but the last time you tried medical work on me, you nearly killed me. Kureha made it very clear that your bedside manner needs work."
Vivi's expression shifted into something that was somewhere between offended and embarrassed, color rising in her cheeks at the reminder. It had only been about two months ago, back on Drum Island, when Varin had nearly lost to the wax bastard, and Vivi had insisted on helping with the initial treatment. The result had been painful enough that even Kureha, the gruff old doctor who'd trained Chopper, had taken one look at what Vivi had attempted and declared her a menace to medical science.
"She didn't mince words about it either," Varin continued, because if he was going to bring up the subject, he might as well be thorough about it. "Said something along the lines of if medical skill were a ladder, you started underground. I believe her exact words were that whoever patched me up the first time should never touch a needle again."
"I was trying my best!" Vivi protested, her hands coming away from where they'd been wrapped around herself to gesticulate in frustration. "I didn't have proper training, and you were bleeding everywhere, and I was doing the best I could with the knowledge I had!"
"Which is why I'm not letting you do it again," Varin said, his tone not unkind but absolutely firm. "Offense intended, but Kureha was right. You mean well, but anything beyond a bandaid is beyond your current skill level. Chopper can handle it once he's done with Luffy and Robin, and I can wait that long. I'm not bleeding out, and I'm not in immediate danger of dying. I'm just tired and sore and significantly less happy about admirals than I was before this afternoon."
Sanji let out a short laugh at that, a sound that was more genuine than anything else that had come from his mouth since the fight had ended. "Fair assessment," the cook said, his expression settling back into something approaching normalcy. "Can't blame you for that. I'm not exactly thrilled with admirals either, and I didn't even get to land a proper kick on him."
The ship continued its steady progress away from Long Ring Long Land, the water churning behind them as the Going Merry put distance between itself and the island. Usopp had finally stopped pacing and was now sitting on one of the crates near the bow, his body language suggesting complete emotional exhaustion. The sniper wasn't built for the kind of combat scenario they'd just been through, and watching helplessly while an admiral casually dismantled his crew had clearly taken a toll. Vivi remained standing near Varin, her expression caught between concern for his wellbeing and frustration at not being allowed to help.
"You should at least sit down somewhere more comfortable than the railing," she said finally, her voice carrying the kind of stubbornness that suggested she wasn't going to drop the subject entirely. "You look like you're about to fall over, and if you do, you'll just hurt yourself worse when you hit the deck."
Varin considered arguing, mainly just to be spiteful, insisting that he was fine where he was, but the honest truth was that his entire body was starting to feel like it was made of lead. "Fine," he said, pushing himself away from the railing with careful movements designed to minimize stress on his injured ribs. "But if you try to fuss over me or give me some kind of herbal remedy, I'm throwing you overboard."
"That's fair," Vivi said, and there was something in her tone that suggested she was relieved at the concession, relieved that he was at least willing to move somewhere more practical than leaning against railings like he was trying to become part of the ship's permanent fixtures.
He made his way below deck slowly, methodically, and settled into one of the hammocks in the crew quarters. The ship rocked gently beneath him, the motion soothing in its own way, and Varin found himself staring at the wooden beams of the ceiling as his mind continued to churn through everything that had happened. Somewhere in the ship, Chopper was working on bringing Luffy and Robin back from the edge of freezing death. Somewhere above, his crew was trying to process the fact that an admiral had just casually demonstrated the kind of power that made even gods seem like minor inconveniences.