S-Crocodile's body gradually transformed into a flowing sea of sand.
The grains seemed almost alive. At times, they gathered into razor-sharp weapons that screamed toward Kaido like arrows. At others, they scattered into countless tiny particles, slipping effortlessly around his violent attacks.
He moved like a masterful dancer, shifting smoothly between offense and defense with the rhythm of the battle while harassing Kaido without pause.
Their strategy had subtly changed.
They were no longer trying to land a decisive blow or inflict a fatal wound. Instead, they had adopted a far more cunning approach—stalling for as long as possible while steadily draining Kaido's stamina and concentration.
They knew perfectly well that meeting such a monster head-on would be foolish.
Only through a prolonged battle of attrition could they gradually weaken his overwhelming advantage.
"Bastards! Fight me head-on if you've got the guts!"
Kaido's furious roar exploded across the sky like thunder.
He opened his enormous jaws and unleashed a torrent of scorching dragon fire.
The blast swept toward the two Seraphim like a waterfall of flame, carrying enough destructive force to consume everything in its path.
Yet to Kaido's immense frustration, they nimbly avoided the attack once again.
He felt as though he had become trapped in an invisible swamp.
His body contained enough power to destroy heaven and earth. He should have been unstoppable on any battlefield, yet every movement was now restricted.
Each full-powered strike felt as though it landed on soft cotton, its destructive force quietly dispersed before it could cause any meaningful damage.
The two Seraphim clung to him like the most stubborn parasites imaginable. Once they latched on, there was simply no shaking them off.
Worse still, their defenses were outrageously powerful.
Even Kaido, who called himself the Strongest Creature in the World, had to admit that killing them would be no simple task.
The maddening battle finally pushed his rage beyond its limits.
Kaido thrashed through the sky like a beast driven out of control, his bloodshot eyes blazing while every muscle tightened with fury.
Even so, he could not find an effective way to escape their harassment.
Through tactics that seemed shameless yet proved extraordinarily effective, the two Seraphim successfully trapped him within that section of the sky.
Unable to break free, Kaido could not support the battered remnants of the Beasts Pirates fighting desperately below.
The subordinates who had hoped their captain would turn the battle around were forced to resist the enemy's assault alone.
Even worse, Kaido could no longer coordinate effectively with Whitebeard and Big Mom.
The three-way strategy they had planned had been completely disrupted by this unexpected development.
For the Marines, the Seraphim had once again accomplished their objective perfectly.
By skillfully using the two machines to restrain Kaido, they had contained one of the battlefield's greatest threats and established a strong foundation for the rest of their offensive.
...
Kizaru floated lightly in the air like a golden phantom.
His piercing gaze swept slowly and carefully across every corner of the battlefield, resembling a physical searchlight.
Amid the chaos, Whitebeard remained surrounded by three Seraphim.
Their coordination was flawless, and their defenses seemed as solid as stone. Every block came at precisely the right moment, revealing durability far beyond ordinary imagination.
They fought with an almost telepathic understanding, perfectly controlling the rhythm of both attack and defense.
Whitebeard's superior strength gave him a faint advantage, but the airtight encirclement still held him in place. Breaking free would take time.
On another battlefield, Big Mom and S-Snake had fallen into an unusual stalemate.
Their special abilities had proven ineffective against one another.
They resembled two statues locked in confrontation, both radiating tremendous pressure yet unable to cause any meaningful damage.
All they could do was continue struggling within the invisible restraints of the battle.
Kaido was in no better position.
Two other Seraphim were using infuriating hit-and-run tactics to keep him trapped.
They circled him like cunning foxes, constantly darting in to harass him before retreating, leaving Kaido with overwhelming strength but no target he could properly strike.
The Seraphim's perfect performance had won the Marines an invaluable opening advantage.
The fleet's morale soared, as though victory had finally appeared on the horizon.
"It seems… I can't afford to wait any longer~"
Kizaru tilted his head back slightly, drawing out the words in his familiar tone.
His eyes, however, became razor-sharp in an instant.
Like those of a hawk glinting coldly beneath the night sky, they locked onto the figure standing at the opposite end of the battlefield—
Ron, ruler of the Divine Kingdom.
Ever since killing Ryokugyu, Ron had remained quietly in place, observing the battle like an unmoving mountain.
Kizaru understood perfectly well that Ron was the greatest uncertainty on this ever-changing battlefield.
Unless they dealt with him first—or at least kept him occupied—the fighting ahead would become far more difficult.
"The battle has already begun, everyone~ It's time to finish warming up."
Unmistakable resolve carried through Kizaru's voice.
Before the final word had fully faded, dazzling golden light erupted from his body.
His entire form instantly transformed into light.
In the next moment, he became a brilliant golden streak too fast for human vision to follow.
Like an arrow released from its bow, the light shot straight toward Ron.
The intense heat left the air violently distorted in its wake, producing a continuous sizzling sound as though space itself trembled beneath the power.
Yet even before this sudden assault at the speed of light, Ron remained standing exactly where he was.
His body did not move in the slightest.
Both hands hung naturally at his sides, and the faintest calm smile even appeared on his face.
It was as though everything before him were merely an entertaining performance that had nothing to do with him.
Just as the blinding golden light Kizaru had become was about to crash into Ron with unstoppable force—
Hum!
A mysterious sound rang out like a horn blown from the depths of the universe, carrying a power that shook every heart.
...
A colossal figure suddenly appeared between Ron and Kizaru, accompanied by a deep tremor that rippled through the surrounding space.
His body seemed carved from countless flawless diamonds, blazing with dazzling light and radiating an indestructible presence. He stood between them like an immense mountain, his aura so powerful that the air itself seemed to freeze.
BOOM!
Kizaru's light-speed kick, delivered with absolute certainty, slammed directly into a brilliant wall of diamond.
Violent energy erupted in every direction.
The deafening collision threatened to rupture everyone's eardrums, while an explosion of blinding radiance spread outward like a sun bursting apart. For several moments, no one could even look toward it.
When the light finally faded, the towering figure of Diamond Jozu stood revealed.
His entire body was covered in the hardest diamond in the world, every facet reflecting a cold and razor-sharp brilliance. His knotted muscles bulged like the ancient roots of a mighty tree, packed with explosive strength.
Jozu glared at Kizaru with fierce, burning eyes. Unshakable conviction and fearless courage blazed within them as his voice thundered across the battlefield.
"Kizaru! If you want to lay a hand on Ron, you'll have to get through me first!"
Not far away, Kizaru's scattered light slowly gathered and reformed into his body.
He tilted his mouth in his usual manner, but his brows drew tightly together. The careless, mocking expression he normally wore had finally been replaced by a trace of gravity.
Caution and focus entered his eyes.
He understood that the opponent before him would be anything but easy to handle.
"Tch… Another troublesome one has appeared."
Kizaru muttered under his breath as his mind raced through possible responses.
His sharp gaze examined Jozu with the focus of a hunting hawk, rapidly conducting a thorough assessment of the formidable enemy before him.
This was Jozu Marx, the former commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' Third Division.
The Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit allowed him to transform his entire body into diamond in an instant.
That dazzling layer of nearly indestructible armor already made his defenses troublesome enough to resemble an impregnable fortress.
More astonishingly, Jozu had successfully integrated the powers of both the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and the Glint-Glint Fruit into his fighting style.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit granted him devastating large-scale destructive power, allowing him to shake the surrounding space so violently that the entire world seemed to tremble.
The Glint-Glint Fruit, meanwhile, gave him unimaginable light-speed mobility, enabling him to cross the battlefield in an instant and making his movements almost impossible to track.
Now all three powers existed within the same body.
The near-absolute defenses of diamond, combined with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's world-shattering force and spatial vibrations, then enhanced by the Glint-Glint Fruit's elusive light-speed movement…
To Kizaru, that combination seemed almost deliberately designed by fate to counter him.
Jozu might as well have been born specifically to suppress a Logia user who relied upon overwhelming speed.
There was more.
Reliable intelligence indicated that Jozu's Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit had awakened.
That information weighed even more heavily on Kizaru.
Awakening represented a complete evolution of a Devil Fruit's abilities.
Jozu's defenses had reached an entirely new level, making ordinary attacks against him about as useful as an insect trying to shake a tree.
His offensive power had also risen to a far more terrifying realm, with every strike potentially capable of raising catastrophic waves of destruction.
'This really is troublesome…'
Kizaru sighed inwardly.
Standing before him was a monster who possessed overwhelming offense and defense while losing nothing to him in speed. In certain areas, Jozu might even hold an absolute advantage over him.
Ending the battle quickly by relying on his usual strengths was now almost impossible.
Every choice would require extreme caution. A single mistake could place him in a disastrous position.
Then, while feeling the immense pressure before him, Kizaru glanced toward the distant battlefields from the corner of his eye.
The Seraphim were desperately struggling to maintain their positions.
Their bodies had begun to waver beneath the Emperors' relentless attacks.
Kizaru's gaze immediately hardened again.
This was no time to complain about the opponent he had been given.
The Seraphim might have been extraordinarily powerful, but they were facing three genuine Emperor-level monsters.
No one could say how much longer the machines would hold out against such an overwhelming difference in power.
Time was running out.
Before the Seraphim were completely defeated, Kizaru had to create a decisive advantage by any means necessary. Otherwise, the entire battle could collapse beyond recovery.
The surrounding atmosphere seemed to solidify, every inch of space filled with anxiety and oppressive tension.
"It can't be helped…"
Kizaru frowned slightly as a decisive light flashed through his eyes.
The brilliant photons surrounding his body began surging violently once again, rolling and churning like a raging tide of energy.
Behind him, countless light bullets slowly took shape as he prepared one of his signature techniques—
Yasakani Sacred Jewel.
Each projectile radiated blinding light like a meteor awaiting release, packed with terrifying destructive power.
"Then I suppose I'll play with you first, Diamond Boy!"
Kizaru's loud, unwavering voice carried a trace of provocation as it echoed across the battlefield.
The next instant, he attacked.
His body vanished from its position like lightning cutting through space and time, leaving countless afterimages behind as he crossed the battlefield at an unimaginable speed.
The second supreme confrontation between light-speed movement and diamond fists erupted without warning amid the smoke, dust, and chaos of war.
The entire battlefield trembled beneath the collision of their power.
Deep cracks split across the ground, while nearby structures swayed violently beneath the tremendous shock.
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