Kizaru narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke in his usual lazy drawl, a faint trace of teasing beneath his voice.
"You shouldn't throw around words like 'surrender' so casually~"
Before he had even finished speaking, his body transformed into a brilliant streak of golden light.
He flashed aside like a meteor, neatly avoiding Jozu's ferocious diamond charge.
The attack tore forward with enough force to overturn mountains and seas, leaving thin scars through the air wherever it passed, yet it failed to touch Kizaru at all.
The Admiral casually added,
"As a Marine Admiral, this old man's position is quite firm, you know~"
His words sounded decisive.
His actions, however, subtly betrayed the unrest he could not entirely suppress.
The relentless tempo of his attacks noticeably slowed.
He was no longer pressing forward with complete abandon, seeking to end the battle in a single overwhelming strike.
His feared light-speed kicks remained extraordinarily fast, but there was now a trace of caution and experimentation behind each one.
Even Yasakani Sacred Jewel was no longer unleashed with its former reckless intensity.
Kizaru's attacks had become more probing and defensive, as though he were carefully searching for something. Rather than actively taking control of the fight, he now seemed content to respond passively to Jozu's endless barrage.
From a distance, he hardly resembled the invincible Marine Admiral everyone knew.
He looked more like someone carefully observing the battlefield and seeking a delicate balance rather than hunting for a decisive opening.
The change was so subtle that almost no one would notice it without watching closely.
It hung over the battle like a thin veil, easily mistaken for a reasonable adjustment after prolonged combat or a simple change in tactics.
Jozu, however, was too immersed in his own fighting rhythm to notice anything unusual.
He had always been straightforward and uncomplicated by nature. When Kizaru failed to reject his offer outright, excitement immediately surged through him.
As far as Jozu was concerned, it was obvious proof that his persuasion had begun to work.
The first light of victory seemed to be shining in the distance.
He clenched his fists, released another earthshaking roar, and charged toward Kizaru once more, determined to press his advantage and drive the battle to its climax.
Jozu advanced like a towering mountain, radiating immense power.
He continued applying overwhelming pressure without mercy. Every swing of his diamond-hard fists carried violent tremors and dazzling golden light.
The radiance rolled toward Kizaru in wave after wave, leaving the Admiral no chance to catch his breath.
Kizaru could only weave rapidly through the intersecting lights and shadows, repeatedly evading the devastating attacks.
Jozu did not allow his offensive to distract him from his other objective.
If anything, he became even more focused on persuading Kizaru.
He expanded his broad chest and gathered his voice into a thunderous wave intended to cut through the noise and chaos of the battlefield.
"Kizaru! Wake up already! Stop clinging to a lost cause!
"Take a good look at everything around you!
"The World Government has already rotted beyond saving. Its time is over! It's nothing but a broken ship riddled with holes and moments away from sinking!
"Look at all the devastation around you! What do you expect to gain by continuing to follow people like that?
"Join us!
"You have incredible strength! You should be using it somewhere that actually matters—somewhere you can truly change the world!"
Jozu's stirring appeal continued echoing above the battlefield.
His voice intertwined with cannon fire and the roars of soldiers, creating an unusual and tense atmosphere.
Kizaru remained surrounded by dazzling golden light as sparks from the collision between his Devil Fruit power and Jozu's diamond body scattered like fireworks across the night sky.
Yet he maintained an inexplicable silence.
His expression never shifted, as though nothing outside him could influence his thoughts.
Only his increasingly passive fighting style and the occasional trace of hesitation passing through his lowered eyes seemed to hint at an intention he could not express aloud.
No one could tell what he was truly thinking.
...
While Jozu held Kizaru firmly in place through both his overwhelming strength and words sharp enough to pierce the heart, Aokiji stood at the opposite end of the Marine formation.
His deep, piercing eyes suddenly hardened.
They shone with the calm decisiveness of stars in a freezing night.
Aokiji understood perfectly well that the situation on a battlefield could shift as unpredictably as the weather, changing beyond recognition in a single instant.
Ron was unquestionably the greatest variable in the entire war.
He stood there calmly overseeing everything, like a dormant bomb capable of triggering an unforeseen chain reaction at any moment.
At such a crucial time, decisive action was necessary.
Take down the leader first.
It was the simplest strategy forged through countless battles—and often the most effective.
"Ice Age!"
Aokiji's low, powerful voice thundered into the sky.
He wasted no time on unnecessary words.
Both feet remained firmly planted on the deck, yet even that seemingly gentle stance contained immense strength.
Then his body shot upward like a stream of freezing air, carrying boundless cold into the heavens.
Wherever he passed, the moisture in the atmosphere froze almost instantly into countless tiny, crystalline shards of ice.
They spiraled through the air, gleaming with pale, frigid light.
A path of solid ice extended straight ahead, leading directly toward Ron as he hovered in the sky, almost as though fate itself had laid out the route.
Aokiji extended both hands.
Extreme cold surged from his palms.
Like the power of a demon rising from the deepest reaches of the polar abyss, the freezing energy gathered and spun wildly, forming a colossal and terrifying vortex.
...
Aokiji intended to freeze Ron along with the space surrounding him, completely immobilizing the greatest variable on the battlefield.
Yet at that critical moment—
"Hahahahaha! You want Ron? You'll have to get through me first!"
Wild laughter overflowing with fighting spirit exploded across the battlefield like rolling thunder.
Fearless resolve rang through it, drawing every nearby gaze.
A figure flashed into view at a speed that did not lose out to Aokiji's.
Despite moving second, he arrived first, charging straight into the Admiral's path like a cannonball with no intention of slowing down.
It was none other than the terrifying Douglas Bullet!
His massive, heavily muscled body stood like an immovable tower.
Amid the suffocating tension of the battlefield, an incredibly violent and scorching power surged through him, threatening to burn everything nearby to ashes.
His entire right arm had transformed into churning magma.
Dark-red light danced across its molten surface like living flames, releasing unbearable heat. Even the smallest movement sent countless tongues of fire writhing through the air, ready to reduce anything they touched to cinders.
His left arm and the rest of his body, meanwhile, were covered in black alloy armor instantly fused from surrounding inorganic matter.
The armor gleamed with a cold metallic sheen. It was astonishingly durable and radiated a mysterious, overwhelming presence.
This was the new form Bullet had created by combining the Magma-Magma Fruit with the Clank-Clank Fruit—
Molten Fusion Commander!
Its appearance made the already oppressive battlefield feel even more dangerous.
BOOM!!!
Bullet's enormous magma fist collided head-on with Aokiji's ice-covered fist, which contained cold pushed to its absolute limit.
The clash between those two terrifying powers sent a tremendous impact surging outward like a violent tide.
HISSSSS—!!!
A piercing shriek erupted alongside a violent fluctuation of energy.
Extreme heat and extreme cold confronted each other in the fiercest possible struggle, like two incompatible worlds locked in a battle to the death.
An explosion followed instantly.
The resulting shock wave tore layer after layer from the surrounding ground.
Thick white steam billowed upward and rapidly swallowed the battlefield, obscuring everything within it.
Inside the chaos, ice and fire continuously eroded and annihilated each other. Every collision released a dazzling flash and another violent surge of energy.
"Admiral Kuzan, your ice doesn't seem all that impressive!"
Bullet threw back his head and laughed with open contempt.
The heat radiating from his magma fist intensified like an erupting volcano.
Under that overwhelming temperature, the solid ice covering Aokiji's fist began melting and evaporating, turning into streams of white vapor that drifted through the air.
The Magma-Magma Fruit's natural advantage over freezing abilities was fully displayed, allowing everyone watching to feel the difference between those opposing powers.
The Clank-Clank Fruit made Bullet's methods even stranger and far harder to defend against.
The solid alloy armor covering his left arm suddenly began to distort as though it had come alive.
With an ear-grating screech of grinding metal, several enormous, vicious-looking metal serpents extended from the armor.
Their bodies were covered in razor-sharp spikes, each gleaming with cold light. They resembled demonic tentacles crawling out from the depths of hell.
The serpents twisted toward Aokiji from several difficult angles like living vipers, attempting to wrap around his body while simultaneously lashing at him without mercy.
Their powerful strikes produced shrieking winds and made the surrounding air tremble.
An even stranger phenomenon appeared beneath Bullet's feet.
The moment they came into contact with the air, the nearly invisible dust floating within it gathered around him as though responding to a mysterious summons.
The particles rapidly fused with the air and solidified into firm footholds.
Using those platforms, Bullet launched himself forward through the sky like a bird freed from gravity, accelerating in a manner that defied the laws of physics.
His figure flashed through the air like lightning, leaving countless illusory trails behind him. No one could identify his true path through the confusing afterimages.
Scorching magma surged forward as the core of his offensive, resembling a raging flood determined to destroy everything before it.
The unpredictable series of fused attacks supported it perfectly.
Bullet combined the two formidable Devil Fruit abilities so seamlessly that no obvious weakness could be found.
His assault fell upon Aokiji like a violent storm, one wave immediately following another without the slightest pause.
For a time, the veteran Admiral found himself forced entirely onto the defensive.
To withstand the relentless barrage, Aokiji had to continuously draw upon his power and create one thick wall of ice after another.
He also made full use of his Logia transformation to evade attacks at the final possible instant.
Even so, he appeared unusually disheveled, and fine beads of sweat had begun forming across his forehead.
"Tch… What a troublesome combination of abilities."
Aokiji frowned, a grave light entering his deep eyes.
He could clearly feel the scorching pain brought by the waves of magma rolling toward him. The heat seemed capable of penetrating his skin and burning his very soul.
At the same time, the Clank-Clank Fruit's strange and constantly shifting attacks were almost impossible to fully anticipate. Defending against each one consumed a tremendous amount of his concentration and stamina.
As the violent confrontation continued, even Aokiji could not help feeling inwardly astonished.
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