Deep within the heart of Wano Country, inside the slumbering giant known as Mount Fuji, a scene of impossible contrast unfolded. Surrounded by a sea of fiery red magma, a pure white triangular space floated in defiance of the heat. Within this sanctuary, Kaido's massive dragon form coiled and circled through the air.
Above him, Lily—a member of the Maiden Knights and a user of the Time-Time Fruit—floated in mid-air. Her hands were locked in specialized gestures, her brow furrowed as she maintained the temporal boundaries of this isolated pocket. When they had first begun, the scorching heat was so intense it had been difficult even for her to bear, but the environment had since undergone a radical transformation.
The space beneath Lily was no longer a hellscape of fire. Instead, it had become a landscape of jagged ice crystals and swirling winter snow. The temperature had plummeted so sharply that it felt less like the interior of a volcano and more like the peak of a frozen mountain.
Kaido's training followed a rigid schedule. He began every morning at eight and pushed through until five in the evening. While only nine hours passed in the outside world, the 1:10 time dilation within the white space meant he had been training for nearly ninety hours—almost four full days and nights of uninterrupted exertion.
This was an intensity that even his most powerful subordinates, the All-Stars and the Tobi Roppo, could not match. Though they had made rapid progress over the last month, their limit was forty hours at only 10% heat. As the temperature increased, their endurance crumbled; at 50% heat, they could barely last a single hour. Because Kaido had to focus on protecting them when they trained together, he had taken to training alone during the day to push his own boundaries.
As the Governor, Kaido refused to let his officers outpace him. With King acting as Vice Governor and managing the daily affairs of Wano, Kaido was free to devote himself entirely to his ascension.
The freezing temperatures within the space were a byproduct of his growing mastery over the "Greater and Lesser Heavenly Cycle Self-Rotation Method." As he became more proficient, the rate at which he absorbed energy from the surrounding magma increased exponentially. He had reached a point where the energy density on the surface of the magma sea was no longer enough to satisfy his hunger for power.
Interestingly, Kaido noticed that as he siphoned this energy, the magma naturally cooled and solidified into stone without him even using his Devil Fruit powers. It was as if the very existence of the magma was fueled by this mystical energy.
This observation led him to reflect on the legends of the world. He thought of Vegapunk's prophecy regarding the world being swallowed by the rising tides, and the ancient murals Enel had discovered on the moon, which depicted lunar people descending to Earth in search of energy. Kaido wondered if the energy he was consuming was the same resource that once powered civilizations—and if its depletion was the true cause of the world's sinking.
Ultimately, Kaido didn't care about the fate of the world. Between his ability to fly and the sheer altitude of Wano Country, the rising sea was a distant concern. Even if Wano fell, he planned to conquer the Red Line and occupy the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, a place far above the reach of any flood.
His resolve was set: after today, he would dive deeper into the magma of Mount Fuji. He wasn't just looking for more energy; he was looking for the true Ancient Weapon, Pluton, to verify a growing suspicion about his own body.
His physical strength was improving at an incredible rate, but it was also changing in a way he hadn't expected. Initially, he thought this was simply the result of breaking through to the second layer of his cultivation technique—the stage of "Refining Qi to Transform Spirit".
In the world he knew, warriors only trained their external bodies—muscles, bones, and skin. Even Haki was merely an outward manifestation of spirit rather than internal energy cultivation. This explained why legends like Whitebeard, Big Mom, and Garp, despite their terrifying strength, still faced the frailty of aging in their sixties. Only special races or Sea Kings seemed to escape the limitations of a human lifespan.
Through his cultivation, Kaido felt a vibrant, youthful energy returning to his cells. However, after studying the Lineage Factor research of Queen and Hogback and interpreting the Road Poneglyphs using the memories of Sukiyaki, he realized his initial assessment was too simple.
The Road Poneglyphs—one hidden in Wano and another from Sky Island that pinpointed Pluton—contained a revelation that shook his understanding of the world. They spoke of four actual gods:
The God of Earth: Born from the flames of the underground.
The Sun God: Born from the sun.
The Forest God: Born from the woods.
The Ocean God: Born from the sea.
Kaido immediately connected these to the Ancient Weapons, though the numbers didn't quite match. There were three known weapons: Uranus, Poseidon, and Pluton. But he thought of Imu, the secret ruler of the world. If the Ocean God was the Mermaid Princess (Poseidon) and the Sun God was Nika (Joy Boy), then Imu and the figure of legend likely represented the Forest God and the God of Earth.
It seemed there were four Ancient Weapons rather than three. Kaido was now waiting for the final piece of the puzzle: the Road Poneglyph from Fish-Man Island. If his theory was confirmed, he would have to face a final, ultimate truth.
Ordinary humans could not slay gods. To defeat a god, one had to become a god himself.
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