However, awakening through weapons ultimately has some issues. Weapons are just weapons, after all. Even if they gain consciousness from the Monster Cells, it's impossible for them to achieve awakening on their own.
Therefore, only when An and Kagemaru become nearly one in spirit, reaching the state of "man and sword as one," can An use her own heart to suppress the Devil Fruit's power and complete the awakening.
But "man and sword as one" is very dangerous. It's easy to get confused with the sword. So, An generally doesn't use this state, only as a trump card for a finishing blow.
The power of the awakening strike An unleashed now is naturally terrifying. Although she and Kaido were very far apart from the beginning, and Kaido has flown a long distance away now, when An entered her Bankai state, the spear that shot out was as fast as light.
In almost an instant, the spear, which had traveled several kilometers, pierced Kaido's dragon body. Kaido, who was flying away thinking he was escaping, suddenly felt his 'chest' being pierced.
Kaido is currently in his Azure Dragon form. What's called the chest is the area below the dragon's head. Kagemaru directly pierced through that thick and incredibly hard dragon body. The next moment, the blade retracted, and the recoil from the rapid retraction even pushed An back a few steps.
At this point, blood splattered from his chest. Kaido immediately felt his strength rapidly draining, almost falling from the sky.
He broke out in a cold sweat, feeling that along with the spear, an endless killing intent had also come. Kaido endured the pain and continued flying, desperately heading towards the New World.
As long as...
As long as he reached the New World, even the Marines wouldn't have the power to pursue him.
Yuri had already given him a lot of intelligence when he came. Fleet Admiral Makima of The Black Order had gone to the North Sea, and Thor, who was also very fast, was in the West Sea. So, the resistance to heading to the New World wouldn't be too great.
It was precisely by seizing this opportunity that Yuri would plan this sabotage of Mary Geoise with Kaido.
Kaido was injured, but the Shikon Jewel fragments were providing a gentle power to heal his body. Otherwise, Kaido probably wouldn't even be able to fly right now.
This is because An's blade doesn't just penetrate; extremely powerful Haki is concentrated on its edge, and...
There's also poison!
That's right, this is the most terrifying thing!
Kagemaru likes to eat poison, and the poison it consumes manifests in its Bankai state. Therefore, the accumulated toxicity over the years, as the long blade pierced Kaido's body, is the root cause of Kaido's pain.
Relying on the Azure Dragon Fruit and the Shikon Jewel fragments' immense vitality, Kaido finally left. He flew high in the sky, at an altitude invisible to people on the sea. The people of The Black Order, rushing anxiously towards Mary Geoise, didn't notice Kaido in the sky.
Kaido breathed a sigh of relief. In his current state, he wouldn't be able to fight Sengoku, that old guy, anymore.
After Kaido left, An looked at the surrounding ruins, feeling pleased internally but frowning on the outside.
How did that guy Kaido turn Mary Geoise into this mess?
Mary Geoise is, after all, the sacred land of the World Government. Although its security is normally protected by the Marine Headquarters and The Black Order's two bases, this is where the Celestial Dragons live. There are many CP0 agents inside, and even among the Celestial Dragons, there are experts.
There are also "God Knights" among the Celestial Dragons, whose strength is not weak. Even if they couldn't stop Kaido, they shouldn't have been reduced to this state by him alone, right?
As An was pondering, the Marine Headquarters' ships had arrived. A large number of Marines landed, and Fleet Admiral Kong's heart sank considerably upon seeing the scene.
He knew his time as Marine Fleet Admiral was probably over.
He hurriedly instructed the Marines to clean up the mess and see if they could rescue anyone, while also taking An to the collapsed Pangea Castle.
Kong ordered the Marines to dig, and he himself looked at An, who had sweat on her face and looked exhausted, and asked, "What happened?"
The sweat and fatigue were naturally An's pretense. She couldn't be bothered to dig for the Celestial Dragons, and she didn't want to reveal too much of her strength. She said, "It was Kaido. When I arrived, I only saw him destroying Mary Geoise, and he had become very powerful. I exchanged a couple of blows with him, and we both sustained injuries."
Kaido?!
Kong quickly pulled up the man's profile from his mind. His expression grew worse and worse, and he finally couldn't help but say, "Just him?"
Kaido is strong, Kong of course knew he was strong. The Marines also paid great attention to Kaido, but he didn't believe Kaido could have done all this.
An remained silent, only giving Kong a specific look. Kong noticed her gaze and couldn't help but frown.
Because he also remembered that Kaido was mentioned multiple times in the profiles as possibly having some connection to Wano Country. So...
Was this a joint effort by Wano Country and Kaido?
But...
Why would Wano Country do this?
They were already members of the World Government. Why would they attack Mary Geoise?
Kong tucked this question away in his heart. Wano Country was one of the affiliated nations of the World Government. Their King, Yuri, was, to some extent, even his superior. During the World Conferences, the kings would discuss the future direction of the world, and the Marines would follow that direction.
"An, you should return to headquarters first," Kong said after thinking for a moment. "You must have expended a lot of energy fighting Kaido. Nothing else should happen here. Go back to headquarters to recover."
An nodded. This was exactly what she wanted. She didn't want to deal with the rescued Celestial Dragons.
If she rescued them and then they gave her dirty looks, An was afraid she would end up stabbing them to death.
Kong actually had similar concerns. He knew An reasonably well. While she wasn't as resistant to the Celestial Dragons as Ah Xing, she wasn't particularly fond of them either. He had called her because he expected a difficult battle, but now that the fight was over, An indeed had no reason to stay.
"The next era... is yours."
Looking at An, clad in Justice, Kong sighed softly.
Such a major incident had occurred in Mary Geoise. Even though it wasn't the Marines' fault, everything happened too quickly. Even though the Marine Headquarters was very close to Mary Geoise, they couldn't have possibly responded. But Kong knew his position as Fleet Admiral was undoubtedly finished.
Originally, the World Government wanted him to be the Fleet Admiral of the Three Branches of the military. But now, it seemed like a success if he could retire safely.
Kong's gaze was a little lost, because, at this point...
He wasn't even sure if the Five Elders were still alive.
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