The instant the island fractured, the darkness shrouding the island was stripped away. The surging seawater was about to roll up, but was quickly frozen into ice, with the massive ice surface connecting the fractured island, forcibly forming a whole.
And the waves frozen in ice at a higher elevation shattered into ice crystals due to the tremors, becoming fragmented. Even the sea area outside the ice surface tilted and quivered under the shock, causing the mushroom cloud's smoke to dissipate.
At the same time, the rapidly ascending frozen mist on the ice surface caused the temperature to plummet, and snowflakes began to drift in the air. The moment they fell, they brought even colder air, freezing everything in their path.
On a relatively intact piece of land, people were instantly teleported over by Van Augur. After teleporting the last person, Laffitte, Van Augur couldn't help but fall to one knee, using his sniper rifle to support his trembling body, preventing his battered body from collapsing.
Just a single strike...
Van Augur looked at the people lying on the ground, each injured and panting, and couldn't help but purse his lips.
The gap was too vast.
The most crucial issue was that Doc Q was the first to die, making treatment impossible.
"Ha, ha..."
Teach lay on the ice surface, his left hand raised in a fist, emitting a faint white light. His face was even paler than before, his expression twisted with such pain that his eyebrows nearly knit together, his features spiraling in agony.
His open mouth, teeth once grown from improved strength, now missing a few pieces.
There was no harm, as the darkness absorbed it, but the explosive pain, as if every cell in his body was tearing apart, pulsed within him... wishing he could just die then and there.
Too painful!
How can it be this painful!
Is this a human-inflicted injury?!
If Teach hadn't been prepared from the start, using darkness to absorb the impact as Sage attacked, while counteracting the tremors, the sheer pain would probably have killed him alive.
The darkness he prided himself on, which negated the abilities of other Ability Users, was completely ineffective against Sage.
Sage's ability was internal, relying entirely on body techniques and Haki to fight.
Completely restrained by it!
"There's no time for you to breathe, Teach!"
Before Teach's thoughts could last a moment, Kuzan's shout rang beside his ear. His somewhat unfocused eyes instantly sharpened, seeing a mass of ice cones stirring violently in the air and shooting straight ahead. Amidst the massive ice cones, a figure walked casually.
The ice cones shooting toward him were either dodged with a slight tilt of the head or shattered with a casual wave of his hand. Even if the freeze mist made his arm frosted through the ice cone, it would quickly fracture.
"Oh? I'm surprised, shouldering a part of it yourself?"
Sage flicked his fingers to shatter an incoming ice cone, dodging another with a tilt of his head before suddenly accelerating, reaching close in a few steps, once again clasping his hands together.
"Then, once more?"
Kuzan is not afraid of the sea, but the other Ability Users surely are, and in this area... since there's an island, it's not a deep sea area. Even if the darkness above absorbs his thundercloud lightning, maybe it could absorb the clouds he uses to fly, but what of it?
Even if he enters the sea, with his current body size, there's nothing to fear.
"Ice Age!"
Seeing Sage about to repeat his trick, Kuzan unleashed a powerful freezing aura throughout his body, freezing everything from the front. In no time, the world ahead, whether it be the island's ground, the surrounding sea, or even the air, all became one massive ice block.
With the power to freeze a sea surface for seven days' travel at will, merging islands with ice, freezing the air over an island isn't too difficult.
"Dark World!"
Teach, stumbling to his feet, pressed a hand against the ground, forming darkness beneath the massive ice block to engulf it. Simultaneously, the ever-present darkness covering the sky drifted downward, merging with the darkness below, akin to a dark curtain beginning to swallow the ice block.
Swallow him!
If only the darkness could devour him, Sage wouldn't be a threat!
But as the dark curtain began encroaching on the ice block's edge, in its center, several large cracks suddenly shot outwards, and beneath the cracks, shattered ice crystals began to fall.
"Teach!" Kuzan called out.
At this rate, before the darkness could consume him, he'd break free.
"Hah!!"
Teach shouted fiercely, his fist emitting vibrating light, striking the air with great force. The air shattered into massive cracks, causing the ice block encompassing much of the island and ice surface to shatter, scattering like glass shards.
"Frozen Time!"
With a motion of his hands, Kuzan unleashed a strong freeze aura among the ice crystals raining down like a curtain, forming a rapidly freezing white mist around. The frosty air emitted from the white mist intertwined with the darkness above and below once more.
The darkness drawn in by the white mist noticeably accelerated, threading into the fine gaps within the ice crystals, creating a scene of chaotic light.
"Zehahaha, gravitational pull of darkness, freezing delay, and my destructive tremors! Sage, I told you, coming alone was the most unwise decision! Everyone, attack!" Teach laughed heartily.