"What? How can such a terrifying ability exist? Isn't that invincible?" Mobius cried out, stunned.
Teach only smiled, his gaze locked on Oden in the middle of the battlefield.
"No… trust Oden. That ability won't hold him forever. He'll break free soon."
His Observation Haki already felt Oden's spirit raging stronger and stronger, pressing against the invisible mental cage.
Inside the darkness, Oden's spirit alone remained active. Though robbed of his senses, he could still feel the battlefield through his Haki. Gripping his twin blades, he struck again and again at the endless void. Cracks splintered in the dark with each slash.
Oden's will never wavered. He had sworn to save Wano. During his years sailing with the Whitebeard Pirates, after witnessing the vast sea, a conviction had taken root in his heart: Wano must open to the world. No more isolation. His people deserved to see that boundless, beautiful ocean too.
But first, he had to claim the shogunate. To do that, he needed to defeat Orochi. Only one of them would live.
"Lord!" Kin'emon shouted as he parried another enemy, Ashura Doji slashing down a great swordsman beside him. Their eyes flicked to Oden, panic clear. The man they thought invincible now seemed trapped and battered.
The outcome of the battle hung on this duel. Every samurai's heart clenched in fear.
"Oden, wake up!"
"Don't give up!"
Pirates on the sidelines shouted encouragement, powerless to join but unwilling to let him fall.
Through the haze, Oden felt their voices. His comrades' faith burned in his chest, hardening his spirit. His dual swords rose and fell with renewed fury. The cracks widened. Sound returned—the cheers, the cries, the desperate hope of his retainers.
"I hear you!" Oden roared. "I will not fall—not now! So shatter!"
Power erupted within him. His will surged, his blades blazing with spirit. One final slash split the darkness like glass, and Oden's senses snapped back into place.
Orochi's strike tore through empty air. Oden reappeared thirty meters away, blades steady despite the blood streaking his body. He looked battered, but his presence was fiercer than ever.
"Lord!" his retainers cried out in relief. Whitebeard, who had been grim and silent, finally let out a grin.
Orochi sneered. "So you broke free. But how many more times can you? How many times can you endure this?"
Oden didn't answer. He charged straight in. Twin blades flashed. Two massive snake heads crashed to the ground. Another swing—two more fell.
"GAAHH!" Orochi writhed in agony, but his monstrous form didn't die. His severed heads reattached, flesh stitching together unnaturally fast. Eight pairs of hateful eyes glared at Oden.
"Poison Spray!"
Streams of dark green venom burst from every mouth. Oden dodged, but drops splattered his arm. The sizzling pain seared through his Haki, corroding even the hardened defense. His face twisted, but he pressed on.
Around them, Orochi's forces had all but collapsed. Only two swordsmen and Semimaru, the Barrier-Barrier Fruit user, still clung to life. But their side was doomed.
Oden and Orochi's battle became the final stage.
Teach, watching from afar, understood the truth. Cutting heads one by one is useless. Orochi has a core—the main head. As long as one remains, his spirit slips away and the body revives. The only way to kill him is to sever all eight at once… or drain him until his stamina runs dry.
Oden seemed to sense the same. Each clash burned his energy, but Orochi's regeneration consumed vast reserves too. Both combatants panted heavily, their duel dragging into hours of brutal exchange.
At last, Semimaru faltered. His barriers sputtered out. A flash of steel ended him—Shimotsuki Yasuie's blade cutting clean through. With his death, Orochi truly stood alone.
Three hours had passed. Again and again, Orochi cast Oden into sensory darkness; again and again, Oden tore free. Each time took a greater toll.
But Oden had endured worse. His duel with Ashura Doji had lasted a day and night. This battle, though shorter, pushed him harder, straining both body and spirit.
Yet resolve carried him forward. His swords hummed, their energy peaking. He had been waiting for this moment.
He broke through the haze once more, gathered every ounce of strength, and leapt.
"Oden Two-Sword Style—Samurai Great Spirit!"
Conqueror's Haki surged across his blades, black and crimson lightning snapping around them. Ryuo coated his arms, his body, his very soul.
A hundred-meter slash erupted, sweeping across all eight of Orochi's heads.
For a heartbeat, silence. Then, eight shadows tumbled from the sky, crashing to earth.
Orochi's form shuddered. His monstrous body began to fade.
On the ground, broken and bloodied, Orochi gasped, "I… lost."
There was no rage in his eyes, only strange relief.
"Orochi," Oden said coldly, Ame-no-Habakiri in hand, "I will end this with the blade that cuts the heavens."
Orochi gave a faint laugh. "To be born with everything… I envied you, Oden. But I didn't lose to you. I lost to Wano itself. So I won't… be too sad."
He closed his eyes. Oden's blade pierced his heart.
The war was over.
Cheers erupted from the samurai. "Our lord has won!" "As expected of Oden!" The Whitebeard Pirates roared in triumph alongside them.
Oden himself burst into laughter, swept up in their joy.
But celebration was short. A samurai named Itama stumbled into the camp, bloodied and breathless. "Lord Oden… forgive us! We failed to protect the mistress and young master!"
The color drained from Oden's face. Orochi's dying smile flashed in his mind.
The truth came quickly; hidden Kurozumi ninjas had struck the Kuri mansion. Despite their defense, Momonosuke had been poisoned, Toki wounded. Their venom-laced weapons had fulfilled Orochi's last cruel promise, to make Oden suffer even in victory.
Oden ran. Marco swooped in, carrying him on phoenix wings, speeding toward Kuri.
They arrived in time. Toki lived, weakened but safe. Baby Hiyori cried in her arms. But Momonosuke… lay pale as ash, breathing shallowly. His small body was crumbling under the venom's corrosion. His hair, barely grown, already streaked gray.
Oden wept. He had slain Orochi, yet still arrived too late.
The mansion filled with silence and grief.
And far away, deep in the forests of Wano, Teach moved unseen. He climbed a tree, eyes gleaming as his hand closed around a fruit.
It was shaped like a pineapple, its skin marked like snake scales, crowned with eight green leaves.
The Mythical Zoan—Yamata no Orochi.
Teach's laughter rang out in the dark.
"Zehahahahahaha!"