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"Boom!"
Thunder exploded overhead, rolling across the sky like the roar of some ancient beast. Forked lightning tore through the clouds, twisting and writhing like majestic dragons made of light.
At some point, unnoticed, the skies above Ohara had turned dark. Heavy storm clouds swallowed the sun, as if a torrential rain were about to crash down at any moment.
A violent gust swept across the sea.
The Marines aboard the warships stiffened, their pupils shrinking.
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki fired on the evacuation ship!"
The shout rang out, sharp with disbelief.
Shock rippled through the fleet. Many of the soldiers felt their hearts lurch. Firing on a ship full of helpless civilians… that wasn't something they had signed up for.
All eyes turned toward the vessel from which the screams had erupted.
"Did it miss?"
An uneasy breath of relief spread among them.
Deep down, no one wanted to see civilians slaughtered.
Another crack of thunder split the heavens.
Something about the weather felt wrong.
On Kuzan's ship, a Marine muttered grimly, "This isn't natural."
Moments ago, the sky had been clear. In just a handful of breaths, it had transformed into a churning mass of lightning and shadow.
"Wait… that figure—?!"
Someone suddenly screamed, pointing toward the evacuation ship.
Crackling blue arcs of electricity flickered through the smoke. As the haze from the explosion slowly thinned, a tall, broad-shouldered silhouette emerged before everyone's eyes.
He stood there, unmoved.
"Firing on civilians."
A low voice carried across the water.
"How despicable."
Kyle's gaze snapped toward the warship whose cannon still smoked.
The next instant—
A humming shockwave burst outward.
Wind roared across the sea, slamming into the Marines on deck and nearly knocking them off their feet.
"My God! It's Vice Admiral Kyle!"
"Did… did my shell just hit Vice Admiral Kyle?!"
"I'm dead… I'm so dead!"
"We fired at Vice Admiral Kyle?!"
Panic erupted. Fear. Regret.
At the bow of Sakazuki's ship, the man standing there radiated a presence like a volcano on the verge of eruption. His face darkened further as the chaos unfolded.
The wind howled. Coats and cloaks snapped violently.
Lightning flared around Kyle's body. In the blink of an eye, he vanished. When he reappeared, he was already standing before Kuzan, firmly shielding Saul behind him.
"You look like hell, Saul."
The casual remark made Saul's massive frame tremble.
"Kyle!"
His voice broke. Tears streamed down his face.
"I knew it. I knew you wouldn't just stand by!"
"Dereshishishishi!"
Kyle didn't respond. His eyes were fixed on Kuzan, expression steady.
"Long time no see, Kuzan."
Kuzan let out a quiet sigh.
"So the worst-case scenario finally came to pass."
Then his gaze sharpened.
"Have you made up your mind, Kyle?"
"You know what it means to stand in our way."
Kyle fell silent.
He slowly swept his eyes across Ohara.
Flames raged everywhere. Inside the Tree of Knowledge, scholars scrambled desperately, hurling books into the lake below in a frantic attempt to preserve even a fragment of civilization, to leave behind some trace of the island's legacy.
"Knowledge should not be destroyed!"
Kyle suddenly raised his head and shouted.
His voice boomed like thunder itself, shaking the coastline of Ohara. Even Kuzan's figure wavered faintly under its weight.
Lightning roared in answer overhead.
"If this is the justice you stand for, Kuzan…"
"I'm disappointed in you!"
The words struck like a divine judgment.
Kuzan's face tightened.
"Justice has its own stance," he replied coldly.
"It's you who's forgotten who you are, Kyle."
Kyle began to laugh.
Softly at first. Then louder. Louder still, until his laughter merged with the thunder rolling through the sky, like a god laughing at the world below.
"Then let's see."
"Between your justice and mine—"
"Which one is stronger."
Kuzan's pupils contracted. His expression grew grave.
He knew exactly how powerful the man before him was.
A monster standing at the very summit of the world.
Before coming here, Kuzan had felt nothing but indifference. But now, facing Kyle, a strange excitement stirred in his chest.
He shrugged off his coat and let it fall.
"I didn't think I'd care about any of this," he said calmly.
"But seeing you… I can't help feeling fired up."
His eyes locked onto Kyle.
"Let's find out."
"How far I still am from you."
A freezing aura spread outward instantly. Pale frost crept across the ground, sealing the earth in ice.
Kyle grabbed his upper robe and tore it apart in one motion. Cloth shredded, revealing a body carved like granite, every muscle coiled with explosive power.
"Saul!"
"Take Robin and meet up with the scholars!"
"My fleet will be here to reinforce you any minute!"
"As for this place—"
"Leave it to me."
Saul lifted Robin carefully, worry etched across his face.
"Kyle… this is a Buster Call!"
Kyle grinned.
"In this world—"
"There's nothing that can destroy me."
Saul's body shook. He clenched his teeth, then turned and ran.
At the same moment, aboard Sakazuki's ship—
"Multiple warships spotted northwest!"
"Confirmed! They belong to Vice Admiral Kyle's G-18 unit!"
The report came in, tense and rapid.
Sakazuki's expression changed instantly. He whipped his head toward the northwest.
Warships were cutting through the sea at high speed. In moments, they had reached the burning evacuation vessel and were already escorting civilians aboard.
"Damn it!"
"You all want to die that badly?!"
With a furious roar, magma burst from Sakazuki's body, boiling and surging like a volcano cracking open.
Barely a few breaths later, streams of molten rock shot into the sky, blazing toward the evacuation ships in the distance.
"Damn vermin."
"You wipe out weeds by the roots."
His voice was ice-cold, every word dripping with killing intent.
The Marines behind him trembled. Not one dared to speak.
Then something no one expected happened.
On the evacuation ship, a massive wall of sand suddenly rose, spiraling upward into a towering barrier that blocked the incoming magma head-on.
At the bow of a warship, Crocodile exhaled a slow plume of smoke, a faint sneer tugging at his lips.
Then he turned sharply.
"What are you standing around for? Move the civilians!"
"Y-Yes, Captain!!"
The soldiers snapped out of their shock and rushed into action, ushering civilians aboard as fast as they could.
Meanwhile, Barrett and several other warships had already docked on the opposite shore of Ohara, advancing quickly toward the island's interior.
Out at sea, nearly twenty warships formed a tight formation, facing off against the twenty ships of the Buster Call fleet.
The tension spread like a living thing. Even the air above the ocean felt suffocating.
"It's the G-18 Branch. What are they doing?"
"They're not seriously planning to fight us… are they?"
Shocked whispers broke out among the Buster Call fleet.
On the shoreline, Kyle's eyes turned glacial as he watched the magma fall.
He slowly raised his right hand.
Then clenched it.
Lightning crackled into existence, forming a spear of pure thunder about a meter and a half long.
Crack.
The spear blazed with dazzling light.
Kuzan's expression changed. He was about to move—
But Kyle had already thrown it.
A sharp whistle tore through the air. In the blink of an eye, the lightning spear reached Sakazuki.
"You dare attack me?!"
Sakazuki roared.
The speed left him no room to dodge. His body instinctively turned to magma—
Too late.
The spear pierced straight through the center of his chest. The force behind it blasted him backward, hurling him through the air.
Boom!
He crashed into the mast of the warship behind him. Electricity exploded outward, dancing wildly. Several nearby Marines were caught before they could flee, their bodies convulsing as they collapsed to the deck.
"You're defecting?!"
"Kyle!!"
Sakazuki's furious roar echoed across the sea.
He spun toward his stunned subordinates.
"Bring the ship over there! Now!"
On another nearby warship, Borsalino watched the chaos unfold and let out a quiet sigh.
"If it's not absolutely necessary…"
"I really don't want to fight a monster like that."
Back on shore, lightning flickered as an overwhelming wave of freezing air swept toward Kyle.
"If you strike him, there's no turning back," Kuzan said coldly.
"I never planned on turning back."
Kyle grinned.
Lightning erupted around him. In an instant, he transformed into a streak of electricity and appeared before Kuzan midair. His right hand clenched—
A blade of lightning took shape, glowing brilliantly as he slashed downward.
Kuzan conjured an ice saber and swung upward.
Bang.
The clash sent a shockwave rippling outward. Frost and lightning radiated across the nearby sea.
Kyle laughed.
He pushed harder. Lightning flared violently.
The air trembled.
The sand beneath Kuzan's feet collapsed. A second later, the immense force slammed him knee-deep into the beach.
"Still that insane strength…"
Gritting his teeth, Kuzan grabbed Kyle with his free hand.
"Ice Time Capsule!"
Crack—
Frigid cold exploded outward, instantly freezing Kyle solid.
Seizing the moment, Kuzan leapt free from the sand and retreated, spreading his hands.
Two ice spears formed in midair and shot toward the frozen figure.
"Two Thorn Spear!"
At that exact moment, the ice encasing Kyle shattered.
He burst free, muscles coiling as his feet slammed into the ground—
Boom!
The earth caved in, sand exploding outward.
In a flash, he was in front of the spears. His right fist swung.
The spears shattered.
He landed lightly, a grin curving at his lips.
Then he bent his knees and launched again, blasting the sand apart and leaving a crater behind.
Like a cannonball wrapped in endless lightning, he shot toward Kuzan.
His fingers clenched.
Lightning hissed between them.
"Iron Body."
"Armament Hardening."
His fist turned black, his arm like coiled steel cables wound tight. Power surged to its peak.
"Fist Bone—"
"Break!!!"
Light burst from his eyes as he drove the punch forward.
Kuzan's face changed. He crossed his arms instantly, frost surging to form a massive shield of ice.
Bang.
A heavy impact thundered outward.
The ice shield shattered.
Kyle's fist smashed into Kuzan's crossed arms.
Crack.
Kuzan's arms splintered into ice.
Then the punch landed squarely on his face.
Boom.
Like a cannonball, Kuzan's body was blasted away, skimming across the sand before shooting straight into the sea.
"Vice Admiral Kuzan!!"
Cries of alarm rang from the distant warships.
But the battle was far from over.
Thunder roared.
From the shore, a bolt of lightning shot straight into the sky. Then, before stunned eyes, it made a sharp ninety-degree turn toward the spot where Kuzan had fallen.
Another right-angle turn.
It dove.
Lightning tore across the heavens.
Behind them, thunderclouds over Ohara bellowed. Tens of thousands of lightning bolts flashed wildly.
A thunderous roar split the sky, and torrential rain crashed down.
The descending lightning illuminated every face.
"Fist Bone—Impact."
A low, commanding voice echoed through the air.
The Marines looked up.
At the front of that plunging lightning, a figure emerged—arm drawn back, fist clenched, lightning crawling behind him like twisted branches.
Black-and-red lightning suddenly coiled around his right fist.
For a heartbeat, it felt as if the entire sky had taken his color.
Then he punched.
The black-and-red lightning twisted downward, unstoppable, razor-sharp, maddened with force, crashing into the sea below.
The ocean exploded.
For thousands of meters, the water caved inward. Black-and-red lightning raced across the surface, jagged cracks splitting the sea like fractures in glass.
From afar, it looked as though the ocean itself had been shattered by a single punch.
How shocking.
How utterly shocking.
And the aftermath didn't stop there.
The displaced seawater surged violently upward, reversing into the sky, forming a wave hundreds of meters high.
"Turn the ships!"
"Quick, get out of the way!"
"Vice Admiral Kyle's punch caused a tsunami!"
"We're dead!!"
Terrified screams erupted.
Among the lower-ranking Marines, fear and awe toward Kyle ran bone-deep.
Now, witnessing this scene, it was as if they were staring at a god.
Then, from within the towering waves, another voice rang out—clear and calm.
"Ice Age."
An overwhelming chill radiated outward.
The roaring seawater froze mid-surge. Flowing currents locked into stillness. Frost spread rapidly in every direction.
The sea froze—stretching all the way to Ohara, and beyond the limits of sight.
In that moment, the entire ocean became ice.
"..."
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