Three days after the Fire Festival, at noon, the surface of Wano Country's inland sea had been completely frozen by Kuzan's Ice-Freeze Fruit ability.
The once shimmering sea surface had now transformed into a crystalline ice plain, refracting dazzling light under the sun's rays, like a massive sapphire embedded in the earth.
The elite members of the Beasts Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates stood orderly on the ice, holding their breath as they watched the confrontation in the distance. The air was thick with suffocating tension, as if even the sea breeze had frozen solid.
Several dozen meters away, Kaidou of the Beasts and Whitebeard Edward Newgate stood facing each other. The aura emanating from them collided tangibly on the ice, seemingly dropping the surrounding temperature by several more degrees.
"Gurararara, brat Kaidou, let me see how much that former apprentice has grown!" Newgate's hearty laughter echoed across the ice. Gripping Ame-no-Habakiri with both hands, he lightly planted it on the ice surface, causing the hard frozen layer to crack like a spiderweb, with fissures rapidly spreading dozens of meters.
"Wororororo, Newgate, I too want to test what level I've reached now." Kaidou's voice was deep and powerful as he slowly raised his right hand, clenching it into a fist before him. His knuckles produced crisp cracking sounds, as if he were crushing the very air itself.
Having transmigrated to this world, Kaidou initially thought his golden finger was simply an all-around enhancement of his abilities.
But as time passed, he gradually realized the terrifying nature of this enhancement. When he fought Zephyr, Kaidou was still adapting to his newly acquired power. It was during last year's battle with Garp that he truly comprehended the astonishing extent of his transformation. Even without using Conqueror's Haki infusion, relying solely on his endless Armament Haki and terrifying physical prowess was enough to drag Garp into a war of attrition. However, Kaidou chose to hold back at that time because he deeply understood that the Beasts Pirates still needed time to grow, and revealing his full strength too early would only attract excessive attention from the World Government.
Beyond his physical leap, Kaidou's soul had also undergone a marvelous transformation. This change was difficult to describe, yet it made him feel an essential elevation. This qualitative change at the soul level was undoubtedly a tremendous advantage for Kaidou.
At this moment, Kaidou's attention was completely focused on the battle before him. He leaned forward slightly, his left foot taking half a step forward, knees bent into a perfect sprinting posture. The next instant—"Boom!"
With a tremendous sound, the ice where Kaidou had been standing instantly shattered, spiderweb cracks madly spreading in all directions. His figure vanished from the spot like lightning, as if the dozens of meters distance didn't exist at all.
"Thunderclap · Eight Trigrams!"
Kaidou's voice exploded through the air as he instantly appeared before Newgate, his right hand gripping the Hassaikai wreathed in pale white electric arcs, carrying destructive force straight toward Newgate's head.
"Gurararara, come at me!"
Facing this thunderous strike, Newgate showed no underestimation. He tightly gripped Ame-no-Habakiri with both hands, a white halo shimmering along the blade as the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit concentrated on its edge. With a fierce roar, he swung Ame-no-Habakiri to meet the Spiked Club.
"Clang—!"
As the two Divine Soldiers collided, a terrifying shockwave radiated outward. The deafening metallic crash forced distant spectators to instinctively cover their ears. The ice beneath Newgate's feet began collapsing on a massive scale, with the frozen surface within several dozen meters sinking half a meter overall, while the core area where he stood dropped several meters deeper.
"Argh!" Newgate roared furiously, his entire body's muscles bulging as veins writhed beneath his skin like coiling dragons. Leveraging the reactive force from the ground, he explosively swung Ame-no-Habakiri, forcibly repelling Kaidou's Spiked Club.
"Kundali Dragon Flourishing Army!"
Kaidou, forced back several steps, didn't pause for even a moment. He immediately closed the distance again, his Hassaikai becoming a blur as he unleashed dozens upon dozens of attacks in an instant, enveloping Newgate's entire body in a deadly web of club shadows.
"Gurarararara!" Newgate's hearty laughter echoed across the ice field, the chilling gleam of his Supreme Grade Sharp Blade Ame-no-Habakiri flashing ominously. The Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power completely coated the blade as he swung it backhanded, causing the air ahead to fracture. White vibration shockwaves collided head-on with Kaidou's club shadows.
At this moment, it seemed as if two separate worlds had formed between Kaidou and Newgate.
On Whitebeard's side, the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power tore through the atmosphere, white shockwaves heralding apocalyptic destruction. On Kaidou's side, the afterimages of the Spiked Club formed a dark domain that devoured everything around it like an abyssal maw.
The two completely different forces deadlocked on the ice field, their residual waves continuously fracturing the ice between them, gradually forming a bottomless chasm. The clouds in the sky had been completely dispersed the moment they clashed, revealing the azure sky above.
"Urorororo!"
Kaidou's laughter brimmed with fighting spirit as he suddenly retracted Hassaikai, the countless club shadows vanishing instantly. In their place stood the Spiked Club now wreathed in black-and-red lightning, its radiance so dazzling it seemed to absorb all surrounding light.
"Roaring Thunder Trigram!"
With a furious shout, Kaidou stomped violently on the ice, propelling himself toward Newgate like a cannonball. The Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki intertwined perfectly with Hassaikai, forming a devastating attack.
"Gurarararara, Kaidou, you brat! To think you'd still hold back against me—you're looking down on this old man too much." Newgate calmly dragged Ame-no-Habakiri behind him, clenching his right fist as the muscles on his arm bulged like steel. Vibration shockwaves completely enveloped his fist, with rampant black-and-red lightning coiling inside.
"Sky Splitter!"
Newgate's fist, carrying world-shattering power, met Kaidou's Spiked Club.
The moment they connected, the vibration shockwaves erupted violently, black Haki cracks streaming through the shattered void. The force was so immense it sent Kaidou flying backward.
Kaidou's body crashed into the ice layer like a meteor, carving a massive trench nearly a kilometer long across the hardened frozen surface. Shattered ice fragments flew in all directions, refracting brilliant light under the sun.
When the dust settled, only a bottomless giant crater remained on the ice surface, and Kaidou's figure had already vanished within it.
The executives of the Beasts Pirates in the distance were relatively calm, after all, they had previously witnessed the battle between Kaidou and Garp.
However, the newly joined executives of the Beasts Pirates along with Kuzan, Kuma, Ginny, and others stared dumbfounded at the scene. They had thought Kuzan—who could instantly freeze a vast expanse of the sea—was already incredibly powerful, but never imagined the clash between the two captains before them would be this terrifying. Even though they had retreated repeatedly, the storm generated by the impact of the two's confrontation still stung their cheeks painfully.