Under the watchful eyes of the Four Five Elders, Saint Saturn spoke slowly.
"It is already too late to send support from the Holy Land to assist Saint Lloyd. At this point, we can only place our hope on Saint Lloyd's victory. After all, what he carries is the name of Figarland."
The other Five Elders silently nodded. Their gazes shifted back to the image on the screen, focusing on Lloyd.
Even Saint Warcury, who had always wished for the decline of the Figarland family, found himself sincerely hoping Lloyd would win.
High above the battlefield, laughter echoed endlessly.
The man laughing was Gol D. Roger.
Standing on the frozen battlefield below, Lloyd frowned deeply. Roger obtaining and awakening the power of the Nika Fruit had far exceeded his expectations.
With a sharp motion, wide black bat wings unfolded from Lloyd's back.
He rose into the sky and floated directly in front of Roger.
Roger slowly lowered the hand covering his face. His black and red pupils reflected Lloyd's figure clearly.
Spreading his arms wide, Roger grinned and asked,
"Tell me, do I look like Joy Boy to you?"
Lloyd's expression remained cold.
"Like an idiot."
That single sentence reflected what countless people across the world were thinking. In the eyes of many, the Pirate King Roger looked nothing short of insane at this moment.
Roger did not become angry. Instead, he burst into even louder laughter.
The sound irritated Lloyd.
Without hesitation, Lloyd raised his hand and activated his gravitational ability, dragging Roger toward him with overwhelming force.
Roger did not resist.
He allowed himself to be pulled forward.
In an instant, Lloyd's hand snapped forward and grabbed Roger by the neck.
Dark vortices surged violently around Lloyd's palm. With terrifying strength, he twisted Roger's neck into an unnatural spiral.
However, Roger showed no sign of pain.
He continued laughing.
"You're tickling me!"
The next moment, Roger struck.
His fist slammed directly into Lloyd's abdomen.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
When Roger's fist landed, Lloyd's body behaved like soft clay. The impact pushed inward, forming a clear fist imprint that bulged outward from Lloyd's back and continued stretching.
Lloyd's expression shifted.
A blinding white light erupted from his body.
A powerful repulsive shockwave exploded outward, instantly blasting Roger away and forcing his fist to withdraw.
Freed from Lloyd's grip, Roger's twisted neck spun rapidly. His head rotated several times before returning to its normal position.
At the same time, his body stretched and flattened, resembling a drifting kite, allowing him to stabilize himself in midair.
Back at his original position, Lloyd frowned even more deeply.
His gaze dropped to the fading fist imprint on his abdomen.
He was not injured.
Instead, he was thinking.
Normally, any Devil Fruit user caught in his grasp would immediately lose the ability to use their powers.
But Roger had shown no sign of suppression at all.
Could this be the true meaning of freedom after the awakening of the Nika Fruit?
Freedom so absolute that even darkness could not restrain it.
If his own darkness ability were to awaken, could it suppress that freedom?
While Lloyd was thinking, Roger's laughter rang out again in the distance.
"So, what do you think? This ability is pretty interesting, right?"
His tone sounded less like he was speaking to Lloyd and more like he was talking to himself.
Suddenly, Roger leaned forward in the air and began running.
Yes, running through the sky.
His legs spun rapidly like fans, propelling him forward at incredible speed.
Roger still held his legendary sword, Ace.
As he charged, the blade softened and stretched outward, extending nearly a hundred meters. From the ground below, it resembled a long black ribbon whipping through the sky.
Laughing loudly, Roger swung the blade toward Lloyd.
Lloyd responded instantly.
His sword slashed forward and cut into the extended blade.
Even though Ace had become flexible like a ribbon, its essence remained that of one of the Twelve Supreme Grade Swords. Its durability was unmatched.
Lloyd's strike only caused a section of the blade to bulge outward.
The remaining portion continued wrapping around Lloyd's body again and again.
Roger gripped the hilt and swung violently.
Lloyd's body was dragged along with the motion, rising and falling through the sky as if he were caught in a massive whip.
Lloyd attempted to use his spatial phasing ability.
However, he quickly realized something was wrong.
The surrounding space itself had become strangely elastic, like rubber.
The twisting force of darkness could not tear open the usual spatial rift.
The environment had been altered by Roger's power.
Finally, Lloyd gathered energy and released another powerful repulsive blast, forcing the blade to release him.
Roger's grin widened.
He continued swinging Ace repeatedly while chasing Lloyd across the sky.
Lloyd's figure darted through the air with precise movements. Suddenly he closed the distance and swung his sword directly toward Roger's neck.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Roger exaggeratedly leaned backward.
His head bent at an impossible angle, barely avoiding the blade as it passed just above the tip of his nose.
Lloyd's face remained expressionless.
With his free hand, he released a tidal wave of darkness.
The shadowy energy swallowed Roger completely, forming a massive black sphere in the sky.
Lloyd clenched his hand.
The sphere began shrinking rapidly until it compressed down to the size of a ball.
Then it stopped.
That was the limit.
Without hesitation, Lloyd raised his sword and split the sphere in half.
Yet the result was unexpected.
One half of the sphere dissipated into smoke.
The other half remained floating before him.
Just as Lloyd prepared to strike again, the remaining portion suddenly shot upward.
As it rose, it expanded and reshaped itself into a human figure.
The darkness surrounding it burst apart like a popped balloon.
Roger emerged from within.
His body continued rising until he vanished into a massive cloud above.
Moments later, the cloud began wriggling and shifting.
Gradually, it reshaped itself into Roger's smiling face.
Lloyd snorted coldly.
"Cheap tricks."
A terrifying wave of Haoshoku Haki erupted from his body.
The energy condensed into a towering black pillar that shot into the sky, blasting the cloud face apart.
But when the cloud dispersed, what appeared above was not sunlight.
It was a massive shadow.
The shadow belonged to Roger.
He had transformed into a gigantic figure, even larger than the enormous wolf from earlier.
The sight shocked everyone watching.
After a brief moment of disbelief, Lloyd's expression turned solemn.
In the legends, the Nika form possessed the ability to enlarge the user into a giant. It was not simple inflation like Luffy's Gear Third, but a true transformation that drastically increased physical power.
And the one wielding that power now was Roger.
Far above the battlefield, over ten thousand meters in the sky, Roger looked down.
The smile slowly faded from his face.
His enormous voice echoed like a ringing bell across the heavens.
"The power of darkness amounts to nothing more than this."
The words rolled through the sky.
In Lloyd's hand, the sword Muramasa trembled faintly before turning into a streak of black light and quietly returning to the back of Lloyd's hand.
Lloyd did not notice the change.
Because Roger's next attack had already begun.
A fist the size of a mountain crashed down from the sky, aiming straight for him.