"Damn it! Black Maria and Who's-Who are completely frozen! We can't even break the ice!"
On another section of the battlefield, Sasaki had already transformed into his Triceratops form. Lowering his head, he put everything he had into a charge and slammed straight into the block of ice trapping his comrades.
The ice didn't move in the slightest.
Sasaki, on the other hand, bounced backward several steps, his horns vibrating painfully from the impact.
"Move. Let me try!"
Ulti shoved him aside and transformed into her Pachycephalosaurus hybrid form. Armament Haki coated the crown of her skull as she drew in a deep breath, then drove a fully charged headbutt into the ice.
The result was exactly the same.
The ice remained completely untouched, while Ulti staggered back clutching her head and baring her teeth in pain.
"What the hell is this ice made of?! What did that cloud even do to it?!"
"A Homie shouldn't be anywhere near this strong."
Page One, currently in his Spinosaurus form, scanned the battlefield with growing unease.
Every single Number had been turned into an ice sculpture. As for the Flying Six—no, at this point only the three of them were still moving.
The situation was ridiculous.
Before any of them could think of a solution, a cheerful voice suddenly drifted through the empty air.
"Bella found you!"
The three dinosaurs froze.
"Are you playing a game where you smash the ice? Bella wants to play too!"
Bella had completely forgotten that she was still invisible.
Delighted to find the three dinosaur users gathered together, she charged straight toward them.
"Super Headbutt!"
Sasaki, Ulti, and Page One heard the voice and whipped their heads around, but there was absolutely nothing to see.
Their Observation Haki finally warned them that something enormous was rushing toward them—
too late.
THUD!!
All three were launched at once.
The three dinosaurs traced an almost perfectly synchronized arc through the air before crashing directly into Drake, who had been crouching off to one side and quietly searching for a way to slip away.
"WHAT DID I EVEN DO TO DESERVE THIS?!"
Drake disappeared beneath the pile of dinosaurs, his miserable cry somehow standing out even amid the chaos of the battlefield.
Then a deafening explosion erupted overhead.
BOOM!!
A violent tremor rolled down from the skull dome, shaking all of Onigashima. Loose stone rained from above as everyone on the battlefield instinctively looked upward.
"What happened now?"
"Something's wrong up there!"
Someone stared in horror.
"Onigashima… Onigashima is splitting apart!"
…
A short while earlier, atop the skull dome—
Cain and Kaido were both breathing heavily.
Not because their stamina was running low.
The problem was the will inside their Devil Fruits.
Every collision between them was also a collision between the instincts residing within their fruits. The battle lust that had initially burned inside their chests was gradually changing into something far more primitive.
Pure animal instinct.
It surged through their blood, urging each of them to tear the other apart—or be torn apart in return.
Both men realized something was wrong.
Each pressed a hand against his chest, and after exchanging only a few brief observations, they reached the same conclusion.
This was the precursor to Awakening.
Something that belonged specifically to the two of them.
In a sense, it could be described as resonance between two identical abilities derived from the same source.
For Cain and Kaido, however, it felt less like resonance and more like two apex predators discovering there was only room for one at the top.
The wills inside their fruits were forcing their way to the surface, demanding that the battle continue until one overcame the other.
Their Awakening was no longer something they could calmly choose to pursue.
It was being forced upon them.
If they endured it, they would awaken immediately.
If they failed, that animal will would consume them completely and reduce them to monsters ruled by instinct.
Cain had never known whether his artificial copy of Kaido's fruit was actually capable of Awakening. Even Vegapunk had never been able to give him a definite answer.
But Cain knew one thing.
Zoan Devil Fruits could be replicated precisely because they contained a will of their own.
And if his fruit possessed that will—
then there had always been something there to awaken.
Kaido pressed hard against his chest, veins standing out across his forehead as he gave a cold laugh.
"Never expected my fight to get interrupted by the damn fruit itself."
"Yeah."
Cain gritted his teeth as another violent surge of instinct tore through his chest.
He tightened his grip on his weapon and looked directly at Kaido.
"Looks like we need to beat some sense into them."
Kaido met his gaze.
Then grinned.
Neither needed another word.
Both raised their weapons as red light flared in their eyes, then exploded toward each other at full speed.
Purple lightning crashed across their bodies. Kaido entered his killing state while Cain pushed deeper into his Dragon-Man form, both of their physiques swelling as their colors darkened.
Their weapons swung almost simultaneously.
"Great Virtue Thunder Bagua!!"
"Great Virtue Thunder Bagua!!"
Neither blocked.
Neither deflected.
Both attacks landed squarely on the other man's head.
BOOOOM!!
The ground beneath their feet shattered instantly.
Blood sprayed from both mouths as their legs buckled beneath the impact, and the resulting shockwave tore outward with enough force to split the skull dome—and nearly the entire island—straight down the middle.
Both men were thrown from the air and crashed into the shattered rock below.
For several moments, they lay flat on their backs, breathing hard.
Kaido laughed first.
"Looks like that wasn't nearly enough, Cain!"
Cain turned his head toward him and grinned through the blood at the corner of his mouth.
"Then let's do it again, Kaido!"
They were on each other almost immediately.
From that point onward, neither bothered defending properly.
Their weapons no longer met the opposing attack.
Their bodies did.
Scales shattered beneath clubs and fists. Blood poured from open wounds only for tightened muscle to slow the bleeding. Horns snapped under repeated impacts, broken stumps pouring blood across their faces and into their eyes.
Neither stepped back.
A punch was answered with a punch.
A club strike with another club strike.
Every exchange became heavier, faster, and more violent than the last.
Cain had completely abandoned the techniques he normally relied upon.
Ordinary ability-based attacks could no longer suppress the will surging from the fruit.
Only the raw sensation of flesh and bone colliding seemed to bring him closer to the threshold he was reaching for.
So he drove his fist forward.
"Fist Bone Impact!!"
The people fighting below were the ones who suffered for it.
The battle between Cain and Kaido grew increasingly destructive, and Onigashima steadily came apart around them.
Then—
two pillars of light erupted into the sky at the same time.
The burning restlessness inside Cain's body vanished instantly.
He looked down.
Thin strands of white cloud were drifting from his body.
Then Cain raised his eyes toward Kaido.
Kaido's broken dragon horn was regenerating before his eyes.
More startlingly, the enormous scar Kozuki Oden had carved across his abdomen decades earlier was slowly closing.
Neither man needed an explanation.
They understood immediately.
Awakening was complete.
Kaido's body grew even larger, yet somehow his movements became lighter and more fluid. His Azure Dragon traits sharpened and became far more pronounced.
Cain stopped resisting his own transformation and allowed the new power to spread freely through his body.
His broken horn regenerated.
Every wound across his body closed almost instantly.
An overwhelming surge of vitality and regenerative power filled every muscle, while white cloud-like ribbons curled around him and erased nearly every trace of the battle he had just endured.
Black arcs of lightning danced across his body.
Cain could feel the difference immediately.
His strength had risen several times over.
In this awakened state, he was no weaker than Kaido.
Except, apparently, in color.
Then Cain noticed something.
"That scar…"
Kaido followed Cain's gaze and looked down at his abdomen.
The cross-shaped scar that had remained there for more than twenty years was completely gone.
The newer wound across his shoulder, however—the one left by Ace and Yamato—remained.
"You mean Oden's scar?"
Kaido looked down at where it had once been.
"Yeah. Awakening healed it completely."
Then he slapped the wound on his shoulder.
"With the recovery of an awakened Zoan, this thing would be easy enough to erase too."
His grin turned darker.
"But the humiliation of that brat taking my daughter away?"
"I'm keeping this one."
"I'm never forgetting that."
"You really hold a grudge."
Cain sighed, though internally he was thinking about something much more practical.
'So I finally don't have to worry about scars anymore.'
He tightened both hands around his weapon again.
"Now that we've both awakened…"
Cain lowered his stance.
"…let's start round two."
Kaido rested Hassaikai against his shoulder and grinned, baring a mouthful of fangs.
"Then prepare to skip every meal from here on out."
His eyes burned with excitement.
"This fight doesn't end until one of us hits the ground."