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Chapter 123 - 123: Lower your head!

"ROAR!"

A dragon's roar thundered through the sky.

The massive azure dragon coiled in the air, its body so immense it blotted out the sky above the Ringo region. The gentle snowfall was whipped into a frenzy by the violent winds generated by its presence. Thick, dark clouds converged around Kaido's draconic form, swirling into a colossal vortex. Purple lightning snaked through the clouds, followed by the muffled sound of distant thunder.

Every scale on his body shimmered with a cold, metallic sheen. His long whiskers danced wildly in the gale, and his vertical pupils, like pools of molten gold, locked onto the tiny, ant-like figure on the ground. Kaido had unleashed his strongest form. Here, he was a god of this land. The wind was his to command, the thunder his to wield.

With a flick of his massive tail, he sent several azure slashes of wind tearing through the atmosphere. These were not mere blades of wind; they were highly compressed waves of air pressure, sharp enough to cut through anything. Black fissures seemed to rip through space itself where they passed.

Facing an attack powerful enough to cleave mountains in two, Kyle didn't even bother to move his feet. He simply flicked the naginata in his hand to the side.

A miraculous thing happened. An invisible ripple spread out from the tip of his weapon. When the fierce vacuum slashes hit this ripple, they were instantly diverted as if caught in a whirlpool. They whistled past Kyle's coat and slammed into a distant cliff several hundred meters high, slicing a massive section of it clean off. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.

As his first strike missed, a storm of lightning was already pouring down from the thundercloud vortex above.

"Thunder Bagua!" Kaido roared.

Countless bolts of thick purple lightning rained from the sky, weaving together into a vast net that engulfed a hundred-meter area around Kyle, determined to vaporize him into charcoal.

Kyle glanced up at the dense web of lightning, a hint of impatience touching his lips. He traced an elegant semi-circle in front of him with his naginata.

A ring of electromagnetic ripples, invisible to the naked eye, spread out. The rampant bolts of lightning, which had been crashing down with unstoppable force, seemed to meet their king. They paused eerily in mid-air for a fraction of a second. Then, as if guided by some unseen command, they all shifted direction and blasted into the untouched snowy ground nearby.

RUMBLE!

The earth trembled violently. A dozen deep, charred craters were blasted into the snowfield. Swirling black smoke mixed with white steam, creating a terrifying landscape of destruction.

Having two of his powerful attacks neutralized so effortlessly completely ignited Kaido's rage. He took a deep, shuddering breath and tilted his dragon head back. A dazzling light began to glow from within his massive chest, so bright it looked as if he had swallowed the sun.

The next second, a torrent of pure energy, so hot it visibly distorted the air, erupted from his mouth.

"Boro Breath!"

The scorching dragon's breath swept across the entire snowfield like the wrath of a god. Where the beam passed, the ground was instantly plowed into a deep canyon, the hard-frozen earth melting into crimson magma. The terrifying heat collided with the extreme cold of the ice, erupting into a thick, sky-obscuring wall of steam. The entire battlefield was instantly enveloped in a white world where you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.

Within the dense fog, visibility was almost zero.

Kaido's massive dragon head flickered in and out of the mist, his enormous golden eyes scanning his surroundings warily, trying to pinpoint Kyle's location.

Just then, Kyle's lazy voice drifted in from all directions, seemingly carried on the fog itself, making it impossible to locate him. "You know, you're just like that kid, Bullet. You both seem to think that making something bigger automatically makes it stronger. It doesn't."

Kyle's figure flickered for a moment in the distant mist, as if he wasn't taking the giant dragon before him seriously at all. He seemed to be muttering to himself. "Let's see, if I'm calculating the time right, Bullet should be done with his 'Buster Call' luxury meal from the Marines by now. He's probably checking into his new VIP single room at Impel Down."

Hearing the name "Bullet," Kaido's draconic pupils contracted sharply.

Before he could react, however, Kyle's voice suddenly deepened. The lazy, teasing tone vanished, replaced by an undeniable authority that resonated through the sea of mist.

"However… there is one thing I dislike more than anything else."

His voice echoed, each word carrying immense weight.

"And that's having someone look down on me from on high."

"So…"

The final words were not a request. They were a command that shook the very foundations of the world.

"LOWER YOUR HEAD!"

Before his voice even faded, the situation changed dramatically. The dense fog shrouding the snowfield and the dark clouds coiling in the sky were suddenly torn apart by a massive, ethereal hand. A brilliant golden light, like the first dawn of creation, pierced through the gloom, illuminating the entire world as brightly as day.

"W-What is that?!" Moria screamed, shielding his eyes from the blinding light with his arm. Peeking through his fingers, he witnessed a scene that would be burned into his memory forever.

A colossal phantom, made of pure golden light, had appeared in front of Kaido's massive dragon body. It was a gigantic figure wearing a towering crown and clad in ornate golden armor. Its face was dignified and stern, like a divine general descended from the heavens. Its sheer height surpassed the clouds, making Kaido's dragon form—a creature hundreds of meters long—seem almost petite in comparison.

The golden-armored divine general lowered its gaze, its eyes carrying an indifferent, god-like quality. It slowly raised its golden palm—a hand larger than an island.

"Wh—!" A sound of pure terror escaped Kaido's throat. He felt an irresistible, absolute suppressive force originating from the very depths of his soul. He couldn't move. He couldn't fight it.

Under the shocked, speechless gazes of everyone present, that giant golden hand clamped down on the azure dragon's neck with a speed that seemed both slow and unavoidable. It was as if it were simply picking up a worthless snake.

Then, with unimaginable force, it slammed the dragon downwards.

BOOM!

The entire country of Wano, and perhaps the entire nearby sea, felt the violent tremor. The snowfield was obliterated, smashed into a bottomless crater as if struck by a meteor. Spiderweb-like cracks spread from the impact point all the way to the horizon.

At the bottom of the pit, the azure dragon that had once blotted out the sky was completely embedded in the rock. Its beautiful scales were dull and broken, its body covered in torn flesh and charred marks. Its massive head was twisted weakly to one side, its eyes rolled back, completely unconscious.

The golden light and the phantom of the divine general slowly faded away, leaving only a bottomless pit and a single figure standing at its edge. Kyle stood there, his hands back in his pockets, his trench coat flapping gently in the wind.

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