New World, Totto Land, Whole Cake Island.
A surge of overwhelming Conqueror's Haki exploded from within the towering Cake Chateau.
"Snagg!!"
A tall man with the lower half of his face wrapped in a scarf glared at the live broadcast screen. Rage filled his eyes as veins bulged along his temples.
A tidal force of intimidating aura burst out of his body without restraint.
"Katakuri, calm yourself! You're knocking out your younger siblings!"
The short and long-faced head chef, Streusen, barked sharply at the man known as the First of the Sweet Commanders.
As Big Mom's oldest comrade, Streusen's status on Whole Cake Island was second only to Big Mom herself.
Rumor whispered through Totto Land that Streusen was once Big Mom's very first husband.
The eldest son, Charlotte Perospero, was said to be their child.
And honestly, Perospero in his youth did share some resemblance to Streusen, especially that pointed nose.
Of course, that story was a taboo rumor no one in Totto Land or the Big Mom Pirates dared to discuss openly.
In the brief moment Katakuri lost control, the younger and physically weaker children of the Charlotte Family collapsed, eyes rolled back, some even foaming at the mouth.
Among them was the youngest daughter, Charlotte Anana, the thirty-ninth daughter, only six years old—Big Mom's last child, born when she was sixty.
Even Brûlée, wielder of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit, nearly fainted beneath the crushing pressure. Terrified, she stared at her enraged second brother, her third eye wide open.
"Aokiji Kuzan!!!"
Katakuri clenched his teeth, glaring murderously at the Marine Admiral displayed on the screen.
He doted on his siblings more than anyone else. Now, with Snagg dead, his hatred toward Kuzan had erupted to its peak.
If not for the need to defend Whole Cake Island, he would have already flown to the G-18 Fortress battlefield to kill Kuzan with his own hands.
Smoothie, also one of the Sweet Commanders, looked pale. Once again, the Four Sweet Commanders had become Three.
Snagg had only recently reached a bounty of 600 million berries and been raised to Sweet Commander—not even two years—and he had already fallen.
She silently prayed that Cracker wouldn't suffer the same fate.
Meanwhile, above the waters of the G-18 Fortress.
With Kuzan's arrival, frigid ice spread across the entire sea, freezing countless pirate vessels in place, allowing the remaining Marines to retreat safely.
"Big brother Snagg!!" "Aokiji! I'll kill you!!"
Charlotte Barbarua, wearing a duck-bill cap and red gauntlets, charged at Kuzan while wrapping his fists in Armament Haki.
He was Snagg's twin brother and had served directly under him throughout this campaign. The two had already defeated multiple Vice Admirals together.
"Your Haki is too weak. You will repay the lives of the Marines you butchered."
Kuzan paid no mind to a pirate with a bounty under 300 million berries.
He pulled free the massive ice spear lodged in Snagg's corpse.
Then—
Crack!
One precise kick.
The Sweet Commander Snagg's body shattered into jagged pieces of glittering ice.
Barbarua's Haki-wrapped punch struck Kuzan's back—but Kuzan's body had already taken on an icy, fluid form.
Cold surged instantly from Kuzan's back through Barbarua's arm and spread across his whole body.
"Damn… He elementalized early…"
Before he could finish, he was completely frozen, his final expression twisted with rage and unwillingness.
"Your crimes are countless. There is no need for judgment. There isn't a prison capable of holding you."
Ice Fist.
Kuzan didn't even turn around. His elbow snapped backward.
Shatter.
Barbarua's head exploded into ice fragments.
"Snagg!!" "Barbarua!!"
Cracker roared in grief, slapping his palms together again and again as countless Biscuit Soldiers surged toward Kuzan.
"Your strength is still lacking."
Glacial Torrent.
Kuzan exhaled a chilling breath and raised his hand.
In the next instant, the entire army of Biscuit Soldiers froze solid.
The gap between a Sweet Commander and a Marine Admiral was undeniable.
If it were Katakuri, blessed with Conqueror's Haki and Observation so refined it could glimpse the future—perhaps he could have fought Kuzan evenly for a while.
But Cracker understood the situation.
Seeing his entire Biscuit Legion frozen in seconds, he swallowed his fury.
"Retreat."
He ordered it without hesitation.
To fight here was to die.
But the grudge—they would remember.
Kuzan did not pursue the Big Mom Pirates.
Instead, he turned his gaze on the Beast Pirates still slaughtering Marines.
Fuz-Fu, leader of the Tobiroppo and once CP9 elite, sensed danger first.
Having just witnessed Kuzan obliterate Snagg, he transformed into a massive sabertooth feline and sprinted away at full speed.
If he simply outran everyone else, he knew he'd live.
After all, Snagg had been stronger than him—and Snagg was dead in seconds.
Running was the only sane choice.
Black Maria, the ancient spider, shuddered as the cold reached her hairs. Seeing Fuz-Fu bolt without hesitation, she also withdrew immediately.
Page One, already shaken after one of the Tobiroppo had died earlier, grabbed his sister Ulti and fled.
Only Jack the Drought and Sasaki were still rampaging, not yet realizing death was already at their backs.
Sasaki, at least, noticed something was wrong when he finally saw everyone retreating.
Then—he turned and saw Kuzan walking toward them, killing intent colder than the sea.
His scalp went numb.
He cursed Fuz-Fu in his heart for abandoning them.
"Jack! It's Admiral Aokiji!!"
Sasaki rushed closer to Jack, hoping the thick-skinned mammoth could tank the first strike.
"Hnn???"
Jack, the ship-sinking calamity, saw Kuzan and didn't hesitate.
He charged.
Not cautious. Not tactical. Just pure, iron-headed lunacy.
He slammed forward with all the brutal force and Armament Haki his mammoth form could muster.
Even more violently than Diamond Joz once did.
The freezing air thickened around him—but Jack's monstrous stamina bulldozed through.
Boom!!
Kuzan, who had already been fighting Barrett for an entire day, was caught off guard.
Jack's trunk, wrapped in solid Haki, sent him flying.
The shock was visible.
Sasaki and even the fleeing Fuz-Fu stared wide-eyed.
Jack… knocked back a Marine Admiral.