The crushing pressure of ice and fire surged in from front and back at the same time.
From above came Kuzan's all-or-nothing strike, a blow powerful enough to freeze heaven and earth, his "Galaxy Impact."
From behind roared Sakazuki's merciless "Meteor Volcano," intent on burning everything to cinders.
Two completely different powers, carrying the exact same pure killing intent, locked onto Kael Grylls from both directions.
Anyone else, in this kind of dead end, would know nothing but despair.
Kael, however, felt nothing at all. His mind was as calm as still water. He even had room for a stray thought.
If this were a decade or so later, with all three Admirals striking together, maybe he really would have to back off for a bit.
But right now…?
Just a couple of Vice Admirals, daring to show off in front of me?
Two snotty brats, and they think they can make me retreat?
Me, backing down?
Kael sank slightly, feet spreading into a solid horse stance.
The usual playful, careless expression faded quietly from his face, replaced by a calm so indifferent it bordered on cold.
He lowered his body that tiny bit, and those always-lazy golden eyes suddenly flared with an unprecedented, dazzling brilliance.
Hum.
In his hands, the black and gold naginata Nidhogg let out a high, ringing dragon's cry, as if thrilled for the feast to come.
Zzzt, crackle.
Visible waves of violent force coiled up along the shaft, and streaks of lightning, black as ink and blood-red as fresh wounds, raced wildly over the blade, converging on it like a condensed thunderstorm.
Conqueror's Haki coating.
Boom.
Kael did not even swing. Just the full release of his aura alone was more than the ice beneath his feet could endure.
Centered on him, within a radius of a hundred meters, ice tens of meters thick shattered layer after layer in an instant, erupting upward as a storm of jagged chunks. The sight was breathtaking.
Far away, at the edge of the West Port ruins, both Mihawk and Moria, locked in combat with the gathered Marine officers, paused at the exact same moment.
A tremor from the depths of their souls made them look toward the center of the ice field in unison.
That suddenly unleashed presence was unbearably domineering, as if intending to seize the entire sky and sea into its grasp.
Mihawk's hawk-like eyes narrowed sharply.
Moria's signature "ki-shi-shi-shi" laughter cut off mid-sound.
The two exchanged a glance across the chaotic battlefield, and instantly understood the look in each other's eyes.
Run.
No, drag the Marines in front of us.
Mihawk flicked his wrist in a seemingly simple horizontal slash. The emerald sword pressure at the edge of the blade stretched out like a curtain and forced all the Marines before him to retreat in panic.
Moria let out a guttural roar. His shadow surged beneath his feet and swelled into a massive black shield, blocking every attack as it blasted him bodily backward like a catapult.
The two of them showed frightening coordination. In the space of a few breaths, they forced back all their opponents, refused further engagement, and shot toward safer ground without a hint of hesitation.
The Marine officers behind them barely had time to wonder why the two enemies who clearly held the advantage would suddenly retreat.
But they understood very quickly.
Out on the ice field, facing the descending fist of ice and the falling meteor storm of magma, Kael slowly raised Nidhogg.
His voice was not loud, yet every single person present heard it clearly.
"Seraphic Crown Sun."
A circular halo of black and gold detonated outward from Kael as the center.
It expanded in eerie silence. The outer rim was pure darkness, devouring everything. The core was a blinding gold, like the first light of a newborn sun.
It was not a simple slash, nor a mere shockwave. It was like the descent of a burning solar corona, a ring that embodied absolute annihilation.
Where the halo passed, even space itself seemed to ripple faintly.
The rain of magma fists that had been crashing down on him were erased the instant they touched the expanding ring. No steam, no explosion. They were simply broken down and swallowed, returning to nothing.
The four titanic glaciers closing in like the walls of heaven also began to collapse without a sound beneath the halo's advance, crumbling from their bases upward.
"What?!"
High in the air, Sakazuki's magma body shuddered violently.
For the first time, an emotion that could only be called terror appeared on his face of molten rock.
That black and gold halo brought him a sense of lethal danger like nothing he had ever felt before.
He did not hesitate. Forcing his body to twist midair, he spewed torrents of magma behind him as thrust, desperately trying to escape this bizarre attack.
Yet the speed at which the halo expanded far exceeded his expectations.
Sssht.
The edge of the ring scraped across half his body. Sakazuki let out a muffled groan, and a huge chunk of his magma-formed side was sheared away.
On the other side, Kuzan, positioned directly above the attack, had no way to dodge.
Nor did he intend to.
This was the strongest blow he had ever unleashed, a strike he had poured everything into as a man.
He could only watch as the ice ramparts he had been so proud of crumbled like sand before his opponent, and that ring of annihilation tore through every obstacle to meet the fist that carried all of his conviction.
Kuzan neither flinched nor retreated.
He squeezed out the last drop of power in his body and forced it into his right hand. The blazing red cross of light at his fist grew even brighter.
This was the one blow on which a man was staking all he had.
If he backed down now, it would mean denying every step of effort he had taken until this day, denying the justice he had burned for.
"Come on then, Kael!"
Kuzan roared as he met the ascending halo head on.
For a heartbeat, it felt as if time had been put on pause.
The brilliant red cross at his fist only flickered once before being swallowed by the deeper darkness at the core of the ring, without leaving so much as a ripple.
Then came Kuzan's fist, wrapped in pitch-black Haki. Then his arm. Then the rest of his body.
In front of the unreasonable, absolute disintegration enforced by "Seraphic," neither ultimate cold nor hardened Haki meant anything at all.
The light in Kuzan's eyes faded rapidly. Rage, unwillingness, pride, all of it was stripped away, leaving only the emptiness of a man crushed beneath absolute strength.
He did not even manage a scream before his entire body was engulfed by the halo.
When the radiance finally receded, the world returned to clarity.
All that remained was a sea paved with shattered ice, scattered in endless floating sheets where the ocean had once rolled.
Splash.
A figure dropped from the sky and slammed onto a massive chunk of ice, kicking up an arc of icy spray. Kuzan.
He was drenched in blood. His right arm bent at a grotesque angle, completely limp. He lay unconscious.
The white coat of justice he wore had been ripped to tatters, soaked through with crimson, the contrast harsh and painful to the eye.
Far away, on another ice floe, Sakazuki knelt on one knee, chest heaving with ragged breaths.
One hand was clamped over the right side of his body. A smooth, clean-edged gap had been carved out of him there, and the magma that made up his form writhed and crawled with visible difficulty, struggling to fill in the portion that had been erased.
A strand of lava trickled from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto the ice beneath him, burning a hissing hole straight through it.
If he had not twisted at the very last moment by sheer battle instinct, and sacrificed a massive amount of magma to blunt the blow, he might well have ended up like Kuzan, torn apart by that monstrous halo.
He lifted his head and glared at the figure standing at the heart of the ice field.
At the center of the broken world, Kael Grylls slowly rested the black and gold naginata Nidhogg across his shoulder.
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