BOOM!!
The swinging kanabo (a massive, spiked club) was a whirlwind of destruction as it hurtled down. In his Half-Beast form, the titanic figure of Kaido drove Kong back dozens of yards. The sheer violence of the impact unleashed shockwaves that shredded the air and sent raging tempests tearing across the Holy Land, collapsing building after building with thunderous cracks.
"Damn it!"
Gasping for breath, Kong barely managed to dodge the strike, his eyes burning with grim resolve.
If this continued, he might survive, but the Holy Land was doomed.
This city was small, insignificant compared to the countless islands scattered across the seas, but the scale of their battle left nowhere for anyone to hide.
"I can't let him rampage through the city anymore; I have to lure him out!"
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Kong launched himself off the ground with a sound explosion, his foot generating a shockwave as he sprinted toward the city's edge.
BANG!!
A kick capable of shattering a mountaintop struck Kaido squarely, but it only produced a deafening metallic clang. The blue-black scales of his draconic armor flickered with dark light, not even suffering a scratch.
"You've gotten old, Kong."
Kaido didn't give chase in a mindless fury, as might be expected. Watching Kong's retreating figure, he quietly closed his eyes.
"Decades ago, with that iron body of yours, you'd never have made a decision like that."
"Huh? Why isn't he chasing me?"
That was utterly unlike Kaido!
While running, Kong twisted his head back in confusion, only to see searing waves of blazing heat surging directly toward him.
"That maniac!!"
HOT BREATH!!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Terrifying torrents of scorching breath tore the Holy Land to pieces. Marine officers who tried to intercept the blasts were instantly consumed by the inferno. Even those with powerful bodies were merely swept away, everyone else was instantly reduced to ash within the searing flames.
Neither the chaos-spreading Pacifistas nor any other force could stand against the power of Kaido's Hot Breath. Five converging streams of molten heat erupted, reducing more than half the city to smoking dust!
Huala la…
When the flames finally receded, Kong, his arms crossed to shield his head, slowly pushed himself away from the shattered boulder that had provided his only cover.
Staring at the scorched, red earth before him, his expression froze in disbelief.
"How… how could he do this…"
Whizz… THUD!
The Half-Beastified Kaido, more dragon than man, easily over thirty feet tall, descended from the sky, slamming into the ground and leaving a spiderweb of cracks. Standing atop the hardened crimson soil, Kaido's face split into a vicious grin.
"Didn't you want a battlefield where you could go all out? I'm granting your wish."
They were technically still within the Holy Land's bounds, but every structure and road around them had been incinerated. The bedrock of the Red Line glowed glaringly under the light, as if it had been drenched in blood.
But Kong knew, there was no blood here. Every living soul had already been turned to dust and scattered into the air.
Just one strike, and two-thirds of the Holy Land was utterly gone!
From above, it would look like a massive, celestial bite had been taken out of the land. Survivors collapsed to their knees, their minds shattered by the scale of the devastation.
This was the sheer madness of "Hundred Beasts" Kaido, laid bare for all to witness!
"You absolute bastard!!!"
Blood rushed to Kong's eyes, his teeth clenched so hard they threatened to crack.
It was his own strategy that Kaido had predicted, his desperate plan to lure him out, and it had brought this total catastrophe upon the innocent citizens.
He knew the Holy Land might fall tonight, but he hadn't anticipated Kaido's arrival. The Marines were already depleted, barely any officers left. The sole Admiral, Aokiji, was still gravely injured, and Kong had sent him away to keep him safe.
He had believed his own strength would be enough to hold the line… but the result was...
"KAIDO!!!"
Kong's furious roar shook the sky, and Kaido's monstrous face twisted into a wide, frenzied smile.
"Yes, that's it! That's the look I've been waiting for!"
He hefted his kanabo. The draconic head atop his shoulders was alight with merciless, killing intent.
"Don't hold back! Don't worry about collateral damage, because there's no one left to worry about!"
"You monster!!!"
Kong roared, shooting into the air.
BANG!!!
His fist, wrapped in hardened Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), slammed into Kaido's kanabo. The collision made the heavens tremble.
"Pff!"
A figure slammed into a shattered rock wall, Rob Lucci, his Zoan form fading, eyes dazed and struggling to focus.
"So this is… the end… for me…?"
Compared to these world-shattering monsters, he was still pitifully weak.
In the distance, PX-0, the cyborg Bartholomew Kuma, rose from a kneeling position. Deep, arm-wide gashes crossed his body, revealing the metallic components beneath.
Those wounds were the result of Lucci's desperate final assault, but for the Pacifista cyborg, such damage was meaningless.
"System damage exceeding 30%... commencing priority repairs…"
One of his eyes had been blown out, leaving only a single glowing red one. His voice was mechanical as he raised a paw and slowly pressed it against his wound.
Gulu… gulu…
A crimson, paw-shaped bubble began to push out from his back. While the mechanical parts were outside the range of Kuma's Devil Fruit powers, the torn flesh regenerated rapidly, knitting new tissue at a speed that rivaled even the healing abilities of Rowen.
"...Hah!"
Sensing a rare opening, Lucci strained to stand. But the sharp, agonizing pain from his broken bones was overwhelming. His body lifted barely a foot off the ground before crashing heavily back down.
"Cough… cough… damn it, my lungs are shattered… I can't move."
Among all the vital organs, damage to the lungs, second only to the heart, had leached every ounce of strength from his body.
"There's not even a glimmer of hope left…"
Watching Kuma's massive cyborg body slowly regenerate and begin to rise again, Rob Lucci's face twisted with bitter despair. He shook his head weakly.
"System damage exceeding 20%... left-arm laser system unresponsive… left-arm electromagnetic cannon unresponsive… remaining energy: 70%…"
Kuma muttered the diagnostics mechanically as he stabilized. The red light in his single remaining cybernetic eye flared brighter before he declared in a chilling monotone:
"...Continuing mission execution."
"So this is… the result of me risking my life?" Lucci thought, the devastating gap between their power levels filling him with crushing, absolute despair. Only his left arm disabled and a 30% loss of energy…
In the Room of Flowers, Im sat on a simple chair, gazing silently out the window. A slight arch appeared in their brow.
"A bunch of useless trash."
"So, it's come to the point where I have to take action myself?"
Behind them, Orrick squinted, his body feebly supported by a writhing, shadow-black figure. His feet dragged limply against the floor.
"Tell me," Imu murmured, never taking their eyes from the distant chaos, "if I act now… wouldn't that be fulfilling that brat's wish?"
Hearing this, Orrick remained perfectly silent, utterly motionless, as if already a corpse.
Faint, phosphorescent veins glowed across his skin, like rivers of light flowing just beneath the surface, tracing their way toward the black shadow supporting him.
At that moment, a dazzling streak of pure gold slashed through the night sky, bright as the sun itself.
"That's… Admiral Kizaru?!!"
Rob Lucci, who had resigned himself to death as Kuma took another menacing step closer, suddenly widened his eyes in shock at the brilliant light.
Kaido, locked in a deadly exchange with Kong, narrowed his eyes at the sky, his draconic face contorting with rage.
"Borsalino…!!"
Kaido's fury for Kizaru was just as white-hot as his grudge against anyone else.
"As expected of the Glint-Glint Fruit, back so fast, are you?" Imu's lips curved upward in mild surprise, their eyes glinting with amusement.
As everyone below, filled with hope, anticipation, or murderous intent, stared up at the incoming golden beam, it finally reached the skies above the Holy Land…
…and then kept going, soaring straight past and vanishing into the dark horizon.
Everyone: "..."
'You've gotta be kidding me!!!'
Rob Lucci's eyes bulged like a startled toad's, while PX-0's red cybernetic eye flickered rapidly, as if its logic board had just short-circuited. From the Room of Flowers, a dense wave of silent resentment rose so sharply that even Kizaru, high in the heavens, suddenly felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Hmm, looks like a lot of people are watching down there," He muttered.
He glanced back, gave a lazy shrug.
"But that's not my problem…"
With that, he accelerated again, streaking away from the war zone.
Just as everyone was left speechless by Kizaru's utter disregard, a different, vibrant color of light suddenly flashed across the sky.
Blink!
A towering figure appeared, silhouetted against the moon, casting a vast shadow that completely enveloped Kuma. The dark halberd in his hands gleamed with a terrifying black radiance, and the Justice cloak on his back whipped fiercely in the wind.
The Dragon-Desending Strike!
Kuma instantly turned, raising his paw to block, but the attack came from his left flank, the side where Lucci had already shattered his weapon systems.
Whoosh…
THUD!!!
A blinding white pillar of thunder tore through Kuma's arm, scattering metal parts, oil, and bone fragments like shrapnel. The thunder halberd pierced clean through his chest, and in the next instant, the figure reappeared a thousand yards behind him, swinging the weapon down with unstoppable force.
"Suppress!"
BANG!!!
Thunder rolled like the wrath of heaven itself. The ground violently caved in as Kuma's massive body slammed down. He struggled to lift a hand in resistance, but the red light in his remaining eye dimmed quickly. Frozen in that posture, he sank lifelessly into the shattered earth.
Shua...
The man casually swung the thunder halberd twice, then rested it on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow.
"So tell me, whose genius idea was it to send a cyborg full of metal against a Thunder-Thunder Fruit user?"
The metal components in Kuma's body had melted and burned away under the lightning's sheer, focused power, offering zero resistance.
As for whether he could survive without those components…
Rowen couldn't care less.
With just a single strike, the terrifying PX-0, a weapon that even the Five Elders dreaded, was utterly annihilated!
Countless gasps filled the air. The battered soldiers of the Holy Land, who had long since fallen into despair, now felt a surge of raw emotion boiling in their chests as lightning still crackled across the horizon.
"Long… live!!"
"Long live the Marines!!"
"Long live Admiral Soryu (Azure Dragon)!!"
"Long live the Thunder God!!"
The chants echoed across the ruined land, and in the Room of Flowers, Imu's eyes flashed brightly.
"That brat… still as cunning as ever."
A rogue is nothing to fear, but a clever rogue? That's terrifying.
Orrick slowly lifted his head, a painful smile splitting his lips.
"He… won't end up… like me…"
"Perhaps…" Imu murmured, shaking his head faintly. But even without words, it was clear, Imu was trembling too, with his excitement barely contained.
"That just makes it… all the more interesting."
(End of Chapter)
This novel is finished, and I have posted all the advanced chapters on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395