The night sky had turned pitch-black, thunder veining the heavens like a web of jagged branches as howling winds tore past.
High above, the legendary Azure Dragon soared, its colossal body burning with unrestrained rage, dominating the horizon.
Flames roared along its massive frame, fanning outward like wings forged of molten rock. The heat they radiated twisted the very air, turning the sky a seething crimson as the space around it rippled and warped under the intensity.
"The Azure Dragon… is on fire!"
Dragon's pupils shrank to pinpoints, his mind reeling.
Even from this distance, the heat washing over him felt suffocating. Each breath scalded his lungs, as if he were standing at the edge of a volcanic crater.
"Kaido… has he really developed a technique this terrifying?"
He couldn't help but inhale sharply.
He had already thought Mythical Zoan users were absurd enough—riding clouds, breathing fire. He had never imagined Kaido would forge something like this in his Azure Dragon form.
By cloaking his entire body in that blazing inferno, Kaido had pushed the destructive power of his close-quarters combat to its utter limit.
Even the Flame-Flame Fruit couldn't match this kind of heat.
"I've never seen anything like that before!" Queen blurted, eyes round with shock. "As expected of Boss Kaido! He's created a power even greater than 'Thunder'!"
King, standing beside them, suddenly began to tremble.
"That move…" he murmured, his gaze locked onto the sky-devouring Fire Dragon.
That colossal dragon wreathed in raging flame—the way it burned, unrestrained and absolute—matched perfectly the image of gods from Lunarian legend.
---
Sparks drifted in the air like fireflies.
Beneath Darren's feet, the ground crackled and split apart, unable to withstand the relentless heat pouring down from the sky. Fine fissures spiderwebbed outward in all directions.
The entire island shuddered under the expanding Dragon's Might, as if all things living were being forced to kneel.
Darren slowly raised his head. His short black hair whipped madly in the scorching wind. He hunched his back slightly, both hands open and turned upward, fingers curling into claws as manic laughter welled up from deep in his chest.
At the edge of that primordial fear—at the brink of death—something inside him ignited.
His body erupted with even more violent arcs of lightning. The speed and frequency of the Magnetic Field Rotation within him surged once more, climbing higher and higher.
Cells died in droves, his life force pouring out of him like water from a broken dam. Violet-blue electricity flickered at the corners of his eyes, then speared outward in jagged arcs.
"Perfect! This is exactly the feeling I wanted!" he roared, laughter raw and savage.
"Who cares when I became the 'villain' in all this? What does that matter?"
Behind him, unnoticed by even Queen, the machine tracking his Biomagnetic Field went wild.
The readings spiked, numbers and symbols flickering uncontrollably. Warning lights blazed to life, bathing the console in a dark, ominous red.
Hearing Darren's words, Kaido burst out laughing.
"There's no such thing as heroes or villains!"
"This world's been boring for far too long. Wiping it out completely would be the best thing that ever happened to it!"
He tipped his mountain-sized head slightly back, as though surveying the world below.
"Heroes, villains, justice, evil, nobles, commoners… none of them have the right to define any of that!"
"True equality and freedom only exist when those pampered nobles—those pigs wallowing in power—are dragged onto the battlefield like everyone else! At least on that point, I agree with you, Little Brat Darren! Wororororo!"
"The God Valley Incident twelve years ago… the Godfall Island massacre a month ago… those were the closest things to a perfect world!"
"Only war can reveal a person's true worth. Status, bloodline, birth—none of it matters!"
"The last one standing in the carnage—the final victor—that's the only one qualified to make any judgment!"
The burning dragon roared, its vertical pupils glowing a bloody red through the flames.
"Surprisingly, I agree with you," Darren replied, a sinister grin splitting his face as lightning crackled more intensely across his skin.
Boom!
He stepped forward, right foot slamming into the ground first, left trailing behind as his clawed hands pressed lightly to the scorched earth.
His entire body was swathed in boiling plasma, his aura spiking like a rocket tearing free of gravity.
ROAR!
From the empty air behind him, a monstrous roar rang out.
Bolts of lightning twisted together, weaving into a colossal silhouette—a beast of thunder.
Dragon's eyes widened as he watched the shape take form.
What emerged was a creature that looked straight out of myth.
A dragon's head.
A lion's muscled body.
The sharp talons of a silver wolf.
Cold, overlapping dragon scales covering its frame.
And a griffin-like tail sweeping out behind it.
Within that Thunder Beast, Dragon recognized the fusion of countless styles and instincts, all swirling together into one frenzied vortex.
The domineering ferocity of the Dragon Claw Fist.
Golden Lion's ruthless brutality and predator's instinct.
The Frostshadow Silver Wolf's elusive, unpredictable movement.
The Azure Dragon's overwhelming fury.
And the irrepressible, world-shaking spirit of Roger's Haki.
"Wororororo! That's a truly perfect form!"
Instead of fear, Kaido's reaction was pure exhilaration. Seeing Darren unleash such a terrifying manifestation, he roared with delighted laughter.
"You really are the most fascinating opponent I've ever met in my life!"
"Then open your eyes wide and behold it, Little Brat Darren!"
Flames around the Azure Dragon surged like erupting magma, bursting outward with renewed intensity.
"This is my ultimate—"
ROAR!!
The fire-dragon let loose a sky-splitting roar and dove.
Its colossal, burning form hurtled down from the heavens, tearing the atmosphere apart and shaking the earth beneath it. Clouds split and rolled back as if the sky itself were being ripped open.
Laughing wildly, Darren launched himself into the air to meet it, dragon-claw hands poised to tear through the world. Thunder roared along his body, arcs of lightning tracing out every line and detail of the Qilin-like Thunder Beast at his back as storm clouds twisted around him.
"This is my ultimate too…"
Two figures, auras pushed to their absolute extreme, streaked toward each other high above the island.
Their gazes met mid-air and clashed like blades.
"One strike!!"
They roared together, laughter riding their voices.
And then—
Darren and Kaido unleashed everything. All their strength, all their will, all their fury, crashing together in a single catastrophic impact that shook the sky itself.
"Great Fire Dragon Torch!"
"Magnetic Storm Qilin!"
For one breathless instant, the world froze.
Then a blinding white light exploded outward, devouring everything.
BOOOOM!!
The sound followed an instant later—an apocalyptic roar.
Concentric shockwaves, searing flames, and raging thunder surged outward in every direction, filling the entire sky above Onigashima with a storm that felt like the end of the world.
To be continued...