"Kukk…"
Aeridar winced in agony, drawing in sharp, ragged breaths. The pitch-black Armament Haki faded from his skin as blood poured from the massive gash in his shoulder, soaking his white-and-black wave-patterned coat and staining the ground below crimson.
Simultaneously, the muscles around the wound rippled and pulsed; countless granules of flesh grew frantically, knitting the injury back together in a desperate, rapid self-regeneration.
"Mama! You damn bastard!"
Prometheus, clinging to Big Mom's hair, shrieked, firing several basin-sized fireballs toward him.
"Fat chance!"
Zhurong's face manifested upon Aeridar's chest. The entity opened its maw, spewing a torrent of searing flame that formed a wall of fire over ten meters long and several meters high, intercepting the attack.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...
The fireballs slammed into the barrier, dissipating into nothing but sparks and cinders that drifted into the air.
"Kuagh—!"
Suddenly, Charlotte Linlin coughed up a thick spray of blood. Her body swayed violently, and her eyes, previously glazed and unfocused, momentarily regained their fierce, predatory glimmer.
"Yo... you bastard... you... actually..."
Charlotte Linlin turned her head inch by inch. Her gaze was filled with a desperate, malicious intensity. She stared daggers at Aeridar, blood cascading from her mouth with every syllable.
She could feel it. Her heart had been pierced. The strength that had once been enough to level mountains was rapidly draining from her veins, and her body was plummeting into a state of terminal weakness. Even with her monstrous vitality, surviving a pierced heart was a temporary reprieve; she was a creature of "Iron Balloon" durability, not an immortal with regenerative powers. Death was the only outcome.
"AHHH—!"
Charlotte Linlin's expression twisted into one of pure madness. With a hysterical, blood-curdling scream, she summoned the last reserves of her strength, lunging forward with a heavy, thundering gait. She raised Napoleon high and swung it down with earth-shattering force.
She was going to die, and she would take him with her!
"Damn it!"
The razor-sharp, overwhelming pressure of the blade-wind surged toward him. Aeridar's pale face shifted in alarm; he scrambled to his feet and dove to the side to evade.
BOOM!
The giant blade sank deep into the earth. The sheer force of the impact ripped a straight, massive fissure through the ground for nearly a thousand meters, kicking up a cyclone of dust and debris that reached for the sky.
"AH—! AH—!"
Charlotte Linlin swung the giant blade with reckless abandon, each strike faster and more violent than the last. Every swing whipped up gale-force winds, scattering the surrounding smoke and dust.
BOOM—! BOOM—! BOOM—!
"Her heart is pierced... why does she still have such strength?!"
Aeridar retreated in shock as the ground beneath him shuddered, torn apart by one staggering crack after another.
"Die! DIE!"
Zeus shrieked, calling down bolt after bolt of lightning, ravaging the Mirror World. Prometheus poured his highest-temperature flames into Napoleon, extending the blade to seven or eight meters in length. The three Homies knew their mistress's time was short; as creations of a Devil Fruit, their existence was tethered to hers. When she died, they would vanish as well. They were committed to dying alongside their Queen.
"A dying struggle!"
Aeridar realized the situation and sneered. He launched himself into the air. The massive wound on his shoulder had already healed for the most part; in another moment, he would be back at full strength.
"Let's die together!"
Charlotte Linlin's bloodshot eyes widened, her scream echoing with hysteric finality. She bent her knees and leaped, landing atop Zeus's back, leaving a trail of blood drops suspended in the air.
"Get down! Impact Wave!"
Aeridar looked down and pressed his hands toward the earth.
Wuummm—
The air trembled. A massive, circular shockwave erupted downward.
"IKOKU!!!"
Charlotte Linlin, vomiting blood, swung her blade upward with all her might, releasing a terrifying, pink crescent of sword energy.
RUMBLE!
In an instant, the pressurized circular shockwave was cleaved in two by the pink energy. The wind howled as the blade-wave continued its path, surging straight toward Aeridar.
"Tch."
Aeridar's expression darkened. He adjusted his flight path, narrowly dodging the pink energy wave.
BOOM!
The energy wave pierced the upper crust of the Mirror World, striking the ceiling and punching a deep, several-meter-wide shaft through the expanse. A powerful shockwave of dust and debris spiraled outward, and loose stone rained down with a clattering roar.
After that final exertion, Charlotte Linlin's face went ghastly white. It was as if she had burned through the last of her stamina. She collapsed to one knee atop Zeus, panting heavily, sweat beading on her forehead.
Seeing this, Aeridar's face lit up with excitement. "That old hag is spent!"
He touched his bloodied shoulder, finding nothing but dried crust. The wound had fully sealed.
"My turn!"
Aeridar grinned, a savage light in his eyes. "Today is the day you die, Big Mom!"
Impact Secret Art: Morning Peacock — Wisdom King!!!
BOOOM!!!
In the next heartbeat, he unleashed a strike of terrifying power. His fists, moving at hyper-velocity, ignited the air through friction. The sheer speed generated a roiling, searing flame, creating a tidal wave of fire that coalesced into the form of a gigantic, blazing peacock.
"SCREEEEECH—!"
The flaming peacock let out a sharp cry. It flapped its burning wings and slammed into Charlotte Linlin and Zeus with ruthless precision.
Beneath the deafening roar of the impact, the terrifying flames and hurricane-force winds fused into a fiery tornado, surging all the way to the top of the Mirror World.
Charlotte Linlin, completely engulfed in flames, fell from the sky along with Zeus, Prometheus, and Napoleon. With a massive CRASH, they cratered into the ground, creating a pit over a hundred meters in diameter. The impact rattled the entire Mirror World; the ground buckled like rolling waves, instantly splintering into countless jagged fractures as gale-force winds carried dust and fire across the horizon.
Impact Secret Art: Grand Sphere — Airquake!!!
Aeridar didn't hesitate. He raised his right arm, a pale white pressure-dome materializing over his fist, and hammered it down into the empty air.
CRACK—!Crack, crack, crack...
With a sickening sound, a single fissure appeared, then a hundred more, dense and chaotic, spreading rapidly. Within hundreds of meters, the very space in front of him became a web of spidering cracks.
RUMBLE... RUMBLE...
Vibration after vibration surged through the air, causing the atmosphere to warp. The ground of the Mirror World shattered instantly.
But at that very moment, a massive pink blade-wave, dozens of meters long, soared toward the sky. It cut through the horizon like a rainbow of blood, bathing the world in a dim, sickly pink light.
"Nani—?!"
High in the air, Aeridar's eyes widened, his pupils constricting to pinpricks.
———————
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