At this moment, all eyes on the deck were locked onto the tall figure trapped within the seastone cage.
The navy officers stationed aboard the prison ship couldn't help but recall the terrifying roar that had once echoed across the G1 Branch during Kaido's rampage.
That same dragon's roar now reverberated again—eerily identical.
But the realization hit them like a falling iceberg.
Kaido was imprisoned.
There were no two identical Devil Fruits in the world—especially among the Mythical Zoan class.
So then… where was this roar coming from?
"Kuzan sama…"
"Admiral Aokiji…"
Fear began to creep into the hearts of the marines.
Only moments ago, they had been filled with confidence after witnessing Aokiji's climate-altering Ice Fruit awakening, which froze ten kilometers of sea with a gesture.
But now, an invisible pressure loomed, heavier than any cold front.
On the iceberg-ridden island battlefield...
Aokiji stood still, his face stiff, pupils dilated, breath misting heavily in the air.
The color had drained from his face.
"What's wrong, Aokiji?"
"Too shocked to speak?"
"Or… can't recognize me anymore?"
A thunderous, disdainful voice echoed from above.
Gone was the 300-meter-tall Ragnar who had towered like a war god moments earlier.
In his place now soared a massive dragon—a sky-serpent of piercing scales and domineering presence, far larger than any creature Aokiji had seen outside of Kaido.
Its eyes—intelligent, arrogant, amused—glared down like celestial judgment.
"You… you turned into Kaido?" Aokiji murmured in disbelief.
But even as he said it, he corrected himself.
"No… not Kaido. You're not copying him…"
"You became a dragon itself...!"
"Wait… That's impossible—unless…"
He inhaled sharply, realization dawning.
"You… can replicate Mythical Zoan powers?!"
The terrifying truth set in.
This wasn't transformation through mimicry. This was possession of Kaido's abilities—through Ragnar's own Mythical Zoan power.
"It's not just the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Erlang Shen…"
"Your true ability… it's more than transformation…"
"You can invoke divine aspects of other mythical beasts!"
The tremble in his voice gave way to cold fury.
For the first time in years, Admiral Aokiji—the man who once dueled Akainu for ten days—felt the instinct to kill.
Not because he hated Ragnar.
But because this man, this godlike force, posed a threat to the World Government, the Marines, and even to the idea of justice itself.
"You're too dangerous to live."
No hesitation now.
Aokiji raised both arms, murderous intent crystallizing into frigid clarity.
"Let's end this—right here!"
"Ice Hockey!!"
With that chilling invocation, colossal ice pillars erupted around the massive dragon, stabbing skyward like towers of frozen judgment.
Each one bore a razor-pointed tip.
And then—clang—they turned black.
Armament Haki: Hardening.
Dozens of these massive, haki-infused glacial spears hurled through the sky, howling like banshees as they pierced toward Ragnar's vast draconic body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each strike landed with an earth-shaking boom, driving sparks and fragments from his hardened scales.
Ragnar's immense body shuddered, recoiling in the air as the impact forced him down fifty or sixty meters—but that was all.
No blood.
No cracks.
No real wounds.
Aokiji's heart pounded.
"His scales… tougher than Kaido's...!"
He gritted his teeth.
But he didn't stop.
"I'm not Akainu. I don't need brute force."
"My strength lies in **freezing temperatures—**absolute zero..."
And as his body surged with awakening power, the temperature began to drop once more.
The sky clouded, the sea moaned.
And the world began to freeze again.
As expected.
Although the icicle pierced through Ragnar's massive dragon form, it caused no harm. But the instant contact was enough—his enormous serpentine body was instantly entombed in ice, becoming a glimmering sculpture suspended in the air.
"Just break it."
Aokiji's tone was calm, but his movements were swift and deliberate. With a wave of his hand, a towering iceberg surged from the frozen sea behind him.
Boom!
The colossal mass of ice hurtled downward, aiming to crush the frozen Ragnar like the weight of Mt. Fuji falling from the heavens.
Crack!!
Just as the iceberg was about to make contact, the ice imprisoning Ragnar suddenly shattered, exploding outward in all directions like a burst of crystal shrapnel.
"Tornado!"
Ragnar's long dragon body twisted violently through the sky, generating a massive vortex. The surrounding air fractured with piercing sonic booms.
Dozens of massive wind blades—each as sharp and fast as the flying slashes of a master swordsman—ripped through the sky. They cleaved through the descending iceberg like it was paper, sending its pieces flying.
The rest surged toward Aokiji like a storm of invisible swords.
"Ice Knife."
Without panic, Aokiji raised his right hand. Snap.
A gleaming, translucent blade of ice materialized in his palm. Instantly, he channeled Armament Haki into it—black lightning-like tendrils wrapped around the blade like writhing serpents, hardening it into a deadly weapon of both ice and will.
With a firm stance and narrowed eyes, his aura shifted.
"One-Sword Style: Freeze Three Feet."
He swung the blackened ice blade. A razor-sharp wave of frost-laden energy exploded forth, cleaving through the sky. The moment it touched the incoming wind blades, they froze mid-air—suspended like fragile art—before shattering into a rain of glittering ice shards.
But before Aokiji could lower his sword—
"Hot Breath!"
From above, Ragnar dove—his draconic jaws wide open. A beam of searing heat surged forth like a concentrated stream of Kaido's Bolo Breath, but even more focused and devastating.
Rumble!!
The flame blast collided with Aokiji's frigid slash and incinerated it completely—the cold wave evaporating in a cloud of steam and ash. The hot breath didn't stop—it continued forward, roaring like a wildfire, heading straight for Aokiji with unstoppable force.
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