If the ascent were interrupted now, everyone knew the consequence: Fish-Man Island would crash back to the seafloor and be pulverized—millions of lives at stake.
Aokiji couldn't stay idle. He vaulted upward.
"Ice Age!"
With arms flaring wide, he hurled twin lances of killing frost. In a breath, the ice raced for leagues, spearing into the island's coating membranes and out to the very outer layer.
The outermost film, already spiderwebbing under the deep-sea pressure, began to fail—but Aokiji's awakened chill surged through it, and in moments a heavy shell of ice sealed the entire exterior.
Crack—boom—
The ice pillars extending from Aokiji's hands swelled, anchoring up and down until a colossal cross-brace locked the glaze in place, propping and fixing the outer shell. With an awakened Ice-Ice Fruit (Hie Hie no Mi), this sheath wouldn't break to ordinary force; so long as the island reached the surface in time, it would come away unharmed.
"Fine work, Ice-Ice Fruit," Shiki said with a short nod—and pressed his palm down again to hasten the island's rise.
"Creed."
Charlotte Linlin fixed on him, fire seeming to burn in her eyes.
She would defeat him today—then pull him and Ain into her banner.
A brutal pressure burst from her and clamped onto Creed.
Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki), SSS+.
Creed stood with his blade, unmoving, and let his own aura surge to meet it.
Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki), SSS+.
Boom—
The ground between them split in a rift dozens of meters long. The leftover will struck out in waves; even veterans stiffened.
At this level, Haoshoku didn't just cow the weak—it became pure, tearing force.
Further off, Ryugu guards, citizens, and even reporters toppled unconscious in swaths—their Den Den Mushi wilting with them. King Neptune and his powerful sons buckled, faces drained.
Only Princess Shirahoshi remained largely unaffected; wide-eyed and confused, she hurried to prop up her father and brothers.
"Enough! Fish-Man Island won't survive this!" Shiki barked.
If they kept smashing will against will, the island would die. Creed and Charlotte Linlin pulled their auras back.
"Your growth is outrageous," Charlotte Linlin said, genuine admiration in her tone before it cooled to calculation. "Creed, join with me for now—drive the Marines from the New World—and then we settle ours. Well?"
Aokiji's face tightened. Without Creed's arrival, this day likely ended in his defeat—and with Shiki here too, perhaps his death. If Creed took Big Mom's hand…
He glanced toward Ain and exhaled. Creed still cared. Good.
Creed shook his head. "I don't need allies or pacts. I'm beating you here. After that—the other three Emperors."
"Ha! A proper Fifth Emperor—mouth like a young Kaido," Charlotte Linlin laughed, then flicked her gaze sideways. "Who doesn't crave to be the only king, the only Pirate King, the one voice from the New World to the Grand Line? But besides my old captain Rocks and Roger, who's done it? Perhaps Whitebeard—halfway."
At the name of Rocks, a distant look crossed her face. Beside her, Shiki's expression twitched.
Ssshhh—
Above, faint water-sound, then light speared through the ice. The glaze turned crystalline, gleaming.
"Heh-heh," Shiki smiled.
"We've breached the surface. Why aren't you stopping? You mean to use Fish-Man Island as a chip?" Creed snapped, eyes narrowing.
The island was still rising—well past the waves, higher and higher. Neptune had asked to move to the surface, not the sky. Shiki's aim was his own.
"Right. You're all too strong. I prefer insurance—another bargaining piece," Shiki said, utterly at ease.
Charlotte Linlin snorted. "You've grown timid, Shiki."
"Try Impel Down once and tell me that again," he answered, eyes thinning. "I don't plan on going back."
Her eyes hooded. "It should be about time."
Shiki nodded.
"Then… let's begin."
Flames burst through her hair. Heat rolled like a furnace; even Shiki grimaced and drifted aside.
Prometheus's snarling face bared its teeth in the blaze, locking onto Creed. Zeus slipped free of her coiffure and swelled into a roiling thunderhead, lightning churning like a sea.
Her two great Homies rose with her killing intent, power peaking.
And in her hand, the horned hat-blade Napoleon stretched and thickened into a giant sword.
No holding back—she meant to open with a storm-killing strike.
(End of Chapter)
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