"Go!"
Amid the dispersing smoke, Mizuchi grabbed Luffy's hand and sprinted forward.
Mizuchi was now at the brink of exhaustion. Continuous battles had drained his stamina severely. Even though he had successfully replicated Aokiji's Ice-Ice Fruit, it didn't mean he now possessed the strength to match the admiral himself.
"Ice Path!"
Aokiji had clearly noticed Mizuchi's movement. A long, narrow trail of ice shot out from the opposite side of the smoke, carrying Aokiji's body straight toward them.
"Go on ahead! I'll handle this!"
Mizuchi pulled out the Devil Fruit fusion card and inserted the newly acquired Ice-Ice Fruit card.
"Ice-Ice Fruit successfully loaded. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 30 seconds."
The system message sounded, and a sudden, intense tearing sensation swept through Mizuchi's body. Pain made him drop to one knee.
"Mizuchi!"
Seeing Mizuchi in pain, Luffy immediately rushed forward, intending to stop Aokiji.
"Go! Ace is waiting at LV5! Leave this to me!"
Gritting his upper teeth against his lower lip, Mizuchi swayed and leaned on his knees, barely managing to stand.
His stamina had already reached its absolute limit. Every movement, every step he took now depended entirely on sheer willpower.
"Mizuchi! I'll be waiting for you at LV5!"
Seeing the iron determination in Mizuchi's eyes, Luffy finally didn't resist further. Holding back tears, he leapt over Mizuchi and charged toward the entrance of LV5.
Seeing Luffy's action, Aokiji moved to block him, only to be stopped by Mizuchi's ice spear.
"Aokiji! This… this is a fight between us!"
Sweat poured from Mizuchi's body, but his gaze was unyielding. There wasn't a trace of fear in his eyes as he stared at the admiral.
"Ice Time Capsule!"
Realizing he couldn't stop Luffy, Aokiji directly attacked Mizuchi. A stream of ice shot toward Mizuchi, aiming to freeze him solid.
"Ice-Freezing Moment!"
Mizuchi didn't hold back. Releasing his own cold air, he spread it toward Aokiji, freezing the space between them.
In the depths of Impel Down LV4, the first direct clash between two Ice-Ice Fruit users had begun.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Cold air collided and intertwined at the center between Mizuchi and Aokiji. The ice-covered floor instantly thickened by nearly half a meter.
"Dual Thorn Spears!"
"Dual Thorn Spears!"
After covering the area with cold, both of them immediately switched to new moves. Four long spears from each side clashed in the air, increasing the ice thickness in the center by nearly another meter.
Two clashes later, a two-meter-high ice wall had formed between Mizuchi and Aokiji.
"Blizzard Bird Beak!"
Frustrated by his attacks being blocked, Aokiji's face darkened. He swiftly extended his right arm, and a gigantic ice bird shot skyward, roaring as it charged toward Mizuchi.
"Blizzard Bird Beak!"
With the Ice-Ice Fruit now in his possession, Mizuchi no longer had to struggle like before. Raising his right hand, a giant ice bird materialized on his arm.
Once fully formed, the ice bird flapped its wings and shot straight toward Aokiji's ice bird.
"Boom!"
The two giant ice birds collided above the ice wall, the deafening impact and tremors making Impel Down feel as if it might collapse.
"What's happening? Monitoring Room, report immediately!"
Magellan, receiving treatment in the warden's office, jumped to his feet despite his injuries. Snatching the Den Den Mushi, he connected to the monitoring room and barked sharply.
"N-no… n-no… this is bad! Warden! The LV4 passages, ceiling, and floor are all shattered… and that mysterious man, together with Admiral Aokiji, has fallen into LV5!"
The jailers in the monitoring room were stunned, unable to react immediately to what they saw.
The clash of the two giant ice birds had released such intense cold that LV4's ceiling and floor instantly froze.
Countless shards of ice exploded outward, striking every corner of LV4.
The airborne ice shards, like high-powered projectiles, hammered walls, corridors, floors, even the ceiling and the blood pool below. All froze and shattered under the relentless assault.
LV4 was reduced to ruins in an instant. Jailers and prisoners who hadn't evacuated in time were smashed into fragments by the flying ice shards.
Cough! Cough! Cough!
Amid the blizzard, Mizuchi rose from the ground. Looking at the surrounding snow and chaos, he immediately understood where he was.
Impel Down LV5's Ice Floor was entirely covered in snow. Prisoners here faced not only a shortage of clothes and food but the constant threat of freezing to death.
"Aokiji… where are you?"
Mizuchi's eyes scanned the blizzard. Aside from the swirling snow and debris falling from LV4 above, there was no sign of life.
"Could it be… Aokiji didn't come down?"
He looked upward at the ceiling. What had once been the scorching LV4 now resembled LV5's freezing hell.
The snow had completely blanketed LV4, and biting winds tore through every corner of the floor.
"No! Nothing! No sign at all!"
Despite searching every inch, Mizuchi found no trace of Aokiji.
"Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!"
As Mizuchi searched in vain, a pack of white-furred, red-eyed wolves approached, greed in their eyes.
"Ice-Freezing Moment!"
Facing the wolf attack, Mizuchi shouted and released several streams of cold air from his body, wrapping around the wolves.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
The crisp sound of freezing continued without pause. One by one, the ferocious wolves were trapped in transparent ice blocks.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Continuous battles had pushed Mizuchi's body beyond its limit. Drawing the Devil Fruit card, he endured the piercing cold and walked step by step toward the forest's edge.
"Heh… speaking of which, this place is quite the interesting playground."
Mizuchi gave a wry smile at the desolate surroundings. He knew that attempting to reach LV6 in his current state would be suicide. He needed rest and to recover his strength. Since Aokiji hadn't followed him to LV5, he must have gone to LV6.
In LV6, Mizuchi would face not only Aokiji and Magellan but also Blackbeard and the prisoners already there. If he entered recklessly, he might die before even rescuing Ace.