Sage's body swelled once more, the knotted muscles continuously coagulating and entwining on the surface, forming a muscle armor made up of steel rods connected and assembled together, with two shoulder pads, one big and one small, condensing at the shoulders.
"100%!"
As white vapor like an arrow spurted from his nose again, an even more exaggerated physique appeared in Kuzan's view.
"Really... every time I see it, it's still so magical."
Kuzan said, "If I weren't certain you ate the More-More Fruit, I'd assume you had eaten the Muscle-Muscle Fruit... Haki-Haki Fruit? That seems plausible too, given your frightening willpower."
"Oh? I don't notice you showing any signs of finding it scary..."
Sage clenched his fist and stepped forward, disappearing from his original position.
Bang!
In the next instant, a truly enormous fist slammed against Kuzan's face, smashing his head into fragments of ice.
Crack!
Kuzan's headless body also transformed from flesh into an ice sculpture, shattering into sharp ice crystals after cracking, which shot at Sage like rain.
The ice crystals had no force, but the particular freezing air coated the struck parts of Sage with frost.
This guy doesn't fight with ice itself, but relies on that extremely strong freezing air.
Freezing, that's true nature!
"Frozen Time Capsule!"
Kuzan emerged from the ice surface behind Sage, his hand pressing down and releasing a frigid breeze that turned Sage into an ice sculpture instantly.
The moment the ice sculpture formed, Kuzan flashed a phantom, first appearing in front of the ice sculpture, and punched it ferociously.
Bang!
A loud explosion as the surface of the ice sculpture burst open, with flying ice shards, Sage suddenly turned around, crashing his fist into Kuzan's fist, at the point of contact, releasing a shockwave, separating their fists.
"In an Instant, Hundred Splits!"
In the instant of separation, Sage's arms vanished with imperceptible speed.
Bang bang bang!
Instead, in that moment, Kuzan's body was filled with dull booming sounds, his whole person involuntarily rising in the air, shattering into ice pieces again.
"How long can you maintain Elementalization?"
Thud!
Sage slammed his foot into the air, flying straight upwards, with fingers spread wide, he didn't even move his hand, yet numerous Haki Bullets blasted from his palm, smashing the ice below with continuous explosions.
Boom boom boom!
"Two-pronged Spear."
Suddenly within the dispersed ice debris, an icy mist rose, from within it extended numerous Ice Spears, clashing with the descending Haki Bullets, erupting ice fragments in the stormy snow, like hail here.
"What about adding another hand then!"
Sage's other hand opened, Haki gathered like flowing dark flames in his hand, similarly releasing a massive barrage of Haki Bullets.
This was a newly developed technique, no longer needing the arm to vibrate and release Haki; compared to Tenha Kassatsu, it had different power, focusing on saving energy.
Sage was different.
His Haki was almost inexhaustible, as long as his stamina didn't run out, Haki would never be depleted; simple stretching of the hand... how much energy would that cost?
If he felt good, he could keep up this pace for a lifetime.
The dual-handed flurry of Haki Bullets smashed the Ice Spears projecting from below, plummeting into the frozen mist.
"There you are!"
Once the Haki Bullets breached through, Sage immediately withdrew his hand, tightly clenching his right fist, flowing vast amounts of Haki, radiating two black flashes.
"Galaxy Impact!"
BOOM!!
The Haki Shock encompassed the whole circular wall, crashing from high above, instantly collapsing the wall, along with the buildings inside, shattering under this punch.
"Hey, you've gone too far!"
Kuzan reformed from the cracked ground, arms crossed, showing Haki, gazing up at Sage in the sky, "There are people in there!"
"I'm a Pirate, so why show mercy to enemies! Besides..."
Sage sneered, "I don't believe you can't sense it, there's hardly anyone alive underground!"
He didn't even need to see firsthand, he roughly knew the situation just from the account given by that brat, Robby.
After all, he had underlings from the Demon Race, also emerging from underground, but these people were worse off, not only imprisoned but also transformed into zombies by some ability or other method.
Otherwise, Kuzan wouldn't be so lethargic...
Strong opponents can sense each other's will, this guy has been confused since before, and more so now, lacking fighting spirit.
He surely knows the condition of this island.
"Spare me... it's too troublesome, can't you pretend you don't know and retreat nicely?" Kuzan sighed.
"Ho ho ho! The Navy is inconvenient like that, isn't it?"
Sage laughed aloud, "Justice or not, everyone thinks of it differently inside, can you trust anyone when you don't even trust yourself?"
"Don't say such pointless things about the Navy... it's still maintaining order."
Kuzan's body's surface began to spread with frost.
"That's more like it, now that you're here, let's have a proper fight!"
"I'm really sorry then..."
Kuzan mocked, "Couldn't make Master Sage enjoy, but this time... I will leave you here!"
"If you can, come then!"
Sage laughed fearlessly.
The gap, of course, still exists.
However, this gap doesn't become apparent in prolonged battles. Not because of anything else, but purely because his Haki is limitless. This alone makes it increasingly difficult to fight as their differences in other aspects diminish.
Kuzan alone couldn't hold him down!
Rumble!
Just as Kuzan seemed ready to get serious, the ground shook violently for a moment. In the center of the destroyed ruins, a gate on the ground suddenly split open. Lily, holding an irregular piece of steel in her arms, dragged a severed-limb person's ankle with one hand, wielding a sword with the other and using Moon Step to fly upwards.
From below her, Robby led out some people in miner's outfits who hadn't yet been transformed. Behind them, Marika led a group of the Demon Race out.
"Sage! The underground iron water and furnace have exploded; the iron water will surge up!" Lily shouted urgently.
"That is..."
Kuzan's pupils shrank as he also saw the steel piece in Lily's arm, reaching out to strike toward that side.
"Galaxy Impact!"
Sage's punch landed, unleashing another impact that shattered Kuzan's body into ice chunks.
"Did you get it?"
He laughed, "Great! As agreed, I'll grant them freedom and take them onto the ship together!"
"Don't think about escaping..."
The ice quickly spread and covered the ground, instantly reaching Robby and others, condensing into Kuzan's body. The nearly three-meter-tall figure instinctively made Robby look up.
He exhaled frosty breath, about to activate his ability, but at this moment, also saw Robby's gaze.
An eye filled with determination yet tinged with fear and hatred...
"White clothes... you are a bad guy!"
Robby retreated a few steps instinctively, but then thought of something and shouted loudly:
"Why! Everyone is dead already, not from cold sickness, but they've been transformed into inhuman beings, with no blood or flesh left! I just want to go out and see, to see the world from the books... Everyone wants to see it, they must want to see it! That guy said transformed people have no consciousness or thoughts, but I know, I hid in the ore cart, it's my mom and dad..."
Robby's eyes turned red, "They must have sent me out, it must be like this! Everyone wants this, why... why do you have to stop us!!"
Kuzan's outstretched hand froze there under the voices, in the presence of the filthy miners filled with fear, his whole person froze.
The justice cape flapped in the fierce wind, making the word 'justice' blurry, as if about to leave his shoulders at any moment.
"Careless!"
A whirlwind stirred up in the blizzard quickly approached Kuzan. It was Sage moving at high speed, rotating at a hundred times speed all over, extending one leg straight, carrying the inertia of spinning and charging, and fiercely kicked his chest.
"Hundred-Slit Heroic Spin!!"
Bang!!
With tremendous force, Kuzan was kicked far away, no longer becoming ice chunks but being kicked away like a meteor.
The power burst from this strike made Sage himself froze for a moment but quickly reacted, looking at the silhouette that was already flying away like a meteor, and clicked his tongue:
"Quite slippery!"
"Forget it, if you insist on doing this... it's inconvenient for you, I'll do it, consider it paying you back for last time."
Sage glanced around, pressed down the ground with one foot, creating a square crack, and stomped forcefully, creating a square block of ground.
"Come on, it's quite a distance; at your speed, you can't run away..."
He felt the increasing tremor below and spoke to everyone.
Robby was the first to jump on it, telling those miners, "Everyone, those with the Skull Flag are good people, those in white clothes are bad people, the good people will give us freedom, let's go together!"
"Heh heh heh, damn, pirates can be seen as good people, that's really damn interesting!" Sage shook his head, cold laughing.
He waited for everyone to get on the square block, aimed a direction, and kicked fiercely, "Hold on tight, twenty times speed!"
Boom!
The toe touched the block, making it a blur, flying low from fast forward, only a silhouette could be seen in an instant.
Boom!!
Right then, from within that broken iron gate, scorching iron water erupted like a volcanic explosion, shooting up to the sky, and around the iron gate, cracks formed, seeping superheated iron water, spreading rapidly around.
Sage surveyed each side, walked to a just-destroyed ruin, picked up a cannonball that had rolled on the ground, weighed it in his hand, stepped on air again, and leapt into the high air.
"No need to destroy the island; a deep pit for you... should be enough! Fifty times!"
He assumed a throwing posture in the air, hurled the cannonball downward, "Southern Dipper Human Cannon!"
Although it was an ordinary cannonball, not those with a one-meter diameter from main cannons, looked quite huge, but not exaggerated when magnified fifty times, at fifty times speed, it ferociously hit the middle of the iron gate, and completely punched inside.
Boom!!!
The entire island shook at this moment, and the sky-high iron water was completely pressed down under the explosion of the cannonball, rising a small mushroom cloud. The ruins around were turned to dust by the explosion's impact and dispersed, leaving a giant pit, forcibly turning a flat island into an island with a huge deep pit.
The deep pit in the island's center, moreover, filled with a scorching lake of iron water, emanating heat, but gradually cooling.
Having lost the furnace heat from underground, this iron water lake would soon solidify.
In the distance, Kuzan was kicked by the foot to the harbor of the Navy's only base on this island, crashing through the Navy base, directly into the sea in front. In the crucial moment of falling into the sea, he created a large ice layer on the sea surface.
A massive number of Navy troops rushed out from within the base, approaching the ice layer.
"Admiral Aokiji!"
The stationed Vice Admiral saw Kuzan lying in the center and couldn't help but exclaim, "Are you okay?!"
Kuzan waved, pulled down the eye mask on his forehead, covering his eyes, a bit of exhaustion in his voice, "Tired, let me rest..."
In his mind, he was still thinking about the words of that kid just now.
Has the Navy... already fallen to become the bad guys?
Can't tell.
This world...
It's really hard to tell.