A boundless, inky darkness surrounded him. A profound sense of weightlessness enveloped Garp, creating the disorienting sensation of an endless fall into nothing.
"Huh?"
Garp frowned, his eyes scanning the featureless void. There was nothing here. No wind, no sound, and not a single speck of light.
"Hey! Jack!" he roared, his voice booming into the eerie silence. "What forsaken place have you thrown me into!"
His challenge echoed and faded, meeting no response.
Garp pouted, then began to stretch his powerful limbs. "Playing games, are we?" His battle-honed intuition, sharpened over countless years, told him there was no immediate danger here.
In the next second, the pitch-black emptiness was pierced by points of starlight that blinked into existence. Countless colorful, shimmering fragments emerged from the depths of the darkness, slowly rotating around him like a miniature galaxy. Each fragment was a window, reflecting a completely different and impossible scene.
In one, a blonde teenager dressed in orange and black gathered a rapidly spinning blue sphere of energy between his hands. In another, a towering figure in black armor breathed with a heavy, mechanical rhythm, wielding a blazing red sword of light. A third showed a gigantic green monster, its face a mask of rage, rampaging through a modern city and letting out earth-shattering roars.
For the first time, Garp's eyes widened in genuine surprise.
"What in the world is this…?"
He reached out, his hand moving toward the fragment closest to him. Inside it, a regal, white-haired man with a crescent moon on his forehead wielded a colossal, curved blade that seemed to pulse with demonic energy. Garp's fingers passed through the image without any resistance, causing not a single ripple in its surface.
"An illusion?" Garp withdrew his hand, an impatient scowl forming on his face.
"What's the point of all these flashy theatrics!" he grumbled. "One million Berries just for me to watch a light show?"
He clenched his fist, the knuckles cracking like a string of firecrackers. "When I get out of here, I'm going to personally deatroy that brats shop!"
Just as he finished his vow, all the surrounding fragments began to spin faster and faster. Streams of light danced and blurred, the myriad images intertwining into a kaleidoscope of worlds. Finally, all the scenes converged and froze, solidifying into a single, stark tableau.
It was a land scarred and scorched by the ravages of war.
A man stood alone. He was a dark-skinned warrior, his physique incredibly muscular, standing defiant in the center of an encirclement of tens of thousands of ninja. He was shirtless, his bronze muscles looking as indestructible as granite, covered in a web of crisscrossing scars that told tales of countless battles.
*Crack!*
Blue-purple arcs of electricity danced wildly across his body, emitting a piercing shriek as they writhed in the air. He looked like a god of thunder descended to the mortal realm.
Garp's pupils constricted. The look of impatience on his face vanished completely, replaced by the predatory excitement of a hunter who has just spotted magnificent prey.
"Oh?" he grinned, revealing a mouthful of stark white teeth. "This one… looks interesting!"
At that moment, a cold, emotionless, mechanical voice echoed directly in Garp's mind.
"Dungeon selected: The Strongest Spear."
"Mission objective: Survive the assault of the Third Raikage, or defeat him."
"Countdown commencing."
Huge, blood-red numbers materialized in the air before Garp. With each number that appeared, the entire space seemed to vibrate violently.
"3"
Garp's muscles instantly tensed, his gaze becoming incredibly sharp.
"2"
A wild, unrestrained laugh erupted from his chest.
"BWAHAHAHA!"
"Excellent! Let me meet this 'strongest spear' of yours!"
"1"
He struck a sudden combat pose, and an immense, untamed pressure erupted from him, so potent it seemed to warp the very air.
"0"
The moment the countdown reached zero, Garp's figure was consumed by an intense light, vanishing from the void.
Land of Lightning.
Cloud Gorge.
*BOOM!*
A deafening roar thundered through the sky. The concussive force of the sound sent shattered rock and debris flying from the cliff faces. A titanic beast, its size comparable to a mountain, was rampaging wildly through the canyon. It had the tentacles of an octopus and the horns of a bull, and eight ferocious tails whipped behind it, each powerful swing capable of leveling a mountain peak.
It was the Eight-Tails, Gyuki!
"Quick! Scatter!"
"Earth-Style Wall can't hold it any longer!"
"Water Release techniques are completely useless!"
Countless ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village fled in disarray through the gorge, their faces etched with terror and utter despair. Their proudest techniques were as fragile as parchment before the raw, overwhelming power of the rampaging Tailed Beast.
Just then, a tall, burly figure planted himself at the very front of the fray. He had dark skin and bulging muscles, and was enveloped in a visible aura of blue electrical light, with dazzling electric arcs crackling around him.
The Third Raikage, Ay.
"All of you, fall back," he commanded. His voice was not loud, but it carried an undeniable authority that cut through the chaos, reaching the ears of every ninja.
"Lord Raikage!" A ninja wearing goggles with bandages wrapped around his face rushed to his side, his tone frantic with anxiety. "The Eight-Tails is completely out of control! For you to face it alone is too dangerous!"
"Dodai." The Third Raikage did not turn, his gaze fixed on the roaring Eight-Tails in the distance. "This is the responsibility of a Kage. For the village, for my comrades, I am the one who must stop it."
His tone was calm, yet it held a resolve as heavy and immovable as a mountain.
"But your body…" Dodai began, still trying to persuade him.
"Silence!" the Third Raikage growled. "This is an order! Your mission is to evacuate all civilians before I deal with this. Not a single one is to be left behind!"
As his voice fell, the lightning cloaking his body suddenly surged to a new intensity. Blue-purple chakra, churning like boiling magma, enveloped his entire being, forming an indestructible armor of pure lightning.
The Strongest Shield, the Lightning Release Armor!
The ground beneath his feet cracked and splintered under the immense pressure. He was a blue thunderbolt, coiled and ready to launch himself toward the tyrannical Eight-Tails.
But the moment he prepared to move, the Third Raikage's powerful form froze. He stopped. His sharp, hawk-like eyes snapped towards a different direction in the gorge.
Dodai was stunned. "Lord Raikage?"
The Third Raikage did not answer him. He just stared intently in that direction, every muscle in his body tensing to its absolute limit as the electric arcs of his Lightning Release Armor pulsed even more wildly.
There, a presence had appeared. It was a presence he had never encountered before—unruly, overwhelmingly powerful, and as vast and untamed as the sea itself! The sheer intensity of this aura was so profound that it made him momentarily ignore the rampaging Tailed Beast.
"Who…" The Third Raikage's voice became incredibly solemn. "…goes there! Show yourself!"
His furious roar, amplified by thunder, echoed relentlessly throughout the entire Cloud Gorge.
At the far end of the canyon, a figure descended from the sky, crashing to the ground with a resounding *boom* that kicked up a thick cloud of dust.
"Cough, cough… This method of teleportation really isn't pleasant," Garp grumbled, patting the dust from his signature white suit.
He looked up, surveying his new surroundings. He was in a canyon of towering, rugged cliffs, and the air was thick with the scent of ozone and something burning.
"Oh?" His eyes landed on the massive octopus-bull hybrid wreaking havoc in the distance.
"BWAHAHAHA!" A wide, excited smile instantly spread across Garp's face. "What a magnificent beast! This experience was worth it after all!"
He clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking loudly, and prepared to rush forward to deliver one of his signature "Fists of Love" to the creature.
Just then, a furious roar laced with thunder reached his ears.
"Show yourself!"
Garp's forward motion halted. He turned his head, his gaze drawn in the direction of the voice.
And then he saw him.
At the other end of the gorge stood the dark-skinned warrior, cloaked in a shroud of crackling blue lightning. The man was staring intently at him, his gaze incredibly oppressive. That look was filled with sharp vigilance and hostility, but beneath it, Garp recognized a familiar spark—the thrilling excitement of a true fighter encountering a worthy adversary.
Garp grinned, his own smile growing even wider and wilder.
"BWAHAHAHA!" he laughed.
Ignoring the still-roaring Eight-Tails, he took a step, and then another, walking toward the Third Raikage with a deliberate, steady pace. With each step he took, the very ground seemed to tremble in protest. A palpable pressure, like that of an awakened primordial beast, began to radiate from him—wild, untamable, and utterly unreasonable!
"That brat Jack wasn't lying after all," Garp said to himself, flexing his wrists and eliciting a series of loud pops.
"This opponent…"
"I like him!"