Chapter 182: The Inferno vs The Ice Queen!
Esdeath's figure had vanished from her original spot at some unknown point. It was not a mere trick of speed; it was a movement so absolute and refined that the human eye simply failed to register the transition.
Where she had been standing just a fraction of a second before, only a faint, swirling eddy of dust remained, spiraling into the sudden vacuum left by her departure.
Only a white blur, as ephemeral and chilling as a sudden blizzard in the dead of winter, flashed before their wide, disbelieving eyes. The ambient temperature of the battlefield seemed to physically drop a fraction in the wake of her movement.
In the next instant, defying the very laws of gravity, she had already appeared high in mid-air. Her pristine white military uniform fluttered violently against the turbulent winds.
The slender rapier in her hand—a weapon that looked far more suited for a noble's ceremonial duel than a life-or-death clash with a legendary beast—slashed upwards at an incredible, gravity-defying angle. The thin blade caught the ambient light, gleaming with a deadly, frost-kissed silver brilliance.
"Clang...!!!!"
An ear-piercing clang, a sound of absolute metallic agony that made one's eardrums ache and throb, exploded across the coastal battlefield! The sheer volume of the impact was akin to a massive iron temple bell being repeatedly struck by a heavy cannonball.
The massive Pteranodon's giant beak, a biological weapon coated in lethal armament Haki and fully capable of shattering solid blocks of steel into fine powder, was firmly blocked in mid-air.
And it was halted by nothing more than a seemingly fragile, slender rapier held in the single hand of a woman!
The immense, apocalyptic impact force generated by their collision had nowhere to go. It instantly transformed into a highly compressed, visible white airwave.
This kinetic shockwave spread wildly in all directions like a massive tsunami, ripping through the air with a deafening howl. It slammed into the ground below, violently blowing up heavy sand, jagged stones, and thick layers of topsoil, creating a massive crater beneath them!
"What?"
A trace of unbelievable, foundation-shaking shock flashed deeply in King's sharp, reptilian dragon eyes. His massive pupils constricted into thin vertical slits.
He felt as if he had not struck a human being, but rather crashed headlong into a gargantuan iceberg that had not melted for ten thousand years. The immense, unyielding force coming from the opponent's ridiculously thin sword blade was completely unreasonable, defying all logic of mass and momentum!
The kinetic feedback traveled down his beak, vibrating through his massive skull and down his spine. The sheer resistance even caused his proud, full-powered aerial dive attack to falter and grind to a complete, humiliating halt!
Esdeath, suspended in the air with the grace of a predatory goddess, gently flicked her delicate wrist. The movement was casual, almost dismissive, yet it carried an unimaginable physical payload.
"Get... back!"
A powerful and irresistible force erupted from that subtle twist of her blade. It was a burst of pure, unadulterated physical strength mixed with a biting, kinetic cold.
King's massive, prehistoric body—weighing countless tons—was actually forcefully pushed back. The King of the Skies, the terrifying All-Star of the Beasts Pirates, was brutally thrown off balance.
He was sent tumbling awkwardly backward, flipping end over end a few times in the empty air. His massive wings flailed for a brief, undignified moment before he finally managed to catch the wind currents and stabilize himself.
Down below, the vast army of the Beasts Pirates' minions were in an absolute uproar. A collective gasp of sheer, unadulterated horror rippled through the ranks of the Gifters and Pleasures.
Their invincible Lord King, the man who stood at the absolute pinnacle of their crew right beneath Kaido himself, was actually repelled by a woman in their very first clash? Weapons slipped from trembling, sweaty palms, clattering uselessly against the rocky ground.
King hovered steadily in the air, his massive leathery wings beating with a rhythmic, heavy thrum. His gaze, looking down at the white-clad general, became thoroughly solemn.
He forced himself to inhale a deep breath, suppressing the violent shock and indignity roaring in his heart. He was a Lunarian; he was a god among men.
Yet, he had to admit reality. After all, the opponent was a rising Emperor's crew that could even brutally injure their invincible Governor Kaido.
It was well within his tactical expectations for her top-tier cadres to possess such monstrous, anomalous strength. He had calibrated his mind to face elite New World veterans.
But he had even more absolute, unwavering confidence in himself and the ancient, fiery blood coursing through his veins!
"As expected of the Suzaku Pirates, who have recently become famous across the seas," King's voice was cold, echoing with a dangerous, metallic resonance that carried over the howling winds.
"You certainly have some skill... However, this is as far as your little legend goes!"
He slowly spread his massive, obsidian-black Pteranodon wings to their absolute maximum wingspan, blocking out the sun and casting a vast, terrifying shadow over Esdeath.
The flames naturally burning on his back flared to life, burning even more fiercely until they roared like an erupting volcano.
"Witness this! My move... Blade Inner Dual Emperors!"
As soon as his cold voice fell, he violently flapped his wings with a speed that tore the air apart. Countless burning flames from his back were channeled through his wings, instantly transforming into dense, materialized bullets of superheated plasma.
They rained down like two high-speed Gatling guns firing at maximum output, forming an absolutely impenetrable, apocalyptic barrage of fire. The sky itself seemed to ignite, turning into a canvas of blinding orange and red.
The flaming projectiles blasted towards Esdeath overwhelmingly, leaving searing trails of distorted, boiling air in their wake!
Each individual fire bullet carried enough thermal and kinetic energy to easily penetrate thick steel plates and melt them down to bubbling slag in a fraction of a second!
Facing this world-destroying spectacle, a scornful, almost disappointed sneer appeared on Esdeath's flawless face. Her icy blue eyes reflected the approaching inferno with absolute disdain.
"Hmph, playing with fire in front of me?"
She slowly raised one hand, extending her arm with an elegant, aristocratic grace. Her fair palm cupped slightly, fingers relaxed, as if she were casually holding the ambient temperature of the entire battlefield within her grasp.
"Then you've truly... picked the wrong opponent!"
In an instant, the surrounding air temperature plummeted from a scorching heat to a terrifying, sub-zero arctic hell.
The sudden shift was so violent that the moisture in the air shattered into countless microscopic ice crystals, condensing out of thin air to form a swirling, glittering aura around her.
"Weißschnabel! White Beak!"
At her absolute, monarchical command, hundreds of thousands of gigantic, razor-sharp ice cones materialized. Each one was several meters long, gleaming with a deadly, frosty blue light.
They instantly formed from the fractured ground below and manifested directly in mid-air, defying gravity.
They angled themselves perfectly toward the sky, looking exactly like an inverted, sprawling forest of lethal ice crystals, shimmering with a chilling, murderous light!
The next second, the immovable forest of extreme ice clashed violently with the unstoppable barrage of Lunarian fire!
One side was scorching and violent, composed of highly concentrated fire meteors that sought to burn everything in the world to fine, grey ashes.
While the other side was extremely cold and deadly silent, comprised of absolute zero ice frost cones that seemed to freeze the very concept of time and motion itself.
Ice and fire, under the terrified, unblinking gaze of all the bystanders, collided with an apocalyptic roar that threatened to tear the heavens asunder!
The massive collision of extreme ice and extreme fire, in a single terrifying instant, made the very center of the battlefield feel as if numerous highly unstable, high-pressure steam bombs had been detonated simultaneously!
The scorching, ancient flames of the Lunarian melted the extremely cold, demonic ice cones.
However, the sheer volume of the ice was overwhelming, and the instantly melted ice water was immediately evaporated by the even higher, continuously applied temperature!
Rolling, impossibly thick white dense fog shot straight up into the sky like a solid pillar of clouds. It expanded outward like the exhaled breath of a primordial giant beast, instantly enveloping a massive, hundred-meter radius.
The steam was thick, scalding, and heavy, making it entirely impossible to see one's own hand even if it were held an inch in front of one's face.
The crackling, thunderous explosions of rapid expansion continued to echo. The strange, volatile currents of blistering heat and flesh-biting extreme cold intertwined and impacted outwards, creating a hellish environment.
This chaotic elemental storm made the Beasts Pirates members, who had just been clamoring and raising their weapons to charge blindly into the fray, involuntarily stop dead in their tracks.
Their weapons lowered, their faces filled with unadulterated, pale horror.
"No... no way?"
"Hey! What's with that terrifying fog...? Lord King's flames actually..."
"That woman... can she actually block the 'Inferno' Lord's attack head-on? Is she a monster?!"
Panic spread through the dense crowd like a highly contagious plague. The men backed away, stepping on each other's toes, their previous arrogance entirely evaporated by the searing steam.
One of the Beasts Pirates' top combat forces, a symbol of absolute terror in their eyes, seemed to have been genuinely shaken by this beautiful, terrifying woman!
"What are you panicking for! A bunch of useless trash!"
A furious, roaring reprimand violently suppressed all the clamor and cowardly whispers.
The former "CP9" genius assassin, who had now climbed the ranks to become one of the elite "Tobi Roppo", Who's-Who, stepped out aggressively from the shivering crowd.
His tall, imposing figure cast a long shadow, and his gaze was utterly sinister beneath his red mask as he stared intensely at the boiling, dense fog ahead. His fists were clenched tight.
"It's just a temporary draw! Don't lose your damn minds!" Who's-Who barked, his voice laced with authority to steady the men.
"Big Brother King is a great, legendary cadre with a staggering bounty of 1.39 billion Berries! He has stood at the top of the New World for decades!"
He pointed a gloved finger toward the battlefield, trying to project absolute certainty to the wavering troops.
"He is one of our Beasts Pirates' glorious 'All-Stars'! How could a mere woman, an unknown upstart, possibly be Big Brother King's opponent!"
His forceful words echoed loudly, but to anyone listening closely, rather than genuinely boosting morale, they seemed more like he was desperately trying to reassure himself against the creeping dread in his own gut.
"Yes... yes! Lord Who's-Who is absolutely right!"
"Big Brother King hasn't even gotten serious yet! He's just warming up!"
The terrified pirates loudly echoed his sentiments in a chaotic chorus. They practically screamed the words out as if desperately grasping at a fragile lifeline, forcefully suppressing their wildly wavering, treacherous thoughts.
On the complete opposite side of the ruined battlefield, the atmosphere was entirely, fundamentally different.
"So... so amazing!"
Yamato's bright, energetic eyes widened to the size of saucers, completely entranced by the sheer spectacle. Her hands were clutching her massive kanabo, Takeru, so tightly that her knuckles were turning completely white.
Although her vision could not penetrate the dense, chaotic situation hidden within the fog, the lingering, terrifying energy fluctuations of absolute ice and extreme fire tearing viciously at each other could be felt in her very bones.
It made even her, the battle-hardened, fearless "Ogre Princess" who had fought Kaido countless times, feel a profound pang of trepidation mixed with boiling excitement.
This elegant, terrifying woman's strength could actually contend equally with that legendary All-Star King!
"Of course she is!"
Nami had happily popped her head out from safely behind Suzaku's broad back at some point during the chaotic clash. Her small, pretty face was completely filled with a proud, unrestrained satisfaction.
She stood tall, her chest puffed out impressively, her hands on her hips. She looked exactly as if she were showing off her own personal, priceless treasure to the entire world.
"Everyone in our Suzaku Pirates is super... amazing! We don't have a single weakling!" Nami boasted loudly, her previous fears of the Emperor's crew entirely washed away by the sheer dominance her crewmates constantly displayed.
"Mm!" Yamato enthusiastically grunted in agreement, completely infected by Nami's radiant confidence. She nodded her head so heavily her horns dipped.
Then, with her thick, Oni blood truly boiling in her veins and a wide, battle-hungry grin spreading across her face, she brandished her kanabo high into the air and planted her foot, about to charge forward into the steam.
"Then I'll go help too! Let's crush that bird!"
Suddenly, a hand gently but firmly pressed down on her shoulder. The touch was not heavy, not oppressive in the slightest, but it carried an immovable, absolute authority that completely prevented her from moving forward even a single inch.
Suzaku stood there, still maintaining his flawlessly calm and composed expression. He smiled internally, silently praising the [Multiverse Summoning System] for bringing such a wonderfully war-crazed general into his ranks.
He didn't even look at Yamato, his eyes instead looking deeply at the dense, swirling fog ahead. He leisurely opened his mouth and said, "Don't go."
Yamato blinked, slightly confused, lowering her weapon a fraction. "But... I want to help too! If we double-team him, we can win instantly!"
"Esdeath," Suzaku said softly, a dark, knowing hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"She absolutely hates it when anyone, friend or foe, interrupts her 'game'. If you go in there now, she might just freeze you along with him out of sheer annoyance."
Yamato gulped slightly, remembering the terrifying, soul-piercing chill she had just felt, and wisely decided to stay planted exactly where she was.
Just then, as if summoned by Suzaku's words, a tall, imposing figure slowly, methodically emerged from the dense, parting fog.
It was King.
He had returned to his base human form. He was fully clad in his signature black leather restraint suit, tightly buckled and adorned with spikes, and his iconic, menacing mask completely covered his face.
He was casually holding his giant, serrated katana in one hand. Visually, there were no obvious, debilitating injuries on his body, his defensive capabilities proving absolutely monstrous.
But his sharp eyes, barely visible through the narrow slit of his mask, were completely locked onto another, elegant figure standing untouched in the mist.
"Hmph... an Ice ability user?"
King's voice was low, gravelly, and undeniably carrying a heavy hint of genuinely excited battle intent. He hadn't fought a worthy opponent in a very long time.
"Interesting...! But you'd better not underestimate my title, 'Inferno'!"
He firmly drew his massive sword back and held it tightly with both hands.
His giant, feathered black wings on his back suddenly spread wide open with a violent snap, and an aura far more terrifying, dense, and physically scorching than anything he had shown before erupted from his very soul!
"Try surviving this move again! Fire Dragon Emperor...!"
King held the massive blade horizontally across his chest. The ominous, thick black flames—the absolute peak of his Lunarian heritage—ignited. They spread rapidly up his arm and onto the metal like a hungry, living creature!
The dark fire completely engulfed the entire great blade, distorting the space around it with sheer, unadulterated heat.
He swung his sword forward fiercely, putting all of his monstrous physical strength into the slash. A lifelike, gargantuan giant fire dragon, composed entirely of pure, concentrated Lunarian flames, roared out from the edge of the blade!
The massive fire dragon was entirely black, exuding a heat that could instantly melt mountains. It was highly detailed, with distinctly manifested scales, razor-sharp claws, and wildly flowing, fiery whiskers.
Its scorching, apocalyptic dragon's breath seemed entirely capable of burning the very earth into a pool of bubbling lava. With a world-destroying, unstoppable momentum, it opened its massive jaws and bit viciously towards Esdeath!
The sheer, overwhelming power of this move had already far surpassed the realm of a simple flying slash; it was an absolute, perfect fusion of extreme fire manipulation and masterful swordsmanship!
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