"I'm going to die here? Hahaha! Kid, who do you think I am?"
Gold Lion stood proudly, as if the bloody wound on his chest meant nothing. "I admit your strength, but you're young — you'd need decades before you could kill me."
Being able to wound a top-tier legend like Shiki (Gold Lion) is not the same as being able to defeat or kill him. In the original tale, Zoro's use of Enma could scar Kaido; that doesn't mean Zoro could beat Kaido outright. So even wounded, Shiki still carried the aura of a supreme powerhouse.
Luo Xing smiled faintly. "That's why I said this isn't a contest — it's war."
He produced a pair of earrings and gave one to Yamato — the same earrings he'd shown before.
Shiki frowned. Earrings? What trick were they planning — a trinket couldn't kill him.
Kaido's blue dragon coiled around Yamato. Seeing the earrings he chuckled: "You're going to fuse? Interesting. Yamato, don't disgrace me!"
Yamato shot back at her father, "One day I'll beat you, you old fart!"
Kaido snorted, indignant; the father-daughter bickering continued, but Luo Xing cut in: "Father-in-law, we'll act fast. We must kill Shiki and not let him escape."
Luo Xing never did half measures against an enemy — cut the root, leave no future trouble. Kaido agreed without hesitation. Letting a legend like Shiki go free would bring endless danger.
Shiki's frown deepened. He saw they intended to surround him. Besides Kaido, the young Luo Xing hadn't yet reached top-tier level; the woman with him certainly hadn't. Even alone, Shiki could fight on; with escape via his Float-Float Fruit, retreat was always an option. He sneered inwardly and prepared himself.
Then it happened — both Luo Xing and Yamato slipped the earrings on. A blinding flash followed, and to Shiki's shock the two fused into a single being.
"Dammit!" Shiki's jaw dropped and the cigarette he'd been holding fell into the sea. "A pair of earrings can fuse two living people into one? Even Barrett's merge Devil Fruit can't do that!"
"Allow me to introduce — my new invention, the Fusion Earrings," the fused form said with a smile.
The fused body's outline was mainly Luo Xing's — voice and posture like his — but two red dragon horns grew on its forehead, a sign of Yamato's presence. Luo Xing's features had small changes too: a slight furrowing of brow, slightly sharper teeth, traces of Yamato's Mythical Zoan in its aura. Overall the fusion hadn't radically altered Luo Xing's exterior — but the fused combat presence surged dramatically.
Shiki's expression changed. "A new invention, Fusion Earrings… another world-shaking device. Even Roger couldn't match you in that."
With Kaido watching, and the fused couple standing there, Shiki felt the balance shift. If he wasn't careful, today could be the day he died. He recalled his defeat at Marineford long ago and Garp's mercy — there wouldn't necessarily be a prison to confine him this time. Pride swelled in him: he would not flee. He bristled with killing intent and prepared to go all out.
"Fight then!" Shiki roared and launched himself forward.
The battle of Four-Emperor-class intensity exploded. Thunder and lightning, howling wind and blazing heat collided in the sky.
"Hot Breath!" Kaido's dragon belched flame.
"Wolf-God Ice Fangs!" Yamato's half of the fusion unleashed glacial strikes.
Shiki found himself in simultaneous ice and fire; he roared, using everything he had to break through, but the blows left him wounded.
"Lion Might — Thousand-Cut Valley!" Shiki unleashed dozens upon dozens of massive slashes, each capable of tearing the sea apart.
"Dragon-Tornado!" Kaido answered with overwhelming tornadic force and countless wind blades.
Luo Xing-Yamato — the fused warrior — did not hold back either. With Yanmó in one hand and a spiked kanabō (wolf-tooth club) in the other, they launched a combined technique.
"Married Fusion Technique — Purgatory·Mingdi!" the fused form cried.
Mingdi was Yamato's resonant/missile-style move; Purgatory was Luo Xing's exclusive. Yanmó's black blade and the kanabō's kinetic shock crossed and harmonized, radiating an apocalyptic shockwave.
BOOM! Earth shattered, seas convulsed. Soldiers and crews below halted and stared skyward, swallowed by awe and fear.
"Unreal… what a fight."
"Who can win this?"
"The Gold Lion for sure!"
But then the impossible: during the clash, Shiki was thrown back — bleeding and battered. The air trembled as people realized it wasn't just Kaido who'd struck him: another presence alongside Kaido had delivered decisive force.
"Who's that person?" cried some. Those who knew the Beast Pirates suspected the truth when they heard the aura analysis: "That's the fusion of Luo Xing and Yamato."
Even the Beast Pirates' heavy hitters — Queen, Jack, and others — were stunned. The fused pair's strength exceeded the obvious sum of their parts. From the ground, Shiki was again hurled through the air, gravely wounded.
But Shiki's mania only grew. "I will rule the world! Those who block me die!" He hurled himself skyward, using the Float-Float Fruit to its fullest; the flying island under him began to fracture.
Rocks collapsed, trees toppled; the beasts fled in terror. With a thunderous crack the flying island disintegrated. Shiki recomposed the debris — condensing the rubble into a titanic lion-shaped construct that blotted out the sky.
"Lion Might — Earth Spiral!" he roared, and the lion charged.
Luo Xing's face hardened. "This is his final strike," he told Kaido. Kaido shifted from dragon form into his most powerful dragon-human hybrid, wielding the kanabō with a fierce grin: "Since Rocks and Roger there's been another legendary pirate falling tonight."
Luo Xing nodded. Two Emperors (Kaido + Luo Xing/Yamato-fusion) against one man: the odds were overwhelming. No one on the sea had yet beaten two Admiral-level/Emperor substitutes at once.
"Let's give him a perfect finish," Luo Xing said, inhaling deeply. He unleashed both advanced Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki, merged with Yamato's contribution. Yanmó drank in the Haki; the kanabō crackled with purple lightning.
Kaido observed and grinned: "Use Yanmó and Yamato's club — both wrapped in Conqueror's Haki — and I'll add my Thunder Eight-Trigrams too!"
Together they prepared a triple barrage: three Conqueror-wrapped thunder-eight trigrams — a combination that could shatter the mightiest.
The giant lion he made was smashed to pieces almost instantly. The triple Conqueror-wrapped Thunder Eight-Trigrams slammed into Shiki himself. Shiki's eyes remained wide with disbelief as life fled his body. Float-Float power faded; the Gold Lion plummeted into the sea.
Those waves were his funeral. The legend of Shiki — the Gold Lion — came to an end.
Thus concluded the epic fall of a legendary pirate.
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