Gern suddenly opened his eyes.
There was no emotion in his pupils—only absolute will toward destruction.
Ever since the awakening of Heavenquake, the supreme level of control he had gained allowed every technique he used to erupt with power far beyond its former limits.
And so—
The two palms hovering one above the other before his chest came together violently.
"Heavenquake · Spatial Domain Collapse."
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Instead, a far deeper sound echoed—one that made the soul itself tremble.
Crack—HMMMM!!!
Centered on Gern's joined palms, an indescribable transparent shockwave expanded outward in a perfect sphere, sweeping across everything within a thousand-meter radius!
Space itself detonated.
Vision lost all meaning.
The frozen plain beneath no longer cracked—it disassembled, breaking apart into countless massive fragments with razor-sharp edges, completely severed from one another.
Like a shattered mirror.
Between each fragment yawned bottomless, pitch-black spatial fissures.
Air ceased to be gas. It first solidified—then shattered like glass with a cascading crash, fragmenting into countless deadly shards of atmosphere that refracted warped light as they floated in every inch of space.
The instant Kuzan's body made contact with that transparent shockwave, his elementalization was forcibly interrupted.
He felt as if his body—and even his consciousness—were about to be dismantled along with the surrounding space, reduced to their most fundamental particles.
Ice crystals fractured inch by inch—not from vibration, but because the very structure that formed them was collapsing.
He let out a muffled groan. The blood spilling from the corner of his mouth was instantly pulverized into a crimson mist by invisible force.
The world became a smashed kaleidoscope.
All matter, energy—even light itself—lost its original order, plunging into total chaos and collapse.
At the heart of this shattered domain stood Gern Reginald Sigmar.
His black hair whipped wildly. Jet-black arcs of Conqueror's Haki crackled around his body like lightning, making him look like a god presiding over annihilation.
Within a domain where the very structure of space screamed as it disintegrated, conventional evasion and defense meant nothing.
Reflected deep in Kuzan's pupils was the horrifying sight of the world splintering into billions of mirror shards.
Invisible forces of disintegration tore at his body, his ice-crystal flesh groaning under unbearable strain.
If he couldn't escape through elementalization, then—
"Absolute Zero · Seal."
Kuzan abandoned all thoughts of movement or offense, unleashing every last ounce of will into the Ice-Ice Fruit's power!
He crossed his arms tightly before his chest.
Instead of releasing freezing energy outward, he compressed it inward—toward his own absolute limit!
In an instant, a layer of profoundly deep, almost light-devouring dark-blue ice crystal enveloped his entire body.
The very concept of "freezing" was pushed to its extreme.
A final defensive barrier that sought to completely freeze time, energy, and even existence itself.
The terrifying force of Spatial Domain Collapse surged forward, tearing and shaking this last bastion of ice with savage intensity.
Crack! Crack!Countless fractures burst across the dark-blue ice surface.
Ice shards were torn from his body like snow caught in a hurricane—only to be swallowed instantly by spatial rifts the moment they detached.
Kuzan groaned, blood seeping through clenched teeth, freezing immediately into crimson ice spikes.
At the same time, the "ground" beneath him had long since vanished. He was suspended among shattered spatial fragments, relying solely on that absolute ice barrier to contend against a collapsing world.
Every second felt like an eternity.
Haki and stamina were consumed at an unprecedented rate.
Yet the essence of freezing is to halt motion—to still energy itself.
Gern's Spatial Domain Collapse was fundamentally about inducing ultra-high-frequency oscillations in space until its structure broke apart.
Kuzan's life-or-death defense, however, was attempting to counter that ultimate motion with ultimate stillness.
And indeed—
When the omnipresent tearing shockwaves struck that dark-blue ice layer, though still violent, their devastating transmission showed a momentary stagnation.
Extreme cold didn't just freeze matter—it began to slow the transfer of spatial vibration energy itself!
"GRAAAH!!"
Kuzan let out a low roar, seizing that fleeting opportunity and unleashing the last of his strength!
"Ice Age · Coffin!"
Rather than spreading outward, the absolute freezing energy expanded just one meter from his body—
Forming an incredibly thick, oval-shaped ice coffin that sealed him completely inside!
At the moment the coffin formed, the external annihilating shockwaves were briefly cut off.
Inside the ice coffin was absolute silence—a domain where even atomic motion was nearly stopped.
BOOOOM!!!
The final energy of Spatial Domain Collapse detonated completely, blasting the massive ice coffin away like a meteor.
Its surface was riddled with horrifying cracks as it tumbled through countless floating spatial fragments—
Before crashing heavily onto a massive ice plain fragment a thousand meters away that had not yet fully collapsed, smashing out a bottomless crater.
"Crk—"
A crack spread across the ice coffin's surface.
Then—a hand burst out.
Kuzan forced the shattered coffin open and staggered to his feet.
He was in miserable shape. Dried blood stained the corner of his mouth, and thick white frost accompanied every breath—clear signs of the immense toll that desperate defense had taken.
He raised his head, looking toward Gern still standing in midair.
There was no retreat in his eyes.
Only even colder battle intent.
"To think you can even shatter space itself…"he said hoarsely, awe mixed with steel."That's one hell of an ability."
Panting heavily, he slowly raised his right hand as extreme cold gathered once more.
"But…"
"An absolute zero that can freeze time itself…""…seems it isn't useless against you either, Gern."
"I didn't expect it either,"Gern replied, breathing just as heavily—yet smiling.
"To think you've developed your Devil Fruit to this level too, Kuzan."