The air was thick with the strange mixed stench of burned flesh, blood, and seawater steaming over hot stone.
Zarak was still on his knees.
Every breath tugged at the tearing pain throughout his body, and his lungs felt as if they had been filled with scalding sand.
He could clearly feel the fine cracks running through several bones inside him.
His muscle fibers had torn in too many places to count.
That last Godspeed had squeezed everything out of his body, and the price was obvious.
'Still not enough.'
'This level of injury was still far from enough.'
He slowly lifted his head, his gaze passing over the scorched earth in front of him and landing on the collapsed mountain of flesh.
"Guh... rgh..."
A low, rumbling sound like magma rolling beneath the earth came from deep within the ruins.
Then that massive body moved.
Rubble and soil were shoved aside by brute force as Kaido of the Beasts staggered back to his feet.
His head was lowered, shadow hiding his face.
Only his rough breathing echoed across the dead battlefield like old bellows.
Everyone's gaze instinctively focused on the wound in his neck.
Then, in the next second, a scene that shocked every viewer across the world unfolded.
Hiss—
White steam gushed from the torn flesh.
The wound did not truly heal.
Kaido's muscles tightened around it like iron cables, and his Haki crushed down over the dark-gold Reiatsu still biting at the cut.
The residue left by Nozarashi tried to cling deeper, the same way it had devoured Jack's vitality.
But Kaido was not Jack.
His Haki bore down like a mountain, grinding against that foreign pressure until the dark-gold trace was forced out little by little.
Fresh scales ground over the torn flesh, covering the injury before it could widen.
The bloodstain remained, and the wound was still there, but the bleeding slowed until it no longer mattered.
The vitality of a Mythical Zoan, combined with Kaido's monstrous Haki, was beyond belief.
Zaraki watched quietly. He casually licked the blood foam from the corner of his mouth, and instead of frustration, an even hotter flame rose in his eyes.
That was right.
That was how it should be.
It would have been boring if one slash ended it.
Kaido finally lifted his savage head. In those molten-gold eyes, fury spread like fire ignited by humiliation.
His face burned.
Not from the wound, but from a wounded pride.
In front of the whole world, a Marine brat had used a near-suicidal attack to pierce through the defense he was so proud of.
That was disgrace!
"Brat..."
Kaido's voice was hoarse and deep, each word forced through his teeth.
"You... really pissed me off."
He pointed at his neck, where the wound had been clamped shut beneath fresh blood and scales, and roared with a twisted expression.
"Was that the strike you risked your life for? Cuts like that won't bring me down! If this is your limit, then get ready to be torn apart!"
The answer was a crisp click.
Zaraki swayed as he straightened, ignoring the protest from every bone in his body.
Then he casually slid the sealed form of Nozarashi back into the sheath at his waist.
The Zanpakutō held but his arms nearly had not.
And then, under the stunned gaze of the entire world, he once again pulled out that palm-sized white wine flask, yanked out the stopper, and tilted his head back for a long drink.
"Gulp... Hah—!"
The harsh liquor washed away the taste of blood in his throat and turned into a warm current, forcibly suppressing the collapse happening inside his body.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and the smile on his face was bloodier and crazier than ever.
That gesture was more provocative than any words.
It was as if he were saying that Kaido's proud recovery was nothing more than entertainment that gave him an excuse to take another sip.
"Worororo... You... damn bastard—!!!"
Kaido's reason burned away completely in that instant.
He no longer maintained his human form. His body swelled and stretched, azure dragon scales covering him from head to toe.
In the blink of an eye, an eastern dragon large enough to blot out the sun coiled above the crater.
His savage dragon head dipped down from the clouds, and those burning dragon eyes locked onto the tiny figure on the ground like he was an insect.
Endless rage turned into destructive energy.
Kaido opened his enormous maw.
Deep in his throat, blinding heat began to gather, twisting the air around it and turning the coastline red.
'Blast Breath.'
The breath of a mighty creature, strong enough to flatten a mountain in an instant.
Facing that attack, Zaraki did not even blink.
He tossed the empty wine flask aside, then slowly raised his right hand toward the sun-like light gathering in Kaido's throat.
A completely different pressure erupted from his battered body.
It was not pure Haki, nor simple bloodlust.
It was Reiatsu, older and stranger than anything this sea understood, dragged out from the depths of a soul that knew only battle.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and sank.
Dark-gold pressure surged from within him, intertwining with pitch-black Armament Haki before taking on a faint blood-red tint.
'What was that?'
Across the world, the same thought appeared in the minds of everyone watching.
That power did not belong to any system they understood.
But Zaraki gave them no time to think.
He did not try to overpower Blast Breath.
He aimed himself at it!
The moment Kaido released the attack, Zaraki kicked off the ground with brutal force and shot upward at an angle, letting the outer edge of the blast catch him instead of the full core.
Boom—!!!
The earth burst apart.
Zaraki became a dark-gold meteor wrapped in blood and Reiatsu, thrown along the current of the Blast Breath with the force of a cannonball.
'Insane.'
'That Marine was absolutely insane.'
That was the only thought in the minds of everyone who witnessed it.
Using the force of Kaido's own breath to launch himself away?
That was escape disguised as suicide!
"Worororo... Idiot! Turn to ash!"
A brutal delight flashed through Kaido's dragon eyes.
Light and shadow collided.
There was no clean explosion, only a tearing roar as the blast screamed past Zaraki and hammered the open coastline behind him.
Heated stone burst apart, seawater boiled into steam, and the remaining shockwave rolled across the empty beach that Gion and Smoker had already cleared during the evacuation.
For a heartbeat, Zaraki disappeared inside the light.
"Is it... over?"
"It should be... no one could survive an attack like that."
The whispers in front of countless Den Den Mushi screens carried the relief of people who had survived a disaster, along with something far more complicated.
High in the sky, Kaido slowly withdrew his breath, a cruel smile on his savage dragon face.
He lowered his head, ready to admire his masterpiece.
But at that moment—
Whoosh!
A faint sound tore through the air, ringing out from the smoke and steam that had not yet dispersed.
A charred figure shot out from the heart of the blast like a kite whose string had snapped, flying toward the horizon at terrifying speed.
It was that Marine.
He was actually still alive.
"Morgans! Look! That guy isn't dead!"
His assistant shouted excitedly.
"I saw it!"
Morgans adjusted his sunglasses, his wings hammering rapidly across the keys as he muttered nonstop.
"He survived the edge of Blast Breath, but judging by the way he's flying, he's at the end of his strength. He used everything he had and let the shockwave throw him away!"
His judgment was almost the same as everyone else's.
Surviving was already a miracle.
There was no way Zaraki had any strength left to resist.
"Kaido-san!"
King's cold voice suddenly rang out with a trace of urgency.
"That direction is the sea! He's deliberately escaping toward the water!"
That one sentence woke everyone up.
They finally realized it.
The path that brat was flying along was not a random arc.
It was a straight, precise line aimed directly at the sea.
From the beginning, he had not been taking the attack head-on.
He had used the force of Blast Breath to launch himself like a cannonball!
"Worororo... trying to run? Still thinking of escaping in this situation?"
Kaido was stunned for a moment, then laughed as anger surged back up. His laughter was full of contempt and violence.
"What a stupid little trick! Do you think you can get away from me?!"
His dragon body twisted, and Kaido's enormous form became an azure streak, dragging sonic booms through the atmosphere as he chased after Zaraki even faster than the man had been blasted away.
He would never allow this brat, the one who had humiliated him, to slip away right under his eyes.
In the air, Zaraki felt as if every bone in his body was about to fall apart. His consciousness swung wildly between clarity and darkness.
The violent wind poured into his mouth and nose, bringing a burning sting.
He could feel that destructive aura behind him rapidly closing in.
The enormous shadow was about to cover him again.
Almost.
He was almost there.
Using the last bit of strength he had, he forcibly twisted his body and, impossibly, stopped his backward flight for a heartbeat.
Below him, the blue sea churned from the lingering heat of Blast Breath, steam drifting over the surface.
He smiled.
Amid the roar of the dragon behind him, under the shocked, stunned, and confused gazes of the entire world, Zaraki raised the wine flask one last time and drained the final mouthful inside.
"Hah—!"
He casually tossed the empty flask behind him, like a farewell, or perhaps a provocation.
Then he spread his arms, leaned back, and fell decisively into the deep blue forbidden zone below.
Splash!
A small spray rose, only to be swallowed instantly by the churning waves.
Just like that, the figure who had stirred the world vanished into the vast sea.
Time seemed to freeze.
Kaido of the Beasts, who had chased him all the way there, forcefully stopped his massive dragon body above the ocean.
For the first time, confusion appeared in those furious dragon eyes.
He jumped into the sea?
A monster who could wound him.
A man whose strange power looked enough like a Devil Fruit to fool half the world.
Just jumped into the sea?
Everyone in front of the Den Den Mushi screens, the reporters in the news office, and even the members of the Beasts Pirates were completely stunned.
Every face carried the same word.
Disbelief.
It was a silence powerful enough to stop the heart.
Kaido's mountain-sized dragon body hung stiffly in midair.
His dragon eyes, which should have been spewing molten violence, were blank with confusion.
What had he just seen?
Before Kaido could tear him apart, that brat had voluntarily jumped into the sea.
Jumped... into the sea?
The greatest taboo for Devil Fruit users.
The grave of countless strong fighters.
'Wasn't that brat a Devil Fruit user?'
'Judging by the strange powers he had unleashed earlier, there was a very high chance he was.'
'A Devil Fruit user jumped into the sea on his own?'
'No.'
'No, that was wrong.'
Kaido's eyes suddenly sharpened.
The confusion vanished, replaced by a sense of humiliation several times stronger than when his neck had been pierced.
'That was not suicide.'
'The expression on that brat's face, the carefree way he took that final drink, the casual arrogance of tossing the flask behind him...'
'It had been a declaration.
I won't give you your victory.
I'd rather vanish into the sea than let you be the one to kill me.
It was using his own life to spit on Kaido's battle record.
"Wo... ro..."
A strange, choked laugh squeezed out from deep in Kaido's throat.
"Wororororororo—!!!"
The laugh suddenly became a roar that shook the sky.
There was no pride or joy of victory in that roar anymore.
Only the filthy, choking rage of someone who had been humiliated to the bone.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH—!!!"
Boom!!!
Without warning, a Blast Breath even hotter than the last erupted from his mouth and slammed into the sea where Zaraki had disappeared like heavenly punishment.
The seawater exploded into steam.
The surrounding ocean rushed back in, sending a towering white column into the sky.
One blast was not enough.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Kaido fell into a frenzy.
He twisted his dragon body madly and fired Blast Breaths into the open water one after another, each one boiling a patch of sea and throwing steam high into the air.
He wanted to dredge that brat's bone fragments from the ocean floor.
He wanted everyone to know that no one could humiliate Kaido of the Beasts like this.
Massive steam clouds covered the sky. The boiling surface screamed.
Yet no matter how much Kaido destroyed, the sea remained the sea.
Apart from surging up even fiercer waves, it silently swallowed every attack and gave him no answer.
No corpse could be found.
No aura leaked from beneath the waves.
The moment Zaraki hit the water, he had cut off his presence completely and let himself sink beneath the boiling surface.
The reef shelf below Dressrosa had cracked open during the earlier clashes, and a cold undercurrent dragged him sideways into the dark.
To Kaido, through steam, broken currents, and the strange silence of that brat's power, Zaraki had vanished without a trace.
Like a drop of ink falling into the ocean.
Kaido breathed heavily, staring at the boiling water below.
A suffocating frustration unlike anything he had ever felt clogged his chest, more unbearable than any injury.
He had won. There was no doubt about that.
But it felt worse than losing!
It was as if he had gathered all his strength and thrown his proudest punch, only for it to land on a ball of cotton—empty, powerless, and humiliating.
His rage was still burning.
That destructive urge with nowhere to go bit at his reason like a venomous snake.
He needed a target.
A living target he could destroy as much as he wanted, one that could let him vent this humiliation completely.
"Huff... huff..."
Scorching breath poured from his nostrils.
Kaido's savage dragon head slowly moved away from the churning sea.
His gaze crossed the devastated coastline and the evacuation lines farther inland.
Finally, those eyes burning with endless rage and violence locked onto the Marines in the distance.
They were battered, exhausted, and still trying to move civilians and wounded soldiers away from the ruined coast.