With a sharp slash, fresh blood sprayed violently across the sky.
BANG!
At that exact microsecond, Momonosuke's entire forearm violently ruptured, dark crimson fluid splashing heavily across Kenshin's face.
"AAAAAAGH...!"
Momonosuke instantly unleashed a succession of bone-chilling, throat-shredding shrieks before his consciousness plummeted offline, his body going completely limp.
Tumbling loosely down through the air currents, the blood-smeared corners of Kanjuro's lips curled into a faint, satisfied smile before his eyelids slowly slid shut.
His internal servers recorded absolute closure.
At the very least, his final maneuver had successfully stripped the Kozuki heir of an arm.
The baseline power metrics commanding the entities allied with the rising generation were far too terrifying; his analytical models suggested that not even the All-Stars of the Three Disasters could comfortably secure a victory against the lightning swordsman. Facing a monster of that tier, he had possessed an absolute zero percent probability of staging a successful resistance.
The immediate sector caved into a heavy, suffocating silence.
"LORD MOMONOSUKE!!" Kin'emon shrieked, his voice losing all structural control. Through the dense layer of smoke, his visual sensors had caught a faint glimpse of Kanjuro's final, death-triggered counter-burst, followed immediately by the boy's agonizing screams.
Before his command structure could coordinate a response, a massive concussive gale violently whipped across the upper atmosphere, and a gargantuan, ancient reptilian head slowly materialized from the dense belly of the storm cells.
The sovereign of the empire—Four Emperors, Hundred Beasts Kaido!
"WORORORORORORO...! Retainers of Oden! Are your pathetic cells the hidden anomalies responsible for initiating this unprovoked assault against my fortress?!" As the planet-shaking cadence of his voice boomed across the sky, thick, rolling waves of kinetic force rippled across the marine grid below.
The immense, suffocating weight of his supreme Conqueror's Haki pinned the rebel forces down, leaving the common samurai entirely unable to elevate their frames.
Before their tactical planners could even run a diagnostic scan on Momonosuke's severe injury, Kaido had personally matched coordinates with the zone.
"Kaido..." Kin'emon and the core retainers of the Akazaya Nine growled through their teeth, forcing their gazes upward to face the dragon.
The surrounding samurai infantrymen swallowed hard, their internal safety radars blaring with primitive dread. This was the absolute root virus responsible for crushing their nation under an absolute, twenty-year nightmare.
To the perspective of an ordinary fighter, standing within the direct sensory range of this leviathan was a privilege their stats simply didn't permit.
Merely enduring the atmospheric displacement generated when the dragon exhaled left them completely paralyzed, unable to execute a single motor function.
Catastrophic! The sheer magnitude of his presence was absolutely, terrifyingly catastrophic!
Facing an apocalyptic barrier of this scale, exactly what calculation could yield a viable victory path for their alliance?
Under the crushing weight of his aura, even the unyielding, iron-clad resolve the samurai had preserved for two decades began to experience microscopic tremors.
"So this represents the absolute ceiling... of a Yonko's baseline stats..." Bell muttered, his eyes narrowing as he tracked the giant serpentine frame shifting through the cloud layer, his soul-level danger receptors firing in rapid succession.
His cardiac rhythms accelerated format, pumping a massive surge of adrenaline through his nervous system.
The entities logged under the header of the Four Emperors were, without exception, apex monsters ruling over the global architecture.
Gently adjusting his iron grip around the hilt of the straight-edged ninjato secured at his waist, a fierce, burning light of pure combat lust erupted within Bell's eyes.
His internal algorithms were demanding a direct, high-intensity engagement against the dragon!
"I can't believe we're literally looking at Kaido..." Standing directly behind Bell's shoulder, Usopp was huddled into a tight, trembling mass, desperately trying to reduce his visibility metrics.
"Bell, my brother! Your primary directive for this deployment must prioritize the absolute preservation of my life signs! Omit any secondary objectives! Remember, I volunteered to scale this ridge and interface with this hot zone entirely unreinforced by the rest of our crew!" Usopp whimpered, his eyes darting frantically to map the surrounding hazards.
Directly ahead of their bow lay the absolute central hive of the enemy empire—Onigashima—housing an unmapped, infinite sea of imperial infantrymen.
Extreme Hazard Level!
And looming directly over their rearguard was the absolute peak of destruction dominating the New World—Kaido!
Apocalyptic Hazard Level!
The layout of the board had caved into an absolute tactical bottleneck; running a simulation for a safe retreat returned an absolute zero.
Furthermore, he had explicitly transmitted a notification file to Nami's unit prior to this phase, choosing to disconnect his coordinates from the main Straw Hat extraction team to execute this independent detour. This deployment had truly entered a critical threshold of danger.
"All stations! Advance the main fleet toward the docks of Onigashima at maximum velocity! Our elite core shall remain anchored at this coordinate to blockade Kaido's advance!" Kin'emon declared, his hand executing a massive, decisive sweep to re-align the vanguard.
The real-time telemetry was remarkably grim: Lord Momonosuke's survival parameters were fluctuating at an unmapped threshold, and the Emperor was breathing down their necks.
A single calculation error during this phase would result in the systematic deletion of their entire army from the global ledger.
SHING!
Kin'emon's katana cleared its scabbard with absolute execution velocity, his fingers locking into a rigid, double-handed grip. "Master Hyogoro... the logistical security of the vanguard remains under your jurisdiction!"
Emerging slowly from the thick of the loyalist infantry, old master Hyogoro stepped forward, his features frozen into an expression of absolute, professional gravity. "Kin'emon... leave the containment of Kaido entirely to your steel!"
Pivoting his frame toward the armada, the old master violently thrust his arm forward.
"Samurai of Wano! Advance the line!!"
Anchoring his flanks were the legendary underworld tycoons who had historically commanded the syndicates of Wano's golden age.
Within a sub-second interval, excluding the solitary command craft carrying Kin'emon's unit, every single warship composing the rebel fleet accelerated its transit parameters, charting a high-speed heading straight toward Onigashima.
The vessel operated by the Kyoshiro Syndicate—which currently housed Bell and Usopp's cell—chose to freeze its momentum, refusing to abandon the coordinate.
"You dare attempt an evacuation routine?!" Kaido's eyes flashed with a volatile, murderous light. Unhinging his abyssal maw, a massive vortex of super-heated plasma began condensing within his throat. "Bolo Breath!!"
The atmospheric pressure across the quadrant congealed instantly, a catastrophic sphere of pure thermal energy materializing within his jaws.
The marine grid exploded into a series of violent, turbulent waves, a localized hurricane fracturing the stabilization systems of the ships as they rocked aggressively against the swells.
The trajectory of this apocalyptic laser was calculated to systematically vaporize the entire rebel armada in a single microsecond!
BOOM!!!
The titanic sphere of concentrated fire erupted from his jaws, transforming into a massive, blinding beam of destructive light that tore across the sky, the sheer brilliance reflecting off the waves until the entire marine sector was painted in a deep, incandescent red.
"Fox-Fire Style: Flame Cleaver!"
Kin'emon leaped to the bow, his blade tracing a flawless geometric pattern that intercepted the kinetic path of the laser. With a single fluid strike, the apocalyptic thermal wave was systematically split down its structural axis, its energy dissolving into absolute nothingness.
"Is every station fully calibrated to trade lethal blows?!"
"Naturally!" The remaining retainers of the Akazaya Nine stepped forward in a synchronized, unyielding line, their stares locked onto the dragon with absolute, stone-cold resolve.
"Oh?" Kaido muttered, a minor ripple of surprise passing through his thoughts as his eyes evaluated the samurai. He had completely omitted a scenario where a standard swordsman like Kin'emon possessed the necessary output to cleanly neutralize his Bolo Breath.
His interest metrics regarding these ghosts experienced a minor upward calibration.
"Jack, the remaining anomalies anchoring that secondary vessel are your assignment." With a casual movement of his colossal claws, Kaido violently hurled Jack's massive mass down through the atmosphere, targeting the deck of the Kyoshiro Syndicate's ship.
"A massive high-velocity projectile has entered our air tracks!" Usopp shrieked, his eyes bulging as he tentatively peeked over the edge of the wooden railing.
As Jack's descent crossed the baseline threshold, the smoke cleared enough for the crew to cleanly verify his identity.
"System alert! It's Jack the Drought, Lead Performer of the Three Disasters!" The mob enforcers anchoring the Kyoshiro Syndicate experienced immediate morale failure; Jack's baseline combat statistics far eclipsed anything their common attributes could hope to counter.
"Maintain a defensive shell and stabilize your positions," Denjiro commanded flatly, directing his voice toward his subordinates.
Internally, his analytical planners registered zero anxiety regarding the Disaster's descent.
The reasoning was anchored by a solitary, high-value asset currently standing on their deck.
He had personally witnessed the absolute efficiency of Bell's blade work; the undisputed number-one ninja of Wano, Fukurokuju, had failed to survive even five sub-second exchanges against his steel. An asset commanding a lethality tier of that magnitude was a variable that even a Lead Performer of the Beast Pirates couldn't afford to miscalculate.
"Denjiro, shift your coordinates to reinforce their ship," Kin'emon directed across the water.
Denjiro shook his head firmly, his sharp gaze remaining pinned onto the colossal form of the dragon. "Negative. Our steel stays unified. We launch a synchronized offensive right now!"
"Splendid!" Kin'emon wasted zero time on further rhetoric, drawing his twin katanas to lock into a maximum-intensity combat posture.
"Kaido! Today marks the definitive microsecond where the retainers of the Kozuki Clan permanently settle the blood debt of our fallen lord, Kozuki Oden!"
"Hmm? You miserable ghosts have finalized a choice to abort your evacuation sub-routines?" Kaido noted, his massive brow lifting in genuine surprise.
"From the precise second we breached the borders, the parameter of 'retreat' was permanently deleted from our database. For this campaign... it is total victory, or absolute deletion!"
SHING-SHING-SHING!
In a single unified microsecond, every single retainer drew their weapons, the cold glare of their steel illuminating the parched air.
"An deployment of this historic magnitude holds an absolute requirement for my presence as well!"
A loud, resonant voice suddenly echoed from the upper air currents.
Cutting through the clouds, a magnificent, cyan-azure phoenix silhouette blurred across the atmosphere, the highly unique, majestic flames casting a brilliant luminescence over the water.
Before the garrison could track the movement, the blazing phoenix glided smoothly above Kin'emon's command vessel, a lone warrior terminating his transformation to drop down through a vertical transit, landing heavily onto the deck planks.
The warrior slowly elevated his head, his sharp, focused gaze locking onto the Emperor as he spoke with unyielding gravity: "Systematically dismantling Kaido's regime is an equation that demands the leverage of my blades as well."
The newcomer revealed a prominent, historical scar running across the right side of his forehead. He wore a heavy, midnight-black imperial cape cleanly emblazoned with the sacred crest of the Kozuki Clan, his hands enclosed in sleek combat gloves.
"Brother!" Okiku gasped, her hand violently clamping over her lips as a fresh wave of moisture flooded her eyes.
"Kiku... our personal communication channels can remain on a cooling loop for the next few minutes. Right now, let us execute our primary protocols as the loyal samurai of Lord Oden—advance the line!" Izo declared, smoothly pivoting his frame to face the dragon.
"First Division Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates... Marco the Phoenix!" Kaido growled, his massive dragon head adjusting its sensors to track the flying entity above the command ship.
The silhouette navigating the upper atmospheric currents was indeed Marco.
Prior to this phase of the campaign, his tactical sensors had intercepted a critical data log confirming that Izo had successfully breached the maritime borders of Wano Country. Driven by his unyielding loyalty as an original retainer of Oden, the former Commander had compressed his deployment timeline to throw his steel into the fray the exact microsecond he processed the state of his homeland.
Recognizing the value of the asset, Marco had executed a high-speed detour to intercept his path and streamline his transit.
"Talk about an exceptionally tight margin, but our synchronization was flawless," Marco noted, letting out a long, relaxed sigh as he drifted through the air tracks.
The transit speed required to bridge those distances had placed a moderate strain on his stamina.
Pivoting his frame to level a lazy, amused stare at the leviathan, he noted, "Kaido, my own tactical blueprint dictates that I omit a direct engagement against your system for the opening phase of this cycle."
Spreading his blazing wings, Marco launched himself straight into a high-acceleration ascent, converting into a high-speed projectile that vanished toward the coordinates of Onigashima.
Tracking the rapid departure of the Phoenix, an anomalous, highly unoptimized sense of instinctual dread suddenly flared within Kaido's internal processors. Exactly what total volume of high-tier enemy powerhouses has successfully breached my security dragnet for this campaign?
Does my empire possess the necessary defensive metrics to withstand their combined weight?
This represented the absolute first timeline in Kaido's entire biography where his system had generated a doubt of that magnitude.
"Kaido, face the total war!!"
Taking absolute advantage of the Emperor's transient cognitive latency, Kin'emon and the collective core of the Akazaya Nine violently vaulted off the deck planks, their drawn steel trailing blinding lines of Ryuo as they launched a synchronized, maximum-intensity offensive to pierce the dragon!