Kaido's expression instantly froze, his originally ferocious and terrifying face showing a crack for the first time.
The veins at Kaido's temples throbbed violently beneath his dragon horns, as if an invisible drum were beating wildly inside his skull, each strike hammering against the most vulnerable parts of his soul.
"Bullshit!" he suddenly roared in fury, his voice like thunderclaps that made eardrums ache.
His spiked club smashed into the ground with a deafening "BOOM," instantly cracking the earth as fissures spread like spiderwebs.
"How can you break through when you're dead?! Are you going to show off in some goddamn terrifying hell?!"
His eyes flashed with madness and disdain, but the moment the words left his mouth, a terrifying thought struck him like a ghostly apparition.
'The Mythical Zoan Phoenix... This ability might truly possess the possibility of rebirth...'
Then he recalled the previous news reports—those he'd once dismissed as nonsense—now piercing his heart like sharp daggers.
'Could it all be true?!'
An inexplicable fear and unease surged within him, a bitter irony for someone who always proclaimed himself the "Strongest Creature."
Whitebeard seemed to possess the ability to see through people's hearts, instantly discerning his turmoil.
The Halo wreathed in lightning flickered faintly. "It appears you've figured it out."
His tone suddenly turned solemn.
"Between life and death, that extreme fear envelops you like endless darkness from the abyss, while the ultimate desire to survive becomes a sliver of dawn in the darkness, granting you the strength to struggle."
"These instinctive emotions, intertwined, trigger the true metamorphosis of the Haki within one's body, much like a Phoenix being reborn from flames."
Kaido felt his scalp crawl.
What was Whitebeard doing?!
Teaching him?
Telling him how to improve his Haki?
'Damn it, damn it all!!!'
Memories flooded back like tidal waves—Oden's final strike from years ago, bright as lightning, tearing through the dark night sky of his heart.
Back then, he'd been slashed, his life hanging by a thread.
His life flashed before his eyes, each scene shaking his convictions, and indeed, his power had broken through afterward...
This way, Whitebeard's words seemed to hold some truth.
The thought made him question everything he'd always believed in—were they truly as unshakable as he'd thought?
Perhaps... no, definitely!
His current strength was undoubtedly inferior to Whitebeard's.
Before this man, his defeat seemed to hinge solely on the other's whim...
Once this notion took root in his heart, it grew like wild weeds, filling him with turmoil.
"Damn...!!" Kaido suddenly erupted, unleashing an unprecedented wave of Conqueror's Haki.
Black lightning danced around him like furious dragons, pulverizing the surrounding rocks.
Debris flew like bullets, crackling as it shot in all directions.
He didn't give a damn about any bullshit life-and-death epiphanies—he was Kaido, the self-proclaimed Strongest Creature!
His pride wouldn't allow him to bow before this man; his self-respect wouldn't permit him to be ruled by fear.
"Enough with the lectures, old man!" he roared, his draconic foreclaw tearing through the air with a sharp whistle.
"Even if I die, I'll tear a piece of flesh from you!"
His murderous gaze remained fixed on Whitebeard, as if he wanted to devour the man whole.
Whitebeard watched Kaido's desperate struggle with eyes as cold as ice, capable of freezing one's very soul.
Slowly, he raised the Murakumogiri.
The long sword, gleaming with a chilling light, seemed to come alive in his grasp.
Twin Halos abruptly erupted with blinding radiance, blazing like the scorching sun and illuminating the entire space, making it impossible to look directly at them.
"A fine resolve... Pity you had to target my sons. Then allow this old man to send you on your final journey!"
The moment their Conqueror's Haki collided, the entirety of Onigashima began to crumble.
The earth shook violently, mountains collapsed, boulders tumbled, and trees were uprooted, whirling through the air in a scene of apocalyptic chaos and destruction.
Kaido erupted with burning fury, his body radiating a maddened aura—a potent mix of resentment towards defeat, fearlessness in the face of death, and sheer hatred for the man before him.
Meanwhile, Whitebeard's blade concentrated a supreme Haki that transcended life and death, imbued with his profound understanding of mortality.
"Come, Newgate!"
"As you wish!"
...
On the outskirts of smoke-shrouded Onigashima,
A fierce battle raged between two "human fortresses," each collision causing the surroundings to tremble.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Deafening explosions shattered the brief silence of the battlefield.
Every bone-jarring impact generated shockwaves that surged outward with overwhelming force.
The ground around them was carved with deep trenches, upturned soil and rubble flying and scattering through the air.
"Quite the tough hide you've got."
"Hmph! Diamond Jozu, your fists don't seem all that hard."
Diamond Jozu's entire body shimmered with a brilliant radiance, each powerful punch carrying the force to split mountains and shatter rocks.
Yet, facing him, Jack the Drought, in his mammoth beast form, stood utterly unafraid.
With his massive frame, he fearlessly endured the relentless, rain-like barrage of Jozu's devastating attacks.
"Thud!"
Accompanied by a dull, earth-shaking impact, Jozu's uppercut, coiled like a lurking dragon, struck Jack's jaw with precision.
In that instant,
Diamond sparkles mixed with splattering blood, reflecting a bizarre and bloody beauty under the sunlight.
The spray of blood misted the air between them.
"Heh..."
But Jack merely shook his head slightly, as if brushed by a gentle breeze.
He spat a bloodied mouthful dismissively, then grinned viciously and retaliated with a powerful, sweeping backhand.
Swinging his elephant trunk, he channeled all his strength into a single, unstoppable strike aimed straight at Jozu.
Seeing this, Jozu didn't dare hesitate, quickly crossing his arms to block
. Even so, under that heavy blow, he was still sent sliding back several meters, his feet plowing two deep furrows in the ground.
"Is that all you've got?" Jack wiped the blood from his nose with his thumb, the gesture brimming with arrogance and disdain.
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