Blood condensed across the surrounding air. Gripping his rapier, Patrick Redfield found himself steadily driven onto the back foot against Uchiha Madara's massive, Haki-clad Susanoo.
Infused with dense Armament and Conqueror's pressure, every downward punch from the Susanoo carried the weight to shatter heaven and earth.
Each direct blow Redfield deflected reverberated violently through his internal organs.
Worse still, the scorching dark flames wrapping the Susanoo made him deeply uncomfortable. While the Bat-Bat Fruit, Model: Vampire had vastly amplified his overall physical specs, it introduced significant vulnerabilities—chief among them an instinctual aversion to blinding light and extreme fire.
Madara exploited this opening relentlessly, shrinking Redfield's evasion room while raining down a continuous barrage of flaming Magatama beads that made the ground tremble.
Dance of Death!
Redfield's rapier twirled into a dozen blooming sword-flowers, transforming into swarms of crimson blood-bats that lunged forward. Madara parried with his staff-blade as the Susanoo drove another crushing fist downward with world-cleaving force.
Faced with impending destruction, Redfield transformed into a colossal crimson bat, releasing an apocalyptic, non-discriminatory death ultrasonic wave across the battlefield.
Scores of Big Mom Pirates subordinates caught in the sonic blast had their eardrums ruptured, dying instantly on the spot. The terrifying shockwave even disrupted the clash between Katakuri and Ace, forcing both combatants to leap back toward their respective formations to shield their crewmates.
At the very epicenter of the sonic storm, the three-tomoe Sharingan in Madara's eyes spun rapidly. As he tightened his grip on his staff-blade, a colossal blade of dark flames ignited in the Susanoo's grip.
A massive cleave of black fire dropped from the sky, carving straight through the giant bat. In a single stroke, it severed one of the monster's colossal wings. Screeching in agony, the wounded beast spat out a concentrated ray of bloodlight that shattered the front plate of the Susanoo.
Taking several steps back, Madara tightened his grip on his blade. Facing an increasingly berserk Redfield, he grit his teeth and channeled all his Armament Haki into this singular strike.
The blade turned pitch-black. Locked completely by the foresight of Madara's Sharingan, he surged forward in a flash of extreme speed, driving straight toward Redfield.
The sword-light cleaved down. Under this fatal slash, the colossal bat frame sustained another catastrophic blow. With a heavy explosion, Redfield collapsed onto the frozen ground, bathed in his own blood.
Blood dripped steadily from his wounds. Redfield stared coldly at Madara opposite him; though hardly an uninjured spot remained on his body, a manic, twisted smile spread across his lips.
Countless droplets of blood formed intricate curse-seal runes that wrapped tightly around Madara's body. Evidently, the full energy reserves of the Vampire Fruit were being forcefully transferred and channeled directly into Madara's physical vessel!
This was a specialized transfer mechanic granted by the Bat-Bat Fruit, Model: Vampire—the ability to bestow one's Devil Fruit power onto another individual upon death.
Madara already possessed a Devil Fruit. Absorbing a second Devil Fruit should result in absolute bodily destruction and death!
"The power of blood... has been transferred to you."
With those final words, Patrick Redfield's body fragmented into pieces, dissolving into a fine mist of blood...
The legendary pirate of the old era, the "Lone Red," had departed the world's stage in this exact manner.
Yet Madara, having absorbed the essence of the Vampire Fruit, suffered zero Devil Fruit conflict or rejection. On the contrary, fueled by the vitality of the blood power, his physical frame began undergoing a profound transformation.
The body Madara inhabited—which had previously resembled a youthful Sasuke—rapidly aged and matured. Moments later, Madara's physical appearance shifted into his absolute peak prime.
His three-tomoe Sharingan evolved once more, twisting into the intricate pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan!
At this moment, Madara regained the peerless, sovereign aura he once held when looking down upon the world. Raising a single hand, a colossal meteorite wrapped in roaring black flames condensed high in the sky, dropping straight toward Katakuri and the gathered forces of the Big Mom Pirates!
Catastrophe!
On the other side of the battlefield, the duel between Aoki Shiraishi and BIG MOM had reached its absolute climax.
Bathed in the radiant glow of the Ice Moon, Shiraishi stood at the center of his absolute sub-zero domain. Fusing his freezing powers with the lunar brilliance of the Tenseigan, an immense reservoir of frost-light condensed in his palm, forging a vast, shimmering sword of pure lunar energy.
BOOM!
Under the crushing impact of the collision, BIG MOM was knocked back several paces, her entire frame coated in dense frost. Breathing heavily, she attempted to mentally awaken the Ice Island Homie beneath her feet.
Yet there was zero response!
Realizing the Ice Island Homie had been silenced, BIG MOM's heart sank. Channeling a dense purple aura across both palms, she attempted to catch the incoming blade of cold light barehanded. But the moment she made contact, a bone-chilling frost shot up from the ground, freezing her legs solid.
Reflected against his blood-patterned ice armor, Shiraishi drifted downward with effortless grace. Crossing his hands, countless crystalline strands of ice congealed into razor-sharp threads, binding BIG MOM's massive torso tightly.
BOOM!
BIG MOM's Conqueror's Haki erupted to shatter the ice threads, but under the light of the Ice Moon, countless sub-zero blades formed around Shiraishi. Under his mental command, the blades launched forward in a torrential storm of ten thousand swords!
Every single ice blade was coated in dense Armament Haki, striking relentlessly against BIG MOM's massive body. Relying on her natural "Iron Balloon" durability, BIG MOM let out a series of mocking sneers.
She feared no purely physical attacks—even ice blades reinforced with Armament Haki could not pierce her skin.
"Linlin..."
Right at that moment, a soft, gentle female voice echoed directly inside BIG MOM's mind.
It's... Mother Carmel...
Caught in a deep illusion, the focal light in BIG MOM's eyes gradually faded into a blank daze.
Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia washed over her, recalling the pastries and sweets Mother Carmel used to bake for her—especially the sweet Semla cakes...
Under Shiraishi's ice-induced sensory illusion, her Craving Illness was forcefully triggered from the inside out. In an instant, BIG MOM behaved like a lost child, screaming and pleading for food while completely abandoning her surroundings. Her invulnerable, steel-like physical constitution rapidly weakened, softening until it was as fragile as an ordinary human's.
Searching frantically, BIG MOM seemed to spot food before her. Picking up a slab of frozen ice, she treated it as a warm Semla cake, gnawing on it bite by bite in pure delirium...
At that very second, Shiraishi's ultimate offensive arrived. Articuno's supreme technique—Sheer Cold—merged seamlessly with the ocular power of the Tenseigan. Channeling the lunar brilliance of the floating Ice Moon above, it condensed into a singular, all-annihilating silver beam of light.
Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion: Absolute Zero!(Kyokkan Tensei Baku)
A beam of radiant silver light pierced through heaven and earth, crashing onto Ice Island in a cataclysmic, world-shaking detonation!
Tens of thousands of tons of ocean water were blasted high into the sky. Centered on Shiraishi, the explosion expanded into a magnificent, frozen spectacle—flash-freezing colossal tsunamis in mid-air into an exquisite, eternal sculpture of ice.
The giant Ice Island Homie, which had still retained a faint spark of life, lost all cognitive function in an instant, its presence wiped clean as Ice Island returned to its former tranquility.
Moments later, a massive point of brilliant light flared over Ice Island. Similar specks of glowing essence erupted across every territory in Totto Land, breaking free from their invisible shackles and shooting across the sky in all directions.
The stolen souls were returning to their original owners' bodies...
As the frost and snow settled, BIG MOM's severed head rolled onto the frozen earth. Yet her final expression was exceptionally serene, carrying a look of peaceful bliss...
Witnessing this scene, the Charlotte family children stood paralyzed, as if struck by lightning.
Mama... is dead...?!