"Clang…"
The blade in Kairos D. Vale's hand trembled sharply.
It was a Zanpakutō with a faceted guard, a battered, uneven blade, and a hilt wrapped in white cloth.
At the same time, a battle intent as vast as a raging sea burst from his body.
Kenpachi Zaraki was born for combat.
And at this moment, that savage nature fused perfectly with Kairos' own disposition.
Boom!
As his spiritual pressure erupted, a brilliant golden torrent surged between heaven and earth, vast and overwhelming.
Garp's eyes flickered.
A flash of genuine shock crossed his face.
The moment that chipped, battered sword appeared in Kairos' hand, it was as if he had become a completely different person.
A kind of madness spread from him—something impossible to suppress, madness carved into the marrow and branded into the soul itself.
"So you've entered fighting mode? Then let's have a real match!"
Garp roared like thunder, his aura exploding outward, the imposing presence of the Hero of the Marines laid bare without reservation.
A gale howled into being.
Sand and stone flew skyward, blotting out the sun. The mountains and valleys around them dimmed at once as Kairos' aura collided head-on with Garp's.
Garp moved first.
He lunged forward, fists raised, carrying a crushing pressure with him like a savage beast tearing across the world.
Boom!
Kairos did not move.
He remained rooted where he stood, but a thunderous crash sounded from within his chest, like thunder striking or the heavens splitting apart.
It was the sound of his heartbeat.
Kenpachi Zaraki's ferocity had flooded completely into him.
The monstrous power of the Captain of Squad Eleven—
power enough to shake mountains and split the earth.
Boom!
Garp's fist came down, Armament Haki covering it in an instant. Just the wind pressure from that single punch tore through the air and blasted open a vacuum zone ahead of it.
Clang!
Kairos raised his blade to block, and steel met fist in a ringing clash sharp enough to sound like a phoenix cry.
Rumble!
Everything around the point of collision exploded. Trees and undergrowth were ground to dust, as if a giant star had crashed into the earth. The surrounding ground sank nearly ten meters, and the raging wind tore through the forest so violently that even boulders the size of a man were hurled skyward and pulverized into powder.
The sleeve on Kairos' right arm exploded apart, revealing muscles knotted like twisted steel.
But Garp fared no better.
The Armament Haki coating his right arm nearly shattered under the impact.
Then—
Garp heard laughter.
Wild laughter.
He looked up sharply.
The one laughing was Kairos.
A crazed grin had split across his face.
It was a smile filled with bloodlust.
A smile overflowing with battle hunger.
"This…"
Garp's heart jolted.
The Kairos he knew would never laugh like this.
What the hell was going on?
But there was no time to think.
Kairos, still locked against him, unleashed even more force.
From that battered blade burst a might like a mountain crashing down. The golden light surrounding Kairos boiled upward at once, roaring as it surged skyward, piercing the heavens and vanishing into unfathomable distance.
At that moment, Kairos was bathed from head to toe in golden radiance.
Even his hair gleamed gold.
He looked like a living divine flame.
Sword Pressure.
All the spiritual pressure condensed on Kairos' blade was unleashed in one stroke, without holding back in the slightest. It came down like a golden sea of fire, scorching enough to burn heaven and sun alike.
Heat surged forward.
Garp did not retreat.
He drove his foot into the earth, making the ground cave in again, then threw his left fist forward. The punch tore sparks from the air itself, like a comet falling from the sky.
Boom!!
Garp's strength was overwhelming.
That punch alone carried enough force to flatten mountains.
He forced a path straight through the golden sea of fire, crushing it apart in an instant. The blazing torrent shattered into countless flecks of golden light that sprayed across heaven and earth.
"Hahahahaha!"
Kairos' attack had been broken—
but instead of anger, he laughed harder.
The sound was pure exhilaration.
Every muscle in his body trembled with eagerness. His wrist moved again at once, and another wave of Sword Pressure erupted. The golden light wrapped around his body poured out in full, so vast it truly looked as though he had cut loose an ocean of gold.
That strike tore apart all the dust filling the forest and even split the white clouds high above, as if the sky itself had begun to tremble.
"This kid fights like a maniac?!"
Garp clicked his tongue inwardly and retreated several hundred meters in a blink.
Who would have thought that once Kairos entered combat, he would become this different from his usual self?
This wasn't just aggression.
It was bloodthirst.
Battle lust.
Pure madness.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, the explosions shook the heavens.
Even Loguetown, miles away, was rattled by the force.
"Is that an earthquake…? No, look at the horizon!"
"Golden light? Are powerful fighters clashing out there?"
"What kind of monsters are battling to cause something like this?!"
The people of Loguetown dropped what they were doing and rushed into the streets. Looking at the golden flashes flickering on the horizon, all of them were shaken to the core.
None of them could imagine what level of combat could produce shockwaves strong enough to reach the town from miles away.
Every last person felt their hair stand on end.
The Marines stationed in Loguetown were no different.
"Move! Find out who's fighting!"
A Marine officer shouted, his face tense with urgency.
At once, every Marine jumped into action, frantically gathering reports and sorting information.
Then suddenly, a voice rang out in the command room—
"It's Vice Admiral Garp… and Kairos, the man who wiped out the Black Cat Pirates!"
Silence fell.
Complete silence.
You could have heard a pin drop.
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