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"Shiryu. Faster."
Arthur's voice emerged as a low growl, laced with killing intent so frigid it could freeze the air itself. His Observation Haki had revealed everything.
His rage reached a boiling point.
He abandoned the sky road and shot straight through the White-White Sea.
Constance...
The first man on this island to swear fealty to him. The man who had managed his affairs here. His presence in Arthur's mind held considerable weight.
Now he was gone.
'KAIDO... I AM GOING TO KILL YOU.'
Carrying world-shaking, terrifying killing intent, Arthur descended upon his desecrated kingdom.
Shiryu, sensing the transformation in his captain, understood what approached. He pushed his Moonwalk to its absolute limit, his body coiled and ready to strike.
——————
Upper Yard presented a scene of carnage.
The rare, precious soil and the unique cloud roads were stained crimson, littered with the mangled remains of his men.
The God's Guard—after years of Haki training—had grown far stronger than most pirates in Paradise. Yet they proved no match for Jack the Drought, a man with a bounty exceeding five hundred million berries.
Still, their faith in their Thunder God would not permit retreat. They knew death awaited them, yet they had to attempt washing away the shame of allowing an outsider to defile their holy land.
"Oooooooo..."
A deep, guttural sound—like the bellow of some primordial bull—echoed across the island. A massive mammoth, several meters tall, swung its long trunk, releasing a triumphant roar.
Jack, the user of the Ancient Zoan Mammoth-Mammoth Fruit, was a walking fortress of thick hide and astonishing defensive power. The few dozen remaining members of the God's Guard swarmed around him, their blades and spears glancing harmlessly off his Armament Haki-infused skin.
With a single swing of his massive trunk, he sent a score of them flying, their bones shattered.
"FWOOSH!"
"ZZZZZZZZT!"
A streak of purple lightning tore across the sky and slammed into the ground, slowly reforming into a human figure—Arthur, his face full of rage.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!"
Seeing Jack still slaughtering his personal guard, Arthur's body erupted in lightning. It coalesced around his foot, and with a single, explosive kick, he sent a pillar of purple energy crashing into Jack's massive mammoth form, launching him hundreds of meters through the air.
"BOOM!"
The colossal body snapped a row of thick trees like twigs before carving a long trench in the ground, finally rolling to a stop at Kaido's feet. The emperor remained brooding over how best to end his own life.
"Hm?" Kaido looked up from his thoughts, a savage grin spreading across his face.
"Thunder Emperor? You are not holed up on that little island of yours, licking your wounds? Or did you finally heal?"
"Healed or not," Arthur roared, his voice low and dangerous, "I have more than enough strength to crush you."
He walked slowly to the fallen captain of the God's Guard, Mckinley, and knelt beside him, intending to move the survivors from the battle zone.
"Lord Thunder God..." Mckinley gasped, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He struggled to push himself upward. "The High Priest... Constance... he was killed by that monster."
"Do not talk. Save your strength," Arthur said, his voice offering low comfort. He removed his own blue greatcoat and gently draped it over Constance's body, which lay at the shrine's foot, his bones and organs shattered.
His eyes became a sea of blood-red.
"Can you move?" he asked, his voice now cold as ice. "Take the others and leave. Give Constance a proper burial. I will send this monster to join him in hell."
"Cough... Yes, my lord," Mckinley said with a respectful bow. He took the body and, with the few remaining members of the God's Guard, hastened away from the island of the gods.
In their hearts, they understood this was a sacred place—a place where their Thunder God would pass judgment on a demon.
——————
Kaido's suicidal musings were completely forgotten. Arthur's sudden appearance had captured his full attention. He stood his ground, a tyrannical, domineering presence, his demonic body radiating an aura of suffocating pressure.
Jack, having been struck by Arthur's full-force blow, reverted to his human form and staggered to his feet behind his captain.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Shiryu slowly descended from the sky, his greatcoat whipping in the wind. He absorbed the scene and instantly understood what had transpired.
Ten thousand meters above the sea, on the miraculous sky island.
Invisible killing intent filled the air, thick and suffocating. The tension crackled like electricity. An unavoidable battle was about to commence.
Shiryu's own bloodlust flared. As Arthur's right hand, as the butcher who cleared all obstacles from his captain's path, he did not hesitate.
"SHING!"
His blade was drawn in an instant, a flash of steel that transformed into a massive wave of sword energy. It seemed to fill the entire sky, a condensed slash so powerful that merely looking upon it inflicted stinging pain. A blade of unstoppable sharpness shot toward Kaido.
Shiryu, a man who was all but invincible beneath the Emperors, had long desired to test his strength against the world's other Great Powers.
He was a proud and arrogant man. If not for his duty to protect Arthur these past three years, he would have long since followed in Mihawk's footsteps and challenged the Golden Lion.
"Hah."
Kaido casually tossed his gourd of sake aside. He raised a hand as hard as steel, his massive fist meeting the sword strike as if swatting a fly. A gale-force wind erupted from the impact.
Very few men on the seas could make Kaido become serious. Though Shiryu possessed incredible strength, he clearly was not among them.
"BANG!"
The sword strike shattered effortlessly.
Shiryu licked his lips, his killing intent growing even stronger.
"Fall back, Shiryu," Arthur commanded, his head lowered, his voice colder than the grave.
"Go kill that mad dog's pup. This one... is mine."
Jack the Drought had killed too many of his men. He deserved death. Yet Arthur had to face Kaido. He could only entrust the task to Shiryu.
"It has been a few years, Thunder Emperor," Kaido grinned, his voice a low rumble. "Let me show you who the true king of the one-on-one fight is."
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Kaido's heavy steps shook the ground itself. He advanced like an unstoppable demon god, the tall trees in his path snapping like twigs.
He was clearly eager to begin.
His massive frame resembled a great mountain, immovable.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
He closed the distance, a mad glint in his eyes. He swung his massive hand downward, a blow carrying the weight of a falling mountain, the force creating a hurricane that ripped trees and soil from the ground.
The punch was impossibly heavy, tyrannical force—the full expression of the strongest physical body on the seas.
No one knew how Kaido had achieved such a monstrous physique. Perhaps that too remained a secret.
The air itself trembled under the force of his physical power. To reach such a level with the body alone was unprecedented in all history.
"FIVE HUNDRED MILLION VOLTS—THUNDER EMPEROR!"
"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!"
Lightning erupted from Arthur's body. Every inch of muscle, every strand of hair, glowed with brilliant purple light.
His eyes adopted the cold, indifferent gaze of a king surveying his domain.
"Beast," he roared, his voice thundering across the sky. "I am about to show you who rules this damn sea."
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