"Kill you? You're not even worth that."

Vane swung his staff, now imbued with the immense force of the Gura Gura no Mi. Just as Whitebeard could infuse his naginata with the power of the Quake-Quake Fruit, so too could Vane channel it through his weapon.

Kaido raised his massive kanabo to block. The air around them cracked violently, and the ground behind Kaido gave way, collapsing under the pressure of their clash.

"God Falls!"

Kaido bellowed as his Conqueror's Haki surged outward, blasting away rubble and dust with sheer will.

"Kaido," Vane said, calmly meeting his Haki with his own. "Why not surrender to me?"

Their Conqueror's Haki collided, equally matched, shaking the very air. As Vane's strength had grown, so had the sheer intensity of his will. Conqueror's Haki wasn't just power—it was spirit.

"Horrifying… With those two using Conqueror's Haki at this level, I wouldn't dare approach them!" King's voice trembled with disbelief.

At that moment, Queen limped over, having just been flattened into a crater by Kaido's accidental backlash. Dusty, bruised, and wheezing up his half-digested lunch, he collapsed nearby.

"Queen!"

"How long is this going to last?" Queen coughed, dazed. "Fighting someone at Kaido-sama's level without overwhelming power takes forever."

"To think someone could even dent Kaido's gut like that…" King muttered, remembering the last time he'd seen this level of chaos—it was during the battle with Kozuki Oden.

Kaido and Vane's fight raged on, their silhouettes dancing in the crumbling remnants of the mining area. Their weapons met again and again—each clash causing explosions of force that shattered the earth around them.

"You brat! Wano is mine! You invaded just to take my territory?" Kaido snarled, swinging his kanabo once more.

Kaido had turned Wano into his personal weapons factory. The country's expert craftsmen, capable of forging and shaping seastone, made it indispensable to him. Vane knew this—and that made it the perfect prize.

"Go back to Onigashima, Kaido. As of today, Wano belongs to me!"

Golden magic circles erupted behind Vane, lighting the sky with divine brilliance.

Five hundred rounds of attack? The light was so intense, Kaido had to shield his eyes.

Vane used that opening—launching into the air and bringing his staff crashing down right onto Kaido's head.

Boom!

The strike sent Kaido to his knees. The earth below them quaked, as if the entire island of Wano shuddered under the impact.

"Kaido-sama!" King and the others shouted, preparing to rush in.

But a cold voice pierced the air.

"You want to interfere?"

It was Esdeath.

Without waiting for a response, jagged icicles shot from the ground toward Jhin, who barely dodged in time.

"Ice manipulation?" King muttered, startled.

Esdeath landed gracefully, slamming a palm into the earth. A wave of massive ice spikes burst forward, impaling and burying dozens of Kaido's subordinates. Only the Three Disasters and a few elite fighters could withstand the sudden assault.

"Don't take her lightly!" Queen growled, retreating just in time to dodge another glacial eruption.

"Can a woman really be that much of a monster?" he muttered, his cigarette falling from his lips as he tried to punch through the icy terrain. "Huh… Just regular ice," he added after smashing through a block.

But then, a massive icicle slammed into him, hitting square in the stomach.

"Queen!" King shouted—but didn't notice the 20-meter-wide ice sphere descending from above.

Boom! The Beast Pirates were flattened by the crushing sphere.

"Boring," Esdeath muttered. "This world's harder to kill than a cockroach."

Sure enough, the ice sphere cracked. King burst out, dragging the frozen remains of his crewmates with him.

"Get out here," he growled, seeing some had already been crushed beyond recognition.

Rage burned in King's eyes.

Then the heavens flashed.

Thunder cracked and lightning rained down in a storm of fury. Thousands of bolts fell at once, covering the battlefield in an electric sea. One struck Drought Jack.

"Gahhhh!" Jack screamed. Even with his monstrous endurance, the lightning tore through him, leaving scorched flesh and rattled nerves.

"Damn it, is this one of Vane's people too? That has to be the Goro Goro no Mi!" King's face twisted with disbelief.

Even the giant ice ball Esdeath had conjured couldn't withstand the raw power of the storm. Under the relentless voltage, it exploded, leaving King and the rest exposed.

"We've got no time to worry about Kaido…" he murmured.

"Accept the baptism of thunder and lightning!" a voice cried.

It was Kalifa—her golden hair whipping in the wind, her glasses slightly askew, but her presence dazzling.

"You showed up after all, glasses girl," Gion said with a smirk as she stepped forward, observing the raging storm ahead.

"You're the glasses girl!" Kalifa shot back playfully.

Gion grinned. "Who would've thought the ship's cook was hiding something like this…"

The Goro Goro no Mi, once belonging to Enel, now belonged to Kalifa. Gifted to her by Vane, she had become a terrifying force of nature.

"You really treat your people like family, Vane," Gion whispered, her gaze fixed on the distant battle where Vane stood alone against Kaido.

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