Aokiji watched as his Black Ice spear sank deep into Caesar's mouth, a flicker of triumph flash in his eyes.

No one could survive having their brain pierced by Armament Haki of his caliber.

Aokiji's lips curled into a victorious smirk as the three-meter-long black spear inched deeper into Caesar's throat.

Then—

Caesar's crimson eyes slowly locked onto Aokiji.

"What?! Impossible!" Aokiji's face twisted in horror.

His spear was three meters long—it should have already pierced clean through Caesar's skull.

So why hadn't it emerged from the back of his head?

The next moment—

BOOM!!

A thunderous explosion echoed as a colossal golden fist shattered the barriers of space, smashing directly into Aokiji's stunned face with a resounding BANG!

Aokiji felt as if he had been transported twenty years back in time, being disciplined by Garp's iron fists once more.

No—this was far more terrifying than that.

Instantly, his head rang like a bell, his eyeballs unable to withstand the overwhelming force.

They burst like glass marbles, one of them even shooting out from the sudden surge of intracranial pressure with a sickening squelch.

Blood arrows erupted from his ruptured eardrums.

Bleeding from all of his orifices, Aokiji's mind plunged into chaos as his body tumbled violently across the ice, his bones emitting ominous cracks under the strain.

"Kuzan!"

In the distance, Aramaki shuddered at the sight of Aokiji's gruesome state, her heart racing.

Though she despised his betrayal, she and Akainu had once discussed Kuzan's nature at length.

Akainu had told her that Kuzan was not an evil man.

The reason for their fierce clashes lay in their fundamentally different interpretations of justice.

Aokiji's ideals were shaped by the non-lethal Admiral Zephyr, the Marine hero Garp, and even the former Fleet Admiral Sengoku.

While he didn't oppose killing pirates, he rejected the notion of slaughtering them all.

He believed that every person contained both good and evil—that even those who had erred deserved a chance at redemption, unlike Akainu's philosophy of absolute annihilation.

Ever since the Buster Call on Ohara, the rift between Aokiji and Akainu had deepened irreparably.

Aokiji had been disgusted by Akainu's merciless bombing of Ohara's refugee ship, an act that ultimately led him to spare Nico Robin's life.

Gritting her teeth, Aramaki's figure flashed across the ice, vanishing from sight as she charged toward the tumbling Aokiji.

"Another bugs jumps in, mamamama~ Looks like that woman wants to save Kuzan? Hmph, that fool Kuzan—brainwashing clearly didn't work on him. We should've killed him back then."

Perched atop Prometheus, Linlin hovered lazily in midair, observing the chaos below without lifting a finger.

"Linlin! How long are you gonna sit there watching? Wake Caesar up already!"

With an earth-shattering crash, Kaido erupted from the ground, his face twisted in frustration as he glared up at the relaxing Linlin.

'So I'm the only one fighting for my life here?'

'This is your damn husband! And you're just sitting there spectating instead of helping?!'

"Hmph, I'm just a delicate woman, Kaido. Caesar's your brother—by all rights, you should be the one waking him up. Besides, I'm... not exactly in the best condition to fight right now. My defenses are too weak."

"Cough... Weak defenses? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

Kaido's mouth twisted in disbelief.

Sure, he was of the Oni Clan's bloodline, blessed with an inhumanly resilient body and monstrous endurance.

But Charlotte Linlin?

Though born to ordinary parents, she was a natural-born freak of nature even more terrifying than him.

From birth, she possessed a bottomless appetite, superhuman strength and skin like "steel balloons."

Even without Armament Haki, her physical defenses surpassed 99% of humanity.

"I am the normal one here! You and that bastard Caesar are truly a match made in heaven, fucking monsters!"

Linlin laughed uproariously from the sky, "Mamamama, seems like someone else is about to have bad luck. Kaido, you can wait a bit. No need to rush—after all, there aren't any small-fry pirates around here now, so no one important will die even if they do."

Kaido snorted heavily, his massive form leaping into the air as he transformed into a azure dragon, joining Linlin in observing the battle on the ice below.

Aramaki's mastery of the Rokushiki techniques wasn't particularly refined.

After all, she wasn't a product of the Marine Headquarters' system but rather a powerhouse recruited through the Marines' worldwide conscription.

Each time she flashed-step, she had to slide across the slick ice before using the vine tentacles sprouting from her body to pierce the frozen surface, propelling herself further away.

Whoosh!

The green vines surged violently, extending seventy to eighty meters in an instant, ensnaring the tumbling Aokiji and halting his momentum.

Aramaki stepped forward to examine Aokiji's injuries—and her face immediately darkened.

Aokiji's face was a mangled mess, his nose bridge shattered, most of his teeth and gums pulverized, and his eyes reduced to a bloody pulp—one part was entirely gone, leaving behind a gory hole.

Though his body had suffered a few broken bones, they were minor injuries.

The physique of a top-tier fighter like Aokiji, while not on the same monstrous level as Kaido, Linlin, or Caesar, was still far tougher than the surrounding ice.

It seemed the bulk of Aokiji's injuries came from a single Haki-infused punch from Caesar.

"That damn monster—how is he still so much stronger?"

Aramaki's expression was grim.

As one of the victims of Caesar's fists, she knew firsthand just how terrifying his power was.

She couldn't help but recall that day outside Wano Country's Udon Prison, when Caesar had punched her in the face, sending her spinning like a windmill until she crashed through dozens of meters of rock walls before stopping.

Yet, the injuries she sustained then paled in comparison to Aokiji's current state.

Though she hated to admit it, Aokiji's Haki was still slightly stronger than hers at this point.

And yet, even his superior Armament Haki armor couldn't withstand Caesar's attack.

It made her wonder just what kind of force Blackbeard, Red Hair, and Kaido had endured.

Aramaki glanced up at Kaido circling in the sky and cursed inwardly—this guy was also another monster, having taken countless heavy punches from Caesar without issue.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard and Red Hair had been sent flying god-knows-where with just one punch each.

Whoosh!

A golden streak of light suddenly flashed in the corner of Aramaki's vision, streaking straight toward her.

Her face twisted in alarm.

"Damn it, how is this monster so fast?!"

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