CHAPTER 405: CHAPTER 48: INDESTRUCTIBLE BODY

"Absolutely incredible..."

Darren grinned savagely as he tore off the remnants of his shredded uniform, revealing a blood-soaked torso sculpted by years of brutal combat.

His skin, slashed and burned, glistened beneath the gore with a strange, metallic sheen—cold, hardened, and inhuman. A body reforged in war.

And yet, despite the carnage, he stood tall, radiating a quiet, almost arrogant confidence.

He could feel it.

Something inside him had changed.

It wasn’t just numbers. It wasn’t just progress.

It was evolution.

The moment his Physique stat crossed 90, something had snapped into place. His endurance, already monstrous, had surged to an entirely new level.

Indestructible Body.

The stuff of myth.

A body immune to Sea Stone restraints. A body that could withstand blades, axes, lightning, venom, frost, and fire. A body that could endure tortures designed to break men—not through willpower, but sheer, physical impossibility.

An unkillable machine of flesh and will.

Darren hadn’t expected this. Not when his focus had been almost entirely on Haki and raw power.

And yet, it was his long-stagnant physique that had broken through first.

"Well... this is a pleasant surprise."

His gaze drifted lazily toward Queen in the distance.

The moment their eyes met, Queen’s face drained of all color. His bloated cheeks quivered, his lips trembling in horror.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?!" he shrieked.

"Why are you smiling at me?!"

Kaido and King’s murderous gazes snapped toward him.

Queen felt the noose tightening.

"This has nothing to do with me!" he yelped, leaping forward in desperation.

One massive mechanical arm raised—charged with light.

A blinding beam fired from his palm.

"Blackfire Light!"

The golden laser tore through the air, ripping a black gash through the clouds.

Deep in Darren’s eyes, violet lightning flickered. His Observation Haki had already mapped the beam’s path.

He could have dodged it.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he reached out—and caught it.

BOOM!!

The explosion lit up the sky. A hundred-meter radius was reduced to a scorched wasteland. Black smoke mushroomed upward, and searing heat rolled across the battlefield.

Queen shielded his eyes.

"D... did that work?"

Beside him, King didn’t speak. His mask offered no comfort—only cold calculation.

Then—

A voice echoed through the flames.

Rough. Calm. Almost amused.

"Almost."

Darren stepped forward through the fire, his arm still smoldering.

He looked like a demon birthed from the inferno—smoke curling off his skin, blood and flame clinging to his body like armor.

"No matter how far technology advances..." he muttered, inspecting his scorched hand, "...it’s still a cheap imitation."

He looked up, eyes gleaming.

"You’ll have to do better than that, Fatty. Compared to Borsalino’s lasers, yours feel like a flashlight."

Truthfully, if Kizaru had been the one behind that beam—if it had been at full power—it might have done real damage. Even with his newfound resilience.

But this? It was nothing.

Darren clenched his fist, smothering the last flickers of flame.

This Indestructible Body wasn’t invincible. Attacks without Haki were useless—but even with Haki, it depended on the user’s level. Unless they possessed Ryuo, internal destruction, they’d barely leave a scratch.

But therein lay the danger.

Because with power like this... came arrogance.

He hadn’t needed to take Queen’s beam head-on.

His Observation Haki had easily shown him its path.

But still—he hadn’t dodged.

Why bother?

Good thing I fought Katakuri first... Darren thought grimly. Otherwise, I might’ve stopped training Observation entirely.

He checked his stats:

Physique: 90.001 (Indestructible Body)

Almost there...

He narrowed his eyes.

And then—

A deep, rumbling voice echoed across the battlefield.

"I never imagined you’d actually reach this level."

Darren turned.

Kaido was no longer laughing.

His aura had quieted. Not softened—deepened.

"In all these years," Kaido said slowly, "no one has ever refined their body to rival mine."

A vortex of raw will began to churn around him.

A storm of primal power.

Kaido lifted his head, eyes gleaming blood-red.

And then—

He grinned.

"Wororororo... Darren, you little brat..."

"You’ve finally earned it."

He slammed his spiked club into the ground.

"Come face me like a warrior!"

BOOOOM!!

A surge of Conqueror’s Haki exploded from his body, black and crimson lightning lashing out in all directions. The clouds above Wano split and scattered like fragile glass.

The air itself turned heavy. Warped.

Kaido stood in the eye of the storm, the very sky twisting above him, his figure cast in flickering shadows like a demon carved from thunder.

"Come, brat!"

"COME GET SOME!!"

Darren’s breath caught.

His aura... it’s different now.

Crack... BOOM!!

The ground shattered beneath Kaido’s feet as he vanished from sight.

And in the next instant—

He was above Darren.

His club raised high, gripped with both hands.

Lightning coiled like dragons around the weapon—tens of thousands of crimson and purple bolts screaming across the sky.

"DIE!!"

Kaido roared, and the heavens seemed to tear.

Conquerer of Three Worlds: Ragnaraku!

A divine blow.

The wrath of a god made flesh.

Reality itself buckled under the swing. The air fractured, twisting into jagged, glass-like shards. Time felt slower. The world narrowed into one single, impossible moment.

And all Darren could do was stare into that descending void—

And feel it.

The sensation of death, curling over his skin like frost.

To be continued...