Seducing Woods.
Within a crater spanning nearly a hundred meters, dense columns of smoke and dust billowed straight into the heavens. Aeridar lay drenched in blood at the center of the blast, his massive, twelve-meter-tall physique deeply embedded in the shattered earth, leaving a stark, star-shaped impression.
"What an unparalleled slash..."
Aeridar lay motionless, his gaze fixed on a massive black cloud hanging high in the sky. Across his chest ran a long, narrow, and gruesome wound. It looked as though he had been cleanly cut in half – his torso was nearly split open, and even his internal organs had been nicked. The surrounding flesh was charred to a crisp, with faint, residual arcs of electricity still snapping lazily across the skin.
Yet, this horrifyingly narrow laceration was already closing at a speed visible to the naked eye. His cells divided frantically, generating a dense network of writhing, minuscule granulations that rapidly pulled the edges of the wound back together.
In a matter of mere breaths, the massive gash had sealed entirely, and the lightning burns across his body had long since vanished.
Clatter...
Debris tumbled away as Aeridar propped himself up, pressing a hand against his chest. He grinned, baring his teeth. "I almost kicked the bucket there!"
Even with his hastily compressed Armament Haki combined with the kinetic deflection of his impact forces, layered over his own monstrously durable physique, he had still nearly been cleaved in two by Big Mom...
The might of a Yonko was terrifying indeed!
"What a pity for you. Since you couldn't kill me in a single strike, things won't be quite so simple from here on out..." The corners of Aeridar's mouth curled upward into a sinister, menacing smile.
Pop!
An instant later, the air rippled faintly, and Aeridar vanished from the spot.
Hundreds of meters up in the air, Big Mom clutched the bleeding hole in her abdomen. The bleeding had finally stopped. Though she had nearly been skewered clean through by Aeridar's palm strike, her body was, after all, a resilient specimen far more monstrous than any regular beast. An injury of this caliber was not enough to inflict a fatal blow or strip her of her mobility.
"Damned brat, I am going to tear you to pieces!"
The sheer hatred burning within Charlotte Linlin's heart could scarcely be washed away by all the waters of the ocean.
More noticeably, her physique had inexplicably withered. The immense layers of fat that usually obscured her jawline had receded, revealing a sharp, angular chin. Her trimmed-down silhouette seemed to faintly recall a fraction of the beauty she possessed in her youth.
"Yo~ Big Mom!"
Abruptly, Aeridar materialized out of thin air directly in front of Charlotte Linlin, hovering effortlessly. He bared his teeth in a wide grin. "Our halftime break... is officially over!"
The moment she laid eyes on Aeridar, Charlotte Linlin's eyes turned completely bloodshot. Countless veins bulged in her pupils as her terrifying aura erupted like a volatile volcano, causing the surrounding atmosphere to vibrate violently.
"GOLDEN RING AERIDAR!!!"
BOOM!
Faced with the pressure, Aeridar remained utterly unfazed. He released his own Conqueror's Haki, unleashing a force potent enough to warp the air as it slammed head-on into Big Mom's oppressive aura. The invisible collision generated a massive, turbulent shockwave that swept through the sky.
"DIE!!!"
Wasting no more words, Charlotte Linlin let out a piercing, shrill shriek. Gripping her blade with both hands, she delivered a ferocious mid-air slash.
In an instant, a colossal wave of pink flying slash energy erupted, dyeing the sky and earth in a vivid shade of pink while whipping up a devastating gale.
Ikoku Sovereignty!!!
"You really are an impatient one!" Aeridar smirked and vanished instantly. The massive pink energy wave tore through the empty sky where he had stood, hurtling straight toward the distant horizon.
Rumble, rumble—
The immense pink shockwave cleaved the ocean wide open, gouging a deep trench several kilometers long through the sea. The sheer walls of water stood frozen like towering cliffs, remaining parted for nearly ten seconds before crashing back together with a thunderous roar, sending titanic waves surging into the sky.
"Are you kidding me?"
Watching the spectacular display unfolding on the sea just beyond Whole Cake Island, Aeridar raised an eyebrow in genuine astonishment. "How does she still possess this much raw power? What an absolute monster!"
Despite being heavily wounded by his palm strike, she could still unleash a devastating slash capable of parting the sea. It defied all conventional belief.
Before he could process it further, Charlotte Linlin plunged her arm deep into Zeus's smoky form, dragging out a blinding bolt of pure electricity.
"LIGHTNING!!!"
With a roaring shriek, Charlotte Linlin clenched her fist. Her arm, hardened to a glossy jet-black by Armament Haki, crackled violently with high-voltage currents as she drove a punch straight toward Aeridar's flank. The brilliant discharge illuminated the entire sky.
BANG—!
An explosion like a clap of muffled thunder echoed out. A circular ring of white vapor blasted outward as the air hummed with intense vibrations.
Aeridar crossed his forearms in a defensive guard, but the sheer force of Charlotte Linlin's fist sent him hurtling backward. He shot downward toward the earth, leaving several rings of sonic condensation behind him in the air.
Rumble, rumble—
The colossal kinetic force transferred into the earth, causing the ground to cave in and splinter into a web of terrifying fissures. A violent tempest of dust and soil swept outward like a localized hurricane. Had an entire army been stationed nearby, every single soldier would have been hurled into the sky.
"AAAAHHH—"
Charlotte Linlin screamed maniacally, swinging her giant blade through the air to unleash another volley of massive pink slashes.
Simultaneously, the thundercloud Zeus beneath her feet flared with a blinding brilliance, acting like a cataclysmic natural storm as he rained down an endless torrent of lightning bolts.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A rapid succession of deafening detonations shattered the horizon. The earth shook without pause as columns of dust shot into the sky, reducing what remained of the Seducing Woods to absolute nothingness.
After what felt like an eternity, the seemingly endless barrage of lightning finally abated. The landscape lay completely devastated, shrouded in thick, rolling clouds of brown dust. In the center of the destruction sat a cylindrical pit several meters wide, driven so deep into the island's foundations that the faint rushing of subterranean water could be heard from below.
"Are you dead yet, brat?! Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!!!"
Charlotte Linlin exhaled a heavy breath, staring down at the crater with a grim, bloodthirsty sneer.
The moment the words left her mouth, she sensed a sudden anomaly behind her. Without a single thought, she whipped her giant blade backward in a massive horizontal sweep. The razor-sharp edge tore through the atmosphere, accompanied by a fierce, biting gale.
CLANG—
An ear-splitting shriek of metal scraping against metal rang out. The air buckled violently, dispersing a powerful shockwave that whipped the surrounding atmosphere into a chaotic vortex.
Aeridar stood there with a look of pure, unbridled mania on his face. His hands, blackened and hardened by dense Armament Haki, had clamped down tightly onto the giant blade. Napoleon thrashed and struggled violently within his grip, yet the razor-sharp edge could not cut through his palms by even a fraction of a millimeter.
"If you want me dead, you're a hundred years too early!"
"You bastard!"
Unable to wrench Napoleon free from his iron grip, Charlotte Linlin channeled the full force of Zeus's lightning directly into her free fist, driving a punch straight at Aeridar's skull.
Seeing the incoming strike, Aeridar released his hold and threw an identical counter-punch. With a dull, heavy detonation, their knuckles collided head-on.
BOOOM!
The atmosphere vibrated violently, transforming the raw kinetic energy into a howling gale that radiated outward from the epicenter of the clash.
Driven back by the sheer force of the recoil, both fighters were pushed several meters apart. Had Zeus not rapidly expanded his form to catch her, Charlotte Linlin would have slipped and fallen from the sky.
"Hehehehe... It should be my turn now, BIG MOM!!!"
A low, guttural laugh echoed through the air. A trace of pure madness flared within Aeridar's eyes, and his aura began to surge like boiling water, climbing higher and higher until it mirrored an erupting volcano.
"Impact Secret Technique – Morning Peacock: Wisdom King!!!"
BOOOM!!!
In an instant, a volley of ultra-high-speed punches tore through the sky. The extreme friction against the atmosphere ignited a blazing inferno. Cloaked in a devastating, roaring gale, the torrent of kinetic strikes erupted outward, generating a towering wave of flames that unfurled into the distinct, majestic silhouette of a colossal, blazing peacock.
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