Mirror World.
"Golden Ring, you little brat, hold it right there!"
The furious roar echoed throughout the Mirror World, instantly drawing the attention of the numerous Big Mom Pirates stationed within. Serving as the primary transit hub between Totto Land and the Clifford Kingdom, the Mirror World housed thousands of pirates and Homies, while stockpiling massive quantities of ammunition, firearms, fresh water, food, and other supplies waiting to be transported to Unzan Port.
"Where is that voice coming from?"
"That voice... it's so familiar. Is it Mama?!"
"Mama is roaring! Who could have angered her so much?"
The familiar, thunderous rage sent a wave of panic rippling through the pirates and Homies scattered across the realm.
Deep within one of the many encampments, Brulee crawled out from a tent, her eyes darting around. "What happened? I swear I heard Mama's voice!"
A blue-skinned crocodile standing upright, dressed in red overalls, stepped toward her with a look of stunned disbelief. "Brulee-sama, Mama has indeed entered the Mirror World... but she seems absolutely livid!"
The Noble Croc, a combat-tier Homie!
Suddenly, a blinding white light erupted in the distance, followed by a colossal BOOM. The ground lurched violently, as if the entire Mirror World were caught in a massive earthquake.
A tidal wave of concussive force surged outward, sweeping across the camp like a howling gale.
"Ah—!"
Brulee shrieked in terror, diving behind the Noble Crocodile. The large creature planted its feet, using its heavy, sturdy frame to withstand the storm and shield Brulee from the worst of the wreckage.
Tents were torn from the ground and sent flying; massive crates of supplies were toppled; even unlucky pirates were swept into the air. The entire camp descended into utter chaos.
Moments later, the storm finally subsided, leaving the encampment in total ruin.
Several hundred meters away in another camp, Aeridar hovered silently in the air, looking down with a cruel, jagged grin at the destruction below.
Collapsed tents, shattered crates of munitions, food and fruit scattered across the mud, and the corpses of those whose bones had been pulverized by the impact. He had only just entered the Mirror World when he discovered this supply base, and a single, well-placed Impact Wave had been enough to reduce it to this state.
As if sensing something, Aeridar turned his head just in time to see Charlotte Linlin approaching, riding upon Zeus. He laughed, his expression carefree. "Let's duel, Big Mom!"
Looking at that sunny, confident smile, Linlin felt a fresh surge of volcanic rage boiling within her.
Without a word, a livid Linlin slapped the side of Zeus. The cloud erupted with brilliant electricity, unleashing a series of lightning bolts as thick as barrels.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Aeridar danced through the barrage, the ground beneath him cratering into charred pits as stone and earth sprayed in all directions.
"Die!"
Prometheus shrieked, spewing out wave after wave of searing fireballs. The extreme temperature parched the air, and the balls of flame plummeted from the sky like a rain of meteors.
"Your opponent is me, little sun!"
Zhurong, annoyed, opened its mouth and exhaled a sea of fire. It rolled forward like a colossal, surging wave, radiating a terrifying heat that made the usually temperate Mirror World feel like the height of a blistering summer.
Faced with the incoming tide of fire, Linlin felt the waves of heat and immediately commanded Prometheus to counter. Watching as his fireballs vanished into the sea of flames without effect, Prometheus panicked. But upon hearing Linlin's order, it inflated rapidly, its temperature skyrocketing until it transformed into a massive, sun-like fireball, diving headlong into the inferno.
"I'll swallow you whole this time! God of Fire!!!"
Zhurong stared at Prometheus, its body suddenly expanding as it manifested a look of absolute determination. It shifted into a twenty-meter-tall giant of flame, gripping a massive flaming greatblade. The air around it seemed ready to ignite from the sheer intensity of the heat.
In the next heartbeat, Zhurong lunged at the sun-like Prometheus, bringing its greatblade crashing down. The two elements locked in a violent, mid-air slaughter.
Seeing Prometheus occupied, Linlin steered Zeus forward, Napoleon drawn, and aimed a single, decisive strike at Aeridar's head.
"That's more like it!"
Aeridar didn't flinch. He let out a thunderous shout and threw a punch straight into the tip of the Napoleon greatblade. CLANG! The air shivered under the impact as red-and-black lightning spiderwebbed outward, accompanied by visible, distorted shockwaves that swept through the environment. The sturdy ground, nearby walls, and massive support pillars cracked instantly, splintering into webs of debris.
BOOM!
Seeing Mama and Aeridar locked in a stalemate, Zeus crackled with electricity and fired a bolt. But the terrifying discharge missed, instead striking a support pillar hundreds of meters away, punching a charred, gaping hole clean through the ten-meter-thick stone.
"Predicting the future... I truly hate this ability for the first time!" Linlin snarled, her eyes burning with savage murderous intent as Aeridar suddenly vanished from her sight.
No sooner had the words left her lips than she leaped off Zeus's back, her massive weight slamming into the earth.
BOOM—
The ground buckled, fractured by a dense web of cracks as a shockwave of force sent dust clouds swirling into the air.
"Hating it won't help you. Only those who can command the future are fit to be called 'Gods'!!" Aeridar's voice boomed from the dust, his expression twisted into a manic, distorted sneer, red light pulsing violently in his eyes.
"Ikoku!!!"
Linlin's roar tore through the dust. The world seemed to dim for a moment as a monstrous, giant wave of sword energy erupted, wrapped in a lethal gale that instantly vaporized the lingering dust.
"You really only have that one trick! Impact Cannon!!!" Aeridar roared as he threw a punch into the empty air. His right arm bulged with mountain-moving muscle, veins standing out like cords.
The air in front of him was compressed to its absolute limit, firing a cylindrical pillar of pressure over five meters in diameter. It tore through the air like a laser fired from a capital-class weapon, colliding head-on with the massive pink wave of sword energy.
A blinding white light exploded outward. A semi-circular energy dome expanded rapidly, the ground vibrating so violently that the tremors rippled across the entire Mirror World. Accompanied by a hurricane-force wind, the collision tore through half the realm.
Had the Mirror World not been a unique, isolated pocket dimension with a geological structure far stronger than it appeared, this single clash would have long since ripped the earth into a thousand bottomless chasms.
"G-G-G-G..."
Brulee hid behind a massive support pillar, her teeth chattering uncontrollably as she stammered, "M-Mama... Mama is fighting... G-Golden Ring Aeridar..."
Nearby, the Noble Croc had buried its head in the dirt, covering its ears with its claws, trembling like a frightened ostrich.