Big Mom gripped the famed Emperor Sword, Napoleon, tightly in both hands.
Flames instantly wrapped around the blade, roaring and twisting like a savage beast as it unleashed waves of scorching heat.
At the same time, terrifying Haki surged from her body and rolled outward like an invisible tide.
The enormous sword, carrying all her strength and fury, came crashing down upon S-Snake with enough force to split mountains and shatter stone.
The violent wind trailing behind the blade tore thin scars through the air and released a piercing howl.
Yet S-Snake remained eerily calm before a slash powerful enough to cleave an island in two.
Not a flicker of emotion crossed her exquisitely beautiful, frost-cold face, as though the attack rushing toward her were no more threatening than a gentle breeze.
Just before Napoleon reached her, the brilliant white wings of flame behind her snapped open like those of a phoenix preparing to take flight.
A powerful burst of energy erupted from them.
With almost supernatural foresight, S-Snake shifted sideways and gracefully slipped past the fatal blow.
At nearly the same instant, she raised one slender hand with elegant precision.
Light gathered at her fingertips before a dense barrage of pink heart-shaped beams poured from her palm like a sudden storm.
The beams moved at tremendous speed, leaving brilliant trails through the air like dancing ribbons.
Boom—!
Napoleon struck nothing but empty space.
The tremendous impact sent waves more than a hundred meters high surging from the sea. They collided and rolled over one another like moving hills, filling the battlefield with deafening thunder.
The heart-shaped beams struck Big Mom's Iron Balloon-like skin one after another.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The impacts sounded like fists pounding against a massive drum.
Despite their density and force, however, the beams failed to leave any meaningful wound. They merely made Big Mom's enormous body sway slightly.
"Damn it!"
Big Mom's furious roar rippled through the air like a raging sea.
Her eyes widened with savage anger and surprise as she quickly realized something was wrong.
The Seraphim's defenses were absurdly powerful.
Whenever Big Mom swung her weapon, even the attacks that managed to graze S-Snake's body felt as though they had struck an unbreakable wall.
The Seraphim's dark skin worked in perfect harmony with the energy shield covering her body, creating an unusual defensive system.
Like a highly sophisticated absorption and conversion mechanism, it dispersed and neutralized most of the incoming force, sharply reducing the damage of Big Mom's attacks.
What irritated her even more, however, was the strange absence she suddenly noticed.
"A soul!"
As a master of the Soul-Soul Fruit, Big Mom understood the significance and mystery of spiritual power better than almost anyone.
Without hesitation, she attempted to unleash the core of her ability.
A tremendous sound wave surged outward like a tsunami, carrying terrifying soul pressure within it.
The dark, stormlike force swept toward S-Snake, threatening to rip her very spirit from her body.
"Give me your soul!"
Big Mom's voice echoed within the wave, overflowing with crushing authority.
Yet when the tremendous attack finally dispersed, something completely unexpected was revealed.
S-Snake remained suspended in the air with the same cold expression.
She resembled an unmoving iceberg, the red light in her eyes steady and profound.
Her assault had not paused for even a moment. She continued attacking with perfect mechanical precision.
There was no fragile human soul inside her body.
Instead, she was powered by a carefully engineered core built with cutting-edge technology.
That core functioned like an impossibly precise engine, continuously supplying both energy and intelligence to her body.
Big Mom's terrifying ability to extract souls was completely useless against this nearly perfect war machine, which possessed no fear of death for her power to exploit.
"Mamamama! What a hard-headed hunk of metal!"
Big Mom ground her teeth, her cheeks flushing red with anger.
Still, she was an immensely experienced fighter.
After only a moment of surprise, she quickly regained her composure and changed her approach.
Since her special ability was ineffective against this opponent, she would simply crush the machine with overwhelming strength and defenses of her own.
Big Mom drew in a deep breath and pushed both her Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki to their absolute limits.
A suffocating aura immediately erupted around her.
It burned like tangible flame, powerful enough to make anyone nearby afraid to approach.
At the same time, her three Homies—Napoleon, Zeus, and Prometheus—burst with dazzling light.
The three worked together and unleashed a relentless offensive.
Brilliant beams, razor-sharp sword energy, violent lightning, and roaring fire intertwined as they collided repeatedly with S-Snake's lasers and close-combat techniques.
Every clash resembled two meteors smashing together, producing continuous explosions that made the whole world seem to tremble.
For a time, the center of the battlefield became a stage chosen by fate for the ultimate confrontation between an indestructible spear and an equally indestructible shield.
Where their tremendous powers met, the air was torn into countless fragments and shrieked beneath the strain.
Big Mom stood proudly at the heart of it all like an immortal Valkyrie descended into the mortal world.
The flames of battle burned wildly in her eyes, while a terrifying presence surged from her enormous body.
...
Every sweep of Big Mom's arms carried enough force to overturn mountains and seas, her attacks crashing forward like a raging tsunami intent on swallowing everything in their path.
Her defenses were just as formidable. Layer after layer of energy barriers surrounded her like indestructible fortress walls, reducing every incoming attack to little more than a faint ripple.
S-Snake, meanwhile, fought like a perfectly precise and utterly cold killing machine.
There was no emotion in her eyes, only absolute calm and concentration.
With her absurdly powerful defenses and extraordinary body, she felt neither pain nor fear. She moved through the battlefield like a ghost, every strike delivered at exactly the right moment and every technique flowing seamlessly into the next.
Her relentless offense left no obvious opening for Big Mom to exploit.
The two soon fell into a temporary stalemate.
Their absolute defenses stood between them like impassable chasms, leaving neither side capable of truly harming the other.
The confrontation became a suffocating battle of attrition, testing their strength and endurance with every passing second.
Big Mom might have possessed monstrous power, but S-Snake had successfully pinned her in place and prevented her from supporting the other battlefields.
The Seraphim, in turn, carried out her program's command to delay a supreme fighter with flawless mechanical precision.
...
Meanwhile, the situation shifted once more on another part of the battlefield.
Kaido's Azure Dragon form circled among black clouds and violent lightning, his colossal body blotting out the sky as though it had merged with the heavens themselves.
Every breath he took was accompanied by rolling thunder.
His deafening roars echoed across the battlefield like the tolling of an enormous bell, making everyone who heard them tremble.
The hard scales covering his massive body gleamed with a cold metallic sheen. Each one looked like a finely forged weapon and radiated a dangerous presence.
Yet even Kaido had found himself trapped.
Two Seraphim clung to him like parasites, refusing to let him break free.
S-Flamingo stood at a distance, moving both hands rapidly as he controlled transparent threads even stronger and sharper than those of the original Doflamingo.
The threads writhed like living serpents and intertwined into an enormous web, constantly wrapping themselves around Kaido's claws and torso.
They tightened around his body and made every movement increasingly difficult.
S-Crocodile displayed an entirely different fighting style.
He transformed into a sandstorm, sending grains of sand swirling wildly around him before shaping them into enormous Desert Spadas and phantom golden hooks.
Under his control, those weapons struck Kaido's scales continuously from difficult and unpredictable angles.
Each collision produced dazzling sparks, like brilliant fireworks bursting across the night, though every flash carried the threat of death.
Kaido's scales were extraordinarily hard, but under such a dense barrage, faint marks had begun appearing across them.
"Thunder Bagua!"
The roar shattered the battlefield with boundless authority and power.
Kaido's eyes widened, furious flames burning within them so intensely that they seemed capable of setting the surrounding air ablaze.
His enormous body shook slightly before his colossal tail rose behind him.
Dense black-and-red lightning from his Conqueror's Haki rapidly wrapped around it, resembling both divine punishment descending from the highest heavens and a savage dragon roaring freely through the storm.
The tail became an immense whip capable of tearing apart the sky.
Kaido swept it outward with overwhelming force and astonishing speed.
In the blink of an eye, the dense web of threads wrapped around him was torn apart beneath the impact.
Fragments scattered through the air like falling snow.
S-Crocodile's carefully formed sandstorm body also suffered a devastating blow.
The sand composing it burst apart in every direction, collapsing like an enormous castle swept away by a hurricane.
A thunderous explosion followed.
Lightning and shock waves rampaged across the surface of the sea like a savage beast.
The ocean rose into immense walls of water that surged outward in every direction, churning the waves and scattering white foam across the battlefield in a terrifying display.
What irritated Kaido even more, however, was that the two powerful Seraphim had survived the crushing blow.
Relying on their absurd defenses and the unique traits of the Lunarian race, they had merely been pushed back several steps.
Their energy shields flickered violently, repeatedly dimming and brightening, but neither Seraphim had suffered any serious injury.
They remained standing before him.
Their tactics infuriated Kaido even further.
Once their initial offensive had been broken, S-Flamingo and S-Crocodile demonstrated remarkable combat intelligence and adaptability.
They immediately abandoned any attempt to confront Kaido's overwhelming destructive power head-on.
Instead, they made full use of their exceptional mobility and natural ability to fly, moving like ghosts around his enormous dragon body at tremendous speed.
They darted back and forth around him, abruptly changing direction and making their next moves almost impossible to predict.
S-Flamingo resembled a master puppeteer manipulating mysterious strings.
His hands moved constantly as countless thin but resilient webs poured from his fingertips.
These were no ordinary ropes.
They were disruptive barriers infused with special energy, spreading outward like an enormous spiderweb until they covered the entire surrounding airspace.
Every strand glowed with an eerie light.
They crossed one another with calculated precision, obstructing Kaido's vision and leaving the world before him blurred and indistinct.
At the same time, the web severely restricted his movements.
Whenever Kaido tried to advance or swing one of his limbs, he had to expend several times his usual strength to tear through layer after layer of restraints.
On the opposite side, S-Crocodile began displaying his own unique ability.
...