The figure moved so quickly that almost no one could follow him.
One moment, the space between Kaido and the rubble was empty.
The next—
Kuzan was already standing there.
"Ice Wall—Absolute Barrier!"
His voice was low but resolute.
Despite his own grievous injuries, Kuzan did not hesitate. He slammed both hands against the ground and released every bit of freezing power he could muster.
Cold surged outward like a burst dam.
The air itself seemed to freeze, filling the battlefield with a rapid series of crystalline cracks.
A colossal wall of ice dozens of meters thick erupted from the ground between Kaido and Sengoku.
Its surface gleamed with an eerie blue light as bitter cold radiated from it, forming an enormous shield in front of the Fleet Admiral buried beneath the ruins.
Then Kaido's attack arrived.
BOOOOOOM!!!
Bolo Breath struck the ice wall head-on.
Extreme heat collided with extreme cold.
The blazing beam tried to melt everything in its path, while Kuzan's ice fought desperately to freeze and contain the destruction.
The entire wall shook violently.
Cracks spread across it like a massive spiderweb.
Some fractures ran so deep they nearly split the barrier apart, while others branched across its entire surface.
Yet somehow—
the wall held.
Barely.
It did not collapse immediately.
And those few precious moments were enough to keep Kaido's Bolo Breath from reaching Sengoku.
Kuzan, however, paid heavily for it.
His face went deathly pale.
The strain tore through his already battered body, and a violent tremor ran through him.
"Guh!"
Blood spilled from his mouth once again.
His legs finally gave way, forcing him down onto one knee.
Kaido in his current state was terrifying beyond expectation.
Even Sengoku, the Fleet Admiral and one of the greatest veterans of the old era, had struggled to withstand him head-on.
Marine Headquarters was now balancing on the edge of disaster.
One more mistake could send everything plunging into complete collapse.
"WORORORORORO!"
Kaido's roar rolled through the battlefield.
"Anyone who gets in my way dies!"
His dragon eyes burned even brighter with fury.
Seeing that Kuzan's desperate ice wall had only barely stopped his attack made his rage flare even hotter.
The massive Azure Dragon twisted through the air.
Rather than wasting time smashing through the thick barrier, Kaido simply went around it.
His colossal body surged forward with unstoppable momentum and slammed directly into the already badly damaged Gate of Justice protecting Marine Headquarters' great prison.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The gate exploded.
Already cracked and weakened by the fighting, the enormous structure could no longer withstand Kaido's brute force.
Stone and metal fragments blasted in every direction, hammering into nearby walls and the ground amid showers of sparks and dust.
Kaido did not slow down.
His enormous body barreled straight through the shattered entrance and plunged into the dark prison complex beyond.
A place built to hold some of the most dangerous criminals under the World Government's control had finally been breached.
And Kaido entered it as though the defenses had never existed.
"KING—!"
His roar thundered through the prison's cold, winding corridors.
"WHERE ARE YOU?! ANSWER ME!"
The sheer force of his voice made the walls tremble.
The sound echoed again and again through the depths of the prison, carrying equal parts fury and urgency.
Kaido swept his gaze across the countless cells and passages.
"Can't find him…"
His expression darkened further.
"Is he not here?"
Then rage erupted across his face.
"Those bastards…"
"WHERE THE HELL DID THEY TAKE KING?!"
Rats and insects hiding in the darkness scattered beneath his thunderous voice.
Nothing could stop him.
Prison guards rushed forward with weapons drawn, only to be swept aside as though they were nothing.
Jailer Beasts charged him.
They fared even worse.
The heavy cell doors, designed to contain vicious criminals, were torn apart by Kaido as easily as sheets of paper.
CRASH!
Steel screamed as another reinforced door was ripped from its frame.
A Jailer Beast lunged at him from the side.
Kaido turned his head.
"Bolo Breath."
Flames erupted.
The creature was burned black in an instant and collapsed motionless onto the floor.
Defensive mechanisms installed throughout the prison activated one after another.
Traps.
Barricades.
Reinforced gates.
None of them mattered.
Kaido crushed through every obstacle with overwhelming force.
One stomp reduced carefully constructed defenses to twisted scrap and shattered stone.
Another swipe tore open the next passage.
He moved through the prison like an unstoppable engine of destruction, smashing his way deeper and deeper in search of the one person who mattered.
King.
And until he found him—
nothing inside that prison was going to stop Kaido.
...
Kaido tore through the prison from the upper levels downward without the slightest concern for whatever stood in his way.
His enormous dragon body was far too large for the cramped corridors, but that only made the destruction worse.
Walls collapsed wherever he passed.
Cells were smashed apart.
Reinforced passages that had been built to contain dangerous criminals crumbled beneath his brute force as though they were made of paper.
The prisoners trapped inside the dark complex screamed in terror.
Some were buried beneath falling debris before they ever had a chance to escape.
Others saw the shattered cells and seized the opportunity immediately, scrambling out through the wreckage and fleeing in whatever direction seemed safest.
Within moments, the prison had descended into complete chaos.
"Stop him!"
Vice Warden Hannyabal shouted desperately.
"Someone stop him!"
His voice trembled despite his effort to sound commanding.
But against Kaido, the order was almost meaningless.
Magellan was still occupied with Bullet.
Kuzan was grievously wounded and no longer capable of sustained combat.
Sengoku had been blasted away and was temporarily unable to organize a proper defense.
There was simply no one inside the prison capable of stopping an enraged Kaido.
He rampaged through the structure like a living natural disaster.
He did not care how much damage he caused.
He did not care how many criminals escaped because of him.
Only one thought mattered.
Find King.
Even if he had to search every last corner.
Alive or dead, Kaido intended to find him.
But after tearing through section after section, he still found no trace of King.
His fury only grew.
At last, Kaido burst back out of the prison ruins—
and the moment he did—
golden light erupted.
A massive shock wave had already been waiting for him.
It compressed into a brilliant spear of force, packed with overwhelming suppressive power.
Then it struck Kaido squarely in the abdomen before he could properly react.
"Buddha Impact—Demon Suppression!"
Sengoku roared.
His white hair and beard flew wildly around his face.
He had anticipated exactly what would happen.
If Kaido failed to find King, he would come back out even angrier than before.
So Sengoku had used the time Kaido spent inside the prison to gather everything he had into one attack.
This was not merely retaliation for being knocked aside.
It was an attack born from anger, humiliation, and his determination to prevent Marine Headquarters from collapsing any further.
The golden shock wave struck the relatively vulnerable underside of Kaido's dragon body with full force.
BOOOOOOM!!!
"Guh—!"
Even Kaido's monstrous body could not simply shrug it off.
Scales shattered apart.
Blood erupted from his mouth along with fragments of damaged tissue.
The enormous Azure Dragon was hurled backward, tumbling through the air before crashing through a wide section of already ruined buildings.
Walls disappeared beneath his body.
Stone and metal exploded outward.
Dust swallowed the area.
For a moment, Kaido vanished beneath the destruction.
But Sengoku knew better than to believe that would finish him.
Kaido had survived far worse.
His recovery and endurance were abnormal even among the strongest monsters of the sea.
And sure enough—
the rubble began moving.
A massive dragon head slowly rose through the dust.
Kaido's eyes were even more vicious than before.
The wound across his abdomen continued bleeding heavily, staining his scales dark red.
His internal energy was still churning violently from Sengoku's attack.
Kaido ignored all of it.
"Ugh…"
His enormous head shifted.
Then his eyes locked onto Sengoku.
"Sengoku…"
The rage in his voice was almost physical.
"You old bastard…!"
Instead of diminishing, the violence in Kaido's eyes only burned hotter.
He did not even bother examining the wound.
Pain like this meant little to him.
If anything, it only fed the battle frenzy already consuming him.
"Hmph!"
Kaido bared his teeth.
"You think an attack like that is enough to stop me?!"
His roar shook the battlefield.
"Dream on!"
Then his expression twisted into something murderous.
"ALL OF YOU—"
Kaido spread his enormous wings.
"DIE!"
With one violent beat, the wings generated a roaring gale.
Dust, rubble, and shattered stone were ripped from the ground and hurled outward as the pressure exploded across the battlefield.
And Kaido surged forward once again.