With a single decisive strike, Lucien Graves didn't have a moment to glance toward the light screen. Only the distant horizon beckoned where Green Fatty charged ahead like an ancient beast, his furious roar shattering even the frozen plain itself.
Lucien hovered in mid‑air, watching the relentless advance. Then, with a blur of golden lightning and barely a breath, he vanished in the opposite direction, retreating rapidly from Marineford.
He knew without doubt that Green Fatty would catch up.
Boom.
Ethan crashed onto the ice with a thunderous impact, his body returning to human size. He knelt on trembling knees, clutching the rose‑embroidered bustier dress that had floated on the wind, now reduced to drifting dust.
"Emma, Emma!" Ethan wept, tears streaming down his face as though he had been gutted like a fish.
Ah!
A maelstrom of aggression erupted around him, a malevolent storm roaring into life. Ethan's body convulsed, verdant skin rippling, until at last he transformed — a towering figure whose blood‑red eyes burned with unrestrained fury. His right hand gripped a massive wolf‑tooth club as he bellowed toward the direction Lucien had taken.
A sonic boom tore through the ground, fracturing the earth for hundreds of meters as a streak of green light shot forward like an arrow loosed from a great bow, carving a deep gully before disappearing into the horizon.
High above, the Silver Dragon frowned as he watched that distant spectacle, wanting to act. But Sengoku's voice called him back, stern and immovable.
Lucien had already slowed his pace by the time that furious roar reached his ears.
He turned and saw the Hulk‑like form of Ethan hurtling across the plains, veins pulsing like living roots beneath green skin, destructive intent radiating like heat. His violence was instinct — pure, untamed power.
Danger, Lucien felt it — but beneath that looming threat was an exhilaration too, the kind only a true warrior felt when confronting a worthy adversary.
He had no intention of running.
He dropped the books he carried. Katakuri and Mondor were the first to emerge, retrieving the tomes and departing swiftly, rising on the floating pages without any hint of interference. They watched from a distance, clearly uninterested in this clash.
Still present were Prometheus, Zeus, and Napoleon — guardians, companions, forces of flame and thunder.
Steam hissed off Lucien as black‑red crystals spread over his body from head to toe. White flames flared around him with a roar that shook the air. His aura peaked, magnificent and wild.
His hair stood spiked and purple, lightning crackling within the white fire, mist swirling like an aura of mythic energy — a form not unlike the legendary Super Saiyan 2.
In his right hand, he gripped Napoleon. In his left, A Frying pan wrapped in Thunder and flame. Prometheus and Zeus flanked him, elemental power coiling around each strike, storm and inferno fused in a deadly dance.
Ethan's mind teetered on the edge of madness, dominated by the urge to kill the figure before him.
"Roar!"
Lucien dropped like a meteor, and Ethan shot upward in response.
Their collision was like a celestial body striking the earth. A shockwave radiated outward, shaking the entire island. Mountains groaned, chasms tore open, and the sea trembled as a massive explosion rippled across the terrain.
Creatures of the Calm Belt scattered in terror as the landscape itself quaked under the force of their clash.
Lucien's right hand drove Napoleon into Ethan's wolf‑tooth club. Ancients might have called it divine strength meeting primal force. The frying pan, surrounded by thunder and fire, was swept back by Ethan's blow — the sheer intensity sending Lucien skidding across the ground.
Ethan's face was twisted with fury, each breath ragged with raw violence. Lucien's expression didn't calm; instead, it narrowed, eyes gleaming like sharpened gemstones.
Even with Armament Haki hardening his flesh and the blazing white fire protecting his core, Lucien found himself overwhelmed. The sheer ferocity of Ethan's attack broke through his defense, shattering bone and muscle alike.
Lucien had underestimated his opponent.
Rumble.
Lucien's right foot reformed in a heartbeat. He leapt up, sweeping a kick. Ethan crouched low, his eyes burning red. With brutal force, he launched upward again, his wolf‑tooth club sweeping like a thousand marching warriors.
Lucien positioned Napoleon and the frying pan before him once more, but the impact was monstrous. Blood sprayed from his mouth and nose as he streaked through mountains, finally crashing into the earth, distancing himself with violent force.
A gale of wind screamed across the plain. Lucien re‑emerged mid‑air.
"Imperial Country," he said, power gathering at the tip of Napoleon.
Ethan stood firm, his wolf‑tooth club wrapped in solid Armament Haki. With a roar he blocked Lucien's descending strike, deflecting it skyward — but the pressure remained unbroken.
The frying pan rang sharply as steel met steel. Lucien dropped to one knee, a shockwave shattering the landscape within a ten‑thousand‑meter radius.
He brought Napoleon up, thunder and fire coiling into a blinding sphere at the blade's tip. In just a few heartbeats, it expanded — a thunder‑fire sun burning through the sky, scorching the heavens in its brilliance.
"Roar!"
Ethan sprang free from the mountain with astounding force, eyes red with rage, flying as if over flat ground.
Then came the great explosion.
A colossal mushroom cloud surged across heaven and earth, radiating power in all directions as mountains and valleys split. A towering wave rose in the Calm Belt. The brilliant light waned, then disappeared.
But even as the cataclysm settled, the two warriors remained locked in battle high above, their fight reshaping the world beneath them.
A titanic force struck. Half of Lucien's body was torn apart — blood, organs, destruction everywhere.
Yet within a breath he had fully regenerated.
At the same time, Ethan received a brutal cut from neck to chest. Within moments, his wound too sealed.
The frying pan, aflame and crackling with thunder, rattled the earth like rolling thunder. Ethan was blasted away, and Lucien, a trail of flame in his wake, pursued relentlessly.
For a time, the entire Calm Belt was upside down. Sea Kings surfaced in alarm, roaring with primal fury.