Standing up from the shattered crack in the Treasure Tree Adam, Valthior completely ignored Roger's shocked expression and instead asked calmly, "How many Poneglyphs were there?"
"Only one," Roger replied with some disappointment.
If there had been multiple Poneglyphs, there was no reason for Elbaf to hide them separately. Most likely, the entire country possessed only this single stone.
Just then, Roger suddenly noticed frost beginning to spread across the tree trunk beneath Valthior's feet.
But Valthior wasn't actively using his powers.
Instead, it looked more like his power was naturally leaking out on its own.
Simply by standing there, his body was unconsciously altering the surrounding environment, as though the world itself was adapting to his "preferences."
The frost slowly spread outward without stopping.
Not only that, but every breath Valthior exhaled seemed to make the surrounding air colder and colder.
"You okay? Your powers are going out of control!?" Roger quickly asked.
Valthior also noticed the strange phenomenon.
Similar changes had occurred in the past, but those were merely subtle wisps of frost escaping whenever he actively utilized his powers.
But now, he wasn't activating anything at all.
He was simply standing there, yet the environment around him was already changing.
It was an instinctive transformation.
He could clearly sense that if he continued living here long enough, Elbaf itself might gradually be transformed by his existence into a true frozen land of eternal winter.
Normally, living creatures adapted themselves to survive within an environment.
But with Valthior—
The environment itself was adapting to him in order to continue existing.
Feeling the overwhelming energy surging inside his body, Valthior grinned slightly.
"I'm fine. Honestly, I've never felt better."
After pausing for a moment, he asked,
"Now that we've got the Poneglyph, is there really any reason to keep fighting?"
Roger fell silent briefly as he looked toward the intense battle still raging across the Sun World.
Although Harald had just been violently crushed by Shiki, he would probably revive again soon enough. Meanwhile, the battle between the Marines, the Roger Pirates, the Giant Warriors, and the Flying Pirates was far from over.
After taking a deep breath, Roger spoke with a rare seriousness in his eyes.
"We already wiped out the Kozuki Clan, which weakened a big part of the resistance force Joy Boy left behind in this world. If we abandon Elbaf and run now, then Elbaf itself will probably fall into the hands of the World Government too. Instead of resisting Imu, they'll become another sharp blade in his hands..."
"Stop, stop, stop." Valthior immediately cut him off. "Since when did you become some heroic savior worrying about the world? Did you forget we're pirates?"
Then he waved a hand dismissively.
"Say something practical."
"Hahahahaha!"
Roger burst into loud laughter before finally continuing.
"If we run away right now, then Gaban's true love is probably going to become a loyal dog of the World Government. And if you think you can survive listening to Gaban complain about that every single day back on the Oro Jackson, then sure, we can leave."
"Just imagining Gaban-senpai nagging nonstop already gives me a headache," Valthior laughed as well.
"Looks like we really can't just run away then. Guess we'll have to smash Harald, drive off the Marines, and restore peace to Elbaf!"
"That's right. We crush them all!" Roger declared firmly while swinging Ace onto his shoulder.
But soon after, his tone shifted again.
"Thinking about it carefully, the only real threats here are Harald, Sengoku, and Zephyr. Harald especially is completely ridiculous now, and on top of that, he's got an immortal body..."
"Killing him is impossible," Valthior said as a trace of terrifying cold air rose from the center of his upturned palm. "But I can try sealing him in ice forever... leave him behind as a little gift for the future."
Before awakening his powers, Valthior had never even considered the possibility of freezing Harald completely.
But now?
He felt absurdly powerful.
Maybe it was actually possible.
For example...
If they shattered Harald into pieces before he could regenerate, then perhaps Valthior could suppress and freeze every fragment permanently.
"You're confident you can freeze him?" Roger asked seriously.
"If we can chop him into seventeen or eighteen pieces first, then yeah, it's worth trying," Valthior answered without hesitation.
"Then we chop him up," Roger immediately declared.
"As long as Harald is suppressed, the rest is easy. Once we free our hands, Sengoku and Zephyr alone don't stand a chance against the Roger Pirates and the Flying Pirates together!"
"In that case..." Valthior slowly raised a hand. "Let's clear the battlefield first. No point letting these clueless giants interfere anymore."
Following his movement, Roger raised an eyebrow and quickly shielded himself with Haki. Because he was standing too close to Valthior , he was the very first to sense that terrifying, deathly frost aura.
The frost energy that had just risen from Valthior's palm condensed rapidly. In the span of a single breath, it coalesced into a sphere of pure white.
In the next instant, Valthior roared:
"Mourning Ice of All Creation!!!"
As the words left his mouth, Valthior dropped his stance and slammed the sphere of frost dead into the tree trunk beneath his feet.
...
From a distance, the gigantic Treasure Tree Adam of Elbaf began freezing from its center outward.
The frost spread at terrifying speed through the entire Sun World.
Wherever the freezing aura passed, all life fell silent.
Even birds flying through the sky instantly turned into ice sculptures before shattering apart as they fell.
Within the Sun World, every living creature lacking enough strength or Haki to resist the cold was frozen solid in an instant.
The horrifying frost spread across the entire Sun World almost immediately and continued expanding outward toward the surrounding seas.
Seen from the edge of Elbaf's waters, it looked as though the eternal frozen Underworld itself had expanded upward and swallowed the Sun World whole.
The giants of Elbaf.
The wild beasts in the forests.
The various races gathered around the harbor markets.
Even Ida, Loki, and Hajrudin inside the tavern near the edge of the island—
Everyone was frozen solid.
On the battlefield, Sakazuki and Borsalino had also become ice statues.
At their current level, the two rookies were no different from Valthior himself back during God Valley.
They simply weren't strong enough to resist the aftershocks released by true monsters.
Across the entire giant kingdom, only around a dozen true top-tier fighters remained unfrozen.
Roger, Valthior, Shiki, Silver Axe, Gaban, Rayleigh, Babel, Sengoku, and Zephyr!
As for the others, including Bullet, Spencer, and the rest of the Roger Pirates, they had also been frozen solid by Valthior. However, they had received Valthior's special consideration; the layers of ice encasing them were far thicker than the rest.
Honestly speaking, the ice probably offered better protection than their own Haki at this point.
The sudden transformation of Elbaf into a land of extreme cold shocked every top fighter present.
For a brief moment, all fighting stopped.
And at that exact moment—
A gigantic arm wrapped in black smoke burst violently out from beneath the frozen earth.
Harald emerged immediately afterward.
The instant he saw Elbaf frozen solid, his eyes turned blood-red with rage. Hatred practically materialized around his body.
Then Harald roared furiously,
"You destroyed Elbaf! I'll make every last one of you die with it!!!"
Terrifying Conqueror's Haki exploded skyward.
At the same time, the two famous swords in Shiki's hands slashed through the air.
"Zanpa: Kiri-Umi!!" (Slicing Wave: Sea Cutter!)
Two enormous sword slashes shot into the sky.
One didn't even need to face them directly. Simply looking at those attacks made people feel stabbing pain in their eyes, as though the razor-sharp force itself was piercing their bodies.
At the same moment, Roger leaped down from the Treasure Tree Adam.
Ace shone brilliantly in his hand as he roared,
"Kamusari!!" (Divine Departure!)
Harald instantly sensed the danger from both attacks.
Without hesitation, he stomped down and shattered the frozen ground beneath him. A giant round shield dropped by one of Elbaf's warriors earlier was launched upward by the impact.
Harald grabbed it instantly.
Haki coated the shield as he raised it directly against Roger's Divine Departure.
Sun Shield!
At the same time, his other hand swung his giant sword upward.
"Ten no Sakai!!" (Heavenly Boundary!)
Boom! Boom!!!
With two deafening explosions, Harald forcefully stopped the onslaught of two of the sea's top powerhouses simultaneously, one on each side—a testament to his staggering power.
Yet, it was at this precise moment, with his left hand holding the shield and his right hand wielding the sword to block left and right, that his chest was left completely wide open.
A silver-white streak suddenly tore across the sky at unbelievable speed.
As it closed in on Harald, the streak rapidly grew larger and larger.
Only at the final moment before impact did everyone realize—
It was Valthior.
Now transformed into his half-beast form, Valthior shot forward like a silver meteor.
The unicorn-like horn on his forehead blazed with Conqueror's Haki as he slammed forward like a divine spear—
And pierced straight through Harald's heart!
...
Read Advanced Chapters on : www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin
~ Every 100 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]