The sudden arrival of two Navy Admirals sent a shockwave through the battlefield. Keqing's eyes narrowed as she adjusted her grip on her lightning-infused blade. She had expected resistance, but the World Government was clearly not taking any chances. They didn't just want Kaido; they wanted the "Outlanders" who had been disrupting the global balance.
Fujitora sighed, his blind eyes "looking" toward the sky. "A pity... I was hoping to run into that boisterous lady captain again. It seems she isn't part of this excursion."
"Tch, don't be so sentimental, Issho," Ryokugyu sneered, his body already sprouting thick, predatory vines. "The ones here today are just as monstrous. Look at that floating palace—it's an affront to the world's order."
Below them, the Straw Hats, the Heart Pirates, and the Kid Pirates were frozen in dread. Two Admirals and a Yonko? This was no longer a raid; it was an execution.
"Is this a joke?" Nami's voice shook. "Two Admirals?! We're going to die... we're definitely going to die!"
[The High-Altitude Duel]
On the rooftop, the battle between Xiangling and Kaido had reached a fever pitch. In his hybrid form, Kaido was a juggernaut of scale and thunder, but Xiangling was no longer the simple girl who hunted slimes. Fed on adepti energy and trained by Su Han himself, her Mera Mera powers had evolved. She deprived Kaido of his five senses using her Zanpakuto's ability, forcing the Yonko to rely entirely on his Observation Haki to keep up with her fiery strikes.
Seeing the stalemate, Ryokugyu turned to Fujitora. "I'm going after the Straw Hat. The Five Elders want his head. You deal with the rest."
Ryokugyu transformed into a massive forest golem and surged toward the exhausted Luffy. But before he could reach his target, ten beams of pure elemental energy erupted from the Jade Chamber.
BOOM!
The ground in front of Ryokugyu was vaporized. He skidded to a halt, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Wait... that's not normal artillery."
Ningguang stood on the balcony of her palace, her fingers spread wide. "If I am here, Admiral, you won't be going anywhere. Starshatter."
A rain of geo-gems, each carrying the weight of a meteor, pelted the Admiral. At the same time, the Black-Blade Millelith soldiers on deck opened fire with Haki-infused elemental rifles. Even an Admiral found himself bleeding under such a concentrated, disciplined barrage.
"Fujitora! Help me out here! I can't reach them in the sky!" Ryokugyu roared.
"I would," Fujitora replied calmly, his blade clashing against a shimmering wind-blade. "But I have my hands full with this young gentleman."
Kazuha stood before the Admiral, his hair whipping in the gale. "I've looked forward to this, Master Blindman. Let us settle this as swordsmen."
"A fine spirit," Fujitora smiled. "Gravity Blade!"
The purple gravitational field slammed into the ground, but Kazuha didn't kneel. He had spent months training in Liyue's high-gravity arrays; this was nothing to him. He flowed through the gravity like a leaf on a stream.
"Autumn Whirlwind: Thousand Slashes!"
A hurricane of razor-sharp wind-blades forced Fujitora back. The two vanished from the roof, taking their duel to the distant mountains where they could unleash their full power.
[The Fall of the King]
Back on Onigashima, Keqing was locked in a deadly dance with King the Wildfire. King, the last of the Lunarians, was utilizing his high-altitude flight to stay out of her reach, raining down fire.
"I'm done playing," Keqing whispered. Her blade suddenly glowed with a deep, emerald light.
She tapped into the Wood-elemental laws she had recently mastered. Within seconds, the stone rooftop sprouted ethereal vines and flowers—a Spirit Sea of Blossoms. Keqing's body dissolved into petals, reappearing instantly behind King's neck.
"Starward Sword: Sky-Strolling Slash!"
A dual-element strike of Water and Electro tore through King's defense. The speed was so absolute that even King's "future sight" couldn't save him. The lightning paralyzed his Lunarian physiology, and the water-blade severed his connection to his flames.
The Lead Performer of the Beast Pirates fell from the sky, his life force extinguished in a single, surgical strike.
Seeing his "brother" fall, Kaido went into a berserk rage, transforming into his full Dragon form. "Boro Breath!"
A beam of heat capable of leveling a mountain range tore toward Keqing. But she simply vanished. It was an image—a clone. The real Keqing was already beneath Kaido's soft underbelly, her blade glowing with the intent to slay a god.
[The CP0 Intervention]
As the battle raged, three CP0 agents used Moonwalk to reach the Jade Chamber's deck.
"Kill the woman, and the fortress falls!" one agent laughed, his fingers hardened for a Finger Pistol strike.
But as he stepped onto the deck, his body froze. Thousands of invisible silken threads, part of the Jade Chamber's Adepti Array, locked his joints.
"Idiots," Ningguang sneered, not even looking at them. "You think a palace built by a Sovereign is just a house? Gemstone Burial."
A single floating gem shot through the agent's forehead, bypassing his 'Iron Body' and Haki as if they were wet paper. In the world of Cultivators, a simple assassin had no place on a Sovereign's deck.
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