Chapter 1053: Kaido and Aeridar

Chapter 1053: Chapter 1053: Kaido and Aeridar

"Is that... a mirror?"

Having just caught his breath, Oliver hadn’t even managed to resume his attack before he spotted the circular mirror suddenly materializing in midair.

Most of the others reacted the same way, freezing in unison. The towering waves of sand whipped up by Crocodile even stalled mid-surge, hanging in a precarious balance of neither advancing nor retreating.

It was because the voice that had just drifted out from the circular mirror was utterly, unmistakably familiar to them all.

"That brat’s voice... Could it be... Linlin...?"

Kaido’s expression flickered back and forth. Muttering to himself, he kept his eyes locked dead on the floating mirror in the sky.

The next second, a man with a somewhat pale complexion stepped out of the mirror, dragging out an old crone who looked like a witch, exuding an air of listless exhaustion.

"Captain!"

"Golden Ring Aeridar!"

"And Charlotte Br?lée!"

"..."

Gazing at the two figures emerging from the Mirror World, the group snapped to attention, shouting out in unison.

Aeridar blinked, glancing down at the people below. "Oliver, Doflamingo, Crocodile... why are you all here...?"

Before he could finish, his eyes landed upon the intensely conspicuous figure standing down below.

"That dragon-human form... Kaido?!"

Instantly, Aeridar’s expression darkened. Seeing his subordinates and allies gathered here, coupled with the towering presence standing right before him, it took no genius to figure out what had happened.

"B-B-Beasts... K-K-Kaido—!"

Clutched tightly in Aeridar’s grip, Br?lée nearly scared herself out of her wits. The sheer, overwhelming murderous intent washing over them caused her screech of terror to distort completely.

As the master of this domain appeared, an eerie quiet settled over the battlefield. The towering tsunami of sand, robbed of the invisible force holding it together, collapsed and scattered across the city. Crocodile reappeared beside Oliver, looking somewhat bruised and battered.

In the distance, Zephyr wore a wry, bitter smile, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth as his right arm hung limply at his side. He walked over alongside a thoroughly charred Tesoro.

"Kaido, what brings you here..."

A dark look of fury crossed Aeridar’s face as he demanded loudly, "Are you looking to start a war with my Chris Pirates too?"

A surging torrent of unbridled Conqueror’s Haki erupted from him, sweeping outward like a raging gale. It manifested with such physical density that it instantly fractured the ground beneath his feet into countless fissures.

If he hadn’t spent the last ten years growing his strength, gathering a crew of immensely powerful subordinates, and forging alliances with a powerhouse crew, he might very well have been pushed to the brink by Kaido single-handedly tearing through his entire pirate fleet.

To think he was on the verge of defeating the Big Mom Pirates, only to have Kaido crash the party and ruin everything, that would have been enough to make him vomit blood!

Kaido tilted his massive dragon head, sweeping his gaze around before falling silent for a moment. Then, in a deep, rumbling voice, he asked, "You won? Where’s Linlin?"

Hearing Kaido’s question, everyone else on the scene anxiously turned their gaze toward Aeridar. The outcome of this decisive battle rested more than halfway on the result of the clash between kings.

"Of course I won!" A look of arrogant pride surfaced on Aeridar’s face as he answered with a savage grin. "As for Big Mom... she’s dead!"

As those words dropped, he gave a casual wave of his hand, and a massive boulder materialized through the circular mirror, bearing a colossal figure sprawled across its surface.

Everyone’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief as they stared hard at the giant slab of rock gradually descending to the ground. Lying atop it was a familiar silhouette, wearing a tattered bicorn hat, a pink dress, and covered from head to toe in varying degrees of gruesome wounds.

That’s right, it was the corpse of the Yonko, Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin!

Instantly, mixed reactions swept through the crowd: some wore looks of unadulterated joy, others wore utter disbelief, and some remained utterly dumbfounded.

"Brilliant work, Captain! Hahahaha—!"

Oliver was the first to snap out of it. The taut nerves that had been strained to their absolute limit finally snapped loose as he burst into hearty laughter.

"Unbelievable! Just how long has it been..." Zephyr rubbed his eyes, staring fixedly at Charlotte Linlin’s corpse with a stunned expression. "Not only did he defeat that ’Iron Balloon’ monster known as Big Mom, but he actually went and killed her outright!"

"Fuffuffuffuffu~ What an unbelievable ending! He actually executed Big Mom!! Even though I had my suspicions beforehand, seeing it is still mind-blowing! That bastard Aeridar has gotten even stronger! Fuffuffuffuffu~!" Doflamingo grinned with a wicked laugh, looking entirely relaxed.

From now on, he wouldn’t have to live in dread of Kaido hovering over his head!

"This guy... he actually pulled it off!" Crocodile stood frozen, staring at Aeridar’s figure. He recalled the scene of their very first encounter, juxtaposing it against the reality unfolding before him.

"Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me... The Yonko, Big Mom... just like that?" Tesoro wore a mask of absolute bewilderment, scarcely daring to believe his own eyes.

A Yonko who had struck terror into the New World for decades had just died like this. It was simply too staggering to fathom!

Yet, shocking as Big Mom’s death was, it couldn’t overshadow the wave of euphoric triumph beneath it!

Who was Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin?

Captain of the Big Mom Pirates, Queen of Totto Land, the sole female among the Yonko, a monster who had destroyed a giant village and effortlessly slaughtered a hero of the Elbaf warriors at the tender age of five, a terrifying existence whom even the Pirate King Gol D. Roger was reluctant to cross swords with head-on.

Yet a monster of that caliber had been taken down in a direct one-on-one duel in less than two days, slain right before their eyes. Such a breathtaking military record was enough to shake the entire world and strike fear into the heart of every single faction!

What of the Marines? Didn’t they have to wait until Whitebeard was old and frail before resorting to underhanded, scheming plots to heavily injure that man?

What of Blackbeard? Didn’t he rely on cowardly schemes, lurking in the shadows and waiting until the Marines had nearly killed Whitebeard before stepping in to steal the final blow? And even then, Whitebeard’s head and his very position as a Yonko were essentially handed over to him by their own captain anyway!

Only this man before them, Golden Ring Chris T. Aeridar, possessed the undisputed record of squaring off against a pinnacle powerhouse of the world in a fair, head-on clash and slaying them!

At that moment, Kaido fell into a prolonged silence. His ’Dragon-Human’ transformation had long since faded back into his human form, leaving him standing there in a daze, staring blankly at Charlotte Linlin’s corpse.

"Mama... Mama... Waaahhh—!"

Dumped unceremoniously onto the ground by Aeridar, Br?lée was already sobbing uncontrollably, wiping away a steady stream of tears with her trembling hands.

"Kaido, spell it out. What’s your play here?"

Aeridar stared heavily at Kaido, raising his voice to demand an answer.

Even though his stamina was heavily depleted, he still had a formidable roster of powerhouse teammates right by his side. He had zero fear of the beast before him; if they really had to throw down again, it was anyone’s guess who would walk away alive.

Abruptly, Kaido lifted his head, his voice low and gravelly as he spoke. "I owe Linlin a favor. Hand over her body, let me take her away."

"In your dreams!"

Aeridar flatly refused, his voice booming. "While I won’t go out of my way to desecrate the corpse of a powerhouse, I’m certainly not about to let you waltz off with the body of my enemy!"

Damn it all, a specimen of study as pristine as Charlotte Linlin was a once-in-a-lifetime find in this world! While he had no intention of carving her up like a dissected frog, collecting a few samples of her blood, hair, and skin tissue was absolute common sense. If he let Kaido cart her off, where on earth was he ever going to find another research subject of that caliber again?!

"You deaf? I said I’m taking Linlin’s body!"

Kaido’s eyes bulged with fury as he locked a murderous glare onto Aeridar. At the same time, a terrifying wave of oppressive aura surged upward from his body.

Bzzzt—!

BOOM—!

Crack, crack—snap, snap—!

The two terrifying pressures collided head-on. Dozens of crackling red-and-black lightning bolts burst violently into the air, flashing wildly across the sky as the surrounding ground cracked under the sheer tangible weight of the pressure, fracturing into a spiderweb of fissures that rapidly raced outward.

A clash of Conqueror’s Haki!

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