Chapter 82: The Arsenal and the Emperor

Marine Outpost G-7 was burning to the ground.

As the Titan’s Glory broke through the thick, black smoke hanging over the island, the sheer scale of the destruction became clear.

The massive stone fortress was crumbling.

Down in the harbor, civilian evacuation ships were desperately trying to flee, but they were boxed in by a fleet of mammoth-headed Beast Pirate galleons.

And hovering high above the island, blotting out the sun, was a nightmare of scales and myth.

Kaido, in his colossal Azure Dragon form, coiled through the storm clouds.

He opened his massive, jagged jaws, a terrifying sphere of superheated orange light gathering deep in his throat.

He was preparing to unleash a Boro Breath directly onto the civilian fleet.

“I get to fight the big dragon?!” Gammamon cheered, his little horns sparking with crimson flames as he ran toward the boarding ramp.

I reached down, placing a hand firmly on the little triceratops’s head, stopping him in his tracks.

“Can you sit this one out, buddy,” I told him, keeping my eyes on the sky.

“Protect the ship and the crew.

If you do good today, I promise you can fight him next time.”

Gammamon pouted, but gave me a serious salute.

“Okay, Victor!

Next time, I’ll bite his tail off!”

I turned to Law, Laura, Gwen, and the rest of the Verdant Abyss crew.

“Drop down to the harbor.

Clear out the Beast Pirates and secure those evacuation ships.

Do not engage the Emperor.

He’s mine.”

“Don’t die,” Law said simply, drawing his Nodachi.

I didn’t answer.

I just stepped up to the railing.

Kaido roared, unleashing the apocalyptic beam of pure fire down toward the harbor.

I tapped my golden Nega-Ring.

Utilizing the ring’s ten-meter teleportation capability in rapid succession, combined with the explosive leg strength of Soru (Shave) and the mid-air stepping of Geppo (Moonwalk), I crossed the harbor in a fraction of a second.

I appeared directly in the path of the descending Boro Breath.

I drew The Jade Wings.

The dual daggers flashed in my hands.

Channelling my will, the jade fluidly shifted, expanding and reforming instantly into a single, massive tower shield made of indestructible green energy.

I braced it with my Nega-Band’s golden forcefield.

The blast breath slammed into me.

The sheer heat and kinetic force pushed me back through the air, but the dual-layered defense held.

As the flames dispersed, I let the jade shield melt down my arm, reforming instantly into a colossal, twelve-foot-long greatsword.

I swung it with everything I had.

“Kinetic Discharge!”

A massive, crescent-shaped slash of solid green light erupted from the blade, slicing through the remaining smoke and slamming directly into the underside of Kaido’s scaled snout.

The kinetic impact snapped the massive dragon’s head back, completely canceling his attack.

I dropped from the sky, landing heavily on the roof of a ruined Marine watchtower.

I took a breath, letting a localized pulse of Basic Conqueror’s Haki roll off my shoulders.

Down below, the weaker Beast Pirates foaming at the mouth collapsed unconscious, clearing the immediate battlefield.

I looked up at the sky.

“Picking on civilians and broken Marines?” I mocked, my voice amplified by Haki to echo across the island.

“You’re getting lazy, Kaido!

I expected better from the Strongest Creature in the World!”

High above, the massive dragon stopped thrashing.

The colossal beast stared down at me, his glowing, golden eyes narrowing.

Then, the dragon began to shrink, the azure scales shifting and compacting as he dropped from the clouds.

He landed in the center of the ruined Marine courtyard with an earth-shattering crash.

When the dust cleared, Kaido stood in his terrifying, muscular hybrid form.

Scales covered his chest and arms, massive horns protruded from his head, and a thick tail lashed behind him.

He rested his legendary spiked kanabo, Hassaikai, on his shoulder.

“Wororororo!” Kaido laughed, the sound rumbling like an earthquake.

“A Warlord?

Sengoku sent a dog to bite me?

You’ve got guts, brat.

Let’s see if you have the strength to back them up!”

Kaido vanished.

He didn’t just move fast; his speed was an absolute violation of physics for a man his size.

“Thunder Bagua!”

My Advanced Observation Haki screamed in warning a millisecond before he swung.

I triggered my Nega-Ring’s teleportation, blinking ten meters to the left.

The kanabo missed my chest, but the sheer, shockwave of black lightning trailing the weapon completely shattered my golden forcefield and sent me skidding across the rubble.

“Too slow!” Kaido roared, pivoting on his heel and bringing the club down for a crushing overhead strike.

I didn’t run.

I stepped into his guard.

“Rankyaku!” I kicked the air, sending a razor-sharp tempest blade directly into his eyes, forcing him to blink.

In that microsecond, I struck.

I thrust The Jade Wings forward.

Mid-strike, the greatsword seamlessly dissolved, splitting and reforming into twin, viciously hooked scythes.

I coated the jade blades in Advanced Armament Haki specifically, the flowing, internal destruction of Emission.

The scythes hooked around Kaido’s massive forearms, the Haki bypassing his indestructible scales and detonating directly inside his muscles.

Kaido grunted in actual pain, a thin line of blood erupting from his tough hide.

His eyes widened in shock.

“Internal Destruction?!

You’re not just some random government lapdog!”

He violently yanked his arms back, throwing me into the air.

I used Geppo to stabilize, immediately channeling my Fa-Jin to summon backup.

“Come out!”

Three jade constructs erupted from my body.

The Tank, a massive obsidian-jade gorilla, landed directly in front of Kaido.

It slammed its fists into the ground, projecting a 20x Gravity Well.

The earth cratered beneath Kaido’s feet, his massive hybrid body visibly slowing under the immense pressure.

The Mage, the glacial-inferno unicorn, charged from the flank.

Its horn glowed an icy blue, unleashing a localized blast of Absolute Zero air that instantly froze Kaido’s left side, countering the boiling heat radiating from his dragon blood.

From Kaido’s blind spot, The Wildcard a sleek, shifting night-terror ferret used Shadow-Skip to materialize directly on Kaido’s shoulder.

It bit down, its fangs coated in Advanced Armament, pumping more Internal Destruction into the Emperor’s neck.

“Annoying tricks!” Kaido roared in absolute fury.

He flexed, his Conqueror’s Haki erupting and violently shattering the frozen ice and gravity well.

He swung his kanabo in a massive, sweeping arc, completely obliterating all three clones into green dust.

The follow-through of the swing clipped my side.

Even a grazing hit from Kaido was devastating.

Four of my ribs instantly shattered.

I was launched like a cannonball, crashing through the solid stone of three separate Marine barracks before coming to a halt in a pile of rubble.

Kaido exhaled a plume of smoke, resting his club on his shoulder.

“Is that all, brat?”

“Not even close,” I coughed, pushing debris off my chest.

I activated my Fa-Jin.

Instead of projecting kinetic energy outward, I channeled the massive reserves directly inward, flooding my metabolic processes.

The effect was instantaneous.

My cells kicked into hyper-drive.

The shattered bones in my ribs snapped violently back into place, the torn muscles knitting themselves together in a matter of seconds.

I stood up from the rubble, rolling my shoulders, completely healed.

Kaido stared at me, genuinely stunned.

“What kind of freakish Zoan are you?”

“No a Zoan, just built different,” I smirked.

I tapped into my Nega-Bands.

I took my entire reserve of mental energy my Haki and pumped it directly into the Kree relics.

The golden rings glowed blindingly bright, converting my willpower into a massive, raw physical boost.

My muscles swelled slightly, humming with absolutely enormous power.

I used Soru and teleportation simultaneously, reappearing inches from Kaido’s face.

The Jade Wings in my right hand melted, wrapping around my fist and forearm to form a heavy, spiked gauntlet.

I coated it entirely in black Armament Haki.

I drove the gauntlet directly into his chest, combining the physical strike with the Rokushiki assassination art.

“Shigan: Meteor Strike!”

The impact sounded like a bomb going off.

Kaido was physically lifted off his feet, coughing up blood as he was thrown backward across the courtyard.

He dug his claws into the stone to stop his momentum, his eyes burning with a terrifying, absolute thrill for battle.

“WORORORO!

YES!

MORE!”

Kaido opened his jaws, unleashing a rapid-fire barrage of elemental attacks scything wind blades, lightning bolts, and fire blasts.

I sprinted toward him, dodging and weaving.

I threw my right hand forward.

The Jade Wings shifted again, forming a single dagger that shot through the air, tethered to my wrist by the Infinite Chain.

The black chain extended hundreds of feet, whipping around Kaido’s massive wrists.

I used my telekinetic control over the chain to pull it taut, binding his arms to his sides for a fraction of a second.

Kaido roared, his muscles bulging as he physically snapped the indestructible black chain through sheer, monstrous brute force.

He raised his kanabo with both hands, black lightning cascading off it in a terrifying torrent.

He was preparing a named attack, a strike meant to shatter the entire island.

“Let’s see you heal from this!” Kaido bellowed.

I didn’t even try to dodge.

I planted my feet and summoned my ultimate trump card.

“Rise!

The Azure Dragon!”

The air warped as massive amounts of Fa-Jin poured out of me.

Towering over the battlefield, a colossal, three-headed dragon made of glowing, crackling jade materialized between Kaido and me.

It looked like King Ghidorah, its three heads rearing back with terrifying majesty.

Kaido unleashed his apocalyptic, island-shattering blast of Haki and raw power.

My three-headed construct lunged forward, opening all three of its jaws.

It didn’t try block the attack, it consumed it.

The Jade Azure Dragon utilized its absolute absorption, swallowing the catastrophic kinetic and spiritual energy whole.

The construct glowed blindingly bright as it converted Kaido’s ultimate attack.

Then, the three heads turned, focusing all that converted energy directly into me.

A torrent of unimaginable power flooded my body.

My veins glowed golden and green.

The Nega-Bands hummed with so much mental energy the air around me began to sing.

I looked at Kaido, who was staring at the aftermath of his absorbed attack in pure disbelief.

“Divine Cut,” I whispered.

I utilized my 10-meter teleport, appearing directly above the Emperor’s head.

The Jade Wings shifted one more time, the green energy expanding and hardening into a colossal, building-sized guillotine blade, coated entirely in black, flowing Advanced Armament Haki.

With the combined strength of my Nega-Band boost, my Fa-Jin, and Kaido’s own converted energy, I brought the blade down.

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