One Piece: Kaido's adopted son, starts with the Eight Gates Formation.

Kaido has finished the fight.

Yhwach sat against the dimensional wall, temporarily incapacitated. His Sternritter members had been mostly wiped out, and the few remaining had lost their will to fight.

The white-bearded man walked up to Yhwach and looked down at him.

"You're still alive?"

"I won't die," Yhwach said with his eyes closed.

"That's good. It's no fun if someone dies." The white-bearded man turned and left.

Kaido looked up in the direction of the Sky Spirit King's Palace, cupped his hand around his mouth like a megaphone, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Young Master! It's over! I'm here!"

Lynn's voice came from above: "Fly up yourself, I'll be waiting for you up here."

Kaido transformed into his blue dragon form, his massive body spiraling into the sky. Whitebeard, Shanks, Big Mom, Kenpachi Zaraki, and others followed suit.

Akainu hesitated for a moment, then looked at the Barragan statue he had been dusting.

"...Never mind, I'll take it with me." He hoisted the sculpture onto his shoulder and flew up as well.

The group passed through the dimensional portal and arrived at the Spirit King's Palace.

The first thing they saw was the barrier—or rather, the location that had once been the barrier.

The barrier has disappeared.

The Spirit King's torso remained suspended in the center of the void, but there were no longer any constraints around him. The crystal pillars that had once pierced his body had turned into fragments, scattered on the ground.

And directly below the Spirit King—

Something entirely new has emerged.

It was a core composed of pure golden light, about the size of a basketball, suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating. Golden light radiated out from the core, connecting the five palaces of the Spirit King's Palace, the Seireitei below, and the more distant Reality and Hueco Mundo.

That was a replacement created by Lynn using the "True Creator"—an artificial core capable of maintaining the balance of the three realms.

It's working.

The Three Realms did not collapse.

Hyosube Ichibei stood to the side, his expression extremely complicated. He had considered countless possibilities, but he had never imagined that someone could actually create something to replace the Soul King's function in such a short time.

"This...this really can hold up?" His voice was a little dry.

"It'll do for now." Lynn floated beside the golden core, patting its surface. "It should last for tens of thousands of years. We'll see after that."

"Tens of thousands of years..." Hyosube Ichibei swallowed hard.

In his view, tens of thousands of years was a very long time. But in Lynn's words, this time span was about the same as "tomorrow".

When Kaido flew up, the first thing he saw was the Soul King floating in the void.

He was silent.

He was a rough man, insensitive to most things. But he could still sense—that huge, mutilated figure exuded a deep-seated sorrow.

"This is... the Soul King?" Kaido's voice was unusually low.

"Hmm." Lynn floated to the Spirit King's side and gently touched the Spirit King's body with her small hand.

This time, the Spirit King did not transmit pain to him.

Because the shackles have been lifted. The function of maintaining the balance of the three realms has been transferred to the artificial core. The Spirit King is no longer the cornerstone—he is just... someone who has been imprisoned for far too long.

The moment Lynn's hand touched the Spirit King, the Spirit King's enormous, faceless head slowly turned towards him.

It has no eyes, no mouth, and no facial features.

But everyone could sense that he was "watching" Lynn.

Then, that enormous body began to shrink.

Slowly, little by little, it shrank from a colossal creature over ten meters tall to the size of a human.

The limbs grew back from the light—not the original limbs, those that had long been destroyed. But new limbs, composed of pure existential power.

Faces gradually appeared.

A calm, aged face, etched with deep weariness.

The Spirit King looked at the small figure floating in mid-air before him with his newly regained eyes.

Then he spoke.

The voice was very soft and hoarse, like the first sound made by someone who hadn't spoken in millions of years.

"……Thanks."

Lynn tilted her head.

"You're welcome," he said, "but you have to come with me."