One Piece: The user of the Nen-Nen Fruit, who overturned the sea.

A deathly silence enveloped the entire battlefield.

On the high platform, Nami's legs gave way and she collapsed to her knees.

She opened her mouth, trying to call out the name, but her throat felt like it was blocked by something, and she couldn't make a sound.

Chopper transformed into his reindeer form and tried to rush out, but Robin held him back tightly with an arm created from her Flower Flower Fruit.

The little reindeer struggled desperately in Robin's arms, tears streaming down its face.

"Let me go! I need to save Luffy! Let me go—!!"

Usopp slumped to the ground, his lips trembling violently:

"Luffy...Luffy, he..."

Brook gripped the Soul-Slaying Sword tightly, and for the first time, genuine anger appeared on his skeletal face.

Franky's arms transformed into cannon barrels, unleashing a furious barrage of fire at Yamato:

"Make way! Let us through!"

But the artillery fire only produced a series of clanging sounds as it struck the Yamato.

Zoro stood still, his three swords hanging at his sides.

Looking at the deep pit, his dark eyes reflected the dust swirling in the moonlight.

His expression was eerily calm, but the hand holding the knife was trembling slightly.

Sanji stood next to him, his hands and feet trembling slightly, and it took him several tries to light the lighter.

Kidd leaned against the broken stone pillar, his metal arm shattered on the ground, but he didn't pick it up.

He just stared at the deep pit, silent as a stone.

At this moment, at the bottom of the pit, unnoticed by everyone.

Luffy's body lay quietly in a pool of blood.

His eyes were closed, and his face was expressionless, like a person who was asleep.

But deep within his heart, that heart that had stopped beating, a faint glimmer of life still lingered.

Deep within his heart, a faint light was slowly flickering.

The light was so faint that even the most skilled users of Observation Haki couldn't detect it.

But it was there, like a seed about to sprout, stubbornly taking root on the edge of death.

It sealed Luffy's last chance of survival.

waiting.

Waiting for the moment it breaks through the soil.

Kaido slowly retracted the Eight Precepts and slung his spiked club back onto his shoulder.

He glanced down at the little devil at the bottom of the pit, his fate unknown, and a complex emotion flashed in his vertical pupils.

Then he turned around and looked at the Straw Hat Pirates members on the high platform.

"Your captain is dead."

Kaido's words were like a knife, piercing the heart of everyone present.

"Your captain is dead."

The words echoed over the ruins for several seconds before being shattered by a heart-wrenching scream.

"Luffy—!!!"

Nami knelt on the ground, her hands bracing against the broken stone slabs, large tears falling onto the stone surface.

She bit her lip hard, her eyes fixed on Kaido with hatred.

Chopper couldn't hold back any longer.

He broke free from Robin's Flower-Flower Fruit, transformed into a reindeer, and charged towards the deep pit.

But before he could run a few steps, Yamato blocked his way again.

"Get out of the way—!!!"

Chopper's voice was shrill and unlike his own; his round eyes were brimming with tears, but even more so with anger.

"Luffy—Luffy—!"

He couldn't continue.

Because he didn't know what to say.

Luffy is dead?

No, he didn't believe it.

The man who had been protecting them since the beginning of Drum Island,

How could the man who climbed the snow-capped mountain and froze to death to save me have died like this?

Yamato looked at the little reindeer with tears in its eyes. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn't say anything.

Yamato cursed Roy inwardly, but gritted his teeth and continued to stand in front of the crowd.

Luffy's defeat plunged the Straw Hat crew into despair.

Apoo, Hawkins, Becky, and Drake exchanged glances and tacitly retreated, intending to withdraw from the battlefield.

But just as they were about to leave the edge of the battlefield, a huge shadow loomed over them from above.

After defeating Luffy, Kaido leaped from the edge of the deep pit, his body rapidly expanding in mid-air.

Blue scales surged wildly from under the skin, the limbs transformed into dragon claws, and dragon horns pierced out from the top of the head.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed from his human-beast form back into a colossal azure dragon that blotted out the sky.

A thousand-meter-long dragon coiled above the ghost island, casting a shadow that covered the entire Skull Palace.

The dragon lowered its head, its vertical pupils coldly sweeping over the four retreating supernovas.

"Trying to run away?"

The dragon's tail, imbued with jet-black Armament Haki, swept out suddenly.

The dragon's tail, thicker than a mast, swept across with a howling wind, moving so fast that even Observation Haki couldn't give it a warning.

Ap was the first to be hit, flying out like a kite with a broken string, crashing into a rock wall dozens of meters away, creating a large human-shaped crater, and spitting out blood.

Hawkins tried to transform into a scarecrow to avoid it, but the scarecrow had already shattered completely.

The moment the dragon's tail swept over him, an expression of extreme pain appeared on his poker face for the first time.

He was thrown into the air, crashing through the ruins of several buildings before coming to a stop, buried under a pile of rubble and motionless.

Becky's castle, "Big Boss," trembled violently under the impact of the dragon's tail, causing the walls to crack and the ceiling to collapse.

His gang members inside him were shaken so badly they staggered, and more than a dozen of them coughed up blood at the same time.

Beki himself also spat out a mouthful of blood, crashed into the rock wall, and slid down.

At the last second, Drake transformed into his Allosaurus form, using the dinosaur's thick skin to withstand the attack.

But the power of the dragon's tail was terrifying. His alligator body was flung away, plowing a furrow tens of meters long in the ground, and finally crashing into a stone wall before stopping.

A deep bruise remained on his dinosaur skin, and a trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth.

Four supernovas, wiped out in one blow.

Kaido didn't even glance at them again.

To him, these deserters who had lost their will to fight were not even worthy of his finishing blow.

His dragon head turned in another direction.

There, Kin'emon was leading the few remaining members of the Nine Red Scabbards who could still stand, walking step by step towards the deep pit.

Kin'emon held his broken sword in his hand, the blade still bearing the embers of foxfire.

His left arm was severely burned by the heat, his skin was charred black, and he was sweating profusely with pain every step he took.

But he didn't stop.

Behind him followed Denjiro, Kikunojo, Kawamatsu, and Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, who were supporting each other.

Everyone was severely wounded, and everyone's breathing was heavy and labored, like a broken bellows.

But in everyone's eyes burned the same thing—the determination to die.

"Lord Oden."

Kin'emon roared to the sky, his voice hoarse but firm, "I am incompetent. Twenty years have passed, and I still cannot avenge you."

But—at least we want you to see that we have never forgotten your legacy!

Denjiro picked up the long sword beside him and followed closely behind Kin'emon.

Kikunojo, Kawamatsu, Raizo, Ashura Doji, Inuarashi, and Nekomamushi also struggled to their feet.