“Saint Saturn…”
Inside the ice dome, Mars witnessed everything that had happened, yet he did not seem saddened in the slightest. His gaze held neither joy nor grief, as though Saturn were no different from some random passerby in his eyes.
“You really are heartless. Weren’t you companions who had been together for a long time? I’d already heard the title Five Elders a very long time ago.”
“Youngster, you would never understand such things.”
“I never wanted to understand them in the first place. I thought I’d be the faster one, but it looks like Sister Shayna was one step ahead.”
A ridiculous thing like empathizing with an enemy was not something she would do. No matter what the other side had done, or how outsiders viewed the situation, once their positions defined them as enemies, Yamato would never hold back.
Even if she had questions she wanted answered, she would first knock down the other party with her kanabo, then slowly investigate the matter once they were in prison.
“But you haven’t forgotten what I said earlier about the power to stop time, have you?”
“What are you trying to say?”
As they spoke, Mars was forced to sever another part of his body. In Yamato’s current state, merely being touched by her would cause irreversible damage. If his movements were even a little too slow, the frost would bring about far more terrifying consequences.
“I said I can’t freeze time right now, but I never said I couldn’t make you slower.”
“?!”
“TIME ZERO!”
The world, already engulfed in a raging blizzard, seemed to fall into a new kind of silence in an instant. An extraordinarily strange yet indescribable cold radiance spread out from Yamato’s body. When it touched the ice dome surrounding them, the force rebounded inward, ultimately enveloping the entire world within the dome.
The falling snowflakes seemed to freeze in midair, forming a dense sheet that blocked each other’s view, and the kicked-up dust resembled frozen earth suspended in place, with only the swinging of Yamato’s kanabo breaking this brief moment of silence.
The nearly frozen wind and snow began howling once more with Yamato’s movements. Tremendous power gathered around Takeru, as though it intended to smash everything completely apart. And what she wanted to shatter seemed to be not only the enemy before her, but also the shadows of the past.
The cold continuously invaded Mars’s body. His attacking movements gradually became stiff, and avoiding Yamato’s strikes grew increasingly difficult. Yet the one under the greatest pressure at that moment was not Mars, but Dragon.
Dragon had no idea how many debuffs Garp had accumulated, nor whether his father was still capable of showing the same skills he once used to beat him up. Dragon only understood one thing: once Garp was frozen solid by White Yamato, he would be subjected to a group beating from both sides.
Black Yamato and White Yamato coordinated with flawless synchronization. Beneath the lightning and flames filling the sky, he could barely find anywhere to stand. The only good news was that these two clones had already exhausted their Haki.
Haki was the power of the heart. The battle clones created by Yamato possessed no hearts of their own, and the Haki within them was merely a portion she had temporarily stored inside them. Once used up, they could not replenish it themselves. That was also why these clones could only be used to stall for time.
Against an opponent in peak condition, it would not be easy for her clones to serve such a purpose. But even without Haki, their other attributes had not weakened, and the severe cold Yamato had created was also affecting his body.
Dragon knew perfectly well that continuing to drag things out like this would be anything but good for him. He kept searching for a way to break the deadlock, but had yet to find one.
The battle outside the ice dome had not stopped either. Although the quarry was merely a prison, it covered an enormous area. Garp had previously been switched away by Queen, and afterward the quarry descended into a chaotic melee with the appearance of the Five Elders.
Combined with Hercules being wounded by Ryokugyu for a time, Luffy’s attention was fully focused on it, so he did not notice Garp’s situation, which became even more the case after the ice dome was formed.
Dragon had arrived somewhat later, but Luffy did not recognize him. There had once been a time when Luffy had always believed he did not have a father at all. It was only by chance that he later learned that Dragon was his father.
He merely knew that he had a father named Dragon. As for what Dragon actually looked like, Luffy had no idea.
And strictly speaking… Hercules was more like the biological father who had raised Luffy despite not giving birth to him. Ever since Hercules’s intelligence stat started rising, the amount of help it gave Luffy had only increased.
Without Hercules, Luffy probably would have sunk to the bottom of the sea before ever reaching Reverse Mountain.
“Gum-Gum Rhino Schneider!”
Luffy kicked both feet toward Ryokugyu, but lost steam halfway through, his body immediately going limp and collapsing onto the ground. Battles at the Admiral level were wars of endurance—even with cheats, they would still have to fight for the better part of a day.
Hyogoro was currently still living with his wife in the Flower Capital, so there was no one to teach Luffy Armament Haki. Perhaps Luffy could pick up some techniques from Queen through watching and learning, but the amount of Haki he possessed had not increased.
Gear 4 already consumed an enormous amount of his Haki, and Yamato’s indiscriminate cold had further increased Luffy’s stamina consumption. After maintaining Gear 4 until now, Luffy’s Haki had finally hit rock bottom.
Ryokugyu naturally would not let such an opportunity slip by. During his fight with Queen, Luffy had repeatedly interfered from time to time, annoying Ryokugyu to no end. If Queen had not been so troublesome to deal with, he would have killed Luffy long ago.
Ryokugyu had no idea what was happening to Luffy, but that did not stop him from attacking. With a wave of his arm, sharp roots shot toward Luffy like spears. It was Hercules who grabbed him and temporarily dragged him away from the danger zone.
“Fat uncle, don’t you lose! I’ll come help you right away!”
Even while being dragged away, he shouted something at Queen. After temporarily fighting side by side, his brain seemed to have classified Queen as an ally for the moment.
“Tch, like I need your help? Give me a little more time and I’ll take this guy down myself.”
Queen was not grateful to Luffy in the slightest. Instead, he was rather annoyed by what he had said. But that annoyance quickly turned into fear.
“Looks like you’re a bit outmatched. Do you really need to rely on a rookie’s strength?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I can take him down by myself! Don’t interfere. Just stand over there and watch.”
Shayna’s voice coming from behind made Queen begin considering certain details.
For example, Yamato had told him earlier that if he took down Ryokugyu, she would cross off one entry.
It did not matter if Luffy joined the fight. Queen was confident he could kill steal the kill from Luffy anyway, so it would still count as him taking Ryokugyu down.
But Shayna was different. Her explosive power far surpassed Queen’s. If Shayna interfered, there was no telling who Ryokugyu’s head would end up belonging to. She might then use that as an excuse to invalidate the promise of crossing off one entry.
What if she used the long-forgotten “Queen Bowling”? If someone gets knocked dead by a bowling ball, should you blame the bowling ball or the person? The answer was obvious.
Thinking of those terrifying possibilities, Queen hurriedly stopped Shayna. But reality soon told him that he had simply been flattering himself.
“Who said I was going to help you? If you can’t even deal with the weakest one, then don’t you deserve to get beaten up? Your skin’s thick and your flesh is tough anyway. You definitely won’t die.
That old geezer isn’t easy to deal with. You look so confident, so good luck.”
As she spoke, Shayna simply sat down on the ground and began recovering her stamina. The Red Chain itself had no energy source. Although Shayna could use it to gain tremendously powerful strength, that power continuously drained her stamina.
To completely eliminate the lingering effects of Saturn’s black water, Shayna had spent a huge amount of stamina. Even a Lunarian needed some time to recover. The scales of the war had already tipped in their favor, so naturally she could take a moment to restore her stamina and prepare for the battles to come.
The defensive battle was over, but the counterattack had yet to begin.
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