"Hellhound!"
Sakazuki's arm morphed into a furious surge of magma—his fastest attack—slamming into Big Mom's arm as she swung Napoleon. Or rather... she blocked it?
"Tch... 'Iron Balloon.' What an infuriating power. Freakin' monster."
"Gravity Blade: Raging Tiger!"
A raging horizontal gravity wave combined with a crushing vertical force bore down on Big Mom's colossal form, pinning her in place and restricting her movement.
Still, while Fujitora's strikes couldn't damage the highest-ranking Homies—Zeus, Prometheus, and Napoleon—Wright's attacks could.
That made Fujitora's role support-focused: suppressing Big Mom with gravitational pressure while delivering punishing sword strikes.
Against someone like Big Mom—whose "Iron Balloon" physiology paired with Armament Haki formed an impenetrable defense—only Wright's soul-infused attacks were truly effective.
Fujitora didn't require any special battlefield conditions, so Wright deliberately left the surroundings free for Sakazuki's use.
"Volcanic Fist!"
The area around Sakazuki became a sea of molten fire. A titanic magma fist, cloaked in dense Armament Haki, erupted from the lava and came crashing down on Big Mom like a hammer from the end of the world.
The most explosively powerful Logia Fruit—Magma-Magma—had been pushed even further in the past two years by Sakazuki's relentless development.
Ace's mastery over the Flame-Flame Fruit had inspired him. Now, Sakazuki's magma wasn't just forceful—it burned even hotter.
He even incorporated Smoker's compression techniques—focusing the blast radius to further amplify the eruption's destructive force.
"Akainu!!"
Big Mom roared with laughter, and Napoleon—her massive saber—was now not only wreathed in blazing fire but also crackling with electric fury.
"Don't think you've got me beat just yet!"
"Cognac: Thunderfire Severance!"
BOOM!
Lightning and fire exploded together. Fueled by powerful Armament Haki, her strike shattered Sakazuki's volcanic fist.
With the Soul-Soul Fruit granting her mastery over elemental forces, Big Mom wielded natural power rivaling even true Logia users.
This blow—blending lightning and flame—could have rivaled a combined attack from Ace and Enel themselves.
"This castle is such a damn hassle!"
Sakazuki grunted, letting magma seethe and surge around him as he prepared another strike.
Unlike his battle with Wright, this fight took place atop the ninth and highest level of Whole Cake Castle. Even Sakazuki couldn't draw magma from the island's core at this height—
Doing so would annihilate the entire structure, collapsing the battlefield!
"Almost there..."
Wright gripped his blades tightly, his relentless onslaught never once letting up. From the very beginning, strike after strike had rained down, while execution blades periodically plunged from above Big Mom's head—forcing her onto the defensive.
If her three primary Homies took critical damage from soul-based attacks, even she would lose her deadliest weapons.
"Why can you hurt my Homies?!"
Big Mom was clearly being stifled by Wright, driven nearly mad—her Homies had been unstoppable across decades of conquest.
"Didn't Marco's phoenix flames also burn your Homies? Why act so shocked?"
Wright's retort made her face darken.
He was right. One of Marco's defining feats after becoming an Emperor was repelling Big Mom herself.
Undying, and able to scorch even souls, Marco used his phoenix flames, martial prowess, and potent Haki to force Big Mom off the frontlines, solidifying his place among the Emperors.
"That punk Marco! If I'd had enough souls back then, I'd have ended him!"
"Climbing over my head to reach the top—unforgivable!"
Hearing Marco's name made Big Mom even more furious. But at least now, she stopped fixating on why her Homies were vulnerable.
"You damn healers shouldn't exist in the first place!"
Big Mom let out a furious bellow that, frankly, had both Marines and pirates nodding in agreement across the battlefield:
"You bastards are the worst!"
By this point, even with her natural defense—"Iron Balloon"—and hardened Armament Haki, Big Mom was covered in wounds from the relentless assault by three of the Navy's top powerhouses.
And her counterattacks?
They had barely made a dent.
Two Admirals and one Fleet Admiral rarely bothered defending. No matter how severe the injuries, they regenerated in moments—
How the hell was she supposed to win?!
Back during the Summit War, Big Mom had laughed at Whitebeard—saying the old man couldn't even handle a single young Admiral.
But now?
She was discovering the brutal truth:
She couldn't handle them either.
Even worse, she was up against three enemies who literally didn't get injured.
That experience?
Absolutely hellish.
What's more, thanks to a perfect counter in ability, this Emperor—one of the mighty Four—was fighting with her hands tied.
This humiliating feeling?
She hadn't tasted it in decades.
She'd been looking forward to a glorious tea party—ready to sacrifice some mouthy rookie as an example and remind the world of her power.
But instead? The Straw Hat Pirates had shown her up with flashy tricks, and then the Navy's Fleet Admiral almost cleaved her in half with a surprise strike—
What an utterly miserable day!
Now utterly enraged and half-mad, Big Mom had only one thought left:
Rip out all their damn souls and devour them!
But even as the intense assault wore on, something in her finally clicked. Her wounds, her exhaustion, they were hammering home an unavoidable realization:
Was she going to die here today?!
For decades, the question of whether a Fleet Admiral or an Emperor was stronger had been hotly debated.
There had never been a true, to-the-death clash between them.
Even the legendary battle between former Fleet Admiral Kong and Red the Aloof—Patrick Redfield—ended with Kong yielding half a step only because of old age and exhaustion.
Such battles dragged on for days—sometimes even longer. That was the image people had of fights between top-tier powers.
Without several days of continuous, full-force combat, a clear victor simply couldn't emerge.
That's why peak combatants rarely went all-out. Unless it was a blood feud, a critical mission, or a battle where no one could interfere, they didn't risk it.
But the world had reached consensus on one truth:
No one could win against two top-tier powerhouses at once.
Not even Whitebeard in his prime could have triumphed over two Admirals simultaneously.
Even Patrick Redfield, with Pato's support, couldn't overcome three peak fighters.
Big Mom, relying solely on herself—even with the mighty Soul-Soul Fruit—could never defeat two Admirals and a Fleet Admiral.
The only question was:
How long could she last?
And after half a day of fighting?
It looked like Big Mom was finally hitting her limit.
Worse still, her opponents weren't just top-tier—
They didn't even bleed.
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