Under the towering structure of Whole Cake Island.
"Rayleigh! Whatever you're here for, right now, we have no choice but to work together!"
Aokiji swiftly stepped out of the alley and stood before the Dark King Rayleigh, his expression serious.
Rayleigh held a longsword in his hand, showing no intention of refusal.
He simply nodded, though his gaze was fixed on the father and son duo leisurely approaching across the icy surface in the distance.
"How do we handle this?" Rayleigh asked, turning to Aokiji.
At that moment, Zephyr approached and said in a deep voice, "Heh, never thought I'd get the chance to cooperate with the Pirate King's right-hand man. Rayleigh, I need to rescue my student Ain first. She's hidden inside this tower, but her presence is being masked by Kaido up there. It'll take some time to pinpoint her."
Rayleigh frowned, glancing around hesitantly. "I doubt these people will let you have your way."
Zephyr's expression turned cold, his demeanor icy.
Without another word, he swung his arm and dashed into the tower alone, not bothering to check if Aokiji followed him.
Gritting his teeth, Aokiji stared at Caesar and Katakuri on the ice and quickly said to Rayleigh.
"Rayleigh, this isn't the time for grudges. Here's the plan—I'll hold off those two. My abilities aren't suited for fighting inside the tower. You go in and assist Zephyr-sensei. With your combined strength, you should be able to suppress Kaido."
Rayleigh glanced at Caesar, gave Aokiji a long look and without another word, leaped into the tower.
High above, the hole in the sky had already swallowed Kaido's figure.
Aokiji took a deep breath, steadying himself.
Facing two opponents no weaker than him, even as a former Marine Admiral, he felt an immense pressure.
Caesar and his son strolled leisurely across the ice, utterly unbothered, their towering figures radiating disdain.
Their expressions practically screamed: All of you here are trash.
To shatter such overwhelming confidence and pressure, there was only one option—strike first and break the silence!
"Ice Ball!"
A burst of frost erupted beneath Aokiji's feet as he shot into the air, fingers interlaced.
A massive surge of icy torrent poured down directly onto Caesar and Katakuri.
BOOM!
Like an avalanche, the endless frost from Aokiji's palms engulfed the two in an instant, freezing them within a colossal, transparent block of ice dozens of meters wide.
From the outside, their massive figures could be seen trapped at its core.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Aokiji's expression shifted as he unleashed even more freezing currents from his palms.
Yet, despite the thickening ice, the two inside gradually began breaking free.
Katakuri's body suddenly contracted, turning into a stretchy mass of mochi before violently expanding, shattering the surrounding ice.
He didn't use his Soul Flame, as it only burned souls—useless against solid matter.
"A Logia user, huh? Aaah, as expected, not so easy to deal with."
Aokiji's face darkened as he turned his attention to Caesar.
When his gaze fell upon Caesar, Aokiji's expression changed.
At the center of the thick ice layer, Caesar's footsteps remained steady, never stopping.
Step by step, he walked through the thick ice as if strolling through a courtyard, unimpeded.
The solid ice blocks in his path were continuously compressed forward upon contact with his body, pressed downward by Caesar's advance.
"Hiss... What is this?" Aokiji inhaled sharply.
He had imagined many ways Caesar might break free from his restraints, but he never expected it would be through sheer physical strength—simply walking and compressing the ice layer to its limits, its hardness now surpassing steel, rivaling diamond.
The ice compressed by Caesar's steps shimmered under the cold moonlight with a crystalline brilliance, sparkling like diamonds!
What kind of monstrous physique was this?
This Caesar before him might very well be the world's strongest in raw physical power, surpassing even Kaido, the supposed "Strongest Creature"!
Seeing that the ice sphere couldn't restrain the two, Aokiji gritted his teeth and prepared to unleash his ultimate move.
An icy, bone-chilling aura erupted from his body as a frost-blue ring of ice exploded outward.
Landing firmly, Aokiji thrust his right arm straight toward the approaching Caesar.
"Armament! Pheasant Beak!"
The frigid cold rapidly formed a massive, ice-blue bird, its tail connected to Aokiji's palm.
The colossal creature lunged forward, its sharp beak gleaming with a sharpness rivaling that of a Supreme Grade sword, infused with Haki.
In Aokiji's hands, its power was no less than a Supreme Haki Infusion attack!
The ice bird was composed of ice compressed to its absolute limit, its hardness comparable to a diamond.
Without the countering effect of fire-based abilities, this move could defeat the vast majority of his opponents.
Faced with such a terrifying strike, Caesar reacted.
He raised his immensely thick right arm brimming with unparalleled resilience and strength.
Just clenching his fist caused the surrounding air to crack under the pressure.
Caesar's eyes flashed.
No fancy technique names like "Mountain Splitter" or "Ocean Sunderer"—just a straightforward punch, wreathed in black-red lightning, tearing through the void.
His overwhelming Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki intertwined, forming a force of terrifying magnitude.
BOOM!!
Before even making contact with Aokiji's Pheasant beak, the air between Caesar's massive fist and the bird's beak compressed layer by layer, brewing a dreadful pressure.
Black-red lightning crackled violently and thunder rumbled in the sky above—Caesar's power alone was altering the weather.
In the span of a single second, the mountain-sized ice-blue bird shattered inch by inch from its beak, its colossal body disintegrating layer after layer.
The black-red lightning annihilated all ice in its path as Caesar's towering frame descended like a falling mountain, his fist driving straight towards Aokiji's face.
Aokiji was stunned, unable to believe his strongest technique had been so effortlessly obliterated.
Instinctively, he tried to shift into his elemental form to evade Caesar's devastating punch.
However, when Caesar threw his punch, it felt as though the entire sky and earth had overturned, pressing down mercilessly on Aokiji's body.
The terrifying pressure directly shattered his ice-formed prosthetic limb, forcing him to drop to one knee with a thud.
His eyes bulged, filled with horror.
'Impossible! How can he be this strong? This level of power surpasses even an Admiral, surpasses the Yonko, even surpasses Whitebeard—it rivals Roger himself!'
A storm of shock raged in Aokiji's heart.
The reason he had infiltrated Blackbeard Teach's crew was to seize a critical moment to sabotage him, ensuring one of his grand schemes would fail.
Aokiji believed that Blackbeard, having obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit capable of absorbing all abilities and the Tremor-Tremor Fruit capable of destroying everything, had already become the most terrifying tyrant in the New World.
Though Blackbeard's power was far from its peak, Aokiji had still struggled bitterly in their usual sparring matches, ultimately losing to him.
Yet, if Blackbeard were compared to the Caesar before him now, Aokiji felt it was like comparing a child to an adult—utterly incomparable!
BOOM!!!
Amid Aokiji's frantic thoughts, a massive black-and-red fist tore through space and slammed into his chest, sending his body hurtling diagonally upward.
In an instant, he shattered through the towering cake structure, piercing clean through the massive spire like a cannonball, vanishing at blinding speed into the distance.
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