Under the searing pain, Kaido's massive Azure Dragon form compressed like a giant spring, coiling tightly toward his center.
In the blink of an eye, he shifted into his hybrid dragon-man form, known for its agility and precision.
Reaching behind him into the thick mane of his back, he drew out his massive spiked club—Hassaikai.
A torrent of Conqueror's Haki surged outward. As Kaido raised the club and brought it crashing down, black lightning crackled around the weapon, enveloping every spike of the Hassaikai.
Descent of the Three Realms: Draw into Naraku!
The Conqueror's Haki-infused black lightning crackled wildly across the club's entire surface. It descended like a judgment from the underworld, bearing the will to crush all in its path.
Everyone who saw the strike felt an illusory horror—as though they themselves were about to be pulverized into pulp by the Hassaikai.
That was the true terror of advanced Conqueror's Haki—it didn't just strike the body. It struck the soul, shaking one's will, making retreat or collapse feel like the only escape.
Even the Red Scabbards, the All-Stars, and the Sweet Commanders, caught in their own fierce battles, couldn't help but pause and look over—drawn in by Kaido's desperate yet overwhelming blow.
But what they saw next defied belief.
Facing this world-breaking strike… Roya didn't move.
He merely stood there, calm and composed, smiling faintly as the Hassaikai descended toward him.
Suddenly—the black lightning vanished.
Gone without a trace.
Kaido's hybrid form buckled like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsing on the spot. He reverted into his human form.
Only then did Roya lazily extend his right hand—and with a simple flick of his finger—
Ting!
The massive Hassaikai spun backward, wrenched from Kaido's grasp, and flipped through the air.
It crashed squarely between Kaido's two dragon horns, knocking the giant to the ground with a thunderous crash.
Everyone watching finally realized the truth—
The power behind Roya's punch earlier… had not been fully spent.
Even though Kaido had used his reversed dragon scales to redirect and nullify the external force, the true destructive energy of that blow had already ravaged him from the inside out.
"What kind of fist technique is this?! How could it destroy all of my internal energy flow?!"
Kaido gritted his teeth and pushed himself up from the ground, equal parts furious and shocked, staring at Roya.
Roya chuckled lightly.
"That punch didn't just disrupt your energy circulation."
"You have only yourself to blame—for being too greedy. All that gene material you handed over to Vegapunk in exchange for forbidden resources from the World Government…"
Kaido's pupils shrank.
He couldn't believe it.
Roya's strength had reached a point where he could damage an opponent's body on a genetic level?
"That… That was something even Rocks was only theorizing about... the concept of enhancing internal destruction through Armament Haki... it wasn't even realized in his day…"
Kaido lowered his head—and saw his legs were rapidly shrinking, withering.
A wave of death was rising from deep within them, consuming his life force from the inside out.
It made perfect sense.
Those legs, in his Azure Dragon form, were his tail—and that was exactly where Roya's punch had landed.
"Kaido! Open your mouth!"
Nearby, Charlotte Linlin, who had been toying with Nekomamushi like a cat with prey, suddenly shouted with urgency.
Realizing the seriousness of Kaido's injury, her voice was filled with panic.
At the same time, she lifted an entire table piled high with completed and half-finished desserts and hurled it toward Kaido.
Kaido instantly understood her intent.
He twisted his form, transforming back into his reverse-scale Azure Dragon state.
Opening his endless, abyssal maw, he swallowed the entire table and all the desserts in one gulp.
Roya's brow furrowed. He hadn't expected Kaido to resort to such a desperate, self-sacrificial act.
He realized now—
Big Mom hadn't brought her dessert corps for mere presentation.
Those "sweets" were infused with specially engineered super-sugar compounds—a byproduct of her gigantification experiments, created with Caesar Clown's help.
They could alter the very genetic composition of the consumer, drawing directly from their life force to convert them into massive, uncontrollable blobs of fat.
If someone like Hiyori had eaten just one bite, her tall, slender figure would have immediately transformed into a grotesque, round balloon of flesh.
Even if the fat were cut off with a blade, the body—under the effect of the sugar compounds—would consume life energy to rapidly regenerate the lost mass, sometimes producing ten times as much in retaliation.
Cruel and terrifying.
But undeniably—this twisted creation worked on the genetic level, and could temporarily stabilize Kaido's collapsing body.
And it did.
In front of everyone's dumbfounded eyes, Kaido's once-majestic 100-meter Azure Dragon form suddenly ballooned—
Becoming a 20-meter-wide flying sausage-shaped tube.
And his reverse dragon scales were still bristling comically across his swollen body.
It was… both horrifying and ridiculous.
But it worked.
The necrosis in his tail stopped. His body was beginning to stabilize and regenerate.
Yet the sight was so absurd that the gathered crowd could barely contain their laughter.
Only fear of Kaido's usual wrath kept them holding it in—though many looked ready to burst.
Hiyori, remembering Roya's serious warning not to touch the sweets, trembled with relief—and couldn't help but giggle.
Her bell-like laughter rang out across the otherwise silent plaza, utterly shattering what remained of Kaido's dignity.
"Roya…! If I don't kill you… I swear I'm not a man!"
Kaido had survived.
But something far more precious had been lost.
With a feral roar, he re-entered his dragon-man hybrid form.
But the super-obese state he'd entered clung to him like a curse, not loosening its grip.
Kaido was now even fatter than Charlotte Linlin—by at least three times!
Five thick chins layered atop his massive chest.
Once-hardened abs were now jiggling mounds of fat.
Each breath caused waves of blubber to ripple through his entire body.
The sheer discomfort of it all made Kaido want to dig a hole and bury himself—preferably after cutting off all this fat, even if it meant being reduced to a skeleton.
He turned his head.
His flabby neck and cheeks wobbled grotesquely.
His eyes, squeezed into slits by the folds of fat, were filled with a look of utter despair.
He turned to Linlin.
"Linlin… use that move."
"Use it to kill Roya. And then… kill me, as fast as you can. Faster!."
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