"Are You the Legendary Child of Destiny?"

"Hmph, you arrogant little brat!"

Yomi's freezing air and strange black flame clouds wafted from Saint Nusjuro's skeletal body.

Hearing Zoro's provocation, he flew into a rage, the ghostfire in his eye sockets flickering violently.

"Though I admit that your swordsmanship is indeed formidable, even beyond my expectations."

"But if you think you can defeat me, with this 'immortal body' of mine that can revive infinitely... you frog at the bottom of a well, you're eight hundred years too early!"

Meanwhile, at the other end of the battlefield, high in the sky.

Bang!

A leather shoe burning with Golden Demon God's Fire and a Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi gleaming with dazzling aurora clashed viciously one final time in midair.

Golden sparks and photons burst over the sea like fireworks.

They separated at a touch.

Kizaru turned into a mass of photons in midair and pulled back, reforming his body.

He adjusted his sunglasses and glanced at the boiling Great Sea below and the falling city. A trace of relief appeared on his ever-carefree face.

"Oh my... it seems there is no need to keep fighting, little chef."

Kizaru dismissed the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi and slipped his hands back into his pockets, his tone carrying the keen judgment characteristic of a Navy Admiral.

"The clash between those two monsters has decided everything. This war... is about to end."

Sanji snorted coldly as the Demon God's Fire on his right leg slowly died down.

He took out a fresh cigarette and lit it. He did not refute Kizaru, because he too understood that in the face of a World-Ending calamity like this, continuing such a meaningless war of attrition was no longer realistic.

Just then.

From the boiling sea below, evaporated by the high temperature and shrouded in thick mist, a rapid, ringing cry suddenly rose!

"Luffy!!!"