Weapon Fruit vs. Momo Fruit, Thousand Cherry Blossoms Clashes Head-On with Multiplier

"Hey!"

"Snap out of it."

"Old man."

After Bondy Wald broke free from the ice, he stood there muttering to himself as though possessed.

"Marines."

Hearing Zefa's voice, Bondy Wald's bloodshot eyes, as vicious as those of an asura demon, immediately stabbed toward him. Upon seeing Zefa's attire and realizing he was a Marine, a ferocious glint flashed in his eyes. Yet he seemed to find Zefa somewhat familiar, and his movement to spring into action paused slightly.

"Are you Zefa?"

Bondy Wald looked Zefa over, not entirely certain.

Compared to before being frozen, Zefa had aged several decades.

"I'm surprised you still recognize me!"

Zefa was somewhat taken aback.

"How did you become such an old ghost?"

Bondy Wald failed to react for a moment.

"Isn't that normal?"

"It's been twenty-six years since we last met."

Zefa's words were like a thunderclap from clear skies, leaving Bondy Wald stunned.

"Twenty-six years?"

"So the Marines froze me for twenty-six years!"

Bondy Wald swept his gaze across the ice fragments on the ground, his expression shifting constantly.

Twenty-six years.

First came his subordinates' betrayal, then the World Government freezing him, followed by the Marines imprisoning him.

Though he had been unconscious all these years, Zefa's words caused killing intent to surge through his heart. Violent by nature, he was instantly filled with overwhelming murderous rage.

"That's right."

Zefa nodded.

"Why did you let me out?"

Bondy Wald forcibly restrained the killing intent that kept erupting within him.

He had already sorted it out.

He had not broken free from the ice himself. Zefa had released him.

"Forget it."

"I don't care why you did it."

"Right now, all I want is to kill every one of those traitors, then finish everything I intended to do twenty-six years ago but never completed."

Bondy Wald casually picked up a chunk of ice.

"I don't know why you released me, but it doesn't matter."

"For the sake of giving me my freedom back, I'll give you five seconds to disappear from before my eyes."

"Otherwise, you and everything here will disappear together!"

A bone-chilling killing aura erupted from his body.

His subordinates' betrayal.

Twenty-six years of imprisonment.

These had accumulated far too much resentment and fury in World Destroyer's heart. He needed the Marines of this sea, the World Government, and his former traitors to vent the hatred and rage within him.

"What a pity."

"You're not going anywhere."

"In exchange for granting you brief freedom, the only thing you can do is become training material for my students."

Zefa stared coldly at Bondy Wald.

"Either die at my student's hands, or die at mine."

"The choice is yours."

"Bondy Wald."

He spoke each word distinctly.

"If those pieces of trash hadn't betrayed me back then, do you useless Marines think you could've caught me?"

"Not leaving, huh?"

"Then don't leave. Die here with your student and that Marine over there!"

Bondy Wald laughed in fury. Not only did he not flee, he clenched the ice in his palm into four ice shards and casually hurled them out.

Multiplier: 30x Gun.

He did not seem to use much strength, but the instant the four ice shards left his hand, they emitted a shriek that made everyone's scalp tingle. Like bullets fired from a barrel, they shot toward Rosen, Zefa, Borsalino, and Shiliew amid spiraling currents of air.

This was World Destroyer.

Arrogant beyond measure.

Whether it was a former Navy Admiral or a current Admiral Candidate, he targeted all four the moment he attacked.

"The bell for class has rung."

Facing the incoming ice shards, Zefa neither dodged nor moved. He merely stood where he was and spoke to Rosen.

"Scatter, Thousand Cherry Blossoms."

Hearing this, Rosen stepped forward and drew Thousand Cherry Blossoms from his waist with his right hand.

Purple light flashed brilliantly across the blade. Then, starting from the tip, it shattered layer by layer. The entire blade transformed into cherry blossoms that filled the sky, weaving themselves into a purple vortex that enveloped the four incoming ice shards like a storm of blades.

Holding Thousand Cherry Blossoms with only its hilt remaining, Rosen gave it a light swing.

Amid the sound of metal clashing, the ice shards whose speed had been multiplied thirtyfold by World Destroyer's Momo Fruit were directly crushed into debris by the Cherry Blossom Blades.

"So this is your student?"

"He has some strength."

"But only some."

Bondy Wald raised his chin and shot Rosen a disdainful glance. Then he lifted his foot and violently kicked the largest chunk of solid ice on the ground.

Multiplier: 50x Cannon.

After an utterly ordinary block of ice was kicked out by him, its volume instantly increased fiftyfold.

Its speed was even more terrifying.

After its volume increased fiftyfold, the ice block's speed through the air did not decrease. Instead, it also increased fiftyfold.

Fortunately, the space on this level of Infinite Hell was spacious enough. Moreover, the materials used to build this prison level were either incomparably hard rock, Seastone, or metal. With Zefa and Borsalino standing by as well, the prison suffered no damage.

"So this is a true pirate?"

"It's completely different from the previous exchanges."

Facing the incoming ice block, as massive as a small mountain and moving at several times the speed of sound—no, an iceberg—

Rosen felt unprecedented pressure in his heart.

It differed from his exchange with Tokikake and Gion, which had merely been sparring between classmates.

It also differed from his earlier Conqueror's Haki clash with Douglas Bullet, where there had been no danger regardless of who won or lost.

Fighting Bondy Wald meant deciding not only victory and defeat, but life and death.

Every instant was like dancing on a blade's edge—dangerous and thrilling.

It was both pressure upon his mental will and a test of his physical strength.

Any carelessness, any moment of slackness, would determine not just victory or defeat, but life or death.

This is what a battle should be!

Experiencing this kind of battle for the first time, Rosen felt the blood in his body—no, even his Haki—boiling along with it.

He felt no discomfort and not the slightest bit of nervousness. Instead, under Bondy Wald's attack brimming with killing intent, his mental will tightened as never before, and his body's potential erupted in full.

As the iceberg came hurtling through the air, Rosen abruptly raised the hilt in his hand. Armament Haki surged from within him like a gushing torrent, winding around the thousands of Cherry Blossom Blades.

This was the first time he had combined Haki with his Fruit ability in actual combat.

Hardened beneath the coating of Armament Haki, the blades that had originally drifted through the air like cherry blossoms, blooming with dazzling purple light, all gained a layer of black.

They lost some of their romantic beauty, but gained a solemn, murderous depth.

Armament: Thousand Cherry Blossoms.

Rosen lightly swung the hilt in his right hand.

Thousands of Haki-coated blades surged into the sky like a storm, weaving into a massive black hand of cherry blossoms before forcefully pressing down upon the incoming iceberg.

A tearing sound rang out.

A clearly visible handprint first appeared on the iceberg, which then began sinking continuously. In an instant, Armament: Thousand Cherry Blossoms cut straight through it. The black hand then burst apart, shooting out in all directions like a rain of pear blossoms.

In the blink of an eye, the iceberg fragments that had been split into several pieces were ground into dust, turning into icy particles. As the black Thousand Cherry Blossoms danced through the air, a beautiful and romantic ice rain fell within the lightless Infinite Hell.