"Why!?"
At the edge of the Iceland sinkhole, Bullet frowned as he stared into its pitch-black depths and asked in confusion.
"I remember you're a Flame-Flame Fruit user, right? Why didn't you use elementalization to dodge my attack? You should've been able to avoid it."
After Bullet finished speaking, the sinkhole remained quiet for a long time. Only after a dozen breaths did the crisp sound of ice cracking ring out.
"Cough, cough..."
"Because... I don't want to lose, either..."
"Just like you pursue your path to the strongest, I'm pursuing my own path to the strongest too."
"Strength... speed... vitality... defense... Devil Fruit... swordsmanship... martial arts... Armament Haki... Observation Haki... Conqueror's Haki..."
"A person's energy is limited in the end, but no matter which one it is, I want to become the strongest."
"So even though I knew I wasn't your match, I still wanted to see exactly where the gap between you and me was..."
As his words ended, the sinkhole was gradually lit up by dazzling flames, and Ye Mu's figure flew out of it once more.
Only, at this moment, Ye Mu truly looked somewhat battered. The clothes all over his body were already torn to shreds, and as steam rose from him, his bare, lean, powerful body was exposed.
But at that moment, Bullet finally stopped looking at Ye Mu with that contemptuous gaze of his and, for the first time, looked at Ye Mu properly.
"Why... Since you're like me, pursuing the path to the strongest, you should understand..."
"Only strength that belongs to one person alone is true strength..."
"Things like companions only make people weak..."
Bullet said coldly, while Ye Mu glanced toward the distant Twin Goddesses.
"That's probably because the ways we believe prove our respective paths to the strongest are