Clash of Wills

Imu's gaze.

Luffy's gaze.

Their eyes met across the space between them.

It was no physical collision.

It was a head-on clash of wills.

In an instant,

the hundreds of meters of empty space between them froze.

Time seemed to stop.

The howling wind and snow fell silent.

Ice shards dancing wildly through the sky hung motionless.

The surging air hardened like iron.

Far away, the sea raged with towering waves.

The sound of the surf vanished.

Heaven and earth fell still.

A silence that made the scalp crawl.

At the center of that clash, air ceased to flow and sound could not travel.

Light twisted and stretched.

Pressure.

Pressure that threatened to tear souls apart.

Across the hellish battlefield, every fighter who could still extend their senses felt that crushing force at the same instant.

It swept across the ice field like a silent tsunami.

Whitebeard stood amid the monsters' corpses.

His great hand tightened around Murakumogiri's shaft.

Crack.

His knuckles popped.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on the brow of the man who had towered over the Four Blues.

Rocks stood in a pool of blood not far away.

His arrogant face went taut.

His brows drew together.

The overwhelming Armament Haki within him spilled out on its own.

It formed a thick layer of black defense.

His body had instinctively raised its strongest guard against a mortal threat.

At the edge of the battlefield,

Zoro lay on the ground, drenched in blood.

The muscles of his right arm were badly torn, and his blood had stained the snow red.

The instant the pressure swept over him, the muscles in his numb right arm tightened by reflex.

His rough fingers clamped around Enma's hilt beneath him.

Enma gave a low hum.

Everyone's heart skipped a beat.

The monsters