[The next day, the Canopy Screen began broadcasting right on time.]
[Ao leaned on his cane and slowly approached the enormous block of dark ice sealing Myotismon. A cautious, searching light flickered in his one eye as he prepared to pry more information about Nine Nether and the traitor within Kirigakure from the captive.]
[Crack...]
[The faint but unmistakable sound of breaking ice rang through the silent valley, piercingly sharp.]
[Ao stopped dead, his pupil contracting.]
[A tiny crack had appeared without warning on the surface of the seemingly indestructible, deep-blue ice! It spread and branched rapidly, fanning out like a spiderweb!]
["Not good!"]
[Aokiji, Sakazuki, and Smoker sensed the sudden surge of hateful, violent Dark Energy within the ice almost simultaneously. Their expressions changed, and they flashed in front of Ao.]
["Teacher Ao! Get back!" Sakazuki growled.]
[But it was too late!]
[Boom! Rumble!]
[The massive block of ice exploded! Countless sharp crystals, wreathed in Dark Energy, shot in every direction like shrapnel!]
[Then a viscous, blood-red pillar of energy more than ten meters across erupted from the center of the shattered ice and soared into the sky! It reeked of blood and radiated bone-deep malice and a madness that made the soul tremble!]
[A hoarse, twisted roar, as though born from the wails of countless wronged souls, echoed across the valley and even reached distant Kirigakure:]
["You forced me to do this! I'll drag you and all of Kirigakure into an eternal hell of blood!"]
[The scarlet pillar slowly faded, revealing the figure within.]
[It was no longer the Myotismon they had seen before. His body had swollen to several times its former size, and his skin had turned the dark purple-black of a bruise, covered in writhing veins and scorch-like marks.]
[His once-aristocratic clothes hung in tatters,