Explosive! Ice Withered

One lock-on had unlocked three forms of Sword Intent at once. That was a real boost in power.

He had never expected the Sword Intent he had struggled to grasp all this time to unlock this way.

Especially Cold River Sword Intent.

It might not have looked particularly impressive in The Legend of Qin, but in this world, it was absolutely overpowered!

His eyes swept across the panel. (Only changes shown.)

Hundred-Pace Flying Sword: max (Sword Intent activated: 100/1000000);

Crossing the Eight Directions: max (Sword Intent activated: 100/1000000);

Cold River Sword Intent: 100/1000000;

Of course, all this happened in Dongze's mind. Outside, only an instant had passed. Seeing Aokiji's smug look—as if to say, You can't hit me—Dongze's lips curved.

He had found the perfect way to deal with Aokiji!

Sword Intent touched upon the World Rules. Once activated, its power was nearly on par with an awakened Devil Fruit ability.

"Hey, kid! Don't waste your energy. I'm a Logia user. You can't hit me!"

Confident that his Observation Haki far surpassed Dongze's, Aokiji did not even bother dodging the Slashing attacks. He simply turned elemental and closed in fast.

He had settled on his plan earlier: fight at close range. He could not let Dongze use that move that had left him standing helpless again. It was far too embarrassing for a Marine Admiral.

"The wind howls, the Cold River chills!"

Aokiji suddenly heard those words. Then a sword flash slashed diagonally toward him, blooming before his eyes.

"Hey, kid! I told you—"

Before Aokiji could finish, the Cold River Sword Intent hidden within the Armament Haki erupted.

The bitter cold stirred the World Rules and sealed Aokiji in ice in an instant.

What the hell?!

Frozen solid, Aokiji was dumbstruck. It was bad enough that his elemental transformation had failed. Now someone had actually frozen him.

He was an Ice-Ice Fruit user whose power had already awakened. With a flick of his finger, he could turn fifty kilometers of sea into a Glacier. Yet a Pirate Hunter had frozen him.

What kind of nightmare was this?

"..."

"Hey, Miss Robin, am I seeing things?"

"No! I must be blind. I wanted Dongze to win so badly that I'm hallucinating. How embarrassing!"

Then they both blurted out, "Wait! What did you see?"

"Marine Admiral Aokiji got frozen!"

"The ice guy got frozen!"

Hearing each other's answers, they both froze.

"It wasn't an illusion?"

They spoke in unison.

"What the hell?"

"This is unreal!"

But the sight did not last long. Aokiji's Devil Fruit ability had also awakened. As two identical rules collided, a dense series of cracks raced across the solid block of ice.

Crack!

Crack!

Bang!

Aokiji shattered the ice, sending crystals flying everywhere, then stepped out.

Looking at the young man before him, Aokiji wore a gravity he had never shown since joining the Marines, along with shock he could not hide.

With a rueful smile, Aokiji said, "This is ridiculous. I never thought I'd be the one getting frozen!"

"If I told Mr. Garp, he'd probably think I'd lost my mind!"

"Hey, did that really just happen?"

Even now, Aokiji could hardly believe what had happened to him. It overturned everything he thought he knew.

"Kid, did you eat an Ice-Ice Fruit too?"

"No."

"But you froze me! I'm the Ice-Ice Fruit user! Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to be the one freezing you!"

"Can you tell me what you did?"

"Didn't Garp tell you what's unusual about me?"

"Nope! Mr. Garp only said you'd mastered Haki and had astonishing Swordsmanship!"

Dongze thought for a moment but did not answer. Since Garp had chosen to keep it secret for him, now was not the time to reveal it.

Aokiji was not an ally, and his attitude toward Robin was strange. This time, Dongze trusted Garp's judgment.

After this fight, Aokiji might well put him on the wanted list. If he stood out too much, he would inevitably draw the World Government's attention. That went against his plans. If his secret was ever exposed, it would be after he had the power to protect himself.

One Aokiji was already this hard to handle. Against more enemies, he might simply be overwhelmed.

"Do you think my ship can carry her now?"

Dongze changed the subject, and Aokiji did not press him. It was a personal matter, after all.

"Sorry. I still need to make sure!"

As Aokiji spoke, an Ice Saber appeared in his hand.

A Shattering Ice Wither

"Ice Age!"

The cold shout rang out. It was the same move, but Dongze's expression changed.

This time, it was not just the sea that froze. The surrounding air froze with it.

With his Ice-Ice Fruit awakened, Aokiji had touched the rules of nature. It was like the Shichibukai Heavenly Yaksha Doflamingo's awakened String-String Fruit, which could affect the objects around him.

Aokiji's awakened ability was the Frozen Domain. If he wished, he could instantly freeze anything that contained water.

For anyone whose Haki was not strong enough, this ability was almost impossible to counter, because the freezing worked from the inside out, not the outside in.

The cold erupted so fast that Dongze was sealed in ice before he could react.

With his Devil Fruit power fully unleashed, the cold was not only several times stronger; its speed also surpassed what ordinary Observation Haki could track.

A flicker of awe crossed Dongze's eyes. He still remembered seeing Aokiji take down the Heavenly Yaksha Doflamingo in an instant. The speed of that burst of cold had been absurd!

Doflamingo had been turned into an ice block before he could even extend his hand. He had not dared make a threat until he reached a safe distance, afraid Aokiji might decide to keep him there.

Now the cold was nearly ten times faster. The instant Aokiji finished speaking, the freezing was complete.

At that moment, a cold glint flashed in Dongze's eyes, and Cold River Sword Intent bloomed again.

Then Dongze's gaze shifted. To his surprise, that single exchange had raised his Cold River Sword Intent by nearly a hundred thousand points.

He had never seen proficiency surge so unnaturally before. Even a blow from Garp coated in Armament Haki had only increased his own Armament Haki by five thousand points.

And Sword Intent was a technique on an even higher level.

Yet a single clash with Aokiji had sent it soaring by nearly a hundred thousand points.

A thought flashed through his mind.

He looked at Aokiji, eyes burning with excitement.

He was not thinking about how old men were secretly monsters, how absurdly strong Aokiji was, or why Sword Intent had gained so much when it made no sense.

He had only one thought.

"I'm going to exploit this bug!"

In that instant, Cold River Sword Intent surged once more.

Under Aokiji's dumbfounded gaze, Dongze stepped out of the ice, just as Aokiji had earlier.

Dongze sheathed Forgotten Dust, then struck the Sword Case on his back. He triggered its mechanism and drew out an extravagantly costly sword.

It was a standard longsword made of gold. During his trip to Sky Island, he had prepared five spares.

Gold conducted electricity well, but it was too soft to be suitable for Sword-Forging.

Gold Essence, however, was another matter. Using Enel's Thunder Metallurgy, he had melted an entire ton of gold and refined it into Gold Essence before forging that longsword.

Given the peculiar nature of Sword Intent, he had made five spare longswords. Terrifying techniques like Erosion Sword Intent were more than ordinary weapons could withstand.

Even Forgotten Dust, which he had crafted with painstaking care and reinforced with Armament Haki countless times, had begun to buckle after carrying Erosion Sword Intent only a few times.

That was why he had prepared five golden longswords on Sky Island—essentially disposable weapons.

Armament Haki quickly covered the longsword. He raised it upright to shoulder height, then ran the index and middle fingers of his left hand swiftly along the blade.

A cluster of ice crystals sprang from the hilt. Frost raced over the blade, turning its once-radiant surface ice blue.

Aokiji did not stop him. He watched quietly from the side as a pure-white ice flower silently bloomed deep in his eyes.

The instant its sixth petal opened, Aokiji became an ice sculpture.

At the same time, the sky began to change violently.

Nearly twenty kilometers away, Enel felt a sudden jolt of alarm. He grabbed Robin and retreated at full speed.

He did not stop until they were almost fifty kilometers away.

"What's wrong, lightning guy?"

Enel's face darkened. His voice carried a tremor even he did not notice. "Just now, the free-floating electrical elements in the air were forced out. I've never felt anything like it."

"The area within fifty kilometers has become a dead zone. I can't believe that ice guy developed his Devil Fruit power this far. Hey, Miss Robin, are all Marine Admirals like this?"

Robin's heart jolted. If things were as Enel said, electrical elements could not have been the only ones driven out. She suspected the other elements had been stripped away as well.

That meant only one element remained within fifty kilometers: ice.

"Can a person really reach that level?"

Enel clenched his fists, longing plain on his face.

"Is this the limit of a Logia Devil Fruit?"

"A mortal body with the power of a god!"

Just then, two roars broke through the distance and reached their ears.

"The wind howls, the Cold River chills!"

"Ice Wither!"

A terrifying surge of cold shot toward the sky. Snow began falling across hundreds of kilometers, while pillars of ice extended deeper and deeper beneath the sea, reaching even the Sea Kings roaming in its depths.

To their utter astonishment, the ice sealed them away.

At last, the true terror of an awakened Ice-Ice Fruit was on full display.

The two hiding in the air shuddered. For a moment, it felt as though they had been transported straight into a kingdom of ice and snow.

Ahead of them, the sky held no trace of life.

Robin swallowed and tugged at Enel's clothes. "Lightning guy, who won?"

Pallid white covered everything. Fifty kilometers was too far for human eyes to see what had happened; only Observation Haki could tell them.

That was why Robin had asked.

Enel's brows drew together until they nearly met. "I don't know!"

Without free-floating electrical elements, fifty kilometers was his limit.