"Ice Age..." Samuel Kronos was the first to fully recover from the sudden upheaval.
A rare ripple of emotion entered his normally even voice, and his eerie green eyes instantly locked onto the tall figure slowly emerging in the doorway.
"The former Admiral... 'Aokiji,' Kuzan."
At the entrance, the icy mist slowly dispersed.
A tall man dressed like a drifter leaned casually against the doorframe, a small bag slung over his back.
One hand rested in his trouser pocket, while the other held a cup of... uh, fruit juice that had also frozen solid?
A little umbrella still protruded from the rim.
Kuzan tilted his head slightly. Beneath his curly black hair and small round sunglasses was a sleepy face, as though he had yet to fully wake up.
"Yo." Kuzan offered a lazy greeting. His gaze swept over everyone in the hall, all braced for a formidable enemy, before settling on Blackbeard at the head of the table.
"Quite a lively gathering, Marshall D. Teach.
"I came uninvited. Hope I'm not interrupting your banquet."
His tone was as casual as if he were dropping by a neighbor's house, but the invisible chill radiating from him
kept driving the temperature in the hall downward. Delicate frost crystals even began forming on the walls and floor.
"You bastard..." The wild grin on Blackbeard's face had long since frozen, replaced by shock and fury.
He stared daggers at Kuzan!
Why was he here?! Had he silently frozen all of Hachinosu's outskirts?
Even Pizarro and Wolf had been taken down in an instant?
Just how terrifying were the speed and range of his freezing?!
What alarmed Blackbeard even more was that Kuzan had appeared right in the heart of his stronghold!
What about the perimeter guards, the traps, the patrols?
*Had they all,