Cut in Two

Lofan spat out a mouthful of blood as he rose to his feet, but he did not rush to attack.

He kept his presence firmly locked onto Kaido, rapidly weighing the pros and cons and searching for a solution.

Aizen Template progress: 41%

Hōgyoku locked.

Soul Reaper abilities came first from the Zanpakuto in his hand.

It was forged using one's own soul as its model, a power governed by rules.

Second came Kidō and Hadō.

They were forms of spellcraft, manifestations of using the soul to connect with the world's power.

He had inherited Aizen's vast, profound Reiatsu, though he had yet to develop it fully.

Even so, his recovery and endurance were enough to rival a Devil Fruit.

This was also one of the things Lofan relied on in facing Kaido.

And Lofan had never fully tested these abilities at full strength on anyone in this world.

Though it was somewhat overconfident of him, Lofan wanted to know.

Could the Soul Reaper powers he had inherited injure the strongest fighters in the pirate world?

Lofan had studied the differences between Soul Reaper Zanjutsu and the swordsmanship of the pirate world.

Soul Reaper Zanjutsu relied on Reiatsu and the soul to manifest its unique power governed by rules.

It was not the sort of subtle mastery achieved through supreme technique in the pirate world.

Since he had never directly faced peerless fighters renowned for their swordsmanship, such as Hawkeye or Red-Haired Shanks,

Lofan did not know whether physical strength made their swordsmanship so powerful, or whether there was another explanation.

At any rate, he had found none himself.

That moment of thought also let Lofan swiftly make up his mind.

Even if he was being overconfident, he still had Illusion to fall back on, but he would only have one chance at an experiment like this.

Lofan swept his left hand.

"Hadō #99: Five Dragon Destruction."

Kaido remained where he stood, still clearly sensing Lofan's presence locked onto him.

His Observation Haki told him that his opponent had likewise made no move for a brief moment.

Kaido had taken two slashes from Lofan, neither of which had pierced his defenses, setting his mind firmly at ease.

He wanted to see whether his opponent could still surprise him.

Now, the enormous dragon-shaped Reiatsu Lofan released flew through the air, destroying everything in its path.

The shattered ground and uprooted giant trees testified to the ferocity of this attack.

But a sharp gleam gathered in Kaido's eyes, and he reached out with his left hand to pin down the blue-purple dragon's head.

The tremendous forces clashing against each other whipped up a storm.

At the center of their contact, the ground beneath Kaido's feet caved in.

His black hair flew wildly like writhing snakes, making him look like a true demon descended upon the world.

Kaido's arrogance and misjudgment had momentarily trapped him in a contest against the Reiatsu Lofan had released.

At that moment, Lofan shook his shoulders, and before his Justice Coat could hit the ground, he had already vanished.

Lofan flashed swiftly to Kaido's left side, gripped his sword's hilt with both hands, and raised it high.

But rather than coat the blade in Armament Haki, Lofan chose another approach.

The opening of less than half a second would originally have been enough for Lofan to deliver more than a dozen slashes.

But ineffective attacks would only waste his stamina.

This was the first time Lofan had completely unleashed all his power that belonged solely to a Soul Reaper.

The denser a Soul Reaper's Reiatsu, the stronger their power, a principle that worked similarly to Haki.

And as for Aizen's Reiatsu,

Even before he fused with the Hōgyoku, it ranked firmly among the top three of all the characters who appeared in Soul Reaper.

Though less than half the template had been unlocked,

The threat of this Reiatsu was such that even a Yonko Commander would likely suffer just from being present.

Lofan gathered all the Reiatsu in his body into his blade, without any visible change.

But for the first time, shock appeared on Kaido's face.

Merely raising his Zanpakuto took all of Lofan's concentration, leaving him no attention to spare.

Kaido sensed a lethal threat.

But Lofan stood on his left, beyond the reach of the Kanabo in his right hand.

Acting decisively, Kaido immediately released the force in his left hand.

He let the blue-purple dragon slam into his broad chest, carrying him more than a hundred meters away.

That instant made all the difference. Lofan's slash missed, without any earth-shattering display.

To an onlooker, it would have seemed as though Lofan had merely swung casually at empty air.

But only Kaido, whom Lofan had locked onto, understood the terror of that slash, as though the world itself had been cleaved in two.

Kaido stood and took the full force of Lofan's Hadō, yet still showed no sign of faltering.

There were slight burns on his bare upper body, but they quickly vanished as he recovered.

After missing with his utterly focused slash, Lofan likewise needed a moment to recover his stamina. He glanced sideways, meeting Kaido's gaze more than a hundred meters away.

"Kid, you're strong! What's that move called?"

Kaido brushed the dust off his body and reached for the gourd at his waist to take a swig of liquor.

But to his surprise, the gourd had been reduced to ashes when he took Five Dragon Destruction head-on.

Then, remembering that he seemed to have drained the last mouthful before the fight began, he questioned Lofan with interest.

"If I had to name it, I'd call it Cut in Two."

Lofan twirled his sword in his right hand and spoke casually, then walked toward Kaido as though taking a stroll.

"Kaido, is your dream to find an opponent capable of killing you?"

Hearing this, Kaido likewise set his burly body in motion, rotating Hassaikai with his wrist as he walked toward Lofan.

"Dreams are fragile bubbles. I burst mine back when I was a teenager."

Their presences surged, gradually colliding and intermingling, and threads of lightning appeared in the air.

In his youth, Kaido had been enslaved by the Celestial Dragons.

Not only had his lineage factor been studied, but he had also been forced to work day and night.

Only when Whitebeard attacked the place and freed the slaves did Kaido gain his freedom and begin his life sailing the seas.

Back then, Kaido had sworn to free all the world's slaves and achieve true freedom and equality.

But time passed, and the dragon-slaying hero ultimately became an evil dragon.

Now, Kaido kept the people of Wano Country penned up, committing the same evil deeds as the Celestial Dragons he hated.

What exactly had happened back then to bring about Kaido's change remained unknown.

All that remained was Kaido of the Four Emperors, his black hair and long beard flying like a demon's, with no trace of that ambitious young man.

"Kaido, true battle means thoroughly understanding your enemy's thoughts, their every move, and how they think.

In that respect, battle itself possesses an extraordinary philosophical beauty.

It's a clash between two souls, and when it comes to souls, I have a unique advantage."

"Worororo!!! Quit talking big! Lofan! I'm Kaido of the Beasts!!! The man who stands at the pinnacle!"

The tense confrontation was ready to erupt. As the words fell, both men attacked.

Every blow was meant both to understand their opponent and to finish him.

"Sword Pressure!"

"Kongō Gō!"

The two shock waves collided, throwing up countless clouds of dust, and the thunderous roars of their ensuing clashes filled the battlefield.

After facing Lofan's Cut in Two, Kaido had already come to regard the young marine as a formidable enemy.

He put every ounce of strength into each swing of his club.

Lofan used deft movements, trying to evade Kaido's heavy, powerful attacks.

But against that unmatched strength, there was only so much he could do.

He could only seize opportunities to repeatedly release Hadō #63: Thunder Roar Cannon, disrupting Kaido and wearing down his stamina.