"Wait... something's wrong!"
Garp's Observation Haki caught the anomaly in a thousandth of a second-the first signs of an energy rampage deep beneath the ice. His expression changed sharply. Abandoning his pursuit, he seized Aokiji's shoulder with his left hand and drove his feet down, retreating violently! Every step plowed a deep furrow through the ice, instantly putting more than fifty meters between them and their opponent!
Almost at the very instant they retreated-
An ominous crimson light abruptly lit up the crystal-clear ice encasing the completely frozen Dominion Armor!
It was not shining through from within. The ice itself was glowing!
"What?!" Aokiji's pupils contracted.
He could clearly feel the cold he had poured into the ice coffin to maintain absolute zero being forcibly "boiled" from within by some violent energy! The ice was no longer a stable solid. Its molecular structure began vibrating and boiling wildly, giving off teeth-grating hisses!
The next second-
The light blazed!
Crimson light pierced the ice, turning the entire seventy-meter ice sculpture into translucent, blood-colored amber! In an instant, its intensity rose to rival the sun. Even hundreds of meters away, Garp and Aokiji had to narrow their eyes, their skin stinging from the scorching heat!
"Fall back!!"
Garp's roar was drowned out by the explosions that followed!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!
It was not a single destructive explosion, but a precise, rhythmic series of radial detonations! As though invisible hands were dismantling it from within, the enormous metal armor broke into tens of thousands of metal fragments amid deafening thunder, blasting in every direction!
This was no random spray of debris.
Garp's sharp gaze pierced the smoke and fire, and his heart sank. He saw the scattered metal fragments rapidly deforming, stretching, and condensing in midair, finally becoming hundreds upon thousands