The Kuja Captain stared at the white-haired youth before her, his ignorance of his own mortality making her laugh with rage.
She had roamed the seas for years, yet never had she encountered a brat so arrogant—especially one who looked like a pampered World Noble.
“You’re asking for death!” With a thunderous roar, she swung her Serpent Naginata in a wide arc, the blade shrieking as it tore through the air.
It descended like a lightning bolt, aimed straight for the crown of Saint Dio’s head.
CLANG—!
The deafening crash of metal on metal erupted in the street, sending a shockwave of air outward that kicked up a cloud of dust.
Saint Dio held Jormungandr horizontally with a single hand, steadily blocking the devastating blow of the naginata.
His arm didn’t tremble in the slightest.
The ground beneath his feet didn’t even crack.
The Kuja Captain’s pupils constricted.
She gritted her teeth, throwing her entire weight into the strike.
Her muscles bulged, veins popping on her skin as she tried to crush the youth with sheer brute force.
Yet, no matter how much strength she exerted, the dark silver longsword held before her remained utterly immovable.
It was as if she were pressing not against a blade, but against an iron monument embedded deep within the earth.
“How is this possible…?!” Her voice trembled with disbelief.
She had the overwhelming advantage in size.
Her nearly ten-foot frame, augmented by Armament Haki, should have delivered a blow powerful enough to cleave a warship’s deck in two.
Yet this boy, who looked no more than fourteen or fifteen, was blocking it with a single hand.
Saint Dio raised his eyes, calmly meeting her strained, flushed face.
A hint of disappointment colored his tone.
“Is this all you have?” He tilted his head slightly.
“I see.
So this is your limit.” He had hoped to use the Kuja Captain, a veteran of the Calm Belt, to gauge the results of his years of training and see how far he was from the world’s top fighters.
But the result…
was too weak.
So weak he couldn’t even bring himself to take her seriously.
“You bastard—!!” The Kuja Captain was driven to fury by his dismissive assessment.
With a furious roar, she strained her muscles until they bulged, her arms and the naginata’s blade turning a deep, ink-black as she coated them in Armament Haki.
She poured every ounce of her strength and Haki into this downward strike.
Yet, Saint Dio’s expression didn’t even flinch.
He simply gripped his sword and began to walk forward.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
With every step he took, the Kuja Captain was forced back.
Under the overwhelming pressure of Jormungandr, the Haki-coated naginata was slowly lifted, inch by inch.
No matter how the Captain roared or strained, she couldn’t stop the dark silver sword from steadily gaining the upper hand.
“Let me show you what true power is,” Saint Dio said coolly.
He tightened his grip on Jormungandr’s hilt and gave his wrist a sharp flick—a simple motion, as if shaking dust off his blade.
But the force unleashed was like a slumbering giant python suddenly thrashing.
The Kuja Captain felt a mountain-shattering power surge from the sword.
Her arms went numb instantly, the skin at the base of her thumbs splitting open as blood sprayed into the air.
The Serpent Naginata, the weapon that had made her famous, nearly flew from her grip.
Her massive, nearly three-meter-tall frame was sent hurtling through the air like a kite with its string cut.
“Wha—!” She tumbled in the air, barely managing to right herself before slamming into the ground.
Her feet tore two deep furrows into the solid earth, sending rubble and soil flying.
She drove the shaft of her naginata into the ground, sliding another dozen meters before finally coming to a halt.
“Huff…
Huff…” She fell to one knee, gasping for air.
Blood streamed from the split skin at the base of her thumbs, and her arms still trembled uncontrollably.
She looked up at the white-haired youth, who remained standing in the same spot.
Her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.
How is this possible…?
The boy…
he didn’t even use Haki.
Pure strength…
Through sheer physical power alone, he tossed me—a Kuja Captain who has dominated the Grand Line for years—around like a little chick.
The surrounding Kuja crew members stood frozen, watching their Captain get flung through the air like a ragdoll.
It took them two or three full seconds to even process what they had seen.
“Captain—!” “Kill that bastard!” Angry roars erupted from all sides.
The quickest female warriors immediately drew their Snake Bows.
Arrows coated in Armament Haki shot through the air like venomous vipers emerging from their burrows, aiming straight for Saint Dio’s vitals.
Saint Dio didn’t even turn his head.
He tilted his head slightly, and an arrow whistled past his ear.
He leaned back, and another arrow grazed the tip of his nose.
With a slight shift in his footing, the third and fourth arrows missed their mark, thudding into the ground behind him, their shafts still vibrating.
The entire sequence flowed like water.
He hadn’t even broken his forward stride.
Several Kuja crew members, skilled in close-quarters combat, seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack from the sides.
Their fists and feet, coated in Haki, aimed for his ribs and the back of his neck.
Without stopping, Saint Dio simply spun into a side-kick, striking the lead warrior squarely in the abdomen.
The powerfully built woman doubled over as if struck by a battering ram.
She was sent flying backward, crashing into two of her companions.
The three of them tumbled into a heap on the ground, unable to rise again.
Saint Dio did not pursue them.
He had held back from delivering a killing blow.
These Kuja crew members would all become his subordinates and pawns in the future.
Killing them now would be a waste.
But the Kuja Captain before him, this obstacle in the way of his plans, was someone Saint Dio had to eliminate.
Only with her dead could the future Boa Hancock smoothly ascend to the throne of the Snake Princess, allowing him to truly control Amazon Lily through her.
He raised Jormungandr, the sword’s tip pointing directly at the massive figure still gasping for breath.
The Kuja Captain lifted her head, meeting his indifferent gaze.
The shock in her eyes had gradually faded, replaced by the madness and desperation unique to a cornered beast.
A trickle of blood escaped the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t wipe it away.
She simply stared fixedly at Saint Dio, as if trying to carve his face into her very soul, so she could remember this enemy even in another world.
Saint Dio said no more.
He tightened his grip on the sword’s hilt, preparing to deliver the final blow.
Yet, just as the blade was about to swing, his movement abruptly halted.
He whipped his head around, his gaze piercing toward a certain direction at the end of the street.
An invisible pressure, like a surging tide, erupted from his body.
BOOM—!
Conqueror’s Haki.
That will—a power reserved only for those with the qualities of a king, capable of intimidating thousands of soldiers—swept outward from Saint Dio in all directions.
The surrounding Kuja crew members felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads.
Their hearts seemed to be seized by an invisible hand, their legs turning to jelly and their breath growing shallow.
Several of the weaker ones even rolled their eyes back and collapsed unconscious.
But this Conqueror’s Haki was not aimed at them.
Saint Dio’s Haki surged forward like an invisible tidal wave.
Then, it slammed directly into an equally indestructible, invisible wall.
BOOM—!
Two waves of Conqueror’s Haki collided violently in mid-air.
At the point of impact, the air erupted in a dense barrage of cracks.
Black lightning, like a writhing swarm of snakes, flickered and snapped around the collision point, tearing through the air and carving a web of fine fissures into the ground.
The exterior walls of the buildings lining the street cracked and peeled under the invisible shockwave, sending showers of debris rattling down.
The ground trembled, as if the earth itself were groaning in agony at the clash of these two kingly wills.
The Marine soldiers who had just arrived on the scene were caught in the terrifying shockwave of the Conqueror’s Haki before they could even draw their weapons or shout “Don’t move!” The dozen or so soldiers at the very front rolled their eyes back, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed directly to the ground, unconscious.
The soldiers behind them fared little better.
Their faces turned deathly pale, their legs shook uncontrollably, and they struggled even to stand.
Saint Dio narrowed his eyes, his gaze piercing through the curtain of interwoven black lightning to lock onto the source of the opposing Haki.
This Conqueror’s Haki…
who is it?
At this time, on the Sabaody Archipelago, could there still be someone hiding with this level of Conqueror’s Haki?
That means it can only be…