"Go down and take care of those three CP0, then retreat a good distance."
"The real battle is about to begin."
Kouta looked at Carthes, lowered his left hand, and re-hung the wine gourd at his waist, gripping the hilt of the Zankou sword with his right hand.
"Then be careful."
A Tao and A Hua glanced at Kouta, then withdrew their gaze and took a step forward, descending Kouta's spatial stairs. They fell freely, and in the midst of their descent, their bodies rapidly expanded, transforming back into their massive beast-man forms.
Seeing that Kouta truly ignored them, the three CP0 members breathed a sigh of relief, only to have their tension immediately rise.
For with Kouta gone, A Tao and A Hua remained.
Their strength was comparable to that of an ordinary Marine Vice Admiral. Previously, when facing A Luo and the others, as long as they were careful of A Luo's bullets, they could still maintain a degree of control. However, now, with two more powerhouses capable of engaging Kurote, the pressure on them increased significantly.
Disregarding the individuals below.
Without Kurote, a powerhouse whose strength far surpassed A Hua and the others, the three CP0 members could no longer pose any real danger to A Hua and his companions.
*Sizzle!!*
A flash of blue light, and Kuina's figure landed beside Kouta. She tilted her head, her gaze, still bearing the coldness of recent combat but also gentle, turned towards Kouta.
"I'm fine."
He turned his head, placing his left hand on Kuina's head and gently stroking it.
"Mm!"
Kuina squinted, letting out a soft hum from her nose. Then, her head instinctively nudged into Kouta's palm, feeling the familiar warmth. Her rapidly beating heart quickly calmed down.
"This is troublesome!"
Aokiji landed on the roof of a relatively intact house in the center of the town.
Carthes's previous strike had not only completely destroyed the high ground where the church stood but had also annihilated the entire town.
Looking at Kouta, who stood beside Kuina, unharmed and even breathing steadily, just as he had appeared when they first met, the laziness in Aokiji's eyes completely vanished.
He knew that the battle of this day had likely only just begun.
However, it wasn't they who would hunt the silver-haired group, but rather whether the silver-haired group would allow them to leave.
The original hunters had become the hunted, and the hunted had bared their fangs, transforming into the hunters.
With no limitations, the silver-haired one, who had endured a blow that would have severely wounded even him,
would now reveal what terrifying strength?
*Crack crack crack!!*
Ice spread from beneath his feet, instantly freezing the house below, then radiating outwards, faster and faster.
It then spread across the vast pit formed by Kouta's descent, instantly freezing the red-hot stones at the bottom of the pit, formed by the impact.
Without pause, the coldness crossed the pit and continued outwards, finally rushing out of the town towards the battlefield where A Hua and the others were engaged.
This forced both sides to abandon their opponents and leap into the air to avoid being frozen by the sudden surge of cold.
The cold continued to spread outwards, freezing the island, and then, without stopping, instantly froze the sea outside, extending to the edge of their sight before finally ceasing.
Snow.
On Deng Island, a summer island, snow began to fall from the sky.
The white in the sky, combined with the ice on the ground, had completely transformed this place into a world of ice and snow.
"Is it this terrifying?"
Kouta reached out and caught a snowflake drifting down from the sky, feeling the slight chill in his palm and the rapidly cooling air around him. He was momentarily stunned.
He knew Aokiji's cold could freeze tens of kilometers of sea in an instant, but to witness this ability to completely alter an island's weather in reality still made him unable to help but feel surprised.
"Could this guy's Devil Fruit ability have awakened?!"
He remembered that his battle with Akainu had completely altered the terrain and climate of Punk Hazard in the New World.
This ability to permanently change a place's terrain and climate, if not an awakening, he couldn't think of what else it could be.
However, no one had ever said that Logia-type fruits could awaken, so he wasn't sure if his guess was correct.
If Logia-type fruits could indeed awaken, then Kizaru probably hadn't used his full strength against him.
As expected of a slacking Admiral.
But it was hard to say. Even if it awakened, he couldn't imagine what that guy could become.
Could he turn into light?
"Ultraman!"
Haha, just kidding. This was just him thinking wildly while seeing the snowstorm.
Regardless of whether this guy had awakened or not, with Kuina's Goro Goro no Mi ability, it wouldn't be easy for them to determine a victor in a short amount of time.
Even if this guy unleashed his full strength.
He didn't believe that this guy's Armament Haki surpassed Kuina's by much.
As long as it wasn't world-class Armament Haki, it would be difficult to inflict fatal damage on Kuina, who had eaten the Goro Goro no Mi.
This was the terrifying nature of Logia-type fruits.
Of course, this was only if the fruit was developed to a certain level, like Crocodile or Enel.
If they hadn't encountered Luffy, who countered them, or Kouta, whose strength far surpassed theirs, there weren't many people on the sea who could easily harm them.
Kuina turned to look at Aokiji, her eyes regaining their cold clarity.
*Whoosh~*
The surroundings suddenly quieted down, and the flow of time seemed to stop. All that could be heard was the sound of one's own heartbeat.
"Are you going to go all out?"
He withdrew his left hand, looking at Kuina, whose legs were slightly bent, her right hand gripping the Wado Ichimonji, her entire body crackling with lightning. Kouta's lips curved into a smile.
Lightning wasn't just for accelerating objects; it could also grant one extreme speed without elementalization!
This was the combat state that Kouta had devised for Kuina, unique to her after obtaining the Goro Goro no Mi.
In his opinion, whether it was Crocodile's Desert Emperor or Enel's God of Thunder, they were essentially foolish abilities. They were effective against ordinary people, but when facing powerful opponents, becoming so large made them nothing more than targets.
And while elementalization could grant Kuina extreme speed, it lacked offensive power.
Because simple lightning, to powerful individuals, could be easily blocked even if imbued with Haki.
For Logia-type users to truly defeat enemies, they had to revert from their elemental form to their physical one.
Otherwise, after elementalization, only elemental damage could be delivered.
Elemental damage, while potent against ordinary people, was somewhat negligible against strong individuals, especially those with Haki.
Therefore, whether it was Kizaru's light-speed kick or Akainu's Magma Dog, they were essentially imbuing their bodies with their element.
Kizaru used the speed of light to accelerate the power of his kicks.
Akainu used the damage of magma to increase the power of his punches.
Whether it was light or magma, appearing alone, they didn't inflict much damage on strong opponents.
The same applied to Kuina.
Her lightning could not only stimulate the cells within her body, making them more active and thus enhancing her strength, but when wrapped around her, it could also, like an electromagnetic cannon, allow her body to achieve extreme speeds.
And this state.
Kouta was too lazy to think of another name, so he would call it...
"Focus and reach the pinnacle."
Kuina's body was engulfed in fierce, azure lightning, exuding an aura of ultimate sharpness.
Then, with a "bang," her body tore through the air, emitting a low thunderous roar in the sky, and she vanished from her original position.
As if by teleportation, her body traversed a vast distance and, appearing before Aokiji ahead of the sound, she materialized in front of him.
"Thunder Breathing!"
That's right, it was Thunder Breathing. However, unlike the breathing techniques in Demon Slayer, Kuina could maintain this high-speed state until her stamina was depleted.
In this state, Kuina's sword-drawing speed would surpass anything she had achieved before, and her attack power would truly reach the level of an Admiral.