The battle did not cease.
If anything, it grew fiercer.
Totto Land, once a colorful utopia of sweets and dreams, was now nothing more than a hellish wasteland, split between continents of frozen desolation and maelstroms of devouring darkness.
Figarland Shamrock stood at the heart of it all, the sword dripping with black haki energy. His eyes were cold, utterly focused. Before him, Kuzan and Blackbeard coordinated their assault. Two titans wielding terrifying powers, yet unable to overwhelm him.
Kuzan launched another wave of ice, colossal glaciers tearing through the earth. Blackbeard followed close behind, using the chaos to shroud the battlefield in a thick fog of darkness, attempting to drag Shamrock into his grasp.
But Shamrock moved like a phantom.
Predicting their attacks with Future Sight, he twisted through the incoming assaults. His blade cleaved through ice and darkness alike, the triple-headed Cerberus screaming with each swing.
The ground quaked violently. Whole cities sank into the ocean as tsunamis generated from their battle obliterated the coastline. Even the skies bore scars. Storm clouds ripping apart, revealing the void of the heavens beyond.
Shamrock weaved through their pincer attacks, countering with brutal precision. He was a symphony of destruction in motion, never giving more than necessary, never losing control.
Blackbeard snarled, frustrated. "Damn monster! Zehahaha!"
Kuzan remained silent, his one eye narrowed, ice spreading along his arm as he prepared another devastating move.
A moment later, an enormous glacier shaped like a jagged serpent tore through the air toward Shamrock. Simultaneously, Blackbeard unleashed a crushing sphere of darkness intending to trap and immobilize him.
Shamrock's eyes glinted.
He didn't dodge.
Instead, he thrust Cerberus forward, unleashing a triple wave of black flames. The flames devoured the darkness, carving a path through the glacier, causing it to shatter into a million frozen shards that rained like knives over the battlefield.
Dozens of weaker pirates, soldiers, and civilians caught in the aftermath died instantly, either frozen solid or disintegrated by the residual Haki.
The collateral damage was beyond catastrophic. Craters miles wide gouged the land, mountains sheared clean in half, forests atomized into barren wastelands.
Totto Land was dying.
And still, none of the combatants relented.
Blackbeard grinned wickedly despite the beating he was taking. "Zehahaha! You're tough, Celestial Dragon bastard! But you can't take both of us forever!"
Shamrock responded not with words but with action.
In a sudden burst of movement, faster than the eye could track, he appeared before Kuzan. Cerberus slashed downward, a triple-headed echo that shattered the frozen air itself.
Kuzan barely managed to block, ice armor fracturing on impact. The force sent him careening backward, crashing through what remained of a frozen castle.
Before Blackbeard could exploit the opening, Shamrock turned on him with a devastating spinning slash. Blackbeard raised his arm to defend, but was still sent skidding across the ruined landscape, coughing blood.
The ground trembled as Shamrock advanced.
This was no berserker rage.
This was a man executing a plan, a symphony of violence orchestrated to methodically break down his enemies' defenses.
Step by step, blow by blow, he eroded their strength.
Kuzan rose shakily, panting heavily. Even for a man who once stood among the strongest of the Marines, Shamrock's assault was pushing him to the brink.
Blackbeard's expression twisted between rage and calculation. He was starting to realize that this was not a battle he could win through brute force alone.
The ice admiral and the darkness emperor shared a brief glance.
They needed a new plan or Totto Land would become their grave.
Above them, the clouds boiled, reflecting the carnage below. Thunder rumbled, and the wind carried the scent of burning flesh and frozen death.
And amidst it all, Figarland Shamrock advanced silently.
Like a grim reaper forged in blood and darkness, carving his path through legends.
This battle was not yet over.
But the victor was already being decided.