All of my life I only knew battles. Battles to drink, battles to eat, battles to survive, battles for love... battles for heartbreaks.
Battle to live. I have always been the strongest... at the top of the food chain. If I moved somewhere and I wasn't the strongest, I'd quickly catch up.
'No one can beat me'.
That belief has been fiercely engraved in my mind for my whole life. There is nothing in this world I can't get if I fight for it. I have lived my life fighting for every single thing and before I noticed... everything I ever wanted was already in my hands.
'The Strongest Creature'.
But at some point... everything just became boring. There are no opponents to face, no possessions to attain, no women to catch my interest... I can't even die. Perhaps the path 'battle to live' wasn't the right one after all. But I'm already deep into the gutter... there is no way out. I'm already the strongest.
Or that's what I thought.
CHAAAA!!!!
In front of me, there is a level of power that I can't even describe. Two gigantic women possessing each a weapon of mass destruction, both of them looking down on me. The same way one looks at a cockroach before stepping on it.
Roger, Newgate, Rocks, Oden... Garling. Those men were capable of fighting me... but this boy. He may be able to kill me.
'Right now, you're nothing more than a snake'.
What a wondrous dilemma. Now that I found someone that can face me... I don't want to die. Dracule Veyron, I want to fight with you again! even if I die I'll die giving everything I've got, to the last sweat!
RUMBLE!!!
"It will take more than math and numbers to take me down, Veyron!!! COME AT ME!".
"Kaido!".
"Alber... take everyone and retreat. I'll him on my own!".
**
**
Retreat? Flee...? When had that man ever fled a fight? No, he's not fleeing a fight. And King knew, there was such a determination to die in his captain's face... but if he had to describe it, it was more like a test for himself.
"I'm definitely going to survive this... so wait for me, bastards!".
Perhaps for him, it was like a challenge. So far he hadn't ever found anything that could kill him. Now that such a disaster had presented itself in front. He wanted to prove that he could still live.
That Kaido of the Beasts was truly an unkillable existence.
"YES, CAPTAIN!".
"OI LINLIN! I KNOW YOU'RE STILL THERE! TAKE MY GUYS AWAY YOU OLD HAG!".
Kaido went back to his semi-humanoid bulky form. Emanating a threatening aura that made Veyron's brows furrow. He looked to the side where indeed Big Mom was flying on top of her cloud trying to escape. But when she heard Kaido's shout, she stopped.
The woman was not stupid, she knew if they were to be caught by this technique, there was little chance of survival. Those two goddesses holding the lightning already felt threatening enough without needing to release them.
"YOU GOT ME INTO THIS KAIDO! THERE ISN'T EVEN ENOUGH TIME!"
Veyron's hand had already raised, ready to descend.
"I WILL GET THAT TIME!".
Kaido's body was engulfed in tyrannical purple lightning with a powerful unmatched will that consisted of the only thing he had ever done his entire life: survive.
BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!
The will to survive.
With a single step, Kaido's intention to stand up failed, but he still managed to kneel in front of the tyrannical pressure by supporting himself on his iron club. In front of weight capable of crushing the whole island.
'There is no doubt this bastard must have been a final boss or something, how can he even kneel?' Veyron's eyebrows twitched. In a sense, this was borrowed strength, the kinetic energy released by a hydrogen bomb was his fuel and even with this much power Kaido could remain stubborn.
'But it is all for nothing'.
His hand descended and with him, the arms of the first goddess, Astrape.
!!!
Time seemed to slow down for those who had just gained hope. The tobiroppo ran towards the nearest ship while King assisted... but it was impossible... they weren't faster than lightning.
"ORRAAAAAAAAA!!!!".
Kaido's arm lifted up, raising his arm to the skies with his iron club imbued in Conqueror Haki, advanced Haki, and his unparalleled will to survive.
Battle to live!
Veyron gasped at his intention as a trillion-volt strike descended with the ferocity of godly judgment. In front of the astonished gazes of the Emperors of this world. In front of the astonished gaze of the oppressed citizens of the country of wano.
In front of the despaired gaze of those same oppressors.
It descended, so fast and yet so slow... like a white pillar and due to simple laws of magnetism, headed to the closest positive negative charge, Kaido's club.
CHAAAAAAAA!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!
"UGH!!!"
For Kaido, there was never anything so painful... he may have compared it to the sensation of being injected magma right into his body. But such a thing had already been done to him... and it couldn't possibly compare to this. This was something else... but he refused to release his club that transmitted the discharge, charred all of his clothes, and destroyed his internal organs one by one.
In his mind appeared one moment. One in which a man boiling in oil could still dance whilst on death row, he recalled that moment and smiled.
"Captain!" The Tobiroppo members saw this with utter shock, their captain feeling pain. shivering? something they had never seen.
"Stop wasting time and go!" King hurriedly put all of them in a ship and transformed into a prehistoric flying creature, a pterodactylus. Catching the whole ship and chasing after Big Mom... he didn't look back.
CHAAAAAA!!!!
A barrage of lighting kept relentlessly crushing and destroying Kaido's body from the inside, but his club kept pointing up at all times. The ground around him started to melt, and his pupils went white, but he never fell. Onigashima became a sea of magma.
Veyron's cold eyes looked at him, slightly fluttery... his feelings complex. He had already killed countless people before in this world. But this was the first time he was 'torturing' someone. Although it had been Kaido's choice to get subjected to this discharge to give his people the time to flee... it was still torture.
'Why would you choose to do this at this stage... ridiculous' He never had the Yonko for one to be sentimental. Little did he know, this was Kaido's pride.
After three minutes of a relentless charge in which only a massive white pillar could be seen shooting to the skies, Half of Onigashima had turned into molten lava... but it was merely the heat irradiated by Kaido's body after he absorbed a trillion volts of discharge.
The white pillar slowly receded and finally... Kaido's body fell.
BAAAANGGGGGGG!!!!!
Far away from Onigashima but still within the boundaries of his forcefield, the gigantic vessel containing all of the remaining beast pirates cried in unison... Big Mom too held Napoleon, ready to slice the forcefield apart and provide them with a fleeing route. But her eyes settled on her companion for what she believed would be the last time.
Never had she ever thought that Kaido could possibly die... but now? She couldn't foresee him ever surviving this. Not when she looked into the skies and one goddess remained, turning the light into the day, ready to release a second discharge.
Kaido had absorbed the majority of the first charge, but there would not be a second time. If that attack was to be released, they'd all within this forcefield die. But Kaido had gotten the time.
...
"You're really strong Kaido. You have survived a single trillion volts discharge. I congratulate you on this. Are you conscious?".
Veyron could tell he was still alive... although the palpitations of his heart were so slow they were almost imperceptible. Kaido's body still remained, it was astonishing enough that it hadn't turned into complete dust.
"..."
The creatures' eyes went white. He fell into the molten underground with his body charred like carbon, his horns turned to dust and missing several limbs. Nevertheless, he smiled.
"Go... Ahead... I'm not... dead yet..."
"..."
"Send... the next one!~"
Even if his eyes had gone white, he could still clearly see... the second goddess standing there, ready to release the other lightning. This time though, he wouldn't be able to receive it. All hope was gone after experiencing just one, there was no way he could survive another.
'It seems this is the end of my path... but if I manage to survive this next strike, even for just a second-'.
Veyron lowered his hand again and the Goddess Bronte heard his call, releasing the second lightning strike on Onigashima.
This time... there would be no mercy.
CHAAAAA!!!!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!
This time, without Kaido serving as the catalyst, the destruction let loose.
Big Mom who was far in the distance carrying her injured children away saw this coming and used all of her power to slice a single opening into Veyron's forcefield to flee.
<Karyudon!>
King also used his remaining strength together with the rest of the tobiroppo, to open up a path... he knew his captain wasn't going to survive, but he'd not allow his effort to go to waste.
'The one that defeats me, it must be Joyboy!~' He recalled his captain's words, but something didn't match.
More than the God of the Sun. This was clearly the God of Lightning.
A gnashing slice manifested in the forcefield, greatly weakening the whole structure. King fled together with the Tobiroppo towards the South while Big Mom flew the the east.
BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!!!
Inside the forcefield a gigantic white pillar shone deep into the night, obliterating everything that existed within, the hole created in the forcefield barrier served as an outlet, and a gargantuan white beam shot from there straight into the skies, splitting it in two.
This white streak of lightning would soon recede in magnitude, but never completely disappear. The Country of Wano was forever fated to look to the skies during the night and see that White Lightning as clear as one could see the moon, signifying the day they were free from the Evil Dragon who was once supposed to be their guardian but had transformed into their biggest oppressor.
They'd come to know this astronomical event as the 'White Pillar of Freedom'.
***
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