"The War Goddess Descends"
The roars of battle echoed across the island. Magical explosions, bursts of Haki, and elemental attacks shook both sky and earth. The combined forces of Fairy Tail and the Marines were fiercely fighting Kaido's pirates. The balance clearly leaned toward the Marines, but many would have to sacrifice themselves if they wanted a swift end.
She had to go back out.
Kara watched from atop a hill, arms crossed and a serious expression on her face.
"Well... It's time to end this battle as quickly as possible, before my destructive pair does more damage than the pirates themselves," she said calmly, flexing her arms.
"Wendy! I need a buff," she ordered, as she took a runner's stance. Garp and Sengoku, who had been watching her closely, frowned.
"Buff?" Garp muttered in confusion.
"Yes," Wendy responded immediately. A magic circle appeared beneath her feet as she extended her arms. "Ile Vernier, Ile Arms, Ile Armor..." she chanted firmly.
The magic surged powerfully, surrounding Kara in a luminous aura. Wendy, however, paled instantly. Her mana was drained so fast that even the White Sword's buff floating above her barely kept her on her feet.
"Old man... Take care of her," Kara told Garp with a confident smile, just before her body began to shine intensely from the power building up. Her Haki became denser, her arms turned as black as night. If her power previously rivaled that of an admiral… now she had clearly surpassed it, even if only for a limited time.
Then, she vanished.
A sonic boom tore through the air, and the ground exploded beneath where she had been standing.
"Oh, how scary! She's getting dangerously close to my speed," Kizaru commented, surprised, as he exchanged blows with Marco.
"Not the time to get distracted," growled the Whitebeard Commander, launching a flaming Phoenix seal straight at his face.
Meanwhile, Sengoku and Garp kept their eyes on Kara. Both knew her power had just ascended to a level few in the world could match. Sengoku thought that maybe"just maybe"there was still hope of convincing her to become an admiral once he retired.
He then glanced at Akainu, who was being urgently carried away by medics. He knew there was another vacancy to fill.
Garp, on the other hand, simply stood beside Wendy, ready to protect her with his life"because Kara had asked him to.
......
On the battlefield, chaos reigned.
Before Kara's arrival, some of Fairy Tail's S-Rank mages had already begun their duels:
"Erza, be careful! That guy doesn't stop!" Mirajane shouted, blocking an attack from Queen with her demon form. He continued firing lasers from his eyes.
Erza, wearing her Celestial Wheel armor, was locked in a fierce fight against Jack the Drought, who, in his mammoth form, charged with fury, destroying everything in his path.
"I don't need you to tell me that!" Erza shouted, unleashing a rain of swords from the sky.
Laxus, meanwhile, was clashing violently with King. The air crackled with electricity as the Lunarian had transformed into his pteranodon form to counter Laxus' power"combining the resistance of his Devil Fruit with the speed of his race, as his flame had gone out.
"Is that all you've got?!" Laxus roared, growing more impatient by the second.
Then Kara burst in.
With both hands coated in hardened Haki, she moved like lightning between enemies. She appeared in the middle of the Shinuchi group and with a single move, knocked them all out. Black Maria barely had time to turn before being hit and sent flying unconscious several meters away.
Kara paused briefly to admire her beauty, but a sudden instinct made her turn sharply toward where Erza was fighting.
In an instant, she appeared behind Jack.
"Too slow," she whispered.
A punch straight to the mammoth's spine split the ground like paper. Jack cried out in pain as he collapsed to his knees, his hind legs no longer responding"just as a chain appeared around his neck, weakening him further.
Before anyone could react, Kara vanished again.
In front of Queen, who was exchanging attacks with a dark demon from Fairy Tail, Kara appeared without warning. Queen barely saw her before taking a precisely placed blow to the abdomen that sent his mechanical components flying like toy parts.
And again, a chain dropped near Mirajane as Kara disappeared.
This time, she reappeared above Laxus and King, who were still fiercely fighting.
"Damn it, get lost! This is my fight!" Laxus growled when he saw her.
"Shut up! This isn't a duel… It's a war! Hundreds are dying!" Kara shouted back, grabbing King by the wings as a chain quickly coiled around his neck, rapidly weakening him. Then she used the strength in her legs to slam him into the ground with a brutal kick.
King spat blood and fell unconscious. He was in his vulnerable state, bound in sea stone chains, while Kara was at full power"and buffed. The black swords above their heads also played a role, but they still deserved credit, for even with them, they had been holding off Fairy Tail's S-Rank mages.
Laxus froze for a moment. Then he looked down at the destruction around him: bodies, flames, rubble.
"Tsk… Fine. I'll just capture him," he said at last, transforming into lightning and descending.
Kara's words also reached Erza and Mirajane. Both glanced briefly at their enemies"already weakened by Kara's attacks"and understood.
This wasn't a tournament. This wasn't a game.
With swift and precise attacks, they neutralized and restrained them, then quickly moved toward a vice admiral with a friendly smile and a hat who was pointing at them.
It was Tokikake.
...…..
"Now…" Kara whispered with a half-smile as she rose into the air using Sky Walk. Her body shimmered softly with the remnants of Wendy's buff, and her eyes burned with determination.
All around her, Kaido's pirates stared in shock. Their commanders lay defeated or chained, and the young woman from Fairy Tail floated above them like a goddess of war.
"I'll use your attack, old man…" she said with a reckless grin, looking at Garp.
"Hey, you idiot! Don't do it here!!" Garp shouted, launching himself across the battlefield to try and stop her, a deep frown on his face and his instincts screaming that chaos was about to erupt.
Kara clenched her fist and pointed downward.
"Blue Hole!!"
Her voice thundered like a divine roar.
Then came the cataclysm.
A torrent of overwhelming power surged into her fist before falling like a collapsing star. The impact was brutal"an ear-splitting roar shook the island. The ground cracked, the earth shattered into countless fragments, and half the island vanished, devoured by a tide of translucent cubes that disintegrated matter itself. Even the sea was momentarily torn into cubic shapes before violently collapsing in on itself.
The ocean turned wild, waves rising like towering liquid walls.
When the smoke and energy cleared, the landscape was apocalyptic.
Half of the island was simply… gone.
But what still stood, did so thanks to a desperate and glorious defense:
– Sengoku, in his Great Buddha form, extended both hands to create a golden shockwave that held back the lingering energy of the impact.
– Garp, arms tense, maintained a Haki barrier as solid as a mountain.
– Aokiji had raised a massive wall of ice, now cracked and crumbling.
– Kizaru used a series of light explosions to slow the advance of the destructive cubes.
– Makarov, in his giant form, had cast a protective field using his ancient magic, shielding several members of Fairy Tail.
– Erza, with her adamantine shield, endured the onslaught like an unbreakable statue.
– Mirajane, in her Sitri Satan form, channeled all the magical power she could before reverting to her normal form, panting.
– Laxus, using a protection rune learned from Freed, held back the edges of the attack, his barrier sparking and on the verge of collapse.
On Whitebeard's side, the old Yonkō stood firm with all his commanders around him. His Haki and the power of his Gura Gura no Mi had contained the disaster"but his body, weakened from so much damage, was at its limit. Rescuing his son, Vista, was now impossible.
Kaido's pirates weren't so lucky.
With no one to shield them, they were obliterated. Bodies floated"unconscious or injured"scattered across the sea. The island beneath them no longer existed.
The only ones still intact were the commanders that Erza, Laxus, and Mirajane had chained just before the attack.
"YOU IDIOT, YOU OVERDID IT!!!" several of Kara's acquaintances shouted in unison, incredulous and heart-pounding from the sheer scale of the attack.
The girl in question only smiled, slowly descending toward her comrades as the magical buff faded from her body.
"Wendy… if you know she's going to do something insane every time you enchant her… why do you keep doing it!?" Carla scolded, rubbing her forehead. It wasn't the first time. The last time Kara received such a buff, she had leveled an entire city chasing Gildarts.
...
Kaido, still locked in combat with Gildarts, stopped cold. His body bore several square-shaped marks and blood dripped down his muscles. Both fighters turned toward the island, feeling the tremor that shook the world.
"Hmph. As much as I'd like to keep fighting… this is no longer part of the deal," Kaido growled before transforming into his eastern dragon form. He roared and took off toward the devastation.
Gildarts gave chase, leaping between floating chunks of ice. He was powerful, but nowhere near as fast as the dragon.
Kaido was still intact, but his body bore the cost of the battle. During the fight, he had begun using a type of dark magical armor to protect his skin, making him nearly impenetrable. Gildarts, by pushing his magic to the limit, had managed to damage him"but only just. They were evenly matched. A true victor would have taken days to emerge.
...
Kaido flew over what was left of the island and descended swiftly. He saw his subordinates floating unconscious and dove into the sea to rescue them.
Only the Shinuchi mattered to him. The rest were left behind.
Then he moved aggressively toward the Marine side, where the captured commanders were chained.
"Hmph… don't think this is over," he growled, trying to grab them.
Then, a massive fist, the size of his head, struck him squarely, launching him into the sky.
"You think you're just going to take our money and leave?!" roared Makarov, in his giant form, pointing skyward as his body radiated magical energy.
Kaido growled mid-air, spinning and glaring at Makarov with a flash of both respect and irritation.
"Damned old man… you're as annoying as that red-haired guy coming this way…"
The Yonkō took to the sky again, carrying only the few he had managed to recover.
He knew the World Government wouldn't allow a full-scale war with another Yonkō. Even though he had lost his three top commanders, he was still Kaido. He still had thousands of soldiers"and he could always replace his commanders later.
Meanwhile, a black shadow began creeping toward Whitebeard's pirates, taking advantage of the confusion and distraction of everyone else.