Eternal winter: the reawakened lost winter emperor (one piece dungeon)

Then they both charged.As the tremors from the last clash began to settle, Jinx stepped forward, his expression unreadable beneath the forever-smiling mask. The cold aura around him began to pulse as he inhaled deeply, and in the blink of an eye, his form started to change.

Fur crept across his skin, sleek and obsidian with glints of purple shimmer. His limbs elongated slightly, his hands retaining a human shape but ending in clawed fingertips that crackled faintly with Fox-Lightning. Two black fox ears rose from his crown, twitching slightly, and a long, magenta-tipped tail coiled behind him, radiating quiet power. His eyes—normally glowing with a subtle menace—now pulsed with pure energy, no longer bound to his base form.

He was in his hybrid state—a balance of his monstrous potential and human control.

Whitebeard looked over, silent, still recovering his stance after the last impact. His breath was heavy, his body aching with decades of war, wounds old and new.

"Old man," Jinx said, his voice richer now, layered with power, "I'm going to lend you something. I call it Positive Nature Energy. It'll mend the wounds you've taken and return a bit of what time and disease stole."

Whitebeard's brow furrowed. The words were foreign, but there was something—something ancient and real—in the way Jinx said them. Power that didn't come from fruit or blade, but the very life of the world itself.

And for the first time in a long while, Whitebeard nodded without hesitation.

"Do it."

Jinx stepped forward, placing a clawed hand on Whitebeard's chest. A soft, greenish-white glow began to pulse from his palm, almost ethereal. It flowed gently into the Yonko's battered frame, weaving through broken ribs, ruptured organs, and old scars alike.

Whitebeard's eyes widened.

He could feel his vitality return, muscles tightening, pain dulling. He wasn't whole—not fully—but this was more strength than he had felt in years. Even the tremor in his limbs, once caused by sickness, now stilled.

Jinx muttered under his breath.

"Tch… just as I thought. I can only draw nature energy in my hybrid and full beast forms. I'll have to fix that later."

He leapt lightly, landing atop Whitebeard's massive shoulder like a shadow.

"Now," Jinx said, grinning beneath the mask, "Let's show them what an old god and a nightmare can do."

He reached toward Murakumogiri, Whitebeard's famed bisento. With a snap of his fingers, Fox-Lightning surged down his arm, coiling into the weapon's length. The sacred polearm shimmered with power as tremor energy, fox-fire, and raw nature energy all fused into one.

Then, something else happened.

As Whitebeard gripped Murakumogiri tighter, a surge of Conqueror's Haki burst from him—unrestrained, focused. It had been dormant for so long, suppressed by the burden of illness… but with Jinx's energy reinvigorating his life-force, it roared back with a vengeance.

Dark red lightning crackled across the blade, fusing with Jinx's magenta Fox-Lightning. The sheer pressure of the weapon now felt like a divine judgment.

Whitebeard blinked in awe.

"...I haven't felt Murakumogiri respond to me like this since my youth."

He had no time to marvel further.

With a mighty roar, Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri downward in a heaven-defying arc. The attack unleashed was a fusion of titanic wills and unnatural power.

The air split. The sea convulsed. The sky cracked in a wide arc.

The energy wave that surged forward was cataclysmic—a mixture of Quake, Nature, Fox, and Conqueror's Haki—so potent that even space itself seemed to scream as it passed.

It flew toward Blackbeard like a judgment handed down from the gods.

And that's when it happened.

All three Admirals moved at once.

Akainu, magma surging from his fists, launched himself forward, molten rage dripping from his arms.

Kizaru, light incarnate, zipped into position, dozens of laser beams forming a radiant shield in front of him.

And Aokiji, with ice trailing behind him, joined the defense—his hesitation gone, his brother's earlier pain still fresh in his mind.

The three Admirals, united for the first time in years, intercepted the divine strike.

And the world held its breath.

What followed was an explosion so massive it lit up the entire battlefield. A column of light, ice, and thunder burst into the heavens, consuming half of Marineford in blinding light. The sea around the island rose in giant walls, only to be shattered again by the lingering quake echoes.

Even from miles away, ships rocked in the shockwave. The clouds above tore open in a spiral.

And for a moment… no one could see.

No one could breathe.

"Come on, Ace! Help me carry his big, ugly butt!" Luffy grunted, both hands gripping the leg of a groaning, half-conscious Gecko Moria, whose bloated form thudded against the ice with every drag.

Ace, bleeding from a cut on his forehead but still full of fire, walked backward, pulling the warlord's other leg. "Tch. He's heavier than he looks… and he already looked like a fat corpse!"

Moria wheezed through swollen lips, still stunned from the beating the brothers had given him moments earlier. The sheer savagery of their coordinated attacks—Luffy's Gear Second rubber barrages and Ace's flame-enhanced strikes—had overwhelmed him completely.

He tried to speak, but only coughed up blood and shadows. One of his fangs clattered uselessly onto the ice.

"Where'd that weird fox bastard go?" Ace asked, scanning the battlefield as they dragged Moria past fallen Marines and shattered chunks of Marineford.

Luffy looked around, expression puzzled. "I think he was… up there? On the big guy's shoulder?" He pointed in the direction where Whitebeard had stood, remembering Jinx's elegant but terrifying form perched like a gargoyle on his shoulder.

Then suddenly—BOOM!

A violent, soul-shaking explosion rocked the air, flinging both brothers and Moria like ragdolls. The shockwave from the clash of gods and monsters had reached them.

Luffy slammed into a cracked wall, rolling through debris.

Ace tumbled across the frozen ground, skidding to a halt beside a half-melted cannon.

Moria, somehow, landed face-first in a pile of ash and snow, groaning incoherently.

Above them, the sky had turned white and red, blinding light streaking between shattered clouds like lightning trapped in glass. The point of impact between Jinx, Whitebeard, and the Three Admirals was still glowing, like a miniature sun had been born in the heart of the war.

For a moment… time stood still.

Then the ice cracked beneath their feet.

Steam hissed upward as magma fought cold.

Crystals burst apart from the sheer pressure of the air.

A burning smell wafted through, mixed with the tang of ozone and blood.

Luffy groaned and pushed himself up. His hat was gone—blown off by the blast—but his eyes burned with purpose.

"That was Jinx and Whitebeard," he muttered, his voice low.

Ace coughed, wiping blood from his lip. "No sh— …Yeah. That was them."

The two brothers looked toward the epicenter.

In the far distance, amid the rising smoke and trembling earth, they saw it—a towering silhouette of Whitebeard, standing defiantly, bisento still raised… and on his shoulder, a long, lean fox-shaped shadow, radiating darkness and lightning. Jinx.

They were still standing.

"We've gotta move." Ace got up and grabbed Moria's arm again. "No way I'm letting this bastard slow us down now."

Luffy nodded and reached for the other arm, saying quietly:

"He said I'd always be a pirate… That it was always gonna happen. But he also said I could be more than Roger ever was…"

He looked ahead, eyes serious—a rare look on his face.

"So I'm gonna prove it."

The two brothers gritted their teeth, ignored the pain screaming through their bodies, and dragged Moria forward, toward the epicenter of the war… toward Jinx, Whitebeard, and whatever the hell came next.

As the blinding light faded and the roaring silence settled, a ghostly hush fell over the battlefield.

The dust began to clear.

What greeted the eyes of every soul present—Marine, Pirate, Warlord, and Revolutionary alike—was a vision of apocalyptic devastation.

Half of Marineford was gone.

Not crumbled. Not cracked. Gone—a jagged chasm carved through the heart of the fortress, buildings and towers simply erased by the force of the combined blow from Whitebeard and Jinx. The sea rushed in to fill the void, swirling where proud structures once stood, while chunks of debris floated like corpses on the water.

A stunned silence spread across the war-torn harbor. No one moved. No one breathed.

Then came the screams.

"WHERE ARE THE ADMIRALS?!"

Panic swept through the ranks of the Marines like wildfire. Soldiers scrambled to the edges of the shattered half of the base, eyes darting desperately between fallen rubble and rising smoke.

Sengoku's golden form flickered with haki-enhanced tension. His Observation Haki surged, sweeping the area like a radar, cutting through the confusion—until his eyes snapped wide open.

He saw them.

Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu—the three titans of the World Government—barely conscious, their bodies battered and scorched, sliding helplessly toward the crumbling edge of what remained of Marineford. Their bodies teetered dangerously, mere seconds from slipping into the sea.

"GAR—!"

Before Sengoku could finish the command, someone else moved first.

Jaylen.

With a sharp breath and a flash of instinct, Jaylen slammed both palms onto the trembling ground, and a web of brilliant white crystal exploded outward. The shards raced toward the broken edge like a living bridge, forming spires and platforms that extended the ground beneath the Admirals by precious meters.

The act gave Garp the time he needed.

The old Marine Hero vanished with a blur of Soru, reappearing beside Aokiji first, grabbing his collar and flinging him to safety with strength that defied his years. Then, in the next heartbeat, he caught Kizaru's arm, yanking the glowing Admiral back just before his leg dipped below the edge. And finally, he reached down and caught Akainu by the back of his uniform as the magma-coated brute slipped, pulling him up with a grunt of effort and slamming him safely onto the extended crystal platform.

The battlefield exhaled.

But Sengoku's expression was grim.

Because what they all realized in that moment was not just that the Admirals had lost—but that they had nearly died. Three of the world's strongest protectors, brought to the edge of oblivion by the force of a single, joint attack.

And standing at the far end of the wreckage, his silhouette wreathed in cold lightning and magenta-black aura, still perched calmly on Whitebeard's massive shoulder…

Was Jinx.

His multiple eyes blinked slowly as he sat, tail flicking lazily, voice like velvet daggers.

"Huh. Guess that was a little too much, huh?"

His smile, as always, never faded.

"There! That's him!" Luffy shouted, panting heavily as he and Ace finally reached the ruined epicenter of Marineford.

The brothers looked like they'd been through hell—coated in dust, bruises, and dried blood—but between them, they dragged the barely breathing husk of Gecko Moria, who coughed weakly, his bloated body twitching in protest with every tug across the ice.

At the far end of the battlefield, still perched atop Whitebeard's massive shoulder, Jinx's head tilted slowly, his ears twitching as his many senses zeroed in on the familiar presence below.

His magenta eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

"Took you long enough…"

In a single graceful motion, Jinx leapt from Whitebeard's shoulder and landed lightly before the brothers, his long coat fluttering like ash in the frozen wind. His gaze scanned Moria with mild curiosity, then sharpened with something older… instinctual.

The information whispered to him from deep within—the will of his devil fruit awakening with a low hum that only he could hear.

Without a word, Jinx raised one hand, and the very air around Moria seemed to freeze. Black ice thorns erupted from the ground, sharp and writhing like serpents, and in a blink, they pierced and wrapped around Moria's limbs, binding him to the cracked ice.

Moria's one working eye widened with fear.

"W-What are you…?"

Jinx didn't answer. His fingers began to weave signs in the air.

With his other hand, he summoned eighteen tiny magenta orbs of fox-fire, each flickering with haunting elegance. With a fluid motion, he formed the Ram hand seal, and the orbs shot outward, forming two concentric circles—one nestled perfectly within the other.

Then they began to rotate, faster and faster, until they became twin rings of fire spinning with unnatural speed. Between the two rings, mystic runes appeared, etched in pulsating violet light, swirling with a language lost to time. A triangle formed within, followed by a circle, then a vertical line cleaving them both in half.

Jinx's hands never stopped moving.

Faster now—Tiger, Boar, Dog, Horse, Ox, Snake—his signs blurred into a ritualistic trance. The ice beneath Moria cracked and hissed with pressure. The very air began to thrum with spiritual resonance.

High above, Sengoku watched warily. Something was off.

His instincts, sharpened by decades of battle and strategy, screamed at him—that ritual was more than mere Devil Fruit usage.

"I have to stop him—whatever he's doing, it's not natural!"

He dashed forward, golden light flaring as he activated his Buddha form, his massive fist drawn back and ready to strike.

But before he could take a second step—

CRACK.

The air around him shattered like glass as Whitebeard stepped forward, his bisento raised.

"Not this time… Sengoku."

Whitebeard's weapon glowed with tremor energy, and with a roar, he swung it in a wide arc, sending a tsunami of pressure directly at the former Fleet Admiral.

Sengoku reacted fast, releasing a massive shockwave in return, his golden palm glowing with divine fury. The two shockwaves collided midair, creating a blast so powerful it split the sky, sent dozens of Marines flying, and fractured what was left of Marineford.

But something unexpected happened—

The residual positive nature energy still flowing within Whitebeard's body, gifted earlier by Jinx, gave the old pirate an unnatural edge. The vibrations of his quake attack grew deeper, heavier… more alive.

Sengoku's form was overwhelmed. With a grunt, he was blasted backward, crashing through stone and steel, disappearing into the rubble.

Back at the ritual, the last of the signs was complete.

Jinx clapped his hands together with finality.

A sudden, unnatural scream tore through the air—a deathly, haunting wail that chilled the soul and echoed through every corner of Marineford. Soldiers, pirates, even the Warlords froze mid-battle.

Moria's mouth opened wide in a silent scream, his eyes rolling back as a ghostly silhouette began to pull free from his shadow—a writhing, murky figure shaped like a monstrous bat.

"Is that…?" Ace whispered, stunned.

"His Devil Fruit…" Luffy said quietly, his mouth dry.

The shadow form—the very essence of the Kage Kage no Mi—shook violently as it was torn from Moria's soul. Wisps of darkness tried to flee, but the spinning fox-fire runes pulled it in like a black hole, chaining it within the floating ritual.

And then—

With a grin, Jinx stepped forward and opened his mouth.

The ghostly fruit-essence was devoured whole.

The fox-fire rings vanished in a flash, the chains crumbled, and Moria slumped, unconscious—emptied, defeated, and powerless.

Jinx exhaled slowly, licking a faint trace of shadow from his lips.

His aura darkened—for a heartbeat, all light around him flickered.

"Mmmm… tastes like fear and failure," he muttered.

"Delicious."

For a long heartbeat, nothing moved.

Then—

Jinx's shadow twitched.

A ripple passed through it like a drop disturbing still water. The black silhouette beneath him began to writhe, undulating unnaturally, as if alive.

The fox's eyes narrowed slightly.

"There it is…"

Without warning, his shadow surged outward, spreading into a perfect circle one meter wide—not physically, but spiritually, defying the laws of nature. The air grew colder, sharper. The surface beneath the growing circle frosted over, ice blooming from the edges in jagged black veins.

All across Marineford, eyes widened.

"What… the hell…" Marco muttered, his flames flickering from the shift in pressure.

"That's not just Haki…" Vista said, tightening his grip on his swords.

"No," Whitebeard growled, eyes narrowing with suspicion. "That's… dominion."

Even Sengoku, still groaning from the last clash, felt a shiver crawl up his spine. His golden form dimmed as realization set in.

"He didn't just eat a Devil Fruit…"

"He took it."

"He extracted it."

"He stole it."

Gasps and mutters spread like wildfire. Even hardened warriors, Vice Admirals, and Warlords who had seen the worst of the sea, now stood stunned.

Akainu clenched his jaw, his magma arm bubbling as he stared at the slowly pulsing shadow around Jinx.

"Impossible," he growled. "Only one Devil Fruit per body. That's the law of the world."

"But he rewrote it," Kizaru said, his usually lazy tone now laced with unease.

Farther up the rubble, Hawk-Eyes Mihawk remained still, hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. He said nothing, but his eyes—so often cold and unreadable—narrowed with a rare flicker of intrigue. He had fought Jinx moments earlier, tested his steel, and now sensed… something new.

Among the ambitious, minds raced faster than words.

One Warlord—Boa Hancock—stared at Jinx, her lips parted slightly.

"To pull the soul of a Devil Fruit out of a living user… what kind of power must that require?"

Doflamingo's lips curled into a crooked smile behind his sunglasses.

"Kukuku… That's a dangerous power, little fox. You're going to make a lot of people very nervous."

Even among the Marines, younger officers who had only recently earned their stripes suddenly felt a pulse of fear run through their ambition.

"If he can take Devil Fruits… can he take mine?"

"What if he starts hunting users?"

"What if the World Government wants that power for themselves…"

Suddenly, Jinx was no longer just a chaotic wildcard. He was a new axis of power.

Not a Warlord. Not a Yonko.

Something else entirely.

Whitebeard, still steady and colossal despite his wounds, cast a glance down at Jinx.

"Fox… Just what kind of monster are you becoming?"

Jinx didn't answer right away. He stood calmly at the center of his expanding shadow, his tails swaying, his ears flicking slightly, and a foxlike grin stretching his lips.

"Relax," he said with a yawn, his voice elegant but distant. "It's not like I'm going around stealing random Devil Fruits… Yet."

He looked down at his feet, watching his shadow pulsate with stolen power.

"But I will say… this opens very interesting doors."

Deep within a fortified laboratory, far from the thunderous battlefield of Marineford, two figures stood before a massive wall of monitors—each one depicting a different angle of the War of the Best. Explosions, haki clashes, rising tides, and collapsing towers unfolded in eerie silence behind the glass.

But both men had eyes for one screen in particular.

The one showing Jinx.

Shrouded in magenta-hued foxfire and frost, his shadow swirling unnaturally beneath him, Jinx stood calmly at the epicenter of the destruction—having just extracted and consumed a Devil Fruit from Gecko Moria's living body.

The room was silent, save for the soft hum of machinery.

Then, finally, the taller of the two—clad in sleek black with a futuristic helmet concealing his face—spoke, his voice calm and digitized.

"After twenty-seven years… you can finally call that project a success," Shaka, the "Good" Satellite of Vegapunk, said as he watched Jinx tilt his head with that permanent, eerie grin.

His tone carried no malice, just clinical observation.

"And not a minor one at that."

Beside him, the older man with the bulbous head and half-exposed brain dome, stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a long lab coat with the apple-shaped neural antenna blinking faintly on top of his skull.

Dr. Vegapunk exhaled through his nose, clearly both amazed and deeply contemplative.

"Yes… far better than I ever anticipated," he muttered, his eyes shining with a dangerous glint of intellectual excitement. "I thought the project the Elders handed me all those years ago was another dead-end… another corpse to preserve for political reasons."

He leaned forward, tapping the glass gently where Jinx was frozen mid-motion—his hybrid form radiating power and grace.

"But now? Now it's become the blueprint for something far greater."

Shaka turned his head, silent.

Vegapunk went on.

"The fact that he survived the transference was already a miracle… but to awaken the Lunarian genes without full rejection? And then—on top of that—retain a stable soul core and self-awareness post-reincarnation? Hah! It's beautiful! Truly, this is what science exists for."

Shaka remained quiet for a few moments longer before offering,

"It proves the Seraphim can evolve beyond what we originally intended. Even without Devil Fruits, the Lunarian DNA alone makes them terrifying weapons."

Vegapunk's mouth curled into a small, thoughtful smile.

"Indeed… but with Devil Fruits? Or even just their essence like what Jinx did?"

"We might be standing on the edge of a new lineage factor revolution."

His eyes flicked to another screen, where a few Seraphim prototypes stood in stasis chambers, waiting… waiting to be born into war.

"We don't even need mass production. A single perfected Seraphim—like him—could rival a Yonko."

Shaka glanced back at the footage, narrowing his electronic eyes as Jinx's hybrid form effortlessly manipulated black ice, foxfire, and shadows, while holding back titans of the sea.

"Then the question becomes: How do you control a god… once you've created one?"

Vegapunk's smile faded.

The question lingered in the air like a silent warning.

And for a moment, neither of them said anything.

Only the sound of Marineford crumbling filled the lab, and the image of Jinx smiling at the camera feed, as if he knew exactly who was watching. 

Back with Jinx, the battlefield chaos dimmed for a moment as another notification screen shimmered into view before his eyes. He blinked at the glowing text, then narrowed his gaze—his interest piqued the moment he spotted the reward.

[Hidden Quest Complete – Steal Your First Devil Fruit]

Requirement: Steal a Devil Fruit using the Yuki-Kitsune ritual.

Bonus Objective: Steal the Devil Fruit of a timeline arc villain.

(Overriding reward protocol...)

Override Complete

Reward: Black Cover Dark Magic – "Black Coffin"

+1 Random Devil Fruit Technique Card

Jinx exhaled slowly, his vulpine tail flicking once in mild disbelief. "At this point, I've just accepted that the universe is throwing things at me like I'm the main character in a cracked-out power fantasy," he muttered with a faint smirk. "Fine. Let's see what this looks like."

He willed the reward to manifest the way characters did in manga—by simply thinking about it.

In response, a playing card shimmered into existence, black-edged with a glossy surface, depicting the twisted spiral of the Kage Kage no Mi on its front. He held it between his fingers, studying its ornate design, then pressed slightly with his thumb.

Crack.

The card shattered like glass, and a rush of knowledge surged through his mind.

"Whoa…"

A grin slowly crept across his face.

"This isn't exactly a traditional shadow technique… but oh, it'll do beautifully."

His eyes flicked across the battlefield, scanning for a suitable test subject—and then landed on the perfect one.

Sengoku.

The former Fleet Admiral still loomed in his massive golden Buddha form, radiating power as he stood between Jinx and the surviving top brass of the Marines. Jinx tilted his head.

"Now how to get over there—?"

Before he could finish the thought, another screen popped up.

[New Skill Decoded – Soru]

Soru: Allows the user to move at extremely high speeds, appearing to vanish, by kicking off the ground ten times in the blink of an eye. Increases both mobility and striking power.

Jinx blinked.

"…I just got Soru?"

He paused, thinking back.

"Wait. Sengoku and Garp did use it right in front of me. And with Overactive Imagination, I only need the base understanding or a similar ability to copy something I witness. Soru is basic compared to some of the other crap I've done today."

The realization clicked into place—and Jinx smirked.

"And it said I can master and even combine skills later? Bet."

In a flash, the ground cracked beneath him, and he vanished, kicking off the air ten times in a blink, leaving behind a swirl of frost and magenta foxfire.

Before Sengoku could react, Jinx reappeared right in front of him, standing on nothing but his own momentum and will. Whitebeard's eyes widened in shock. Sengoku barely turned his golden head before Jinx raised one hand.

"Shadow Art: Black Coffin."

He snapped his fingers.

Instantly, Sengoku's own shadow convulsed, rising up from beneath him, twisting into a rectangular box of pure darkness that swallowed the Buddha form whole.

Gasps erupted from the surrounding battlefield.

From within the black box, dozens of spear-like stakes formed from pure shadow shot inward with horrific precision. A moment passed.

Then—boom.

The coffin shattered like obsidian glass, its fragments curling into mist. Sengoku emerged, staggering backward—his golden form fractured and bleeding, massive cuts searing across his chest and shoulders. One eye was clenched shut as blood ran down his temple.

And then, with a groan, the former Fleet Admiral collapsed, knocked clean out of his Buddha form.

The battlefield went silent.

Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, warlords, and pirates alike stood frozen—staring at Jinx.

A single, smug breath escaped his lips as he floated down, frost curling at his heels.

"…Next."

Dead silence.

The kind that doesn't just hang in the air—but strangles it.

All of Marineford stood still. Even the wind seemed to hesitate.

The mighty Buddha of Justice, Sengoku the Strategist, was down. Crumpled, unmoving, steam curling from his body. His massive golden form had shrunk back into his human shape, bloodied and unconscious.

And standing before him, radiating black frost, was the fox-tailed anomaly who had, just minutes earlier, joined the battlefield mid-war: Jinx.

The man who had stolen a Devil Fruit out of another man's soul.

The man who now wielded shadow magic, ice-cursed swordsmanship, beastly transformations, and a devilish flair for theatrics.

A ripple of awe, fear, and deep unease spread through the Marine ranks.

"He… dropped Fleet Admiral Sengoku," whispered a young Vice Admiral, voice cracking.

"No. He dropped Buddha Sengoku with a single technique," muttered another, sweat dripping down his neck. "We're dealing with a monster."

"This isn't just some freak with a Devil Fruit… this guy's using techniques I've never seen before—he moves like a CP0 agent but fights like a Warlord—no, worse…"

"He's not following any system we understand," an older tactician murmured, his hands trembling. "It's like he's from another world."

Akainu, momentarily frozen mid-step as the shock settled in, gritted his teeth so hard it cracked the end of his cigar. The magma around his arms hissed violently, steam billowing.

"What… is this bastard?" he snarled under his breath.

Kizaru didn't say a word—he simply adjusted his sunglasses, lips tight for once, his usual aloof tone nowhere to be found.

Even the Warlords—the strongest pirates sanctioned by the World Government—couldn't help but take a mental step back.

Dracule Mihawk, who had just returned from his duel with Jinx, stood silently, eyes narrowed. He was quiet… but intrigued.

"…That wasn't just a technique," he thought. "That was a declaration."

Garp stared at Jinx, his jaw tight, fists clenched. His old instincts screamed at him—fight, end this now—but his wisdom urged restraint.

Even Jaylen, standing atop the crystalline reinforcement he'd created, looked visibly shaken. "The hell, bro… you weren't even trying, were you?"

But the most dangerous reaction didn't come from the soldiers.

It came from the more ambitious minds—those with power, ego, and hidden agendas.

Eyes gleamed. Calculations began.

"If he can rip Devil Fruits from the bodies of others… imagine the army we could create," thought one Cipher Pol agent with trembling fingers.

"A weapon… no—a kingmaker," whispered a World Noble watching from a hidden transponder feed.

"What if we… could do it too?" another Vice Admiral mused in fear and awe, already imagining betrayals and political upheaval.

But alongside the ambition, there was another feeling creeping into the edges of their minds.

Terror.

If someone like Jinx existed...

If he wasn't bound by their laws, hierarchy, or understanding...

What could stop him?

And Jinx?

He turned, cracking his neck slowly, letting the frost at his feet creep just a little farther outward. He tilted his head as if amused, then let out a lazy yawn.

"Man," he muttered, tail flicking once behind him. "That was a C-tier move."

Then he raised his hand again—casually—as if preparing the next spell.

And just like that…

Panic swept across the Marine ranks.

Just as a blaze of magenta foxfire began to coil around Jinx's fingertips—ready to scorch the battlefield—he suddenly wobbled.

And with absolutely no grace or warning, he collapsed flat on his face, kicking up a puff of black frost.

Dead silence.

Thousands of Marines, pirates, warlords, and admirals… all stood dumbfounded, watching as the terrifying anomaly who had just knocked out the Fleet Admiral and absorbed a Devil Fruit, now lay belly-down on the battlefield like a worn-out mutt.

"...Did... did he just faint?" someone muttered.

Jinx's muffled voice came from the ground, barely intelligible: "M'fine… jus'… bit too much juice…"

Whitebeard, ever the perceptive warrior, stepped forward and scooped Jinx up with one massive hand. The boy's body hung limply in the air, tail dangling, breath shallow. His skin was pale. Paler than usual. His ears twitched weakly.

"I guess," Jinx mumbled weakly, "I used too much energy..."

At once, the Marines began to shout.

"HE'S WEAKENED! HE'S OUT!"

"NOW'S OUR CHANCE!"

"FINISH THE WHITEBEARD PIRATES!"

Akainu raised his magma-clad fist high into the air. "CHARGE! WIPE THEM OUT!!" he roared.

The main Marine forces surged forward with renewed fury, sensing a turn in the tide. The three Admirals—Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji—started advancing too, but at a cautious pace. Jaylen and Garp lingered behind, retrieving the unconscious Sengoku from the wreckage.

The battlefield became chaos again—screams, shockwaves, cannon blasts.

But Jinx, dangling from Whitebeard's hand like a tired ragdoll, suddenly perked up.

He looked around, eyes heavy-lidded but calculating. His gaze fell on the shattered remnants of Marineford, then turned toward the Moby Dick, their way out… but cut off by the advancing Marine army.

"…Old man," Jinx said, voice low but sharp. "Throw me."

Whitebeard blinked, unsure if he'd heard right. "What?"

"Throw me," Jinx repeated, flicking his hand toward the Marine army. "Toss me into the middle of them. Marco, you get me after. But the rest of you… run."

Now everyone was looking at Jinx like he'd gone insane.

Luffy tilted his head. "Wait… what?"

"You want us to—throw you?" Ace echoed, incredulous.

Jinx turned his head slightly toward them, fox eyes narrowed with deadly seriousness. "The technique I'm about to use… doesn't discriminate. It will strike friend and foe alike. Not even Prime Whitebeard would walk out unscathed if caught in the center of it."

There was silence.

Then realization.

Then dread.

Marco narrowed his eyes. "You're serious, aren't you?"

Jinx nodded once, then coughed up a bit of frost. "I don't have much time. If you want to live, do it now."

Whitebeard's expression twisted, torn between pride and concern. But he gave the order anyway.

"All forces! Retreat to the ships! Now!!" his voice boomed like thunder.

"Jozu! Vista! Cover the flanks! Marco—go after the boy once he lands!"

As the Whitebeard Pirates and allies began their full retreat, Whitebeard's massive hand gripped Jinx's torso like a javelin. He inhaled.

"You better survive this, brat."

And with a mighty roar, Whitebeard hurled Jinx like a meteor through the air—straight over the approaching wave of Marines.

Marines gasped and looked skyward, confused and terrified as the shadow of the strange fox-being soared overhead.

Then, as he flew above them, Jinx pressed his hands together into a strange hand sign—Sukuna's signature: the middle and index fingers of both hands pointing upward, palms facing one another, tips touching.

He hovered there, suspended for a moment like a god preparing divine judgment.

His lips curled in a sly grin.

"Domain Expansion…"

The air grew cold. The sky turned dark. Black frost crystallized in midair.

"Malevolent Shrine."

The world shattered.

The moment the words left Jinx's lips—"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine"—the very air fractured.

The battlefield froze, the sky cracked, and a wave of unnatural silence spread out like ripples through time itself. The clouds above split in a perfect ring, revealing a void of darkness beyond them. An ominous shrine—floating, distorted, and stitched together by malevolent energy—manifested high in the sky behind Jinx like a nightmarish temple built by forgotten gods.

A pressure fell over the battlefield like the weight of a dying star.

And then the slaughter began.

Sickening, seamless slashes tore through reality. Marines barely had time to scream as invisible blades—Dismantle and Cleave—ripped them apart, atom by atom. Blood never had the chance to spray. Bones never had time to break. Flesh unraveled, sliced clean by an unseen force that obeyed a single principle:

"Cleave through flesh that has cursed energy.

Dismantle all that does not."

Marines vanished in puffs of goreless smoke, their bodies eviscerated by sheer precision.

Thousands of them.

Thousands.

In under thirty seconds.

The Domain expanded in a 140-meter radius around where Jinx hovered, a circle of pure death. The shrine above pulsated with cursed energy, channeling the full terrifying will of its wielder.

On the edge of the battlefield, Garp, Jaylen, and the three Admirals could only watch in frozen horror.

Aokiji's mouth hung open, a bead of sweat trailing down his temple despite the freezing cold. "I… I can't even detect the attacks… It's… cutting space itself…"

Kizaru's usually playful tone was replaced by something grim. "It's too fast. Not light-speed. Just... inevitable."

Akainu's fists trembled with impotent fury. "This power... this is not from our world."

Jaylen didn't say a word. His jaw clenched tight, his fingers twitching with instinct—but he didn't move. He couldn't. No one could.

Even Garp, the Hero of the Marines, found himself… silent. His fists relaxed. For the first time in decades, true dread seeped into his old warrior heart.

"This isn't haki... or Devil Fruit power..." Garp murmured, eyes narrowed. "It's something far worse."

Within the Domain, chaos reigned.

Entire battalions were wiped out in seconds. Steel melted. Cannons cracked. Ships split clean in half, as if some divine hand had drawn a blade through their keels.

And yet—Jinx did not move. He hovered at the center of it all, eyes calm, watching the effects of his godlike domain with the detached serenity of an artist observing his masterpiece.

He raised one hand.

With a snap of his fingers, a massive cursed slash bisected a group of charging Vice Admirals trying to flank the retreating pirates—not a sound escaped their lips before they vanished.

"This is a massacre," whispered a Commander, weeping openly behind one of the remaining towers.

Marco, carrying Luffy and Ace in phoenix form high above, saw the aftermath. "Holy hell…" he murmured. "This kid's not a pirate. He's a cataclysm."

Even Whitebeard, whose hand still tingled from throwing Jinx, stared in solemn silence.

"This power…" he muttered, gripping Murakumogiri tightly. "It doesn't belong in this era… or this world."

The shrine pulsed one final time.

And then, in an instant—it all stopped.

The darkness vanished. The shrine blinked out of existence. The frozen wind ceased.

What remained was silence... and a cratered battlefield, littered not with corpses, but voids—places where Marines once stood, now simply gone, erased from existence by the domain's terrifying law.

Jinx hovered above it all, barely conscious, one hand still raised, a soft grin on his lips.

"…ow," he muttered softly. "That… took a lot more than I thought…"

He began spiraling downward, body limp again. Marco dove in a streak of blue flame to catch him.

But as the Marines and Pirates stood on opposite ends of the battlefield—staring at the desolation left in the wake of a single boy's attack—they all realized one simple truth:

The age of legends wasn't over. It had just been reborn... in the form of a smiling fox with eyes older than the world.