"SHUT UP! WHO DO YOU THINK YOUR WOMAN IS?!"
Gion shouted. Her red lips, clenched tightly between her teeth, bled slightly as she tried to contain her rage. The trembling in her hands wasn't fear—it was pure, suppressed fury.
Tiberion, standing atop the Sea King over 200 meters long, remained upright with arrogance, his expression completely unchanged.
"I told you last time, Gion. Every time I find you, I'll train you until you learn to obey me. Did you think those were just empty words?"
Then, without warning, Tiberion jumped.
His two-meter-sixty body dropped from above with surprising lightness, landing on the warship's deck as gently as a feather.
The marines, fully aware of the monster standing before them, regrouped behind Gion and Tokikake. All of them held their weapons—rifles and swords trembling in their hands, eyes wide with panic.
"You filthy bastard! Don't even dream of touching me again! I swear on my life—I'd rather die than let you lay a finger on me!"
Tiberion responded with a deep, mocking laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHA...!"
Without stopping his laughter, his gaze slowly lowered, and his expression changed.
The muscles in his right arm began to contract violently. His veins swelled to the point of bursting, while searing heat radiated from his skin, distorting the air around him.
Armament Haki covered his arm in a thick black layer, enveloping it completely. But that was only the foundation. Only the first layer.
Because he wasn't trying to harden.
He was trying to destroy.
He slowly closed his hand, and as he did, his breathing deepened. Inside his body, energy compressed, channeling straight into his arm.
And when he felt it was ready—when the pressure peaked—he released it.
Ryuo.
He didn't strike anyone directly, but he did strike the deck.
BOOM
Instantly, a web of cracks spread from the point of impact, covering the deck like a spiderweb expanding at impossible speed.
The Ryuo didn't just break through the wood. It tore through the ship's steel hull, through the inner beams, through the support structures, and struck the ship's structural core.
The entire warship shook. Then groaned. And finally, it began to break apart.
Cracks spread wildly across every inch of the vessel.
The whole ship started to fall apart, sinking with a slow, agonizing creak.
Panic seized the soldiers.
"V-Vice Admiral! Th-The ship's been destroyed down to the base with a single blow! WE'RE ABOUT TO SINK!"
"SO WHAT IF WE ARE?! This isn't the time to panic! Get to work! We'll handle it!"
"Y-Yes, Vice Admiral!"
Hundreds of marines moved desperately, trying to repair the warship, but it was already useless. The cracks were spreading through the entire structure like a web, water pouring in relentlessly, and in a matter of minutes, the entire ship would collapse and sink with no chance of recovery.
In the midst of that chaos, a cruel voice rose.
"If any of you can still move… then fight. Maybe that way you'll live a little longer. But if you give up… then say goodbye to air. The bottom of the sea will be your grave."
Tiberion spoke with a smiling face.
"YOU'RE COMPLETELY INSANE!" Gion shouted, her eyes overflowing with fury. "You're not going to get away with this, bastard! You're going to pay for everything!"
Hearing her, his pupils dilated, and the veins on his forehead bulged like lightning. Without saying another word, he launched himself at her with his arm outstretched.
But Tokikake reacted instantly.
His body vanished in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared right beside Tiberion. His leg spun through the air, wrapped in dense, gleaming Armament Haki, as he launched a kick with full force straight at Tiberion's ribs.
However, Tiberion was even faster.
His figure disappeared from sight as if the world itself had blinked, and a split second later, he reappeared right next to Tokikake. His gaze burned with rage, and a murderous smile twisted his face.
"YOU WANT TO DIE THAT BADLY?! THEN I'LL GRANT YOUR WISH RIGHT NOW!"
!
For an eternal second, the deepest fear took hold of Tokikake. His body froze, unable to react. With no time to escape, and as a last resort, he activated his Armament Haki and covered his entire head, hoping to withstand the inevitable.
But deep down, he knew it wouldn't help.
Tiberion grabbed his skull with one hand, his fingers sinking into his skin like claws.
With no effort at all, he lifted him into the air like a doll and smashed him against the deck.
BOOM
"GHHHAAARGHHHH!" Tokikake howled in agony.
It felt as if his skull was being crushed in a press. Every inch of his head cracked under the pressure. Tiberion's grip kept him completely immobilized, and with each second, the invisible weight crushing him increased.
The pain was sharp, unrelenting, impossible to ignore. His senses began to fade, his vision blurred, and his consciousness weakened.
Blood poured from his ears, his eyes, his nose, and his mouth. His breathing turned erratic, and he could barely make a sound.
"LET HIM GO!"
Gion, upon seeing the scene, screamed.
The horror in her eyes was real.
That single movement from Tiberion had completely defeated Tokikake before he could even fight back.
But he paid no attention to Gion. His right hand kept pressing down hard on Tokikake's head, while with his left, he closed his fist.
The air around him began to ripple. A wave of thermal energy burst from his left arm. In an instant, a thick layer of Armament Haki coated it completely.
But he didn't stop there.
He channeled the Ryūō.
And then, he let it go.
BOOM
The punch crashed down with a force exceeding sixty thousand tons, straight onto Tokikake's skull.
Tokikake's head sank instantly, as if made of rubber—warping under the pressure and forming a perfect crater in the shape of Tiberion's fist.
The blow completely pulverized the deck, and the entire structure of the ship began to fall apart, cracking at high speed as water flooded every corner. The vessel started sinking even faster.
But at the same time…
Gion didn't just stand still.
She brandished her sword, Konpira, coating it in a layer of Armament Haki and channeling Ryūō along the blade.
And with all the power in her body, with all her rage… she unleashed a diagonal slash straight at Tiberion's head.
CRACK-TCHIN
A dry sound, like shattering glass, echoed through the air.
Gion felt a jolt of pain shoot up her arm from her fingertips to her shoulder. A wave of numbness overtook her hand.
Her wrist twisted slightly from the recoil, and for a second, she completely lost all feeling in her hand.
Her eyes widened in shock, and her breath caught in her throat.
Konpira… had broken.
Despite putting everything she had into that strike—a slash strong enough to cut even a warship in half—it hadn't managed to slice through Tiberion's skull.
"Gion, now you've really made me angry," Tiberion murmured in a low voice.
In that instant, the atmosphere became suffocating.
The bloodlust surrounding him exploded in an invisible wave that crushed the chests of everyone nearby. His eyes locked onto Gion, and his body began to move slowly.
But before advancing, he tightened his grip on Tokikake's skull, causing his fingers to sink even deeper into the bone. Then, without a word, he let go and stood up.
The area where Gion's sword had struck didn't lie: a deep, wide wound ran from his temple to his forehead, briefly revealing the bone beneath.
Blood gushed in heavy streams, running down his face, staining half of it red.
But even as he walked, the wound began to close. Torn fibers fused rapidly, the bleeding stopped as if it had never happened, and the skin began to knit itself back together.
Within seconds, the mortal wound was gone.
He possessed a cellular regeneration ability that defied all logic. Not only could he heal deep cuts—if his arm were severed, he could grow it back in a matter of minutes.
"…"
Gion, watching the scene with wide, stunned eyes, couldn't come up with a single rational explanation.
She had landed a perfect slash, with the power of a master swordswoman who had reached the peak of swordsmanship.
A slash like that could have sliced a warship in two. And yet, it hadn't even cracked the skull of the monster standing before her.
"H-How…? MY SLASH COULD CUT THROUGH ANYTHING! W-What KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?!" she screamed in total disbelief, unconsciously backing away.
"My bones are over eight hundred times harder than the toughest steel in existence," Tiberion replied, not even bothering to hide anything. "Did you really think you could cut me with that?"
"In this world, only someone who has taken their swordsmanship beyond its limits—who wields a black blade forged and perfected to the extreme—only someone like that could cut through my bones," he continued, taking another step toward her.
"And even if they managed to… I wouldn't care. I'm capable of regenerating any part of my body. As long as my heart and main bones remain intact… I can fully rebuild myself."
Gion stared at him, paralyzed, her heart pounding violently in her chest. She no longer saw him as a man. What stood before her wasn't human.
It was something worse.
Something that should never have existed.
"Is… is that even possible…?" she whispered, tightening her trembling fingers around the hilt of her broken sword.
Bones harder than any metal?
A regeneration that made any injury meaningless?
Nothing—absolutely nothing—in her experience could compare to what she was facing.
With her face pale and her legs beginning to give out for the first time in years, she felt utterly disarmed.
It wasn't just fear crushing her chest; it was the devastating realization that everything she thought she knew had been shattered in seconds by the man walking toward her.
Then, snapping back to herself, the pressure of her own breath growing unbearable, she imagined the end awaiting her if she did nothing.
Instinct screamed there was no escape left. Her body moved on its own, without thought, dragged by desperation and crushed pride. She pressed what remained of her beloved sword, Konpira, to her own neck with a trembling hand.
"D-Don't come any closer. If you take one more step, I-I'll kill myself right now. That way, you'll never have me," she threatened, desperate.
Tears welled up in her eyes, but they didn't fall. Her pride still struggled to stand, though her voice already betrayed the emotion.
But Tiberion, still wrapped in fury, didn't even slow down. Each of his steps was heavier than the last.
That threat—the idea that she would rather die than return to his arms—had no effect. Because what she said didn't make sense.
"Never have me"? That had already happened long ago.
"…Fine," Gion whispered, accepting her end.
And finally, the tears spilled over.
Tears not only of fear, but of rage, of helplessness, of humiliation. She couldn't believe her story—as a Vice Admiral of the Marines, a woman both admired and feared—was coming to such a miserable end, with the blade of her sword pressed to her own throat and her will in ruins.
But just at the moment she was about to press the blade against her skin, Tiberion stepped forward.
With a single hand, he grabbed the broken blade of Konpira before it could touch her neck, and over three thousand tons of pressure concentrated in his grip, causing the already fractured blade to crack even further—until it finally disintegrated, pulverized into dust that fell between them.
Tiberion's gaze was absolute. There was no trace of hesitation or mercy in his blazing red eyes. Only certainty.
"Remember this: You are MY woman. Only I decide your death," he roared in Gion's face. "If you insist on dying… I'll make EVERY marine here… BE BURIED WITH YOU!"
The shout was so fierce that the very air trembled—and Gion's voluptuous body shook like a leaf in a storm.
The remaining hilt of her beloved sword slipped from her hands and hit the ground with a sound that marked the total collapse of her will.
She shut her eyes tightly, unwilling to see any more. Unwilling to witness the shame descending upon her.
And as the ship groaned, as the final sections of the vessel shattered completely and crashed into the sea with a deafening noise, dozens of marines began to be swallowed by the waters, dragged down by the collapsing warship.
It was in that moment that Tiberion wrapped his arm around Gion's slim waist, lifted her as if she weighed nothing, and with a perfect leap, soared hundreds of meters into the air, landing gently on the head of the nearest Sea King.
From above, his voice thundered:
"SAVE THEM!"
________
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