Inside Pangaea Castle.
Kings and bodyguards from nations across the world lay collapsed on the floor.
With that last surge of Haoshoku—
Imu hadn't struck Magnus, but to cover her tracks she had knocked out the remaining stronger kings and guards in one sweep.
She hadn't wanted to do it.
But Magnus had just shouted her name.
"White Wolf Magnus!"
Imu didn't know how he'd learned it, but the truth hidden in history could not be exposed.
Magnus had to die.
Magnus, for his part, had only shot his mouth off—yelling "Imu" on a whim.
It triggered her like a tripwire.
Now it felt like he'd kicked a wasp nest: a pack of the Government's top fighters on his tail, and if he slowed even a little, he'd be mobbed.
Closest behind him were Nasjuro of Venus and Marcus of Mars.
Marcus's giant bird form in particular— even after Magnus turned into a white wolf—refused to be shaken off.
"Thunderfire Blaze!"
The giant bird—hawk head, talons, wings, but a serpent's body—lit with flame and lightning. Bolts fell like thunder from over a kilometer away, lancing at Magnus ahead.
Rumble—
Power that could vaporize a warship couldn't make him miss a step. Each time before the strike landed, Magnus slipped aside as if he'd foreseen it.
"Kenbunshoku, is it?"
Realizing Magnus's Observation outclassed his own, Marcus abandoned long-range fire.
Wings and serpent-body folded into a hunting dive—like an osprey spearing fish—he plunged for Magnus.
If range fails—
close and maul.
He'd just heard from Lucas that Magnus still hadn't cracked immortality. In other words, closing with him carried no risk.
Yes.
Not only the Holy Knights—
the Five Elders, the Government's supreme council, were also immortal. Five Mythical Zoans, Admiral-class might, and immortality atop it.
Even Magnus, two or more on one—especially two Elders—could be ground down by such an obscene advantage.
But one-on-one?
Sprinting through Mary Geoise's forests, the wolf-shaped Magnus leapt the instant Marcus's bird form stooped.
The blade clamped in the wolf's jaws went midnight-black; black-red lightning streamed from its edge as it met the giant bird's talons.
Boom—!
Black-red arcs swamped the forest for hundreds of meters; ordinary trees atomized beneath true, solidified Haki.
Though the giant bird dwarfed the wolf—
Marcus felt it the moment they clashed: his strength lost to Magnus's.
"Fang Hunt!"
Even short of his strongest hybrid, the beast form's heart hammered. At impact, blood mist burst from Magnus's body, dyeing his white fur red.
Thud—!
Marcus's body smashed down and cratered the ground—but right behind him thundered a bone horse reeking of ill omen.
Crack!
The charging bone horse slammed full-tilt into Magnus's lupine frame.
"Kuh—"
He swallowed the blood up his throat. After trading with several Admiral-class foes, taking Imu's strike head-on, and burning a round of Life Return, even his absurd cellular regeneration couldn't stop his state from dipping.
But he couldn't stop now.
Behind the bird-form Marcus and the bone-horse Nasjuro—
a spider monster tens of meters tall, a massive boar, a colossal sand-worm, and Lucas. Four top-tier fighters in chase.
If he stalled here, he was dead.
"That teleport-circle trick—also a Devil Fruit?"
No time to catch a breath—
yet, at this razor moment, he flicked a glance at his system panel.
Back on Sabaody—
he'd beaten Kong and Ortega together and sealed Holy Knights' vice-captain Grandlead. That had already marked a milestone.
The system had settled the rewards then—he just hadn't claimed them.
Those rewards were why he'd dared come to Mary Geoise.
[Sea Calendar 1483: Together with the two Giant Warrior captains, you defeated Admiral Kong and former Admiral and current instructor Ortega Severn, leaving indelible impressions on Vice Admiral Garp and Vice Admiral Sengoku.]
[Milestone unlocked—Enemy of the Navy!]
[Against enemies from the Navy, your cells become more active; cellular activity increases.]
[You have received one Healing Reward!]
[New Ongoing Trial unlocked—A Battle Without End!]
[When you defeat one qualified top-class: a Great Swordsman, a master of Kenbunshoku, a master of Busoshoku, a master of Taijutsu, and a top Devil Fruit user—]
[You gain a special Haoshoku—Observation Kill.]
[Current Trial complete!]
He'd felt the system's healing once before and knew how absurd it was.
Barring age's wear, every wound—even the old, "incurable" ones—would be erased.
So long as he had one breath left, he could be restored.
That was why he'd been so reckless with his life—trading flesh and blood with Lucas and the others.
He could afford it.
And the reason he pushed this far was the Trial that popped up after Sabaody.
He didn't know the exact criteria, but before coming to Mary Geoise he'd already completed four defeats:
Rona filled "Great Swordsman," Sebas the "Kenbunshoku master," Kong the "Taijutsu master," and Ortega the "Busoshoku master."
Strictly speaking, his fight with Ortega hadn't fully resolved—
but Ortega had admitted defeat. If he hadn't fallen behind Magnus at the start, Kong never would've been forced to face East, West, and Magnus together.
The last one—Devil Fruit user—
had just been checked when Magnus traded an arm to maul Stephens, punching through his right lung.
Even as a Mythical Zoan, that wound took Stephens out of the fight.
And so Magnus gained a new power.
In that instant, to Marcus and Nasjuro's senses, Magnus seemingly vanished.
Their eyes could see him—but their futures could not. His next move was impossible to predict.
The dissonance froze their motions for a heartbeat.
In that breath—
they felt Magnus's aura rising.
After so long trading with so many top fighters— even with immortality, they were near their limits.
But Magnus?
He not only grew fiercer; now his aura was back to the starting peak.
"Don't panic—he's bluffing!"
The ghastly bone horse shrank, body compacting into a six-meter centaur.
Above the equine waist stood Nasjuro of Venus.
His ability mirrored Magnus's eerily.
"Enough theatrics—halt!"
Nasjuro barked, drawing and cutting. The blade in his hand—
the first of the Kitetsu line, one of the Supreme Grade Twelve.
That slash pricked Magnus's sense of déjà vu. A Great Swordsman with an ice-based fruit—like fighting a version of himself.
Earlier, when his stamina had been bled, meeting that cut head-on would've been rough; his state had dipped.
But now—
he had cashed the system heal.
This was Magnus at full power.
"Swordsmanship, is it?"
In a blink the white wolf stretched and snapped into hybrid form.
"Then come."
The transplanted human-made forest froze solid; two frost-limned blades met at blinding speed.
"Land of Winter!"
Magnus opened with his favorite wide-area slash, and Nasjuro answered in kind.
But steel met steel—and Nasjuro felt the wrongness. Magnus didn't feel like someone who'd burned through his fuel; it was like he'd never dipped at all.
"Not good."
Without immortality, Nasjuro was a standard Admiral tier; even Rona might not have lost to him.
But he faced Magnus restored—
Boom!
The frost haze around Nasjuro blew apart under Magnus's cut; the slash bored through and carved into him.
"Tch."
He didn't even try to guard.
"I'm immortal."
He slid back a few steps, not hardening his arm to block—planning instead to counter the instant it knit.
What greeted him—was Magnus's grin.
"Oh? Really?"
With his future-sight smothered, Nasjuro hadn't the slightest clue what Magnus had done.
Any Admiral-tier master had elite Kenbunshoku.
Only a question of how far ahead they could see.
Magnus had just banned it all.
Without Observation to warn him, Nasjuro couldn't know.
"I noticed something."
His limbs began to disobey. Magnus's voice came at his ear.
"Top-tier Haoshoku seems to counter Devil Fruits."
Not merely "resist" like Busoshoku—
but to nullify.
And then Magnus noticed something even more interesting.
All five Elders had been brought by a special ability. Without Observation Kill, he wouldn't have seen it.
Now he did.
Behind each of them—and Lucas—there was a shadow; they were like puppets on strings.
All he had to do was nudge those strings with Haki—
Nasjuro vanished.
It happened in a flash. Even Marcus hadn't seen what Magnus did.
All he saw was Magnus slice off Nasjuro's arm—then, under an overwhelming shock of Haoshoku, Nasjuro disappeared.
Not dead.
But when they found him again—
he was back inside Pangaea Castle.
Understanding dawned.
"Lucas—retreat!" Marcus shouted, equal parts shock and fury.
Too late.
They'd chased Magnus across more than half of Mary Geoise.
Retreat—where?
And Magnus was only one man; they were five.
Why retreat?
Lucas didn't grasp Marcus's meaning—
until the next moment.
Marcus, still fighting Magnus in front—
vanished.
Facing the remaining four top fighters—
Magnus didn't back off; he charged straight at them.
"Courting death!"
"Together—end him!"
"He's alone; one volley and he breaks!"
…
The three remaining Elders moved as one, aiming to crush him in a single strike.
A terrifying surge of Haoshoku pulsed.
At great distance, Magnus might not have been able to crack their Devil Fruits. At arm's length—
he could now.
All three vanished at once.
The same ability that had summoned them to Lucas's side—
now, unraveled by Magnus, snapped them back to Pangaea Castle.
Leaving Lucas alone.
"Tell me—who's the hunter, and who's the prey?"
Magnus looked at Lucas, a playful smile on his lips.
(End of Chapter)
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