The Ninety-Six — One-Blade Cremation
The ground shattered beneath the immense force, and most of the candy houses were reduced to rubble. Combined with the unbearable heat from the blazing inferno, Cake Island was completely engulfed in flames—in other words, it was a living hell.
The massive blade-shaped flame swept forward, carrying devastating power. Everything in its path was scorched to black. Finally, the fiery sword plunged into the boiling sea, splitting the waters as the heat warped the waves.
Vane thrust his blade into the earth, extinguishing the towering pillar of flame from the inferno.
Even without the fire pillars, the sky and clouds remained a blazing red, the air thick with unbearable heat. The ground radiated such intense warmth that anyone stepping on it could feel the burn, and smoke billowed across the island.
"Big Mom?"
Big Mom hovered on the Thundercloud Zeus, clearly battered from the last attack. Her torn clothing and weary expression betrayed her condition, but Vane had no time to entertain the sight of this aging woman.
"Your power is impressive. What ability is that?" Big Mom's tone was serious now, laced with an unfamiliar fear. For the first time in her life, she felt the grip of death looming—an experience she'd never encountered since setting sail as a child. That slash had nearly evaporated her, leaving terrible burns on her abdomen.
And that was only a brief contact with the flames.
Vane advanced with another sweeping slash, the massive white arc shaped like a crescent moon. Big Mom countered with her massive Napoleon sword.
But psychologically, Big Mom was shaken by the last attack. Fear crept in, and in battles of this magnitude, hesitation could be fatal.
Her eyelids twitched, sensing trouble.
"Mother!" Zeus cried out, sensing Big Mom's faltering spirit.
As she unleashed a lightning pillar toward Vane, he stood his ground. Thanks to his second-level Life Domain and passive skill of super-speed regeneration, he was nearly immortal—at least within the power system of this world. No matter how brutal the assault, his body healed almost instantly, as long as he wasn't completely destroyed.
Boom! The lightning pillar struck him directly, but Vane emerged from it, wounded but standing. The sharp thunderclap was no ordinary strike; Big Mom wielded her strongest thunder pillar. Lightning was deadlier than blades, especially with such overwhelming power.
"Your body..." Auntie whispered, stunned.
Vane's wounds closed instantly like water sealing a crack.
"An immortal body, perhaps?" he said with a confident smile.
Another slash came.
Remember, Vane's swordsmanship was that of a master swordsman. Who was stronger compared to Mihawk? That remained to be seen. Mihawk was acknowledged as the strongest swordsman in this world, but Vane had yet to meet the old swordsman in Marijois, who wielded the same Black Blade —the First Generation of Ghost Tetsu and one of the Supreme Twelve Skills of the Sharp Sword.
No tolerance for weakness.
The slash seemed to cut through the void itself. Big Mom's grip on Napoleon faltered as her hands trembled. She felt her resolve weakening.
Vane noticed the change, his expression hardening—anger, frustration, confusion—all at once.
Gripping the Zanpakuto tightly, Vane unleashed a fierce slash. This time it was a blazing red blade, no longer crescent-shaped but a massive laser beam.
"God falls!" Big Mom roared, swinging her sword and releasing it to block the attack. But her sword shattered instantly, unable to withstand the overwhelming power.
Wide-eyed, Big Mom was struck in the stomach by the devastating slash.
She was thrown back violently, dropping her sword.
"Careless fool!" Big Mom's face twisted in anger.
Vane sheathes his fiery blade and charges forward, fists clasped like the Six Kings Spear.
He landed directly where Big Mom had been blasted, facing her head-on.
Two crushing blows connected with her skull.
"Rhett Vane..." Big Mom cried out in pain as Vane pressed down with relentless force.
Boom!
Cake Island shook violently. The ruined houses trembled as debris was hurled 30 to 40 meters into the air.
Vane hovered midair, eyes fixed on Big Mom, waiting for another attack.
But Big Mom didn't respond immediately.
Two minutes later, she emerged.
Dressed in tattered clothes, hair disheveled, she looked like a beggar.
"Well, well, well..."
Her voice was childlike, filled with strange excitement.
"I want dessert..." she sang, dancing wildly on the ruins.
"Crazy?" Vane muttered.
Big Mom wasn't dead but seemed mentally unstable. The blow to her head probably caused a concussion, her once formidable mind now fractured.
"Completely insane."
Vane sighed, not planning to kill her now. The powerful strike had not ended her but shattered her sanity.
Though she often had mental episodes, this was worse than ever.
"How long will it take her to recover this time?" Vane wondered helplessly as she danced and sang.
"Mother..." Big Mom's children knelt in despair. Their mother had descended into madness.
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