Chapter 218: This Era is Named Shane!
Dr. Indigo and the other members of the Flying Pirate Armada stared in horror.
"Am I seeing things...? No... no way..."
"Lord Shiki... was taken down... in one punch..."
"Just one punch?"
They trembled, stumbling backward, unable to believe what they were seeing. The legendary pirate who had stood on equal footing with Roger and Whitebeard, the man who had single-handedly destroyed half of Marineford... their revered admiral, the man they had followed to conquer the world... was defeated with a single blow?
In the depths of the crater, Shiki's breath was ragged, his vision swimming in darkness. He struggled to prop himself up, blood pouring from the corner of his mouth. The pain... it was excruciating, a pain he hadn't felt in years, not since he had escaped from Impel Down. He looked down at the caved-in mess of his chest, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"How is this possible... this power..." Shiki looked up, his eyes locking on Shane. "How did you do that?!" He recognized that punch. It was Garp's signature technique. How could this kid know it, and how could he unleash it with a power that rivaled Garp in his prime?
"So, you finally see the gap between us?" Shane said, looking down on him with cold indifference. "It seems Charlotte Linlin was holding back when she fought you. She didn't realize... that the legendary Golden Lion is already dead. All that's left is a maggot, filled with resentment for the World Government, but too cowardly to face them head-on, hiding in the shadows and taking out his frustrations on the innocent people of the East Blue!"
"..." Shiki stared at him, his breath catching in his throat. A maggot?
A maggot?!!
The word was like a poison, tearing at his heart. His eyes went bloodshot. "A maggot?" he roared, a vein throbbing on his temple. "You little brat! How dare you... What right do you have to call me that?!"
His plan was perfect! And even if it wasn't, it was not for some snot-nosed kid who was barely born when Roger died to criticize him!
BOOM!
A terrifying aura exploded from his body. "The East Blue was just the beginning!" he roared, staggering to his feet. "My ultimate goal has always been to rule this sea, this entire world!"
"Oh?" Shane raised an eyebrow. "Finally showing some spirit? Too bad. You're just fooling yourself... It's not nearly enough."
"Whether it's enough or not is not for you to decide!!!" Shiki sneered, slamming his hands together.
"Shishi Odoshi: Chimaki!"
The entire floating island began to tremble. The very ground rose up, forming into eight massive lion heads, each a hundred meters tall, that lunged at Shane from all directions.
Shane didn't even bother to look up. "Is that all you've got?" he said, crossing his arms. The first stone lion crashed down on him... and shattered into dust. The others followed, and met the same fate.
"Stop playing in the mud and show me something real," Shane said, shaking his head. "Or maybe... you can't. Your Haki is as weak as your conviction. Without it, your Float-Float Fruit is useless against me." This old man... he couldn't even use Conqueror's Haki infusion anymore. This fight... was a disappointment.
"..."
Shiki stared at him, his face grim. Then he took a deep breath. "My physical strength may not be a match for yours, little brat! But don't be so arrogant! I am not just a Devil Fruit user! I was once known as one of the greatest dual-wielding swordsmen in the world!"
BOOM!
He shot into the air, the two famous swords that served as his prosthetic legs, Oto and Kogarashi, glinting in the moonlight.
"Nitoryu: Shishi Senjindani!"
In an instant, he had unleashed dozens of golden slashes, a net of light that illuminated the entire night sky.
"Now that's more like it," Shane said, his hand moving to the hilt of his katana. Swordsmanship, is it? Then I'll answer with swordsmanship.
"Divine Departure!"
A simple, unadorned slash cut through the night. The two attacks met, and with a flash of black-and-red lightning, the golden net shattered like glass.
How?! Shiki's eyes went wide. Not just because of the power, but the technique... "Roger!" he cried out. "You even inherited his will?! How do you know all of this?!"
The aftershock of the attack slammed into him, carving a deep gash across his chest. "Argh!" He stumbled back, his face pale. The gap... it was too vast. In every aspect—physical strength, Haki, swordsmanship... he was completely outmatched. He had no chance of winning.
"It's over," Shane said, leveling his blade at Shiki's throat. "All your talk of revenge, of ruling the world... it's just talk. You can lie to others, but you can't lie to yourself. The Shiki of the old days, the man who was a true rival to Roger... would he have tried to pick off two exhausted opponents at Whole Cake Island just to make a name for himself? Would he have pinned all his hopes on some ridiculous chemical experiment?!"
"..." Shiki was silent, his eyes distant, lost in memory. When... when did I become so pathetic? Was it after the Battle of Edd War? After I cut off my own legs in Impel Down? Or was it in those twenty years of hiding, lying to myself, day after day...?
"Roger... Whitebeard..." he murmured.
"One of them is dead. The other is old and sick, but he is still fighting with all his might," Shane said coldly. "But neither of them ever abandoned their convictions. You... you lost yourself a long time ago."
Lost... myself?
"DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME!!!" Shiki suddenly roared. He reached up and grabbed the ship's wheel that had been embedded in his skull for decades. "I am... the GOLDEN LION!!!"
With a sickening tear of flesh and bone, he ripped it from his head. Blood poured down his face, but a fire had been rekindled in his eyes. He had been a dead man walking for twenty years. But he would rather die here, now, in a blaze of glory, than live as a dog, beaten and insulted by a new generation. He ripped the swords from the stumps of his legs, his body trembling, on the verge of collapse. But he did not fall. This... this is the real me!
Suspended in the air, his body bathed in blood, he unleashed all the Conqueror's Haki he had left. "Come on, kid!" he roared, his two swords crossed in front of him. "I'm not interested in a lecture from a brat! Now, let me show you the true power of the lion!"
"Secret Technique: Shishi Odoshi Tenrin!"
The very world around them seemed to answer his call. Clouds, lakes, rocks... all of it rose into the air and formed into an army of giant lions, all of them coated in a thick, black layer of Armament Haki.
"Nitoryu: Shishi Juuka Rokujin!"
With a final roar, he poured all his remaining strength, all his will, all his Haki, into his two blades. A golden slash, so massive it seemed to cut the world in two, shot toward Shane, following the stampede of lions.
"Finally..." Shane murmured, a look of respect on his face. "The presence of a legend..."
He sheathed his sword. "As a sign of respect for your final stand... I'll go all out, too."
He raised his right fist.
BOOM!!!
A cross-shaped glare of black-and-red lightning erupted from it, a spiraling storm of destruction. The clouds above parted, revealing the starry expanse of the galaxy. "This is a new technique I've been working on," he said, his voice low. "A combination of old man Garp's Galaxy Impact and my own style. You, Golden Lion, are the first to witness it. And you are worthy."
His mastery of swordsmanship was still incomplete. But the fist... the fist was an extension of his own being. He was a true grandmaster, on the same level as Garp himself. And he had taken Garp's technique and made it his own. Its name...
"GALAXY..."
His arm muscles bulged, the ground beneath him shattering and spreading to the very edge of the floating island.
"OVERTURN!!!"
A pillar of black-and-red light, a hundred meters in diameter, shot from his fist, tearing a hole in the fabric of space itself. The army of lions was vaporized on contact. The golden slash held for a moment, then shattered. The pillar of light slammed into the roaring Golden Lion and consumed him.
"LORD SHIKI!!!" Dr. Indigo screamed, tears streaming down his face.
The dust settled. In the bottom of a crater a hundred meters deep, the broken body of the Golden Lion lay still. His arms were gone, a gaping hole torn through his chest. But on his face... was a smile of release.
Seventeen years... it was all over. He was finally free. The old era was over. And the new one... would be named Shane. To die at the hands of a man like this... it was not a bad end.
"Zehahaha... Roger... I'm finally coming to see you..."
With a final whisper, the legend of the old era died, his eyes open, a smile on his face.
Clink.
The two famous swords, Oto and Kogarashi, finally gave way, breaking in two and falling to the ground beside him.
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