Countless tiny fireballs erupted from Ace's body like a swarm of luminous fireflies, spreading out to surround not only Teach but also threatening Van Augur and the other Blackbeard Pirates in the distance.
Seeing the incoming attack, Teach immediately stopped his lengthy explanation and stretched out his left hand with urgent desperation. "I can't let you succeed! Dark Water!"
"What?!" Ace felt his body suddenly lose all control as he was pulled forward against his will.
The black smoke in the air seemed to be drawn into a massive black hole, attracted by Teach's ink-dark left hand in swirling, gathering spirals.
"Ow! Hot! It's burning!"
But the next second, although the firefly attack had been disrupted, the individual flames remained under Ace's command. They suddenly converged on Teach's body and exploded in a burst of searing heat, causing him to wail in genuine agony.
As Teach collapsed to the ground and rolled frantically to extinguish the flames, Ace managed to regain control of his body after being passively drawn toward his opponent.
Looking down at his hands in confusion, Ace muttered, "What the hell was that? Some kind of gravitational pull?"
"Agh, it burns!" Teach struggled to his feet, his clothes singed but his body remarkably intact. Despite his obvious pain, he managed a self-satisfied grin. "Although my darkness can absorb everything—bullets, blades, flames, lightning, and other attacks—I can't become intangible like other Logia users. I feel every bit of pain!"
Without hesitation, he stretched out his left hand again. "Dark Water!"
"Whoa!" Ace exclaimed as he felt his body losing control once more, being drawn directly toward Teach's outstretched palm.
Since they'd already been pulled together once before, the distance between Ace and Teach was minimal.
In the split second of Ace's surprise, he found himself trapped firmly in Teach's iron grip.
At that moment, Ace discovered that not only was he unable to transform into his fire element, but his entire body felt weak and sluggish. His Devil Fruit abilities were completely sealed, his physical strength drained away, and even his Haki usage was severely restricted. For the moment, he couldn't mount any effective resistance.
"Zehahahaha! Ace, it's been far too long since anyone's gotten the better of you!" Teach declared with vicious pride before delivering a merciless punch to Ace's abdomen, sending him flying more than ten meters away with tremendous force.
"Cough!" Blood sprayed from Ace's mouth as he crashed to the ground.
Suddenly, Ace felt his body growing unexpectedly weak as strange rashes appeared across his hands. However, as his Flame-Flame Fruit abilities and Haki gradually returned to normal function, these uncomfortable symptoms quickly disappeared.
"Doc Q, stop fooling around," Teach called out, turning to look at his sickly crew member. "Your disease powers aren't strong enough to affect someone at his level yet. Be careful or he'll come after you next!"
Seeing Doc Q and the others quickly retreating to a safer distance, Ace's eyes turned cold as he whispered to himself, "Planning to gang up on me? Jerry was right to be concerned, but fortunately none of them seem particularly strong individually."
"Ace, your opponent is me! Zehahahaha!" Noticing where Ace's attention had wandered, Teach immediately stretched out his left hand to prevent any attacks on his subordinates.
"Dark Water!" Clearly, as long as the technique proved effective, Teach intended to exploit it ruthlessly.
Ace was forced to fly forward once again. After a moment of initial panic, his extensive combat experience allowed him to remain calm under pressure. Multiple strategies and countermeasures flashed through his tactical mind.
"As long as I don't get caught by him directly, or I can attack first, I should be fine!" As his thoughts raced, a blazing ball of fire appeared in Ace's hand.
"Fire Pillar!"
Due to time constraints, Ace couldn't accumulate maximum energy. He compressed the flames as quickly as possible and hurled them at Teach's feet just before being captured.
Teach looked shocked but couldn't withdraw the punch he'd already aimed at Ace's face. Gritting his teeth, he committed fully to delivering the devastating blow.
A violent column of fire erupted skyward, completely engulfing Teach in searing flames.
Simultaneously, Ace's figure was knocked backward and crashed heavily to the ground.
"Huff... huff... it's useless!" Teach's silhouette emerged as the fire pillar dissipated. He stood in a newly formed crater, and although he looked somewhat disheveled, he still managed to pant out his boastful declaration. "I told you—your flames can't hurt me at all! They'll only be absorbed by my darkness!"
Apart from his clothes being covered in dust and a few missing teeth, Teach's body remained exactly as he'd claimed—completely undamaged, without even a single scratch visible.
"Cough... why are you breathing so hard then?" Ace wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and shook his slightly dizzy head before speaking with surprising calm. "Activating Devil Fruit abilities requires physical stamina. That's basic knowledge. Your powers must have limitations."
Hearing this observation, Teach was momentarily speechless.
However, within moments he burst into renewed laughter. "Zehahahaha! So what if they do?! In the face of absolute darkness, all your attacks are meaningless!"
"Are they really?" Despite his serious injuries, Ace's mouth still curved into a slight smile.
"Dark Water!" Teach grinned menacingly as he stretched out his left hand again, a hint of cunning malice flashing in his eyes.
Sure enough, exactly as Teach anticipated, when Ace was forcibly pulled toward him, his right hand transformed into flames as he threw a Fire Fist directly at Teach's face.
Teach smiled with contempt, decisively canceling his current technique, sidestepping to dodge Ace's predictable punch.
Just as Teach prepared to stretch out his left hand to reactivate his ability, Ace unexpectedly accelerated with a sudden burst of speed, closing the remaining distance between them in an instant.
At that moment, Ace revealed his left hand, which had been hidden behind his back throughout the exchange. In his palm, a brilliantly glowing flame radiating tremendous energy had quietly formed.
"Sacred Fire: Shiranui!"
A thunderous roar echoed across the battlefield as Ace swung the concentrated flame with devastating force, striking precisely at Teach's feet.
"No!" An overwhelming sense of crisis immediately flooded Teach's consciousness, and he couldn't help but shout in genuine terror.
Teach didn't simply wait for destruction. Instead, he released a torrent of monstrous black smoke in a desperate flash, trying to compete with the massive golden-white fire column erupting beneath his feet like a miniature nuclear explosion.
However, Ace's assault didn't end there. Ignoring the cramping pain in his abdomen and the dizziness clouding his vision, he furiously coated his arms with Armament Haki and launched into a devastating barrage of fire-enhanced punches.
On Long Ring Long Land, Jerry and his crew rushed to the scene with desperate urgency.
What greeted them was a devastated coastline and Ace lying on the ground with severe injuries covering his body.
Also present were Chopper—a small reindeer with bandages around his neck—treating everyone's wounds, Sanji chain-smoking cigarettes with obvious stress, and a confused-looking Usopp standing near an equally bewildered Nami.
"Ace! Are you all right?" Deuce was the first to speak, rushing over quickly with his medical kit in hand.
Carina noticed a familiar face sitting on the ground with a shell-shocked expression. "Nami! What happened here? Are you okay?"
Ace stared at the sky with unfocused eyes and shook his head gently, allowing Chopper and Deuce to busy themselves treating his numerous injuries.
"Carina... we were first confronted by Admiral Aokiji, and then completely defeated by the Blackbeard Pirates," Nami explained softly, her helpless gaze sweeping over the familiar faces before her. "Luffy—our captain—was captured by Blackbeard along with Zoro and Robin."
"Damn it," Jerry muttered, looking at Ace's dimmed but still burning eyes with obvious frustration. "I feel like I'm always showing up to clean up the aftermath instead of preventing the disasters."