"Finally getting serious?"Gern Reginald Sigmar's lips curled upward as the bandages wrapped around the black blade began to split apart, tearing away inch by inch."Now this is more like it, Roger!!!!"
Their Conqueror's Haki collided head-on in midair.
The entire desolate island shuddered violently.Far out at sea, waves tens of meters high surged skyward, while the clouds overhead were forcibly torn open by a massive裂—like the sky itself had been wounded.
And at the very heart of the storm, Gern's mouth curved into a satisfied smile.
This was exactly what he wanted.
A Pirate King fighting at full strength—not a dying man already resigned to his end.
Dangerous violet light danced within Gern's pupils.
"As for what you said just now…"The body of the black blade Eight Desolations began to vibrate at extreme frequency, its cry sharp and piercing, like a thunderbird screaming.Where the blade passed, it left behind frozen vacuum trails—pale, fissured scars spreading from the edge into the surrounding space itself.
It was as if the entire world had become fragile under this single strike.
"Regret?"Gern suddenly burst into wild laughter. The black blade erupted with even more blinding, incandescent white light."Hahahahahaha!"
He stomped forward.
The ground beneath his foot shattered like glass.
Purple-black arcs of Conqueror's Haki raged around his body, every step detonating a shockwave with a hundred-meter radius.The air compressed into visible ripples, while dense, pale裂痕 spread through the void like spiderwebs.
"From the moment I tracked you down alone, those two words stopped having any meaning!"
Gern lunged forward, his stance low—his figure blurring as if wrapped in white radiance.Like a comet streaking across the sky, he appeared before Roger in the next instant.
Eight Desolations traced a flawless arc.Where it passed, space shattered like a mirror.
Facing Gern's space-rending slash, Roger's wrist snapped into motion.Ace carved a dark-red bolt of lightning through the air, Conqueror's Haki crackling along the blade, illuminating the instinctive grin spreading across his face.
"You really know how to piss people off."
And yet—even so—upon this raging sea, in this legendary era where heroes rose one after another…
Only the man before him had grown so brilliantly that it was impossible to look away.
Without a doubt, in this era—
He—Gern Reginald Sigmar—was the brightest new star on the seas!!!
"Heavenquake · World-Collapse!!!"
Roger's pupils filled with onrushing, deathly white light.
The Haki wrapped around Ace surged explosively.Conqueror's Haki manifested into substance—dark-red lightning spiraling into a rotating black hole at the guard, crimson arcs flowing along the blade itself.
With a sharp twist of his wrist, Roger reversed the slash from bottom to top.Where the blade passed, space was torn open by a dark-red裂.
"CLANG!!!"
The instant the two blades collided, time itself seemed to freeze.
Dark red and pale white energies formed a stark dividing line at the point of impact.Conqueror's lightning and shattered spatial fragments devoured one another, and the resulting energy torrent forcibly shaved the land within a thousand meters down by nearly a full meter.
"As expected!"They shouted in unison, eyes blazing with identical battle lust.
"So your terminal illness really doesn't affect your strength!"Blood seeped from the webbing of Gern's hand, yet his smile only grew more unrestrained."Roger!"
"You've jumped more than one entire level!"Roger's lips curled into a long-lost, arrogant grin."Gern!"
As they both exerted force at the same time, the collision point collapsed inward—condensing into an absolute singularity of darkness.The energy reached critical mass.
Then—a blinding white flash.
Followed by a deafening explosion.
The shockwave expanded outward in a perfect sphere, blasting both men back.
"In that case…"Roger shook his numb arm.The lifeless haze in his eyes vanished completely, replaced by the sharp brilliance of the Pirate King who once ruled the seas."Then let the final curtain call of my life… come even more violently!"
"As you wish!"Gern slammed the black blade into the ground. His hands formed claws, drawing together before his chest.
Countless pale points of light emerged from the void, converging in his palms to form a dazzling, irregular white sphere—its surface churning violently.
When the energy reached its limit, he tore his arms apart—
"Heavenquake · Gates of the Heavenly Prison!!!"
Above the island, twelve enormous white halos suddenly manifested, arranged in a perfect circle.
From each halo descended a pale pillar of light a hundred meters in diameter, engulfing the island in a matrix of annihilating shockwaves.
Faced with this scene that resembled divine punishment, Roger's pupils trembled violently—then he burst into exhilarated laughter.
"Hahahaha! You bastard… you're terrifying!"He kicked off the ground hard, the recoil blasting a crater dozens of meters wide.
The Haki on Ace condensed to its absolute extreme, the blade completely engulfed in dark-red lightning.
"Divine Departure!!!"
The moment the slash was released, space was cut cleanly apart.Where the dark-red blade light passed, even the descending pale pillars were split in two.
Gern did not dodge.
His left hand clenched into a fist, compressing shockwaves to their absolute limit around his knuckles.Pale裂痕 spread along his entire arm, as if it might shatter at any moment.
"Supreme Oscillation Fist!!!"
Fist and blade collided once more.
This time, the impact blasted a crater over a kilometer wide into the island's center.Seawater poured in, instantly forming a ring-shaped lake.
As the dust settled, the two men faced each other across the water.
...
Suddenly, Gern's pupils contracted sharply.
In his vision, Roger's blade had already become a dark-red afterimage.
"Even faster than Rayleigh!!"
"Once a fight starts, it doesn't end so easily, kid."
A shrill scream of torn air rang beside Gern's ear.Even his skin could feel the boiling Conqueror's Haki surging from Ace!
At the critical instant, Gern twisted his body sideways.Eight Desolations swept upward along his left side—and when the guard struck Ace, pale shockwaves and dark-red lightning detonated into a circular blast.
Sparks rained down like a storm, melting honeycomb-like holes into the rock beneath their feet.
"Your 'Divine Departure' can't cut apart molecules that exist everywhere!"
Gern's molecular-phase tremor-shift reconstituted his body.His right leg suddenly whipped out—his boot heel wrapped in purple-black Haki, crashing down like a battle axe toward Roger's knee.
"Is that so?"Roger seemed to have anticipated it. Using the recoil from the clashing blades, he flipped backward through the air, Ace slashing downward in the same motion—the edge grazing Gern's shoulder.
Even so, the residual force of Gern's kick tore a hundred-meter-long trench through the ground, shattered rocks blasting through distant reefs like bullets.
"As expected of observation Haki at the level of 'Voice of All Things'…"Gern glanced at the wound on his shoulder, utterly unconcerned.
Because in this battle, his breathing remained perfectly steady—while his heart thundered within his chest at a rhythm unique to combat, blood boiling like molten magma.
Suddenly, Gern's left hand clawed at empty space.Blinding white light erupted between his fingers.
"Heavenquake · Sever!"
Five parallel spatial裂 tore through the air in an instant.Invisible shockwave blades sliced toward Roger's landing point, splitting the ground and compressing the air into visible vacuum tunnels.
Still airborne, Roger twisted his waist mid-fall.Ace traced a circular arc, dark-red Haki spreading like a curtain, shredding the震斩 apart.
In the next instant, refracted pale energy speared diagonally into the sea—detonating waves a kilometer away into mist.
"Using my 'Divine Departure' as a stepping stone? Not a bad idea!"The moment Roger's feet touched down, he kicked off violently, the ground collapsing like tofu beneath him.
His body became a dark-red meteor, blade tip aimed straight at Gern's throat!
"And here's one you know even better!"Gern suddenly released the black blade, crossing his arms before his chest, palms facing outward.
"Heavenquake · Mirror Reversal!"
A pale shield composed of high-frequency shockwaves materialized out of thin air.
The instant Ace pierced the shield, it shattered like glass—but the reflected force split Roger's palm, blood dripping down the hilt.
"Got you!"Gern seized the opening, surging forward as his right fist—wrapped in spiraling shockwaves—smashed toward Roger's abdomen.
"Black Quake · Spiral Bone!"
Roger's pupils shrank.
He didn't dodge.
Instead, he plunged Ace into the ground for leverage and drove his knee up to meet the punch head-on!
BOOM!The dull impact of flesh against shockwave echoed. His pant leg disintegrated instantly, calf muscles spasming from the strain—yet Gern's fist was forcibly halted.
In the instant of stalemate, Roger grinned fiercely.Blood-stained teeth gleamed under the lightning.
"You think… I'd fall for the same move twice?!"
His free left hand suddenly surged with Conqueror's Haki, chopping toward Gern's neck!
Gern arched back, barely avoiding it—several strands of hair severed.
Using the momentum, he drew his blade and flipped backward.Landing on one knee, his left palm slammed into the ground.
"Heavenquake · Earth Roar!"
The entire island shook like a colossal drum.Countless pale裂 spread outward from his palm as the land beneath Roger collapsed into a yawning abyss!
"Tch…!"Roger leapt into the air, but Gern's black blade followed like a shadow.Before the edge even reached him, invisible spatial裂 tore open bloody gashes across Roger's shirt.
CLANG!As Ace blocked the black blade, Roger abruptly shifted techniques—the blade sliding along Eight Desolations' edge, slashing straight at Gern's fingers!
Gern was forced to release his grip, abandoning the sword—but twisted into a spinning whip kick aimed at Roger's temple.
Roger ducked, countering with a rising slash toward Gern's waist—only for the blade to be clamped tightly by Gern's Armament-coated palm!
Their noses were almost touching.Hot breath mixed with the stench of blood, blasting across each other's faces.
"Your blade's slowed…"Gern sneered through ragged breaths. Blood dripped from the gash in his palm—only to evaporate into crimson mist before hitting the ground.
Roger's breathing was just as labored, rasping like bellows from his terminal illness.Sweat at his temples vaporized into white steam under the pressure of his Haki.
After continuous, high-intensity clashes of Conqueror's Haki, saying it had no effect was impossible.
"Worry about yourself instead, you quake-crazed maniac…!"Roger roared suddenly as Ace erupted with its final surge of dark-red lightning.
Gern retreated decisively—but the blade still tore open his uniform, revealing beneath it Armament-hardened skin with a metallic sheen.
They separated once more, staring each other down across the devastated battlefield.
The sea wind swept smoke and dust between them.Gern licked his cracked lips, while Roger shook his numb arm.
The boy who once couldn't even withstand a single Divine Departure…had now forced a momentary deadlock.
..
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