Within the Heavenquake Domain, the air itself was shredded by high-frequency vibrations, torn apart into countless microscopic particles. Reflected by the pale裂 that filled the space, those particles flickered with an eerie, otherworldly sheen.
Every speck of dust collapsed as it trembled, dissolving into faint motes of light, as though the entire space were being kneaded and twisted by an invisible hand into a distorted painting.
The rock layers beneath groaned under unbearable strain. Cracks spread like spiderwebs, and broken stones defied gravity, floating upward and slowly revolving under the pull of pale energy.
Gern Reginald Sigmar hovered in midair, the black blade Eight Desolations angled toward the sea. Purple-black Haki coiled around the blade, interweaving with pale震动 waves, writhing like living things.
His pupils had turned completely pale.
Every breath he took triggered resonance in the surrounding space.
Sound itself could no longer propagate. The battlefield sank into an uncanny silence, broken only by the blade's vibrating hum that pierced straight through the eardrums.
"So this is… the power of awakening?"Roger's hair whipped violently in the raging Haki currents.
There was no choice—at this moment, he had to maintain an extremely high level of Haki at all times just to resist the influence of the Heavenquake Fruit.
If he relaxed even for a split second inside this domain, the man before him could shatter everything he was with nothing more than a glance.
This was the true terror of a Logia awakening.
From a human—into a god of rules.
"But… you've only just awakened!"With that thought, Roger tightened his reverse grip on Ace. Dark-red Haki flowed along the blade like molten magma.
The rocky peak beneath his feet collapsed. Using the recoil, he leapt forward as the ground caved in with a thunderous roar.
His figure became a streak of crimson light, ripping through the silent air as he charged straight at Gern.
"Divine Departure!!"
The trajectory of the blade solidified into a tangible dark-red slash, slicing space apart and leaving spiderweb-like裂 in its wake.
"Coming already?"Gern neither dodged nor retreated. His left hand spread open, then clenched violently—
"Heavenquake · Void Shackles!"
BOOM!
Roger's slash came to a dead halt ten meters in front of Gern, as if it had slammed into an invisible wall.
Dark-red crystalline energy collided violently with pale震动 waves. The resulting energy turbulence pulverized the floating debris around them into dust.
Spiraling patterns of pale震动 lingered in the air, frozen like lightning trapped in glass.
"Logia users really are a pain."Watching Gern manipulate the vibration of all matter—anytime, anywhere, without a medium—Roger grinned, even as the recoil numbed his grip.
At the same time, his thoughts raced.
He can even interfere with space itself… I need to get close!
"Within this place…"Gern suddenly spun. Eight Desolations slashed upward at an angle that defied all physical laws.
"…I control everything!"
Where the blade passed, space peeled away like shattered glass, revealing pitch-black nothingness beyond.
"Heavenquake · Severed Boundary!"
Roger's pupils shrank. His Observation Haki screamed in warning. In an instant, three layers of flowing Ryuo coated Ace.
But at the moment he took the slash head-on—
The air beneath his feet froze solid out of nowhere. Bitter cold surged upward.
Crack!
As the crystal shattered, Roger kicked off and blasted backward, sparks flying from his boots—only to find his retreat sealed midair by twelve descending pale pillars of light.
The pillars crisscrossed into a cage, each one wrapped in high-frequency vibrations powerful enough to shatter an island. Frost condensed and spread across their surfaces, growing into crystalline ice.
"You can use freezing abilities too?"Roger's breath fogged in the frigid air.
The ground below had already frozen into a mirror-smooth ice sheet under the震动. Cold crept up his boots, scattering fine ice crystals with every movement.
When the light pillars struck, they didn't just roar with deafening impact—
They froze everything they touched.
Air solidified into jagged ice spires. Flying debris crystallized midair into floating hailstones.
Roger narrowed his eyes. The Haki along his blade steamed faintly, driving away the biting cold.
"But… you think this is enough to trap me?!"
His laughter exploded outward—wild, unrestrained—shattering even the frozen space itself.
Ace's tip stabbed into a gap between the light pillars. Dark-red Haki boiled like magma. Before the blade even landed, its pressure alone cracked spiderweb fissures across the pale pillars.
"I've fought awakened Devil Fruit users before!!"
Conqueror's Haki erupted, forcibly overriding the Fruit's influence and carving out a safe zone for himself within the Heavenquake Domain.
"Dawn Breaker!!"
A dark-red thunderstorm detonated from the blade's tip. The pillar prison twisted, swelled, then finally shattered under the Haki's onslaught!
Fragments of pale energy scattered like meteors. The moment they struck the sea, thousand-meter water columns erupted skyward—only to freeze midair into vicious ice spikes, countless crystals refracting blinding cold light.
"Is that so?"Gern's voice echoed from every direction.
"But within my domain—I am everywhere."
Before the words finished, his figure vanished.
Roger's Observation Haki screamed. A needle-sharp chill stabbed at his spine—
Behind him!
In that split second, he twisted violently, his heel wrapped in Armament Haki as he kicked back with brutal force!
BANG!!
His heel collided with pale claw-shaped traces. A circular shockwave erupted outward. Ice shattered, stones floated, and both men were blasted back dozens of meters.
But mid-retreat, Gern spread both arms wide. Pale震动 waves condensed wildly in his palms.
A crimson stellar ring of flames ignited in his left hand.A ghostly blue stellar ring of frost formed in his right.
Two diametrically opposed energies twisted together in the air.震动 tore fine裂 through the surrounding space, devouring even light itself.
"Quake Calamity · Icefire Purgatory!"
His palms slammed together.
In an instant, waves of extreme heat and extreme cold roared out like berserk dragons!
The left half of the battlefield became a molten hell. The ground split open, magma erupted, and searing heat warped the air itself.
The right half froze into an endless ice abyss. Cold raged unchecked. Ice crystals grew like blades. Even time seemed to slow and solidify.
Roger's pupils contracted sharply.
"Can't dodge… then I'll cut it apart!!"
He laughed wildly. Conqueror's Haki exploded from Ace, dark-red lightning surging like a furious tide as he slashed straight into the intertwined ice-fire震动 waves!
Where the blade passed, space was forcibly cleaved open. The震动 was torn apart by Haki; magma and ice shattered beneath the blade's path.
Even so, the residual impact hurled Roger backward. His battle clothes froze solid—then charred and shattered under the heat.
Gern's figure slowly emerged from the smoldering aftermath of ice and fire. Pale pupils locked onto Roger as his voice fell cold and deep:
"Worthy of the man who made Kaido admit that Haki reigns above all!!Truly astonishing…"
"But between heaven and earth—even 'gods' must bow before the law of vibration!"
Gern raised both arms high, palms turned skyward. Pale震动 surged upward like a raging tide.
In an instant, the air across the entire sea began to quake violently. Clouds were torn and twisted by invisible force, forming a colossal vortex thousands of meters wide at an altitude of ten thousand meters.
Its center was pitch-black, as if linked to another dimension. Purple-black lightning churned within the clouds, roaring like enraged dragons.
"Heavenquake Vault…"
Gern slammed his hands downward.
"Divine Punishment!!!"
ROOOOAAAAR—!!!
The sky collapsed.
Black lightning poured down like a torrential storm, each bolt wrapped in high-frequency震动. Wherever it struck, space split into dense裂.
From those裂 seeped voidlike darkness that devoured light and sound alike. The battlefield plunged into eerie silence amid fractured illumination.
The sea surface was crushed into enormous depressions. The island's bedrock shattered inch by inch. Stones floated—then vanished into dust in the next instant.
Roger looked up, black thunder and裂 reflected in his pupils.
Extreme heat and extreme cold… now even the sky itself—
Compared to Heavenquake, you're not just power anymore…
You're a natural disaster!!!
...
"So this is the power of pushing Observation Haki—of hearing the Voice of All Things—to its absolute limit?"
Gern's pupils contracted sharply as he stared at Roger calmly adjusting his stance in the distance. His grip tightened, knuckles whitening around the hilt.
"Even techniques like Quake Flash… after seeing them a few times, you've already predicted them completely."
"Hahahaha!"Roger laughed wildly, red light blazing in his eyes.
"Looks like you still haven't fully adapted to your awakened state, Gern!"
Before the words finished, the ground beneath his feet exploded. Wrapped in scarlet lightning, his figure surged forward like a thunderbolt.
CLANG!
Ace descended, carrying overwhelming Haki. The sheer pressure was enough to momentarily stall Gern's elementalization—and even his Devil Fruit power.
At the critical instant, Gern raised his blade. Eight Desolations intercepted perfectly, and countless震动 particles devoured the impact.
"Ha!!"
Purple lightning erupted in Gern's eyes. Borrowing the recoil, he spun and slashed upward, sending a dark-violet crescent wave infused with Haki screaming through the air.
Roger's figure flickered. He slipped past it by a hair's breadth, but the blade wind tore open a gash across his shoulder.
"Not over yet!!"
Gern's Conqueror's Haki exploded outward. Dark-violet lightning collided violently with scarlet arcs in the void.
He suddenly lowered his stance. The vibrating blade emitted a teeth-grinding hum as he sheathed it, compressing terrifying energy.
"Heavenquake · Instant Hell…"
Space itself seemed to freeze. Only the black blade remained, gleaming with lethal cold light.
"KILL!!!"
The instant the iaijutsu slash was unleashed, the entire battlefield was swallowed by blinding violet-white light.
"Kh—!"
Roger's pupils shrank violently. A savage gash tore open across his chest, blood spraying outward.
His body swayed. Crimson spilled from his lips—but the fighting spirit in his eyes did not dim.
Instead, it burned even brighter.
"Fast blade…"He chuckled, wiping the blood away, then turned his head.
Gern's figure slowly materialized a few meters away. His blade swept clean with a sharp shing.
He tilted his head slightly. Dark-violet Conqueror's lightning still coiled around him, his gaze cold and steady.
"Sorry. My Haki isn't weak either."
"Ah… that familiar feeling."Roger straightened, glancing at Eight Desolations, then touching the wound on his chest.
"Good slash…"He grinned, bloodstained teeth bared."But… it's still not quite there!"
Before the words fell, the ground beneath him detonated. Ace, wrapped in boiling scarlet lightning, cleaved forward with world-splitting force!
Purple lightning flared in Gern's eyes. Eight Desolations struck instantly. Dark-violet steel collided with crimson thunder in midair.
CLANG!!
Two peerless blades clashed once more after years apart. The impact sent a ring-shaped shockwave exploding outward, cracking and collapsing the ground within a hundred meters.
Their Conqueror's Haki tore at each other viciously. Violet and crimson lightning writhed like mad serpents, dyeing the sky an ominous purple-red.
Gern's grip numbed from the震动. Roger's eyes, however, burned even hotter as his blade suddenly shifted—from cleaving to lifting.
Ace slid along Eight Desolations, sparks erupting as it swept upward.
Gern leaned back with the motion, his blade drawing an arc, then unleashed a lethal spinning slash straight for Roger's neck!
"Perfect!"Roger roared with laughter, refusing to dodge. He countered with a reverse kesagiri slash.
The moment the blades collided, high-frequency震动 particles reacted violently with supreme Armament Haki. Space itself twisted and shuddered.
Their figures flashed amid a storm of blade light. Every exchange detonated with thunderous booms.
Suddenly, Gern changed moves. His left hand tore at the nearby air, dragging spiderweb-like pale fragments with it. Eight Desolations rippled with eerie purple-black waves.
"Heavenquake · Hell · Eroding Moon!"
Where the blade passed—
even light itself was twisted and devoured.