Watching Mihawk before him—already drawing his blade, his battle intent climbing to its absolute peak—the last trace of leisure vanished completely from Gern Reginald Sigmar's face.
"Heh… hehehe…"A low chuckle escaped him as he slowly rose from the stone bench.
Standing nearly three meters tall, bearing the standard height of a Marine Admiral, he loomed before the one-meter-ninety-eight Hawk-Eyes.The difference alone naturally formed a crushing physical pressure, his shadow almost completely engulfing Mihawk's figure.
Yet this was far more than a disparity in height.It was the invisible oppression born of rank, of absolute power and hierarchy.
"Measuring…" Gern murmured softly, repeating Hawk-Eyes' words. His tone was calm, yet laced with a faint, unreadable edge.
Then he raised his left hand and slowly wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the black blade at his right waist—the one bound in aged, gray-white bandages.
The instant his fingers made contact and he began to draw—
"Hummm—!"
A deep, soul-shaking hum erupted from the hilt!
The old bandages coiled around the blade seemed to gain life—or perhaps were forcibly torn apart by the awakening power within. Starting from the hilt, they began to unravel automatically, spiraling at terrifying speed toward the blade's tip!
Countless gray-white fragments burst free, floating and circling the blade as if alive.
At the edges of every fragment, dazzling blue-white arcs—like crackling lightning—flickered with high-frequency vibrations, releasing shrill sizzling sounds that twisted and distorted the surrounding air!
In the next instant, the bandages were completely gone.
Black Blade · Bahuang—its true form—was finally, fully revealed to the world!
This was no ordinary black blade.
Its surface was an abyssal darkness so deep it seemed capable of devouring all light itself.
And within that darkness, countless dark-red fissures suddenly flared to life, erupting with blinding radiance—like molten lava coursing through veins,or like a slumbering ferocious beast opening its blood-red eyes.
The vicious blade had awakened!
The entire sword seemed to come alive in an instant, greedily and frantically absorbing Gern's Conqueror's Haki.
At the same time, it exuded a violent aura—one that thirsted for destruction and conquest, a terrifying presence that made the air itself recoil.
And then—
"BOOOOOOM!!!!!!"
Gern no longer held back in the slightest!
Just as he had ten years ago in the West Blue, when he first encountered that young challenger—no, far beyond that—
He unleashed his Haki pressure, vast and unfathomable as an abyss.
No—this was Conqueror's Haki a hundred times, a thousand times stronger than it had been ten years ago, mixed with an aura honed through countless bloody battles, released completely and without restraint!
Although this heaven-collapsing pressure was almost entirely focused with terrifying precision on the Mihawk standing before him,the faint portion that naturally overflowed—impossible to fully contain—still surged outward like a tsunami, instantly sweeping across the entire backyard and spilling far beyond it!
Libo, who had been preparing to leave yet still kept an eye on the situation.Enel, who had just finished tending his wounds and slipped back.And Bullet and Snake Princess, standing not far away.
The pupils of all four shrank violently at almost the exact same moment. Every hair on their bodies stood on end!
"This is…?!" Libo covered her mouth, her petite body trembling—not from fear, but from a生命层次的本能敬畏, a primal reverence toward absolute power.
"You've got to be kidding me…" The arrogance vanished from Enel's face, replaced by unprecedented shock and dread."So this bastard… was never even serious before?!"
"I knew it…" Bullet split into a savage grin, a laugh filled with ferocious excitement and a hunter's delight. His entire body trembled as his muscles quivered in exhilaration."Your true strength—after that battle with Roger back then—this might be the first time you've ever fully shown it!!"
Snake Princess tightened her grip on her blade, her expression grave beyond measure.
Only now did she truly understand how terrifying Gern's full power was.
In other words—
This was the first time any of them had truly seen Gern's aura erupt without restraint.
This was no longer the presence of a human being.
It was a walking natural disaster, descending upon the world.
And yet—
At the very center of this catastrophic pressure, bearing the overwhelming majority of it—
"Hawk-Eyes" Dracule Mihawk!!!
Time had changed everything.
Back in the West Blue, facing this power, he had been a young challenger—his entire body shaking, stubbornly refusing to kneel through sheer force of will.
Now—
He merely tilted his head slightly upward, those hawk-sharp yellow eyes calmly meeting Gern's gaze.
His spine stood straight, like a blade that would rather shatter than bend!
And it wasn't just a matter of meeting his eyes—
The moment their gazes locked,
An equally sharp, peerless aura—one that seemed capable of cleaving heaven and earth—erupted violently from Hawk-Eyes' comparatively "slender" body!
This was the pride and momentum forged from ten years of honing a single blade, defeating countless formidable foes, and ascending to the very summit of the world—
The aura belonging exclusively to the World's Greatest Swordsman!
The ultimate will of swordsmanship: to cut through everything, advancing without hesitation!
This presence was not as vast and tyrannical as Gern's disaster-like pressure—
But it was condensed to the extreme, impossibly sharp!
Like the tip of the sharpest blade, it slammed head-on into the overwhelming pressure flooding toward him, splitting it cleanly in two and forming a unique, inviolable domain around his body!
After all—
The World's Greatest Swordsman, the king of the blade upon today's seas, could never lack Conqueror's Haki!!!
In an instant, two terrifying auras—both standing at the absolute pinnacle of the world—collided violently in midair!
There was no sound.
And yet, it felt as if countless black-and-red bolts of lightning were exploding and shattering madly throughout the void!
The very space between the two men began to twist and blur!
The Marine "Natural Disaster"versus the World's Greatest Swordsman!
Ten years after their last encounter, before a single blade had truly clashed, their clash of presence alone was already shaking heaven and earth!
The invisible yet tangible collision of pressure made the four spectators in the distance feel their breathing stall, as though trapped beneath the suffocating calm before a cataclysmic storm.
And at the very instant this confrontation reached its peak—
Gern moved.
There was no warning whatsoever.
No visible motion of muscle or exertion.
As if by mere thought—
Bahuang tore through space itself!
"SHHHHAAAA!!!"
A distorted, pitch-black slash—wrapped in dark-purple Conqueror's coating and violent high-frequency vibrations—appeared before Hawk-Eyes as if it had teleported!
This strike was faster than thought itself, faster than the warning limits of Observation Haki!
The power contained within was so terrifying it inspired pure despair, cold and resolute—as though it existed solely to slay gods!
Where the blade passed, space itself seemed to wail,裂开密密麻麻的黑色痕迹, torn with fine black scars by the vibrations.
All things fell silent.
Only this single blade remained—
As though it were about to pass judgment…
Upon the divine.
"Godfall."
Hawk-Eyes' sharp yellow pupils contracted to pinpoints.
An unprecedented sense of mortal danger crashed over him like ice water poured over his head, flooding his entire being.
But ten years of battle—of carving his way to the pinnacle of swordsmanship—had forged instincts that saved him in this very moment!
Almost simultaneously with Gern's strike, the Supreme Grade Great Blade · Yoru was already moving, guided by body memory honed through endless repetition, snapping into place before him without the slightest delay!
Top-tier Armament Haki surged instinctively into Yoru, dyeing it an even deeper, more profound black!
"CLAAAAAANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
This was no crisp clash of metal—
It was a deafening, apocalyptic roar, as if two meteors had collided and the world itself was shattering!
Hawk-Eyes felt an utterly irresistible force—vast as collapsing mountains and overturning seas—mixed with high-frequency vibrations that seemed capable of shattering the soul itself, blasting through Yoru and slamming violently into his arms and entire body!
Crack!
He even heard the strained groan of his own arm bones under the unbearable load!
Blocking it?
Impossible.
Before that absolute power, all sword techniques and methods of deflection were nothing but pale illusions!
"Urgh!" Hawk-Eyes grunted, blood instantly bursting from his palms as his grip split open!
His entire body was hurled away, completely beyond his control, like a blurred afterimage—as if he had been struck head-on by an island flying at full speed!
"BOOOOOM!!!"
His body smashed straight through the rocky edge of the G-10 outpost island, shooting toward the boundless open sea like a fired cannonball!
"SPLOOOOSH!"
A colossal spray of water erupted skyward as Hawk-Eyes crashed into the ocean!
But the terror did not end there!
His feet stamped frantically against the sea surface as he struggled to stabilize himself. His blade carved deep trenches across the water—yet he could not stop!
Driven by that unstoppable impact, his body slid uncontrollably across the ocean at insane speed!
Where he passed, the sea was forcibly split apart, two towering white walls of water rising several meters high—
As though an invisible giant hand had carved a deep wound into the surface of the sea itself!
One second!Ten seconds!One minute!
His figure continued hurtling backward, tearing through the air with piercing sonic booms, growing farther and farther from the G-10 base!
Hundreds of li!Thousands of li!
Only after nearly a hundred nautical miles of sliding did the terrifying force finally begin to fade.
Hawk-Eyes violently plunged Yoru into the rock of a deserted island behind him!
"RUMBLE!!!"
Boulders shattered. Dust and debris filled the air!
Using this final resistance, he barely managed to halt his retreat, dropping to one knee as he gasped for breath.
His right hand—and his entire right arm—trembled uncontrollably. A thin line of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
Slowly, he lifted his head and gazed toward the distant direction of the G-10 base, those hawk-like eyes filled with unprecedented shock and gravity.
Separated by nearly a hundred nautical miles, the outpost island had already become a tiny black dot—if it could even be seen at all.
One strike.
Just a single, unannounced strike…
Driving the enemy back tens of thousands of miles!!
This—
This was the casual might of a single blow from "Earthquake" Gern!
Hawk-Eyes slowly rose to his feet, wiping the blood from his lips.The shock in his eyes gradually gave way to an even more blazing battle intent.
He understood the gap now.
And yet—
He was more exhilarated than ever.
This—
This was the opponent he had waited ten years for.
...
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