Hawk-Eye's current strength—though formidable—had clearly not reached what could be called his true peak. At most, he possessed the power to fight on equal footing… but absolutely no chance of victory.
After that brief moment of heavy breathing, the aura around Gern Reginald Sigmar changed abruptly.
The faint traces of probing curiosity and appreciation vanished without a trace, replaced by absolute oppression.
The air itself began to tremble. Pebbles and shards of rubble slowly lifted against gravity, then silently crumbled into dust.
Gern slowly raised the Black Blade Eight Desolations in his hand.
The dark-red fissures along the blade surged violently like molten lava. The hum produced by its high-frequency vibrations was no longer shrill—
It was heavy.Oppressive.Like the low resonance of an approaching apocalypse.
"Mihawk."
Gern's voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable authority, like a divine decree.
"Your swordsmanship—I have seen it.
Now… experience what it means to face a natural disaster."
The instant the words fell—
Gern moved.
There was no intricate footwork this time, no refined maneuvering. He simply raised Eight Desolations high above his head.
And yet that single, simple motion triggered a transformation of heaven and earth.
"RUMBLE—!!!"
Centered on Gern, the entire island—no, even the surrounding seas—began to quake violently!
The ground shook like a sieve, massive fissures ripping open from beneath Gern's feet, tearing outward like frenzied black serpents!
In the distance, towering waves dozens of meters high rose from the sea. Above, the clouds were violently churned by an unseen force, forming a colossal vortex—
Its eye locked directly onto the man holding the blade below.
Hawk-Eye's pupils shrank violently. An overwhelming sense of danger made every nerve in his body snap taut!
Without hesitation, he raised the Black Blade Yoru horizontally before him. Top-tier Armament Haki poured out without restraint, cloaking him in a jet-black sheen like indestructible obsidian!
He knew it instinctively—
If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to block what was coming.
Gern swung his blade.
The motion almost looked slow, as if the sword were unimaginably heavy.
But as Eight Desolations descended, the space around the blade visibly warped—twisting, folding, and shattering!
Countless fine black spatial fractures spread outward like a spiderweb!
"Heaven-Shaking—Soul-Crushing Tremor!"
There was no dazzling blade light.
Only pure, all-devouring darkness, accompanied by a resonance that made all things tremble—like a collapsing firmament—crashing down upon Hawk-Eye!
The attack's range was so vast that it covered nearly every possible avenue of evasion!
Hawk-Eye clenched his teeth and chose to take it head-on.
He knew he could not retreat.
The moment he yielded ground, the momentum would be seized—and he would be utterly swallowed by this heaven-falling catastrophe!
"AAAAH—!!!"
A roar tore from his throat, no longer human in sound!
The Black Blade Yoru erupted with an unprecedented brilliance of green light. No longer a condensed line—
It transformed into a massive emerald slash that surged skyward, charging straight into the crushing darkness!
"BREAK—!!!"
The next instant—
The ultimate force of vibrating annihilation collided head-on with the pinnacle of radiant sword light!
At the point of impact, blinding white light swallowed everything!
Then came the shockwave—
A ring of pure destruction exploded outward, flattening, pulverizing, and erasing all in its path!
When the light finally faded, a massive concave crater lay at the collision's center.
Hawk-Eye knelt on one knee at the bottom of the pit, both hands gripping Yoru, which was buried deep into the ground—only barely preventing himself from being blown away.
His clothes were shredded. His powerful frame was crisscrossed with bloodied gashes. Blood spilled continuously from the corner of his mouth, and his arms shook violently as he held the blade—his palms already torn and mangled.
He had blocked it.
With the pride and strength of the World's Greatest Swordsman, he had endured that world-ending strike.
But before he could even catch his breath—
Gern was already descending from above.
Gern gave him no chance to recover.
His combat style underwent a complete transformation. The earlier exchanges—responding move for move—were gone. In their place came the unrestrained outpouring of absolute power!
Techniques?Finesse?Mastery?
Before overwhelming force, all of that meant only one thing—
Defend.
"Again!" Gern roared.
Eight Desolations rose once more. The vibrations along its blade intensified to the point that space itself seemed on the verge of tearing apart—then it came crashing down!
"Heaven-Shaking—World Collapse!"
Hawk-Eye's pupils contracted. He forced up another surge of Haki and raised his blade to block!
CLANG!
The ground beneath his feet exploded as his body was driven several meters deeper into the earth!
The impact rattled his organs as if they had shifted out of place, and he spat out a mouthful of blood!
"It's not over!"Gern's voice rang out like the proclamation of death itself.
The blade's momentum continued without pause.
Gern leapt high into the air, his left hand brushing along Eight Desolations' blade as vibrating particles surged to envelop it.
Once, long ago, this had been a full-power strike from a younger Gern.
Now, it was something he could unleash casually.
"Heaven-Shaking—Sky Rend!"
A horizontal slash!
A twisted, crescent-shaped pure-white shockwave tore across the land, forcing Hawk-Eye into a desperate roll as the ground where he'd stood split open into a bottomless abyss!
"Tremor Flash!"
Gern vanished like condensed particles—and reappeared behind Hawk-Eye in a blink!
His arm thrust forward.
At the blade's tip, ultimate vibration and Conqueror's infusion converged, striking like a falling black star toward Hawk-Eye's chest!
Hawk-Eye twisted aside by the narrowest margin.
The blade tip skimmed his chest, the pressure alone ripping open a bloody gash across his hardened pectorals—
And far behind him, a massive reef-like rock formation was silently reduced to dust.
...
From that point on, Gern fought without restraint.
Every swing of his blade shook heaven and earth. Every strike carried the power to shatter mountains, split seas, and annihilate all existence!
He abandoned technique entirely, crushing everything with absolute power and overwhelming range!
In his hands, the Black Blade Eight Desolations truly became a weapon of catastrophe.
Hawk-Eye was driven into extreme passivity.
Relying solely on Observation Haki, peerless swordsmanship, and flawless footwork, he struggled desperately to dodge and block within the narrow gaps between endless waves of destruction!
Every collision felt like being struck head-on by a primordial beast. His arms went numb. His organs trembled. Injuries piled up relentlessly!
His sword was still sharp.
Every block and counter found the comparatively weaker points in Eight Desolations' force. At times, he even managed to slip in vicious counterattacks, carving shallow wounds across Gern's body.
But it was meaningless.
It could not change the outcome.
Gern's assault came like a tsunami—each wave stronger than the last, seemingly without end!
"What's wrong, World's Greatest Swordsman?!"Gern's voice thundered through the roaring devastation.
"Is this all you can do?!"
The words hadn't even finished when another crushing slash fell!
Hawk-Eye raised his blade to block—only to be sent flying backward!
His feet gouged two deep trenches into the ground as he skidded to a halt, blood surging up his throat once more.
He dropped to one knee, using Yoru to support himself as he gasped for breath. Sweat mixed with blood dripped from his chin.
His short black hair was soaked and clung to his forehead, his appearance undeniably battered.
Then he lifted his head.
He looked at the figure in the distance—shrouded in black-purple lightning and violent vibrations.
Felt the nearly despair-inducing gap in power—
And yet, the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward into a near-fanatical smile.
"…What an exhilarating power," he murmured.
His grip on the Black Blade Yoru tightened, knuckles whitening from the strain—yet unwavering.
Then Mihawk rose slowly to his feet, ignoring the screams of pain from his entire body.
He raised Yoru once more, leveling the blade as its tip locked onto Gern.
"But as I said before…"
"My sword—has not yet broken."
Under the crushing pressure of absolute power, his presence did not diminish.
Instead, a supreme sword intent surged skyward—
An intent to sever all things.
An intent to cleave even a natural disaster in two.