"Dodging even that… you truly deserve the title of World's Strongest Swordsman."
Gern Reginald Sigmar continued walking forward at an unhurried pace. Yet with each step, an even more terrifying surge of power began to converge upon him. This time, the nature of that power subtly—but decisively—shifted.
No longer was it merely the suppression and restraint of vibration.
Instead, it was an incomparably finer, more ruthless control—an absolute mastery over the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, driving its power to the very brink of release.
In an instant, the hum of high-frequency vibration climbed sharply, becoming piercing beyond measure—so sharp that it surpassed the limits of human hearing, transforming into a tearing sensation that struck directly at the soul.
What was truly horrifying, however, was the change overtaking the deep-blue glow coiling around the blade.
Under extreme energy compression and violent molecular friction, temperatures soared to an unimaginable level.
The vibration fractures—those molten-vein-like energy patterns—twisted, wrapped, and leapt wildly around the blade, crackling as they scorched the surrounding air. The scenery itself warped violently under the heat, as if what Gern held was not a sword at all, but a blazing ridge of molten magma freshly torn from the core of a star.
"Take this, Mihawk!" Gern roared, slamming both feet into the ground.
"BOOM—CLANG!!!"
Another devastating thrust—heavy, violent, seamlessly linked with a tremor flash!
Hawk-Eye poured all his strength into a sideways block. Black Blade Yoru scraped violently against Bahuang's tip, showering blinding sparks and crackling black-red lightning!
Though most of the terrifying concentrated vibration force was deflected, the remaining impact still crashed down on Mihawk's crossed arms like a colossal warhammer!
"Urgh!" Unable to fully neutralize the power, Mihawk let out a muffled groan as his body was launched backward like a projectile from a catapult—his feet leaving the ground as he was flung uncontrollably upward and back.
His body traced an arc through the air, utterly devoid of any point to regain leverage.
And in that split second—when Mihawk's body was suspended helplessly in midair—
"BOOM!"
The ground exploded as Gern shot upward like a cannonball, instantly leaping into the sky directly above him!
Suppressing his injuries, Mihawk braced himself, lifting Black Blade Yoru overhead. He drove Armament Haki to its absolute limit, ready to meet a heaven-shattering downward cleave.
But Gern did not strike immediately.
Midair, he twisted his body sharply, gripping the Bahuang's magma-like hilt with both hands—and unleashed a storm of consecutive slashes at a near-maddening frequency!
Countless slashes, each wrapped in blazing, magma-veined vibration waves, bloomed like petals and instantly engulfed every inch of space around Mihawk!
Each strike was so fast it left only afterimages behind, carrying power capable of tearing apart all things and incinerating everything in its path!
From afar, Gern's figure flickered wildly through the sky, his molten blade carving countless arcs of annihilation. Those arcs overlapped and interwove in midair, truly sketching the shape of an enormous, tragic, death-laden—
A blooming lava-red lotus.
Reflected in Mihawk's pupils were those lava slashes filling his entire field of vision—along with an unprecedented sense of impending death!
He roared, pushing his swordsmanship and Haki to heights never before reached! Black Blade Yoru danced without a single opening, transforming into a dense, resilient sphere of green light!
"CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!!!!!!!!"
An almost unbroken chain of terrifying collisions detonated in the air!
Each impact erupted with blinding sparks and shattered energy fragments!
Like a lone skiff struggling through a raging storm, Mihawk demonstrated—perfectly—why he stood as the world's strongest swordsman. In that fleeting moment, he precisely deflected the vast majority of the incoming slashes!
But Gern's assault was simply too violent—too dense!
And every single strike carried both high-frequency vibration and searing, destructive heat!
Mihawk blocked ninety-nine percent of the attacks, yet the few that slipped through—and the vibration and heat transmitted directly through the blade—continued to accumulate damage within his body.
At last, as the red lotus contracted to its absolute extreme, Gern delivered a final cleave, condensing every ounce of power he possessed—
Like the detonation of the lotus's core.
"BOOOOM!!!!"
Black Blade Yoru was violently knocked aside, Mihawk's guard blown completely open!
He could have turned his back and evaded, dissolving all of Gern's follow-up offense in an instant.
But for a swordsman…
To bear a wound on one's back was—A disgrace.
Gern clearly noticed this. After a brief moment of surprise, he brought his blade down heavily upon Mihawk's chest!
In an instant, blood sprayed everywhere!!!
"BOOM!!!"
Mihawk's body became a streak of red light as it smashed into the ground, blasting up clouds of dust and debris and carving out a massive crater.
Gern flipped gracefully through the air and landed steadily, his back to the pit. He casually flicked Bahuang in a loose flourish.
"Vibration… incineration…"
The magma-like glow faded rapidly, extinguishing with a low, sigh-like sound. He reversed his grip and swept the blade down diagonally, the tip pointing toward the ground.
The soft scrape of steel against stone rang out—unnaturally clear across the now-dead-silent battlefield.
"Red Lotus… Hell."
The moment the words fell, the crater behind him—where Mihawk had landed—responded.
The residual scorching vibration energy lingering in the air and seeping into the ground suddenly reacted, as if ignited by a final fuse, erupting in a second detonation!
"BOOOOOOM!!!"
Centered on the crater, a colossal red-lotus-shaped explosion—composed purely of annihilating energy and spanning over a hundred meters in diameter—burst into full bloom!
A scorching storm swept outward, snapping Gern's admiral cloak violently in the wind.
He slowly turned, gazing calmly at the towering lotus of destruction as it rose and gradually dissipated.
This strike—Vibration Ash: Red Lotus Hell—first suppressed and accumulated damage through countless high-speed slashes forming a death lotus, then triggered a secondary annihilating explosion by detonating all residual energy at the moment the blade was withdrawn.
A true finishing move.
Even Kozuki Oden at his peak had fallen to this technique.
And you, Dracule Mihawk—how could you be an exception?
As the dust and energy aftershocks slowly faded, the scene at the bottom of the crater came into view.
The figure of the World's Strongest Swordsman still stood there, both hands gripping the hilt of Black Blade Yoru, using it to support his body.
He had not fallen.
But—
He was already defeated.
...
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