"Life Return!"
Zephyr also used Life Return without hesitation to strengthen himself. In an instant, wisps of white aura emerged from his entire body, his muscles bulging. It was very similar to Nox's Life Return, yet different.
Nox's Life Return focused on strengthening the power of his limbs. Relying on his strong self-healing ability, as long as it wasn't used for too long, there were almost no side effects.
But the Life Return Zephyr was forced to use by Nox was an extreme strengthening of his entire body's power. In this state, the cells throughout his body were under immense pressure. If he didn't regulate his body in time after using it, it would cause permanent damage.
Although Zephyr knew the side effects were strong, at this point, Nox had used Life Return. If he didn't use it now, he might never get the chance.
Nox's killing intent was extremely obvious, clearly intending to kill him. But as a Marine Admiral, how could he just surrender? How could he allow Nox to slaughter him?
"Arm Punch · Double Six King Gun!"
That pitch-black light condensed on Zephyr's fists. He unleashed his most powerful attack by punching with both fists simultaneously.
However, at this moment, the ultrasonic waves that were previously ravaging his body instantly turned into a lullaby, and the ultimate soul hypnosis power surged into his mind.
Unbeknownst to Zephyr, a scene of his wife and child being killed by pirates appeared in his mind. And he could only watch helplessly as the pirates killed his wife and child, unable to do anything!
"No!!"
As this most painful memory buried deep in his heart surged up, it filled him with despair and anger. It also caused him to lose focus for a split second at that moment.
At this critical moment, a split-second loss of focus would change everything!
When Zephyr recovered, he found that the bloody light rushing towards him had disappeared, and his most powerful attack had missed!
Even his Kenbunshoku Haki couldn't detect Nox's presence, but his intuition told him that Nox was definitely nearby.
But neither his eyes nor his Kenbunshoku Haki could detect where Nox was.
This instantly made his heart turn ice cold.
What was the ability that caused a flaw in his mind just now? Why did he lose focus? Why couldn't his Kenbunshoku Haki capture Nox's figure now?
However, in the instant he was pondering why, Nox had already appeared behind him.
Endless bloody lightning bloomed from the Seven Star Sword. The invisible ultrasonic waves combined with Haoshoku Haki and wrapped around the Seven Star Sword, elevating its power to another level.
At this moment, Nox was enveloped in blood color. The bloody Sword God phantom figure merged into Nox's body the moment he drew his sword, allowing him to unleash Sword Intent power that surpassed his own limits!
"Three Elements Combined Mystery · Overlord Wrapped · Slaying God!"
With a single sword strike, the entire world instantly turned into boundless blood color, containing Nox's most powerful strength. This finally allowed Zephyr to know where Nox was.
But now, the Seven Star Sword had already touched the skin on the back of Zephyr's neck. Even if Zephyr knew, he had no chance to react.
Even if his body instinctively added Busoshoku Haki defense to the back of his neck, this level of defense was no different from ordinary sheet metal in front of the Seven Star Sword.
The Seven Star Sword cut through the back of Zephyr's neck without any obstruction. Zephyr's eyes could even see a crimson sword light flash before him.
That extremely brilliant sword strike, its sword energy crisscrossing the land, the entire island was forcefully cut in half by this single blow.
The slash continued relentlessly into the deep sea, exposing the seabed thousands of meters deep to the air and penetrating hundreds of meters into the underwater rock layer!
"Rumble rumble!!!!"
"Splash splash!!!!"
As the sword energy disappeared, surging seawater poured into the sword energy abyss. The entire island swayed precariously in front of the surging seawater, as if it would sink into the Sea at any moment.
"I..."
Zephyr looked at the scene before him, wanting to say something, but he couldn't open his mouth.
He wanted to move, but his consciousness couldn't control his body.
He knew he was about to die, but he was truly unwilling. He desperately tried to control his body, but his consciousness became increasingly blurred. Finally, his upright body fell to the ground, his head detached from his body and rolled several times on the ground. Ultimately, his wide-open eyes stared intently at Nox, who held the Seven Star Sword.
"If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for touching my daughter!"
Nox's gaze fixed on Zephyr's dead eyes, his expression filled with coldness and killing intent.
At the same time, the anger in his heart because his daughter was beaten was greatly reduced.
"Observation Kill, a technique for using Haoshoku Haki. It involves applying one's Haoshoku Haki to oneself, disrupting one's aura, and achieving the effect of blocking the opponent's Kenbunshoku Haki!"
"This move is truly effective for catching someone off guard. Even Zephyr didn't react in time!"
"The power of ultrasonic waves is also good. It can combine with Haoshoku Haki to cause substantial powerful damage, it can also be superimposed on the sword body to enhance the power of the slash, and it can also hypnotize enemies, creating flaws in their minds."
After seeing Zephyr die, Nox removed his enhancement effects, recalling the moves he used when he killed Zephyr.
In order to kill Zephyr in one blow, Nox could be said to have raised his combat power to the peak, using all available moves to the greatest extent.
Although Zephyr's strength was constantly weakening, the current Zephyr was at most only 20-30% weaker than his peak, not yet reaching the point where Whitebeard II Weevil cut off his arm more than twenty years later.
The difficulty of instantly killing Zephyr was imaginable, but Nox had just done it!
This was partly because Zephyr didn't know Nox could use Observation Kill, partly because Nox displayed his Devil Fruit ability, and even more so because Nox's strength had become much greater than before.
"Now, my strength can be said to have reached a certain peak. All three types of Haki have reached the top level. To continue improving, I can only rely on time to slowly accumulate and refine, making my Haki stronger."
"The three types of Sword Intent have not yet reached their peak, so I can continue to Training them deeply."
"Haki body tempering has only just finished tempering the meridians. Next is tempering the bones and internal organs."
"The Vampire Devil Fruit has not yet been developed to the Awakening level. There is also a lot of room for improvement in this area."
Nox sorted out his own strength and clarified the direction of his future training.
"Congratulations, Husband, for killing Marine Admiral Zephyr!"
Shakky walked over from not far away. She wasn't surprised at all that her Husband could instantly kill Marine Admiral Zephyr. After all, in her eyes, Nox was the strongest man in the world. While instantly killing Zephyr was hard to believe for others, Shakky considered it a matter of course.
"Hahahaha, this is just a small matter. Let's go back!"
Seeing Shakky's adoring gaze, Nox said proudly. After all, as a man, seeing his woman admire him naturally made him very happy.
After storing Zephyr's body in his castle bracelet, Nox and Shakky left.
"What's going on? How did the island become like this? Where is Vice Admiral Zephyr?"
"Run! The island is sinking into the Sea!"
"Damn it, get on the ship quickly, the island is sinking!"
"..."
Those Marines slowly woke up after Nox left, but as soon as they woke up, they saw a scene like the end of the world.
The island was falling apart and slowly sinking into the Sea. Vice Admiral Zephyr was missing, and many Marines were also missing.
However, the next day, while the Marines were still searching for Zephyr's whereabouts, the World Economic News Agency helped them find him.
However, what they found was not a person, nor a corpse, but a photograph.
Nox stood on Zephyr's headless body, holding the Seven Star Sword. Zephyr's rolling head stared at Nox with wide-open eyes, while Nox also looked at Zephyr, but his eyes were full of coldness and disdain.
"World's Greatest Swordsman Nox forcefully kills Marine Admiral Zephyr. The Marine will eventually decline, and this World belongs to Pirates!"
"Oh my god, following the previous Fleet Admiral Kong and the Fleet Admiral Black before him, another Marine Admiral has been killed by a Pirate. Is the ultimate fate of the Marine to be killed by Pirates? Even Marine Admirals and Fleet Admirals are no exception?"
"He is the Captain of the Limitless Pirates, he is the World's Greatest Swordsman, and he is still the strongest man in the World!"
"Nox's most arrogant statement: What if you are a Marine Admiral? You dared to hit my daughter yesterday, so today I will take your dog life!"
"..."
As newspapers from the World Economic News Agency spread throughout the world, the entire world was shaken once again.
"My god, even a Marine Admiral was killed by a Pirate. Are Pirates truly invincible?"
"World's Greatest Swordsman Nox is truly strong! I also want to become a Pirate and join the Limitless Pirates!"
"What is wrong with this World? Why are all the reports about the victory of Pirates? Are the Marine and the World Government so useless?"
"..."
As the newspapers continued to spread, more and more people saw them.
Once upon a time, Marine Admirals were beings who could suppress the Sea. Pirates could only flee in embarrassment when they saw a Marine Admiral. If they didn't flee, they would be killed, and some couldn't even escape.
Now, Pirates were suppressing the Marine, and even Fleet Admirals and Marine Admirals were dying at the hands of Pirates.
Especially those in their forties and fifties, they had watched the Marine decline from generation to generation, gradually falling into decay. They had also witnessed the continuous rise of Pirates, eventually reaching their peak, to the point where the World Government couldn't even deal with the two Legendary Pirates in the New World.
Marineford:
Garp and Sengoku, who had just sent John to Impel Down, returned to Marineford and saw the newspaper published by the World Economic News Agency.
Garp clenched the newspaper tightly in his hand, and his Haoshoku Haki uncontrollably leaked out, knocking out many surrounding Marines.
"Damn Nox, I must kill you to avenge Zephyr!"
Garp roared, tearing the newspaper in his hand, and ran towards the port.
"Garp, stop right there!"
Sengoku immediately rushed over from behind, grabbed the back of Garp's head with one hand, and pressed it down forcefully, smashing a huge pit more than ten meters wide into the ground.
"Sengoku, let go of me! I want to kill Nox and avenge Zephyr!"
As Garp spoke, his Haki surged throughout his body, forcefully pushing Sengoku's hand away.
Zephyr, Garp, Sengoku, and Tsuru had a very good relationship. It could be said that these four were the pillars of this generation of the Marine.
Even if Zephyr was no longer an Admiral, he was cultivating Marine soldiers in logistics, providing a continuous stream of elites for the Marine.
Seeing his friend's head cut off and displayed for show, how could Garp possibly tolerate it!
"How are you going to get revenge? Even if we bring the entire Marine, we can't defeat the Limitless Pirates, and we might even be completely wiped out!"
"Do you think if Zephyr were still alive, he would let the elite students he painstakingly taught go find the Limitless Pirates to their deaths before they have even grown up?"
Sengoku roared, and at the same time, his Haki also surged, pressing Garp's head back to the ground again!
He was also angry, but what good was anger?
Nox was not alone. He had the Limitless Pirates under him. The overall combat power of the Limitless Pirates was much higher than that of the current Marineford. This was proven by one war after another!
Even the Gorosei had suffered setbacks at the hands of Nox and didn't dare to enter the New World to attack the Limitless Pirates, let alone the Marine, which was a subordinate organization of the World Government?
Sengoku knew that no matter how angry they were now, they had to endure it. Dealing with Nox was not that simple.
"Are we just going to let this go?"
Garp's rage subsided somewhat after hearing Sengoku's words.
"How could we just let this go? I'll have Tsuru investigate how Nox attacked. I remember Zephyr didn't go to the New World and had been teaching students at Marineford or taking them to the Four Seas for training."
"Nox must have entered the Four Seas to attack Zephyr. Since he came the first time, he will come a second time. If we want revenge, we can only wait for Nox to come to the Four Seas. That is our only hope for revenge!"
Sengoku analyzed rationally.
"Okay, let's go find Tsuru!"
Garp said with suppressed anger.
Seeing that Garp's anger had lessened, Sengoku finally released his hand.