“Cough!” Oden suddenly spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood, his knees heavily striking the ground, and his arms uncontrollably trembling. Blood dripped down the hilts of Enma and ame no habakiri.
Even with his monstrous physique, he had reached his limit.
The damage caused by high-frequency vibrations was not merely superficial pain but destruction from the bone and internal organ levels down to the cellular level.
This kind of subsequent injury made Oden feel his muscle fibers tearing and his blood boiling in his veins from the vibrations.
Even the flow of Haki became sluggish.
For a moment, the edges of Oden's vision began to darken, and a constant ringing filled his ears—the dizziness caused by internal organ resonance.
On the other side, Gern was also not faring well.
His right shoulder had been pierced by Oden's sword aura, and the sword wounds on his body, especially the one on his chest, were the most severe.
His breathing was no longer steady but heavy, each inhale bringing a metallic taste, and his lungs felt as if they were being scorched by flames.
Moreover, the black blade eight desolations hummed incessantly in his hand, the purplish-black patterns on the blade wriggling like living things, greedily drawing his Haki and stamina.
“Hoo…” Gern took a deep breath. Compared to his previous battle with Kizaru, his control over vibrations was much clearer now.
It was as if he had touched the threshold of the next stage of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Feeling this, Gern's pupils slightly contracted, and his Observation Haki captured the vibration frequency of every dust particle in the air.
This time, he no longer tried to stop the movement of molecules but rather—accelerate them!
“Buzz buzz buzz!” The blade of the black blade eight desolations, aside from the Haoshoku, suddenly glowed an eerie dark red. The surrounding air began to distort, and the temperature rapidly climbed.
The moment the blade sliced across the ground, the rocks were not cut but melted like butter into fiery red magma, leaving a scorching trail on the ground.
Molecular vibrations accelerate wildly (like molecular friction generating heat) → Local temperature rises infinitely (3000°C+)
Gern knew his body had also reached its limit; every muscle was screaming, but he did not stop.
Every bit of stamina remaining had to be used on the blade.
“Swish!” He suddenly dragged his blade and charged, the blade plowing through the earth, sending molten rock splashing.
“This guy…” Oden's Observation Haki detected the attack, but when he tried to get up and meet it…
“Crack!” His body suddenly stiffened!
The after-effects of foolishly enduring the vibrations earlier had fully erupted!
The resonance of his internal organs slowed his movements by half a beat. Although it was only a momentary delay,
in a battle of this caliber and against a top-tier expert, especially at this critical moment, it was a fatal flaw!
“Swish!!” Gern's figure suddenly vanished—not high-speed movement, but true “instant flash”!
Space collapsed beneath his feet, and high-frequency vibrating particles tore a vacuum tunnel through the air.
The next second, he appeared directly in front of Oden, the black blade eight desolations raised high, its blade wrapped in dark purple Haoshoku like a Grim Reaper swinging his scythe.
“God’s—Fall!!!” His roar shattered the clouds.
The arc of the blade was perfectly breathtaking. Dark purple Haoshoku and pale shockwaves spiraled and intertwined, forming a destructive torrent with a diameter exceeding a hundred meters.
Wherever it passed, space was like tempered glass struck by a heavy hammer, first showing web-like dark cracks,
and then—the entire sky shattered with a boom!!!
Countless spatial fragments flew and refracted within the blade aura, each reflecting Oden's astonished face.
The Armament Haki on the body of the Wano Country samurai also disintegrated inch by inch within the destructive torrent.
“Boom!!!” Oden took the full force of this God’s Fall. His willpower could no longer hold up, and his pupils began to lose focus.
He was sent flying high into the sky like a cannonball, blood trailing a dazzling arc in the air.
But it wasn't over. Gern didn't stop. He continued his upward rush with the blade—Swish!!
The world lost its sound at this moment.
Gern completely entered molecular-level control, his figure suddenly collapsing into a pitch-black fissure—not an afterimage, not high-speed movement!
Instead, he transformed his entire body into high-frequency vibrating particles, tunneling through the spatial molecular structure, causing his existence to temporarily and completely disappear from the laws of reality!!!
The next second—“Boom!!” In front of Oden's falling trajectory, the air suddenly exploded.
Gern's figure materialized from nothingness, his entire body enveloped in distorted dark shadows, only his eyes emitting a captivating crimson glow.
The blade of the black blade eight desolations had now completely transformed into flowing magma. The unlimited high temperature distorted the spatial view as if seen through burning frosted glass.
“……” Oden briefly regained consciousness, then his pupils contracted, his mouth slightly open, but the sound he made could not propagate due to the vibrations. (Spatial vibrations affect sound propagation)
“Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!!”
Gern, wielding the blade with both hands, transformed into countless afterimages. Each strike carried extreme high temperature and vibration, the infinitely hot blade sublimating into a plasma state.
Eighty-one strikes, each connected to the last, drawing a blooming red lotus trajectory in the void.
“Snap—crack!” When the last strike fell, Gern had already slid to the ground behind Oden.
And after stabilizing himself, he flipped his wrist, and the black blade eight desolations spun out a sharp, arcing blade flower in his palm.
The Haoshoku Haki entwined on the blade was violently dispersed like burning flames.
“Quake-Ash: Crimson Lotus Prison.”
As he spoke, the flower bloomed—the red lotus unfurled!
All the high temperature accumulated from the previous slashes erupted at this moment.
Oden's body became the core of the red lotus, and flames of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius erupted like a blooming red lotus.
A crimson pillar of fire pierced through heaven and earth, evaporating the sea of clouds into a vacuum dome with a diameter of a thousand meters.
In this battle, the final flower he bloomed, gambling his life, ultimately—won!
........
The crimson lotus fire gradually extinguished. The sky began to rain due to the high-temperature steam, revealing the scarred and devastated land.
Oden's figure fell from high in the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground and raising a cloud of dust.
His entire body was covered in sword marks, but only his eyes remained stubbornly open, though his pupils had turned white and lost focus.
ame no habakiri and Enma, these two famous swords, were stuck into the ground one in front and one behind, equally dim and lifeless like their master.
Gern gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently. The wound on his right shoulder was still bleeding, and rainwater washed over his body.
Then, dragging his exhausted body, he walked step by step to ame no habakiri, reached out and gripped the hilt, slowly pulling it out.
The blade scraped against the rock layers, emitting a harsh metallic screech.
Afterward, he walked towards Enma and likewise pulled it out.
Finally, he came before Oden, looking coldly at Oden lying on the ground.
The black blade eight desolations trembled slightly in his hand, the dark purple arc on the blade not yet completely dissipated.
“It's over,” Gern murmured, his voice hoarse and cold.
However, just then, a powerful and suffocating Haki swept in from the direction of the coastline.
Gern's pupils suddenly contracted, his Observation Haki giving a warning.
He abruptly looked up and saw a giant ship, like a white whale, breaking through the waves in the distance—the Moby Dick!
At the bow, Whitebeard's tall figure stood majestically.
His golden long hair danced wildly in the sea breeze, his white open-front Captain's coat flapped, and his Murakumogiri in his hand gleamed with a cold light under the sun.
His gaze was as sharp as a blade, locking directly onto Gern.
“Gurararara…” Whitebeard's laughter boomed like thunder, “Navy brat, long time no see!”
“Heh, Whitebeard.” Gern scoffed, meeting Whitebeard's gaze without backing down.
He knew this “Great Sea Family King” was here to pick someone up.
At his peak, if he killed Oden in front of Whitebeard, it would definitely be a life for a life!
But exchanging his life for a future clown, the “Endurance King,” was completely not worth it.
So Gern looked down at Oden, slowly raised his arms, and crossed the two swords.
“Swish! Swish!” ame no habakiri and Enma simultaneously plunged down, their blades precisely pinning into the charred earth on either side of Oden's neck, forming a huge “X” shape.
Oden's head was fixed by the blades, his arms spread wide, and his legs slightly bent.
He looked like an executed criminal, nailed to this battlefield that he would remember for the rest of his life.