“You are Gern, right? I am Roger.” The sea breeze abruptly stopped, and the air solidified.
Roger's voice was not loud, but it struck the entire battlefield like a heavy hammer.
His figure, though merely standing casually, seemed like an insurmountable mountain, making it difficult for people to breathe.
“So…” Roger's lips curved into a wild smile, his eyes as sharp as a blade.
“Please, survive!!”
“Roger…” Gern's pupils suddenly constricted to pinpricks, and the blood in his entire body seemed to boil at that moment.
Facing the pinnacle of this era, his lips still uncontrollably curved into a nearly frenzied arc.
“Then come on!!!”
If there's no escape, then face the challenge head-on!!
“Clang!!” Facing the man who had once defeated his previous master,
black blade eight desolations suddenly trembled, and the blade emitted an unprecedented low hum!
The dark blade patterns surged like living things, and purplish-black lightning wildly entwined around it.
The space at the blade's edge even began to twist and collapse, forming a black hole vortex that swallowed light!
“Buzz!” At this moment, the frequency of the blade's hum far surpassed anything before, even more violent than when it cut Golden Lion!
It was excited!
It was roaring!
It was—craving a battle with Roger!
Gern's figure suddenly erupted, black blade eight desolations dragging out a purplish-black torrent that pierced through heaven and earth!
Wherever the blade passed, space shattered like fragile glass, and pale white shockwaves tore countless cracks in the void!
The coastline collapsed with a roar under the residual pressure, and towering waves hundreds of meters high, just as they surged up, were violently shaken into a mist by the rampaging blade energy!
Fast! Faster than the limit of vision!
In everyone's eyes, only a crimson blur and a dark purple afterimage remained, colliding wildly on the battlefield at a speed that nearly tore through space and time!
Each acceleration exploded with circles of destructive shockwaves!
“This battle should end, Marine.” Roger's icy voice suddenly exploded in Gern's ear!
“Clang!” The moment Ace swept out, the crimson Haoshoku erupted like a volcano, and the air of the entire sea area wailed under this single strike!
“Is that so?” Gern sneered, his arm muscles bulging, and the blade patterns of black blade eight desolations completely boiled!
“Whether it's now… or in the future!”
The blade slammed down, and purplish-black lightning and crimson Haki wildly tore at each other in the void!
“I… very much want to personally arrest you and achieve my own greatness!! Roger!!!!”
“God Avoidance!!”
“God’s—Fall!!”
The moment the two blades collided—heaven and earth lost their color!
First, a blinding white, then a darkness that swallowed everything.
At the center point where two imperial-level Haki collided, a pitch-black sphere with a diameter of a thousand meters appeared out of thin air!
Seawater, air, light—all matter was crushed into its most primitive particles!
Countless spatial cracks erupted at the edge of the sphere, reflecting countless distorted battlefields like a shattered mirror!
“Crack! Crack! Crack!” Reality was wailing!
“Boom!!!” The moment the two strongest auras and forces collided, heaven and earth instantly lost their color.
The purplish-black God's Fall and the crimson God Avoidance intertwined into a vortex of destruction, and space shattered layer by layer like fragile glass.
Shockwaves swept across the sea in a radial pattern, cracks appeared on the deck of the Oro Jackson, and the Marine warships twisted and deformed.
“Hold on tight! Captain's gone crazy.” Jabba roared, plunging his axe deep into the deck, his other hand gripping the unconscious Buggy tightly.
As for Crocus, he had also fainted and been thrown back by the air current, only to be hooked by Sanbell's harpoon around his waist just as he was about to fall into the sea.
Although Shanks held on for a while, his consciousness began to dissipate, and the last image reflected in his closing eyes was a doomsday-like scene.
The entire sea area was forcibly pressed into a depression a thousand meters in diameter, and the exposed seabed was covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
......
“Crack!” A harsh metallic wail echoed across the battlefield.
Gern's arms trembled violently, and the blade of black blade eight desolations showed a noticeable bend for the first time.
He watched helplessly as his purplish-black Haki was swallowed inch by inch by the crimson torrent, and those high-frequency particles, capable of shattering everything,
melted like ice under the sun before Roger's attack.
This is…
The strength of the pinnacle of this era, “Pirate King” Roger?
It's a power that creates a generational gap!!!
“Thud!” Ace pressed down without any flourish, and Gern's knees slammed heavily into the reef.
Blood gushed from his ruptured tiger's mouth, forming a thin stream on the hilt of the blade.
His proud vibration power, at this moment, couldn't even touch the corner of Roger's clothes.
“Nice eyes.” Roger suddenly grinned, lightly turning his wrist.
A seemingly casual movement, yet it caused heaven and earth to sink!
“Can't stop it! This is a General facing a King…” Gern's pupils constricted.
He didn't see a flash of a blade, but the weight of an entire era bearing down!
“Boom!” black blade eight desolations flew out of his hand, spinning and embedding itself in a rock wall a hundred meters away.
Gern's body flew backward like a broken kite, crashing through three floating reefs before finally coming to a stop.
He tried to prop himself up, but found that he couldn't move at all. Lying on the ground, his vision blurred by blood, Gern saw Roger's figure approaching over the waves.
With just one strike, the reef island Gern had created was completely split open, and seawater began to slowly seep out.
At the same time, the man didn't even breathe heavily, Ace casually resting on his shoulder, as if that world-destroying strike just now was merely a casual act.
“Gern Reginald Sigma.” Roger stopped five steps away, the sunlight gilding his outline.
“What a pity, if you and I were born in the same era…”
The sea breeze blew away the stray hairs on his forehead, revealing those eyes that could see through history.
“Perhaps, you could have changed the world's pattern!”
Gern's teeth bit deeply into his lower lip.
The bitterness of defeat spread in his mouth, but what made him tremble even more was the gap.
It wasn't the strength of Devil Fruit abilities, nor the level of Haki mastery, but something more fundamental.
The powerlessness of a General facing a King!! Like a stream facing an ocean, a fledgling eagle looking up at the sky.
Earlier, he could still contend with Rayleigh, a Four Emperors-level, but facing Roger, he was directly crushed by him.
“Is this… the height of one who stands at the pinnacle?”
Gern's trembling left hand touched a broken piece of reef, and he suddenly let out a low laugh.
“Hey, Roger.” Gern used his bloodied teeth to rip open his collar, staring at the sky.
Purplish-black lightning flared up again, this time mixed with crimson blood energy.
Gern swayed as he stood up, shockwaves from his feet pushing away the seawater.
“We'll have another battle in the future. By then, I will personally bring you to the execution platform, and I will be the one to end your era!”
Roger's eyebrows raised high, then he burst into thunderous laughter: “Rayleigh! Did you hear that?”
Rayleigh walked closer, clutching his ribs, his gaze behind his glasses complex and hard to decipher: “Maybe it's true?”
The waves gently caressed the shattered battlefield, and the afterimage of the Oro Jackson was reflected in Gern's gradually blurring vision.
In the last moment before falling into darkness, he heard Roger's distant voice,
“New era kid… If you can, I'll be waiting for you to bring me to the execution platform.”