In the central plaza of Marineford, Figaland Garland's golden, towering, styled hair swayed violently under the pressure of Haki, and then he narrowed his eyes, scanning his surroundings with a gaze like a hawk.
One hundred thousand Marine soldiers surrounded him like an iron wall, while Kong, Sengoku, Zephyr, and Garp on the high platform watched him intently.
Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino, moreover, firmly protected Libo in the center.
He instantly understood the Marine's intention.
This was a carefully designed location and plan; the Marine wanted this matter to end here.
"Heh heh, no wonder only you appeared before me, Gern." Gringo Saint slowly raised his hand, the tip of his rapier pointing directly at Gern, his voice cold and piercing.
"However, if that's the case, can I understand it as... you intend to resist?"
Gern sneered, the killing intent in his eyes intensifying: "You're just realizing that now?" Before his words finished, his left fist slammed violently into the air to his left.
"Boom!" In an instant, the air shattered like glass, and an invisible shockwave swept out, the ground cracking under the impact, sending gravel flying.
Gringo Saint's pupils contracted, and he instantly retreated, his rapier drawing a cold gleam, splitting the incoming shockwave in two.
However, the residual power still forced him back several steps, his shoe soles scraping against the ground with an ear-piercing sound.
"Heaven Quake... truly lives up to its name." Gringo Saint stabilized his posture, a cold sneer playing on his lips.
"But do you think, with just this much ability, you can contend with God's Knights..." Gringo Saint's words were not yet finished.
The next second, Gern's aura completely vanished from his Observation Haki perception!
"What?!" Gringo Saint's pupils suddenly constricted, his nerves instantly tensing.
His Observation Haki had never failed, even when facing top powerhouses like Roger and Garp, he could capture a trace of their aura's flow.
But at this moment, Gern seemed to have evaporated into thin air, leaving no trace of a ripple!
"How is this possible...?"
It wasn't just Figaland Garland who was stunned; among the Marine powerhouses present, those who had not seen Gern's "Quake Flash" move, such as Sengoku, Kong, Kizaru, and Aokiji, also showed their surprise with an unconscious tremor in their pupils.
At the same time, in the plaza, Gringo Saint, whose Observation Haki felt like a string snapped mid-tune, became completely tense at this moment.
Especially since the man's aura in his vision had mysteriously vanished, as if he had never existed.
This realization caused his mind to go blank for a moment.
Just as Gringo Saint's pupils frantically rotated, trying to find Gern's trace.
Gern, whose figure had seemingly been erased from the world by an eraser, then "jumped" directly to half a meter in front of Gringo Saint in the very next frame.
This distance left no time to react!!
Gringo Saint's vision was filled with a blinding white light.
Gern merely bared his teeth, which were eerily white.
A pair of eyes, glinting with red Haki, pressed close, like those of a demon!
"When fighting, cut down on the pretentious nonsense."
A sphere of extremely compressed vibration had already condensed in Gern's right palm, the air around the sphere twisting and collapsing, emitting a high-pitched, piercing hum.
"Bang!!!" The next instant, his palm slammed heavily onto Gringo Saint's face, and the vibrating sphere instantly erupted!
What followed was a bone-shattering sound that made one's teeth ache, like a hundred eggs being simultaneously crushed by a hydraulic press.
Gringo Saint's perpetually arrogant face, under the effect of the shockwave, twisted and deformed like a clay mask ruined by a child.
And as the shockwave spread spherically, Gringo Saint's golden hair first exploded straight backward, then the tips began to decompose into golden powder.
"Boom!" His body was sent flying backward like a cannonball, plowing a conical vacuum channel through the air.
During the process, he tried to insert his weapon into the ground to stabilize himself.
But the result was that his rapier scraped continuous sparks across the ground, yet it couldn't slow him down even a fraction.
Finally, he crashed into the plaza ground, plowing a gully dozens of meters long!
"Cough!" Gringo Saint coughed up a mouthful of blood, a trace of horror appearing in his eyes.
He then tried to stabilize himself and stand up, but Gern gave him no chance to breathe!
"Boom!!" Gern's figure erupted again, transforming into a pale white afterimage.
Space twisted and collapsed along his path of advance, high-frequency vibrating particles folding the air along the way like crumpled tin foil in an invisible hand.
The ground wasn't just cracked by his steps; it was gouged out as if gnawed by some giant beast.
"This guy's strength..." Gringo Saint's Observation Haki finally caught Gern's movements, but it was already too late!
"This speed... impossible!" As soon as this thought formed, Gringo Saint's vision was once again consumed by a blinding white.
What terrified him even more was that in the center of that white light, those crimson eyes were still clearly visible, approaching like a grim reaper!
Gern's right fist was enveloped by three layers of energy: the outermost layer was pulsating dark purple Haoshoku lightning, the middle was fluid-like flowing Ryuo Haki.
And in the center of his palm, a pale light point the size of a grain of rice vibrated at a frequency of millions per second, causing spiderweb-like black cracks to appear in the surrounding space.
"Black Quake: Instant Prison."
As a cold voice fell, the moment his fist struck Gringo Saint's chest, time seemed to stand still.
A perfect circular indentation first appeared on Gringo Saint's chest, then a blinding white light illuminated the center of the indentation.
With the point of impact as the center, the ground within a hundred-meter radius simultaneously rose three meters high.
It wasn't shattered; the entire patch of ground was lifted.
All the glass in the distant Marineford headquarters building exploded at the same instant, the shattered glass suspended in the air forming an eerie nebula.
Gringo Saint first felt a chill in his chest, as if someone had poured the Arctic wind directly into his chest cavity.
Then came the heart-wrenching pain; this pain wasn't from external injury, but every cell nearing disintegration under high-frequency vibration.
And the most terrifying was the wailing sound of his own bones, captured by his auditory nerves.
In an instant, a golden figure, like a cannonball, consecutively penetrated seven reinforced city walls, finally crashing into the wreckage of a warship in the harbor.
The affected ships did not capsize; they directly disintegrated into their original sawdust state, forming an eerie circular blank area on the sea surface.
Watching this scene, Gern maintained his punching posture, a vacuum channel extending from his fist, which persisted for three seconds before dissipating.
He slowly looked up, the red light in his eyes gradually fading, revealing a lazy smile.
"Now, you can continue with your pretentious talk from earlier."