"I've been waiting for this moment!!!" Gern's roar exploded on the shattered battlefield, his figure transforming into a pale lightning bolt amidst the crystal rain.
He simultaneously raised both arms, the vibrating particles around him rotating like a star halo, and fine cracks began to appear on his skin.
He was compressing the entire Heaven Quake domain!!!!
"Final Tremor..." The sky suddenly darkened, as if even the sun had been swallowed.
Nine pale tremor rings, each ten thousand meters in diameter, unfolded layer by layer above the firmament, like wheels of judgment descended by a god.
Within each tremor ring, space twisted and collapsed amidst high-frequency vibrations, light was crushed into pale stardust, and the rubble, seawater, and even air on the battlefield silently disintegrated into their most primitive particle streams.
"God's Fall Star Ring!"
The first tremor ring contracted with a boom onto the blade of black blade eight desolations!
Boom—!!!
The surface of the entire island instantly vanished, not collapsing, not shattering, but directly turning into nothingness.
The ground beneath Roger's feet was like a pencil drawing erased by a rubber, and he could even see the bottom of his combat boots disappearing as they turned into particles.
"Madman!!" Roger suddenly looked up, the second tremor ring had already begun to contract.
Then, an unprecedented dark-red lightning burst forth from his entire body; his Conqueror's Haki no longer wrapped around his blade, but instead, centered on himself, transformed into a Haki tornado that reached the heavens and earth, forcefully resisting the tearing of space collapse!
But the cost was—his skin began to bleed, and his bones let out an unbearable wail.
Gern floated at the center of the ninth tremor ring, bleeding from all seven orifices, yet revealing a crazed smile.
Immediately after, the fifth and sixth tremor rings contracted in succession, Roger's Haki domain was compressed to within three meters of his body, and Ace's blade began to disintegrate.
When all nine God's Fall Star Rings had fully contracted, only one sound remained.
"Heavenly Judgment."
The moment the first blade struck, time seemed to stand still.
The space within ten meters was like a fragile canvas, neatly cut open by circular fissures.
Pale electric light flickered at the edges of the fissures, emitting a grating "zzzz" sound. In the severed spatial fault, distorted void turbulence was faintly visible.
When the second blade swept out, Gern's right sleeve instantly turned to dust.
A hundred-meter-long spatial fissure spread out in a fan shape, and the crystalized ground in its path silently disintegrated.
Violent spatial turbulence spewed from the fissures, grinding everything along the way into its most basic particles.
When the third blade struck, Gern's right arm skin was already cracked, and the blood, before it could even seep out, was evaporated by the high-frequency vibration.
This blade carried world-destroying power, and the entire sky was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
Sunlight was fragmented into countless pieces, wildly refracting between the intersecting spatial fissures, illuminating the battlefield with a bizarre and colorful light.
Three consecutive strikes! The world shattered!!!
Annihilation is also the Judgment of Heaven!!
Roger's pupils reflected this apocalyptic scene, but a fervent smile played on the corners of his mouth.
The golden flames on Ace's blade suddenly surged, emitting a terrifying aura.
"God—Wrath!!!" He struck upwards against the myriad cracks, his dark-red Conqueror's Haki and golden flames intertwining into a net of destruction.
Each blade light precisely struck the weakest nodes of the spatial fissures, and the bursting energy turbulence completely lifted the crystalized earth.
Tens of thousands of tons of crystal fragments poured down like a storm, refracting dazzling rainbow auroras in the sunlight.
The moment the two blades met, the world fell into an eerie silence.
"Crack!" A faint sound of shattering rang out, then escalated into a deafening explosion.
Centered on the two, the space with a radius of ten thousand meters completely shattered like glass, revealing the pitch-black void behind it.
Seawater was torn by an invisible force and surged back towards the sky, while clouds were shredded into cotton-like fragments in the spatial turbulence.
All matter was collapsing, then reorganizing, forming a momentarily existing black hole singularity.
At the center of this destruction, Gern saw blood continuously spilling from Roger's mouth, but the fighting intent in his eyes grew even more fervent.
And he himself felt the vibrating energy on black blade eight desolations's blade was losing control, and the bones in his right arm let out an unbearable wail.
"Boom!!!"
The black hole singularity finally erupted, and dazzling white light engulfed the entire battlefield.
The shockwave spread spherically, pressing a huge depression into the sea surface for hundreds of thousands of miles around.
(By the way, the Pirate King world is even larger than you might imagine.)
...
When space self-repaired, the battlefield was a ruin, with only two intact areas of less than one square meter remaining to support the landing zones of both sides.
Gern's Heaven Quake domain completely collapsed, and black blade eight desolations was deeply embedded in the crystalized ground.
He knelt on one knee, his pale pupils contracting violently, cold sweat mixed with blood dripping from his jaw.
His over-strained body trembled incessantly, yet he still stared intently at the man opposite him.
And Roger also knelt on one knee, Ace likewise embedded in the ground to stabilize his figure, his chest heaving violently, yet he still grinned, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Had enough?" Roger spat out a mouthful of blood, the illness making every word carry a hoarse tremor, clearly at his limit.
"This isn't your peak." Gern wiped away the blood seeping from his brow bone, digging his fingers deep into the ground, and forced himself to stand up.
In the distance, the shattered clouds began to gather.
A ray of sunlight pierced through the gap, like a stage spotlight illuminating the two.
"Why... does it have to be this way..." Roger suddenly coughed violently, large gushes of blood pouring from between his fingers.
"Because..." Gern took a deep breath and slowly said, "My era and future... need this momentous stroke!!!"
"Need it...?" Roger struggled to straighten his body, and Conqueror's Haki arcs surprisingly erupted again; those leaping crimson lightning bolts were his limit under the illness.
"Exactly!" And Gern, looking at this scene, likewise only had flickering Conqueror's Haki arcs remaining on his body!
Two distinctly different Conqueror's Haki collided in the void, unleashing an oppressive aura that changed the very color of the heavens and earth.
At once, both sides, with all their might, simultaneously picked up their respective weapons!
"This battle should end!"
"I think so too!"
Almost simultaneously, two figures surged!
black blade eight desolations suddenly trembled, and the blade erupted with an unprecedented low hum!
The dark blade patterns surged like living things, and purple-black lightning wildly entwined around it.
The space at the blade's edge actually began to twist and collapse, forming a light-devouring black hole vortex!
Gern's figure suddenly surged, black blade eight desolations dragging a purple-black torrent that spanned heaven and earth!
Wherever the blade passed, space shattered layer by layer like fragile glass, and pale shockwaves tore countless cracks in the void!
Fast! Faster than the limit of vision!
This was his ultimate final strike!!
For a moment, only a crimson and a dark purple afterimage remained in the air, preparing to collide at a speed that almost tore through space-time!
"Come on! The man who accompanies me in my last battle of life!" Roger's voice suddenly exploded in Gern's ear.
"Clang!" The moment Ace swept out, red Conqueror's Haki erupted like a volcano!
"I take back what I said earlier!" Roger's wild laughter echoed through the sky.
"The stage and the era are yours now, Gern!!!"
Ace's blade glowed brighter than the sun, and within the crimson Haki, countless silhouettes of adventurous years seemed to emerge.
That was 'Pirate King Roger's' blade, carrying the dream of the entire sea!
"Exactly like before, but..." Gern grinned ferociously, his arm muscles bulging, and the blade patterns of black blade eight desolations completely boiled!
"This time, I cannot lose!!!"
The blade struck down with ferocity, purple-black and crimson Haki converging in the air!
"God—Evade!!"
"God—Fall!!"