sea circle calendar 1499, late autumn, October.
Spandine, who had fled in disarray after failing his mission to eradicate Roger's bloodline, was now huddled in a remote island port in the first half of the Grand Line.
He lived in constant fear, not daring to return to Mary Geoise to report, desperately delaying with various excuses.
Yet, fate is always full of irony.
Just as Spandine racked his brain, wondering how to explain himself to the World Government, a dilapidated adventure ship entered his view.
Even more ironic was the flag fluttering on that ship: it was unmistakably Ohara's.
And Spandine, using his methods, learned a colossal secret from a scholar on board, a secret that could redeem him:
These Ohara scholars were still secretly researching the history of the "Void Century," which the World Government had explicitly forbidden.
......
Meanwhile, in the New World sea area.
This isolated island, Sakapachi, which wasn't even marked on the world map, was today the gathering place for the highest authority of the Marine.
Kong stood at the bow of the warship, his cape flapping in the salty sea breeze.
Behind him, Sengoku, Garp, and Zephyr, three figures symbolizing the Marine's peak combat power of the old era, all gazed at the Deserted Island in the distance.
"The weather today... it's so good it feels unnatural," Libo's snow-white rabbit ears twitched slightly as she looked up at the clear blue sky.
"Indeed, calm seas," Tesoro's lips curved into a faint smile.
His gaze swept over the surveillance Transponder Snail circling in the sky, while he mused inwardly, "Heh... the Gorosei are really looking forward to this 'performance.'"
"Hey, is that guy named Kuzan really strong?" Eneru turned his face, staring at Snake Princess as he asked.
"Strong," Snake Princess's red lips parted slightly, her tone calm, yet filled with undeniable certainty.
"In this era, Admiral-level combat power is almost impossible for anyone to easily shake."
Speaking of this, Snake Princess paused, lowering her gaze to the black blade eight desolations that Gern had given her before going ashore.
"Unless it's a being of 'that level' (Rocks), otherwise, anyone who fights an Admiral is destined for a fierce battle."
"Fierce battle?"
"In any case, just watch carefully, because this battle..."
Snake Princess tilted her head slightly, looking at Eneru, a meaningful curve forming on her lips.
"...will completely shatter your ridiculous 'Arrogance of a God.'"
"Tch!" Eneru snorted, his gaze unconsciously falling on the black blade eight desolations in Snake Princess's hand, and he muttered, "No one... can be stronger than 'God.'"
Only no one knew whether the "God" he spoke of referred to himself or Gern.
......
"What was bound to come, has finally arrived," Kong lamented, standing on the upper deck.
"Hmph," Sengoku crossed his arms and snorted coldly, "The 'performance' the World Government wants to see may not turn out as they wish."
"I'm afraid..." Kong frowned, "Those two boys won't act at all."
"You mean..." Sengoku's expression froze as he turned to him, "They'll fight for real?"
Kong was about to reply when suddenly, Tsuru's voice slowly came from the Transponder Snail in front of them, with a hint of a sigh: "Does it matter if it's real or fake?"
Her tone was low, but every word was like a needle, "The hardest part about this battle is for Garp and Zephyr!
After all, both Gern and Kuzan are their direct disciples, and at the same time, they are each other's students..."
Hearing Tsuru's voice from the Transponder Snail, Kong and Sengoku fell silent, turning in unison to look out at the ship's rail.
In the sunlight, Garp and Zephyr stood side by side, the figures of the two old soldiers stretched long.
Their shadows cast on the deck, however, seemed slightly hunched, as if burdened by some heavy past.
...
On the other side, on Sakapachi Island, in the center of the island, two figures stood facing each other.
"I never thought this day would come, Kuzan," Gern looked up and chuckled softly, the sea breeze stirring the hem of his black shirt.
Kuzan, with his hands in his pockets, looked at Gern's waist, which was empty.
Seeing this, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, a hint of playfulness in his tone: "Hey, hey, are you... looking down on me?"
Cold air condensed into white mist with his words, slowly dissipating in the air.
"Such an important battle, and you don't even bring a weapon."
Gern heard this, and his lips curled into a familiar smile.
"Kuzan..." He raised his left hand, his knuckles flexing slightly, and the pitch-black Armament Haki coiled around it like a living thing, gleaming with a cold, hard metallic luster in the sunlight.
"Back then, we used to smash ships together with Vice Admiral Garp at the scrapyard!"
Kuzan's eyes moved slightly, and memories surfaced:
Decades ago, two young Marine recruits, under Garp's furious roar, punched steel ship hulls, their fists bleeding, yet refusing to stop.
"So..." Gern's fist clenched, Black Lightning erupted, and the air seemed to be squeezed by an invisible force, emitting a faint crackle.
"Compared to a sword, fighting you..."
"I'd rather use my fists!"
Kuzan was stunned for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter, and the ground beneath his feet instantly froze.
Cold air spread like a tide in all directions. Ice crystals climbed the ruins, coating everything in frosty white.
"If that's the case..." Kuzan's smile gradually faded, but his eyes grew sharper.
"Then I'll have to, just like during training back then..." The ice layer suddenly shattered, and cold air condensed into a powerful aura.
"...freeze you into an ice sculpture, Gern!"
In an instant, the extreme cold air erupting from Kuzan's body swept over him like a raging storm!
The moisture in the air instantly condensed into billions of ice crystals, transforming into a pale cold tide that rushed directly at Gern.
Wherever it passed, even the swirling dust was frozen into tiny ice particles, falling with a rustle.
Gern's pupils suddenly contracted, and his lips split into a grin, "Then let's see! Kuzan!"
"Boom!!" A visible white energy shockwave exploded from beneath his feet, and the ground cracked like fragile glass.
The invisible seismic force collided fiercely with the incoming cold tide, erupting in a deafening roar!
For a moment, a sickening sound of shattering continuously echoed.
Kuzan's cold air spread wildly, freezing everything it touched.
And Gern's seismic force continuously vibrated, shattering the frozen ice layer inch by inch.
The space between them formed a bizarre equilibrium zone.
On the left was a constantly spreading world of ice crystals, and on the right was a continuously shattering domain of vibration.
"Haha..." Kuzan's lips curled into an excited arc, "Now that's more like it!"
"Exploding Thorns!!" As he spoke, dozens of sharp ice thorns suddenly burst from the ice surface beneath his feet, stabbing towards Gern like living creatures.
Gern's right fist, wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki, slammed violently into the ground: "Heaven Quake - Earth Rumble!"
"Bang—Crack!!" Centered on him, the ground within a hundred-meter radius surged violently like ocean waves.
The incoming ice thorns shattered into a sky full of ice mist the moment they touched the shockwave, refracting seven-colored light in the sunlight.
But the next second, these ice mists suddenly re-condensed, turning into countless tiny ice needles that shot at Gern from all directions!
"Clang clang clang!!" Gern crossed his arms, his Armament Haki hardened to the extreme, and the ice needles struck his body with a metallic clang.
Then, after directly erupting his aura to shatter all the ice needles, he suddenly looked up, only to find that Kuzan's figure had disappeared from his original spot.
"Up there!" The moment his Observation Haki sensed it, Gern instantly looked up, only to see Kuzan descending from the sky, simultaneously cleaving down with a giant ice blade!
Gern did not dodge, his left fist accumulating high-frequency vibrations, and he fiercely punched out towards the ice blade.
"Rumble!!!" The shockwaves from the clash of the two Devil Fruit abilities, the two figures violently retreated amidst the exploding ice crystal storm and spatial cracks.
Then, in the next instant, like reflections, they tore through the air and counter-charged, the azure trajectory enshrouded in frost and the vibrating white glow piercing through each other's distance within a thousandth of a second!
Kuzan's left hand suddenly turned pitch-black, and extremely cold freezing air condensed into a crystal-clear ice-crystal gauntlet at his fist.
Armament Haki coiled around it like thorns, and Gern's figure was reflected in his pupils.
Gern's lips also curved upwards, his right fist already accumulating high-frequency vibrating particles.
Spiderweb-like pale cracks appeared on the surface of the pitch-black Armament Haki.
In an instant, both punched simultaneously, roaring lowly:
"Ice Bind: Bone Fist!"
"Black Tremor: Star Shatter!"
"Boom!!!" The moment their fists met, time seemed to stand still.
Kuzan's ice-crystal gauntlet disintegrated inch by inch under the seismic force, and the splashing ice crystals refracted thousands of rainbow lights in the air.
And the vibration cracks on Gern's fist were also eroded by the extreme cold, the pale energy flow solidifying like frozen lightning.
Kuzan punched Gern's right cheek, and Gern punched Kuzan's left cheek!
Both their faces were simultaneously distorted by the impact, yet neither gave way a single step.
"Bang!" In the final explosion, both were sent flying backward simultaneously, adjusting their posture in mid-air, and each plowed hundreds of meters of trenches upon landing.
When the smoke and dust cleared, the two faced each other from a distance, then simultaneously said:
"You bastard, get serious!!!"