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Chapter 70: The Makings of an Invincible
"I am you!"
"A... younger, and freer you!"
Garp's wild laughter echoed in the high altitude. Every word carried a madness that the Marine Garp couldn't understand, yet was horribly familiar!
Younger?
Freer?
A savage grin appeared on the Marine Garp's ashen face.
He looked at the man opposite him. He looked identical, yet was filled with a terrifyingly exuberant life force.
"Bwahahaha!"
He was laughing too!
"I never thought..."
"That I'd see the day... when someone else would call me old!"
He grinned, his smile filled with the pure, unadulterated zeal of a warrior.
The Pirate Garp's laugh was even wilder, even more unrestrained!
"In that brat Blake's words... would this count... as 'beating up the elderly'?"
"But..."
"Me hitting myself... shouldn't be a problem, right? BWAHAHAHA!"
"Old?"
The Marine Garp laughed in response, his peerless pride as a Marine Hero refusing to admit defeat!
"I've never acknowledged such a boring thing!"
"BWAHAHAHA! As expected of me!"
The Pirate Garp nodded in approval, his eyes filled with self-recognition.
Then, his smile vanished, replaced by an extreme, brutish tyranny!
"But..."
"Get down, me!"
As his voice fell!
Crackle!
Blinding, blue-purple arcs of electricity, like billions of writhing snakes, exploded from the Pirate Garp's body!
His hair stood on end!
His entire body was instantly covered in a layer of pulsing, destructive Lightning Release Armour!
Lightning Chakra Mode!
Activate!
"Wh...?!"
The Marine Garp's pupils shrank to a dangerous pinprick!
He felt it!
A new power, one he couldn't understand, but one that was unbelievably strong, surged from his opponent's fist!
That power... it was a flash flood, a tsunami, a collapsing sky!
KRACHA!
The Marine Garp felt the bones in his arm groaning, about to break!
That power... crushed his defense!
The next second.
He was like a cannonball shot from a trebuchet. He was sent flying backward, faster and more pathetically than he had come up. He trailed a long plume of smoke as he plummeted toward the Marineford plaza below!
BOOM!!!
Like a meteor from the heavens, a figure slammed into the center of the Marineford plaza!
The earth cracked, and dust shot into the sky!
The entire, chaotic battlefield... paused... from this devastating blow.
Countless men were sent flying by the shockwave, only to scramble back up.
A young Marine coughed up a mouthful of dirt. He looked at the giant crater, then looked up at the sky, his face instantly filling with fanatic worship!
"Look! Did you see that!"
"Vice Admiral Garp won!"
"That imposter! He was knocked out of the sky by Vice Admiral Garp with one punch!!"
"OOOOOHHH! Marine Justice will prevail!"
The surrounding Marines were instantly ignited, their morale soaring, as if the one who had just lost the exchange wasn't their own.
But on the other side of the bay, on the Whitebeard Pirates' ship.
A commander wiped the blood from his face, gave the Marines the middle finger, and mocked them.
"Are you blind!"
"Look closely! The one who got knocked down... was your Headquarters' old geezer!"
He pointed his giant axe at the now-empty, blue sky.
"The one... still floating up there!"
"He's the Mr. Garp who's here to take Commander Ace home! Gurarara!"
For a moment, the battlefield descended into a bizarre argument.
The Marines said their Garp won.
The pirates said their Garp won.
Both sides cheered for "their" Garp, and the scene became utterly chaotic.
However.
In the eyes of the truly powerful, there was no debate.
Only...
A silent... soul-freezing... shock!
Whether it was Sengoku on the platform, the three Admirals, Whitebeard on the Moby Dick, or the Shichibukai...
All the top-tier fighters... were staring at the sky.
Staring at the figure... bathed in blue-purple lightning!
He was like a thunder god, descended. Wild electric snakes coiled around him. Their every pulse made space itself crackle.
His already brutish aura... had undergone a qualitative change.
It had become deeper!
More ancient!
And more... terrifying!
On the execution platform.
Sengoku's wise face... was blank.
"What is that lightning?"
He muttered, his voice dry.
That wasn't a Devil Fruit!
It was... a new power system, one he had never seen, one that didn't belong to this world!
A system... that could make a monster of Garp's level... even stronger in an instant!
"Gurararara..."
The World's Strongest Man, Whitebeard Newgate, let out a low, strange laugh.
He knew Garp's strength better than anyone.
But the Garp before him... was beyond his comprehension!
"Garp..."
"You old bastard... what kind of devil... did you make a deal with?"
At the Admirals' seats.
Akainu Sakazuki's face was grim, magma boiling on his arms.
"Unforgivable..."
He gritted his teeth, his voice ice-cold.
"This power... that does not belong to Justice...!"
"Ooooh... this is... completely unexpected..."
Kizaru adjusted his sunglasses. His sleazy face, for the first time, was filled with gravity.
"This aura... it's not just Haki, is it? What... is this...?"
Aokiji Kuzan covered his face, his shoulders trembling. It's my first time seeing it... so why does it feel... vaguely familiar?
Donquixote Doflamingo's sick, wild laugh... was frozen on his face.
Sweat beaded on his forehead. For the first time, he felt the situation spinning out of his control.
"Fuffuffuffu... you're kidding me... this script... has gone completely off the rails!"
Just then.
Sengoku on the platform, and Whitebeard on the Moby Dick... the two men at the pinnacle of the era... as if by telepathy... snapped their heads to look at each other!
They saw the same emotion in each other's eyes.
An emotion called... "Horror"!
This aura...
This aura... of a conqueror... who sees all things as insignificant... this absolute tyranny and desire for destruction!
They had both... felt it before!
Decades ago!
On that island... called "God Valley"!
On that man... who tried to overturn the world... the man called the "King of the World"!
A name, sealed for decades, a name that represented taboo and terror, surfaced in the minds of both legends!
Rocks!
Rocks D. Xebec!
This Pirate Garp, bathed in lightning... the aura he was emitting, the oppressive feeling that made the world tremble...
It was...
...identical...
...to the legendary captain of the Rocks Pirates, who had dominated an entire era!