Terrifying Conqueror's Haki swept across the entire sea area.
Nika's Conqueror's Haki was different from the aura Imu had emitted earlier.
The Haki before them swept through, stirring the whole sea.
Countless black lightning bolts flashed wildly, bombing every inch of space. The intense shock threatened to blow the Moby Dick away.
"What is this?!"
The closest were Ace, Marco, and the other Whitebeard Pirates commanders on the ship.
Since its founding, the Whitebeard Pirates had fought countless battles, large and small, against legendary pirates.
None of them were weak.
Pirate King Roger.
Emperor Shanks.
Occasional clashes with Kaido and Big Mom over territory.
But no one's Conqueror's Haki had ever reached this level.
It seemed like Conqueror's Haki not of this era.
Crack!
Visibly, the sky over the entire sea area was torn in half.
Clouds rolled back. The atmosphere groaned. The ice plain shattered. Warships disintegrated. Seawater was pushed aside by an invisible force, revealing the bottomless seabed.
The elite soldiers who had only just regained some consciousness from the earlier Conqueror's Haki shock were knocked unconscious again by this wave.
This battlefield was not for the weak.
They could barely stay conscious for a few moments, let alone fight.
Even the Admirals looked incredible.
Though the three Admirals were all monsters, there was one power they did not possess. Conqueror's Haki, the power of one's spirit and disposition.
But they had fought strong fighters with Conqueror's Haki before.
And now,
"How can Conqueror's Haki be this strong?"
Kizaru rarely exclaimed in surprise. His eyes behind his sunglasses were wide. "Even stronger than Straw Hat earlier. Who else is on the Moby Dick?!"
"Damn it!" Akainu's forehead broke out in a cold sweat.
"Conqueror's Haki as destructive as Shanks's?"
Aokiji looked at the ice wall in front of him. It was already covered in cracks from the Haki impact.
Doflamingo's strings had all been severed.
The smile on his face was long gone, replaced by shock. "This level of Haki, fufufu, no way. It is beyond human limits, is it not?!"
It was not only effective against people.
"As expected!"
Seeing the surrounding dark aura being destroyed, Garp said, "Conqueror's Haki is the best weapon against these monsters."
Back at God Valley, he and Roger had defeated Rocks using this method.
But even the two of them together had not exploded such terrifying Conqueror's Haki.
It was not that the quality was lacking. It was that the quantity was simply too horrible. It was as if it had been stored for countless years.
Unleashing it all at once had a cataclysmic effect.
At the center of the battlefield, the nightmare monsters summoned by Killingham, caught in this sweeping Haki, disappeared like snow under the sun. They did not even have time to scream.
"No! My army!!"
Killingham screamed. The dragon beneath him was the first to crumble. Soon, he himself could not hold on. His body shattered into black fragments and disappeared.
Somaz of the God's Knights met the same fate. The moment the Conqueror's Haki hit him, his body crumbled like a sandcastle, turning to dust without leaving a trace.
And at the very center of the impact was Imu.
That dark purple stream of light was frozen in midair less than a hundred meters from the Moby Dick.
"M-Mu..."
Imu's eyes widened at the sight.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
But the reality was that this familiar Conqueror's Haki was coming straight for him.
"Nika!"
Imu let out a sharp shriek.
But his voice was drowned out by the storm of Haki.
Gunko's body also disappeared.
The God's Knights had all been transported via pentagram magic circles. The Conqueror's Haki impact, though not fatal, completely sent them back where they belong.
"Gyaah!"
In the distant Holy Land Mary Geise, in the Chamber of Authority.
On the Empty Throne, Imu's body suddenly opened his eyes and let out a pained, angry roar.
The sudden change terrified the Five Elders standing below.
"Imu-sama?!"
"What happened?!"
"Is it Impel Down?"
The Den Den Mushi at Impel Down had long since fainted. Buggy's frantic slapping was useless.
The Five Elders did not know who could have harmed Imu-sama at Impel Down.
Those D clan members? Garp, Luffy, Ace... or Whitebeard?
Imu's whole body trembled. Dark purple flames burst uncontrollably from his body, twisting the air around the throne.
From his mouth, he repeatedly uttered two names that terrified the Five Elders.
"Nika!"
"Joy Boy!"
...
"Only once."
After releasing it, Nika's entire body became indistinct and flickering. She closed her eyes. The Conqueror's Haki around her gradually faded.
"Now, it is up to you."
With that, she turned into a beam of white light, disappearing into Luffy's body, and fell silent.
"Ah. I know. One big one left."
Luffy looked up ahead.
And further away, Whitebeard, under the influence of Kokuten Shihai, let out a pained roar as the Conqueror's Haki hit him.
The black patterns on his body fluctuated violently. The black wings on his back flapped wildly. Reason and madness fought fiercely in his eyes.
Whitebeard's body did not disappear. The black aura around him dissipated to a large extent. It seemed to have retreated to a corner of his body because of the Conqueror's Haki. If one had to describe it, he now looked like half a demon.
"It hurts. Hurts. It hurts a lot."
Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri wildly. His expression grew even more manic.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the ice plain battlefield, amidst the mix of crushed ice and gunpowder smoke, a distinctly different oppressive atmosphere lingered.
This was the temporary encampment of the Blackbeard Pirates, who had emerged from Impel Down.
Shiryu of the Rain exhaled a ring of cigar smoke mixed with ice crystals. His crimson eyes pierced through the icy fog, gazing at the huge figure in the distance like a demon god, swinging Murakumogiri and causing the very heavens and earth to tremble.
"Truly worthy of the World's Strongest Man. Even in this state, the pressure is still suffocating."
"Or rather, this is Whitebeard's true prime power. Once the old, weakened king fully awakens, who can stop him?"
"Hehehe. Back in the day, when he roamed the seas, I only ever saw his ship clash with Roger's from afar. Now, up close, I understand what a natural disaster the name Gura Gura no Mi truly means."
Avalo Pizarro bit into a piece of meat on the bone, his sharp teeth bared. "Is our target really this guy?"
Around him were several heavyweight prisoners just released from Level Six of Infinite Hell. They too had put away the arrogance they had shown upon escaping.
Silence.
Sanjuan Wolf leaned his head forward. "That is Whitebeard. A bounty over five billion. More than all of us combined."
Catarina Devon licked her lips. "I really want to touch that man's body."
The nearby Blackbeard Pirates crew members twitched. Was this madwoman's audacity a bit too much?
Their plan was to pick off the survivors, not to face Whitebeard directly.
At least, not at their current strength.
"What do we do now, Captain?" Lafitte, wearing his top hat, turned to look at the imposing dark figure. Bandages still wrapped around Blackbeard's body.
The wound from Luffy's slash had only been roughly treated. His missing ear was nowhere to be found.
Now, not only was there a mad Whitebeard, but also Garp, Golden Lion...
Lafitte said, "If things continue like this, our original plan will have no chance of being carried out."
What held the Blackbeard Pirates together was Blackbeard's plan.
To wait for the Whitebeard Pirates and Marine Headquarters to exhaust each other, then deliver the fatal blow themselves, personally hunting this Emperor of the old era.
To turn the aged Whitebeard into their ticket to fame and the position of Emperor.
Just like they had used Ace to obtain the title of Warlord.
Then, the most crucial step: to take Whitebeard's Gura Gura no Mi.
It was a law, common knowledge, that one could only eat one Devil Fruit.
Blackbeard's plan and ambition to break that law and common knowledge were what held the Blackbeard Pirates together.
After all, no one had ever seen a person with two Devil Fruits.
And now, the first step of the plan was already blocked. Where was the aged, sickly Whitebeard they had expected?
The strange black patterns spreading over half his body, the torn black wings spreading from his back. certainly gave off an ominous, decaying aura. But in contrast, there was a terrifying vitality and destructive power as if he had returned to his prime.
"Besides, this form."
Lafitte pulled down the brim of his hat. "Even I have never seen it before. What happened to Whitebeard? Did those God's Knights monsters from the World Government do it? It seems they did not kill him. Instead, they created something more troublesome?"
Lafitte said a few words, then realized that Marshall D. Teach beside him was not laughing his signature "ze ha ha ha" as usual.
He turned in surprise to see Teach's stubbled face shrouded in shadow.
His gaze was fixed on Whitebeard's demonized body in the distance.
"Captain?"
"Teach?"
"Ze ha ha ha."
Finally, Teach laughed. "Lafitte, you are right. This is indeed troublesome."
"What is wrong with you?" Lafitte raised an eyebrow.
Blackbeard raised his thick arm. "I have seen a similar form before. At God Valley."
God Valley?
Lafitte, Burgess, Van Augur, and the others changed expression.
That forbidden place, mentioned only occasionally by the strongest of the strong. Their captain had personally experienced it?
"I nearly died there. Barely escaped."
A flicker of lingering fear passed through Teach's eyes.
That man. That oppressive pressure.
For the first time in his life, he had felt the threat of death.
Barely. He had barely escaped.
It was from that moment that Blackbeard had decided to take everything into his own hands.
"Ze ha ha ha. It seems Whitebeard still retains some of his own will. He has not completely turned into that kind of monster. But the nature of that power is unmistakable. It is a curse of some kind, beyond Devil Fruits!"
Blackbeard laughed. "I miscalculated. I did not expect the World Government to be this insane."
That kind of thing should have been hidden away, like the rest of that history, unknown to anyone.
That was what the World Government had always done.
What was happening now? Who had suddenly lost their mind?
The Five Elders did not seem like the type to do something so irrational.
"Then what do we do?"
Lafitte looked ahead. "Do we try to face Whitebeard like this?"
"I do not want to face 'Pops' in this state. No one knows his terror better than I do."
Blackbeard looked ahead. A white figure was returning to the battlefield. He could not help but curse. "That guy is also an anomaly. Now, our plan has no room to be carried out."
What was supposed to be a fight between two sides for the fisherman to benefit had become a battle of gods, with mortals caught in the crossfire.
Whether it was the power-boosted Whitebeard or that cockroach-like Straw Hat, both were far outside the scope they could safely hunt at this stage.
Forcibly intervene?
Look at what happened to Number 46.
"Captain, then what do we do?"
Burgess clenched his fist in frustration.
"Endure. Endure!"
Teach said decisively. "Wait for the right moment. I am not the one most upset by Whitebeard becoming like this. Look at the Marines."
This show was not over yet.
...
"Newgate!"
For a moment, the space seemed to go quiet.
The ice beneath his feet exploded. Garp's figure shot into the sky like a straight black-red meteor.
A black lightning bolt flashed across the dark sky, then a human-shaped silhouette appeared. A huge fist came roaring, tearing through the air, covered in black-red lightning. It was extremely fast. In an instant, it was in front of Whitebeard.
Whitebeard had just looked up when he saw the fist.
Unlike the lurking Blackbeard, Garp always threw his punches openly.
Genkotsu Shōgeki!
Crack.
Where the fist passed, space let out an overloaded groan. Black-red lightning danced wildly. The target was Whitebeard's chest, eroded by black patterns.
This had to be ended quickly.
Garp had experienced the horror of God Valley. He knew better than anyone how tenacious and terrifying a top strong fighter became after being eroded by that power.
Back then, Rocks D. Xebec, in a similar state, had held off both Roger and him by himself. It had been an extremely difficult fight.
In the end, he and Roger had staked everything on their ultimate, all-out Conqueror's Haki-infused attacks, barely managing to defeat the darkened Rocks.
There was no Roger here.
Among those present with top Conqueror's Haki and the ability to use infusion were himself, Golden Lion Shiki, and Sengoku in the distance.
Golden Lion? He had just come out of Impel Down, still with a ship's wheel stuck in his head. His presence was getting weaker. He could not be relied on.
Sengoku's focus was still on the Marines. He would not act for now.
"So this old man has to do it."
Garp's thoughts raced. His fist gathered even more force. "I cannot let you rampage any longer!"
His iron fist, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, like a falling meteor, was already at Whitebeard's chest.
Whitebeard suddenly looked up.
He grinned fiercely. Then his fist punched the air in front of him.
The air shattered.
"Gurararara! Too slow, Garp!"
Hum!
The fist, wrapped in a white shockwave orb, shot out and collided with Garp's fist. In an instant, the dissipated lightning spread outward.
The shockwave shattered the surrounding ice instantly.
From the ground up, the already cracked sky grew even darker. Black clouds rolled and then intertwined.
Black-red Conqueror's Haki lightning and white shockwave ripples erupted outward, spreading over a great distance.
After the terrifying Conqueror's Haki that Nika had released earlier, it was like they had undergone desensitization training.
This Conqueror's Haki collision hardly drew any attention.
The strong fighters had gotten used to it.
"Pops!"
Jinbe was beneath the sea. His pupils contracted sharply. He could feel the continuous vibrations even under the water.
How long had it been since he had seen Pops fight at full power like this?
But this situation did not seem like a good thing.
Centered on the point where their fists met, a terrifying energy sphere, several meters wide, half black and half white, suddenly expanded. Its surface was covered in space cracks, like black lines.
Then, the sphere could no longer contain the destructive power within.
It collapsed inward.
It exploded outward.
Crack!
"Garp, you are old!" A red glint flashed in Whitebeard's eyes.
"You bastard!"
At the center of the collision, Garp felt the pressure more keenly.
The sensation of shattering vibrations spread up his Haki-coated arm.
Stalemate.
The two separated.
The thick ice beneath them made a continuous sou
nd of shattering glass, instantly covered in spiderweb cracks, spreading outward at an alarming rate.
"His strength has returned to this level?"
Sengoku looked up, his expression grave.
This was the outcome he had least wanted to see.
If Whitebeard had been in his prime, this war might not have even started.
As a Marine who had lived through that era, he knew well the terror of the old era's remnants.
Visibly, the ice for hundreds of meters ahead cracked, then turned to ice crystals, swept into the sky by the violent waves of force, forming a blinding white dust storm.
And Whitebeard did not stop there. He completely lost control, unleashing his power. The quake force burst outward in multiple directions.
"He has lost control?! He is attacking everything around him without distinction!"
Garp's pupils contracted sharply. In the instant of the explosion, relying on his finely honed Observation Haki and combat instincts, hemanaged to pull most of his Conqueror's Haki back to shield himself. But he was still sent flying by the indiscriminate shockwave. He tumbled dozens of times in the air before barely holding on.
And Whitebeard, also pushed back by the reaction of the clash, slid back dozens of meters across the ice, carving two deep trenches.
Then he stopped.
***
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