Rolling thunder crashed relentlessly over Golden Lion's body.
The Zap Cannon's guaranteed paralysis effect compounded the assault, leaving Golden Lion's movements stiff and sluggish, making it nearly impossible for him to escape the lightning's coverage.
Golden Lion's strength was beyond question!
Whether it was his Devil Fruit power that allowed him to manipulate more than a dozen islands at will, or those terrifying slashes that rivaled the world's greatest swordsmen—
All of it proved that he fully deserved the title of Legendary Pirate.
But at the same time, one undeniable truth remained…
Suffering repeated, devastating injuries at the height of his prime had completely robbed Golden Lion of any chance to push further toward the summit.
Unlike Whitebeard, he did not have a group of devoted and powerful "sons" like Marco who would care for his declining health.
Over time, his body weakened without anyone noticing.
Now, he had become a remnant of the old era—overwhelming in offense, yet lacking in defense.
Among those also called legendary pirates, Roger became the Pirate King, and Whitebeard rose as one of the Four Emperors.
Only Golden Lion's sole remaining glory was that he had successfully escaped from Impel Down—the prison from which no one had ever escaped.
Boom!!!
Moments later, the thunder finally dissipated.
Suspended in midair was a thoroughly frazzled Golden Lion.
His once sleek, downward-flowing golden hair now stood on end like the spines of a hedgehog.
Even his imposing golden cloak was scorched black in patches from the extreme heat.
"Damn brat!"
Although Red's Zap Cannon wasn't as lethal as Luffy's lightning axe from the movie, it had clearly inflicted serious damage.
As the lightning faded, Golden Lion let out a furious roar.
At the same time, a flash of deep shock flickered through his eyes.
In the next instant, he shot upward, rapidly widening the distance between himself and Red.
His speed was so extreme that faint arcs of electricity lingered in the air behind him.
"This isn't right!"
"Something is definitely wrong!"
"That brat's power doesn't resemble a Devil Fruit ability at all!"
While retreating strategically, countless thoughts raced through Golden Lion's mind.
As a legendary pirate on par with Roger and Whitebeard, his combat instincts were unquestionably world-class.
The moment Red began condensing lightning, Golden Lion had already mobilized his blood and Armament Haki, preparing to defend.
What he hadn't expected was that, under his dense and well-honed Armament Haki, Red's lightning initially did almost nothing.
But that state lasted only one or two seconds.
Suddenly, a strange current bored into his body, instantly stiffening his muscles.
No matter how hard he drove his Armament Haki, he couldn't expel the lightning.
Eventually, the paralysis became so severe that he couldn't even form Armament Haki at all, forcing him to take Red's Zap Cannon head-on!
That was when Golden Lion, with his veteran's eye, instantly realized something was wrong.
Haki was supposed to counter all Devil Fruit abilities!
Yet the lightning Red unleashed clearly carried a Devil Fruit–level "rule" power, while effortlessly breaking through Armament Haki.
If not for the fact that the Float-Float Fruit wasn't affected by physical paralysis, he might have been locked in place until death.
Because at the very moment Golden Lion dodged—
Another fresh Zap Cannon slammed into the space he had just occupied, piercing straight through the sky behind him!
Red's attacks weren't particularly flashy, yet they filled Golden Lion with an indescribable sense of unease.
At this moment, he finally understood why Blackbeard never stopped talking about the Straw Hat Pirates!
"Not bad for a legendary pirate—he actually dodged that?!"
On the other side, seeing his rapid-fire Zap Cannons fail, Red showed a hint of surprise.
Golden Lion's performance was nothing like the weakling depicted in the movie.
"Seriously, even fights get preferential treatment now?"
"Aren't I an East Blue man too?!"
After muttering a brief complaint, Red spread his wings of ice and fire and chased after Golden Lion.
"Agility!"
In an instant!
Two extraordinary streaks appeared across the sky above the sea.
A golden beam fled madly ahead, while a tri-colored red-yellow-blue beam pursued fiercely from behind.
The two figures moved as if on perfectly parallel tracks, never intersecting.
Until half a minute later…
"Huff!"
Sensing the residual lightning finally dissipate from his body, Golden Lion halted midair.
He abruptly spun around, locked onto Red's circling figure, and raised both famed blades on his legs.
"Lion's Chikiri Valley!"
Slash—slash—slash—slash!
Golden Lion's eyes went wide as his body spun like a top in midair.
In an instant, countless golden slashes burst forth like radiant crescent moons, tearing through the sky with overwhelming speed and power as they swept toward Red.
"Yare yare~"
"Isn't this a bit serious, Senior Golden Lion?!"
Facing the approaching storm of slashes, Red's eyes finally showed genuine focus.
Golden Lion may have grown old—that was true.
But underestimating him because of it would be the height of arrogance.
A strange purple-pink gleam flashed through Red's eyes.
Not only did he fail to slow down, he continued charging forward.
At the very last moment, just before the foremost slash struck him, Red activated his move.
"Hyperspace Hole!"
Whoosh—!
A spatial wormhole just large enough for a single person opened abruptly.
Red's rushing figure dove straight into the pitch-black vortex and vanished.
"In front of me!"
This time, however, Golden Lion wasn't surprised at all.
The instant Red disappeared, Golden Lion twisted around and thrust forward with Kogarashi!
Clang—!!!
A crisp, resounding impact echoed across the heavens.
Red emerged from the wormhole with a flash of astonishment in his eyes.
Wrapped in a strange energy, he stared at Golden Lion blocking his attack and couldn't help but marvel.
After all—
This was Giga Impact, a Pokémon move with a base power of 150!
If Golden Lion could block even this without injury, Red would seriously have to call for backup.
Fortunately, that fear never materialized.
Their clash in the sky lasted only a few seconds.
Golden Lion's expression suddenly changed.
"T-That's impossible?!"
An immense force erupted from above his blade Kogarashi.
Boom!!!
Like a meteor skimming the sea's surface, Golden Lion was sent flying, transforming into a streak of golden fire shooting into the distant sky.
Due to Giga Impact's recoil effect, Red's body entered a brief state of rigidity, preventing him from immediately pursuing a finishing blow.
Szz—
Even while desperately activating his Devil Fruit, Golden Lion's body ignited from the violent air friction at such extreme speed.
Only after flying beyond the limits of vision did he finally come to a stop.
This alone showed just how terrifying Red's full-power strike had been!
Meanwhile—
On the sea below, Blackbeard stood atop shattered debris, witnessing Red blast Golden Lion away.
Greed overflowed in his eyes.
"That guy's power has gotten even stranger!"
"I really want to catch him and force out all his secrets!!!"
Blackbeard licked his lips, imagining himself ruling the world with Red's power, and burst into laughter.
"Zehahahaha—!"
But then, a sudden voice cut him off.
"Hey! You bastard—where do you think you're looking?!"
"Gum-Gum Jet Fire Gatling!!!"
Boom—!!!
A massive flaming fist illuminated the sea crimson as it surged up behind Blackbeard, boiling the ocean into steam as it came crashing toward him.
Blackbeard's expression shifted slightly.
"So that's how it is… you've gotten stronger too."
"Even you, huh?!"
"Straw Hat Luffy!!!"
A crafty glint flashed through Blackbeard's eyes.
In the next instant, boundless darkness poured from his body, forming a pitch-black vortex shield that enveloped him completely.
"But… it's useless!"
Blackbeard grinned widely.
"I've already seen through your fighting style!"
"With your power, you can't break through my darkness!!!"
"Zehahahaha—!"
Boom!!!
Luffy's blazing black fist slammed into the darkness shield.
In an instant—
The devastating punch sank in like a stone dropped into the sea, making no sound at all.
Just as Blackbeard claimed, it stopped dead, unable to advance even an inch.
Blackbeard's grin widened.
Seeing even someone like Luffy fail against his Devil Fruit filled him with delight.
But then, Luffy's calm voice reached his ears.
"Oh? Is that really so?!"
"Hm?!"
Blackbeard's laughter abruptly ceased, an inexplicable sense of dread rising within him.
The next second, Luffy shouted:
"Dazzling Gleam!!!"
Woooosh—
Endless brilliance burst from Luffy's body, piercing through the gaps in the darkness shield and shining straight onto Blackbeard.
"AAAAH—!!!"
"What is this?!"
Bathed in light, Blackbeard screamed in agony.
The tiny rays burned into his darkened body like holy light scorching a demon, leaving trails of smoke.
Under the radiance, the dark mist formed by the Dark-Dark Fruit began to dissipate.
A Logia—the Dark-Dark Fruit!
No matter how special it was, as a force of nature, it still had to obey natural laws.
Before Dazzling Gleam's intense light, darkness was driven away, swallowed bit by bit.
"So it's true—Red was right!"
"Your Devil Fruit isn't invincible!"
"As long as the light is strong enough, it will drive away all darkness!"
Luffy beamed with joy at the success of his move.
What he didn't know was—
Red never placed his hopes solely on Dazzling Gleam itself.
In games, it was just an ordinary Fairy-type move.
But in Red's view, any move could unleash extraordinary power depending on the user.
Who was Luffy?
On the surface, he was a Gum-Gum Fruit user.In truth, he was the inheritor of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika, a Mythical Zoan!
Nika—the embodiment of boundless freedom and absurdity!
A bug-level power that made the impossible possible.
And from the very beginning, Pokémon's Fairy-type energy had subtly amplified the deeper potential of Luffy's Nika power.
This Dazzling Gleam was merely Red's experiment.
He wanted to see whether Blackbeard, a foe of this caliber, could awaken something even deeper within Luffy.
Perhaps even turning Dazzling Gleam into a specialized counter to the Dark-Dark Fruit under Luffy's "I think it works" logic.
Pokémon power from a fantasy world, combined with the limitless potential of Nika—
Only by fully merging both could Luffy truly take "nonsense" to its ultimate extreme!
And under Red's guidance, he was steadily moving in that very direction.
"Damn it!"
"What kind of power is this now?!"
Szz—
Seeing his darkness being eaten away, Blackbeard stopped wasting stamina maintaining his ability.
With a wave of his hand, a shattered rooftop flew out of the darkness and splashed into the sea.
Since his last defeat by the Straw Hats, Blackbeard had developed a habit of storing large structures inside his darkness.
That way, if naval combat broke out, he wouldn't sink again for lack of footing.
Bang!
Despite his bulky body, Blackbeard moved with surprising agility, leaping onto a distant rooftop and escaping Dazzling Gleam's range.
All of this took only a few seconds.
Once settled, Blackbeard immediately looked up for Luffy.
The next instant, his gaze fixed on the sun—and his eyes widened in shock.
Luffy hovered directly before the sunlight.
Residual white light shimmered over his body from Dazzling Gleam.
Bathed in sunlight, that glow fused with the radiance itself, clinging to Luffy in Gear Fourth · Warrior God Form.
"N-No way…"
Blackbeard murmured in disbelief.
Because the figure before him—
Was exactly the same as one he had once heard described in legend…!!!
(End of Chapter)