Teach is now vastly different from his past self. This is no longer the time when he nearly lost his life to a single sword slash from Shirohige; his power has now reached a level sufficient to stand at the pinnacle of the former Four Emperors (Yonko), or what is now called the World Council Chairman position.
His desire for strength and power has reached an unimaginable level; his ambition is extraordinarily vast. Though both are antagonists, he has a fundamental difference from Uchiha Madara.
Madara wanted to build a completely beautiful fantasy world so that this world would no longer know war and would fall into another kind of peace. From a certain perspective, he may not actually be a truly evil person. There's a pitiful side behind that hated figure.
However, Teach has a purely dark heart; he is an inherently evil existence from birth. His wicked nature is ingrained to the bone marrow. Once his desires are ignited, they explode uncontrollably. Moreover, this bastard is extremely intelligent and possesses unimaginably strong endurance; he was able to hide within the Shirohige Pirates for years without being detected even slightly, all to achieve his own goals.
On this point, perhaps even many ninjas from the Ninja World wouldn't be capable of doing so.
Now, his time has gradually ripened. Teach already possesses the power to stand at the world's peak, and he's beginning to show his fangs, shedding his disguise, and swinging his blade toward his former Father himself, Shirohige.
Teach clenched one fist, darkness expanding once more, even filling the cracked space along its path with extreme darkness. The Yami Yami no Mi seemed to possess some spatial characteristics, silently merging with the energy within the torn dimensional rifts to repair the damaged space.
Shirohige's expression changed slightly; he hadn't expected Teach to have grown this far.
"Kill him!" Shirohige snorted coldly, realizing this bastard couldn't be allowed to live.
Once Teach was allowed to grow further, he would become a threat not only to himself but to the entire World Council and the entire One Piece World. This person would most likely repeat historical mistakes by establishing a second regime similar to the Tenryuubito—an absolute hegemony that would be a disaster for all three worlds.
"Ready, Pops!" Marco and the others charged forward without hesitation.
A shrill cry echoed across the sky; a phoenix with its entire body enveloped in pale blue flames dove down, raining countless fires between its wingbeats.
Jozu, his entire body covered in sparkling clear diamond, stepped forward massively, intending to crush the darkness with raw power.
Not only the commanders under Shirohige; Shanks, Kaido, Big Mom, and others also launched attacks, intending to eliminate this bastard from the battlefield.
Now they were all members of the World Council, no longer Yonko acting independently. If one prospers, all prosper; if one falls, all lose; no one wanted to see the newly and painstakingly built World Council collapse again.
Now, they had more or less tasted the benefits brought by the unification of the One Piece World.
"You're truly giving me quite the honor, Pops!" Teach's expression became serious.
No matter how strong he was, he didn't feel he could truly withstand the combined assault from so many experts. He understood his Father's strength very well, not to mention several other powerhouses equal to his Father, and even people from the other two worlds were watching warily.
"Vanish!"
The wave of thick darkness had now completely enveloped Imu, pouring down heavily, dragging him deep into the ground.
The wave of darkness instantly transformed into an eerily silent dark pool; so deep its bottom couldn't be seen, as if unknown dangers lurked within, making people feel horrified.
The rain of blue fire filling the sky fell entirely into the pool of darkness, but didn't create even a single ripple; the fire was directly swallowed and consumed into the pool.
"Earthquake!" Shirohige stomped his foot hard.
Numerous cracks spread from beneath his feet, directly splitting the area where the dark pool was located with a giant crevice dozens of meters wide.
However, surprisingly, this pool of darkness was like a thin sheet of paper floating in a void; it wasn't attached to the ground at all. Although the ground beneath split open, the pool didn't fall into the earth like normal flowing water, but remained firmly floating. Whether viewed from above or below, all that appeared was endless darkness.
Meanwhile, the figures of Teach and Imu had entered the dark pool and disappeared. The dark pool began to fluctuate like a living creature, generating waves, and continuously shrinking, even causing the surrounding space to collapse.
"Be careful!"
Jozu, who was charging forward, couldn't stop his momentum in time and nearly fell into the dark pool. Several dark tentacles extended from the pool, trying to drag him in.
Marco dove down, his talons grasping the edge of Jozu's clothes and flying him back into the air, barely avoiding the grasp of those tentacles.
Cold sweat poured down Jozu's forehead; staring at the dark pool below from altitude, he felt extremely terrified. He didn't know what would happen if he was dragged in, but most likely he would die.
"How can this bastard be stranger than Uchiha Madara and that crazy woman!" Bang frowned in the distance: "People from the other two worlds, their abilities are truly difficult to comprehend. Compared to them, our world's abilities are too simple."
It was indeed true. Even someone as strong as Saitama had nearly met disaster under Otsutsuki Kaguya's strange abilities. If not for the First Place on the Golden List intervening, Saitama might have been destroyed along with Kaguya.
Compared to the other two worlds, the One Punch Man World's power system was indeed somewhat lacking. Unless someone could be as strong as Saitama—crushing all techniques with pure strength—otherwise, for equally ranked experts, people from the One Punch Man World would struggle against ability users with strange powers from the other two worlds.
Genos leaned against an old tree. Half his leg had been severed in the previous battle, exposing tangled cables with electrical sparks coming out. His mechanical eyes rotated; he began to miss Saitama.
Right at that moment, a large shadow covered the sky.
Everyone spontaneously looked up. A human shadow could be seen streaking rapidly through the air; a pair of golden wings on his back was excessively large, projecting a vast shadow. His bald head appeared to reflect light.
"Sensei, that's Sensei, he's back!" Genos's eyes immediately lit up; he had recognized him.
The others also squinted their eyes, staring with surprise at the baldy who was now very close overhead.
Who else could it be but Saitama?
"Saitama-kun!" King also appeared very excited: "I knew you'd definitely be okay!"
Tatsumaki sneered softly, but her eyes radiated joy: "Your life is tough too. Why did you suddenly disappear earlier, where did you go? I didn't know you had spatial movement abilities?"
The disappearance of Saitama and Kaguya earlier was clearly not due to physical speed, but rather directly piercing through space. Everyone here was a strong fighter, so they could sense that.