The central square of Hachinos Island had become a scorched wasteland, cracked and smoking.
"What a terrifying Devil Fruit…" Gern Reginald Sigmar muttered, the black blade Hachikō pointing downward.
Pale particles vibrating at high frequency swirled along the blade's edge. Even the slightest tremor sent the surrounding air buzzing under the strain. His military boots struck the fractured ground, and with each step, stones hovered unnaturally for a brief instant before falling back to earth.
"Others spend half a lifetime, even a full lifetime, striving… and you just say 'Momo'!"
"Marines…" Bondy Walde twisted his neck with a crack, a faint halo of Momo Fruit energy shimmering over his fists.
"How about a hundredfold of my power for you? If you're only barely holding on, how many hits could you possibly take?"
"Let's find out." Gern shifted his stance, lowering his body with lethal precision.
Boom! The ground beneath both of them exploded into web-like cracks.
In the blink of an eye, the two figures collided at the center of the island.
"Momo—100x Giant Fist!" Walde's right arm, coated in Armament Haki, swelled under his Devil Fruit's amplification. The fist became a mountain of crushing force, smashing downward with the weight of an avalanche.
The punch displaced air, forming a visible conical shockwave; even before it hit, a crater twenty meters wide had already begun to form.
Gern's pupils constricted. With a sharp clang, Hachikō, imbued with Armament Haki, rose to meet it.
"Skyquake—Shatter Fang!"
The moment blade met fist, time seemed to freeze.
Buzz… First came a surreal stillness, then a deafening RUMBLE!!!
The ground within a hundred meters of the impact rose and rolled like ocean waves. Pale vibrations and the amplified punch's force collided, creating an energy storm that instantly vaporized surrounding debris. Even Marine soldiers a hundred meters away were lifted into the air by the shockwave.
"Kuh!" Walde spat blood, eyes wide in disbelief as his fist returned to normal—revealing a jagged slash across it, the wound pulsing with eerie pale particles.
"Vibration and Haki… it pierced straight through?" For the first time, his feral expression faltered. He snapped his gaze upward.
"You're… the Navy's Skyquake?!"
"Just realizing now?" Gern smirked. "Seems my reputation's dulled a bit over this administrative leave." He flicked a drop of blood off Hachikō's blade. "Still, your Devil Fruit's tricky… but mine's not bad either."
"Don't get cocky! You think you're Whitebeard, damn it!" Walde slammed his fists together.
"Momo—200x Acceleration!"
Boom! In an instant, Walde vanished, his speed magnified to the extreme by his Devil Fruit. Human eyes could barely track him—only a blur of residual images flickered around Gern, each flash accompanied by a sonic boom.
"Two hundredfold?" Gern sidestepped, black blade ready, intercepting a fist from the void.
"But still… too slow for my Observation Haki. Even Rayleigh, the ancient Green, or Vice Admiral Garp at full burst would move faster than you."
He stepped back without looking up. The ground beneath him cracked into a ten-meter-deep crater from Walde's airborne kick.
"Behind me." Gern's blade whirled, striking a knee plated in Armament Haki, sparks flaring in the scorched air.
Walde's confidence wavered. His speed at two hundredfold made him nearly untouchable—but this young Marine Rear Admiral seemed to predict his every move.
"Observation Haki? No…" Suddenly, Walde noticed the fragments beneath Gern's feet vibrating at a specific frequency. His realization struck him like lightning.
"Vibration sensing?! No matter how fast I move, I create physical tremors—and this guy… he's a Skyquake! A natural vibration user!"
"Just realizing now?" Gern grinned, stomping his right foot.
"Skyquake—Earth Roar!"
Boom! The square's ground shattered instantly.
Countless stones lifted into the air under the vibration waves, forming a hundred-meter-wide absolute domain. Walde's super-speed faltered; each step triggered chained vibration feedback, allowing Gern to predict his trajectory with pinpoint accuracy.
"Got you." Gern's cold voice echoed in his ear.
Walde spun around, only to face Gern's fist at point-blank range.
"Black Tremor…" Spiraling pale waves of vibration coiled around the charging fist at Gern's waist. The punch tore outward, compressing the surrounding space.
"Piercing Star!!"
Bang! The fist struck Walde's abdomen solidly. No flashy explosions—only a visible ripple of force emanated, bursting from his back in a kilometer-wide cylindrical shockwave, flattening a nearby hill.
"Waaah!" Walde's eyes bulged as blood and shattered organs spewed from his mouth.
His body was hurled like a broken sack, smashing through buildings until he finally rolled to a halt beyond the town's edge.
"Walde!!" From a safe observation point, Binjek screamed in horror.
Through the smoke, Walde staggered to his feet, revealing a bowl-sized dent in his torso. Calmly, he placed his hands over it.
"Momo—Amplify Recovery."
Ha… ha… ha… Blood stained his grin, but he laughed menacingly.
"My regeneration can be enhanced a hundredfold too!"
Gern's brow furrowed slightly.
The Momo Fruit could amplify cellular regeneration itself. No wonder the World Government feared it, ranking it alongside Roger, Whitebeard, and Golden Lion. In the hands of someone truly cunning… terrifying.
The sea wind carried smoke across the battlefield, the air thick with scorch and ash.
Walde bared his teeth, hands ripping his tattered captain's coat.
Shhhhk! The fabric tore, revealing his scarred, battle-worn torso. Every scar looked etched in steel, muscles rippling with each breath.
"Scared yet?" His laugh rumbled like distant thunder. "Ha… ha… too late!"
His fists collided, sending a hundredfold amplified shockwave into the air.
"Warm-up starts now… time to finish this!!"
"Impressive… fitting your reputation," Gern muttered, steps cracking the scorched earth beneath him. Hachikō spun lightly in his palm, carving an icy arc.
He lifted his left hand, unbuttoning the top of his Justice cloak.
Click. A subtle sound, but it rang like a declaration.
The cloak tore free, snapping into the air.
Dark purple Conqueror's Haki erupted like a volcanic blast, slicing the clouds into a swirling vortex. Stones floated under the tremor, the air buzzing under the extreme pressure.
"Too bad… how convenient." Gern's gaze lifted, the pale vibration particles in his left palm trembling violently.
"I was thinking the same thing."
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