"All of you, open your eyes wide and watch this scene. This will be the prelude to a new era. I, Blackbeard, am about to reign over these seas."
He felt it.
He felt Sengoku's frailty and helplessness beneath his hands.
That feeling of standing above everyone else.
It came crashing over him with overwhelming force.
It filled him with the utmost exhilaration.
The person he had admired most before this was Whitebeard.
Because Whitebeard had been strong enough!
If he had never encountered the Dark-Dark Fruit, he had even planned to follow Whitebeard for the rest of his life!
Yet at the same time, he had also come to hate Whitebeard deeply.
Because Whitebeard had gradually begun to age.
He had grown weak.
Teach could not bear to watch the person he admired most slowly becoming weaker.
But now, all of those emotions had completely vanished from his heart.
Only at this moment did he truly understand what absolute power felt like.
Whitebeard, Red-Hair, Kaido, Sengoku—
Everyone. Every single person upon these seas.
They would all submit beneath him, Blackbeard!
He would stand at the pinnacle of this era!
He would wield power forever.
The ambition that had burned in the deepest recesses of his heart for who knew how many years
was finally laid completely bare before everyone's eyes at this moment.
"Teach!"
At that moment, an enraged roar came from afar.
Whitebeard was furious.
Within the Whitebeard Pirates, there was only one ironclad rule.
No one was allowed to harm their comrades!
Yet Blackbeard had utterly violated that principle.
He had killed a commander, seized the Dark-Dark Fruit, and fled.
Not only that, he had captured Ace.
He had used Ace as a hostage to trade for a position among the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
As