Immortal Body?

"What is that?" Akda also looked up and saw the giant sword in the sky, his mouth hanging open in shock as he asked.

"It's a sword that can judge you." Shirakawa didn't explain much, because he didn't know how to explain it either.

Then Shirakawa quickly attacked Akda, moving so fast that only afterimages remained.

"So fast." Akda was startled for a moment, then suddenly felt a tremendous force from the blade, pushing him back several meters.

"And his strength has increased too." Akda's expression grew serious, the killing intent gathering on him becoming heavier and heavier.

"More and more interesting, more and more interesting, hahaha." As he finished speaking, Akda suddenly burst into wild laughter, laughing maniacally, laughing with abandon.

"Since I came down from the front lines, I've never experienced such an exciting fight again. Come on, defeat me." Akda said with bloodshot eyes.

"It's over, this guy's crazy." Buggy said in panic, holding his head with both hands.

"Don't worry, trust Shirakawa. Right now, no one here can match him." Compared to Buggy, Shanks was very calm.

Watching Shirakawa and Akda's fight grow more intense, Shanks felt worse and worse inside. He silently swore to himself, "I have to train harder from now on."

He clenched his fists tightly, squeezing harder and harder.

"Shanks." Just then, Buggy suddenly called out to him.

"Hm?" Buggy's voice distracted Shanks.

"You'll definitely become stronger in the future too."

Hearing this, Shanks froze for a moment, then revealed a very confident smile. "Of course I will. I'll become stronger, just like the Captain."

Although Buggy usually seemed careless and timid, his mind was actually very sharp right now. Plus, having spent so much time with Shanks, he understood exactly what Shanks was thinking.

It could be said that Buggy and Shanks knew each other best.

The battle between Shirakawa and Akda continued, but it was clear that Shirakawa currently had the upper hand.

At this point, he had no injuries at all—or rather, any wounds he'd taken had already healed—while Akda had a huge slash mark on both his chest and back.

"Damn it." After going crazy for a while and losing a lot of blood, Akda finally calmed down slowly. Though his eyes were still bloodshot, he no longer looked as ferocious as before.

"Are you immortal?" Akda gritted his teeth and asked in disbelief.

"Oh? I didn't expect you to be pretty sharp. You even know about that. That's right, I have an Immortal Body." After holding it in for so long, Shirakawa could finally say those words openly.

"Damn it." Although he got the answer he wanted, Akda felt like Shirakawa was lying to him, because his tone was too casual to believe.

But Shirakawa felt very wronged. Saying that line gave him a sense of relief.

"You're lying to me." Akda ruthlessly tried to expose Shirakawa's deception.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Shirakawa said incredulously. How dare he question what he said? If you don't believe it, why ask in the first place?

"There's no such thing as an immortal body in this world. There must be a limit. Once that limit is broken, you'll definitely die." Akda suddenly shouted to himself, as if something had occurred to him.

"Is that so? Then I want to test where my limit is too."

To be honest, after going all out, he couldn't feel any real pressure from Akda at all.

The two clashed again. The screeching sound of blade against blade grated on the ears, mixed with Akda's occasional mad shouts.

"Is there something wrong with this guy's head? He's already like this, and he still won't accept his fate, just yelling and screaming."

Buggy said in confusion.

"Who knows? Maybe he really does have something wrong with his head, like you said." Shanks clearly agreed with Buggy's words.

In Shanks's impression, there were only two types of people who would be in a passionate state while severely injured. The first was the hot-blooded, upward-striving type who believed they couldn't lose. The second was naturally an idiot. And in both their impressions, Akda belonged to the second type.

After a few more wounds appeared on his body, Akda stepped back several paces, intending to create a safe distance from Shirakawa.

"Why aren't you attacking? Come on, I'm not satisfied yet." Shirakawa taunted Akda.

But Akda didn't speak, just watched Shirakawa very warily.

"Since you won't come to me, I'll go to you."

"Wait." Just as Shirakawa was about to move, Akda suddenly spoke.

"What is it?" Shirakawa stopped, wanting to see what tricks Akda still had up his sleeve.

"How about letting me off, as if we never met?" Akda said, following his heart.

"Heh, haha." Hearing Akda's cowardly words, Shirakawa suddenly laughed very cheerfully.

Watching Shirakawa laugh heartily, Akda joined in with a laugh of his own, though his smile looked quite forced.

"If it were us begging for mercy right now, would you let us go?" Shirakawa didn't answer his question but asked him one instead.

"Well..." Akda hesitated, and Shirakawa already knew his choice.

"You wouldn't, so neither will I." When he said this, Shirakawa's tone suddenly grew heavier.

"Your body reeks of blood. Killing you counts as ridding the world of a scourge."

"Since you insist on this, then even if I go to hell, I'm dragging you down with me."

Akda suddenly burst forth, as if using all his strength. Judging by his attack, it seemed he intended to cut off Shirakawa's head in one swing.

"Heh, what a straightforward move. Lost your mind because you know there's no hope?"

Shirakawa shook his head slightly, looking somewhat disappointed.

He flew into the air and asked Akda, "Have you ever seen a sword technique that descends from the sky?"

"No, you haven't. Then I'll show you today." Without even waiting for Akda's reply, Shirakawa knew he hadn't.

Shirakawa extended his left hand, pressing it toward Akda. In an instant, Akda felt his body grow heavy, frozen in place.

"Since this move is fairly easy to dodge, I had no choice but to use this method."

"Damn it, I didn't expect you could control gravity too?" Akda's words came out strained.

"There's plenty you haven't expected." Shirakawa raised his blade and descended rapidly, the sword slicing down from the top of Akda's head.

Glancing at Akda, now split in two, Shirakawa flicked the blood off his blade and said in an extremely smug tone, "Really not all that impressive."

As he spoke, the sword above his head dissolved into white light and vanished.

"It looks like the battle is over." In the city, Rayleigh and Roger also saw the disappearing Sword of Damocles.

"Yeah, but did you notice a crack seemed to appear on that sword?"

"Did it? I didn't really pay attention."

"Then I must have seen wrong," Roger said, though in his heart he didn't believe it.

"Did something go wrong?" A trace of worry crept into Roger's mind.