Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor!

Teach stood in the center of the darkness, his chest heaving violently, sweat beading on his obese face, yet that nauseating smile still lingered on his lips.

His physical exertion was far less than Ace's —Van Augur and Jesus Burgess, though unable to get involved, had been firing sniper shots and throwing axes throughout the day's battle, forcing Ace to divert some of his Flame to deal with sneak attacks.

In this back-and-forth exchange, Teach ended up being the one who had the advantage of being able to wait and reap the rewards.

"Hahaha! You're done for, Captain Ace, aren't you?" Teach spread his arms wide, darkness swirling around him, his tone brimming with smug confidence.

"Your stamina is almost depleted, but I still have plenty of energy! Admit defeat, it's not too late to join me! With your strength, plus my Dark-Dark Fruit, this ocean will be ours sooner or later!"

Ace did not answer.

He kept his head down, his hat brim obscuring most of his face, only his eyes shining through the shadows beneath the brim—not the light of weariness, but the resolute determination of someone who had burned away all other options and was left with only one path to follow in the dark.

He slowly raised his hands.

The remaining flames around his body no longer raged outwards, but instead, as if drawn by some invisible force, began to slowly gather layer by layer towards the top of his head.

The movement was so slow that Teach could see the trajectory of each flame, but it was precisely this slowness that caused Teach's smile to freeze on his face for the first time.

He wasn't unfamiliar with the powerful attacks of the Flame-Flame Fruit, but he had never seen anything like this before.

The flames gathered more and more above Ace's head, pressing down and becoming denser, gradually changing from orange-red to dazzling incandescent white, and then from incandescent white to a kind of almost liquid gold.

They surged, spun, and expanded in the high temperature, eventually transforming into a giant fireball with a diameter of over a hundred meters, like a sun forcibly pulled from the sky, hanging high above Banaro Island.

The surface of the fireball was constantly churning with tongues of fire like a corona, each surge unleashing countless fine streams of fire that rained down on every corner of the island.

The reefs were melting, the seawater was boiling, and the entire island was groaning under the unbearable heat.

Ace raised his head, his eyes beneath the brim of his hat fixed on the large, obese figure in front of him.

His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, yet it pierced clearly through the roar of the flames, each word striking Teach's ears. "Teach —my head, come and take it if you dare!!"

"Great Flame Commandment - Flame Emperor!!"

A giant fireball, hundreds of meters in diameter, crashed down on Teach like a falling sun as he swung his arm down.

The air was instantly burned into a vacuum, the ground silently collapsed where the fireball passed, and the entire Banaro Island trembled violently in the face of this attack.

Teach's pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.

His Observation Haki was screaming wildly; every cell in his body was telling him—he couldn't take it head-on.

This was a strike that pushed the power of the Flame-Flame Fruit to its absolute limit, a final, desperate gamble with all remaining strength.

Even for him, even with the Dark-Dark Fruit, taking this attack head-on would be extremely difficult.

If he didn't have the Dark-Dark Fruit —this thought flashed through his mind for less than half a second before he extinguished it himself.

There are no "what ifs." He simply possesses the Dark-Dark Fruit; he is the one chosen by fate.

"Zehahaha! Zehahahahahaha!!!" Teach laughed wildly, his single eye surging with almost manic excitement and greed.

Fear and excitement twisted into an extremely ugly expression on his fat face, but he didn't care.

He spread his arms, and the darkness around him poured out like a flood bursting its banks, condensing, compressing, and condensing again above his head, finally transforming into a pitch-black curtain that blotted out the sky.

Black Hole – one of the core abilities of the Dark-Dark Fruit, an infinite gravitational force capable of devouring everything, which he has pushed to its limit.

The darkness surged and spun, like a gaping maw of an abyss, lunging to bite down on the crashing sun.

"Come on, Captain Ace!! Let's see if your fire is stronger, or my darkness!! Zehahaha! This is fate! I am the strongest man on this sea!!"

Emperor Yan and the Black Hole, the Sun and the Abyss, collided violently in the sky above Banaro Island.

There was no deafening explosion, only a more terrifying roar, like the first sounds of creation.

Flame and darkness clashed violently at their point of contact, the Kakkō being swallowed by the darkness and the darkness being torn apart by the Kakkō. The two diametrically opposed forces crushed and annihilated each other, and the aftershocks of the explosion raised waves tens of meters high in the sea around the island.

Jesus Burgess was thrown several times by the shockwave before finally coming to a stop by crashing headfirst into a reef.

Van Augur clung tightly to his gun, his entire body pressed against the stone wall by the wind.

Lafitte spread his wings to try and steady himself, but was swept backward by the aftershocks, and a large patch of feathers was torn off his wings.

Even the furthest-farthest Doc Q was hit on the forehead by a piece of gravel, blood streaming down his cheek, yet he was still laughing, his laughter drowned out by the roar of the explosions, unheard by anyone.

When Jesus Burgess crawled out of the rubble, he saw a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Ace knelt on one knee, his right hand supporting him on the ground, while his left hand hung limply at his side.

The flames around him had mostly died out, with only a few weak flames stubbornly flickering on his shoulders.

His chest heaved violently, and a shocking trail of blood hung from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his chin to the ground. He could no longer stand up.

Teach, however, remained standing.

He had several deep, bone-revealing burn marks on his body, his left arm was charred black, and the skin on his chest and thighs was peeled back, revealing the red-hot muscles underneath.

He grimaced in pain, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, yet he continued to laugh—the laughter grew louder and more arrogant, eventually turning into a deafening, maniacal laugh.

"Zehahaha! Zehahahaha! Captain Ace! You lost! Your Flame Emperor still couldn't burn through my darkness!"

The Grand Line, a deserted island that even nautical charts don't bother to name.

Natsu sat cross-legged on the highest point of the reef, the sea breeze carrying salty and fishy vapors rushing towards him, making his gray-white robes flutter in the wind.

His eyes were closed, his breathing was even and long, and there was no trace of Chakra leaking from his body—but if someone got close enough, they could see that a very faint, reddish-gold halo, like the morning glow, was flowing across the surface of his skin under his robes.

His consciousness had sunk deep into his body.