The Erased Unknown Region

The sea breeze at Blade Martial Port carried a faint salty tang and the freshness left behind after the gunpowder smoke had cleared.

The Ashen, forged from obsidian, lay steadily anchored amid the waves, its sharp black hull reflecting a cold, restrained sheen beneath the rising sun. Beside it, the Thousand Sunny, the remaining Moby Dick warships of the Whitebeard Pirates, and the vessels of the Kid Pirates and Heart Pirates had all raised their sails and were ready to depart.

On the beach where they were about to part ways, several young titans renowned throughout the New World stood gathered together. The atmosphere had lost its previous hostility, but gained a weighty solemnity.

"What's wrong, Fire Fist? With that look on your face, you don't seem like someone who just won a battle."

Rain tucked both hands into the sleeves of his black haori, an unlit cigar between his lips. His dark gray eyes carried a hint of teasing as he looked at Ace, who was staring blankly at his fists.

"Yeah... We won, but I still can't shake this feeling of unwillingness."

Ace gave a self-mocking smile and pressed down on his cowboy hat. An unprecedented clarity and sharpness flashed in his eyes. "If Rain hadn't held the line head-on and endured Kaido's most terrifying frontal assault, and if Law hadn't risked his life to support us, Luffy and I would've been pounded into pulp by that monster long ago."

"Only after truly clashing with a Four Emperor did I realize just how despairingly vast the gap is between us rising stars, praised to the heavens by the outside world, and the true peak of these seas." Ace clenched his fists, faint black-red Conqueror's Haki Infusion lightning flickering around his fingertips. "I awakened Conqueror's Haki Infusion in that