In the stretch of sea between the two ships, a shock wave exploded outward in a ring in an instant, shearing an entire layer off the ocean.
The warship tilted violently. Marines on deck were flung away like fallen leaves, some slamming into the mast, others tumbling into the gun emplacements.
As the vibrations finished canceling each other out, dead silence fell over the warship. Then-
"He... he blocked Whitebeard's attack?!"
"Impossible! That's the Tremor-Tremor Fruit! It can trigger tsunamis!"
"That guy from the West Blue... what kind of monster is he?!"
Everything these Headquarters Marines believed had been turned upside down.
As Marines from Headquarters, they had witnessed Whitebeard's terrifying ability to destroy an entire fleet with a single blow more than once.
Yet now, a Second Lieutenant from the "West Blue," that sea of corruption, had actually withstood those devastating tremors head-on?!
And the ability he displayed was even identical to Whitebeard's?!
"He... he blocked it..." The warship's commanding officer, a lieutenant from Marine Headquarters, slumped onto the deck, his pupils trembling violently.
His mind refused to believe what he was seeing.
This branch Second Lieutenant promoted out of the West Blue had actually taken a blow from "Whitebeard" head-on?!
He had heard that Gern had a Devil Fruit power.
But... the man he was facing was Whitebeard!!!
In an instant, every pair of eyes locked onto the figure confronting Whitebeard head-on.
The sea breeze abruptly died, and time seemed to freeze in that moment.
Drenched from head to toe in seawater, Gern lost the last trace of hesitation in his eyes. In its place came the resolve to stake everything on this fight.
"Tremor Step: Sky Tread!" Without the slightest hesitation, Gern compressed and condensed a high-density core of vibration particles beneath his feet.
He kicked hard off the deck!
BOOOOM!!! The vibration particles, compressed to their absolute limit, released instantly at the point of contact-not as a simple explosion.
Instead, a visible white shock ring, trembling at high frequency, suddenly spread outward!
Then Gern's body transformed into an elemental stream of white energy composed entirely of high-frequency vibration particles and shot into the sky.
It tore through the air with a piercing shriek. In the blink of an eye, he had risen a hundred meters, and the warship beneath his feet had become a tiny speck.
There was no time to think. Gern's breathing grew heavy, but his gaze only sharpened.
He slowly raised his muscular right arm, his left hand brushing over the blade of Black Blade: Eight Desolations.
In an instant, billions of wildly vibrating particles entwined around it, producing a hum so intense it seemed almost tangible, as though it could slice through the soul.
At the same time, the vibration particles on the blade condensed, collapsed, and compressed again!
They formed a dazzling film of white light that constantly collapsed inward!
In an instant, the air around Gern became like fragile glass, silently covered in fine cracks. Light twisted and refracted strangely around him.
HMMMM!! The vibration frequency of Black Blade: Eight Desolations soared to the very limit of Gern's control.
The air near its edge no longer tore apart. Instead, it disintegrated inch by inch like glass struck by an invisible sledgehammer!
Gradually, the vibration particles stopped circling and instead collapsed onto the cutting edge, forming a flickering blade of light that seemed capable of slicing through dimensions!
Against Whitebeard in his prime, I can't afford even a moment's hesitation. And so, this was his strongest attack...
Gern drew a deep breath, raised his right foot, and stamped down hard in midair.
BANG! With a sharp explosion, his stomp cracked the space behind him into a web of radiating fractures!
Propelled by that violent recoil, Gern hurtled toward Whitebeard like a comet, trailing a long plume of particles!
Whitebeard narrowed his eyes slightly, slowly tightening his grip on Murakumogiri.
For the first time, he took a serious look at this young Marine, a trace of interest appearing on his rugged face.
"Gurararara..." His low laughter rolled across the sea with tangible ripples of vibration. "An ability much like mine. What an interesting brat."
Beside Whitebeard, Marco dropped his amused smile and straightened slightly, the rapidly approaching streak of white light reflected in his pupils.
"Pops, this guy's vibrations... something feels wrong!"
"Marco, get behind me!!" At that moment, the smile on Whitebeard's lips abruptly froze.
His Observation Haki instantly locked onto Gern in the sky, and his pupils contracted sharply as though struck by a blinding light.
An unprecedented sense of sharpness, carrying the breath of destruction, was rapidly closing in!
At the same time, he caught a brief glimpse of the future. If he allowed this slash to fall, the consequences would be no joke.
Whitebeard immediately clamped both hands around Murakumogiri's shaft like iron pincers. His knotted muscles pushed up his white cape coat into an exaggerated silhouette of rolling mountains.
"Gurarara, I saw quite a future..." His low laughter made the loose stones on deck bounce like beans in a roasting pan.
"This Marine brat really has gained an incredible ability!"
Marco was still a little confused, but when he saw the veins bulging along his Pops' neck like furious dragons-
The Phoenix's blue flames suddenly spilled uncontrollably from between his wings. "Pops is getting serious..."
"Here he comes!!" Whitebeard's thunderous shout was no longer merely sound. It carried a violent vibration wave that whipped up a visible white sonic boom ring!
He drew his right leg half a step back. CRACK! The sturdy railing instantly crumbled to dust!
Murakumogiri hummed. Its familiar white halo no longer coated the blade gently, but surged violently and condensed!
In an instant, Whitebeard launched himself forward!!
"Marine brat, give me your name." Whitebeard's voice was not loud, yet it anchored the sea, instantly suppressing the waters raging under the force of their clashing auras.
Gern grinned, his voice piercing the hum of the vibrations.
"Gern Reginald Sigma!"
"Remember it! This name... will ring out to the very ends of this sea!"
HMMMM! SHRRRK!!! The blade of light around Black Blade: Eight Desolations surged!
The next second, that white blade of light, packed with collapsing vibration particles, ignored the barrier of space and swept horizontally before Whitebeard's eyes!
"Heavenquake: Sky Rend!" Gern poured everything he had into a fierce swing!
CRACK! HMMMM!!! What tore through the air was not a flying slash, but a "fissure" formed by forcibly cutting through space itself!
Where the blade passed, the atmosphere did not shatter. Instead, the high-frequency vibration particles instantly shook it into collapse, leaving a rift whose edges flowed with a wild torrent of pure white particles!!
"Gurararara! Arrogant Marine brat!" Whitebeard's eyes blazed as though he had discovered a new continent.
"My Observation Haki tells me I can't let you unleash that attack!"
The white halo around Murakumogiri's blade instantly compressed to its limit, condensing into a seemingly solid layer of white crystal imbued with the will to pulverize everything!
Both men swung their weapons at the same time! In that moment, time lost all meaning!
CLANG!! The blade of light around Black Blade: Eight Desolations smashed into Murakumogiri's crystalline edge!
At the point of contact, there was no clash of metal, but a deafening fusion of piercing shrieks and a low, destructive roar!
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