As he watched Mihawk stand before him with his blade drawn and his fighting spirit at its peak, the last trace of ease vanished from Gern's face.
"Heh heh heh..." He slowly rose from the stone stool.
At nearly three meters tall, the standard height of an Admiral, he stood before Hawk-Eye, who measured only one meter ninety-eight.
The difference naturally created an imposing physical pressure, his shadow almost swallowing Hawk-Eye whole.
But this was more than a difference in height. It was an invisible pressure born of the gulf in their standing and power.
"Measure me..." Gern murmured, repeating Hawk-Eye's words, his tone calm yet carrying a hint of meaning.
Then he raised his left hand and slowly closed it around the hilt of Black Blade: Eight Desolations, which had remained at his right hip, wrapped in old gray-white bandages.
The instant his fingers touched the hilt and drew the blade-
Hum! A low, unnerving vibration sounded from the hilt!
The old bandages wrapped around it seemed to come alive, or perhaps the power awakening within forcibly tore them apart.
Starting at the hilt, they automatically unraveled in a spiral toward the tip at blinding speed!
Countless gray-white scraps of bandage hovered around the blade as though alive!
Along the edges of every scrap, dazzling blue-white waves of high-frequency vibration flickered like electrical arcs, giving off piercing hisses and warping the surrounding air!
A moment later, every last bandage vanished!
Black Blade: Eight Desolations finally revealed its complete form to the world!
Its blade was no ordinary black, but a darkness so profound that it seemed capable of devouring all light!
Within that darkness, countless dark-red cracks suddenly lit up, erupting with blinding radiance.
They resembled molten lava flowing through veins, or the bloody eyes of a sleeping beast