At three in the afternoon, outside the Marineford Naval Academy.
Gern stood at the entrance to the training ground, stunned by the sight before him. A sea of people crowded outside Training Ground No. 1.
Marines surrounded the grounds, from ordinary soldiers to field officers. Even a few flag officers watched from a distance.
In the front row, he recognized several familiar faces.
Momonga, Onigumo, Doberman... these future Marine Vice Admirals still looked like students.
"Gern! Come on! Show us the spirit you had when you fought Whitebeard!
Make sure you give it everything you've got!!" Garp's booming voice stood out above the crowd.
"I didn't expect so many people," Gern muttered.
"What? Scared?" Zephyr's voice came from behind him.
Gern turned to find Zephyr already dressed in training clothes, his short purple hair striking in the sunlight.
"I just didn't expect you to be so popular, Vice Admiral Zephyr." Gern gave a couple of dry chuckles.
"Heh." Zephyr snorted. "They aren't here to see me."
With that, he strode toward the center of the training ground. "Come on. Let me see how strong you are now."
As the two entered the grounds, cheers erupted from the crowd.
Gern took a deep breath, unfastened the Eight Desolations from his back, and handed it to a guard at the sidelines. Then he walked slowly onto the training ground and took his position opposite Zephyr.
Sunlight fell directly onto the sand of the vast training ground, reflecting a dazzling glare.
Standing there, Gern could clearly feel countless gazes fixed on him, a few of them particularly intense.
Kuzan leaned against a tree in the distance, seemingly casual, but his gaze was sharp.
Dragon stood at the edge of the crowd, his expression unreadable.
And in the naval academy's windows, several familiar little heads peeked in and out of sight...
"Don't get distracted." Zephyr's voice brought Gern back to reality.
"Today, you don't need to worry about me. You don't even need to hold back.
You can show me the full extent of your Devil Fruit power. After all, I'm curious too... a Logia Tremor-Tremor."
"In that case..." Hearing Zephyr's words, Gern nodded and opened his left hand slightly, palm upward.
"You don't mind if I call you Teacher Zephyr, do you?"
The instant he finished speaking, vibration particles coalesced into a white mass of energy floating above his palm, making the surrounding air tremble.
"You should have been calling me that long ago, you idiot disciple." Zephyr didn't budge. He merely raised his right fist slowly, jet-black Armament Haki coating his entire arm as though it were solid.
"Remember, Gern." Amplified by Haki, Zephyr's voice carried across the grounds.
"Haki! It comes from your presence, your will, and your mental strength.
You have to experience it before you can sense your own potential!!
You've already experienced peak Conqueror's Haki from Whitebeard.
Now I'll show you firsthand the pinnacle of Armament Haki and how Observation Haki is used." Before his words had faded, Zephyr vanished.
So fast! Gern's pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively dodged left, but it was already too late.
A plain, straightforward punch struck him square in the abdomen.
Bang! With the sound of bursting air, Gern flew backward like a cannonball and slammed into the training ground's perimeter wall.
Cracks instantly spread across the entire wall, sending rubble flying.
The crowd fell deathly silent.
Gern slid out of the crater in the wall and dropped to one knee, a trickle of blood escaping the corner of his mouth. He raised his head to stare at Zephyr in shock.
That punch had not only struck his physical body-it had directly shattered his elemental form!
"So this is... top-tier Armament Haki?" Gern wiped the blood from his mouth and slowly stood.
"It's nothing like Logot's half-baked version!"
"Do you understand now...?" Zephyr remained where he stood, his fist still extended.
"In the New World, people who can hurt Logia users are everywhere.
Without Haki, you're nothing but a paper tiger."
"And..." Zephyr's lips suddenly curled upward, and he shouted.
"At this level, I can hardly imagine how you managed to fight Whitebeard back then! Gern!!"
"Heh." Faced with Zephyr's roar, Gern smiled. This time, it came from the heart.
He rolled his shoulders, and at the same time, the tremors in the air grew noticeably more violent.
"In that case..." Eight white spheres of vibration particles suddenly formed around Gern.
"You'd better be ready, Teacher Zephyr!!!"
"Heavenquake: Eight Extremes Jade!" The eight spheres shot forward and exploded before Zephyr.
Space-warping shock waves spread like ripples, and the ground instantly collapsed into a web of cracks.
Yet Zephyr crossed his arms, his jet-black Armament Haki like impenetrable armor, and tore straight through the shock waves!
Boom! Waves of air rolled outward and sand billowed up, forcing the watching Marines to retreat.
"As expected of Vice Admiral Zephyr! He can block even those terrifying tremors head-on!"
"Tremor Flash: Glide Rail!" Gern's gaze sharpened, and his figure suddenly blurred.
The air particles beneath his feet instantly compressed into a high-density track, and he shot forward in a straight line like a bullet, approaching the speed of sound!
Almost simultaneously, a white vortex gathered around his left foot, ready to strike.
"Now, let's begin... delivering tremor justice!"
"A good choice. But..." Zephyr barked, his Observation Haki having already predicted the trajectory.
"A straight-line rush into a side kick? You're just as naive as Borsalino!"
As he spoke, Zephyr sidestepped, coated his left fist in Armament Haki, and drove an uppercut straight toward Gern's jaw!
Bang! His fist passed through an afterimage.
At the last possible moment, Gern had activated Tremor Flash, turning elemental in advance to evade the blow before shifting behind Zephyr!
"I'm no idiot either, Teacher Zephyr!!" Gern's fists vibrated at high frequency as he drove punch after punch into Zephyr's back.
"Heavenquake: Star-Shattering Fist!" In an instant, fine cracks spread through the air like glass, every blow powerful enough to pulverize steel!
"You've only been developing it for a year, yet you've gotten this good at using it!" Without even turning his head, Zephyr lashed backward with an elbow, his Armament Haki crashing into the vibration energy.
Crack-boom!!! The instant the two forces collided, a spherical shock wave burst outward, and the training ground collapsed with a thunderous crash!
Onigumo had to draw his sword and drive it into the ground to steady himself, while Momonga stared wide-eyed. "Even the terrain...!"
"You've got some skill after all!" Amid the dust, Zephyr slid back half a step and tore off his shredded sleeves, then immediately looked skyward.
Above the training ground, Gern, who had been thrown upward by the recoil, flipped in midair and swung both hands fiercely. "Heavenquake: Thousand Light Wheels!"
Hundreds of tiny white wheels of light poured down like a torrential rain. Zephyr shook out his arms, coated his entire body in Armament Haki, and took them head-on with his flesh!
The instant the light wheels struck, high-frequency vibration waves rampaged wildly, pulverizing the ground layer by layer. Yet Zephyr remained as immovable as a reef, with only a deep crater sinking beneath his feet!
"In that case!" Gern kicked off the air repeatedly, climbing high into the sky, then spread his arms wide. In an instant, countless vibration particles gathered frantically across the heavens.
"Heaven's Cry: Tremor Starfall!" Countless compressed tremor spheres the size of basketballs plummeted like meteors, blanketing the entire battlefield!
"Get back!!" Garp warned sharply, and the watching Marines scrambled to retreat.
The next instant, boom, boom, boom, boom!!!
Relentless tremor blasts turned the training ground into a seething furnace. Shock waves mingled with piercing noise and tore through the area, shattering every window in the distant school buildings!
"Frozen Capsule!" Kuzan raised his hand and froze all the flying rubble around them.
"Does a Devil Fruit power like this really exist...?" Dragon watched in shock as the space across the training ground kept shattering under the tremors, his lips slightly parted as he murmured.
"This is far more terrifying than Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
It's practically... a 'calamity' that can destroy the world at will without any side effects!"
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