Meanwhile, aboard the little sailboat on the sea, Gern slowly reeled in the Conqueror's Haki he had unleashed to its fullest.
"Strange. Did he go somewhere else again?
Even if he's old, someone at his level shouldn't have lost his ability to sense Haki, should he?"
Gern smacked his lips without thinking, watching the sky for any sign of movement.
Then, in the very next instant, he acted with practically no windup!
He raised both hands toward the cloudless sky overhead, curling them slightly and drawing them together.
"Buzz, crack!!!"
Countless pale Vibration Particles trembling at high frequency sprang into existence, then surged madly toward the space between his palms.
In an instant, they condensed into a massive, wildly unstable ball of energy that bulged, swelled, and contracted violently!
The space around the sphere began to warp and blur, letting out tearing sounds.
The terrifying energy fluctuations made even the little boat below creak!
Then, just as Gern was about to launch this highly compressed mass, containing enough power to shatter this entire stretch of sky,
this unstable "Star of Calamity", into the heavens...
"Hey, you bastard!!" A voice tinged with a sneer and anger rang out from high behind Gern.
"Are you trying to shatter the whole sky?! Gern!!!"
Hearing that voice, Gern showed no surprise whatsoever. Instead, a faint smile crossed his face, as if to say, There you are.
Then, with a mere thought, the extremely dangerous energy sphere between his palms, just moments from going out of control, vanished with a soft pop.
Gern slowly turned around and looked up toward the source of the voice.
There, hovering in midair behind the sailboat, was Golden Lion Shiki.
His long golden hair and mane whipped wildly in the air currents, his eyes fixed on Gern.
Anger, apprehension,