Gern's words not only laid bare the Golden Lion's ambition, buried for twenty years,
but also struck like a sledgehammer against his already fractured pride.
His body, supported by the two swords serving as prosthetic legs, staggered under the immense emotional shock.
With a thud, the Golden Lion crashed back onto the deck in an undignified heap.
He tilted his head back, staring at Gern, who stood before him wreathed in dark purple lightning from his Conqueror's Haki.
The last rays of the setting sun edged Gern's silhouette in gold, lending him an air of invincible strength and...
an overwhelming charisma that compelled submission, as though he sought to hold everything in his grasp.
This man... this charisma...
Unbidden, a scene from many years ago surfaced in the Golden Lion's mind: the moment he had confidently invited Roger to join forces.
If... if I'd possessed the charisma Gern has now, enough to shake people to their core and make them instinctively want to follow his ambition...
Would that bastard Roger... have agreed?
"The world..."
The word echoed through his heart like a spell.
That entity that had truly defeated Rocks at God Valley, shattering his first genuine desire to submit to another man...
That colossal force symbolizing the highest authority in the world...
And now, faced with a man younger than Rocks, with greater potential and greater boldness...
Could he... really do it? The Golden Lion sneered inwardly.
It was as though a red-hot branding iron had been plunged into the blood that had lain cold for twenty years. An indescribable impulse nearly burst through the levees of his reason!
For an instant, he almost blurted out, "Yes!"
But just as that answer was about to escape his throat, his gaze involuntarily dropped.
He saw his empty trouser legs and