"Is that so?"
Faced with Gern's almost godlike proclamation, the shock on Whitebeard's face vanished in an instant.
In its place, a wild grin spread across his lips, making his crescent-shaped mustache tremble.
"Back then, Roger must have shown you how to deal with that troublesome ability of yours, too?"
Before his words had faded, a vast power, pure to the utmost and born of his own will and spirit, erupted from within Whitebeard!
"Haki!!! Stands above everything!!!"
BOOM!!!
His dark red Conqueror's Haki was no longer merely a coating. It took tangible form, becoming a lightning-wreathed pillar of energy that shot into the sky!
Driven purely by will, this power carried an absolute pride that crushed all falsehoods and trampled every rule as it slammed into the domain of laws Gern had constructed through his Devil Fruit Awakening!
Crack... hummmmm-
The domain of pale fissures enveloping their surroundings groaned beneath the overwhelming impact of this supreme Conqueror's Haki!
The "vibration stripping" effect acting on Whitebeard shattered instantly.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit power within him, whose connection had been severed, once again felt that familiar, surging strength!
With absolute Haki, Whitebeard had forcibly exempted himself from the awakened laws of Gern's Tremor-Tremor Fruit!
It also proved that, in the pirate world, no single ability could ever be invincible. Only the union of all three was the true path to supremacy!
With his Conqueror's Haki erupting, Whitebeard stepped forward, his blazing gaze fixed on Gern, and spoke the ironclad rule tacitly understood by the greatest powers on this sea.
"At the same time, let me tell you another fact you need to know..."
"In a battle between kings, neither can kill the other!!!"
"The only ones who can defeat a king..."
"Are two kings!!!"
"Or... someone beyond a king!!"
With that final