Kings never meet!!

"I never thought you'd still be this tough, Zephyr!" Golden Lion's laughter abruptly died amid the smoke.

He shook his two famous swords, suddenly reined in his killing intent, and sheathed both blades with a clang.

"Forget it. Let's call it a day." Golden Lion casually brushed the dust off his cloak, as though the fierce battle had been nothing more than a game.

"Shiki." Zephyr's fists remained clenched, but his taut shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly.

He knew better than anyone that, as he was now, he had no guarantee of defeating Golden Lion head-on.

"Teacher Zephyr..." Gern tried to step forward, but a look from Zephyr stopped him.

Golden Lion keenly caught that subtle gesture. His golden brows rose, and he suddenly burst out laughing.

"Jihahahaha!" Golden Lion floated into the air, his long golden hair blazing like fire beneath the setting sun.

He rose overhead and looked down at Gern, his eyes gleaming with the malice of a cat toying with a mouse. "Brat, where's that courage you had earlier?"

The sea breeze carried the stench of blood into Gern's nostrils. Every word Golden Lion spoke next burrowed into his ears like a venomous snake.

"Gern? Heh, I thought you were an interesting fellow." Golden Lion made no attempt to conceal the contempt in his voice.

"I didn't come here for that captured piece of trash. I came because I heard you'd fought Newgate. That was what interested me.

But now, aside from that unexpected punch, you aren't even worth taking seriously.

No, no!! A brat who doesn't even have Conqueror's Haki, worthy of fighting Whitebeard? What a joke!

Newgate must've been kind enough to spare your life! Just like I'm doing now! Hahaha!!"

At that laughter, dripping with humiliation and mockery, Gern's fists abruptly clenched, his knuckles whitening with the force.

Every word from Golden Lion stabbed into his heart like a knife.

Those humiliating words echoed endlessly in his mind...

Sakazuki's magma fist suddenly flared, but Zephyr stretched out an arm to stop him.

A cold glint reflected off Zephyr's sunglasses as he shook his head almost imperceptibly.

Then Zephyr glanced at Gern, his brows tightly furrowed.

After three years together, he knew his student all too well...

Gern seemed calm and composed, but deep down, he was defiant and fiercely competitive.

Whether facing Whitebeard three years ago or sparring with Zephyr on the training grounds, he had never yielded so much as half a step.

And now, faced with Golden Lion's humiliation...

"What, can't accept it?" Seeing Gern remain silent, Golden Lion laughed even more wildly and swooped down until he was ten meters in front of him.

Then he raised a finger and wagged it flippantly. "Remember, next time you see my flag..."

Before he finished, a piece of rubble shot past Gern's cheek.

"Crawl out of the way like a dog!!!"

Those words struck Gern's dignity like a crushing hammer.

"Zephyr, teach your student properly. The weak should know their place!"

Golden Lion watched the scene with satisfaction, then turned and stepped into the sky, his wild laughter accompanied by the lingering force of his Conqueror's Haki.

It was suppression. Intimidation! And a provocation from the strong to the weak.

The sea breeze seemed to freeze beside Gern's ears. Golden Lion's wild laughter and the lingering pressure of his Conqueror's Haki clung to Gern like rust.

The bloody scratch the rubble had left on his cheek burned fiercely, but it was nothing compared to the agonizing humiliation churning in his chest.

Crawl out of the way like a dog. The instant those words exploded in his mind, countless fragments of memory flooded his brain like shards of broken glass.

Transmigrating into the slums of the West Blue, curling up in the corner of a putrid alley and swallowing moldy bread.

Believing his system would awaken, only to finally accept his fate and join the Marines as a menial laborer for a slim chance at survival.

Himself sucking up to the Training Officer like some nobody on the West Blue Branch's recruit training grounds... himself desperately saving money in an attempt to change his fate...

In the end, every image froze into those mocking golden eyes looking down at him.

I could've just kept quiet, like when I was a recruit in the West Blue. Gern's knuckles creaked under the strain, his nails already embedded in his palms.

That was exactly what he had done when he first joined the Marines-bow his head, stay silent, survive.

Cling to life like a rat in a gutter, scraps clutched between its teeth.

I don't have a system... I only have one life...

But if even the person I am now can have his spine broken on a whim...

Golden Lion's cloak snapped in the sunset. That streak of gold in the sky stabbed painfully at Gern's eyes.

*Then what were all these years of careful planning for?!

What was the life I risked fighting Whitebeard for?! All that relentless tempering, day and night... what was it all for?!*

His blood began to boil, an unfamiliar roar pounding against his eardrums.

Something was tearing its way out from deep within his marrow, like a trapped beast gnawing at its cage.

Golden Lion had already risen into the air, contempt written all over his retreating figure.

But Gern, holding the Black Blade: Eight Desolations, suddenly smiled.

He slowly raised his head, the bloodstained corners of his mouth twisting into a savage grin.

Sakazuki's magma, Zephyr's arm, Gern's own trembling knees...

Every sound in the world faded at that moment, leaving only the thunder of his heart hammering against his chest.

I reject- The air suddenly froze.

"Hmm?!" Golden Lion's laughter abruptly stopped as he prepared to leave.

He whipped his head around and saw the young man he had called an "ant" standing perfectly straight, crimson light bursting from the depths of his pitch-black eyes.

In my mind, you're nothing but a fictional character. Before I transmigrated, I could flip through your entire life with a flick of my hand.

What gives someone like you the right?

"I reject your rules!"

"Now that I'm here, I'm the protagonist of this world! I should be the one making every rule!!!"

The instant Gern roared, the air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Then, with Gern at its center, violent Conqueror's Haki swept outward like a tsunami!

The earth cracked inch by inch, rubble floated into the air, and a rift was forcibly torn through the dark clouds overhead!

Zephyr and Sakazuki both stepped back, shock flashing in their eyes.

The shock wave shredded Golden Lion's cloak, while Zephyr's sunglasses cracked with a snap, spiderweb fractures spreading across the lenses.

Conqueror's Haki!

It was neither a gift of bloodline nor the blessing of talent, but a raging fire reborn from the ashes of a soul after its dignity had been ground to dust.

"Kings never meet?" Gern took a step forward, the ground beneath his feet crumbling inch by inch.

He stared into Golden Lion's abruptly constricting pupils, letting the torrent of his Conqueror's Haki crash head-on into his opponent's.

"Then let's see..." Gern's pupils contracted sharply, his black hair whipping wildly under the impact of his Haki.

"Which one of us should be kneeling!!"

As his words fell, pale vibration particles and black-and-red lightning from his Conqueror's Haki coiled around Gern.

At the same time, the Black Blade: Eight Desolations suddenly began to tremble violently. Dark red patterns emerged vividly across its pitch-black blade, as though some power had awakened it!

Bzzzt! Black-and-red lightning coiled around the pitch-black edge, resonating with Gern's Conqueror's Haki!

Gern gripped Eight Desolations' hilt, and the blade instantly erupted with dazzling black-and-red light.

The vibration particles fused perfectly with his Conqueror's Haki, forming an unprecedented power!

Gern looked up at the sky, his gaze as sharp as a blade.

-Boom!

A bolt of lightning struck, illuminating his stern face.

Conqueror's awakening, the Black Blade's resonance!

That... ignorant monster Rocks had spoken of awakened at this very moment!