Gern's expression did not change in the slightest when he heard Blackbeard's roar, laden with fury and resentment.
He did not even raise an eyebrow, merely tilting his head slightly.
In a flat tone that sounded almost like he was talking to himself, he repeated those words.
"Four Emperors?"
The instant the words left his lips-
Bzzzz!!!
An abyss-heavy surge of dark purple, condensed to the utmost limit, erupted silently yet violently from Gern!
It was not a spreading shock wave, but a highly concentrated, precisely targeted strike!
Gern's left hand settled quite naturally on the hilt of the Black Blade: Eight Desolations hanging at his right hip, his five fingers curling tightly around it.
It was a small motion. He did not even draw the blade, merely giving the hilt a light squeeze.
Yet the instant his fingers touched the hilt, dark purple Conqueror's Haki roared out from within Eight Desolations!
It did not spread in a sphere as usual, did not attempt to overwhelm everyone present, and did not trigger any changes in the sky!
The Haki instantly gathered and compressed in midair, becoming a bolt of lightning only as thick as an arm, yet as solid as purple crystal!
Ignoring air and distance, it shot straight toward Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, and coiled precisely around him!
Crackle, crackle, crackle!!!
It was not a physical electric shock, but utter crushing force and interference with the rules at the level of soul and will!
Blackbeard's entire body convulsed!
He felt as though an invisible mountain had slammed down on his head!
It was not merely the weight bearing down on his body. Far more terrifying was what happened to the two Devil Fruit powers within him, the powers he relied on to run rampant across the seas-
The gravity