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"Then come! Let me witness your true power!"
Shanks' eyes were blazing, and a tsunami of Haki burst from his body, violently shaking the very air around him. The white clouds above the turbulent sea scattered instantly, as if blasted away by an unseen force.
The atmosphere grew thick, heavy with an oppressive pressure that made every breath a struggle.
Facing off against the enigmatic King, the red-haired Emperor released a raw, intense dominance that hammered at the hearts of everyone watching.
Look, so long as the world endures, its struggles will never cease! Even when buried under impossible pressure, there will always be someone who stands up! No matter their wealth or poverty, their strength or their weakness!
"I admire your courage," Qin Yi said, his voice calm and majestic as he looked down upon the Yonko.
Behind him, ten massive tails shot skyward, stiff as iron spears.
Then, a low, violent hum filled the air.
The tips of the ten tails curled inward to form a perfect circle, their frantic vibration focusing on a single point. In the next instant, wisps of faint black energy began to coalesce, rapidly spinning and gathering into a small, pitch-black dot.
Pop!
Faster than a blink, a spherical mass of pure, terrifying energy emerged, about the size of a basketball. It pulsed once, then swelled dramatically, groaning as it expanded to a diameter of twenty meters. But it didn't stop. Within a single, drawn-out breath, it exploded in size again, reaching fifty meters.
"If you can take this attack," Qin Yi's deep voice echoed over the sea, "I'll let you go."
As his words fell, the energy sphere at the ends of the ten tails ballooned again, its diameter now a staggering hundred meters.
Xiūūūū!
Countless crackling lines of black energy coiled around it, releasing a high-pitched, sizzling sound that made everyone's skin crawl.
On the Red Hair Pirates' ship, the gathered Marines stood frozen on the deck. Every face was grim, their hearts hammering like war drums gripped by an invisible, crushing fear.
"With that kind of energy condensed… how in the hell are we supposed to defend against it?"
A Vice-Admiral swallowed a mouthful of air, his voice a ragged whisper.
This was an attack capable of eradicating an entire section of the ocean. Failure to stop it meant they would all be reduced to motes of ash in an instant.
In another flash of dreadful understanding, they realized the energy sphere above King Qin had expanded again, now a monstrous three hundred meters across. It hung in the sky like a dead, black sun, radiating a sinister, shadowy light.
"That guy… how can he possibly be this powerful!"
The Marines couldn't process it. With such terrifying, world-shattering strength, could even the man known as the world's strongest possibly stand a chance?
Today, the Marines had suffered a crippling defeat. If this enemy seized control of the Grand Line, who in the entire world could possibly stop his unstoppable advance?
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
At that moment, the Truth-Seeking Orb (Gudōdama) hovering above Qin Yi's head trembled violently, its energy oscillations reaching a fever pitch.
"Whizz!"
In the next second, all ten tails violently lashed out, hurling the massive sphere skyward.
"Whoosh!"
A ferocious gale erupted. Tornadoes spun wildly around the Orb, which, now a colossal three hundred meters across, began to spin rapidly as it soared to its apex, briefly blotting out the sun. It arced through the sky, then suddenly plunged straight down toward the sea.
In an instant, its immense surface slammed into the ocean.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion shook the world. Hundreds of meters of seawater were blasted into the heavens, while surrounding cyclones dragged even more water into the Orb's orbit, coating its surface and expanding it once again, to a terrifying diameter of five hundred meters, its outer layer now shimmering with a faint, destructive blue light.
After violently churning the sea, the Truth-Seeking Orb paused, then aimed directly at the Red-Haired Pirates' ship and charged forward like a meteorite skipping across the waves.
"CRACK!"
The air itself split apart, crackling with arcs of black lightning that wrapped around the sphere's surface. The sound alone was enough to shatter the will.
"It's coming!"
Shanks' pupils narrowed to slits. The arm holding his signature sword straightened like tempered steel, raw power surging through his muscles. His Armament Haki (Busoshoku Haki) erupted from his body, forming a shadowy armor in preparation for the suicidal clash.
"Everyone, by myself, I won't be able to stop this."
"I'll need your help!"
Staring at the inbound Truth-Seeking Orb tearing through the sea with terrifying speed, Shanks' expression grew utterly solemn. The water was being cleaved apart, leaving a vast, smoking trench in its wake.
"Take action!"
Sengoku stepped forward without a second's hesitation, his deep voice slicing through the chaos.
At his shout, Garp, the three Admirals, the Sea Knight Jinbe, Hawkeye Mihawk, and a host of elite Vice-Admirals all readied their ultimate techniques in unison.
"If we can't block it," Shanks said with a faint, defiant smile, glancing back at the countless determined faces, "then it looks like we'll all be facing life and death together today."
Pirates and Marines, fighting side by side. Perhaps this was the first time in history such a desperate alliance had ever occurred. Sengoku opened his mouth to speak, but finally just closed it. The Marines' devastating losses that day had left his mind in turmoil; he had no heart left for formalities.
"Shanks, boy," Garp said in a low, rumbling voice, his usual grin replaced by grim resolve, "We will survive this."
Shanks froze for a fraction of a second, then turned his full gaze back to the oncoming sphere of pure energy, now less than a hundred meters away. He nodded firmly.
"Get ready."
At those two words, the sea erupted. Wind howled, waves surged, every face twisted with determination and strain.
Every single person there unleashed their full, terrifying strength. They had no other option.
"Here it comes!!"
Shanks roared, his crimson hair whipping wildly in the self-made storm. The air currents around him were so violent his sleeves were ripped to shreds.
The pressure he faced in that instant was unimaginably immense.
"Aaaaah!!"
With a thunderous, defiant shout, Shanks swung his great sword, channeling the entirety of his being into the strike. Around him, Marines and members of the Red-Haired Pirates shouted as one, launching a fused wave of power toward the massive energy sphere.
The sheer, combined force radiating from them was breathtaking.
"BOOM!"
In an instant, the gigantic, swirling sphere, now cloaked in seawater, collided with their unified strike.
"Ice Age!"
Aokiji's voice rang out.
The surging waves around the sphere froze solid in an instant. But the very next moment, under the immense shockwave unleashed by Sengoku, the frozen mass shattered, revealing the pitch-black core of destructive energy within.
"Hss!"
At such close range, they could clearly see the black lightning flickering across its surface, the violent, pulsing heart of pure devastation. Everyone drew in a sharp, cold breath.
It was too wild, too powerful.
If that monstrous thing exploded above their heads, nothing would remain.
"Iron Fist!"
"Great Eruption!"
"Yasakani no Tomoe!"
Everyone unleashed their ultimate techniques at once, pouring every ounce of power they possessed into holding back the enormous sphere.
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
The very air screamed, violently trembling. The clash reached a terrifying deadlock, the pressure so great that space itself seemed to visibly quake.
Yet the force driving the Truth-Seeking Orb was too overwhelming. The Red-Haired Pirates' ship groaned and cracked under the indirect impact, then, in the very moment of contact, was hurled backward with explosive force.
In just three seconds, the ship had been blasted across a full kilometer of open sea, and with another blink, it was flung farther and farther away, leaving the combatants suspended between life and oblivion.
High above, Qin Yi watched calmly.
He smiled faintly, lowering his gaze. No longer paying attention to the aftermath of his attack, he landed softly on the flagship and spoke in a low, confident tone:
"Clean up the battlefield. Occupy the remaining territory."
There was no doubt, this war was over.
The first half of the Grand Line would no longer have a place for the Marines to exist.
(End of Chapter)