"What a dangerous ability," Rosinante said.
Even he frowned slightly as he looked at that blood-red poison.
So...
Was Magellan finally using that move?
The strongest technique of Impel Down's Warden, Magellan—
Venom Demon.
This crimson poison was far more terrifying than the purple venom from before.
Those purple toxins had been neurotoxins.
They were extremely lethal, yes... but they wouldn't kill instantly.
This blood-red venom, however, was completely different.
It possessed the power to corrode everything.
Any living thing—
Any object—
The moment it touched this poison, it would be rapidly eaten away.
If a person so much as brushed against it, the venom would immediately invade the body.
And death would come in the blink of an eye.
For most people, this was an absolutely nightmarish ability to deal with.
Even Rosinante, facing a poison like this, would find it troublesome if he didn't use the power of annihilation.
The blood-red venom continued pouring from Magellan's body.
More and more.
Soon, it became streams.
The crimson poison spread everywhere, staining everything it touched a sinister red.
"Venom Demon!" Magellan roared.
The blood-red poison that had been spreading outward suddenly began rushing back.
It surged around Magellan, lifting him up and engulfing him completely.
But that wasn't all.
The crimson venom kept rising higher and higher.
In the end, it formed a gigantic humanoid giant made entirely of blood-red poison.
Its face was a skull.
A true demon of poison.
Rosinante smiled faintly.
"Looks like I'll have to use something a little more serious too."
As he spoke, he raised a hand and clenched it.
A violet flame-like energy burst from his palm.
Those purple flames compressed, condensed, and finally took shape—
A long blade.
"A weapon like this should be enough."
Rosinante looked at the blade in his hand and murmured:
"Blade of Annihilation."
"Accept judgment from hell!" Magellan shouted.
His figure emerged from within the Venom Demon, and he swung his arm toward Rosinante.
Behind him, the giant poisonous demon mirrored the motion and slammed its massive hand down toward Rosinante.
Rosinante looked up at the descending palm.
Then he spoke only one word.
"Extinction."
And with that—
He lightly swung the Blade of Annihilation.
There was no wind.
No shockwave.
No twisted air.
No terrifying sound.
No overwhelming visual slash.
Nothing.
It was just a light, ordinary, almost casual swing.
Soft.
Simple.
As if he were idly waving a toy.
And yet—
The giant poisonous hand slamming toward him...
Along with nearly half of the Venom Demon's entire body...
Vanished.
Silently.
Without a trace.
As if some invisible, supreme force had simply erased it from existence.
"H-How is that possible?!" Magellan's face filled with utter disbelief.
It was a completely unreasonable strike.
There had been no movement worth noticing.
No visible slash.
No sign of any attack.
It looked almost like a joke.
And yet, just like that, half of his Venom Demon had disappeared.
Magellan was genuinely stunned.
He couldn't even understand what had happened.
His Venom Demon was made of poison—
A fluid body.
Even the slash of the world's greatest swordsman could, at most, only cut it into countless pieces.
It should have been impossible to simply make it vanish like this.
And on top of that, this was venom that killed on contact.
That was exactly what made Venom Demon so terrifying.
So overwhelming.
So dreaded.
Magellan had always believed that even if he were facing one of the Four Emperors, he could still fight for quite a while with this technique.
And yet Rosinante had erased half of it in a single strike.
One strike.
To Magellan, this crimson poison was not something he could use casually.
It was a forbidden move.
In his eyes, not even the Four Emperors should have been able to do something like this.
So how had Rosinante done it?
Magellan was full of confusion.
Rosinante's power of annihilation could erase all forms of ability and energy.
But doing so required a great deal of annihilation power.
And more importantly—
That annihilation power had to actually reach the target.
To make that possible, once Rosinante entered the realm of a Great Swordsman, he had a sudden inspiration.
He began comprehending a form of sword intent specifically designed to work together with annihilation.
Then, by using the Blade of Annihilation as the medium, he could launch that sword intent outward and strike the enemy directly.
At its core, annihilation was the will of eternal silence.
And when fused with sword intent...
It could unleash power beyond imagination.
The strike he had just used—
Extinction Slash—
Was a sword intent Rosinante had gradually comprehended through continuous understanding of annihilation.
When paired with the Blade of Annihilation, forged from compressed annihilation power itself, it gave him a terrifying property:
Not merely to cut things...
But to erase them.
To annihilate them with a single slash.
And because it was an attack of sword intent rather than a conventional visible slash...
It was extremely difficult for ordinary people to defend against.
And without life force, Wood Release could no longer regenerate.
"There's nothing impossible about it," Rosinante said calmly.
"Your ability is good. Dangerous, even."
He looked at Magellan like a king passing judgment.
"But I am the Dragon King."
"Dragon King Rosinante."
"Ten years ago, I was already one of this world's emperors."
A terrifying confidence radiated from him.
"And now, ten years later... I no longer have any enemies."
As he spoke, Rosinante casually swung the Blade of Annihilation again.
In that instant—
Blood burst from Magellan's body in multiple sprays.
Invisible sword intent had struck him dozens of times in a single moment.
Magellan's eyes widened in disbelief.
Then he collapsed heavily to the ground.
Poison spilled all around him.
"W-Why..." Magellan coughed painfully from the floor. "Why didn't you kill me?"
His wounds were severe.
Very severe.
But none of them were fatal.
If Rosinante had truly wanted him dead, a single strike would have been enough.
There was no need to leave this many wounds across his body.
Rosinante looked at him indifferently.
"Killing you is easy."
"If I wanted to, I could even go alone to Mary Geoise and wipe out the entire World Government."
He spoke as if he were stating a trivial fact.
"But if the World Government disappears... who's going to manage the civilians of this world?"
His expression became faintly displeased.
"If the whole world falls into chaos, it'll ruin my appetite."
"And building another World Government from scratch..."
He clicked his tongue lightly.
"That sounds troublesome."
A lazy smile appeared on his face again.
"Right now, I only want to enjoy life."
Then his eyes turned cold.
"So remember this."
"Don't make things difficult for me."
"Otherwise..."
A terrifying stillness filled the burning level.
"The world might really turn upside down."
And as he spoke—
Rosinante had already stepped forward and continued walking deeper into Impel Down.