Creed's Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor-Tremor Fruit) power erupted in an instant, smashing straight into the air door Bruno had been about to open.
For that one moment, it became a pure head-on clash between Creed's tremors and Bruno's doors.
Bruno had never imagined that within the ROOM, Creed's speed could actually outstrip the opening speed of his air gates. Faced with that ferocious vibration, he couldn't even let out a proper scream before he was blasted backward, blood spraying from all seven apertures as his body slammed into the wall of that pocket-space.
He lay there, half-dead.
His path had diverged greatly from the original history. With a stroke of fortune, he had risen from CP9, become an SSS-level powerhouse, and pushed the Doa Doa no Mi (Door-Door Fruit) to a terrifying level of development.
But his misfortune… was deciding to intervene in a battle of this tier at all.
Forget Creed—
Even a few stray strands of Shi's sword intent were enough to wipe him out.
If not for the air door taking most of the brunt and dispersing Creed's shockwave, Bruno's body would have been crushed completely by that irresistible tremor, not merely reduced to a bleeding wreck.
"Damn…"
With Bruno on the verge of death, there was no way Shi dared stay in the pocket dimension behind the air door.
He had only one choice left—go all in.
His sword intent surged like a raging tide as he forced the door open, locking onto Creed outside.
"Gara…"
But the space outside was no longer ordinary space. It had already been warped by Creed's tremors, streaked with jagged cracks of darkness.
Visually, Shi was only a dozen meters away from Creed, but in reality, it was impossible to cross that fractured distance in an instant.
Worse, Creed was actively controlling those cracks, scattering them like a vast black net that was now closing in, ready to "net" Shi out of the door and slice him apart.
For a second, Shi had the illusion that he'd spun a cocoon only to trap himself.
Creed's powers were too bizarre, too terrifying.
Used in such rapid succession and in such perfect combinations, they weren't just difficult for Shi alone to counter—
Even if you added Aegis on top of it, the outcome would still be hard to predict…
"Raaah!"
Shi roared, forcing his Shokumetsu Ken'i (Eroding Sword Intent) to its peak, trying to stall for time. As long as he held out, Aegis would arrive and lend him a hand!
"Futile struggling."
Creed's eyes turned cold. He was just about to tighten the net and carve Shi into countless fragments when—
Shi's aura suddenly twisted.
Countless waves of dark-gray sword energy burst out from his body, sweeping across the space. Under their wash, the black cracks of space suddenly turned dark gray one after another, and Creed's control over them was forcibly severed.
Shometsu no Mi: Ken Tou Hachihou (Eroding Fruit: Sword Sweeping Eight Directions)!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The now-uncontrolled space fissures slammed into each other, triggering a chain of explosive collisions that shook the area.
"A Paramecia-type assimilation effect…?"
Creed understood instantly—he had finally forced out Shi's true trump card.
There was no doubt: Shi had deeply awakened his Devil Fruit as well.
That eroding power could actually corrupt and infect even space cracks themselves.
Not just space, either. From the way he had erased Creed's Sharp Gold Sword Intent earlier, it was obvious: even sword intent could not escape.
That Sharp Gold Sword Intent, amplified by killing intent, had already reached very close to SSSS-level. Even so, it still couldn't withstand this Eroding power.
A Paramecia-type after awakening, wielding assimilation... plus the supreme great blade Tenshiken (Heaven-Eroding Sword).
Even with Shi's SSSS-level Shokumetsu Ken'i (Eroding Sword Intent) in his own hand, Creed was still being pushed to a disadvantage.
After all, Creed didn't possess the Shometsu no Mi itself, nor the Tenshiken.
For a moment, Creed actually considered using that Devil Fruit Ability Extraction Card and ripping the Shometsu no Mi's power straight out of Shi.
But then a flash of inspiration lit up in his mind, pointing him toward the real counter.
He'd already used Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push) once before, blasting Shi and his sword intent away and clearing the field.
Formless, shapeless, without substance—
Repulsive force was the natural enemy of any ability that needed to "contaminate" tangible things.
"Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)."
Creed raised one hand, Rinnegan gleaming violet as it locked onto Shi.
"Boom!"
As expected, the condensed, overwhelming repulsive force shattered the incoming waves of gray sword intent and flung Shi away in the same breath.
"Gah!"
Shi couldn't help but spit a mouthful of blood. His injuries were severe.
Paramecia users didn't have Logia-style elementalization.
He had taken the full brunt of Creed's blow.
Creed, however, didn't chase him.
His attention was on Aegis.
Aegis was stronger than Shi. Creed didn't dare let down his guard for a moment.
What Aegis was doing right now, though, left him a little puzzled.
Down below, Aegis stood with one hand resting on the head of the half-dead Bruno, as if he were gripping him.
Under that hand, Bruno's body shriveled rapidly. If not for the iconic bull horns on his head, Creed might not have recognized him at all.
Just moments ago, Bruno had still been a heavily built man. Now his frame looked like it was turning to skin and bones.
Creed had no idea what Aegis had taken from him to reduce him to this state.
"Mm…?"
A heartbeat later, Creed's pupils contracted.
Because on Aegis's attribute panel, under the Devil Fruit section, a new line had appeared: Doa Doa no Mi (Door-Door Fruit).
"The Devour-Devour Fruit… just like the Baku Baku no Mi (Munch-Munch Fruit), it can devour abilities too?!"
Even Creed was shaken.
In the original story, Wapol had an especially frightening move in a certain movie setting—by eating Devil Fruit users, he could transfer their powers onto himself and wield their original abilities.
Wapol had to literally eat the ability user.
Aegis, on the other hand, seemed to only need to lay a hand on someone to complete the process with ease.
No doubt about it—the Devour-Devour Fruit was absolutely a superior version of the Baku Baku no Mi (Munch-Munch Fruit).
"But what does he want the Door-Door Fruit for…?!"
The answer hit Creed in the next instant.
Sure enough—
Aegis dropped the now-skeletal Bruno and spread his arms wide, shouting as he did so.
With his roar, the sound of countless doors opening and closing echoed across the sky.
All around them, air doors flickered into view, appearing everywhere like transparent glass gateways hanging in the air.
Aegis's control of the Doa Doa no Mi (Door-Door Fruit) was far beyond Bruno's—
He had unleashed so many air doors in an instant that they practically filled the world.
With the ability to shuttle through all these doors, Creed's teleportation advantage inside the ROOM was no longer nearly as absolute.
"Boom!"
Creed's vigilance spiked, and right on cue, Aegis burst out from a nearby door, driving a punch straight at Creed's head.
"Bang!"
Creed pressed one palm forward—another small-scale Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push).
Used defensively, Shinra Tensei was second to none.
That irresistible repulsive force could deflect any attack that had form and substance.
"Rooaar!"
Aegis suddenly roared, and Ryuu no I (Dragon's Might) surged out like a tidal wave, shaking at Creed's mind and spirit.
A mental attack?
"You want to play mind assaults with me? You're swinging a big blade in front of a shrine."
Creed actually laughed.
Rinnegan spun in his right eye as he unleashed Shizen Ittou (Supreme Good One Sword), this time layered with his SSSS–rank Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) and lethal intent.
"Chiiing!"
A piercing sword cry echoed.
The mental edge of his blade ripped through the dragon's roar, and as payback in kind, nearly sent Aegis tumbling unconscious on the spot, vision going black at the edges.
"Vmm!"
Creed wasn't about to let such an opening slip by.
He stepped in and drove a fist forward, Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor-Tremor Fruit) power detonating once more.
"Gara gara gara!"
Blue-white cracks of air exploded outward, and Aegis let out a muffled grunt of pain—
But his whole body was already covered in a layer of pitch-black dragon scales.
Ryuu Ki Kasen (Dragon Aura Scale Transformation).
Even Creed's thunderous, earth-shattering punch had failed to seriously wound him.
(End of Chapter)
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