"Since that's the case…"
"I'll just have to keep all of you here."
The instant his words fell, a sharp crack echoed.
Zephyr's body exploded into motion, transforming into a streak of dark red lightning as he charged straight at Shamrock Saint.
He was so fast that a visible ring of white air pressure burst outward where he had stood.
After absorbing the blood of the Cerberus, Zephyr's fist had taken on a sinister dark crimson hue.
"Hmph. A former Marine admiral who has already stepped off the front lines, and you dare be this arrogant?!"
Shamrock Saint roared. As the vice commander of the God's Knights, his sense of superiority made it impossible for him to tolerate provocation from someone he considered a lesser being.
Facing Zephyr's punch, he did not retreat.
After all, he possessed an immortal body.
Boom!
The two fists collided violently in midair.
A circular shockwave erupted from their point of impact, sweeping outward as the entire warship shuddered.
"Damn it…"
Shamrock Saint felt an overwhelming force surge through his knuckles. It was brutal, pure, and filled with an intent to destroy.
His own power collapsed the instant it made contact.
Crack.
The sound of shattering bone rang out clearly.
Shamrock Saint's entire arm was blown apart, flesh and bone fragments flying in all directions.
He was sent flying backward, his feet carving two deep furrows across the deck before he barely managed to stop himself.
"You…"
He lifted his head and stared at Zephyr. "You ate a Devil Fruit?!"
The flesh on his right shoulder began to writhe and regenerate at a visible speed, restoring itself in moments.
But he had already noticed something far more terrifying.
Zephyr's presence was not weakening after his relentless assault.
It was growing stronger. More frightening by the second.
That vitality was surging higher and higher.
This was nothing like the "Black Arm" Zephyr described in the intelligence reports, the broken man riddled with illness and stripped of conviction.
There was only one explanation.
He had consumed the sea's forbidden treasure. A Devil Fruit.
Zephyr bared his teeth in a mocking grin. "Brat."
"I was once called the Marine admiral who never killed," he said. "That was because I believed that even the most unforgivable criminals still had a chance to change."
His voice dropped, hoarse and heavy with regret.
"But now I understand something."
"Whether it's vicious pirates or trash like you who claim to be gods, refusing to kill…"
"…is the greatest sin against this world."
Zephyr stepped forward. The deck beneath his foot exploded apart.
"Today, I'll show you, you pampered little brat…"
"What the Black Arm's true killing strike looks like."
Shamrock Saint's Observation Haki screamed in his mind. Every cell in his body was shouting the same warning.
Run.
He wanted to dodge, but his body, reeling from the earlier blow, could not keep up with his thoughts.
He could only watch helplessly as that dark red iron fist rapidly expanded in his vision.
Boom!
Zephyr's punch pierced straight through Shamrock Saint's chest.
The crimson fist emerged from his back, spotless and unstained.
All the blood and life force had been drained away in the instant of impact.
"Ugh…"
Shamrock Saint looked down at the gaping hole in his chest, his face filled with disbelief.
Weren't they supposed to say Zephyr had lost his conviction?
Weren't they supposed to say he was terminally ill?
Weren't they supposed to say he was finished?
Who gave them this garbage intelligence?
"Hah!"
Zephyr threw his head back and let out a long, satisfied shout as the massive surge of life force flooded into his body.
With a sharp flick of his arm, he hurled Shamrock Saint's withered, desiccated body away. It slammed heavily onto the deck.
Zephyr stood there silently, watching.
Something strange happened.
The corpse that should have been dead began to heal in a way that defied all reason. The hole in its chest closed, and color slowly returned to its pale skin.
A few seconds later, Shamrock Saint suddenly sat upright, gasping for air. His face looked noticeably duller than before.
"First it was your arm," Zephyr said as he walked toward him, each step making Shamrock Saint's heart pound violently. "Now it was your heart."
"An immortal body?"
Zephyr's grin widened, revealing two long, sharp fangs.
"Kid, this is really…"
"…absolutely perfect."
...
Somers Saint and Chillingham Saint, who were struggling against the crushing pressure of Sengoku and Garp's Conqueror's Haki, suddenly felt the weight lift.
The mountain-like oppression vanished.
"What happened?" Chillingham Saint clutched his chest and gasped. "Did those two old men give up?"
Somers Saint wiped the cold sweat from his brow. Relief flashed through his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by confusion.
Retreating without a fight, bearing the name of legends from the old Marine era?
That made no sense.
He snapped his head up and looked toward the harbor.
Two figures shot straight into the sky.
Garp and Sengoku soared upward like arrows.
They had not given up.
They had chosen a different, far more decisive method of attack.
Boom!
High above, Sengoku's body expanded dramatically. Blinding golden light tore through the clouds as a towering golden Buddha manifested in the sky.
He pressed his palms together. Between them, golden shockwave energy gathered wildly, condensing into a radiant golden sun that seemed to illuminate everything.
Above the Buddha's head, Garp had already become a tiny black dot.
His fists were clenched tight, dark Haki spreading like ink and dyeing his arms pitch black.
Looking down at the white warship that seemed impossibly small beneath the golden light, Garp's face was split by an unrestrained, ferocious grin.
"Let those self-important brats see for themselves!"
"What the Marines' fist of justice really is!"
The golden Buddha spoke with a thunderous voice, like a decree from the heavens.
"Exactly my thought."
"Combined Technique: Heavenly Buddha Falling Star!"