-Broadcast-
The five-against-one melee had entered a white-hot stage of absolute desperation. Both sides deployed their ultimate techniques without reservation, each coalition member utterly convinced they would achieve final victory.
Yet conviction alone couldn't bridge the gap between expectation and reality.
"What monstrous recovery ability!" Silvers Rayleigh's voice carried profound exhaustion despite his best efforts to sound controlled. "This is the nth time I've severed his hand clean from the wrist."
The Dark King's face showed obvious fatigue—sweat streaming down weathered features, breathing becoming labored. Yet mentally he remained tense as steel wire, hyper-aware that a single mistake could prove catastrophic. If Blackbeard caught him even once, the consequences would be absolutely disastrous.
As one of only two genuine great swordsmen among the five-person coalition, Rayleigh served as the team's primary physical attacker. He'd inflicted tremendous damage on Blackbeard Teach's body through precise cutting techniques enhanced by both forms of Haki.
Every strike that connected triggered doubled pain feedback thanks to the Yami Yami no Mi's (Dark-Dark Fruit) inherent weakness. Marshall D. Teach suffered excruciating agony from wounds that would merely inconvenience normal fighters.
However, due to the Awakened Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Daibutsu's (Human-Human Fruit, Great Buddha Model) influence, the black halo manifesting behind Blackbeard continuously provided regenerative healing. The corrupted enlightenment poured vitality into his flesh with disturbing efficiency.
Severed limbs regenerated in mere eyeblinks. Nobody knew how much stored life energy resided within that dark radiance. But the horrifying truth was becoming clear: every intelligent creature killed by Marshall D. Teach throughout his career had their vitality absorbed and stored within the black halo's dimensional storage.
The accumulated life force of hundreds—perhaps thousands—of victims could be continuously injected into its master's body. What Blackbeard feared least was prolonged warfare. Time favored the monster who fed on death itself.
Wonder Woman Diana gripped the Lasso of Truth with both hands, knuckles white from strain. But the power transmitted from the opposite end grew stronger with each passing second. She was rapidly losing the tug-of-war contest.
Diana could barely maintain control. Blackbeard's brute strength combined with the black halo's limitless vitality exceeded any opponent she'd encountered across centuries of combat experience. This constantly evolving monster represented an enemy category she'd never faced before.
"I can't hold on much longer," Diana admitted through gritted teeth, pride warring with tactical honesty. "His physical strength keeps increasing without plateau."
Blackbeard displayed that signature evil smile—gaps in his teeth somehow enhancing rather than diminishing the predatory impression. He grasped the Lasso of Truth with one massive hand, exerting force that should have torn Diana's arms from their sockets.
He wanted to drag this extraordinarily powerful woman directly to his position, to "take good care" of her personally. Such beauty combined with supernatural abilities deserved his full attention.
"Two Hundred Million Volt: Thor!"
Admiral Raizumi Kennen unleashed the absolute limits of the Goro Goro no Mi (Rumble-Rumble Fruit), holding absolutely nothing in reserve. Terrifying electrical current released from his small frame wrapped around his entire body in cascading waves.
The technique rapidly transformed this diminutive Fur Tribe creature into a lightning giant nearly one hundred meters tall—a colossus constructed entirely from crackling electrical discharge.
Admiral Kennen's Thor form materialized with blue auspicious clouds surrounding his luminous frame. He wielded a spear forged from compressed high-voltage lightning, the weapon radiating lethal potential. Through the broadcast camera's perspective, he resembled a heavenly warrior deity—sacred and utterly inviolable.
The Thunder God hurled his lightning spear with devastating force. The projectile pierced straight through Blackbeard's left chest, pinning the Yonko's massive body to the ground like an insect specimen.
After that initial devastating strike, two additional lightning spears manifested in Thor's arms through pure electrical generation. Kennen understood with absolute clarity: he must not grant this enemy even a microsecond of breathing room.
Blackbeard screamed in agony, the sound carrying genuine suffering despite his monstrous endurance. His heart had been destroyed—the vital organ reduced to charred meat by millions of volts coursing through flesh.
Yet even with catastrophic cardiac destruction, the man didn't die.
The Yami Yami no Mi required several agonizing seconds to completely absorb the lightning spears impaling Blackbeard's body. The fact that absorption took measurable time indicated something crucial: the Marine Admiral who'd unleashed this electrical assault had also stepped into Devil Fruit Awakening territory. Otherwise, his attacks couldn't have penetrated Blackbeard Teach's formidable defenses at all.
"Not enough! Not nearly enough!" Blackbeard taunted, his voice wet with blood but carrying undimin
ished arrogance. "You're merely tickling me, Admiral. Is this the best the New Marine can—"
Two lightning spears interrupted his boasting mid-sentence, their velocity exceeding Blackbeard's combat reaction speed. One projectile pierced his right chest symmetrically opposite the first wound. The other penetrated his skull's crown, entering brain matter directly.
Destroying vital organs hadn't killed the monster. But the lightning spear attacking Blackbeard's head achieved what cardiac destruction couldn't. The technique didn't just silence the foul-mouthed Yonko—it completely paralyzed his body's capacity for movement.
The brain trauma proved decisive where heart destruction had merely inconvenienced.
"The optimal opportunity is now!"
Silvers Rayleigh's figure flickered to Blackbeard's immobilized side through Observation Haki-enhanced movement prediction. The blade in his hand traced a perfect arc across the opponent's torso, the cutting technique executed with supreme mastery.
The sword stroke caused catastrophic structural damage—Blackbeard's body "leaking air" from multiple severed points as internal pressure escaped through gaping wounds.
Upper body separated from lower body with surgical precision. The head—still lacking the namesake black beard in this timeline—detached cleanly from the neck. Tremendous volumes of blood sprayed from severed arteries, painting grass crimson. The decapitated head rolled several meters before stopping, lifeless eyes staring at nothing.
Boa Hancock seized the opportunity to deliver a finishing strike. She deployed Perfume Femur again—her signature technique wrapped completely in Conqueror's Haki for maximum devastating impact.
The Empress's heel descended directly onto Teach's severed head with meteor-like force, crushing the skull into pulp. White brain matter mixed with crimson blood splattered across vegetation in grotesque patterns. The red and white mixture represented the most beautiful sight this woman had witnessed all day.
Finally. Finally he's dead.
Phoenix Marco transformed into his full beast form, azure flames wreathing his mythical body as he flew above the Blackbeard massacre site. Opening his beak, Marco released concentrated blue fire directly onto the remains—providing the traitor with a "free cremation package" as final insult.
The Phoenix's blue flames possessed extraordinarily strong adhesion properties. Once even the smallest amount contacted organic matter, extinguishment became virtually impossible. The temperature exceeded even the Mera Mera no Mi's (Flame-Flame Fruit) core heat by considerable margins.
Even robust Armament Haki couldn't withstand prolonged exposure beyond a few seconds. This was the domineering nature of Phoenix Fire—purification through temperatures approaching solar cores.
The two separated portions of Blackbeard's corpse continued burning within azure inferno. The overwhelming Conqueror's Haki he'd been radiating ceased entirely. Black gas released by the Yami Yami no Mi gradually decreased in volume and intensity.
The balance of victory seemed to tilt decisively toward the five-person coalition at last.
"Wait—everyone stop!" Marco's voice carried urgent warning. "Don't approach yet! My Phoenix Flame hasn't extinguished, which means residual life energy remains in Blackbeard's body."
The Phoenix attempted to prevent Boa Hancock from getting closer to the burning remains. Among the five combatants, only the Empress possessed relatively fragile physical durability. Her capacity to withstand catastrophic attacks was demonstrably inferior to the other four coalition members.
Admiral Kennen decided current measures weren't sufficient for guaranteed elimination. The Thunder God form began rubbing left and right hands against each other with increasing friction, producing escalating crackling sparks. He prepared to unleash even more terrifying lightning techniques.
"Six Hundred Million Volt: Thunder Dragon!"
A serpentine dragon constructed entirely from electrical discharge—nearly one hundred meters in length—descended from turbulent skies. The technique directly submerged the area containing Blackbeard's charred remains, causing lightning and Phoenix flames to flash continuously across enemy tissue in cascading devastation.
In the adult world of genuine combat, one must strike decisively to eliminate all hope of enemy survival. Even if destroying this Yonko required absolute desecration of Marshall D. Teach's corpse, they couldn't leave his body intact merely for bounty collection purposes.
As long as they confirmed the kill successfully, the New Marine wouldn't forget participants' contributions. Fleet Admiral Artoria Pendragon was known as a generous leader who rewarded achievement appropriately and magnificently.
Observing Blackbeard's body—now completely motionless despite continuous bombardment—everyone gradually allowed tension to drain from combat-ready muscles.
The battle was finally over. Teach had been reduced to this pathetic state. It seemed almost too easy that he'd died without even a complete corpse remaining for burial.
"What an incredibly difficult opponent to kill," Diana observed, retrieving her Lasso of Truth and wrapping the golden rope around her waist once more. "But this is how it ends."
She'd witnessed with her own eyes how Blackbeard's remains gradually disintegrated before the coalition's sustained assault. The Amazon warrior finally felt cautious relief replacing battle-readiness.
Her attention now shifted toward Nine Snake Island's interior condition. With that apocalyptic level of Conqueror's Haki deployed earlier, probably only a small minority of residents had survived consciousness intact. Most weaker individuals likely wouldn't recover from fainting—Teach's black lightning-enhanced sovereign will had been too overbearing, too absolute.
The weak possessed no right to resist such overwhelming force.
Boa Hancock approached the burning corpse site on her impossibly long legs, angry expression not diminishing whatsoever despite apparent victory. If she weren't concerned about accidental injury from Phoenix Flame and Thunder Dragon techniques, the woman would never release Blackbeard's remains peacefully.
At minimum, she'd feed his meat to Nine Snake Island's wolfhounds, transforming Teach's body into literal dog manure fertilizer. Using the monster's remains to nourish deeply traumatized soil seemed like poetic justice.
"Wait... something's wrong!"
The light surrounding Blackbeard's lower body hadn't disappeared completely. Which meant one horrifying thing:
Marshall D. Teach was not dead yet.