"Who the hell is that guy? How can he be so strong? He sent Newgate, Carlo, Linlin, and Shiki flying in a single instant—am I dreaming?"
Watching the Golden Lion smashed into the ground by one punch, Kaido—his own nose caved in by Zephyr—stood stunned.
"Garp? Shiki just called him Garp!"
"But… what is that form? Is Garp a Devil Fruit user too? Even if he is, this level of power is downright terrifying!"
"He just blew away four Division Captains in a heartbeat?"
Neck twisted and spine shattered, Silver Axe—still alive—swallowed hard in dread, staring at the cyan-black figure plummeting from the sky like a cannonball.
The pirates weren't the only ones shaken.
In that split-second reversal.
Even Zephyr and Sengoku's hearts pounded in shock.
They gazed at the eight-metre-tall Garp, skin cyan-black, face cold, murderous intent rolling off him in waves.
These two comrades, who had spent years at Garp's side, found him unrecognisable.
Yet after only a moment's thought they roughly grasped what had happened.
"It's Columbus's power—Garp's body is stuffed with the shadows Columbus collected… and it's far from a small number!"
Sengoku, closest to Garp, spotted the explosive muscle mass splitting his old friend's skin.
Crimson blood seeped from every part of him.
Like a fired statue cracking to reveal red fissures.
"I never imagined the Shadow-Shadow Fruit could be used like this."
"The user himself is so weak, yet he can boost someone to such heights. Is this the might of a Devil Fruit?"
Rocks glanced at the god-and-demon-like Garp, then back at the distant Columbus, and sighed.
As the words left his lips.
Red light flickered in his eyes, as though foreseeing the future.
Long sword in hand, he grinned and slashed forward.
Thick as a sea, black-crimson Haki Entanglement lightning poured from the blade like a sky-falling waterfall, ripping the void and unleashing a heaven-shaking shockwave.
"Curse of the Abyss!!"
Almost the instant the blade flashed.
A titanic cyan-black figure appeared, swinging a colossal fist straight at him.
It was Garp!
A thousand shadows empowered him, and every heartbeat brought agony.
Pressure mounted on flesh and spirit alike.
Shadows alone hold no energy.
Yet under the Shadow-Shadow Fruit each carries a fragment of its owner's strength.
Along with habits, personality, thoughts—even fighting skills.
When merged into another body they grant swift, effortless power.
The more shadows fused, the greater the boost.
But with them come clashing minds and habits; the host can break under the strain.
In the original tale Luffy fused with a mere hundred zombie shadows and easily thrashed Oars and Moriah.
Now Garp had taken in a thousand—all from Impel Down, each belonging to a criminal worth over a hundred million Berries.
His might had soared to a monstrous level!
The price: body and mind collapsing at break-neck speed!
He had to crush Rocks within the shortest span.
In this state he truly had the power to do it—
—if he could finish the fight within three minutes!
The cyan-black fist wrapped in black-crimson lightning crashed down, meeting Rocks's cannon-like slash head-on.
Titanic force erupted from Garp's towering frame.
In Rocks's shrinking pupils the slash was ground to pieces by a single punch!
The mammoth fist, unstoppable, burst through the broken blade-light and kept coming.
Pure and direct!
Brutal beyond measure!
No finesse, no tricks—just raw force!
Rocks's future-sight Observation Haki fired continuously.
He shifted stance and angle again and again, seeking the perfect route to evade and counter.
BOOM!!
Garp's titan fist smashed the air like a falling star, hell-bent on erasing all life.
Rocks slashed with his blade while flinging himself to the right.
The next instant.
A mammoth fist-shadow grazed his side and shot behind him.
Where it passed stone filled the sky and the earth shattered.
To Kaido and the others' horror the very ground of Puttelocrone split in two, carving a kilometre-long trench straight to the sea!
No—
Even the distant ocean exploded, hurling up hundreds of metres of water!
Before they could blink.
Countless more fists rained down!
Every blow a Fist Bone meteor.
Every blow wrapped in Haki Entanglement.
Every blow a Fist Bone Galaxy Impact!
In his mind-shattered state Garp poured out endless power, hurling a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand fists at Rocks in an instant!
Infinite Fist Bone!!
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!
Fist-shadows filled the sky, sealing every direction, leaving Rocks no escape.
Since he could not dodge—
He simply would not!
A peerless king of pirates, Rocks feared no so-called invincible might.
Besides, power on this scale was nothing he hadn't seen—or tasted—before!
A real man never bows to force!
Wahahaha! Wahahahaha!"
"Come! Fight me, Garp!!"
Rocks roared with laughter, his blade slashing wildly.
Titanic black-crimson arcs a hundred, several hundred, even thousands of metres long erupted from his sword.
A hundred cuts!
A thousand!
Ten thousand!
"Abyssal Storm!!"
In a heartbeat.
Sky-filling fist-shadows and sky-filling blade-light collided.
Time and space on Puttelocrone seemed to freeze.
In that frozen instant Kaido, Zephyr, Sengoku, Silver Axe, and the distant Carlo and Linlin each wore a different expression.
Silver Axe, John, Wang Zhi, Maron—terror and dread.
Zephyr and Sengoku—grim resolve.
Kaido, Carlo, Linlin—yearning and hunger!
After a thousandth of a second the world moved again.
Then a cataclysmic blast tore through the island's centre.
Shockwaves surged out like floods, obliterating everything on the surface.
Carlo and the others were flung about like ants in a storm.
Seen from above.
The scene was apocalyptic.
The entire small island of Putteloclone exploded in an instant!
Gigantic fissures split it into countless fragments.
A titanic ring of force swept dozens, even hundreds of kilometres, raising sea-walls hundreds of metres high.
Tsuru's nearby fleet was swept miles away by the roaring waves.
A dozen warships were tossed like toys to a kilometre's height before crashing back down.
It looked like the end of the world!