BANG!
Blinding blood splattered violently, and Whitebeard's massive chest gained another fresh, smoking gunshot wound.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
In the distance, wearing a black cloak, the Captain of the Third Ship and sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates, Van Augur, calmly held his long rifle, the barrel still smoking from the gunpowder.
"Pops!"
Marco was burning with anxiety. Just as his human-beast form, wrapped in cyan-blue flames, prepared to leap to his captain's aid, a lethal, crescent-shaped slash swept past his chest!
The former Head Jailer of the Great Underwater Prison, Impel Down, and now the Captain of the Second Ship of the Blackbeard Pirates... Shiryu of the Rain, possessing the terrifying strength of a Great Swordsman, firmly pinned Marco in place.
"Brilliant Punk!"
A massive height of five meters and a body covered in solid muscle! Half of Jozu's body turned into indestructible diamond, and with eyes splitting with pure rage, he charged like a tank toward Whitebeard's location!
"Don't even think about it!"
Jesus Burgess, Captain of the First Ship of the Blackbeard Pirates, blasted toward Jozu with wild laughter, his purple hair streaming! "Surging Elbow Strike!"
BOOM!!!
The port shattered even further, sending massive chunks of rubble flying! The Captain-level figures from both pirate crews clashed, absolutely refusing to yield a single inch!
After a brief moment of shock, Blackbeard, having barely survived his brush with death, did not let go of this absolutely perfect opportunity!
He quickly raised the flintlock pistol tucked into his waist, and fire flashed from the muzzle!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Pops, a soft heart is your fatal weakness!"
"Zehahahaha!"
Whitebeard's momentary hesitation before attacking was ruthlessly and viciously mocked by Blackbeard!
Successive heavy, fatal injuries.
Whitebeard, rapidly nearing his physical limit, felt his consciousness beginning to blur.
'Is this the end...?'
The exact moment his bullets ran out, Blackbeard quickly scrambled to his feet.
Amidst the desperate, tearing shouts of the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach prepared to unleash his final blow with a completely sinister grin!
"Die!"
BANG!
Blackbeard's triumphant smile, mere moments from success, abruptly and completely froze.
He stared blankly at the figure that had suddenly appeared directly before him, and the pristine, pale palm that had effortlessly blocked his full-strength punch.
Meeting those unusual, rippling purple pupils, Blackbeard swallowed hard, his rugged face instantly filled with primal terror.
Icy dread spread violently from his heels straight to his brain, and a strong, suffocating sense of death gripped his heart!
The terrifying cosmic horror, the monster that had just effortlessly annihilated the Three Marine Admirals... had descended silently upon the port.
"Scram, if you don't want to die right now."
With that casual, indifferent warning, Mirai turned his back and looked down at the dying Whitebeard.
His Rinnegan flashed, and Whitebeard's massive, heavily injured body was warped and directly taken into the Kamui Dimension by Mirai.
Mirai had no intention of saving Whitebeard's life; he merely wanted to conduct a very interesting metaphysical experiment.
This specific world cannot physically possess two identical Devil Fruit abilities at the exact same time.
Only after the current user fully dies will their unique ability revert back into a physical Devil Fruit, appearing randomly somewhere in the ocean.
Mirai speculated deeply that this was the Will of the World's fundamental method of strengthening its own source.
It actively allows the fruit users to completely develop the Devil Fruit to a much higher conceptual level using their own life force and soul.
After the users inevitably die, the newly added, developed portion is absorbed seamlessly by the Will of the World, transforming into the pure power of the source.
The fruit then completely returns to its initial stage, circulating somewhere in the world, patiently awaiting a new consumer.
This cycle repeats.
The source of the Pirate World will become increasingly powerful until it successfully upgrades to a higher plane of existence.
But if Whitebeard dies completely isolated within the Kamui Dimension... will that specific portion of the source, specifically the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, appear naturally in the Pirate World?
Or will it uniquely manifest directly within the Kamui Dimension, which is completely separated from this world's rules?
Mirai couldn't formally confirm this hypothesis just yet, but it wouldn't stop him from actively conducting a few more such experiments... he had been planning this exact sequence for a very long time.
The supreme fruit that was just about to be his was actually stolen away by someone else right before his eyes!
'Unwilling! Absolutely unwilling!'
Blackbeard Teach lowered his head, his knuckles cracking loudly as he clenched his fists in pure rage!
Extreme killing intent and resentment flashed in his dark eyes, exactly as if they could physically pierce through the ground!
But he dared not look up, nor visibly show the slightest hint of dissatisfaction in front of Zenin Mirai.
To join the powerful pirate crew back then, Teach was completely able to throw away his pride, kneel, and beg Whitebeard to take him in as a son.
Having silently endured for over twenty long years, he could ruthlessly kill beloved companions he had been incredibly close to for many years.
Dignity and courage didn't matter to him, nor did the fleeting affection of comrades.
As long as he could ultimately achieve his grand ambition, he would effortlessly sacrifice absolutely everything by any means necessary!
Without a single doubt, Blackbeard was a highly resourceful and incredibly adaptable schemer!
'A man's dream will never end.'
But the premise of that dream is that you are still alive to see it.
Turning around completely decisively.
Blackbeard and his vicious accomplices tucked their tails and scurried desperately back onto their ship to flee the harbor.
His inner hatred was entirely monstrous, yet he didn't even dare to leave behind a single verbal threat.
Because unlike certain hot-headed idiots, Teach could clearly, rationally see the disparity in strength.
He perfectly understood the brutal cruelty of reality.
And the specific idiot Teach was referring to...
"Fire Fist!!!"
"Give Pops back to us! Give Whitebeard Pops back!"
With no Blackbeard Pirate Captains blocking their path anymore, Portgas D. Ace and the others roared desperately and charged forward!
They had no ambition to conquer the world, and their pursuit of money and strength was far less important than their deep familial bonds!
They could clearly see the massive gap between the two sides and perfectly understood the apocalyptic horror of the person standing before them.
But...
That was absolutely no reason for them to stand idly by!
"Brilliant Punk!"
Jozu, whose entire body was now indestructible diamond, roared and charged forward wildly!
"Phoenix Brand!"
Marco, in his human-beast form with cyan-blue flaming wings, swooped violently down from the air!
A Whitebeard Pirates without their Whitebeard Pops—they could absolutely not accept it!
Just as Mirai prepared to casually make a move and erase them, he suddenly looked straight up!
"Looks like I don't need to wait for the experiment results."
A faint, amused smile appeared on his face, and Mirai murmured with genuine emotion, "How incredibly stingy. It was only one single fruit, after all."
Dense, crackling black and red lightning instantly and violently covered the entire sky above Marineford!
The torn dimensional space, a corner of profound, absolute darkness, erupted suddenly with a crushing gravity completely comparable to a black hole!
RUMBLE!!!
Destruction Lightning, several meters thick and carrying the pure wrath of the world, violently struck down directly toward Mirai's head!
Endless, roaring gales whipped up massive chunks of rubble, raging violently across the shattered land!
BOOM!
Mirai hadn't even made a single move!
The Whitebeard Pirate Captains who had just charged forward were all violently blasted away by the immense residual shockwaves of the falling cosmic lightning!
"Heavenly Wrath! The Heavenly Wrath of the world is punishing that monster!"
Not only were the sky and earth physically torn apart, but the boundless sea surface of the bay also churned violently with endless, surging tidal waves!
Countless Marines in the plaza shouted, their eyes completely filled with absolute fear of Mirai, but also a desperate anticipation for the falling Heavenly Thunder to destroy him!
Even the heavily injured Three Admirals, who had just barely managed to get up, forgot their agonizing pain and stared intently at the dark figure completely submerged by the violent Sea of Thunder.
They were powerless to fight Mirai themselves and could only desperately pin their final hopes on the Divine Thunder falling from the heavens!
BOOM!!!
The Natural Disaster rapidly intensified, and the pure aura of cosmic destruction completely linked heaven and earth!
Apocalyptic dark red lightning violently covered absolutely everything from the sky to the ground, spreading rapidly from the harbor across the entire island of Marineford!
The solid bedrock ground cracked layer by layer exactly like fragile blocks of tofu!
Countless Marine buildings collapsed instantly, and the surrounding mountains crumbled into dust!
"Retreat!!!"
Fleet Admiral Sengoku turned and shouted with all his remaining might!
With the devastating preceding battles completely combined with this targeted Destruction Lightning, the entire island of Marineford was already on the verge of complete collapse!
Regardless of whether that invading monster was dead or alive inside the storm, if they didn't completely leave right now, absolutely everyone would die here first!
The dark figure completely submerged in the violent Purple Lightning—Zenin Mirai—did not step out to stop the Marines or the pirates from frantically leaving the island.
After issuing several direct, mental commands to the Divine Tree's main body in the void, Mirai focused all his attention on dealing with the completely enraged Will of the World.
The cosmic attacks were exponentially fiercer and the natural rules far more concentrated than what he had previously encountered outside the planet's atmosphere.
Mirai had slightly overlooked two crucial things.
First, he hadn't expected such a massive, apocalyptic immune reaction from stealing such a relatively small amount of the world's source.
Second, after physically entering the world, the opposing Will seemed to completely gain the advantage of fighting on its own home turf.
Although the lightning attacks wouldn't pose a genuinely fatal threat to his Six Paths body, it would be far too tedious and troublesome if every single act of fruit absorption resulted in this kind of planetary tantrum.
He still needed to do what he did back in the Jujutsu world: officially gather most of the strong individuals on the map first.
Use a Binding Vow Barrier to completely cut up the localized map, and then collect the entire physical section directly into the Kamui Dimension.
This way, they could all participate in a very happy, controlled... Deadly Culling Game Royale on Mirai's home ground.
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Give me powerstones.
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