The natural system started off strong, but the navy finally reached its peak!

"This is clearly..." For a moment, Sengoku seemed to have returned to decades ago, to the time when he was competing with Roger and Whitebeard!

"Newgate, you bastard, don't joke like that!" Shiki, having repelled Akainu with his twin swords, gritted his teeth and said, "How could something like this possibly happen!"

“Father…is that you?! This aura…” Marco looked at the sky, his voice trembling.

On the other side, Kaido, who was confronting the two admirals, including Shanks, also showed a hint of surprise on his face.

"Newgate!! You old bastard... what on earth happened?!"

This aura made him feel as if he were facing the "world's strongest man" in his prime, who could go toe-to-toe with Roger and Rocks!

"This is..." Shanks, the red-haired man, also sensed this familiar yet unfamiliar aura of dominance, his expression extremely solemn as he muttered to himself.

"The peak aura that Whitebeard unleashed during his duel with Captain Roger... how is this possible?"

On the main battlefield, Barrett, the only one who knew the inside story, after a brief moment of astonishment, revealed a sinister smile as he looked towards the golden stage.

“Gern”.

"As you wish..."

"That 'man'... is back!!!"

........

Just as the entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence due to that familiar yet even more powerful and overwhelming aura of dominance...

A roar, and then a deafening explosion!

"Breaking through the air—Ah ...

Accompanied by Edward Newgate's roar, which poured out all the power of his prime...

"Crack!!!! Rumble!!!"

This time, the sky was not shattered like glass, but rather as if a giant drum had been smashed!

Amidst the deafening explosion, the torn void was no longer a simple white crack, but rather flowed with jet-black, domineering arcs of electricity!

In an instant, the Golden Empire that Tesoro had built with all his might, which he believed could withstand any battle, collapsed!

"Is this the strongest in the world?" Tesoro stood there, stunned.

Immediately following, against the backdrop of the collapse of this golden empire

A figure was suddenly shot backward from the collapsing core!

It was Gern!

His figure left a long trail of air in the air, clearly indicating that he had suffered a considerable loss in that earth-shattering clash!

Immediately after, a figure followed closely behind, taking a step forward!

A head of wild, slightly wavy, golden hair, and his signature crescent-shaped white mustache.

The Supreme Grade Sword "Murakumogiri" slammed heavily onto the invisible, vibrating barrier beneath its feet, emitting a dull thud!

The man surveyed the entire Marineford, his eyes burning with a long-lost, overwhelming fighting spirit and a domineering ambition that could scorch mountains and boil seas!

The "world's strongest man" at his peak has truly arrived!

At this moment, time flows backward!

The legend who once stood shoulder to shoulder with the Pirate King Roger at the pinnacle of the sea has reappeared in the world in its most perfect form!

When that golden-haired, furious figure, stepping over the shattered golden fragments, reappeared in the sky with unparalleled power...

A chill that originated from the depths of one's soul swept uncontrollably throughout Marineford!

Barrett's smile froze on his face, and his clenched fists unconsciously loosened slightly.

“This feeling… is the same as back then… no, even stronger?! Gern…”

"Are you kidding me?! This oppressive feeling..." Enel hovered in mid-air, his eyes always filled with arrogance and disdain, displaying a "divine contempt."

Aside from the time he met Guern back then, this was the second time that the emotion called "fright" was clearly reflected.

"Apart from Gern, how could any mortal possess such power?!"

Even Kizaru and Aokiji, who were far away on the outskirts confronting Kaido and Shanks, instantly became extremely serious.

"This is... this is really extremely bad..."

A silent thought, more impactful than any clamor, began to grow and spread in the minds of several core members of the "natural disaster" group.

The idea is...

Will Gern... lose?

This idea is so blasphemous, yet so real!

no way!

That's a white beard!

It wasn't old age or serious illness that kept the white-bearded man going; he was just barely holding on.

Rather, it truly stands at the pinnacle of power.

Whitebeard at his peak!

"The strongest man in the world!"

This title is not merely an honor, but a mark of an era etched deep into the souls of everyone...

The King's Fear!

Today, this mountain has been restored in its most perfect form!

The collapse of the Golden Empire, the sight of Gern being defeated, and the suffocating sense of oppression that filled the world...

Everything, everything, silently speaks of a cruel possibility.

The man they followed, trusted, and believed to be almost omnipotent.

Perhaps... he will truly be defeated before this returning king!

At this moment, the outcome of the war seemed to become unimportant.

The entire Marineford was plunged into an unprecedented silence and shock.

Both the navy and the pirates were completely captivated by this unimaginable scene!

Chapter 464 One King Appears, Two Emperors Arrive (Part 4)

At the same time, off the coast of Marineford, Guern's back slammed into the sea and bounced up.

The immense inertia made him like a stone slab thrown with all his might, carving a furrow in the sea!

Furthermore, the powerful inertial impact had not yet dissipated, pushing him to continue sliding backward.

In that seemingly out-of-control moment, Gern suddenly steadied himself and pressed his left palm down sharply!

A resounding buzz echoed!

Centered on his left palm, the entire seawater below seemed to be instantly "wiped away" by an invisible, immense force.

Instead of being pushed aside, it was completely shattered into billions of tiny water molecules invisible to the naked eye, which then rose up in a hazy white mist!

Using the reaction force from the slap, Gern suddenly looked up and smiled excitedly.

The muscles in his left arm bulged, veins stood out, and his five fingers formed claws as he forcefully raised them upwards!

"rise!!!"

"BOOM!!!" A tremendous tearing sound came from the seabed!

The seabed trembled violently, revealing a massive landmass covered in coral reefs and sedimentary rocks.

It was forcibly lifted from the depths of the sea by Gern, breaking through the surface and bringing with it a cloud of turbid water and silt, standing tall between the two of them!

However, before the newly created island could fully stabilize, the sunlight overhead was blocked by an even more domineering figure.

Whitebeard descended from the sky, his eyes blazing, locking onto Gern below without the slightest hesitation.

He gripped the hilt of the Murakumogiri sword tightly with both hands; on the blade, black and red Conqueror's Haki lightning leaped wildly, perfectly merging with the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power.

He roared and poured all his strength into this simplest of slashes.

"Drink it!!!"

The ultimate expression of pure force and energy!

A single, powerful strike splits Mount Hua in two!

Murakumo-giri tore through the air and fell fiercely with the will to crush everything!

Below, Gern, who had just created the new island, didn't even have time to catch his breath. He instantly exerted force from his waist and abdomen, and shockwaves exploded beneath his feet.

He forcefully completed a swift half-turn in mid-air, simultaneously gripping the hilt of the "Eight Desolations" sword with his right hand!

"Clang!" The sound of a blade echoed throughout the heavens and earth!

The blade was as black as ink, and at the moment of release, it was wrapped with equally violent dark purple overlord-colored lightning!

"Drink it!!"

Gern exhaled and made a sound, twisting his waist and hips, generating power from the ground, which flowed through his waist and back to his right arm.

The Black Blade Eight Desolations drew a dark arc of light from bottom to top, sweeping against the sky, and fiercely slashed upwards!

"clang!!!!!"

Murakumogiri and Hakuraku collided violently!

Explosion!

At the point of impact, the Conqueror's Haki lightning frantically entangled, squeezed, and repelled, forming a distorted spherical force field!

The next moment.

"Crack... Boom!!!"

Centered on the point where the twin swords clashed, the still unstable rocky island that Gern had just created let out a mournful cry of unbearable strain.

Then, with a deafening roar, it neatly and completely split in two along that invisible force field boundary!

At the same time, the enormous reaction force also pushed the two peak king-level powerhouses to the sides.

Gern lightly touched the ground with his toes on a falling boulder, his figure drifting backward, while his right hand swung the black blade, Eight Desolations, forward in a fluid motion.

"Heavenly Tremor - Eight Extremes Jade!"

Before the words were even finished, the surrounding air instantly distorted, and eight pure white, dazzlingly vibrating spheres suddenly condensed, emitting a heart-palpitating "buzzing" sound.

As Gern charged forward, the eight white balls, like loyal guards, traced strange arcs and shot towards Whitebeard from all directions!

Faced with this onslaught, Whitebeard grinned wildly, neither dodging nor evading.

He gripped the handle of the Murakumogiri sword with both hands, spun it around, and then slammed it down hard into the crumbling rock beneath his feet!

"Boom!!!"

A circular shockwave emanated from the point where he landed from the cloud and exploded outwards!

The air was compressed, creating visible ripples. The eight incoming "Eight Extremes Jade" projectiles had barely made contact with this indiscriminate, all-around shockwave when they struck it.

"Boom boom boom boom!!!"

Eight explosions rang out in succession. Before the Eight Extremes Jade could even touch the hem of the white-bearded man's clothes, it was prematurely detonated by this absolute power domain.

It transformed into eight turbulent white energy streams that expanded and then rapidly dissipated, crushing the already shattered rocks around it into dust once more!

Just as the intense light and roar of the explosion obscured everything, a figure broke through the energy turbulence and appeared above and to the side of Whitebeard.

It was Gern!

He used the Eight Extremes Jade to attract attention and create a brief blind spot before launching a real surprise attack!

But the white-bearded man didn't look up; his left fist was already poised to strike, enveloped in a white aura.

Without even looking, he threw a punch straight at the direction from the side and above!

Observation Haki for prediction!

"Bang!" A heavy, muffled sound!