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

He knew better than anyone that the awakening of Conqueror's Haki was no accident; his disciple was no ordinary person...

“Gern…” The golden lion slowly descended, its feet just inches off the ground, and its domineering aura swept over like a tsunami.

"You think you can change anything with this newly awakened aura?!"

Gern did not back down, and his Conqueror's Haki was also rising. The two forces clashed fiercely in mid-air, distorting the air and cracking the ground.

“I don’t need to change anything.” Gern’s voice was low and hoarse, yet every word was like a knife.

"Boom!!!" Two bursts of Conqueror's Haki erupted completely, tearing the sky apart. A pitch-black crack pierced through the clouds, as if the heavens had opened their eyes.

The golden lion's smile vanished completely.

Instead, there was genuine murderous intent.

"You brat, you're too arrogant!" the golden lion roared, his hands suddenly waving, and the air beneath his feet instantly condensed into countless sharp slashes.

"Lion - Thousand Cut Valley!" The slashes poured down like a torrential rain, each one powerful enough to tear the earth apart.

Gern's eyes narrowed, and he swung his black blade, Eight Desolations, to parry, but the attacks were too dense.

For a moment, his body was forced to retreat repeatedly, leaving deep cracks in the ground.

"It's not over yet!" The Golden Lion grinned maliciously, his figure flashed, and he instantly appeared behind Gern, his famous sword "Sakura Ten" piercing straight for Gern's back.

At the critical moment, a purple figure suddenly darted between the two.

"Heavy Strike!" Zephyr's left arm was enveloped in Armament Haki as he punched towards the blade of Shiki's sword.

"Clang!" The deafening crash of the collision was abruptly halted as the golden lion's attack was forcefully blocked.

Zephyr said in a deep voice, "Golden Lion, he's not your only opponent!"

"Zeffa?!" A hint of surprise flashed in the Golden Lion's eyes, followed by a cold laugh. "You want to get involved too?"

"He's my disciple!!! That bastard Shiki!" Zephyr's gaze was resolute, and his Armament Haki grew even stronger.

"You think you can bully the weak? I won't let you do whatever you want!"

"Hmph, then I'll take care of you too!" The Golden Lion roared, drawing both swords simultaneously. Sword energy and domineering aura intertwined to form a net of death, enveloping Zephyr and Gern.

Zephyr did not back down, dodging and counterattacking continuously, each strike precisely blocking the Golden Lion's attacks.

However, the Golden Lion's strength was overwhelming, and Zephyr's movements were gradually suppressed, with fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

"Teacher!" Upon seeing this, Gern gripped the Black Blade Eight Desolations tightly, unleashing his Conqueror's Haki once more in an attempt to break through the Golden Lion's suppression.

The Golden Lion's Conqueror's Haki clashed with Gern's Haki once again, and the entire island trembled violently as the two confronted each other.

Suddenly, a crimson figure burst forward from the edge of the battlefield, his molten right fist, crackling with boiling killing intent, piercing straight into the golden lion's back.

"Haunted Dog!!!"

"Huh?!" The Golden Lion suddenly turned sideways and swept the Lava Fist in two, but the splashing lava still scorched black holes in his clothes.

He squinted at the newcomer: "Lava brat... Is it fashionable for the Navy to gang up on the weak now?"

Sakazuki landed, his military boots crushing the scorched earth, his gaze as cold and hard as a blade: "There's no need for morality when dealing with pirates."

Before he finished speaking, his right arm turned into lava again, and a shockwave like a volcanic eruption blasted towards the Golden Lion: "Great Fire Blast!"

The Golden Lion laughed wildly as he swung his sword to cleave through the lava torrent, but Gern's black blade was already slashing down from the other side.

Faced with the blade entangled in vibrating particles and Armament Haki, he was forced to retreat into the air.

However, Zephyr had already blocked his escape route, and his Haki-hardened iron fist slammed into his spine.

"Bang!" The Golden Lion was forced into a desperate situation by being attacked from three sides. He took a solid punch to the back, and a trace of blood spilled from his mouth.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his long golden hair whipping wildly in the wind: "Hehehe... Three people ganging up on me? You think highly of me!"

Sakazuki ignored the taunts, his lava fists suddenly clasped together, cracking the ground and sending scorching magma surging up like a giant wave: "Meteor Volcano!"

Countless lava meteorites rained down from the sky, completely blocking all of the Golden Lion's evasive routes.

"A mere trick!" The Golden Lion crossed its twin swords, its strikes transforming into a golden lion's mane, slicing down all the lava meteorites.

But in that instant, Zephyr, the most experienced of the three, suddenly lunged forward, seizing the opportunity to clamp his Armament Haki-enhanced arm tightly around the mouth of the golden lion in the sky.

"Whoosh! Bang!!" Then, with a powerful swing, it slammed straight into the ground!

“Gern—!”

......

The sky suddenly darkened.

As the battle raged, Gern's Conqueror's Haki continued to rage, and black and red lightning coiled around his body like a raging dragon.

However, the black blade Eight Desolations in his hand suddenly became scorching hot, its blade humming and vibrating, not due to the vibration of particles.

Moreover... the knife itself was buzzing and vibrating!

"Whoosh!" A bolt of purplish-black lightning suddenly burst forth from the Eight Desolate Blades!

That wasn't ordinary Conqueror's Haki; it was a more violent and primal power.

It is a combination of Rocks' remaining Haki, which was triggered by Gern's Conqueror's Haki!

A purplish-black lightning bolt, like a chain, pierced the sky and instantly entangled the golden lion in mid-air.

"What...?!" This sudden attack caused the golden lion's pupils to shrink abruptly, and his body to stiffen abruptly, as if he were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

His Float-Float Fruit ability... has failed!

The air beneath the golden lion's feet suddenly lost its buoyancy, and its body began to fall uncontrollably!

"What's going on?!" Zephyr looked up in shock, and Sakazuki's gaze froze in mid-air.

They had never seen such a domineering move before!

Especially since Gern has only just awakened, he shouldn't be like this, or rather, Gern's awakening performance is already a bit ahead of its time.

Zephyr is the only one among the three legendary Marines who does not possess Conqueror's Haki.

He had seen Sengoku and Garp awaken their Conqueror's Haki, but those were just moments when they suddenly displayed an incredibly powerful aura that flashed by in an instant!

But now, Gern is like a powerful individual who has mastered top-tier Conqueror's Haki...

"Is it absorption...?" Gern himself looked down at the Eight Desolations in astonishment.

At this moment, due to the Conqueror's Haki of Gern, the dark red patterns on the blade of the Eight Desolations have completely turned into a purplish-black color.

Do not! !

It was the Eight Desolations that guided his Conqueror's Haki!

Realizing this, Gern gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, and the Black Blade Eight Desolations suddenly erupted with a vortex of domineering purple-black energy, its blade so powerful that even light was swallowed up!

Domination and Entanglement Complete!

“Impossible…” Sakazuki’s voice was hoarse. “He just awakened Conqueror’s Haki, how could he have mastered Conqueror’s Haki directly?!”

Zefa stared intently at Gern's back and the black sword Bahuang in his hand, his eyes behind his sunglasses trembling violently: "No... he wasn't using the sword."

"It is the knife that is guiding Gern to fight in the way its former true 'master' once did!"

Only then did Zefa clearly see the double-edged sword wrapped in white bandages that his disciple usually carried.

It was that man's weapon, the weapon of that absolute powerhouse from the previous generation...

The only man in the world who could use his Conqueror's Haki to forge his weapon into a black blade.

Rocks D. Giebeck!!!

"Whoosh!!" Gern's figure suddenly vanished!

It wasn't high-speed movement, but a true "flash."

The next second, he appeared directly in front of the falling golden lion!

At the same time, the Golden Lion finally managed to recover from the oppressive aura, but when he looked up at Gern...

His pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints; it was unclear whether the sight of the Black Blade Eight Desolations had awakened a deep-seated fear within him.

At this moment, in his eyes, Gern's figure... had changed!

His black hair danced wildly, and his cold, handsome face blurred into another defiant one.

Even the way he swung the knife perfectly overlapped with a scene from deep in his memory!

“Lo, Locke… Captain?!” The Golden Lion’s lips trembled, as if he had been transported back to the day he first met that man.

At that time, Rocks stood atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, on the top of a royal capital, wielding his sword to behead a Celestial Dragon, and laughingly asking himself if he wanted to join.

It was he... with a single strike that shattered the arrogance that Shiki the Golden Lion had maintained for twenty years since he set sail!

"Captain? Impossible... You're clearly dead." The dazed Golden Lion muttered to himself.

Gern couldn't hear his whispers; all he could feel was the boiling killing intent on the blade and the urge to shatter everything.

"God—fall!!!" With a roar that shook the heavens and the earth, the blade drew a perfect arc of death.

Dark red lightning and vibrating particles intertwined to form a destructive torrent, shattering the space in its path like a fragile mirror.

Countless fragments of space tumbled and refracted within the blade energy, shattering the entire sky!

When a god falls, all beings are equal!

In the heavens, there is only this one blade!

Immediately afterwards...

"Splat!!" Blood spurted out of the golden lion's chest like splashed ink.

A gruesome knife wound ran diagonally from the left shoulder to the right abdomen, deep enough to expose the bone.

His long golden hair was whipped up by the strong wind, his pupils suddenly dilated, the whites of his eyes rolled upwards, and his consciousness was almost severed in an instant!

"Cough...!" Blood gushed from his throat, and the golden lion's body stiffened in the air for a moment before flying backward like a kite with a broken string.

But just as he was about to fall, his beast-like pupils suddenly contracted, forcibly pulling him back to consciousness from the brink of unconsciousness!

"What... joke...!!" Golden Lion clutched his chest tightly with one hand, blood still gushing from between his fingers.

But the power of the Float-Float Fruit had been reactivated, and the airflow beneath their feet abruptly stopped their fall!

A fierce wind, carrying the stench of blood, howled past, leaving only heavy breathing on the battlefield.

The golden lion looked down at the wound on his chest, his muscles convulsing uncontrollably.

That strike... almost, almost cleaved him in two!

Then the golden lion slowly turned its head and glanced back.

Gern stood there quietly with his back to him.

The tip of the Black Blade Eight Desolations pointed diagonally at the ground, and purplish-black lightning still danced on its blade.

There was no looking back.

He didn't even glance at his own spoils.

The golden lion's throat bobbed, and it suddenly felt an absurd chill.

This navy... actually faced him with such an attitude?!

"You bastard!" the Golden Lion roared, wanting to swing his sword back and strike.

But the excruciating pain in his chest and the constant flow of blood made it difficult for him to even breathe.

This strike severely injured Shiki the Golden Lion!

Of course, what was even more terrifying was that he found his hand holding the sword... was trembling slightly.

For the second time in forty years, someone has made him truly and directly feel the threat of death!

One time it was Rocks, and the other time it was Gern.

And they all use the same weapons!

"Cough cough! I don't believe you can unleash a second strike." The Golden Lion stared intently at Gern, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

He is now less than fifty meters away from Gern. If he makes a move, there is no way Zeffa and Sakazuki can save him!

But Gern still didn't turn around, he just slightly raised the Eight Desolations.

In an instant, the golden lion's smile vanished, and he stomped on the air, his body flying backward!