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

"Cough!" Oden coughed up a mouthful of blood, his knees slammed into the ground, his arms trembled uncontrollably, and blood dripped down the hilts of Enma and Ame no Habakiri.

Even with a monstrous physique, he had reached his limit at this moment.

In particular, the damage caused by high-frequency vibration is not just physical pain, but damage from the bone, internal organs to the cellular level.

This subsequent injury allowed Oden to feel his muscle fibers tearing in the tremors, and his blood boiling in his veins.

Even the flow of domineering energy became sluggish.

Suddenly, Oden's vision began to darken at the edges, and his ears rang constantly—a dizzying sensation caused by the resonance of his internal organs.

On the other hand, Gern was also having a hard time.

His right shoulder was pierced by Oden's sword strike, and the wounds on his body, especially the one on his chest, were the most severe.

At the same time, his breathing was no longer steady but heavy, and each breath was filled with the smell of blood, as if his lungs were being burned by flames.

Moreover, the Black Blade Eight Desolations hummed incessantly in his hand, and the purplish-black patterns on its blade writhed like living things, greedily absorbing his domineering aura and physical strength.

“Hoo…” Gern took a deep breath. Compared to his battle with Kizaru, he had a clearer control over the vibrations.

It was as if they had touched the threshold of the next stage of the Heaven-Shatter Fruit.

Sensing this, Gern's pupils contracted slightly, and his Observation Haki detected the vibration frequency of every speck of dust in the air.

This time, he didn't try to stop the movement of molecules, but instead—accelerated them!

"Buzz buzz buzz!" The blade of the Black Blade Eight Desolations, aside from its domineering color, suddenly turned a strange dark red, the surrounding air began to distort, and the temperature rose sharply.

The moment the blade sliced ​​through the ground, the rock wasn't cut open, but melted like butter into crimson magma, leaving a scorching trail across the ground.

Molecular vibrations accelerate wildly (e.g., heat generated by molecular friction) → Local temperature rises infinitely (3000°C+).

Gern knew his body had reached its limit; every muscle was groaning, but he didn't stop.

Every ounce of energy from now on must be used wisely.

"Whoosh!" He suddenly dragged his sword and charged forward, the blade cleaving through the earth, lava flying everywhere.

"This guy..." Oden's Observation Haki detected the attack, but when he tried to get up to fight back...

"Crack!" His body suddenly froze!

The aftereffects of my previous attempt to show off and endure the vibrations have fully manifested!

The resonance of his internal organs slowed his movements by half a beat, though it was only a momentary lag.

However, in a battle of this caliber, and especially for top-tier experts, this is a fatal flaw at this point in time!

"Whoosh!!" Gern's figure suddenly disappeared—not from high-speed movement, but a true "instant flash"!

The space beneath his feet collapsed, and high-frequency vibrating particles tore a vacuum channel through the air.

The next second, he appeared directly in front of Oden, raising his black sword, Hachisō, with dark purple Conqueror's Haki swirling around the blade like the Grim Reaper wielding his scythe.

"God—fall!!!" The roar shattered the clouds.

The arc slashed by the blade was breathtakingly perfect, with dark purple and pale shockwaves intertwining and transforming into a destructive torrent with a diameter of over a hundred meters.

Wherever it passed, the space was like tempered glass struck by a heavy hammer, first showing spiderweb-like, pitch-black cracks.

Then—the entire sky shattered with a deafening roar!

Countless fragments of space tumbled and refracted within the sword energy, each reflecting Oden's astonished face.

The Armament Haki on this Wano Country samurai's body also crumbled bit by bit in the torrent of destruction.

"Boom!!!" Oden took the brunt of the Divine Destruction attack head-on, but his willpower could no longer hold, and his pupils began to lose focus.

He was shot into the sky like a cannonball, leaving a glaring trail of blood in the air.

But it wasn't over yet. Without pausing, Gern charged forward with his knife—whoosh!

The world fell silent at that moment.

Gern completely entered molecular-level control, and his figure suddenly collapsed into a pitch-black rift. It was not an afterimage, nor was it high-speed movement!

Instead, it transforms the high-frequency vibrations of its entire body into vibrational particles that tunnel through the molecular structure of space, causing its existence to completely and temporarily disappear from the laws of reality!

The next second—"Boom!!" The air in front of Oden's falling trajectory suddenly exploded.

Gern's figure materialized from nothingness, his entire body shrouded in distorted shadows, with only his eyes blazing with a captivating crimson light.

The blade of the Black Blade Eight Desolations had completely transformed into flowing lava, and the unlimited high temperature distorted and deformed the spatial scene as if viewed through burning frosted glass.

"..." Oden briefly regained his composure, then his pupils contracted, and his mouth opened slightly, but the sound he uttered could not travel due to the vibrations. (Spatial vibrations affect sound propagation)

"Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!!"

With his two knives wielded, Gern created countless afterimages, each strike carrying extreme heat and vibration, the infinitely hot blades sublimating into a plasma state.

Eighty-one cuts, each connected to the next, drew the trajectory of a blooming red lotus in the void.

"Crack!" As the final strike landed, Gern had already slid to the ground behind Oden.

And after stabilizing his stance, he flicked his wrist, and the Black Blade Eight Desolations spun in his palm, creating a sharp, arcing blade flower.

The Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the blade was suddenly shattered like a burning flame.

"Shaking Ashes - Crimson Lotus Prison"

As the words fall, so too do the flowers fall—and the red lotus blooms!

The intense heat accumulated from all the previous strikes erupted at this moment.

Oden's body became the core of the red lotus, and flames at tens of thousands of degrees Celsius erupted out like a red lotus blooming.

A crimson pillar of fire pierced through the sky and evaporated the sea of ​​clouds, creating a vacuum dome with a diameter of one kilometer.

In this battle, the flower of the end that he risked his life to bloom was ultimately—a victory!

........

The crimson flames gradually died down, and rain began to fall from the sky due to the high-temperature steam, revealing the ravaged earth.

Oden's figure plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

His body was covered in knife wounds, but his eyes remained stubbornly open, though the pupils had turned white and lost focus.

The two famous swords, Ame no Habakiri and Enma, were stuck diagonally into the ground, one in front of the other, as dull and lifeless as their owners.

Gern was panting heavily, his chest heaving, blood still seeping from the wound on his right shoulder, rain drenching his body.

Then, dragging his weary body, he walked step by step to the front of the Ame no Habakiri, reached out and grasped the hilt, and slowly pulled it out.

The blade scraped against the rock, producing a piercing metallic hiss.

Then he went to Yama and pulled him out as well.

Finally, he stood before Oden, coldly staring at Oden lying on the ground.

The Black Blade Eight Desolations trembled slightly in his hand, the dark purple arcs of electricity on its blade not yet completely dissipated.

“It’s over,” Gern whispered, his voice hoarse and cold.

However, at that moment, an overwhelming and suffocating aura swept in from the direction of the coastline.

Gern's pupils suddenly contracted, triggering an Observation Haki warning.

He looked up sharply and saw a giant ship, like a white whale, sailing towards him on the distant sea – the Moby Dick!

At the bow of the ship, a tall, white-bearded figure stood majestically.

Her long golden hair danced wildly in the sea breeze, her white open-front captain's coat fluttered in the wind, and the Murakumogiri sword in her hand gleamed with a cold, sharp light in the sunlight.

His gaze was as sharp as a knife, fixed directly on Gern.

"Gurararara..." Whitebeard's laughter boomed like thunder, "Naval brat, long time no see!"

“Ha, Whitebeard.” Gern sneered, meeting Whitebeard’s gaze without backing down.

He knew that this "King of the Sea" had come to pick someone up.

At his peak, if I killed Oden in front of Whitebeard, I would definitely trade my life for his!

But trading one's life for that of a future clown, "King of Endurance," is not worth it at all.

So Gern looked down at Oden, slowly raised his arms, and crossed his twin swords.

"Swish! Swish!" The Ame no Habakiri and Enma stabbed down at the same time, their blades precisely embedded in the scorched earth on both sides of Oden's neck, forming a huge "X" shape.

Oden's head was held in place by the blade, his arms outstretched, and his legs slightly bent.

He was like a criminal being executed, nailed to this battlefield that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Chapter 104 Ends

On the deck of the Moby Dick, the air seemed to freeze.

Marco, standing beside Whitebeard, had his pupils contract sharply, his throat tighten, and his voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth: "Oden... lost?"

"The Ice Witch" Whiteybe stood at the ship's railing, her fingertips digging tightly into the wooden bars.

His gaze was fixed on the figure on the deserted island in the distance, pinned in an "X" shape by two swords, and his breathing was so rapid that it felt as if someone was choking him.

"What a joke..." Her voice trembled as images of Oden laughing maniacally while fighting Whitebeard in Wano Country flashed through her mind.

"That monster samurai... how could it be..."

Jozu's expression was also terrifyingly grim. He slammed his fist on the ship's side, and the thick wooden planks shattered instantly: "That navy!"

Vista's hands were already on his twin swords, his usually smiling eyes now as cold as ice: "Dad, we..."

On the deserted island, Gern placed his foot on Oden's face, rain dripping from his hair and mixing with blood as it seeped into the soil.

His gaze met Whitebeard's without flinching, and the dark purple arcs of Conqueror's Haki on the blade of the Black Blade Hakko had not yet completely dissipated.

“Whitebeard.” His voice was hoarse yet cold. “If you want to pick someone up, you can.”

After saying that, Gern slowly raised his foot, but stomped down hard the next second—"Bang!" Oden's head was crushed into the scorched earth by this stomp, splashing up a cloud of mud.

On the Moby Dick, everyone held their breath.

"Father, give the order!"

"Father!!" Sachi stared intently at the foot that Gern was pressing on Oden's face, and with a "snap," he drew his long sword.

"That bastard...he's provoking all of us!"

"Quiet!!!" Whitebeard shouted in response to his sons' words.

At the same time, his gaze was fixed on Gern, especially on Gern's almost completely destroyed right shoulder.

The sea breeze whipped his long, blond hair, and his white captain's coat fluttered in the wind.

With a sudden burst of strength, he leaped from the bow of the ship and landed right in front of Gern.

"Gurgle..." His laughter was deep and resonant. "Naval brat, you've certainly grown some skills in the past few years." As he spoke, his gaze fell upon Black Blade Eight Desolations.

"No wonder he's the second guy it approves of!"

"So, are you going to help this guy get revenge?" Gern didn't even blink in the face of Whitebeard's oppressive aura.

"No!" Whitebeard glanced at Oden and shook his head.

In fact, the Whitebeard Pirates watched the entire battle from the sidelines.

This duel was initiated by Oden himself.

He was determined to pursue Gern and fight him.

Moreover, no one intervened in this battle from beginning to end.

It's a pure fight to the death; victory or defeat depends entirely on strength.

Now, Oden has been defeated.

Total defeat.

The fact that Gern didn't take his life was already a great concession to him.

As for Whitebeard standing up for Oden? Given Whitebeard's personality, that's absolutely impossible.

Oden was not his son, but a comrade-in-arms.

To attack Gern now would be the greatest humiliation for Oden.