"What are you doing?!"
"Hades, have you lost your mind?!"
No one managed to react to the sudden turn of events.
Looking at the twin axes wrapped in flowing crimson Armament Haki, the Blackbeard Pirates all took a step back, cold sweat breaking out across their faces.
None of them had ever imagined that Hades would turn on them at a moment like this.
The fastest to react was Shiryu, standing nearby with a cigar in his mouth and a black blade in hand.
"I see. So you were harboring ulterior motives from the very beginning?"
As the Blackbeard crew's original first mate, Shiryu truly did possess the two signature qualities of a reliable right-hand man: composure and competence. He immediately drew his sword and slashed straight toward Hades.
But a hand wrapped in Armament Haki caught the blade head-on.
"Nani..."
The tremendous force coming through the sword made cold sweat instantly run down Shiryu's face.
What kind of Armament Haki and monstrous physical strength was this?!
Was this really still that reckless brute...
The one who was only a little weaker than Teach?!
Blackbeard, whose body had been carved open by the twin axes coated in flowing Haki, rolled on the ground in agony. Then he looked up at the man in whom he had placed such immense hopes, his face twisted with shock and fury.
His whole body trembled with rage. A milky white shockwave gathered around his fist, and he smashed it into the air.
The terrifying tremor power instantly made the earth shake and the battlefield rumble, fully venting his fury and disappointment.
But in the face of a natural disaster-level shockwave that could shatter a massive island, Hades remained completely calm.
Then, slowly, he took off his sunglasses.
Beneath them...
There was a pair of eyes blazing crimson.
"That's...?!"
A strange sense of death and a familiar kind of despair surged into Blackbeard's heart. He was just about to speak when Vasco Shot, liquor still at the corner of his mouth, let out a wicked grin.
"So, Hades, you betrayed us, right?"
"That means I can kill you now, right? Hahahaha ptoh ptoh..."
"Hm?"
He tipped back a mouthful of liquor, gathered power, and roared:
"Drunk Furnace Fire!!!"
A vortex of flames instantly rushed toward Hades.
"Wait!!!"
Teach already knew something was wrong, but that deadweight Vasco Shot was still feeling good about himself.
Anyone with eyes could see it. The figure inside the flames did not look harmed in the slightest.
Instead, it seemed to be growing taller.
"Oh my. Even if none of that booze actually got on me, it's still disgusting as hell..."
A voice slowly emerged from within the flames.
The moment Teach heard that voice, his expression changed instantly.
The quicker-thinking members of the Blackbeard crew also abruptly retreated, their pupils trembling.
What kind of joke was this!!!
With a casual wave of his hand, the surrounding flames vanished without a trace.
Ozz stepped out from within them.
"Playing the role really was exhausting. And that's all thanks to you, Teach."
Everyone was stunned. The Blackbeard Pirates were so shocked they could not even make a sound.
Only the surrounding Marine and pirate fodder came to their senses a moment later and screamed the name.
"Pirate Hades was actually Black Gun!!!"
With his hands in his pockets, Ozz looked at Vasco Shot, the man with liquor still at the corner of his mouth, the loafer who had apparently eaten the Slacker-Slacker Fruit.
"Every ship really does have its own stain."
Bang.
One kick sent Vasco Shot straight to sleep.
Ozz walked past him and stopped in front of Teach.
A smile spread across his face as he bent down to look at Blackbeard, who was still sitting on the ground.
"Well then... you remember what you said, don't you, Teach? That incomplete version of the Devil Fruit transfer principle."
The moment those words came out, even more sweat broke out on Teach's face.
How could this be...
Hades had actually been Ozz!!!
Did that mean when he had talked so smugly back then, he had basically been bragging to Ozz's face about how he had tricked him?
The more Teach thought about it, the more cold sweat poured down his face.
The other members of the Blackbeard crew were both furious and horrified.
Ozz had completely toyed with them like they were idiots!!!
"Captain!!! We can't let this slide!!!"
"The Blackbeard Pirates just made their debut on the world stage, and we got played like clowns. What deterrence will we have left after this?!"
"Yeah! Use the tremor power on that bastard Black Gun!!!"
Teach felt like his scalp was going numb.
The little fat black bastard was drenched in sweat. Those idiots were talking as if it was easy because they were not the ones facing this monster directly.
This was...
A powerhouse on the same level as his actual father!!!
But Teach obviously was not going to sit there and wait to die.
"Zehahaha... Black Gun, now that you're standing so close, you must've figured out the exact method already. And after all the injuries I've suffered because of you..."
"How about we just call it even?"
Outwardly, Blackbeard sounded like he was begging for peace and backing down, but in reality, one hand was already covertly gathering power.
He planned to use the moment of conversation to launch an air tremor.
He did not hope to injure Ozz. He only wanted to catch him off guard for a split second and create an opening to escape.
Unfortunately for him, he thought too highly of himself.
After all, the crimson light in Ozz's eyes had never once faded.
At the level Ozz had reached now, his attacks had long since returned to the simplest form.
Whoever came at him got a kick.
Before the air could even start trembling, the foot that had already arrived in front of Teach's face had blocked out his entire field of vision.
Bang!!!
One explosive kick.
Dust erupted. The ground shattered and tore open.
Teach was sent plowing several hundred meters across the battlefield until he finally crashed to a stop right in front of Sakazuki. Ozz appeared right after him.
"We had an agreement back then. The price for letting you have the Dark-Dark Fruit was that you would tell me your secret..."
"I'm the kind of man who likes making a joke out of others. You're the first one who ever dared make a joke out of me."
Ozz appeared opposite Sakazuki with his hands still in his pockets, but his eyes were fixed entirely on Teach.
Teach's pupils trembled wildly. Darkness and shockwaves surged around his fists.
"Don't come any closer!!! You monster!!!"
But Ozz showed no fear whatsoever.
Facing the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, the so-called greatest destructive power in the world, he merely clenched his fist.
Crack crack crack...
Just like Teach's milky white shockwave, a black halo condensed around Ozz's fist as cracks spread through the surrounding space.
This was not the Tremor-Tremor Fruit shattering the air.
This was real space itself breaking apart.
"You still don't get it, do you? The upper limit of a Devil Fruit's power ultimately depends on the person using it, Teach."
The surrounding space began to fracture.
Everyone's faces changed dramatically.
What a terrifying power!!!
One fool, lightly coating his fingers with Haki, tried to touch one of the broken spatial cracks. His fingers were severed instantly, cut cleanly off.
This was something even more terrifying than a natural disaster like an earthquake.
A spatial quake.
The true power of a god.
Blackbeard Teach, his eyes bloodshot, and Sakazuki, who was also within the attack's range, both wore expressions drenched in sweat.
Both stared at Ozz as he raised his fist, black spatial ripples condensing around it.
And yet at that critical moment, a small figure suddenly rushed out and stood right in front of Ozz.
"That's enough!!!"
Everyone's attention was drawn to the newcomer at once.
"Stop fighting already!!!"
"You're wasting lives!!!"
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The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
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