"He actually came back to life?"
"That's one way to put it."
Seeing Edward Newgate's stunned expression, Rosen's smile deepened. "Something wrong?"
The World's Strongest Man frowned, his gaze sharp as he scrutinized the Marine officer. He didn't understand. A person's presence couldn't be faked. Dead was dead. It was impossible for a corpse to return.
"Of course something's wrong," Rosen said, meeting Newgate's eyes. "Your plan to kill me was nothing but wishful thinking from start to finish."
"Is that so?" Newgate's confusion didn't show in his voice. Though surprised, he had mastered the awakened power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit. He now possessed the strength to contend with the Marine King—to kill the Grim Reaper of the Seas. "I might not know why you're still alive, but you've seen it yourself. You're no longer my match."
Even facing this bizarre situation, Newgate felt no worry. If he could kill Rosen once, he could kill him twice, three times, countless times.
"I've witnessed it," Rosen acknowledged. "The awakened Tremor-Tremor Fruit is indeed astonishing."
His tone shifted, turning cold as steel.
"But that's all. Just like a sharp knife that can't cut its target, it's meaningless. Even if your Fruit possesses immense power, if you can't touch me, it's utterly useless."
He smiled slightly, stating an undeniable fact.
"Gurarararararara!"
Newgate's laugh boomed across the frozen battlefield. "Can't touch you? You really dare say that? Then who was the one I defeated just now? Who was the one who couldn't even utter a sound? And who was the one struck by Murakumogiri?"
After three consecutive questions, his eyes widened, pupils gleaming with scarlet light. Before awakening, his emotions could trigger tsunamis. Now, he could shatter anything within his sight and Observation Haki range.
Just like now.
CRACK!
With a single glance, the space where Rosen stood shattered. Cracks of white light, like giant pythons coiling around him, covered his entire body. Not only was the visible space shattered, but the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's power vibrated Rosen's body from the inside out—hair, skin, flesh, organs—everything.
In an instant, under that endless force, Rosen's blood trickled from his mouth. He couldn't even make a sound.
But there was one difference: a slight smile played on his lips. Calm. Composed.
"He's actually smiling?"
"Impossible. His facial nerves should be destroyed by the vibrations."
This smile caught Newgate's eye, causing his pupils to contract involuntarily.
"You're probably wondering why I can still smile," Rosen's lips barely moved, yet his voice rang clear. "It's simple. Because your Tremor-Tremor Fruit awakened ability didn't touch me at all. Never."
"How is this possible?" Newgate's face twisted grim.
Before he could process this, he felt tearing, excruciating pain in his chest. Like a black knife piercing his heart.
He looked down.
A familiar Zanpakutō slowly materialized in his vision. Tensa Zangetsu. This bizarre scene filled him with unprecedented shock.
What horrified him more was that Rosen, who should have been a hundred meters away, trapped in the cracked space, now appeared before him. Out of thin air. A projection made real.
"You—" Newgate's eyes widened, pupils threatening to burst.
But then he noticed. Besides Tensa Zangetsu piercing his heart, Rosen held another Zanpakutō in his left hand. Not Daiguren Hyōrinmaru, which had previously frozen him, Shiki, and Charlotte Linlin. A Zanpakutō he'd never seen before.
"It's that sword's ability," Newgate realized. He had been slashed into ice thousands of meters deep, yet reappeared. One second he exuded death, the next he lived. One Rosen trapped, another appearing from nothing. All due to this unknown Zanpakutō.
"It's called Kyoka Suigetsu," Rosen said. "My favorite Zanpakutō. Before your consciousness fades, remember its name."
Gripping Tensa Zangetsu's hilt, Rosen tightened his hand slightly.
BOOM!
Centered on the sword hand, golden light and black lightning erupted together, forming a black-gold torrent of lightning. It coiled around Tensa Zangetsu's blade, then poured into Newgate's heart like a dam bursting.
"GETSUGA TENSHŌ!"
The detached voice accompanied the surging torrent raging within Newgate's chest, causing terrifying damage inside and out. Physically, the World's Strongest Man was far inferior to Charlotte Linlin and Kaido. Even the strongest creatures on land, sea, and air couldn't withstand the organ, bone, and blood vessel damage from the Crescent Moon Slash.
BOOM!
After a burst of intense black-gold light, the lightning torrent instantly destroyed Newgate's heart, lungs, flesh, bones—everything. A massive black-gold tidal wave covered his body, forming a spiraling tornado that shot skyward, erasing the spatial cracks above the heavens.
THUD
As the tornado dissipated, half of Newgate's body was gone—left chest, left abdomen, half a lung—erased completely.
THUD
Thick crimson blood gushed from his mouth and shattered half-body.
THUD
After swaying side to side, even using Murakumogiri as a crutch, he could only kneel before Rosen. The familiar scene replayed. At the start of their one-on-one, he'd been cut to his knees by a few strikes. Now, even with the awakened Fruit, he was forced back to his knees.
"Hmph!" Newgate groaned, blood-stained face contorted. The pain of half his body shattered was unprecedented. But he endured it.
He gritted his teeth, raising his head. If he allowed this man to step over his corpse, despair would fall upon the Whitebeard Pirates. A surge of power welled within him—not from his broken body, but from his will.
SNAP!
A blood-stained hand, large as a fan, shot out. It grabbed the blade piercing his chest, Tensa Zangetsu, like a dragon's claw. Simultaneously, eyes gleaming with icy killing intent locked onto Rosen.
"A mirage? Just an illusion!"
Before finishing the words, Rosen's body and the space around him shattered.
CRACK!
Gleaming cracks spread across the void, covering Newgate's body too.
BOOM!
A deafening roar. A terrifying shockwave, powerful enough to overturn the sky and ocean, engulfed everything. The ice shattered, collapsed, forming horrifying canyons. The sky trembled, shook, twisted wildly.
Newgate, having paid a heavy price, discerned Kyoka Suigetsu's ability with his extraordinary combat instinct. Illusions. Since Tensa Zangetsu had pierced his body and unleashed Getsuga Tenshō, destroying half of him, it meant the sword and its wielder were real. The rest was illusion.
"Destroy everything at once," he thought. "Map-wide attack. The shockwave covers a large enough area—it'll definitely hit Rosen."
"This time, it's over." He stared at the devastated battlefield, resembling a nuclear explosion.
But the moment his feet touched the ground, pain and weakness overwhelmed him. His knees buckled. He didn't just kneel—he collapsed forward, sprawling.
DRIP
Thick blood flowed from his battered body, forming a pool. Having lost his heart and half his body, even kneeling was a luxury.
"Have you reached your limit?" Newgate lay prostrate, feeling his eyelids crushed by an irresistible weight. "Give me a little more time! Just a little!"
THUD
A pair of booted feet appeared in his blood-soaked vision.
"Still not giving up, Newgate?" Rosen's voice cut through the haze. C
—-
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