The sky above Dressrosa had completely ceased to be a natural canopy; it was now a churning, bruised vortex of purple and black cloud, swirling directly around the colossal abomination that was Saint Jaygarcia Saturn.
The plateau was no longer a solid structure. It had been systematically ground down into an apocalyptic crucible of pulverized limestone, smoking craters, and boiling, toxic venom.
The air was thick, tasting heavily of sulfur, burnt ozone, and the unmistakable, copper tang of pure exhaustion.
The ambient temperature fluctuated wildly, trapped between the suffocating heat of Lunarian magma-fire and the icy, paralyzing chill of the Elder Planet's ancient malice.
At the center of this crumbling arena stood the seven most dangerous prodigies of the rising generation, all of them pushed to the absolute limits of their physical and spiritual endurance.
Shanks stood at the absolute front of the vanguard, his boots sinking an inch into the loose ash.
His white shirt was entirely shredded, exposing a torso heavily bruised and bloodied from the concussive shockwaves of Saturn's invisible gaze attacks.
Beside him, Benn Beckman kept his flintlock rifle raised, his breathing a controlled but heavy rasp, his face masked in a layer of gray stone dust.
Surrounding them in a tight, desperate semi-circle were King the Wildfire, Marco the Phoenix, Charlotte Katakuri, Lucky Roux, and Limejuice.
Across from them, Saint Saturn loomed like a living monument of divine tyranny.
His massive spider legs twitched, the black chitinous tips effortlessly puncturing the solid bedrock. A deep, smoking gash from Shanks' previous attack cut across his chest, but the wound was already being actively suppressed by an eerie, bubbling mass of black slime. His crimson eyes glowed with an unholy, absolute light, entirely unbothered by the collective wrath of the kings before him.
"You have fought stubbornly, insects," Saturn's voice boomed, a deep, hollow resonance that vibrated through the marrow of their bones. "But a ripple cannot overturn the mountain. Your ambitions are nothing but a brief whisper in the ear of eternity."
The silence lasted only until a single piece of floating gravel disintegrated under the atmospheric pressure.
Before the sound could even finish expanding, the world in Charlotte Katakuri's mind's eye violently splintered into a translucent, multi-layered feed of time yet to happen. His Advanced Observation Haki flared to its absolute maximum, forcing his brain to process three seconds of absolute catastrophe.
Second One: Saturn's front right spider leg would execute a blinding, horizontal sweep, cutting through the space where Lucky Roux stood.
Second Two: Simultaneously, an invisible wave of concussive force would erupt from Saturn's gaze, targeting Marco's aerial trajectory.
Second Three: A massive torrent of acidic venom would rain down from above, completely cutting off the escape routes of both Beckman and Limejuice.
"Scatter! To the left, now!" Katakuri roared, his guttural voice slicing through the howling wind.
When reality caught up, Saturn's massive leg cut through the air exactly as Katakuri had foreseen. Lucky Roux, utilizing his impossible, physics-defying velocity, turned into a compressed ball of black-clad muscle, executing a high-speed roll beneath the descending chitinous blade.
Marco flipped violently backward mid-air, his blue and yellow flames flaring as the invisible crushing wave of Saturn's gaze missed his skull by a fraction of an inch, the sheer air pressure still tearing a clean laceration across his cheek.
But seeing the future was entirely different from being able to change it.
The third second manifested with apocalyptic scale. Saturn's mouth split open, releasing a torrential downpour of dark, sizzling bile. Limejuice tried to jump, to alter his trajectory, but the sheer area-of-effect of the toxic rain was too vast. A stray spray of the acid clipped his left thigh.
"Argh!" Limejuice screamed, his body violently crashing back onto the stone floor as the venom instantly melted through his trousers, sizzling against his flesh and stripping the skin away.
"Limejuice!" Lucky Roux bellowed, launching himself forward to drag his comrade out of the spreading pool of toxic sludge.
Katakuri ground his teeth, his face contorted in pure, unadulterated frustration. He ran forward, his right arm morphing and swelling into a gargantuan, block-shaped mass of hyper-dense, multi-layered mochi. He coated the entire spinning structure in every single ounce of his Armament Haki, turning the fist a glossy, metallic black.
"Buzz Cut Mochi!" Katakuri roared, slamming the colossal, spiked construct directly into Saturn's left flank.
WHAM!
The impact generated a deafening, metallic shockwave that blew the surrounding ash into a perfect, empty ring. The sheer physical force of Katakuri's maximum Haki attack successfully cracked Saturn's outer exoskeleton, burying the spiked mochi deep into the monster's side.
Yet, Katakuri's eyes widened in horror. There was no resistance. Saturn didn't even tilt his massive bulk.
The moment Katakuri pulled his arm back, the shattered chitin and torn flesh instantly bubbled with that cursed, black slime, sealing the wound perfectly within a fraction of a millisecond.
Katakuri possessed the regular Conqueror's Haki. The spirit of a king, but he had not yet unlocked the advanced ability to coat his attacks in it. Without that sacred, reality-warping armor, his maximum physical and elemental strikes were doing absolutely zero lasting damage. The Elder's unnatural immortality simply reset the board every time he was hit.
'It's completely meaningless,' Katakuri thought, sweat pouring down his face as he leaped backward to avoid a counter-stab. 'No matter how hard I hit him... he simply refuses to stay cut.'
"Get back, Katakuri!" Shanks' voice cut through the chaos like a silver bell.
The young captain of the Red Hair Pirates burst through the toxic smoke, his face set in a grim, unyielding expression of pure focus. Gryphon was fully drawn, the steel completely consumed by a roaring, tempestuous storm of black and red lightning. The arcs of advanced Conqueror's Haki were so dense that the literal space around the blade began to distort and warp, crackling like breaking glass.
Beside him, Benn Beckman matched his stride. He didn't use his rifle as a firearm this time; he gripped the steel-reinforced barrel with both hands, the entire weapon turning an ominous, metallic crimson-black as he coated it entirely in his own Advanced Conqueror's Haki, sparks of spiritual lightning snapping off the structure like solar flares.
They were the only two on the entire battlefield capable of utilizing the Conqueror's coating. The only force capable of carving a wound that Saturn's immortality couldn't instantly erase.
They detonated forward simultaneously.
Katakuri's Future Sight showed him the collision a second before it happened, but there was no dodging this time. It was an irresistible force meeting an immovable god.
Shanks executed a flawless, blinding dash, appearing directly beneath Saturn's broad, bearded chest. He swung Gryphon upward in a colossal, vertical arc that carried the absolute weight of a true emperor's ambition.
"Divine Departure!" Shanks screamed.
Simultaneously, Beckman swung his coated rifle like a massive iron club, driving a devastating horizontal strike directly into Saturn's front right leg joint.
"───!!!!"
The moment of dual impact did not produce a sound. The sheer magnitude of Advanced Conqueror's Haki released was so immense that it swallowed the auditory spectrum entirely.
A blinding dome of white, crimson, and black light erupted from the points of contact, expanding outward with cataclysmic speed. The remaining stone pillars on the plateau were instantly vaporized into fine dust.
Saturn let out a raw, genuine roar of agonizing fury. Shanks' cutlass sliced deep into his torso, cutting through the black slime and leaving a massive, burning laceration that sprayed a fountain of thick, black ichor onto the dirt.
The advanced Haki actively burned against Saturn's ancient biology, preventing the wound from instantly snapping shut. At the same time, Beckman's strike completely shattered the bone structure of Saturn's front leg, forcing the colossal spider-god to violently stumble, his massive frame tilting heavily to the right.
But the price of forcing a god to bleed was terrifyingly high.
Saturn, driven into a frenzy by the genuine pain, did not retreat. He used his remaining legs to stabilize himself, and with a speed that completely defied his massive size, his head violently snapped forward. His crimson eyes flashed with an unprecedented, blinding intensity.
An absolute, crushing wave of invisible force detonated at point-blank range, striking both Shanks and Beckman simultaneously.
BOOM!
The concussive shockwave tore through their Advanced Haki protections like paper. Beckman let out a choked gasp as his ribs cracked under the pressure, his body being blasted backward like a human missile, tearing a hundred-foot trench through the bedrock before crashing into a pile of rubble.
Shanks violently crossed his forearms, using Gryphon to anchor himself, but the sheer kinetic force blasted the air completely from his lungs. He was hurled backward across the wasteland, his boots skidding across the melting stone until he finally came to a halt, dropping to one knee as a thick stream of crimson blood erupted from his lips.
King flew down from the heavens, his Lunarian flames roaring as he tried to cover their retreat, but Saturn's massive left leg batted him out of the air with a casual, merciless backhand, sending the pterodactyl-man crashing into the dirt beside Marco, whose blue flames were now flickering slowly, struggling to keep up with the constant, exhausting regeneration demands.
The seven prodigies were completely scattered across the wasteland, their breathing sounding like broken bellows, their bodies covered in blood, sweat, and ash. Saturn stood in the center, the deep gash on his chest smoking and bleeding, but his eyes remained entirely lethal. They were losing. The stamina drain was too immense
"Hey... you guys look completely pathetic out here," a steady, confident voice suddenly echoed from the rolling curtain of gray smoke at the rear vanguard.
Shanks wiped the blood from his chin, his eyes widening slightly as he looked back.
Walking smoothly through the settling ash was Norwell D. Giovanni. His upper torso was tightly wrapped in thick layers of white medical gauze, the bandages pristine except for where his explosive aura caused them to ripple.
He looked completely unbothered, his posture relaxed, and his right hand loosely held the hilt of Gol D. Roger's legendary cutlass, Ace.
The fatal hole Kizaru had put through his chest was completely suppressed; his physical body was seemingly back to absolute one hundred percent health, radiating a vibrant, terrifying reservoir of renewed energy.
In his left hand, Giovanni held five small, intricately carved pills, each one glowing with a faint, natural green hue.
The heavily breathing prodigies looked up from the dirt, their expressions trapped between absolute shock and sheer disbelief.
"Giovanni...?" Marco gasped out, his blue flames flickering weakly. "How the hell are you standing up? You had a literal hole through your lung a minute ago!"
Giovanni stopped right beside the kneeling Shanks, a feral, dangerous grin stretching across his face as he held out the five pills in his open palm.
"I've got five magical pills right here," Giovanni said, his voice filled with a cocky, absolute confidence. "They will instantly restore your broken bodies back to one hundred percent health, completely overflowing your stamina and Haki reserves... in exchange for suffering double the pain later on. Anyone want to take the gamble?"
Shanks stared at the glowing green medicine, a sharp, knowing smile instantly breaking through his exhaustion.
"The secret recovery medicine from the Mink Tribe of Zou, of course," Shanks said, his voice gaining a sudden, dangerous edge as he gripped Gryphon's hilt. "Hongo actually gave it to you."
King dragged himself up from the rubble, the flame on his back violently exploding back into a towering inferno of pure magma-heat. He looked at Saturn, then looked back at the pill. "Double the pain later means absolutely nothing if we die here today. Give it to me, Giovanni."
"Fuffuffu... a medicine that overclocks the body?" Doflamingo laughed from the distant ridge, watching the exchange with intense amusement. "What a ridiculous bunch of monsters."
Katakuri stood tall, his sharp fangs exposed as his eyes blazed with a renewed, lethal focus. "I will take one. I need enough stamina to shatter that armor."
"Count me in, yare yare," Marco said, his arms instantly transforming back into brilliant, soaring wings of blue fire. "Pops always said a real pirate doesn't worry about tomorrow's pain when his captain is bleeding."
Shanks stood up completely, his posture straightening as he reached out, snatching the final pill from Giovanni's hand. "Give it here, Gio. Let's show this old fossil what the new era is made of."
In a single, synchronized motion, Shanks, Katakuri, King, and Marco swallowed the sacred medicine of Zou.
The effect was instantaneous and terrifying. A massive, concussive shockwave of pure, renewed physical energy detonated from their bodies.
Their wounds didn't heal, but the pain vanished entirely, their stamina reservoirs instantly overflowing past their absolute limits. The ambient air began to hum violently as their collective Haki flared back to life with triple the intensity.
Giovanni's grin softened into a genuine, respectful smile. He took a deep, centering breath, placing both hands on the hilt of Ace.
He didn't think about the double pain that would inevitably tear his body apart within a few hours. He thought only of the concept of the absolute strike.
"Davy Sword Style..." Giovanni stepped forward, the earth violently shattering beneath his leather boot as a colossal aura of pitch-black and blood-red lightning erupted from Ace, wrapping around the blade until the steel looked ten times its actual size.
He looked at Saturn, his golden eyes blazing with a blinding, triumphant light.
"...It's time for a comeback, old man."
---
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