For Teach, running was no longer an option.
If Shiki wanted his life, then he could only stake everything he had.
"Darkness is gravity!"
Teach thrust both hands forward.
"Black Hole!"
Darkness erupted.
The ground collapsed as if the desert beneath it had been hollowed out, and the surrounding sand was dragged violently into the abyss.
Even the air itself seemed to twist as the black tide surged upward toward Shiki.
Doc Q and Laffitte had already retreated far away.
Neither of them dared to step closer.
They had followed Teach because they believed he was a man chosen by fate, and this fight would be proof of that.
Shiki remained in the sky, unmoving.
The darkness climbed toward him like a monstrous hand.
"So this is the power you gambled your entire life on."
Teach's expression twisted into a grin.
"Don't screw with me!"
The black tide suddenly compressed, and a violent pulling force seized Shiki's body.
"Kurouzu!"
The darkness became a vortex.
A power capable of dragging in even Devil Fruit users caught Shiki from every direction. Teach's eyes gleamed with ferocious confidence as he opened his hand toward him.
"As long as I touch you, your Devil Fruit power is finished!"
Shiki's body was supposed to be pulled downward, and the moment Teach caught him, his Devil Fruit power would be nullified along with his body immobilized.
At least, that was what Teach believed.
But in reality, Shiki did not seem to be affected by the gravitational pull at all. He simply hovered there, looking down at Teach as if nothing had changed.
Teach's confident grin froze.
"…What?"
Shiki lowered his eyes and looked down at him condescendingly.
"You rely too much on that fruit."
A deep, suffocating pressure suddenly descended.
Black-red lightning cracked through the air.
Shiki slowly raised one hand, his fingers curling around the hilt of one of his swords.
Oto slid from its sheath with a quiet ring.
In that instant, the atmosphere changed.
There was still so much distance between them, yet Teach felt as if his heart had already been pierced.
Advanced Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the sword in violent black-red arcs, so dense that the air screamed around it. It did not cling to the blade like flame. It roared around it like a lion baring its fangs.
Teach's pupils shrank to pinpoints. His cowardly nature kicked in, and his earlier confidence vanished like smoke.
This was bad.
That did not feel like an attack he could block.
"Wait—!"
Teach immediately released his Devil Fruit dark vortex and tried to retreat.
The darkness surged around him, forming layer after layer of defense.
"Darkness absorbs everything!"
His face twisted with desperation.
"No matter what kind of attack it is, I can swallow it!"
"Ohh? I see... Let's put that to the test, then..."
Shiki nodded calmly at him.
Then, without the slightest mercy, he swung forward.
"Lion Might: Judgment."
The slash went forward with terrifying momentum.
Before the blade's force could even make contact, the Conqueror's Haki struck first.
A black-red shockwave tore through the darkness like judgment from the heavens. The entire black tide was split open in a single breath, crushed beneath the overwhelming will wrapped around Shiki's blade.
Teach's defenses shattered upon contact after struggling for only a moment. The darkness that was supposed to devour all things was forced apart.
For one brief instant, Teach did not know whether it was an illusion or whether he was simply imagining it.
But he saw it.
A golden lion.
Teach's massive body was blasted across the desert like a cannonball.
The ground split beneath him for hundreds of meters. Sand erupted into the sky in towering waves, and the shockwave carved a deep scar through the battlefield, straight through stone, ruins, and desert alike.
By the time the dust settled, the black tide was gone.
Only a long ravine remained.
At the end of it, Teach lay half-buried in the sand, his body broken, his coat torn to pieces, and his eyes staring blankly at the sky.
Shiki slowly descended from above and landed a short distance away from him.
The desert wind dragged his coat behind him.
Teach's fingers twitched.
He was trying to get up.
Somehow, unbelievably, he was still alive.
Blood leaked from his mouth as he forced out a laugh.
"Ze… haha… It hurts... it hurts so much..."
The laugh came out weak and ugly. Even now, the madness in his eyes had not completely vanished, though the pain tearing through his body made him want to roll around in the sand.
"Hold on… don't be so hasty…"
His voice trembled, but he still tried to stretch his lips into that familiar crooked smile.
"A man like me… I'm useful, you know?"
"I waited… so many years… hid under Whitebeard's flag… smiled when I had to smile… bowed my head when I had to bow…"
"All for one chance… and I got it… the Yami Yami no Mi."
Teach raised his head with difficulty and stared at Shiki.
"I can take the abilities from dead Devil Fruit users. I can pull them out and give them to others."
He stretched one shaking hand toward Shiki.
"Golden Lion… you want the world, don't you?"
His eyes grew wider, almost feverish.
"Then why stop at one crew? Why stop at ordinary pirates? With me, you could build an army full of monsters!"
His breathing grew rougher, but his voice became louder, more desperate.
"Logia users… Mythical Zoans… Paramecia freaks… anyone you kill can become your weapon!"
"You and me… together… we could crush the Marines, trample the Four Emperors, tear down the World Government, and make the whole world kneel!"
Shiki let Teach talk as much as he wanted.
Only when Teach finished did Shiki smile.
There was no warmth in it.
"You really are a pirate, Teach."
"Z-Zeha... ha... That's right. So... do you accept it?"
Blackbeard laughed nervously. Something felt wrong. Those words carried an ominous weight that made his instincts scream.
"Even while begging, your eyes are still looking for a chance to bite back."
Shiki's gaze turned cold.
"Do you expect me to let a dog live when it's only waiting for its master to weaken before showing its fangs?"
The black-red lightning around Oto crackled again.
Teach's throat went dry.
"Wait… wait, Shiki! Think carefully! My fruit—!"
Splash!
The sword passed cleanly through his neck without resistance.
Teach's head flew upward, then fell beside his body and rolled into the desert sand, his eyes still wide open with unwillingness and hatred.
Marshall D. Teach, one of the future Four Emperors and the son of Rocks D. Xebec, died before he could ever make a name for himself.
"A man's dream doesn't die, but the man himself can."
Shiki slowly sheathed his sword.
Then the panel appeared before him again.
[Ding! Target "Blackbeard" eliminated.]
[Yami Yami no Mi extraction initiated.]
A mass of black light rose from Teach's corpse.
It writhed like living darkness, unwilling to be taken, as though even the fruit's power still carried its former owner's greed.
[Ding! Yami Yami no Mi acquired.]
[Compatibility with "Yami Sukehiro" template confirmed.]
[Template progress Yami Sukehiro: 40%]
[New ability branch unlocked: Dark Magic Adaptation.]
[Additional ability acquired: Devil Fruit extraction and power nullification.]
Shiki's golden eyes narrowed, a thrill running through him as he felt the sudden surge in his strength.
In one leap, his template had vaulted to 40%, an upgrade he could feel in every fiber of his being.
Even more satisfying was the awakening of Dark Magic, accompanied by two unexpected abilities that left him quietly pleased. Each new power was another stepping stone toward the grand plans he had laid for the future.
"Not bad, Teach. In the end, you did make yourself useful."
Meanwhile, Laffitte and Doc Q sprinted side by side across the baking desert, talking and even laughing as if the monster had already forgotten them.
Still, Laffitte urged, "Better to keep moving."
Neither man felt the slightest shame in abandoning their fallen captain.
If Teach could be killed so easily, then in their eyes, he had never been worth following in the first place.
Before long, however, their smiles faltered.
They exchanged wary glances.
Despite all their effort, they seemed to be circling the same patch of sand.
Beneath their boots, the dune writhed, shifting like a living thing.
An instant later, the ground collapsed.
The swirling sand swallowed them whole, crushing everything in its path.
As they were dragged into the smothering darkness, a single chilling realization flashed through their minds.
That monster never intended to let them go.
"Rats, the lot of them," Shiki muttered, his boots crunching over the still-settling dunes.
"Did they truly believe I'd let them scamper off?"
Whether the Blackbeard Pirates lived or vanished from history books was irrelevant.
Shiki had never been one to fret over a world's so-called intended plot. If their deaths warped destiny, then so be it. It merely meant fate would have to learn how to dance to his tune.
He dusted the sand from his coat and turned toward Crocodile instead.
One last diversion before departure.
Shiki looked down at him for a moment, then reached toward the supplies left behind by Teach's group.
An ordinary apple flew into his hand.
"So this is what they were planning to do."
Shiki held the apple calmly and activated the newly acquired power.
Black darkness rose from his palm.
It did not spread wildly like Teach's darkness. It moved according to Shiki's will, wrapping around Crocodile's body in complete silence.
A moment later, something was drawn out.
It had no clear shape, yet Shiki could feel it.
The power of the Suna Suna no Mi was being pulled from Crocodile's body and guided toward the apple in his hand.
The fruit trembled.
Its skin twisted.
Strange spiral patterns slowly appeared across its surface, and the ordinary apple changed little by little until it became something entirely different.
A Devil Fruit.
Shiki looked at the fruit in his hand.
His expression remained calm, but a faint trace of interest appeared in his eyes.
"Do I need to start carrying apples now?"
He turned the newly born Devil Fruit once in his hand and gave a quiet, dry chuckle.
There was no need to wait for the power to appear somewhere else in the sea.
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 300 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.