Even the powers of the Float-Float Fruit that had been attached to the rocks were forcibly shaken loose by that tyrannical shock.
Dust and debris filled the air, blotting out all vision.
But Whitebeard didn't care in the slightest.
He charged straight in at the front, dragging his naginata behind him as he plunged into the smoke, slashing viciously at the dark silhouette within.
Yet from the dust, a black blade wrapped in Conqueror's Haki thrust out in response.
Shidarezura firmly blocked the overwhelmingly heavy naginata.
BOOM—!
The collision of air pressure blasted the surrounding dust completely clear.
In terms of raw physical strength, Tenma undeniably still had a visible gap compared to this so-called "World's Strongest Man."
In terms of Devil Fruits, the Float-Float Fruit excelled in versatility, while the Tremor-Tremor Fruit sat at the absolute ceiling of pure destructive power.
Every one of Whitebeard's attacks combined top-tier Haki with the most unreasonable shock imaginable—true, unavoidable damage.
And yet, in this brutal head-on exchange, Whitebeard was shocked to discover something terrifying.
He couldn't suppress Tenma.
That young man's sword momentum was simply monstrous.
With the amplification of the More-More Fruit layered on top, it didn't lose to the Tremor-Tremor Fruit at all.
In truth, Tenma could have exploited his aerial advantage—kiting from the sky, wearing Whitebeard down with long-range attacks until the old man fell.
But he deliberately abandoned that option and chose the most dangerous path of close-quarters combat.
Because his opponent was Whitebeard.
The man who once stood at the very summit of the world.
If victory meant nothing more than defeating an aged, worn-down elder riddled with old injuries, Tenma wouldn't have felt even the slightest thrill.
Only this kind of flesh-against-flesh slaughter could give him the joy of conquest.
Still… after fighting for so long, this straightforward exchange of blows began to feel dull.
The moment that thought surfaced, Tenma's aura changed instantly.
Like a volcano that had been suppressed for ages finally finding an outlet, it erupted violently.
The most obvious change appeared in the black blade Shidarezura.
Its jet-black body was suddenly overrun by an eerie, bewitching blood-red hue.
Black-and-crimson killing intent coiled around the blade, then spread outward, slowly enveloping Tenma's entire body.
This power felt both tangible—like raw murderous intent—and intangible, like pure will.
It carried a domineering arrogance that looked down upon the world, flooding every cell of Tenma's body.
This was one of Tenma's trump cards.
The powers of Autumn Water and Shidarezura fused perfectly—not merely strengthening the weapon, but feeding back into his body itself, unlocking an extreme offensive state.
—WHOOSH!!!
As his presence exploded, violent winds rose from nothing around him.
The sheer weight of this invisible "momentum" alone split the ground beneath his feet with savage cracks.
Whitebeard was a veteran of countless battles—he would never give an opponent time to calmly power up.
"Shhk!"
He raised Murakumogiri high. A blinding white sphere wrapped around the blade—the tremor energy compressed to its absolute limit.
With a roar, Whitebeard cleaved downward at Tenma.
—BOOOOM!
Terrifying shockwaves tore through the battlefield.
The already ravaged terrain suffered yet another wave of devastation, stones flying like bullets in all directions.
Whitebeard held his slashing posture, but his pupils suddenly shrank to pinpoints.
Because he felt it—
Tenma's Shidarezura had locked Murakumogiri in place.
More horrifying still, that supposedly unstoppable shock… had been forcibly cut apart.
Though shocked, Whitebeard's combat experience kept his mind steady. He immediately poured even more Conqueror's Haki into the attack.
And then—
Disaster struck.
The deep, bone-revealing wound on his back suddenly flared, as if struck again.
Blinding pain caused the slightest—almost imperceptible—stiffness in his movements.
It lasted only an instant.
But for Tenma, that was more than enough.
His figure vanished.
When he reappeared, the attack had already landed.
—BOOM!
This time, Whitebeard couldn't endure it.
He was blasted straight back from the front, his Armament defense shattered by force.
While still flying through the air, he could no longer suppress it—
A massive mouthful of blood erupted from his lips.
"FA—THER—!!!"
Heart-rending screams rang out from afar.
That cry seemed to give Whitebeard strength. His collapsing body twisted midair, and with a thunderous crash, his feet slammed back onto the ground.
"Hng… ngh!"
The moment he stabilized, he staggered back several steps, his face turning deathly pale.
"Pwah—!"
Another huge spray of dark blood burst from his mouth.
One massive hand instinctively clutched his chest, the pain there nearly stealing his breath.
His body trembled uncontrollably.
This wasn't just injury—it was decades of accumulated ailments erupting all at once.
And on top of that, the strange "momentum" left behind by Tenma's sword energy was rampaging inside him. Combined with his heart condition, this was far more than a simple one-plus-one.
Seeing this, Tenma didn't press the attack.
He simply watched Whitebeard calmly and said flatly,
"Your body has reached its limit. As expected… compared to your peak, you're a bit disappointing now."
"Shut up, Tenma, you brat!"
Whitebeard snapped his head up, eyes still fierce like a demon god's.
He forcibly suppressed the pain and instability wracking his body and straightened again, dragging his heavy naginata upright.
Thud—
Murakumogiri slammed into the ground.
Whitebeard raised both arms high, veins bulging like coiling dragons, an utterly terrifying sight.
He smashed both fists into the void before him.
The air instantly filled with cracks.
Then his hands shifted from fists to claws, gripping those fractures in space as if seizing the curtain of the world itself—
And yanked downward with all his might!
—BOOOOM!
The awakened power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit erupted in full!
The surrounding spatial cracks exploded at once, terrifying shock waves tearing outward into the wider world.
In this moment, it truly felt like the end of days.
The land collapsed violently, countless bottomless fissures spreading for kilometers.
The entire floating island disintegrated completely—through the cracks, the deep blue ocean below was clearly visible.
But it wasn't over.
"ROOOAR—!"
The sound of rushing water filled the air.
On both sides of Whitebeard, colossal waves surged upward, climbing thousands of meters into the sky.
A true tsunami—capable of swallowing everything—combined with the shock waves and crashed toward Tenma.
Even gravely wounded, even with his hidden illnesses exploding, this man could still unleash such world-destroying power.
Tenma couldn't help but feel a trace of respect.
In the next instant, his eyes flared with sharp light.
He tapped lightly with his toe. The swirling aura and momentum around him instantly collapsed inward, all of it condensing into a single point at the tip of Shidarezura.
His wrist twisted, the blade reversing upward.
At the same time, the raging winds controlled by the Float-Float Fruit wrapped tightly around the sword like loyal guards.
A suffocating pressure erupted.
With a single swing—
A vast, jade-white sword aura tore across the sky!
The sword aura fused with the storm, and under the amplification of the More-More Fruit, its power multiplied dozens—no, hundreds—of times over.
This strike carried the might to uproot mountains and fill seas as it surged head-on into the tsunami and shock waves.
Blades of wind instantly shredded the thousand-meter-high tsunami into nothingness.
The core sword aura didn't slow in the slightest, slamming directly into the shock that shook heaven and earth.
ROOOOOAR!!!
Under the stunned, terrified, trembling gazes of all who watched, the two ultimate forces collided.
For a brief moment, the world lost all sound.
Then—
A burst of light far brighter than the sun exploded outward.
The surrounding seas for miles were swallowed by white radiance. Everyone was forced to shut their eyes, tears streaming down their faces.
The thunderous explosion that followed felt like it shattered the soul itself.
The horrifying aftershocks ravaged everything indiscriminately.
And then—
As if the sound of the world breaking echoed—
That heaven-connecting shock wave was cut apart by that single sword!
After a long while, the blinding brilliance finally faded.
Only then did people dare to open their eyes and look, trembling, toward the center of the battlefield.
"Father… how could this be?!"
The Whitebeard Pirates wailed in despair.
On the mere few dozen meters of land that remained, the invincible figure they worshipped knelt on one knee, propping himself up with Murakumogiri.
His iconic crescent moustache was broken, his entire body soaked in blood, as if he'd been pulled straight from a pool of gore.
That was their god.
Even back when he clashed with Pirate King Roger, they'd never seen their father in such a state.
On the other side stood the "Flying General," Tenma.
His clothes were tattered, wounds leaking blood—but compared to Whitebeard, his condition was far better.
Those injuries were the price he paid for abandoning defense and going all-in on offense, struck by residual shock.
But he had won.
The victor was obvious at a glance.
Whitebeard knelt, yet his eyes remained locked on Tenma—like a beast that would still tear off a chunk of its enemy even at death's door.
He was telling everyone the fight wasn't over.
"The outcome is decided, Whitebeard."
Tenma slowly reined in his aura and casually sheathed Shidarezura.
His voice wasn't loud, yet it echoed across the battlefield:
"From today onward, the throne of the strongest belongs to me."
"I haven't lost yet, you brat!"
Whitebeard roared, gripping Murakumogiri and forcing himself upright once more.
That spirit alone was awe-inspiring.
But Tenma merely watched him quietly, with no intention of striking again.
Since he'd already won, there was no need to kill him.
Whitebeard alive was more useful.
Tenma needed Whitebeard's reputation and remaining power to keep stirring chaos during this transitional era—until the day he was ready to end everything.
"Even if I'm not afraid of your final counterattack, and even if I don't care about continuing this fight,"
Tenma said meaningfully as he looked at the unsteady Whitebeard,
"have you considered what kind of reckoning your so-called 'sons' would face in this mad era… if you died?"
Those words were like a bucket of ice water.
Whitebeard's fury was instantly extinguished.
"Buzz—"
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