Shiki sneered disdainfully as he watched Tatsuki rush into the eye of the storm. "Is it useful to hide in a turtle shell? In the face of absolute power, any tricks are futile."
He followed closely behind, diving headlong into that violent vortex.
However, the moment he entered the storm's range, his arrogant laughter came to an abrupt halt.
Because he discovered that the entire Waterspout had surged in size again under Tatsuki's will. It had turned into a true world-ending beast connecting the sky and the earth.
Its top disappeared into the depths of the ink-black clouds. Its bottom churned a bottomless, massive whirlpool on the sea surface.
Countless thick purple lightning bolts, like giant dragons, were wrapped around its body.
Even more terrifying was that the tens of thousands of tons of seawater sucked into the sky had turned into circular giant waves hundreds of meters high, seemingly gaining their own consciousness. They were like giant hands that blotted out the sun, ruthlessly crushing toward Shiki's massive fleet.
"Is... is this... an ancient weapon?!"
A pirate Captain looked at the scene before him, which completely exceeded human cognition. His legs went soft, and he knelt on the deck, his crotch becoming wet and warm.
"Run!"
"Turn the damn ship! Leave this sea area!"
"It's too late! The sails are torn! The rudder is broken too!"
Shiki's invincible fleet was in total chaos.
Crack!
The keel of a heavy warship was snapped by a giant wave, letting out a painful groan as it broke into two pieces.
Splash!
Another warship was swept hundreds of meters into the air, spinning helplessly before being hurled down, smashing right onto another allied ship. Both ships instantly turned into a massive fireball.
Countless pirates were torn to shreds by the gale amidst their screams, dragged into the deep sea by giant waves, or charred by lightning.
The sky rained down a storm of broken masts, burning planks, and mangled corpses.
At this moment, Edd War had completely turned into a slaughterhouse of natural disasters.
And Tatsuki, who had created all of this, was quietly floating in the center of the storm.
He closed his eyes, feeling the wail of the wind, the roar of the thunder, and the desperate cries of countless lives before they vanished.
This was... Tatsuki's power!
"My... my fleet..."
Shiki's mind went blank as he stared blankly at the scene of living hell.
The invincible grand fleet, which had cost him decades of effort and was supposed to help him conquer the world, was torn to shreds by that unreasonable super storm in just a few dozen seconds.
That was the foundation of his reign!
"Aaaahhh!!!"
An uncontrollable madness surged from the bottom of his heart. Shiki's eyes instantly became bloodshot, his golden hair stood on end, and terrifying Haki erupted uncontrollably in all directions.
"Unforgivable... unforgivable!"
"Marine brat! I'll take your life!"
He gave up on saving the fleet and went completely mad, transforming into a golden stream of light that tore through the sky and plunged straight into the raging storm circle.
Relying on the power of the Float-Float Fruit, he was confident he could move freely in any complex aerial environment.
However, only when he truly rushed into this chaotic domain single-handedly created by Tatsuki did he realize how terribly wrong he was.
To the east were upward hurricanes, to the west downward air pressure, above were sweeping air currents, and below were tearing whirlpools.
His proud Float-Float Fruit ability became extremely difficult to control at this moment. He could make himself float, but he couldn't counteract the insane, immense power originating from the entire atmospheric environment.
He felt like he had fallen into a high-speed centrifuge operating 360 degrees without blind spots. Even stabilizing his body was extremely difficult. He was blown back and forth in the gale, tumbling up and down in a sorry state.
This was Tatsuki's absolute domain!
"Damn it! What kind of ability is this!"
Shiki roared, swinging his famous swords Oto and Kogarashi to counterattack. But within that violent airflow, even maintaining a vertical posture became a luxury.
The overbearing slashes, which should have been powerful enough to cleave islands, became distorted and crooked due to the severe imbalance of his body.
As soon as the golden slash left the blades, it was mercilessly ripped apart by the surrounding turbulent currents, instantly shattering into pieces, turning into specks of golden light that vanished in the downpour. It was unable to condense into shape, let alone carve a path.
The center of the storm was absolute stillness.
Tatsuki hovered there, sitting cross-legged. His eyes glowed with an eerie cyan light, and half of his body had already transformed into gale and lightning. Strange cyan patterns covered his face, making him look like cracking porcelain.
This was a sign that his Devil Fruit ability was being pushed to the limit, and his stamina and life force were being dangerously overdrawn.
Tatsuki looked at the golden stream of light recklessly crashing through the storm, and a twisted smile spread across his lips.
Time was running out.
He concentrated intensely, meticulously controlling every wisp of airflow within the storm.
His gaze pierced through layers of rain, precisely locking onto an object tumbling haphazardly through the air.
A broken rudder from a pirate ship.
"That's the one."
Tatsuki's voice was hoarse and dry.
"Get over here... now!"
He stretched out his right hand and clenched his five fingers in the air.
An invisible wind, like a flexible tentacle, wrapped around the rudder segment tumbling in the storm.
Aim!
Accelerate!
Tatsuki violently injected the last bit of air pressure he could compress into it.
Inside the storm, a monstrous wave, intentionally amplified by Tatsuki, slammed into Shiki like a collapsing mountain.
"Pfft!"
Caught off guard, Shiki was struck by the massive force, causing his blood to churn, and his body momentarily lost balance in the air.
When experts clash, a single instant is enough.
"Vacuum Hell Prison!"
Tatsuki let out a low roar.
Buzz!
The air within a hundred meters around Shiki was instantly sucked dry.
An extreme sense of suffocation and weightlessness struck simultaneously, instantly emptying his mind. More fatally, he lost all perception of sound and airflow.
"This is bad!" An alarm bell rang loudly in the Shiki's heart.
Now!
"Go."
Tatsuki's eyes showed no fluctuation as he abruptly clenched his five fingers.
Whoosh!
The wooden rudder, enveloped in extreme air pressure, broke the sound barrier. With a shriek that tore eardrums, it transformed into an untraceable black line and shot out violently.
Shiki's battle-hardened Observation Haki had already captured the trajectory of death, but the imbalance of his body and the vacuum environment prevented him from making any effective evasive maneuvers. He could only watch helplessly as the black shadow rapidly enlarged in his pupils.
Tatsuki used the last shred of his strength to roar, "Stick it in... now!!!"
"No—"
Squelch!!!
A dull, sickening sound of something plunging into flesh echoed.