Chapter 435 - 274

Chapter 275: The Battle of Reckoning (4)Deep within the island was the literal core of destruction.Three streaks of light—black, blue, and orange—traversed and collided frantically across the devastated land and among the ruins, moving too fast for the naked eye to track.Every brief clash unleashed a chaotic torrent of energy that seemed to rend the heavens and the earth!Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!!!Fists and feet traded blows, blades and claws clashed, flames leaped, and darkness surged. Every impact was powerful enough to scatter the thick clouds high in the sky!"Zehahaha—!!! Ace!! Speaking of which, I really have to 'thank' your precious little brother, Straw Hat Luffy, for the strength I have today!!"At the very center of the violent energy torrent, Blackbeard Teach was facing two opponents at once, yet he still seemed to be doing so with ease.His oversized black Captain's coat fluttered wildly in the howling gales, his black hair stood on end, and madness surged in his blood-red eyes—he looked like a true demon!But when the name "Luffy" roared from his throat, the muscles on his face, which was filled with arrogance and cruelty, twitched uncontrollably.A deep-seated hatred almost overflowed from his eyes, but in the deepest depths of that hatred, a flicker of... fear, born from a primal instinct of the soul that even he refused to admit, flashed by!No one knew what kind of eerie and terrifying secret was hidden within Marshall D. Teach's body.It wasn't just some simple "abnormal" constitution; rather, since birth, three distinct yet symbiotic souls had resided within him!It was these three souls supporting each other that maintained the bizarre balance within him and granted him a formidable vitality far beyond that of ordinary people.Because of this, theoretically, his body was capable of withstanding the conflicting cursed powers of three Devil Fruits!This was his greatest ambition and his ultimate trump card.However, all of this was completely crushed and rewritten after he met that madman wearing a straw hat!The details of that battle had long since been submerged in the excruciating pain of near-death and the ultimate agony of a soul being torn apart, becoming a blurred mess.He only remembered that the seemingly carefree rubber brat had somehow, in a way he couldn't comprehend, actually shattered and annihilated his three souls!In his near-death state, the shattered soul fragments had forcibly intertwined, merged, and smelted together in an extremely distorted and frenzied manner, finally condensing into a brand-new soul.It was more solid than any of the previous ones, but also more violent and greedy than any before it!A blessing in disguise? Perhaps.That "death" and "rebirth" of his soul was like an extremely cruel tempering.His talent for cultivation, his combat instincts, and even his desire for and control over power had all undergone a terrifying qualitative change, soaring upward!More importantly, this newborn soul had achieved an unprecedented, "perfect" compatibility with the Dark-Dark Fruit, which represented the source of "darkness"!It was this terrifying compatibility born from the shattering and reorganization of his soul, combined with his soaring potential and near-manic cultivation... that allowed him to complete the leap from initial mastery to a qualitative change in power in less than three months after obtaining the Dark-Dark Fruit. He stepped into a realm that countless ability users dream of but fail to reach in their entire lives—the realm of Fruit Awakening!In that battle, he forever lost the chance to simultaneously control multiple top-tier fruits and become an unprecedented "Multi-Fruit Emperor."But in exchange, he stepped onto a path that was more extreme, purer, and even more terrifying:To abandon the stacking of multiple powers and pursue the ultimate singularity of a single power!This was what created the Marshall D. Teach of today!The one and only Dark Sovereign who stood before the Flame Emperor and the Phoenix, suppressing two great powerhouses with the power of absolute darkness!"You'd better not target my brother—!!!"Ace's roar was like a volcano erupting through the earth's crust. The orange-red flames around him surged violently, instantly wrapping him into a blazing God of Fire!In his palm, endless destructive energy gathered, compressed, and took shape. In the blink of an eye, a lotus over ten meters in diameter, condensed from the purest and most intense orange-red flames, bloomed brilliantly in his hand!Meanwhile, high in the sky, Marco's silhouette had already merged with the vast blue heavens.He condensed all the blue flames of the Phoenixinto his right claw without reservation.Snapping his wings shut, he turned into a blue meteor that tore through the sky, plummeting downward with a determined momentum that could pierce the earth!"Hellfire Lotus: Full Bloom!""Phoenix: Falling Star Seal!"From above and below, the Lotus of Incineration and the Falling Star Seal crashed toward the same spot!Two energies of different natures, both having reached the pinnacle of destruction, enveloped Blackbeard Teach like an inescapable net!The terrifying pressure surging toward him was enough to make any powerhouse's heart fail.However, Blackbeard Teach, at the center of this lethal strike, suddenly burst into a deafening roar of laughter!"Zehahaha—!!! Stupid! So stupid!! Don't you understand yet?!"He opened his arms as if embracing the fatal attack, the flesh on his face twisting and deforming from extreme excitement:"Devil Fruit users... can never, ever truly contend with... darkness—!!!"Before he even finished speaking, the darkness surging around him underwent a sudden qualitative change!Buzz— Buzz— Buzz—!!!Thick darkness poured out and constructed itself frantically with him as the center!Nine deep, rotating Black Hole exits, seemingly connecting to different abyssal dimensions, lit up and expanded simultaneously in the space around his body like nine ominous dark stars!They were arranged according to some mysterious trajectory, faintly forming a dark constellation that devoured everything!The darkness rapidly expanded and collapsed, finally turning into a fist-sized core that emitted a gravitational pull capable of swallowing heaven and earth—the Dark Core!"Hell's Depiction: Eternal Devourment—!!!"Boom—!!!!!!The Dark Core suddenly exploded, transforming into a terrifying, constantly twisting and changing scroll!Wherever the scroll passed, light, fire, energy, matter... everything in existence was frantically pulled, distorted, and decomposed by that irresistible gravity, leaving not even a trace of an aftershock!..."That... that's...""Impossible... absolutely impossible!!""Captain Ace! Captain Marco!!"Unbelievable shock and a bone-chilling cold instantly seized the heart of every WhitebeardCaptain!They simply couldn't accept it, let alone believe it!The ultimate strike that combined the full power of both Ace and Marco had been completely devoured and annihilated by Blackbeard Teach!"Heh... Fighting me and you still dare to get distracted by what's happening elsewhere?"A cold, mocking voice suddenly pierced Vista's ears.Shiliew of the Rain's blood-red eyes glanced at Vista, whose movements had momentarily stalled due to the shock of the distant battle, and a cruel smile curled on his lips.Shua!He, along with the blood-drinking famous blade "raimei" in his hand, seemed to melt into the surrounding shadows and vanished without a trace!"Not good—!!"The hair on Vista's body stood on end!He forcibly suppressed his worry and shock for Aceand Marco, pushing his Observation Haki to its absolute limit!At almost the same time!Bang—!!Jozu once again sent the furious Burgess flying like a sandbag. Burgess screamed as he was embedded into a distant rock wall, unable to get up for a moment.However, at the very moment when Jozu's old strength was spent and new strength had yet to arise, his body slightly stiff from the full-force collision!!Swoosh!!An extremely sharp blood-colored afterimage flashed behind Jozu without warning!Upon the blade of "raimei," Armament Hakicompressed to the extreme and bloodthirsty killing intent converged as it slashed down ruthlessly toward the joint of Jozu's diamond-hard neck!"Wha—?!"Relying on beast-like instinct, Jozu suddenly turned his head and body, but that demonic blade-light was already right in front of him!Fast! Too fast! It surpassed the speed limit at which his diamond body could twist!Puchi—!!!Jozu's indestructible diamond left arm was actually severed at the shoulder by Shiliew's "Instant Shadow Slash," which concentrated all his killing intent and skill!The severed arm, with its brilliant diamond luster, drew a cold arc in the air before crashing heavily to the ground!"Ugh, aaaaaah—!!"The piercing pain caused Jozu to let out an irrepressible muffled roar. His massive body stumbled back due to the loss of balance, and hot blood instantly dyed half his body red!"Jozu—!!!"Witnessing this, Vista's eyes instantly became bloodshot and red!He knew Shiliew's background all too well!The former Head Warden of Impel Down who was as famous as "Poison Man" Magellan and guarded the Eternal Hell—his swordsmanship and strength were definitely at the level of a terrifying Marine Admiral candidate!His reason was screaming in a frenzy, warning him of the danger!But...!!"I can't worry about that anymore—!!!!"Vista erupted with a beast-like low growl from deep within his throat!He knew that if he couldn't stop Shiliew now and let this bloodthirsty demon harvest their ranks at will, the already desperate Whitebeard Pirateswould surely face a total annihilation in the truest sense!Boom!!His feet stomped the ground like cannonballs, and the rocks beneath him instantly turned to powder!His silhouette turned into a silver afterimage that tore through the air, rushing toward Shiliew, who was just about to deliver the finishing blow, with an indomitable momentum!Anger! Grief! The determination to protect his comrades! The towering hatred for Blackbeard's crew... all these emotions exploded at this moment, turning into the purest power that surged and roared through his limbs and bones!Buzz—!The muscles in his arms, which gripped his twin blades tightly, bulged and swelled at a visible rate, with veins popping and pulsing like writhing dragons!All the Armament Haki within his body circulated and compressed with unprecedented efficiency and intensity!A deep jet-black climbed and stained up from the hilts, completely turning the silvery blades into an absolute darkness that devoured light!On the blades, faint black electric arcs flickered and jumped, emitting a terrifying aura that seemed to destroy everything!"Hmm?!"Shiliew, who was about to deal the finishing blow to Jozu, suddenly felt that surging, violent killing intent from his flank!His blood-red eyes instantly narrowed, and the cruel playfulness on his face was replaced by solemnity for the first time!"Armament Haki... it actually strengthened again during the fight?! And this texture and pressure..."Shiliew clearly sensed that what was currently entwined around Vista's blades was precisely the threshold of a top-tier powerhouse—Top-tier Armament Haki: Internal Destruction!"Get the hell—AWAY FROM HIM!!!"Vista's roar and his blade-light descended simultaneously! In his blood-red eyes burned a madness that didn't care if they both died together!Clang clang clang clang clang!!!!!!In the next instant, the sound of clashing blades, so dense it made one's scalp tingle, exploded across the battlefield like a rainstorm!Clang!!In one heavy clash, Shiliew actually felt his arm go numb. He was forced back half a step by Vista's strike, which was loaded with violent fury and new Armament Haki!"What?!"A flash of shock crossed Shiliew's eyes.Immediately after, Vista's twin blades turned into a death storm of interwoven black and silver light. His offensive was like a gale and torrential rain, completely abandoning defense, with every strike carrying the resolve to trade injury for injury!That newborn top-tier Armament Haki gave his slashes unprecedented penetration and destructiveness!In this berserk state, Vista actually managed to suppress the superior Shiliew of the Rain for a short time!Amidst the flashes of blades and shadows of swords, Shiliew was forced back repeatedly, parrying in a hurry, unable to find even the slightest opening for a counterattack!