"You… you bastard!!" Teach's face twisted, anger surging like a tsunami, his whole body trembling as pitch-black dark currents raged out.
For this day, he had hidden for years, plotted for years, advanced step by step, all just to ascend the throne.
He thought victory was within his grasp, yet just as he touched his dream, someone smashed him straight down into the abyss.
Despair, unwillingness, humiliation, all turned into flames of rage burning through his entire body.
"From here on is my era! I am the Pirate King!!"
BOOM!
"Dark Hole Path!"
Darkness poured out wildly from Teach's body, a raging flood of shadow pouring forth, like a starving abyss, devouring and sinking everything it touched.
"Jotaro! You cannot stop me!"
Whitebeard glanced back at him, only to shake his head lightly.
"Teach, I told you, your arrogance and recklessness would be your downfall. Do you still not understand?"
"…That man will never be you!"
Whitebeard turned away, striding toward the execution platform, not sparing another glance at this battle whose outcome was already decided.
"Dark Water!"
Seeing Jotaro's feet stuck in black tar, Teach's hands surged with dark currents as he rushed forward at high speed.
"Haha, Jotaro! Your ability really is something! The Devil Fruit Encyclopedia has never recorded such a fruit."
"But before me, every power is useless!"
"I've decided, compared to the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, it's better to absorb your fruit instead!"
"Oh ho, instead of running, he actually chooses to get closer." Doflamingo sneered mockingly, "What an idiot!"
"Does he not know? Lord Jotaro is not even a Devil Fruit user!"
"To be a king, how could one ever be rejected by the sea!"
Though Jotaro's reputation had grown compared to before, in Teach's mind he was still far inferior to Whitebeard.
Teach had only been in the Shichibukai for a short time, and compared to the government's arrangements, he clearly only cared about his own goal, entering Impel Down to find crewmates.
Because of that, he had even missed some of the intel the government provided.
The truth that Jotaro's ability came from himself and not a Devil Fruit was among those things.
Had he known this, he would never have been stupid enough to rush headlong into Star Platinum's range.
"Your power is mine now!"
Teach grinned hideously, his palm wrapped in devouring darkness as he lunged at Jotaro's chest.
"Oh?"
Jotaro lifted his head, his eyes under the brim of his hat as still as dead water, the corner of his mouth tugging in a faint, meaningful curve.
Bang!
A straight punch, faster than lightning, slammed into Teach's face, the fist's shadow vanishing, the man already sent flying.
"Guha!!!"
Blackbeard's nose bridge instantly caved in, his face turned into a bloody mess. His body was blasted dozens of meters away like a meatball, slamming into the ground with a crash, dust shooting skyward.
"You don't even understand my power, and yet you dare dream of taking it?"
Anyone who didn't know better would think Teach had been blessed by Father Snake.
———
Teach struggled up, stumbling back, eyes full of fear and disbelief.
"H-how… how can this be… my 'Dark Water' clearly nullifies every ability!"
"Could it be… your power doesn't come from a fruit, but from yourself?"
Blackbeard's face lit with sudden realization, and he screamed hoarsely,
"You actually have a special body like mine!?"
"Yare yare, you talk too much." Jotaro's tone brimmed with impatience. "I don't even know what you're babbling about."
"And besides, with opportunists like you, I've got nothing to say."
Jotaro's indifferent gaze bore down on him as Star Platinum's towering figure suddenly appeared.
"Ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora ora!!"
Fists like a rainstorm, a storm sweeping across.
Blackbeard's screams echoed across the battlefield, his dark powers no longer able to take form, shattered apart by force.
"Lord Jotaro!" Doflamingo knelt on one knee beside him, respectfully saying, "How could such garbage stain your hands? Better to let your subordinate deal with it."
Finally, Garp moved.
Though he couldn't bear to see Ace executed, he couldn't allow the Navy to lose face either.
As Whitebeard stepped onto the platform, he had no choice but to intervene.
"Old man!"
Marco, Jozu, Vista and the others all shouted. The current Whitebeard was like a candle in the wind, by no means a match for Garp.
Worried for his safety, they lost focus for a moment, and the three Admirals, Aokiji, Kizaru, Fujitora, took the chance to heavily wound them.
"Damn it, with the three Admirals and Garp joining hands, Father can't possibly hold them off!"
"Ace has already been rescued, we must create a chance for them to escape!"
"Charge!!"
Grievously wounded, the Whitebeard Pirates launched another desperate assault.
Jotaro noticed the commotion on this side, but naturally had no interest in bothering with Blackbeard and his crew.
He had come here mainly to repay Whitebeard's favor.
Blackbeard was utterly irrelevant.
"Fufufu… then allow me to send you on your way." Doflamingo stepped before Teach, tightening the strings in his hands, a cruel smile spreading.
"One king is enough for this world!"
"A fool who dares covet the throne, you would surely become Lord Jotaro's enemy."
"Better to end you here and now!"
Teach's lips trembled. In his state, he had no strength to resist Doflamingo.
Just as the razor-sharp strings were about to touch his neck, suddenly, a spear pressed against Doflamingo's back, and another sword barred his front.
"Stop right now! Otherwise my bullet will pierce your heart first!"
"And my thunderstorm blade will take your head."
"Van Augur! Shiryu! You… you're still alive!"
Blackbeard burst into crazed laughter, coughing blood between fits.
"Heaven never seals all roads! As expected, I am truly a man of great fortune!"
Van Augur's face was pale as death, the memory of what had happened earlier still making his heart pound.
"For us to fight that man now is far too soon. He's too strong!"
"If not for me swapping the positions of my kidneys and brain with teleportation at the last moment, I'd already be a corpse."
Teach's gaze fell on Shiryu's chest.
"You…"
Shiryu bit down on his cigar, explaining, "I won't die. I only lost one lung. My heart was born on the other side."
Doflamingo's eyes glinted cold, his face still twisted with bloodlust. With the faintest twitch of his fingers, dozens of nearly invisible threads of killing intent drew taut in the air.
"You bastards… you can still move?"
"But looking at your bodies, you're already hanging by a thread."
"A few more seconds of struggle, what difference will it make?"
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