The villagers scattered across the island raised their telescopes, their hands trembling as they tried to witness the impossible.
Those pirates who had once terrorized them, who they could never hope to defeat, now lay sprawled in the dirt like broken dolls—bleeding, groaning, their spirits shattered.
One man had done this.
"This young man… what is his background?" a villager muttered, lips quivering as the question spread like wildfire.
Everywhere they looked, the island quaked under the sheer force of his presence. Each step he took carried weight, each strike threatened to reshape the battlefield.
"This is the kind of power… could it be one of the Four Emperors?" someone finally gasped, his voice cracking.
The mere mention of that title froze hearts.
The Four Emperors—pillars of the New World, absolute rulers of the seas, legends who even the Navy feared.
"My heavens… in just a few days Robinna Island has been dragged into the center of chaos," an older man whispered hoarsely. "First, that band of vicious New World pirates came bringing ruin. And now, a warrior who may serve under a Yonko arrives to slaughter them."
Prayers spilled from trembling lips. "Let him be merciful… let him not be crueler than those he struck down…"
Lily's hands tightened on her telescope. Her eyes sparkled as she saw the tall figure at the center of the destruction. "Don't worry," she said softly, more to herself than anyone else. "He's here to save us."
Ashveil stood firm, unaware of the whispers echoing across the island. His eyes were locked on the man before him. There was only one thought in his mind—end Blackbeard Teach.
Teach was trembling, but not with fear. His men had been swatted aside like insects, Burgess included, his mighty frame knocked unconscious in seconds. And yet, Teach's grin split wider.
"Ze-hahahaha! You think all my years of patience and struggle were for nothing? You think I'll fall to a greenhorn like you?!" His tone brimmed with manic defiance.
Even cornered, the shadow of fighting spirit burned in Blackbeard's eyes. "I'm no coward, boy! In Whitebeard's crew, aside from Pops himself, I—Marshall D. Teach—fear no one! You may wield Conqueror's Haki, but it won't be enough to bring me down! Isn't that right… Zero Division Captain, Thorne Ashveil?!"
Darkness pooled beneath his boots, thick and writhing like a living thing.
Ashveil tilted his head, momentarily surprised. He had expected the man's bravado to crumble, for Teach to beg and plead like the coward he was known to be. Instead, the grin and the madness returned, full force.
Good.
Ashveil's lips curved into a faint, approving smile as he strode forward, his presence suffocating the air. "That's better, Teach. If you had folded so quickly, this would've been dull."
"Ze-hahaha! Don't get ahead of yourself, brat!"
The battlefield darkened. Tendrils of abyssal mist erupted outward, the forest a kilometer away trembling under the pull of unseen gravity. Trees groaned and villagers clung desperately to the ground, fear rising with every heartbeat.
Village Chief Law's face grew pale. "This is bad… that pirate's darkness is swallowing everything…"
Through the telescope, Lily kept her eyes on Ashveil. He stood just as he had from the start—calm, steady, almost serene. That faint smile had not left his lips. Her chest eased.
"He isn't afraid," she whispered. "So we don't have to be either."
"Ze-hahaha!" Teach's laughter rang like broken steel. "Your Observation Haki is pathetic! My darkness already coils around you, and you didn't even notice it!"
Ashveil glanced down at the black haze swirling over his feet. His face did not twitch. "Observation Haki? I don't have it." He raised his gaze to Teach, disdain dripping from his tone. "But even without it… what can you really do?"
Teach blinked. For a moment his grin faltered. He wasn't lying.
The brat's Conqueror's Haki was monstrous, but he truly lacked Observation?
"Ze-hahaha!" Teach threw his head back. "Fool! To reveal your weakness in front of me—die, boy! Dark Vortex!"
The darkness surged like a collapsing star. Gravitational force screamed across the island, pulling trees, rocks, even pieces of the earth itself toward the void beneath Ashveil's feet. Villagers were nearly swept away, clinging desperately to roots and trunks.
At the eye of the storm stood Ashveil. Unmoving. Unflinching.
As the pull grew, he yawned.
"Die under my Dark Vortex!" Teach screamed again, sweat pouring down his neck. The gravity howled louder, but Ashveil remained untouched.
It was only then that Teach realized. The boy's Conqueror's Haki wasn't just resisting—it was overwhelming his darkness. Like an equal and opposite tide, Ashveil's spirit simply refused to yield.
Had he wished, Ashveil could have molded that darkness itself into his own weapon.
"Pathetic," Ashveil said flatly. "If this is all you have, then you can't entertain me." His eyes hardened. "Enough. Let's end this."
The sky cracked with pressure.
A massive Buddha-like palm of translucent energy manifested above, born from Conqueror's Haki itself, its presence blotting out the heavens.
Teach's Observation Haki screamed warnings at him, terror flashing through his eyes.
"This… no… impossible…!" His voice shook as the shadow fell upon him. "Conqueror's Haki… H-Hakkei?!"
The very technique Roger himself once spoke of—long-range Conqueror's Haki coating.
Sweat drenched Blackbeard's back. His teeth chattered as he stared at the colossal force about to descend.
"If I take this head on… I'll die!!!"
The wind struck first, flattening his face grotesquely, pressing against his body with unstoppable weight.
There was no room to dodge. No time to run.
And above him, the palm continued to fall.
---
Milestones
100 Power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
200 Power stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
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