Naval Headquarters, Battlefield.
Blackbeard and Whitebeard—
the clash that would decide everything—
had begun.
"Gurararara!"
With a booming, heroic laugh, the Four Emperor Whitebeard raised his massive right fist high into the air.
As the enormous hand—large enough to crush boulders—tightened into a fist, a pure white glow shimmered and coiled around it.
It wasn't Haki.
It was the cataclysmic power of the Gura Gura no Mi — the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, said to be strong enough to destroy the world itself.
Even before his fist came down, the very air around him fractured—
cracks splitting across the sky like shards of glass.
That alone showed the unimaginable power behind the blow.
However—
Facing the fearsome might of the world's strongest man, Blackbeard Teach only grinned wider.
His dark eyes glinted with twisted excitement, and the corners of his mouth curved into a sinister smile.
From the edge of the battlefield, Ace's expression suddenly changed.
"Dad—watch out! His darkness can nullify other people's powers!"
Ace shouted in alarm.
He remembered it clearly—
that terrible battle on Banaro Island.
How his flames had been smothered by that endless blackness,
how he'd been crushed and defeated in a single devastating strike.
"Thief hahahahaha! Too late, Ace!"
Teach roared, his laughter wild and triumphant.
"Dark Water!"
From the palm of his hand, a torrent of swirling blackness erupted—
dense and heavy, like liquid night.
It spun like a vortex, pulling at everything around it.
The moment it touched Whitebeard's quake energy, the air trembled—
and then, shockingly, the quake's destructive power was drawn inward,
sucked into the dark spiral until it vanished completely.
The scene left everyone, both Marines and pirates alike, staring in disbelief.
"Father's quake—disappeared?!"
shouted Lacroix, the captain of the Seventh Division.
"No—it didn't disappear!" cried Izo, captain of the Sixteenth Division.
"It's been absorbed! Just like Ace said—it's that cursed darkness of his!"
"What?! That's impossible!"
"How can that power—Father's power—be taken like that?!"
"The power of the strongest Paramecia fruit in the world… nullified by Teach?!"
"It's not his strength—it's that dark ability!"
"For that power, Teach even murdered his own crewmate of decades…"
"He must have known what it could do all along—"
The captains' shouts rose in anger and horror.
"I see it now," said Thatch, captain of the Fourth Division, his voice cold.
"You killed me… for that fruit, didn't you, Teach?"
"Thief hahahahaha! That's right!"
Teach's laughter erupted louder than ever, raw and ecstatic.
"This is the most fearsome of all abilities—
the Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit!
Against my darkness, all other Devil Fruit users are powerless—
even you, Pops!
My darkness can absorb and weaken any Devil Fruit's power!
You can no longer create earthquakes!"
His voice rang across the shattered battlefield, dripping with madness.
And before anyone could react, Teach lunged forward.
He drove his fist—heavy and brutal—straight into Whitebeard's abdomen.
The impact cracked like thunder.
The blow was powerful enough to shatter bones—
the same strike that had once crushed Ace in a single hit.
Even Whitebeard grunted from the pain,
his massive frame staggering half a step backward.
"OOOOOOOOOH!"
"That's the spirit!"
"Captain Teach! Take him down!"
Fighting Champion Burgess, Sniper Van Augur, and Devil Sheriff Lafitte all cheered wildly, faces flushed with excitement.
"That bastard Teach's really got something," muttered Avalo Pizarro, the Evil King, narrowing his eyes.
"It seems he wasn't lying about his ability," said Catarina Devon, the Crescent Moon Hunter, her expression sharp.
"If his power truly devours all others… then perhaps he really can do the impossible."
"In other words," Basco Shot belched drunkenly, "if we follow Teach, we might even get to choose our own abilities one day! Hah! I'd love a fruit that lets me drink all I want!"
"It's too early to say that," Shiryu of the Rain replied coolly, adjusting his sword.
"Let's wait until he actually defeats Whitebeard first."
…
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