"When it comes to a traitor like Teach, Pops would never hold back out of mercy!"
Marco the Phoenix, captain of the First Division, gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with tension.
"It's all my fault…" Ace muttered, clenching his fists in self-blame.
"Could it be that Dad's body…"
"Father, are you all right?"
"Damn it, we should join forces and finish this quickly!"
Joz, Bista, Izo, and the other division captains had all noticed it — something was off about Whitebeard's movements. His breaths were heavier, his stance not as steady as before.
"Zehahahahaha… Zehahahaha!!!"
A loud, mocking laugh echoed across the ruined battlefield.
Bloodied, broken, and yet still standing — Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach pushed himself up from the cracked ground. His body was a wreck, but his grin was wide and full of arrogance.
"What's the matter, Pops? Come on, keep going! That last hit barely tickled!" he taunted, his tone full of provocation.
Even as he spoke, his breathing was already stabilizing — unnaturally fast.
That was Blackbeard's monstrous physique.
A body twisted enough to withstand the power of two Devil Fruits — something no other human could survive.
Coupled with the absorption properties of his Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit, his body had become a pit of endless endurance — one that devoured pain and spat out defiance.
"Don't anyone interfere!!!"
Whitebeard's booming voice cut through the noise like thunder, halting his crew in their tracks just as they were about to rush forward.
"I'm not so weak," he growled, "that I need help dealing with the likes of Teach."
"Zehahaha! Pops, don't be so stubborn," Blackbeard sneered, his voice low and venomous. "You can barely stand right now. Why keep struggling? Let me end your pain for you."
Whitebeard looked down at him — towering, proud, utterly fearless.
"Try it, boy. If you think you can… then do it."
"Don't think that glare's gonna scare me, Whitebeard," Teach snarled back, his eyes narrowing. "You're nothing but a relic of a dead age!"
Darkness began to pulse from his body, seeping into the ground like living ink.
"Dark Vortex!!!"
With a guttural roar, Blackbeard slammed his hand — wreathed in swirling black energy — into the ground.
Rumble…
The darkness spread like a tidal wave, radiating from him in all directions. The very earth trembled as the black tide swallowed everything in its path.
"Th—the ground… it's sinking?!"
"What the hell is this?!"
"Everyone, fall back! NOW!"
"AAAHHHHH!"
Shouts of panic erupted across the battlefield.
Those who didn't retreat fast enough were caught in the spreading shadow, dragged downward by an invisible, crushing gravity — screaming as they vanished into the abyss.
"Zehahahahaha! The real show's only just beginning!" Blackbeard roared. "Look, Pops — look, world! This is the true power of the Dark-Dark Fruit!!!"
His laughter rose to madness as the swirling darkness contracted, then surged upward behind him — forming a massive, twisting tornado of black energy.
"Dark Spiral!!!"
He raised both arms high above his head.
The black tornado roared, devouring everything it touched.
And within it spun countless fragments of the things it had consumed — shattered wood, splintered steel, bones, and debris, all sharpened by the storm's ferocity.
Each fragment within that vortex moved with bullet-like speed.
It was not just a storm of darkness — it was a weaponized abyss.
The captains of Whitebeard's fleet felt their blood run cold as they saw the monstrous spiral closing in.
Ace's eyes widened in horror.
He knew that move — he had faced it once before.
On Banaro Island, his Flame-Flame Fruit's strongest attack, Great Flame Commandment: Flame Emperor, had been devoured and destroyed by this very darkness.
And in that darkness, it wasn't the debris that killed — it was the gravity itself, the overwhelming, tearing force that could rip a man's flesh and bones apart.
"Go to hell, Whitebeard!!!" Blackbeard howled, voice filled with lunacy.
The massive black tornado hurtled forward, screaming through the air toward the Yonko.
For a long moment, Whitebeard stood unmoving, the shadow of the storm reflecting in his eyes.
Then — finally — he drew a deep breath.
The great Emperor of the Sea raised his right fist and brought it crashing down into the air before him.
BOOM!!!
It was as though heaven itself was struck by a war drum.
The shockwave tore through the atmosphere, shaking the entire Naval Headquarters to its core.
Crack!
Kaka!
The very air splintered like glass, fracturing into a thousand glowing fissures.
Those cracks carried the unstoppable might of the Quake-Quake Fruit, colliding head-on with Blackbeard's dark spiral.
BOOOOM!!!
RUMBLE!!!
The sky split in two as white quakes met black storms — light and darkness tearing at each other, screaming across the battlefield of legends.