Ten-odd minutes later.
"Bastard!! I won't let you get away with this!"
His body had been sliced into more than a dozen pieces. With his hands, feet, and head all separated from his torso, Gringu let out a roar of utter humiliation.
Carlo stomped down, pressing his mud-covered sole onto Gringu's face, choking back his angry curses.
"Let this be a lesson to you, Gringu. The next time you see me, these wounds on your body will ache."
A mischievous smile curled at the corner of Carlo's mouth as he extended an index finger.
Golden Haoshoku continuously surged from his body, compressing until it turned into extremely dense Haoshoku lightning. It coiled around his finger as he thrust it down toward Gringu's chest.
"Puff puff puff puff puff puff puff!"
His finger pierced into Gringu's chest like a flash of lightning.
The extremely compressed Haoshoku crushed Gringu's Haoshoku, directly destroying the properties of his immortality, leaving seven finger-deep bloody holes in his body.
Before Gringu could scream, Carlo's large foot stomped down heavily.
With a bang, Gringu's head was crushed by his foot.
Carlo looked down at Gringu's other remains scattered on the ground.
These severed body parts were more or less covered in golden lightning.
This was the secret of how he and Rocks could suppress the immortality of Gringu's body.
This wasn't just a powerful technique for using Haoshoku.
It required a higher intensity of Haoshoku as a foundation.
This was the external storage of Haoshoku.
The development of Conqueror's Haki was essentially the same as Armament Haki.
Although it's difficult to actively develop in the early stages and can only rely on the growth of one's spirit to strengthen...
...once one can actively release it and compress Haoshoku into physical lightning, they can further develop its other powerful applications.
For example, covering the entire body with powerful Haoshoku to block others' Observation Haki perception.
This is Observation Killing.
Or, for example, compressing Haoshoku into a ball and blasting it out to create a massive force similar to a shockwave.
Garp's Galaxy Impact and Rocks' cannon-like slashes were this kind of usage.
And the external storage of Haoshoku was even more difficult than these powerful techniques.
One must know that whether it's Armament Haki or Conqueror's Haki, they are powers similar to energy.
They are a type of 'Qi'.
They have no physical form.
The difficulty of detaching this energy from the body and storing it can be imagined.
Even if it can be stored, most can only maintain it for a very short time, similar to a release of Haoshoku.
To store it for a long time, detached from one's body, and covering or coiling around other objects...
...requires highly concentrated compression, turning it from simple 'gaseous' energy into highly compressed liquid or even solid form.
This has extremely high requirements for the intensity of Haoshoku.
So high that even with Carlo's current Haoshoku attribute exceeding ninety, it was very difficult to achieve.
After a day of repeated battles, fighting Garp, Imu, and Rocks one after another, his Haoshoku attribute had risen from just over 93 to 94 points.
Although the increase wasn't much, it was enough to preliminarily perform brief external storage.
Like now, coiling it around Gringu's body to suppress his immortality, he should be able to barely maintain it for ten-odd minutes.
Whereas the Haoshoku that Rocks had released earlier to suppress Gringu's immortality could last for several hours.
The most ridiculous one was undoubtedly Joy Boy.
His Haoshoku could be stored externally for eight hundred years without dissipating.
Carlo couldn't imagine how powerful that Haoshoku would be.
Could it be a full 100-point Haoshoku attribute?
Of course, this suppression varied according to the strength and Haoshoku intensity of both sides.
After all, Gringu would resist.
Whereas the robot Emeth would not.
With a few kicks, he sent Gringu's remains flying into the sea.
Carlo turned and walked toward Rocks.
As he walked, he suddenly looked up with a bit of annoyance at the sky where the torrential rain wouldn't stop.
This damp feeling was really unpleasant.
Carlo's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly struck his right hand toward the sky.
"Boom!"
A large mass of golden lightning flew out from his palm, instantly crossing tens of thousands of meters into the dark clouds.
In the next instant, the dark clouds across the sky exploded and rolled back in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, the clouds vanished, the torrential rain stopped abruptly, revealing the dim but clean sky behind them.
A satisfied smile immediately appeared on Carlo's face.
"Have you rested enough, Rocks?"
He looked toward Rocks with a smile.
Hearing his voice, Rocks—who was lying among the rubble, his body broken and soaked through by the rain, looking much less like a king—slowly propped up his upper body and sat up.
Looking at Carlo walking toward him, Rocks' eyes were somewhat complex.
He found a large upright stone to lean against and gave a self-deprecating laugh.
"I didn't expect, Carlo, that it would be you—the one who joined late and finally became a Division Captain—who would stay with this lone Captain until the end. While Newgate, Shiki, and Linlin left me so early. Sigh, it truly saddens me."
Carlo walked over, casually stabbed the heavenly dragon halberd into the ground, and sat down on a rock opposite Rocks.
"There's no need for sentimentality. After all... I'm here to kill you."
Upon hearing this, not a trace of surprise or anger appeared on Rocks' face.
On the contrary, he was still smiling.
"I know."
He nodded, his expression frank, as if he had known this day would come, appearing exceptionally calm and composed.
Carlo raised an eyebrow slightly. "You knew all along that I wanted to kill you?"
Rocks smiled and said, "That's right, I knew long ago. When you and Newgate came to Hachinosu and released your Observation Haki to investigate, I sensed your killing intent toward me."
He pointed a finger at himself and said almost conceitedly, "I am Rocks! Looking at the entire world, besides that hiding fellow Imu, if I say my Observation Haki is second, no one would dare say they are first!"
He pointed at Carlo again. "Although your killing intent was hidden very deeply and very well, how could I not detect it? Not only did I sense it, but I also realized that your killing intent was completely different from those pirates who coveted my position; it was a conviction of certain death."
"Then why did you keep me on Hachinosu and even let me securely take the position of Division Captain? Weren't you afraid of nurturing a threat?"
Looking at this fallen hero before him, Carlo actually saw a hint of unusual free-spiritedness and heroism.
This was a very special temperament.
It was a grand spirit that had seen through life and death, setting them aside.
Carlo felt that perhaps it was this unique spirit that allowed Rocks to gather an unprecedentedly massive pirate group single-handedly, making those arrogant and rebellious pirate troublemakers willing to temporarily serve under him.
If it weren't for the trickery of fate.
If Rocks had been able to survive.
Then the position of Pirate King would have had no place for Roger.
"Nurturing a threat?"
Rocks laughed.
He threw his head back and laughed loudly.
"Wahahaha, wahahahaha!"
"Do you think I'd be afraid of something so boring? I am Rocks!"
"Talking about tigers? Even Flood Dragons and Giant Dragons, Hachinosu has plenty of them! Even if it's a Divine Dragon, so what? As long as I, Rocks, am still here, he won't be able to turn the world upside down!"