Within the Heaven Quake domain, the air was ripped into countless tiny particles by high-frequency vibrations, shimmering with an eerie glow under the reflection of pale cracks.
Every speck of dust disintegrated in the tremor, turning into Broken Fluorescence, as if the entire space was kneaded into a distorted painting by an invisible hand.
The rock layers beneath their feet groaned under the immense pressure, cracks spread like spiderwebs, and shattered stones floated defying gravity, slowly rotating under the pull of the pale energy.
Gern floated in mid-air, black blade eight desolations pointed diagonally at the sea, the purplish-black Haki entwined around the blade interwove with the pale tremor waves, writhing like a living creature.
His pupils had completely turned pale, and each breath he took caused the surrounding space to resonate.
Even sound couldn't propagate, and the battlefield fell into an eerie silence, with only the hum of the vibrating blade piercing the eardrums.
"Is this... the power of awakening?" Roger's hair whipped in the violent Haki currents.
There was no other way; at this moment, he had to maintain high-intensity Haki to avoid being affected by the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Otherwise, within this domain, if he relaxed even for a moment, the man in front of him could shatter everything he had with just a glance!
This was the terrifying nature of a Nature Type Devil Fruit's awakening!!
From a human transforming into a god of rules!!
"However, you've only just awakened!" Thinking this, Roger gripped Ace tightly in a backhand, dark red Haki flowing like magma on the blade.
The rock peak beneath his feet crumbled, and as he leaped using the force, the ground collapsed with a roar.
His figure transformed into a red streak of light, tearing through the silent air, and charging straight at Gern!
"God Avoidance!!" The trajectory of the blade congealed into a materialized dark red slash, and the space was cut with spiderweb-like cracks.
"Are you coming?" Gern didn't dodge or evade, his left hand's five fingers spread open and then clenched into a fist—"Heaven Quake: Sky Shackles!"
"Boom!" Roger's slash abruptly stopped ten meters in front of Gern, as if it had hit an invisible barrier.
Dark red crystal clusters violently collided with pale tremor waves, and the unleashed energy turbulence pulverized the surrounding floating gravel into dust.
Pale tremor waves left lingering spiral patterns in the air, like frozen lightning.
"Nature Type is a bit troublesome!" Roger grinned, feeling the difficulty in his tiger's mouth due to the recoil as he watched Gern control the vibration of all matter anytime, anywhere without a medium.
At the same time, he secretly thought: "He can even interfere with space... I must get close!"
"Here..." At this moment, Gern suddenly spun around, black blade eight desolations slashing upwards at an angle that defied physical laws.
"I am everything!!"
Wherever the blade passed, space peeled away like glass, revealing the pitch-black void behind it.
"Heaven Quake: Boundary Break!"
Roger's pupils contracted sharply; his Observation Haki foresaw the horror of this strike, and Ace's blade was instantly covered with three layers of Ryuo Haki.
But just as he was about to take the slash head-on, the air beneath his feet was inexplicably frozen, and cold air spread upwards from his feet.
"Crack!" The moment the crystals exploded, Roger used the force to fly backward, sparks trailing from his boot soles, but his retreat was sealed in mid-air by twelve pale light pillars descending from the sky.
The light pillars crisscrossed into a cage, each wrapped with high-frequency vibrations powerful enough to shatter an island, and cold air condensed into ice crystals, growing and clinging to the surface of the light pillars.
"He can still use ice abilities?" Roger's breath condensed into white mist in the cold air.
The ground beneath his feet had been frozen into a mirror-like ice layer by the tremor waves, and cold air crept up his combat boots, each movement kicking up fine ice crystals.
The moment the light pillars fell, they not only caused a deafening roar but also froze everything they touched.
The air solidified into jagged ice peaks, and splashing gravel solidified into floating hail in mid-air.
He squinted, the Haki on his blade slightly steaming, dispelling the bone-chilling cold.
"But... do you think this can trap me?!" His laughter suddenly erupted, wild and unrestrained, as if even the frozen space was shattered.
The tip of Ace's blade plunged into the gap of a light pillar, dark red Haki boiling like lava; before the blade itself reached, the terrifying pressure had already caused spiderweb-like cracks to appear on the pale light pillar's surface.
"Guys with awakened Devil Fruits, I've dealt with them before!!"
Conqueror's Haki erupted, breaking through the Devil Fruit's influence and creating a safe zone for himself within the Heaven Quake domain.
"Dawn Break!!" Dark red lightning exploded from the blade's tip, and the light pillar cage twisted and expanded under the impact of the Haki, finally bursting under the unbearable pressure!
The shattered pale energy scattered like meteorites, and the moment they plunged into the sea, thousand-meter-high water columns shot skyward, only to freeze into grotesque ice spikes in mid-air, the sky full of ice crystals reflecting dazzling cold light.
"Is that so? But within my domain, I am omnipresent!"
Gern's voice seemed to come from all directions, but his figure vanished the instant his words finished.
Roger's Observation Haki wildly warned him, a needle-like chill coming from his lower back—behind him!
In a split second, he twisted sharply, his heel wrapped in Armament Haki, and kicked back fiercely!
"Bang!!" His heel collided violently with a pale claw mark, and a circular shockwave exploded, pulverizing ice, making gravel float, and simultaneously sending both of them dozens of meters back.
But during the process, Gern's arms suddenly spread wide, pale tremor waves rapidly converging in his palms, his left hand igniting a crimson fiery star ring, and his right hand condensing a ghostly blue frosty star ring.
Two completely opposite energies twisted and entwined in the air, the tremor waves tearing fine cracks in the surrounding space, as if even light was completely swallowed.
"Quake Calamity: Ice-Fire Purgatory!" His palms violently slammed together.
In an instant, tremor waves of extreme heat and extreme cold roared out like mad dragons!
The left half of the battlefield instantly turned into a lava purgatory, the ground cracking, magma erupting, and the scorching high temperature scorching the air into distorted shapes.
While the right half of the battlefield froze into an endless ice abyss, cold air raged, ice crystals grew like blades, and even time seemed to be solidified.
Roger's pupils suddenly contracted, "I can't dodge... then I'll cut through it!!"
He let out a wild laugh, and the Conqueror's Haki entwined around Ace's blade erupted, dark red lightning surging like a furious tide, slashing down against the ice-fire intertwined tremor waves!
Wherever the blade passed, space was forcibly cleaved open, ice-fire tremor waves were torn apart by Haki, and magma and ice shattered in the blade light.
But the residual impact still sent him flying, his combat uniform freezing in the extreme cold, then charring and shattering in the high temperature.
Gern's figure slowly emerged from the ice-fire intertwined embers, his pale pupils locked onto Roger, his voice cold and low:
"As expected of the man Kaido personally admitted 'Haki surpasses everything'!!!"
"Truly astonishing... But in this world, even 'God' must succumb to the laws of vibration!"
Gern suddenly raised his arms high, palms facing the sky, and pale tremor waves surged upwards like a raging tide.
In an instant, the air throughout the entire sea area began to vibrate wildly, clouds were torn and twisted by an invisible force, forming a giant vortex several thousand meters in diameter at ten thousand meters high.
The center of the vortex was pitch black, as if connected to another dimension, and countless purplish-black lightning bolts churned within the clouds, roaring like an enraged dragon swarm.
"Heaven Quake...." Gern suddenly pressed his hands down, "Divine Punishment!!!"
Rumble—!!!
The sky collapsed.
Pitch-black lightning poured down like a torrential rain, each bolt entwined with high-frequency tremor waves, tearing fine cracks in the space wherever it passed.
Nihilistic darkness seeped from the cracks, devouring light and sound, and the battlefield instantly plunged into an eerie silence and fragmented light and shadow.
The sea surface was crushed into a huge depression by an invisible pressure, the island's rock layers cracked inch by inch, gravel floated, and then were pulverized into dust in the next second.
Roger looked up, his pupils reflecting the black lightning and cracks falling from the sky.
Extreme temperatures, and now even the sky can be controlled...
Compared to the Heaven Quake, you are now simply... a natural disaster!!!
...
"Is this the power of cultivating Observation Haki, which listens to the voice of all things, to its extreme?"
Gern's pupils suddenly contracted, staring intently at Roger, who was calmly adjusting his posture not far away, his knuckles slightly white from gripping his blade tightly.
"Even a move like Quake Flash... has been completely predicted after being used a few times."
"Hahaha!" A wild smile spread across Roger's lips, and his eyes blazed with red light.
"It seems you haven't fully adapted to your awakened state yet, Gern!"
Before his words finished, the ground beneath his feet exploded, and his figure, entwined with crimson lightning arcs, charged forward like thunder.
"Clang!" Ace, wrapped in overwhelming Haki, slashed down, and the terrifying Haki pressure even caused Gern's elementalization and Devil Fruit ability to momentarily stall.
In a split second, he suddenly raised his blade to meet it, and the moment black blade eight desolations precisely blocked, countless vibrating particles furiously devoured the impact force.
"Hah!" Purple lightning flashed in Gern's eyes, and using the recoil, he spun and slashed upwards, a dark purple crescent slash entwined with Haki tore through the air and roared out.
Roger's figure swayed slightly, narrowly dodging by a hair's breadth, a gash tearing open on his shoulder from the sharp blade wind.
"It's not over yet!!" Gern's body suddenly erupted with violent Conqueror's Haki arcs, dark purple lightning and crimson lightning fiercely colliding in the void.
He suddenly lowered his center of gravity, the high-frequency vibrating blade emitting a teeth-grinding hum, accumulating terrifying energy as he sheathed his blade.
"Heaven Quake: Instant Prison..." Space seemed to solidify at this moment, with only the poised Black Blade flashing with deadly cold light.
"Kill!!!" The moment the Iai slash was unleashed, the entire battlefield was swallowed by dazzling purplish-white light.
"Cough!" Roger's pupils suddenly contracted, a grotesque blade mark abruptly appearing on his chest, blood gushing out.
His body swayed slightly, a trickle of crimson spilling from his lips, but the fighting spirit in his eyes remained undiminished, instead burning with an even more intense light.
"Such a fast blade..." He chuckled softly, raising a hand to wipe away the blood, and turned to look behind him.
Gern's figure slowly emerged a few meters away, his blade sweeping out with a crisp "swish."
He then tilted his head slightly, dark purple Conqueror's Haki arcs still swirling around him, his gaze cold and calm.
"Sorry, my Haki isn't bad either!"
"A familiar feeling!" Roger slowly straightened his body, looking at black blade eight desolations, then touching the wound on his chest.
"A good slash..." He grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth: "But... it's still a little lacking!"
Before his words finished, the ground beneath his feet exploded, and Ace, entwined with boiling crimson lightning, slashed down with the force of creation!
Purple lightning surged in Gern's eyes, and black blade eight desolations instantly slashed out, the dark purple blade fiercely colliding with the crimson lightning in the air.
"Clang!!"
Two peerless legendary blades clashed once again after many years, and the moment they met, a terrifying shockwave exploded in a circular pattern, instantly cracking and sinking the ground within a hundred-meter radius.
Their Conqueror's Haki wildly tore at each other in the void, purplish-red lightning dancing like mad snakes, dyeing the sky a bizarre purplish-red.
Gern's tiger's mouth was numb from the vibration, but he saw the fighting spirit in Roger's eyes grow even stronger, and the blade's stance suddenly changed from a chop to an upward slash.
Ace's blade tip rapidly slashed upwards along black blade eight desolations, sending out dazzling sparks.
Gern leaned back with the momentum, his blade arcing with the force, a sharp spinning slash aimed directly at Roger's neck!
"Good!" Roger laughed loudly, not dodging or evading, but instead meeting it with a reverse kesa-giri slash.
The moment the two blades collided, high-frequency vibrating particles and top-tier Armament Haki reacted violently, causing even space to twist and tremble.
Their figures continuously flickered amidst the swirling blade light, each clash triggering a deafening explosion.
Gern suddenly changed his move, his left hand directly pulling a spiderweb-like pale crackle from the air, moving with his hand, and black blade eight desolations' blade body glowed with an eerie purplish-black ripple.
"Heaven Quake: Prison: Eclipse Moon!" Wherever the blade passed, even light was twisted and swallowed.
