“Not even a hair or a piece of flesh left, that just now…”
Vasco Shot stood frozen in place, fine beads of sweat seeping from his sausage-like nose, the alcohol instantly sobering him up.
As one of the most notorious and influential pirates in the New World, he couldn't possibly not recognize this Marine monster who shattered the sky and cut down Golden Lion!
At this moment, Shot’s drunken eyes were wide open, his gaze fixed on the Black Blade wrapped in pale particles in Gern’s hand.
Gern didn't answer. He looked up, and Conqueror's Haki pressed down like a tide.
The wood chips on the deck began to move without wind, emitting faint "crackling" sounds.
Cold sweat trickled down Shot’s face.
"Wait...wait!" Then, he slowly and suddenly raised both hands, his liquor flask clattering onto the deck. "I surrender! I give up!"
"You see..." His voice trembled with fear, and he squeezed out a fawning smile on his fat face: "I'm just a drunken idiot. It was all a misunderstanding just now, I also..."
He swallowed, then suddenly turned and opened his mouth to spray.
"Liquor-Liquor Mist Fountain!"
"Puff—" He violently punched his stomach, spraying out a massive amount of alcohol mist from his mouth, instantly engulfing the entire deck.
The strong smell of alcohol stung one's eyes, and visibility was completely obscured by the white mist.
"Hahaha! Thank you for your warship, Marine!" Shot's loud laughter came from the mist, accompanied by a dull thud.
His massive body surprisingly leaped agilely, jumping towards Gern's warship!
"Heh heh." Gern curled his lips into a cold smile at the sight, showing no intention of pursuing.
Shot, mid-air and feeling smug, suddenly felt a chill.
He instinctively looked up, his pupils suddenly contracting—"Damn, it's Sakazuki!!"
At the bow of the warship, Sakazuki stood with his arms crossed, his cloak of justice flapping in the wind.
Lava patterns spread across his face, his eyes as cold as if looking at a corpse.
"Great Eruption." Sakazuki's voice was terrifyingly calm.
"No!!" Shot screamed in terror, wanting to change direction but it was too late.
A scorching lava fist blasted towards him, the aura of death incredibly close!
In the nick of time, Shot twisted his body violently, managing to change his trajectory in mid-air.
The lava grazed his clothes, burning a large hole in his clown suit.
"Hahaha! You missed!" Shot laughed as if he had escaped death, turning to continue his escape.
Just then, Gern's voice, light as a sigh, made all the hairs on Shot's body stand on end.
"Sorry, I am a man of my word." Gern exerted force and leaped up fiercely.
"So... I said I'd cut you down, and now you've chosen a good execution ground!" As he spoke, the blade of black blade eight desolations glowed with dazzling white light.
His arm muscles tensed to the extreme, Armament Haki, like a living creature, wrapped around it, accompanied by dark red lightning.
The vibration frequency of the blade body suddenly increased, and spiderweb-like spatial cracks appeared in the air.
"Heaven Quake · Cross Slash..." Horizontal slash! Vertical chop!
Two intersecting slashes tore through the sky, pale white vibrating particles forming a huge cross-shaped shockwave.
The horizontal slash cut the clouds cleanly, while the vertical chop plowed a deep gully in the sea.
"Crack!!!" Amidst the deafening sound of the sky shattering, Shot only managed a short scream.
His body froze in mid-air, and fine lines of blood appeared on his skin.
First strike—horizontal slash!
The pale vibrating slash swept across his waist, fat and muscle instantly torn apart by high-frequency vibrations upon contact.
Bones made a teeth-grinding "crunching" sound, then disintegrated into powder, his upper body and lower body began to separate, and blood gushed out from the cut like a fountain.
Second strike—vertical chop!
Almost simultaneously, the vertical slash penetrated from the top of Shot’s head downwards.
Bridge of his nose, chin, chest, abdomen—all cut in half by one strike!
Wherever the blade passed, flesh was vibrated into fine blood mist, and internal organ fragments rained down.
"Disintegrate!!!" Gern flicked black blade eight desolations.
"Pfft!" Shot's eyes rolled back, and his body exploded in mid-air, precisely cut into dozens of neat pieces of flesh by the cross slash.
His head was split in half by the vertical chop, and his brain matter was dispersed by the vibration wave before it even hit the ground.
Both arms were cleanly severed at the shoulders, fingers still maintaining a gripping posture.
His torso was cut into upper and lower halves by the horizontal slash, the cross-sections of his ribs and spine smooth as a mirror.
The next moment, his body seemed to be sliced by an invisible blade, instantly splitting into thousands of neat small squares.
Blood blossomed into enchanting flowers in the air, then was vibrated into blood mist by the shockwave that followed.
The Marine soldiers on the warship gaped, staring blankly at the scene.
Someone's binoculars clattered onto the deck.
"The 'Great Drunkard' Vasco Shot, with a bounty of 825 million Berries..." A young soldier's voice trembled, then he shouted loudly, "...was just... just chopped to bits by Rear Admiral Gern!!!"
Sakazuki stood at the bow, lava still slowly flowing on his fists, watching the execution. A rare satisfied curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
It should be like this.
His gaze turned to Gern, a hint of appreciation flashing in his eyes.
Vasco Shot—that beast who enjoyed torturing and killing civilians, should have been dismembered long ago.
Those innocents he tortured to death, those children whose body parts he cut off as 'collectibles', those Marine soldiers he got drunk and threw into shark-infested waters for fun...
He died too easily.
Sakazuki clenched his fist, lava dripping onto the deck, burning black holes.
Then he strode towards Gern and, to everyone's surprise, heavily patted his shoulder.
"Well done." His voice was still cold and hard, but anyone could hear the approval in it.
"For scum like this, they should be completely crushed.
Gern, we are a match made in heaven! Choosing to transfer you was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life!"
Gern raised an eyebrow, not expecting 'Akainu', who was now known for his strict discipline at Marineford, to publicly approve of his execution method.
Sakazuki seemed to sense his confusion and snorted coldly: "Do you think I care about such nonsense?"
Then, he turned to look at the gradually closing sea surface, his voice low, "Justice...sometimes needs to be carried out in the most extreme way.
Especially for a butcher like Shot... who committed countless bloody crimes in the New World.
Letting him die quickly would be a mercy, but your 'execution', Gern, at least made him feel extreme terror in his last moments.
That's enough!"
After speaking, Sakazuki's stern gaze swept over Libo, and he suddenly said: "You also did well."
"Me?!" Libo looked up, blinking her teary eyes: "Uncle Sakazuki... is he praising me?
But I clearly lost..."
"Losing is not scary. At least you didn't back down when you realized you were facing a strong enemy, nor did you choose to be a deserter! Instead, you chose to fight.
So... you worked hard." Sakazuki said stiffly, then turned and walked towards the ship's cabin.
"Rest for half an hour, then continue to set off to encircle and suppress pirates."
Watching Sakazuki's departing back, Libo broke into a smile through her tears: "Uncle Sakazuki is actually quite a good person!"
"Those are just superficial words. Next time you notice something is wrong, you can't be like this!" Gern rubbed her head.
"However, it's not easy to be acknowledged by him." As he spoke, he magically pulled out a carrot from his pocket.
"Here, to calm our righteous partner down."
"Mmm-hmm!!" Libo's eyes lit up. She took the carrot and bit into it with a "crunch," her cheeks immediately puffing out.
"Mmm... Gern is still the best!"
...
【Salty Fish's Note: Actually, by this point, everyone should already understand the protagonist's power system, but Salty Fish still wants to clarify it for everyone's complete understanding.
The protagonist's development is gradual. Currently, he has two skill systems: 【Heaven Quake】 and 【Black Tremor】.
【Heaven Quake】 is a set of skills and sword techniques developed entirely with his Devil Fruit ability or in conjunction with black blade eight desolations.
【Black Tremor】 is a martial art that combines Haki with his Devil Fruit. After all, Gern's martial arts training comes from Zephyr and Garp.
Additionally, there's the protagonist's exclusive Haki Infusion 【God's Fall】 and the highly detailed development of vibration at the molecular level, such as 【Tremor Lock: Absolute Zero】, etc...
A side note: Gern's Haoshoku appears as a purple-black effect (based on how everyone's Haoshoku is different in One Piece).】