Newgate's Tremor Tremor punch crashed into Figarland head on, the shockwave ripping through the air so violently that even space itself shattered like broken glass.
And yet, aside from his robes being torn apart, the bald Five Elder stood there unharmed. He seized the opening, wrapped his fist in dense, pitch black Armament, and drove it into Newgate's face, sending the great pirate flying.
Newgate had been careless. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he tumbled back, eyes narrowing in disbelief. This guy's Devil Fruit power could actually ignore the destructive force of a shattered world.
At the same time, more than ten streams of Conqueror Haki surged out across the battlefield, raging wildly and colliding with each other. The entire sea was drowned in clashing wills, and Observation Haki warped into chaos.
In this storm of kings, no one could calmly glimpse the future anymore.
"What the hell is that ability?!"
Shiki the Golden Lion roared, blades crossed in front of him as he dragged himself out of another clash. None of the Elders bothered to answer. They only looked down on the Hell Pirates, the "upstarts" who had risen in barely ten years, with cold disdain.
"Our powers sit above yours."
Figarland's voice was dripping with arrogance, as if he were declaring that their Fruits took priority over all others, that they were the ruling class of Devil Fruits.
In truth, these five had not only refined their powers for countless years, pushing them to the absolute limit, their Fruits themselves were special, tied directly to human desire.
"Hmph. But no Devil Fruit can escape two rules, no matter how special it looks. Fear of seawater, and the drain on stamina. The stronger the Fruit, the higher the price in physical strength."
Redfield blurred through the air as lightning, using the speed of the Thunder Fruit to weave around Ethanbaron's most ferocious sword slashes. Every cut from the elder felt like an unstoppable execution stroke, a killing intent that even made the Redfield wary.
"The powers of at least three of them are aimed directly at other Devil Fruits," Shiki growled as he backpedaled beside Newgate, eyes flicking between Mars and Figarland. "They barely buff their own bodies at all.
"But there has to be something they get in return."
His instincts were right. The Devil Fruits of the Five Elders came with a particular blessing. Their lifespans had been stretched far beyond normal limits, which was why they could sit at the top of the World Government for so long. That was the main reason Imu had chosen them.
And even so, the Five Elders and the Celestial Dragon families still coveted the immortality surgery of the Ope Ope Fruit. They wanted eternal life, not just long years.
Their Fruits were grotesquely special, but that did not mean they relied on them alone. All five had honed their three types of Haki and their physical skills to the extreme. Every one of them was a close combat monster.
"Yohoho. Do not let them get into your heads!"
Brook could not catch the darting form of Uranus, so he shifted his focus to the Elders instead. From Pluton's deck, his soul power flooded outward, combing the battlefield over and over.
"Their abilities seem to hook into what you desire. Calm down. Every Devil Fruit power has a weakness somewhere."
In his soul perception, a strange current lay over the whole battlefield. Some kind of invisible force was constantly being drawn toward the Elders and devoured by them.
Emotion? Desire? Will?
"Brook! You and all your little monsters are dying here today!"
Figarland spoke first, his voice rough and reckless, totally unlike the image of a supreme ruler of the world. It was almost like his own Fruit was eating away at his mind.
"Fuck you, old man!"
Brook snapped right back, cursing like a street thug as he shot forward. The Seven Star Demon Sword howled in his grip, its blade coated in pure soul power as he swung with murderous intent.
"It is useless. No Devil Fruit power can harm me."
Figarland did not dodge. He wanted to test it for himself, to see whether his Fruit could ignore Brook's soul based attacks as well. He surged straight in with raised fists.
The soul slashing power of the Seven Star Demon Sword struck him head on and was blocked by Figarland's Devil Fruit ability. The rule he wielded smothered the blow.
But his face changed. For the first time, he had encountered something that made his confidence tremble.
"Hmph. In the end it is just a question of spear and shield," Brook said coldly, eyes reflecting the torn sky. "How far you push your Devil Fruit, how far I push mine.
"Let us see whose power breaks first."
The Fruits of the Five Elders had climbed into the realm of rules themselves. Even Newgate's awakened Tremor Tremor Fruit could no longer fully break through that barrier.
But the development of Brook's Yomi Yomi Fruit had also reached a terrifying height. The weight of his soul power had almost pressed against the limit of Ethanbaron's rule.
Once he broke that critical point, even an Elder would bleed from his sword.
"Oh? And so what?" Figarland sneered. "You do not have the time left to grow."
Their foundations stretched back for decades, centuries, perhaps even longer. How could pirates who had only been on the stage for a little over ten years surpass that in one lifetime?
"Yohoho. What other cards are you hiding then?"
Brook's gaze was sharp and mocking, but the Elders were no fools. They said nothing. They would not even whisper the names of their own Devil Fruits.
Figarland, however, was forced into a deepening frown. Brook's relentless soul strikes hammered him again and again, pressing closer to that dangerous threshold.
On top of that, Redfield, Newgate, Shiki, Linlin and the others were adapting mid battle, their combat rhythms tightening, their growth so fast it was almost visible.
Was the talent of this era simply absurd?
Geniuses were supposed to be beings who could surpass their predecessors in the shortest time. Even if the old guard had centuries of experience, they would eventually be buried under the waves of a new age.
Newgate lunged in to support Shiki, who was barely holding off Mars. The moment he swung his fist, however, he felt it.
The Tremor Tremor Fruit's power was being interfered with. The quakes he summoned came slower, less precise. There was even a hint of complete rejection, as if the sea itself was trying to seal his Fruit away.
"Oi, old man. I do not have time to be playing with you fossils."
Brook's eyes hardened. Seeing Shiki and Newgate slipping into a disadvantage, he stopped worrying about Imu's ambush entirely and made his choice.
He would burn everything now. Stamina, soul, all of it.
He had to get rid of these Elders as fast as possible.
"Underworld Hell, Soul Prison!"
Countless ghostly generals erupted from his shadow and tore through the air. They merged into four colossal hands of roaring soul fire that clamped down from four directions, locking Figarland in place.
Even so, they still failed to shatter the elder's rule defense. But Brook had already achieved his goal.
Brook grabbed a scroll and unfurled everything he had prepared to kill Imu with.
The Sea Water Scroll from Tianmulan burst open. At the same time, the combined wind and water dials Vegapunk had crafted detonated all at once.
A monstrous mass of seawater materialized in the sky and crashed down over Figarland like a living ocean. In an instant, the Elder was drowned in salt water, his Devil Fruit power forcibly stripped away.
"Old fossil. Take this one from me!"
Brook's killing intent surged. He stepped forward in an instant, the Seven Star Demon Sword raised for a full strength decapitating strike aimed at Figarland's exposed neck.
But before the blade could fall, a figure dropped out of the sky.
A bald man, his entire body sheathed in ink black Armament, appeared in front of Figarland and calmly raised his arm.
Brook's full strength soul slash crashed down and was stopped cold by that single, blackened hand.
--------------
Brook glared at the golden haired Elder who had appeared in front of him. That should have been a killing blow.
That man had dared to block it.
Brook's eyes went cold. The Seven Star Demon Sword swept out in a savage arc, and the blackened arm that Peter had raised in defense was sliced open from wrist to elbow. The blade bit into his chest a heartbeat later, carving a vicious sword mark across it as blood sprayed through the air.
Peter's body was blasted away.
Brook did not chase him. He turned at once, rushing the bald Five Elder Ethanbaron, who was still drenched in seawater and had temporarily lost his Devil Fruit power.
But Figarland was no ordinary opponent.
In the split second between life and death, the elder's expression twisted with lingering fear, then steadied. Even stripped of his Fruit, his body radiated monstrous power, his Haki flaring like a storm.
As if he had long ago trained himself to fight in the sea's embrace.
Brook's sword flashed down toward his neck, but Figarland twisted his stance at the last possible moment and hurled himself aside, narrowly avoiding decapitation.
He stumbled away, tearing his shirt open as he moved to free his upper body. His frame trembled at high speed, every muscle shaking violently as he used raw force to hurl the seawater off his skin and pants.
With each droplet that left him, the aura of a Devil Fruit user slowly returned.
Brook clicked his tongue in annoyance. That gambit had failed. But he was not the type to simply give up because the first strike did not kill.
He flipped the wind shell in his hand, poured Armament Haki into it until it turned pitch black, then slammed it forward like a hammer.
The technique of Amazon Lily's warriors turned the water shell into a projectile carrying terrifying impact. Before Figarland's Devil Fruit ability fully recovered, the hardened shell cracked against his forehead with a sickening thud.
Blood exploded from the wound, the cut deep enough to reveal bone.
Brook stepped in again without the slightest hesitation. He had to kill one of the Elders here, tear their soul from their body, and feed the power of his Yomi Yomi Fruit even further.
What he likely did not realize was that both wounds he had just inflicted were not new places, but old scars.
The gash across Peter's chest, the mark on Figarland's forehead, had once been small. Quiet. Hidden history.
Brook's cuts ripped those ancient injuries open and carved them several times larger.
Had he done it on purpose? Or was it instinct, guided by soul power that naturally sought out a weakness?
Neither of the two old monsters had considered that possibility. What enraged them most was not the pain, but the fact that they, the highest rulers of the world, had been scarred by a pirate.
It was humiliation.
Bloody steam rose from Peter and Figarland's bodies, their wounds knitting shut with unnatural speed. Flesh mended, bone sealed, skin closed.
But this time, they did not erase the marks.
They chose to leave the scars behind. A memory burned straight into their flesh.
"Brook," Figarland said coldly, his face pale, eyes full of murderous intent, "is that all the tricks you have?"
"Yohoho. Who was the one running scared like a dog just now?"
Brook's tone was light, but his gaze was sharp. He did not care if his methods looked underhanded. Cat, mouse, battlefield, it was all the same. Only the final survivor had the right to speak.
He tilted his head slightly.
"So. According to that bald guy, Devil Fruits come from desire? Not from some technological relic of an ancient giant kingdom?"
He seized the lull in their clash to probe deeper. Too much of this information had been erased by the World Government. Even the Tree of Knowledge had no record of the truth.
Brook and Vegapunk had been studying Devil Fruits as potential artificial products, something that could be explained through science and technology. Now the Five Elders were saying these powers were born from human desire itself.
What a joke.
"Want to know?" Figarland sneered, lips curling. "We will not tell you."
He had taken hit after hit, but if there was one thing he was not about to give up, it was the upper hand in knowledge.
Brook laughed.
"If, like you said, Devil Fruits come from desire, then fear of death and longing for immortality are also wishes, aren't they?
"My power, the power of hell, is tied to every intelligent race in this world. If that is the case, then my Fruit sits above yours."
The fear of death was etched into the genes of all life. If Devil Fruits were truly born from desire, then the Fruit that governed death itself should be counted among the highest of all.
"Brook," one of the elders called out, voice suddenly smooth, "if you are willing to join the World Government, Lord Imu may grant you a place as the sixth supreme authority."
They had long suspected that Brook's Fruit had granted him a form of immortality. By their logic, that indeed qualified him to sit alongside them as a ruler of the world.
"Really now? Then that means you're all terrified of Imu, doesn't it?" Brook grinned. "Because he is the one holding your leashes?
"What kind of ability does he have?"
He did not intend to kneel like these old dogs. Whatever power Imu possessed, it was enough to make the Five Elders submit without question, and Brook wanted to know what that was.
"You are too stubborn," Figarland snapped. "Once Lord Imu moves, you will not even have the chance to regret anything."
His fists met Brook's soul slash head on, sparks and spirit light clashing between them.
Charlotte Linlin swooped in from the side, Emperor Blade Napoleon raised, her figure cutting across the battlefield as she intercepted Peter.
She refused to let two of the elders gang up on her man.
With Brook rejoining the main fight, the tide began to turn. The Hell Pirates gained a slight advantage, but it was still not enough. The young Kaido and Kozuki Oden were fierce, yet even together they struggled to decisively crush a God Knight at admiral level.
Only when Yellow Flash Borsalino and Vampire Shakky joined them did the balance finally tilt, if only a little. Even so, it was a battlefield where the outcome could only be decided after days of brutal fighting.
Compared to that upper tier clash, Stussy's battlefield looked almost "relaxed." Her voice had already killed one CP0 within half an hour. Now she was in a three way duel, fighting off two more agents at once.
Scaredo, Tom, Fisher Tiger, Hiruba, Crocus, and Tia all held their own against other CP0s in brutal one on one duels.
Even Memory Seahorse, with its bizarre memory devouring power, was able to fight a CP0 to a standstill.
Ashura Doji led the samurai of Wano Country. The four fallen angels commanded the Chiropteran air force and the zombie legion. Ibatombo headed the Impel Down pirate army. The seastone riflemen of Ballon Island's angels lined up and fired in disciplined volleys.
From every direction, the Hell Pirates' banners streamed into the battlefield. Affiliated pirate crews, pirate guild forces, giants from Elbaf's Giant Soldier Castle, the ice giant assault squad from the New Ice Demon Pirates…
Wave after wave of reinforcements slammed into the World Government's lines, pushing their armies back step by bloody step.
Even the Five Elders could no longer deny it.
The power of the Hell Pirates had swollen to a scale that mirrored the war eight hundred years ago.
And now, with Uranus and Pluton pounding each other in the heavens, the elders could feel the war slipping out of their control.
Still, they clung to their faith.
Lord Imu would settle everything. Victory, in their minds, was already decided.
Uranus continued to display its terrifying superiority in mobility and concentrated firepower.
One blast wiped out more than half of the pirates released from Impel Down. The second obliterated eighty percent of Shadow Demon Abefu's zombie army. The third shattered the combined pirate guild fleets, sending countless pirate crews fleeing in terror.
Watching the carnage, Brook felt his chest tighten.
This was no longer a battle. It was slaughter.
"Newgate," he called sharply, "fall back and keep Figarland busy. I am going to deal with Uranus."
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