A massive surge of darkness erupted from Blackbeard's hands.
The resulting recoil force launched the enormous raft forward at breakneck speed.
In just a few breaths, the raft had already shot over a kilometer away.
Even Lafitte and Burgess were stunned by the sheer speed.
They were well aware of Blackbeard's tendency to flee—after all, hadn't Fire Fist Ace chased him from the New World all the way to the first half of the Grand Line?
But they never imagined their captain could run this fast.
It was like the raft had grown wings.
At this rate, they figured that by the time the new Navy Admiral broke through the darkness of the Dark Abyss, they'd already be several nautical miles away.
By then, even a top-tier Admiral would struggle to catch up.
"Teach, you're still the same cowardly dog," Ace sneered, stabilizing himself despite being tied up like a dumpling.
"You talked so big about challenging the new Admiral—I thought you had some real confidence. Turns out, you were just confident in your escape plan."
"Then again, I can't blame you. Even I wouldn't be sure I could take that guy head-on."
"Don't forget—you only caught me because of these trash."
"Shut up! Who are you calling trash?!" Burgess roared.
Back then, Blackbeard and Ace had fought to a draw, both collapsing unconscious.
If the others hadn't stayed out of the fight, they wouldn't have been able to swoop in and capture Ace afterward.
"Burgess, don't get worked up over Captain Ace," Blackbeard said, still channeling the dark tide to propel the raft. He glanced back toward the Navy ship hidden behind the black curtain and grinned wickedly.
"Captain Ace, you'd better say what you want now. You won't get many more chances to chat with your old pal."
"Besides, running away is a kind of strength too. If it weren't, you wouldn't have chased me for so long—only to end up in my hands."
"Give me three to five more minutes. Once we're ten nautical miles out, that new Admiral will be left in the dust. I'll just find someone else to trade with."
"And your fate, Captain Ace, won't change one bit."
"You—!"
Ace's face darkened.
If only he'd listened to Whitebeard's warning and waited for backup, maybe things wouldn't have ended like this.
"Captain, we're already five or six nautical miles out. I doubt they can catch us now," Burgess said, glancing back at the fading black curtain with a smug grin.
"So much for the Navy's new Admiral—he's just another toy in our captain's hands."
"Yeah, I think so too," Doc Q added weakly.
But just as the words left their mouths, both Doc Q and Burgess froze.
No—
Everyone on the raft suddenly felt it: a chilling, inexplicable sense of impending death.
It was as if the Grim Reaper himself had set his sights on them.
Even Blackbeard's hair stood on end.
The eerie sensation made his hands falter. He scanned the surroundings—but saw nothing.
Could this overwhelming sense of danger really be coming from the Navy ship, still cloaked in darkness six or seven nautical miles away?
That seemed impossible.
The black curtain was Blackbeard's ultimate defensive technique.
It didn't just block vision—it absorbed a significant amount of incoming attacks.
Even if someone could break through, it would take time.
By then, they'd be long gone.
So why the sense of doom?
And yet, years of living on the edge had honed Blackbeard's instincts like a hammer on steel.
Every cell in his body screamed that something was wrong.
It felt like death itself was watching them.
Blackbeard instinctively turned back toward the black curtain, desperate to understand.
BOOM!
From behind the curtain, a massive serpent of pure white mist surged forth, slamming into the darkness with the force of a thousand storms.
The impact alone could have shattered a pirate ship.
But the moment the mist serpent touched the curtain, it was swallowed whole—vanished without a trace.
Other attacks—slashes, cannon fire—met the same fate.
Smoker, his body steaming with white mist, landed beside Tashigi, the two standing back-to-back in a defensive stance.
Around them, the Marines tensed, ready for anything.
"Admiral Luo Yu," Ain said, unable to hold back, "Blackbeard's turned this whole area dark with his Devil Fruit. He's not attacking—does he plan to wear us down?"
"And what is this black curtain? Why can't we break through it?"
After all their efforts, even Smoker and Tashigi felt like they were punching air—no resistance, no results.
Ulti, still tied up, sneered at the struggling Marines.
"What happened to all that arrogance, new Admiral? Now you're trapped by Blackbeard, unable to escape. I'd say you're about to face a nightmare."
"A nightmare?" Luo Yu stood at the bow, calmly sipping his drink.
"Who said anything about danger? That guy already ran."
"He's probably seven or eight nautical miles away by now."
"And who said I can't break through this curtain? I just wanted to see how badly Blackbeard botched his Dark-Dark Fruit development."
Exactly.
The moment Blackbeard made his move, Luo Yu had already locked onto him using Yami Sukehiro's ki sensing and Observation Haki.
He wasn't surprised by the escape.
In the original story, Blackbeard and Ace had only fought to a draw.
His mastery of the Dark-Dark Fruit was a mess.
If he hadn't later acquired Whitebeard's Quake-Quake Fruit and used the darkness to counter other Devil Fruit users…
He'd be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill Warlord.
"Admiral Luo Yu, you're saying Blackbeard ran?" Tashigi blinked, caught off guard. "Should we contact Admiral Kizaru to resume the handoff?"
Smoker also looked over, waiting for instructions.
But the next words out of Luo Yu's mouth left them speechless:
"Since when have I been generous enough to let overtime bonuses walk away?"