Luo Yu's cryptic remark left everyone momentarily stunned.
They all knew his obsession with overtime bonuses.
But right now, they were still trapped beneath the endless black curtain.
Blackbeard and his crew had already fled eight or nine nautical miles away.
In this situation, what else could they do but watch him escape?
Ulti's expression froze. She quickly shouted:
"New Navy Admiral, you think just saying Blackbeard ran makes it true?"
"Even if he did run, so what? Don't forget—he's a designated negotiation target for Marine HQ. Next time you meet, you won't even be authorized to act."
As a CP0 agent who had already suffered a major loss at the hands of the Navy, Ulti didn't care whether Blackbeard escaped or not. As long as she could see Luo Yu humiliated, that was enough.
But Luo Yu didn't seem to care at all. He calmly reached for the ornamental weapon staff he hadn't used in ages and said lightly:
"So what? I'll just cut everything down."
Buzz!
A pitch-black grimoire materialized before him.
As its pages flipped open, the air around them froze.
Then, a jet-black magic circle burst open with a roar.
BOOM!
A pillar of darkness exploded from Luo Yu, tearing through the sky like a divine lance.
Even the black curtain that had blanketed the entire area was pierced clean through.
The surge of magical energy rippled outward like a tidal wave.
Everyone aboard the warship felt as if a mountain had dropped onto their chests.
But what shocked them most—
Was that the dark energy erupting from Luo Yu was identical to the power of Blackbeard's Dark-Dark Fruit.
No—
It was even stronger.
If Blackbeard's darkness was like a heavy curtain blotting out the sun, Luo Yu's was a blade—razor-sharp and unstoppable.
The difference between the two was indescribable.
And more importantly—wasn't each Devil Fruit supposed to be unique?
How could there be two users of the Dark-Dark Fruit?
And hadn't Luo Yu's powers always resembled Sengoku's?
How could he now wield a second Devil Fruit?
It shattered everything they thought they knew.
As these thoughts swirled, all eyes locked on Luo Yu.
They remembered his earlier words and desperately wanted to know—was he joking?
How could he possibly break through the black curtain and strike Blackbeard from eight or nine nautical miles away?
But before they could finish the thought, Luo Yu clenched the weapon staff in his right hand.
The towering pillar of darkness surged into the blade like a raging river.
Then, Luo Yu opened his eyes.
His aura locked onto Blackbeard's position over ten nautical miles away.
Without a single flourish, he swung the staff through the air.
BOOM!
A black slash shot skyward.
Everyone on deck gasped, their pupils contracting in disbelief.
Even Ulti collapsed to the deck with a thud.
He cut it.
With a single, casual swing, he didn't just slice through the black curtain—he tore the sky and sea in half.
The slash streaked forward like lightning, cleaving everything in its path.
Was this really the same Dark-Dark Fruit?
Outside the curtain—
Blackbeard, who had just fled twelve or thirteen nautical miles and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, turned to glance back.
What he saw made his pupils shrink.
Burgess and Lafitte were dumbfounded.
The black curtain had been pierced by a matching beam of darkness.
And that towering black slash had shredded everything in its path.
The curtain. The sea. The sky.
Three separate realms—now linked by a single, apocalyptic strike.
The distance of over ten nautical miles vanished in an instant.
Now they understood why they'd felt Death breathing down their necks.
They had never escaped his reach.
As the slash filled their vision, Burgess screamed:
"Captain! Your Dark-Dark Fruit must be fake!"
"Shut up! Help me block it!"
"Damn it! Are there two Dark-Dark Fruits?!"
Blackbeard roared in fury.
He unleashed the full power of his fruit.
BOOM!
Two forces of darkness collided.
The resulting explosion was like a category-12 hurricane, engulfing tens of thousands of meters of ocean.
Waves soared into the sky and crashed down like a torrential storm.
Even on the distant warship, Smoker and the others were drenched in icy seawater, snapped out of their daze.
They looked up at the sky—split open.
The sea—torn into a vacuum, water rushing in from both sides.
Only now did they realize—they hadn't been dreaming.
Admiral Luo Yu, who rarely fought—
When he did, he split the heavens and the sea.
If word of this got out, it would shake the entire world.
"So this… this is why he never fights?"
"Is he really just a new Admiral—or some secret weapon Marine HQ's been hiding?"
Ulti sat on the deck, pale as a ghost, staring at the scene like she'd seen the devil.
She remembered how she'd tried to push Jack into forcing Luo Yu to act.
Looking back now, it was like dancing on her own grave.
If Luo Yu had used this slash yesterday—
If Jack had tried to take it head-on—
Ulti didn't even want to imagine it. The billion-Berry Drought Jack might've been sliced in two.
"As expected of Yami's strongest technique—Dark-Draped Dimensional Slash: Beyond."
"This'll save me some effort on future overtime bonuses."
Luo Yu sheathed his staff, took a swig of cheap liquor, and said casually:
"I wonder if Old Man Sengoku will acknowledge that I hijacked Kizaru's mission. Maybe he'll bump up my bonus. Would be a real pain if he tried to stiff me."