"Fire Fist—!"
Seeing Karl make no move, Ace immediately unleashed his signature attack.
Transforming his arm into flames of immense heat, he rapidly converted a large amount of stamina into fire, instantly expanding the flames to their current limit and forming a massive pillar of fire that he blasted towards Karl with a punch.
BOOM—!
Facing the roaring pillar of fire, Karl, just like Rayleigh back on the Sabaody Archipelago, displayed a power from another dimension.
Without infusing Haki, without using Life Return, not even a charging motion...
Karl stood his ground and threw a straight punch.
The next second, a deafening explosion echoed through the air.
The air around him began to distort, and as Karl's fist shot out, it formed a transparent cannonball of air that crashed into the roaring pillar of fire.
After a stalemate of only a second, the air cannon, with absolutely overwhelming force, blasted Ace's fire pillar apart and instantly engulfed Ace himself.
Since the air cannon did not contain the power of Haki, Ace's body simply elementalized into a mass of fire. He was sent flying hundreds of meters by the air cannon, crashing into the golden wall at the end of the Golden Martial Arts Arena, causing the entire wall to cave in significantly.
This exaggerated scene left all the members of the Spade Pirates completely dumbfounded, their mouths agape and their eyes looking as if they were about to pop out.
BOOM!
After the air cannon completely dissipated, another massive pillar of fire erupted at the end of the arena.
But this time, the pillar of fire did not roar towards Karl; it shot into the sky.
At the top of the fire pillar was Ace, his upper body visible while his lower body was made of flames.
"Fire Commandment: Fire Pillar!"
Propelling himself into the sky with a jet of fire, Ace once again converted a massive amount of stamina into flames. He then rotated them with his hands, forming a giant pillar of fire with a quality and temperature even higher than his previous Fire Fist.
Like Karl's God's Judgment, the giant pillar of fire, capable of instantly destroying a large galleon, roared down once more.
"A decent move, but... far from enough."
Karl's eyes lit up, a trace of fighting spirit finally igniting within him.
Then, getting slightly more serious, he displayed a power that, in Ace's eyes, was the same despair that Gild Tesoro had faced against him.
Without any movement, without using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's electric field to teleport, Karl's figure vanished from the spot.
In the next second, the giant pillar of fire, as if cut by an indestructible blade, was split in two down the middle. The cut spread rapidly towards Ace's arms.
A closer look would reveal that what was cutting the pillar of fire was not an attack, but Karl himself.
His body charged into the pillar of fire, showing no signs of burning. Even the knight's armor, forged from refined steel, did not glow red from the high temperature.
It was as if an invisible barrier surrounded Karl's body, preventing the flames from even touching him.
As Karl's figure shot towards him like an arrow, Ace's Observation Haki seemed to predict the danger. His expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly used pre-emptive elementalization.
Swoosh—
Just as he used pre-emptive elementalization, the scene predicted by his Observation Haki suddenly changed, as if the future itself had been altered...
In his prediction, Karl should have thrown a straight punch infused with Haki. Instead, he abruptly vanished from Ace's sight.
In the next instant, a force as heavy as a mountain crashed onto Ace's back, a loud thud indicating a solid hit.
"Wah... BOOM!"
Ace, who had never been injured since eating the Logia Flame-Flame Fruit, felt a sharp pain in his back.
Then, it was as if his entire body no longer belonged to him.
His consciousness was mercilessly stripped away, his mind incredibly heavy.
His eyes rolled back, his vision instantly blurring before being consumed by darkness.
His body fell like a cannonball, creating a loud explosion on the golden ground.
When the dust settled, a crater several meters deep was revealed in the golden ground.
At the bottom of the crater, Ace lay unconscious.
"Ace!!!"
"Captain!!!"
Seeing this, all the members of the Spade Pirates rushed forward anxiously.
"Don't worry. He just took a blow he couldn't handle and temporarily lost consciousness," Karl said with a faint smile. "I went easy on him. Take him back and let him rest for about half a month, and he'll be as good as new."
Just like Garp's fists, which could be infused with Haki to inflict pain without causing serious injury, Karl, in that last blow, had not only used Haki but also Life Return, perfectly controlling his power to a level that Ace couldn't withstand but wouldn't be fatally injured by.
"...Thank you!"
Masked Deuce, the first crew member Ace had recruited and the ship's doctor of the Spade Pirates, with whom he had shared the Flame-Flame Fruit he found on Sixis Island, quickly checked Ace's body. Finding it to be just as Karl had said, he hurriedly stood up and bowed respectfully to Karl.
"When your captain wakes up, tell him to properly improve the strength of his Observation Haki and his physical constitution."
Karl turned and walked towards the hotel, leaving behind a sentence filled with a hint of expectation, "In this sea of the strongest, a powerful fruit ability is far from enough. Without powerful Haki and physical constitution, you can't even be considered a monster of the New World, let alone challenge the world's strongest man."
After speaking, Karl teleported and disappeared from the sight of the Spade Pirates.
Not long after, the turtle car that had brought them there drove back into the Golden Martial Arts Arena.
After carrying Ace into the car, the Spade Pirates did not immediately leave Gran Tesoro but went to the city's hospital.
This world had banks, and it also had hospitals.
As the world's largest entertainment city, Gran Tesoro naturally had both.
However, due to the battle between Karl and Gild Tesoro, the original medical staff and bank employees had all fled.
But in the past few days, Doflamingo had sent professionals to get the hospital and bank running again.
Especially the bank. Those noble masters didn't like to carry around chests of money to play with like country bumpkins and the poor. They all used cards or withdrew money from the bank.
Teleporting back to the top floor of the hotel, Karl started drawing a bath while using his Observation Haki to watch the Spade Pirates.
Seeing them take Ace to the hospital, Karl muttered to himself, "I wonder if this experience will change the destiny of this chosen one again?"
Perhaps due to competition, Karl's existence had made Ace's strength far exceed that of the original story. At 17, he had become a powerhouse with a Logia ability and all three types of Haki.
In this sea of the strongest, the New World, he was a powerhouse second only to the monsters of the New World.
In a Yonko's crew, he could easily become an executive, a Lead Performer, or a division commander.
It was just a pity that Ace's physical constitution was still a certain distance from that of a New World monster, let alone a Yonko Commander or a ruler.
His three types of Haki, having only been awakened and mastered this year, were also very immature.
Karl had only used his absolutely overwhelming physical constitution to change the prediction of Ace's Observation Haki, causing him to be unable to react. In those few seconds of stunned inaction, Karl had caught his real body and blasted him to the ground from behind, instantly knocking him unconscious.
If Ace accepted Karl's advice and, after waking up, set aside the arrogance of a Logia user and focused on improving his physical constitution and Haki, perhaps by his twenties, with his inherited talent from the Pirate King, he could become a major figure on the level of a Yonko Commander.
After all, his sworn brother, the true chosen one, Monkey D. Luffy, had mastered the ultimate forms of all three types of Haki at 19, able to see the future, hear the Voice of All Things, use advanced Ryuo for emission and internal destruction, and the other-dimensional Conqueror's Haki infusion.
As the son of the Pirate King, even if he wasn't as good as Luffy, he should be second only to him.
In that case...
Karl was curious, would Ace still join the Whitebeard Pirates as in the original story?
If, as in the original story, Ace eventually joined the Whitebeard Pirates, then when he pursued Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach, would it be a one-sided victory?
The future of history could very well undergo a heaven-and-earth-shaking change with a single action from Karl.
He had to admit, Karl felt a sense of accomplishment.
After drawing his hot bath, Karl secretly pulled in Perona, who had just finished her physical training, and properly rewarded the hardworking girl.
A few days later, Ace woke up and was discharged from the hospital. He visited Karl again to bid him farewell...
The battle with Karl had allowed Ace, who had been undefeated from the East Blue to the New World, to finally witness the strength of the pinnacle.
At the same time, the arrogance he held as a Logia user had been mostly beaten out of him.
Finally, he asked how big the gap was between Karl's strength and that of the rulers.
After receiving Karl's reply, Ace decided to continue his journey of challenges in the New World.
But he would no longer challenge the monsters at the pinnacle. He would first challenge opponents of the same level, with similar bounties, to hone his Haki and fruit ability.
After he stood at the pinnacle, he would challenge Karl again.
After making this one-sided promise with Karl, Ace regained his usual high spirits and was carried away from Gran Tesoro by his crew, his body wrapped in bandages.
"I look forward to your future, Portgas D. Ace."
Looking at Ace, whose mentality had clearly changed and whose Haki strength and capacity would surely skyrocket in the coming period, Karl thought to himself.
Karl was never a narrow-minded or petty man.
He wouldn't develop killing intent towards Ace just because his destiny had changed and his strength and potential far exceeded that of the original story.
On the contrary, Karl looked forward to the growth of these chosen ones.
Other people needed their bodies to enter their golden age for their strength to reach the pinnacle step by step.
Only the three brothers, Ace, Sabo, and Monkey D. Luffy, were chosen ones who could power up at the drop of a hat, their strength rapidly transforming from weak to strong.
Karl wouldn't be surprised at all if the three brothers took only a few years to reach the pinnacle.
Although he always teased Monkey D. Luffy, in fact, Karl also wanted to fight the 19-year-old version of him.
Because...
Karl was about to climb to the true peak and become one of those peaks.
After he mastered Conqueror's Haki infusion, there would be very few people in this sea who could be his opponent.
Even now, the number of people who could fight Karl to a standstill, besides the four rulers whose overall strength was slightly superior, including the Marines, Mariejois, and some hidden masters, was only a few dozen in the entire world.
After he completed his third evolution and his overall strength was further sublimated, that two-digit number would become a single-digit one.
Karl, who had the "battle maniac" tag, would never mind the birth of new super-powerhouses in this sea; he would only mind if the number of strong people decreased.
It was best if there were more and more strong people, who would eventually become the nutrients for him to break through the ceiling of this world.
This expectation was also... the Dragon Rider's arrogance.
"Karl, why are you preparing so much food?"
One day, Carina and the others were rarely gathered in the living room on the top floor.
Watching Karl pack all sorts of food into an oversized backpack, Nami couldn't help but ask curiously.
"I'm going on a trip, and I'll be visiting a certain major figure along the way."
Karl said without looking back as he packed food and drinks.
"Are you going on a trip alone?"
"A major figure? How many people can be called a major figure in front of you now?"
Carina and Nami's questions came like a barrage of cannonballs. "Could it be that you're going to visit a legend from the old era?"
"No, are you going to visit one of the rulers?"
As soon as she said it, Carina denied it. "No, no, if you were going to visit one of the rulers, you'd have to send a formal request in advance. Otherwise, going unannounced could easily cause unnecessary misunderstandings and lead to being surrounded by the entire pirate crew."
"Stop asking. I'm going to Wano Country."
Karl finally revealed his destination.
But he was planning to go alone this time, without Little White.
So as not to worry Carina and the others, he chose to tell them half the truth and hide the other half.
In fact, Karl was preparing to go to Onigashima.
Wano Country was just on the way.
"Wano Country? That land of samurai that has been closed off for hundreds of years?"
Having received Doflamingo's intelligence, Carina and the others were no longer completely unfamiliar with the New World.
But because Wano Country was Doflamingo and Kaido's experimental base, the shared intelligence did not contain detailed information about it.
Therefore...
Carina and Robin only knew that Wano Country was a country that had been closed off for hundreds of years, and was once known as the Land of Gold.
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