"Rosinante has moved to kill."
Sengoku's expression turned incomparably grave.
"Should I step in and stop this?" Garp said. "Let's end it here. If this keeps going, we might actually lose a Marine Admiral on the very day of their promotion. If word of that gets out, we'll be laughed at to death, and the Navy's prestige will collapse instantly."
"No," Sengoku said firmly. "Before the plan begins, we must probe Rosinante's true strength. Otherwise, it will be extremely unfavorable for the Marines."
While Sengoku and the others were speaking, the battlefield shifted again.
A beam of laser light suddenly shot out, crossing the short distance in an instant and striking toward Rosinante.
Rosinante raised his long blade vertically. The edge aligned precisely with the incoming laser, and the sharpness of the blade forced the beam to scatter, unable to advance even an inch.
"Borsalino," Rosinante said, turning his gaze to the side.
"..."
Borsalino opened his trademark sleazy mouth and said something, but no sound came out.
Judging from the shape of his lips, it was probably something like: You seem to have forgotten I exist. I'm an Admiral now too, you know. Being ignored like this puts me in a very awkward position.
"Sorry, sorry. I shouldn't have forgotten you," Rosinante said lightly. "To make it up to you, I'll start with you."
As he spoke, Rosinante's body shot forward like a streak of light, charging straight at Borsalino.
Spare me!
Seeing Rosinante rush toward him head-on, Borsalino's face went blank.
Within this domain, his strength was heavily suppressed. Even after constant adaptation, after barely learning how to use the Glint-Glint Fruit inside Heaven-and-Earth Losing Color, the burden was still far greater than he had imagined.
And even when he managed to unleash it, the power he could exert was pitifully small, barely enough to affect Rosinante at all. Fighting like this was pointless.
Yasakani no Magatama.
As Rosinante closed in, Borsalino immediately released a rain of light bullets to block his advance, then tried to transform into light and retreat.
"Hmph."
Rosinante snorted coldly, sweeping his long blade to knock aside the incoming light bullets as he continued charging forward at full speed.
"Don't even think about escaping."
Seeing light begin to gather around Borsalino, Rosinante instantly understood his intent and slashed out fiercely with a Heaven-Shattering Slash.
A blade of light shot forth, tearing through the curtain of light bullets and cutting straight toward Borsalino.
Unfortunately, it still failed to stop him.
Rosinante's blade light was fast, but Borsalino was faster. By the time the slash reached him, Borsalino had already transformed into light and fled.
The blade light could only cut through the afterimage he left behind, continuing onward and crashing into the ground ahead.
The slash erupted, carving a long gash across the plaza, streaking straight toward the spectator stands.
Seeing that massive blade light rushing toward them, everyone on the stands turned deathly pale.
Luckily, the Navy's defensive barriers had already been raised in front of the stands. No one knew what those barriers were made of, but they managed to stop the slash in the end.
"I thought I was going to die just now!"
"Thank goodness it was blocked, otherwise we'd be dead for sure!"
"Rosinante, are you trying to kill us?"
The people on the stands shouted in panic.
A flash of light, and Borsalino appeared beside Sengoku.
"This is troublesome," Borsalino said. "Rosinante's strength has increased a lot over these three years. With just the Heaven-and-Earth Losing Color domain, he can already suppress us easily without even using Body-Limiting Silence. If we don't go all out, forget about forcing him to reveal his trump cards. We probably won't even make him use Body-Limiting Silence."
"Then use everything," Sengoku said coldly. "Force him to expose his trump cards, especially that dangerous power. We need to know how much control he has over it now."
From the Five Elders, Sengoku already knew that Rosinante had mastered an extremely terrifying ability, one said to be no weaker than Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit. That alone made him deeply wary.
"Understood. I don't like getting beaten without hitting back either," Borsalino said.
With that, he turned into light and vanished from Sengoku's side. When he reappeared, he was already hovering in the air just outside the edge of Heaven-and-Earth Losing Color.
"Brothers," Borsalino called out, "let's bring out our true specialties and have some fun. Otherwise, the Dragon King might say we're being poor hosts."
Hearing Borsalino's words, Sakazuki and Kuzan exchanged glances, then nodded.
At that moment, Borsalino pushed both hands forward. Endless light gathered between his palms, and in an instant, a blinding radiance erupted.
Slowly, an enormous light sword took shape between his hands.
That massive blade contained a power so terrifying it made one's heart tremble.
The moment the light sword appeared, the surrounding air began to churn violently. Even the spectators with no strength or insight at all could clearly feel the dread radiating from that gigantic blade of light.