On the third day, their battle finally reached its climax.
The towering Whitebeard swung his bisento with overwhelming force, the massive blade crashing toward Teach as though he were swatting away a mere insect.
Teach had no room to evade. Even the Dark Jade that had protected him throughout the battle shattered instantly beneath Whitebeard's strike.
After two days of relentless combat, Whitebeard had already grasped the properties of the Dark Jade. Against the overwhelming destructive force of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, it simply could not endure. At best, it could weaken the impact slightly before breaking apart.
Teach took the attack head-on.
Despite the protection of his Armament Haki and the Dark-Dark Fruit, the terrifying vibration force traveled through the bisento and directly invaded his body.
The pain was unbearable.
The crushing shock from the tremors combined with the Dark-Dark Fruit's amplified pain sensitivity felt like countless needles drilling into his brain.
Even Teach, who prided himself on his endurance, had to admit that the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's destructive power was terrifying.
Fortunately, his Domination, the Haki-infused body he had been forging, had already begun to take shape.
The fact that his claws had repeatedly clashed with Whitebeard's vibration-infused attacks for two straight days was proof of its effectiveness. Although the bones in his hands had fractured more than once, they recovered rapidly through Life Return, while the internal strengthening of his body significantly reduced the damage caused by the invading tremor force.
Teach's toughness exceeded even Whitebeard's expectations.
It wasn't merely because of the Dark-Dark Fruit. Teach's own physique had already reached an astonishing level.
More importantly, Whitebeard could clearly sense that Teach was still growing stronger.
After being blasted away, Teach manipulated gravity to stabilize himself in midair.
Looking down at Whitebeard, his expression remained solemn.
His clothes were torn to shreds, and his captain's coat had long since disappeared somewhere during the battle.
He understood that if this continued, they could fight for days without a decisive result.
More importantly, the purpose behind challenging Whitebeard had already been fulfilled.
The enormous pressure from battling the world's strongest man had broken through the bottleneck that had restrained him for years.
A weight lifted from Teach's heart.
Since his objective had been achieved...
He no longer had any reason to hold back.
A broad grin spread across his face.
"Take this, Whitebeard!"
Teach flashed across the sky at incredible speed.
One after another, black spheres descended from above like meteors under his control.
They surrounded Whitebeard from every direction, steadily shrinking the encirclement until there was no obvious path of escape.
Anyone familiar with this technique immediately recognized it.
Teach had only used it twice before, once during the Wanze Festival and once in the Golden Sea battle.
Both times, it had produced devastating results.
Many spectators narrowed their eyes.
The members of the Whitebeard Pirates felt their hearts tighten.
"Air Quake!"
Whitebeard lowered his bisento and clenched both fists.
White hemispheres filled with vibration energy formed around them before he slammed both fists into the air on either side.
Crack!
The atmosphere shattered with a crisp sound.
An overwhelming shockwave exploded outward, pulverizing everything within its range.
The island itself fragmented instantly as enormous spiderweb cracks spread across the land.
One attack completely tore the island apart.
The once colorful island became a lifeless wasteland.
Except for the ground beneath Whitebeard's feet, the entire island visibly sank by nearly half a meter.
This was the true power of the Paramecia-type Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
The ability to generate earthquakes at will, shatter the atmosphere, split the sea itself, and unleash enough destructive force to erase an island in moments.
It was universally acknowledged as the Devil Fruit capable of destroying the world.
It was also recognized as the strongest Paramecia.
Compared to everything Whitebeard had displayed earlier, this attack was far clearer and infinitely more shocking.
Viewed from above, it looked as though the island had been stripped of an entire layer.
Far beyond the battlefield, waves more than ten meters high rose across the sea, threatening every observation ship in the area.
Fortunately, after witnessing two days of fighting, every fleet had already retreated much farther away.
No one dared approach this battlefield.
They could only continue watching through the live broadcast.
Even Morgans did not dare fly any closer.
The aftermath alone was enough to kill him.
Fortunately, the Royal Den Den Mushi possessed extraordinary long-range capabilities.
Even from such an immense distance, they continued transmitting clear images of the battlefield.
Teach's descending Gravity Spheres, the black orbs that had sealed every avenue of escape, were swallowed by Whitebeard's shockwaves before they could even reach their target, detonating harmlessly in midair.
But Whitebeard immediately sensed that the attack was not over.
The hairs on his body stood upright.
An overwhelming sense of danger flooded his instincts.
A pale blue sphere of energy descended silently from above.
It continued falling toward him.
"The Star of Destruction ..."
The moment spectators recognized the attack, countless expressions changed.
Whitebeard's face also became solemn.
He understood better than anyone how terrifying this technique truly was.
Meanwhile, Teach climbed even higher into the sky.
Looking down from above, he quietly watched to see how Whitebeard intended to deal with it.
At the same time, he was examining the changes within his own body.
A powerful intuition told him that the shackles restricting the Dark-Dark Fruit had finally disappeared during his battle against Whitebeard.
His Dark-Dark Fruit...
...had awakened.
This battle had become the catalyst.
An endless stream of power surged through his body.
"So this... is the awakening of a Logia..."
Below, Whitebeard realized too late that escaping was already impossible.
The Star of Destruction had been descending ever since he released Air Quake.
The moment it reached its target...
It exploded.
A gravitational field hundreds of meters across erupted into existence before rapidly expanding.
Mud, stone, and shattered bedrock were torn from the earth by the overwhelming gravity.
Entire sections of the island rose into the sky and spiraled toward the center of the field.
Because of his timing and proximity, Whitebeard was immediately caught.
His body was irresistibly dragged toward the center together with the countless tons of earth surrounding him.
Whitebeard was swallowed whole.
Everyone knew the horror of the Star of Destruction .
A Marine Admiral had died without the slightest chance to resist.
If even an Admiral had fallen...
Could Whitebeard truly survive?
"Pops!"
The Whitebeard Pirates cried out in panic.
Their unwavering confidence began to waver.
Even they couldn't be certain this time.
"Whitebeard... you're not going to die, are you?"
Inside the Flying Pirates' palace, Shiki frowned deeply.
Even he had to admit that the Star of Destruction was an almost unsolvable technique.
If he himself were caught inside it...
He wasn't confident he could escape.
Although he had never personally experienced it, simply watching the broadcast allowed him to sense the terrifying gravity inside the field.
Even the Float-Float Fruit might become useless there.
Within the gravitational field, Whitebeard's body continuously rotated along an invisible orbit, drawing ever closer to its center.
He threw a punch.
A devastating shockwave burst outward, scattering the mountains of earth gathering around him.
But the effect was minimal.
It merely delayed the inevitable.
Under the influence of the overwhelming gravity, the shattered rock immediately gathered together again.
The gravitational field continued expanding until it reached a diameter of nearly a thousand meters.
Whitebeard's time was rapidly running out.
As tens of millions of tons of earth converged toward the center, once they completely buried him, escaping would become virtually impossible.
Soon, Whitebeard disappeared entirely from the live broadcast.
No trace of him remained.
Had the world's strongest man truly fallen?
Everyone understood that Whitebeard had entered the greatest crisis of his entire life.
Inside the gravitational field, even moving his body had become incredibly difficult.
The warning in his heart grew stronger with every passing second.
He knew the Star of Destruction would soon reach its final stage.
Once that happened...
Even he might no longer be able to resist.
"I never expected him... to wield power like this."
Whitebeard looked at the endless earth closing around him and slowly clenched his fists.
"Then let me show you."
At that instant, Teach's pupils contracted sharply.
He sensed Whitebeard's aura exploding upward.
It continued rising.
Higher.
Stronger.
Until even Teach felt his heart skip a beat.
He already knew the answer.
"Awakening..."
The word escaped his lips.
Even his body trembled slightly beneath the pressure.
What exactly did the awakened Tremor-Tremor Fruit look like?
Teach had never seen it.
Perhaps Whitebeard had never needed to use it before.
But there was no doubt now.
Whitebeard had reached the realm of awakening long ago.
The increased power of his techniques and reduced stamina consumption were merely secondary benefits common to awakened Paramecia users.
The true power of awakening...
...could only be revealed when it was unleashed.
Just like Teach's newly awakened Dark-Dark Fruit.
He could already feel the overwhelming increase in power.
However, he had yet to discover the unique ability granted by its awakening.
After all, awakening was immensely powerful, but it also consumed an enormous amount of stamina.
He would need time to fully explore it.
Below, Whitebeard felt limitless power surging through his body.
He punched the air before him.
The atmosphere did not merely crack.
It tore apart.
A massive black fissure appeared in space itself.
Within it lay a strange and unknown void.
The surrounding space immediately attempted to heal itself.
Before it could...
Whitebeard reached forward.
His hands, coated in overwhelming tremor power, seized the edges of the spatial tear itself.
Then...
He pulled.
Space was ripped apart.
The fissure widened rapidly, extending farther and farther.
The endless masses of earth on both sides were completely separated by the torn space and could no longer converge.
Meanwhile, the gravitational field continued expanding.
The closer one moved toward its center, the stronger its gravity became.
Simply remaining still meant enduring ever-increasing gravitational pressure.
The longer the Star of Destruction remained active, the more impossible escape became.
It had already reached its final stage.
The colossal rotating field devoured everything that approached it.
Its edge expanded from the island's center all the way to the shoreline.
The entire island had been swallowed.
At this moment, countless spectators had already accepted Whitebeard's death as inevitable.
Even the Whitebeard Pirates fell into despair.
"This... can't be possible!"
Boom!
The Star of Destruction suddenly collapsed inward.
In an instant, the enormous gravitational field vanished without a trace.
Millions of tons of earth that had been suspended nearly a thousand meters in the air lost their support and rained back down, creating an awe-inspiring spectacle.
"Oh my God! What is that?!"
Morgans' stunned voice echoed across the live broadcast.
He immediately urged his mount closer while ordering the Royal Den Den Mushi to zoom in.
Soon...
A familiar figure emerged from the swirling dust.
Before him stretched a gigantic black crack nearly eight meters tall and over ten meters long.
"Whitebeard... actually tore space apart! He escaped the Star of Destruction by grabbing space itself!"
Morgans' eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.
Although this was the first time he had ever witnessed such a phenomenon, he instantly realized what it was.
A spatial rift.
Beyond the crack lay an unknown dimension.
Even after figuring it out...
It remained utterly unbelievable.
More importantly...
Whitebeard was alive.
"Oh my God! Ho ho! Whitebeard survived!"
Morgans laughed excitedly as he announced the astonishing news to the entire world.
"That's wonderful!"
The Whitebeard Pirates erupted with joy. Moments ago they had stood at the gates of despair. Now they felt as though they had been pulled back into heaven.
Many of them wept openly.
"Whitebeard... you truly deserve your reputation."
Shiki sighed in admiration. Only then did he realize he had unconsciously been worried. If Whitebeard had died so easily...
It would have been far too disappointing.
Within the spatial rift, Whitebeard stood with both arms spread wide, supporting the torn space itself.
Blood dripped steadily from his hands.
Even for Whitebeard, resisting the force of space attempting to close again was no simple task. He breathed heavily. Yet despite his exhaustion...
His towering figure radiated overwhelming dominance.
Whitebeard wasn't merely shattering space anymore. He was physically grabbing it. That feat was infinitely more shocking.
It fully demonstrated the terrifying nature of his awakened Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Even Whitebeard himself had been forced to hide inside the gap between dimensions to evade the Star of Destruction .
Had he been pulled any closer to its core...
He would undoubtedly have died.
At the center of the Star of Destruction , even space itself became distorted beneath the overwhelming gravity.
Whitebeard finally released the spatial rift.
His enormous body descended from nearly a thousand meters in the air.
Each step he took landed upon empty space.
His feet, coated in tremor power, struck the air itself.
Every step shattered space like glass beneath him, allowing him to descend exactly as Geppo allowed the Marines to walk through the sky.
Step by step...
Whitebeard returned to the ground.
The Star of Destruction had transformed the entire island into a gigantic basin.
Seawater was already rushing inward from every direction.
"You're looking pretty miserable, Whitebeard."
Teach slowly descended from the sky, stopping several hundred meters away with a mocking grin.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to set off fireworks carelessly, Teach?"
Whitebeard answered immediately, refusing to yield even verbally.
"Then let me see your true strength now, Whitebeard."
Teach smiled.
Internally, however, every nerve in his body was on high alert. His Future Sight Observation Haki had already locked onto Whitebeard completely. An overwhelming aura erupted from Teach.
The sky visibly darkened. He clenched a fist.
Boundless darkness burst from his body, spreading across the heavens.
Facing an even stronger Whitebeard, Teach no longer dared hold anything back.
The endless power surging through his awakened Devil Fruit poured out like floodwaters released after a dam burst.
If awakening had elevated Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit...
Then only the awakening of the Dark-Dark Fruit could answer it.
Who knew just how terrifying Whitebeard's awakened tremor power truly was?
Darkness swallowed the heavens.
A colossal vortex formed above Teach's head of its own accord, rotating slowly as though the sky itself had become the mouth of an endless abyss, ready to devour everything in existence.