"Wake up, Gern!"
At the exact moment when half of Nusjuro's body was sealed within the azure ice blossom—his consciousness suspended in a brief state of "death" after his brain had been pierced and his body invaded by extreme cold—
A power beyond description suddenly surged from the deepest core of his being.
It was a strange force that seemed to originate from the very foundation of the world itself.
The "Supreme Blessing Contract of Imu"—the authority of ageless immortality—had activated.
Within the area encased by the azure ice blossom, the state of "death," frozen down to the level of individual particles, began to be forcibly reversed by that higher-order power.
The ice crystals started breaking apart from the inside.
Melting—
But not into water.
Instead, they simply vanished, as though some unseen rule had erased the conditions of "freezing" and "damage" from existence.
The wound at Nusjuro's left temple—where his skull had been pierced through—began regenerating at a visible speed. Flesh, bone, and blood knit themselves back together in a frenzy of restoration.
The severed spark of life reconnected, like time itself flowing backward.
Within only two or three breaths—
Every horrifying injury caused by Gern's lethal strike had been completely restored.
Even the enormous azure ice blossom dissolved entirely.
All that remained was the ground beneath it, crystallized into a smooth, mirror-like surface after being ravaged by impossible cold.
"ROOOOAAAR!!!"
The moment his consciousness returned, Nusjuro did not groan in pain.
Instead, an earth-shaking equine roar erupted from his throat.
He didn't even bother looking at his regenerated body.
Instead, he lifted one massive skeletal hoof, coated in jet-black Armament Haki, and slammed it down onto the icy crystalline ground.
BOOM!!!
Haki exploded outward, shattering and dispersing every remaining shard of ice and lingering chill.
Immediately afterward—
Gripping the Shodai Kitetsu, the cursed blade shrieked like a wailing demon.
Without any fancy technique, Nusjuro unleashed a brutal horizontal slash, tearing through the air as it cleaved straight toward Gern's neck.
Gern's eyes sharpened.
The black blade Bahuang was already raised across his body.
CLANG!!!!!!
This collision produced a sound sharper and longer than any before it.
It wasn't merely the clash of steel.
It was the direct collision of two overwhelming forces pushed to their absolute limits.
Dark violet Conqueror's Haki lightning collided violently with the ominous black flames surrounding Nusjuro.
The two powers devoured and detonated against one another in a frenzy.
Centered on the two men, the ground of the barren island was ripped apart as though an invisible plow had carved through it, layer after layer of earth overturning and shattering.
Even the clouds overhead were churned by the violent clash of their auras, forming a massive expanding vortex in the sky.
After several seconds of stalemate—
The enormous recoil blasted both fighters apart.
They slid backward dozens of meters before finally stabilizing their footing.
Gern landed steadily, feeling the faint numbness spreading through his arms—and the opponent's killing intent that had nearly solidified into something tangible.
He understood.
That strike just now had truly enraged this ancient monster who stood at the very peak of the world.
Yet instead of tension—
Gern burst into laughter.
Wild, thunderous laughter.
"HAHAHA! Well?!"
"This—"
"This is the end!"
"This is what real death looks like!!"
As he spoke, he reached behind his neck and unfastened the clasps of the coat draped across his shoulders.
The coat symbolized the highest authority and responsibility within the Marines.
The word Justice emblazoned upon it.
A powerful sea wind surged across the island.
The pure white coat billowed like a flag in the storm.
Then it slipped from his shoulders.
Carried by the wind, it drifted backward through the air before finally settling gently upon the broken stones of the battlefield.
Gern no longer needed any symbol of identity.
At this moment—
The one standing here was simply "Heavenquake" Gern himself.
Meanwhile, Nusjuro had regained his footing.
But he did not immediately attack again.
Slowly, he raised a hand.
His fingers lightly touched his left temple.
The skin there was perfectly smooth.
Not a single wound remained.
Yet his expression had twisted into something utterly monstrous.
Because—
Gern was right.
Completely right.
Just now, in the most literal and fundamental sense—
He, Saint Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro—
One of the Five Elders, the highest authorities in the world—
The War God of Finance—
Had died.
Yes.
He had truly died once.
Killed by the man standing before him.
That man had used a speed beyond the predictive limits of his Observation Haki—Shockflash—
And with that black blade wrapped in eerie vibrations and absolute cold—
He had driven a sword straight through his skull.
In that instant—
Life had been physically severed.
Consciousness extinguished.
Thought halted.
All sensation gone.
For a fleeting moment, he had even glimpsed the distant scenery of the other shore.
If not for the Supreme Blessing granted by that Lord, which had forcibly activated after death and reversed the boundary between life and death—
He would now be nothing more than a corpse frozen inside that icy blossom.
Since the day he had accepted that blessing and ascended above all living beings as one of the Five Elders—
Across the vast stretch of centuries—
This was the first time.
The first time he had truly tasted death.
And what that experience produced was not fear.
It was the feeling of his dignity being trampled.
Of his most sacred pride being violated.
A fury so violent it defied description—
Along with a deeper, more cautious recognition of Gern's terrifying power.
"Gern… Reginald… Sigmar…"
Nusjuro's voice had grown hoarse.
Each word dripped with hatred.
"You… are impressive."
Slowly, he raised the Shodai Kitetsu once more.
Beyond its original sinister glow, the blade now became wrapped in even denser black Haki—dark as the abyss itself—along with eerie blue flames.
Within those flames, faint shadows of wailing souls seemed to twist and scream.
"You are the first man in hundreds of years…"
"…to make this old man experience death."
His body expanded slightly once more.
The skeletal armor covering his horse body thickened and grew more grotesque, and the pressure radiating from him surpassed even what he had shown earlier.
"So as repayment…"
"Allow this Kitetsu, which has severed countless strands of 'history' and 'fate'…"
"…to personally prepare your funeral."
The true immortal monster—
Now completely enraged—
Unleashed his full power.
To wash away the humiliation of death.
To fulfill the command of that Lord.
Nusjuro held nothing back, swearing to cut Gern down here and now.
"Prepare my funeral? Heh…"
Gern tightened his grip on Bahuang.
Pale vibration particles and dark violet Conqueror's Haki coiled around the blade once again.
His eyes gleamed with razor sharpness.
"You should save that line…"
"…for yourself."
"And for those 'gods' of yours sitting so high above the world."
"Heh."
Before his words had even fully fallen—
Nusjuro's attack had already arrived.
There was no grand warning.
No world-shaking prelude.
The Shodai Kitetsu simply descended from his hand in a motion that looked slow—
Yet in truth surpassed the limits of human sight.
An arc-shaped slash manifested out of nothing.
Interwoven with ghostly blue and jet black energy.
Along its edges swirled the phantoms of wailing spirits and a bone-chilling frost.
The attack surged toward Gern like a devouring maw.
Seeing it, Gern pushed lightly off the ground.
Bahuang swept upward in a full-force diagonal slash.
The core of the incoming strike was split apart by Gern's blade.
But the remaining shockwaves grazed past both sides of his body—
And continued onward, crashing into the distant land and mountains behind him.
Wherever the chilling aura of the underworld touched—
Life withered instantly.
Everything froze.