"Whoosh—!!"
A figure shot upward from the heart of the explosion like a meteor streaking in reverse, rocketing straight into the higher reaches of the sky in an instant.
Pale vibration particles swirled around Gern Reginald Sigmar as he crossed both arms sharply before his chest. His roar echoed across the heavens.
"Heavenquake — Thousand Radiant Wheels!!!"
Wuuung—shuu shuu shuu shuu shuu!!!
In a single breath, hundreds of high-speed rotating pale energy spheres materialized around him.
A devastating meteor shower erupted.
Each sphere dragged a blazing tail of light as it rained down upon the figure below—Nasujuro, whose shattered body was still desperately regenerating under the protection of his so-called Undying Blessing after their previous clash.
In the blink of an eye, an endless chain of shock detonations swallowed the entire region.
Blinding white flashes and roaring explosions mingled with smoke and debris. Chunks of flesh—only to regenerate again—and fragments of bone—already growing back—burst violently apart again and again.
The earth was plowed repeatedly.
The entire island trembled.
"…Yomi."
At that moment, a low, hoarse voice sounded from the center of the apocalyptic bombardment.
The next instant—
A blade of light that seemed capable of severing the boundary between life and death tore upward through the blazing explosions and churning smoke.
Everything along its path split cleanly in two.
In its wake remained a stark vacuum trail, exuding an ominous, deathly aura.
"Step!"
Nasujuro burst from the smoke.
His appearance was even more horrifying than before.
Half of his body was still regenerating at a frenzied pace, bones knitting themselves together as corpse-pale flesh struggled to reform.
Within his hollow eye sockets burned a dim yellow flame—the fire of the underworld.
Black flames formed beneath the skeletal hooves of his centaur-like body, allowing him to gallop through the air itself.
His speed exploded to terrifying levels.
His enormous body and the sword in his grasp had practically fused into one.
The blade—the monstrous First Generation Kitetsu—had swollen to several times its normal size, wrapped in dense, suffocating death-aura from the underworld.
Together they descended like a sentence of death from the heavens.
The blade fell—
Straight toward Gern in the sky.
From above to below.
A crushing execution strike.
"Perfect!!"
Not a trace of fear appeared in Gern's eyes.
Instead, he thrust his right hand downward toward the island below.
Clang—Vrrrmmm!!!
The Black Blade Bahuang, still embedded in the earth, let out an excited metallic cry.
It tore itself free from the ground and shot skyward like a bolt of black lightning, landing perfectly in Gern's hand.
Gern gripped the hilt with both hands.
The blade immediately began absorbing the Haki flooding from his entire body.
Dark-purple Conqueror's Haki lightning wrapped itself around the pitch-black blade, violently merging with the weapon's inherent pale vibration waves.
The blade trembled with a thunderous resonance.
Without retreating even a single step, Gern swung upward to meet the descending execution strike.
"Heavenquake — Reverse Maelstrom!!!"
"Urghh!!!"
"Haaah!!!"
Both men roared at the same time.
Black and pale.
Death and vibration.
Two utterly different forces collided in midair and locked against each other.
The explosive energy streams tore apart every cloud in the surrounding sky, while the sea far below was crushed into a massive depression.
For a single instant—
The clash reached its absolute peak.
And then—
From Nasujuro's battered body, the strange orange-red flame that had appeared earlier—originating from the depths of the Netherworld—erupted again.
This time it was thicker.
Colder.
More deathly.
Countless wailing spirits seemed to echo within it.
At the same time, his hoarse whisper rang beside Gern's ear.
"Yomi… Funeral."
The moment the words fell—
The orange-red flames raced along the blade of the First Generation Kitetsu.
They spread instantly—
Coiling around Bahuang itself.
Then they attempted to invade Gern's body.
An indescribable chill surged through him.
It felt as though his very soul was being frozen.
As though his life force were being corroded.
As though everything would be dragged into the eternal stillness of the underworld.
The frigid death-energy poured violently into Gern through the gap where their blades and Haki collided.
"…A Mythical Zoan really is something else…"
Feeling the rule-like corrosion attacking the essence of his life and soul, Gern's pupils contracted sharply.
For the briefest instant—
His Haki and vitality faltered under the strange Yomi frost.
And that fleeting moment—
Was enough.
"BOOOOM!!!!!"
Nasujuro forced the First Generation Kitetsu downward with brutal force.
The strike landed head-on.
Gern's body shot from the sky toward the island below at several times the speed of sound.
"BOOOOOOOM—!!!"
The island convulsed violently.
At the point of impact, a gigantic crater over a hundred meters wide appeared instantly, plunging deep into the earth like the scar of a falling meteor.
But there was no smoke.
Instead—
At the very bottom of the crater…
A terrifying Yomi frost began spreading outward from the center of the impact.
The crater walls.
The shattered rocks.
Even drifting dust.
Everything was rapidly coated in a layer of lifeless frost glowing faintly with an orange-red light.
The Yomi frost was freezing.
Corroding.
Devouring everything within the pit.
Including Gern.
...
Nasujuro hovered in midair, breathing heavily as he stared downward.
"Once devoured by Yomi… that death cannot be reversed."
At the bottom of the crater, the frost continued to spread.
Gern's figure was quickly encased in the orange-red ice.
In the next moment, it would completely freeze him into an unmoving statue.
However—
At the final instant before the Yomi frost could seal him entirely—
Beneath the ice…
A single spark of dark-purple light ignited.
Like an unyielding star in the void.
Then a second point appeared.
And a third.
"Crack…"
A faint sound of splitting ice echoed from the crater floor.
Yet that tiny noise made Nasujuro's holy heart skip violently.
In the next moment—
A burst of Haki far more violent than anything before exploded from beneath the frozen layer.
This was no ordinary release of Haki.
This was the very core of Gern's will—a supreme Conqueror's Haki capable of overriding and denying many abnormal rules and states themselves.
Zzzzzzt!!!
Dark-purple lightning serpents erupted wildly from Gern's body.
They spread in every direction.
Wherever the lightning passed, the eerie Yomi frost—the same power that could freeze souls and devour life—began to hiss as it was forcibly evaporated and dispersed.
The orange-red ice melted.
It retreated rapidly.
And beneath it—
Gern stood unharmed.
Not only unharmed—
His aura was even more overwhelming than before.
The Yomi death energy that had invaded his body was forcibly expelled and crushed beneath his absolute will and Haki.
The rule-like corrosion born from a Devil Fruit awakening?
Before the peak of kingly Conqueror's Haki—
It meant nothing.
The frost shattered.
The cold vanished.
Gern covered his face with his left hand.
In his right hand, he gripped the Black Blade Bahuang.
Along the blade, dark-purple Conqueror's lightning and pale vibration particles had now fused perfectly together—
Forming a brand-new power.
A crackling dark-ashen lightning wrapped around the sword.
"Heh… heh."
Slowly, Gern raised Bahuang.
The blade's tip pointed straight toward Nasujuro, who hovered in the sky with a drastically changed expression.
Then Gern grinned.
His voice rang out—wild, arrogant, brimming with excitement.
"Hey… bald old man."
The dark-purple Conqueror's aura and the dark-ashen blade light surged to their absolute limits.
Even the edges of the crater beneath Gern began collapsing again under the pressure.
"From here on out…"
"You're going to start taking real damage."
The moment the words fell—
Gern vanished from the crater floor, transforming into a streak of dark-ashen lightning.
"Conqueror's Haki… damn it."
Nasujuro cursed inwardly.
His Observation Haki had failed once again.
With no other choice, he relied purely on battle instinct, raising the First Generation Kitetsu horizontally before him in defense.
...…
[Author's Note – Salted Fish Message]
Because Saint Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro's abilities have not yet been fully revealed in the original work, only his Devil Fruit type and the fact that he can release freezing slashes are known.
So Salted Fish made a reasonable creative interpretation.
For example, Brook's Devil Fruit also allows him to freeze the things he cuts.
Therefore, a Mythical Zoan related to immortality—the skeletal horse—should logically possess abilities related to the Netherworld (Yomi) as well.
After all, skeletal horses symbolize immortality, death, and the underworld.
So…
Saint Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro
Zoan Type · Mythical Zoan · Horse-Horse Fruit — Model: Dead Horse (Skeletal Horse)
After consuming it, the user becomes the Undying Horse — Skeletal Horse, gaining the power to control Yomi death energy, underworld flames, and similar abilities.