"Heavenquake — Instant Hellslayer."
Gern's whisper lingered faintly in the air.
Before the final syllable had even faded, the Bahuang in his hand—wrapped in dark-ashen Conqueror's lightning—erupted into a flash of iaijutsu faster than the eye could follow.
The blade light did not spread.
It was compressed to an extreme, razor-focused on a single target—
Piercing straight through Nasujuro's massive centaur body.
"CLANG—!!!"
A shrill metallic shock tore through the air, sharp enough to rupture eardrums.
At the final possible instant, Saint Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro raised the First Generation Kitetsu with unbelievable speed, crossing it before his chest.
The cursed blade barely intercepted Bahuang's lethal strike.
Two Supreme Grade Blades collided head-on.
Locked together.
But the force behind Gern's strike far exceeded anything Nasujuro had anticipated.
The tremendous impact shoved Nasujuro backward through the air.
Their faces passed within inches of each other.
In Nasujuro's eyes was reflected Gern's face—so close it was almost suffocating—and the smile spread across it.
A smile that radiated absolute control.
Yet what Nasujuro felt even more clearly was the tremor crawling up from the depths of his soul—
A sensation he had not experienced in centuries.
The pressure of Conqueror's Haki.
Meanwhile, in the instant Nasujuro's pupils shrank, Gern caught something in return.
A flicker.
A fleeting glimpse of deep wariness—
And even fear—
Toward the overwhelming might of his kingly Haki.
"Gern!"
Nasujuro roared, his voice carrying a rare edge of urgency as he tried one final attempt at negotiation.
"You only need to hand over the Mother Flame! The World Government can end this here! There's no need to push things to an irreversible—"
"Oh?"
Gern cut him off.
The smile at the corner of his lips widened.
"Looking at that expression of yours…"
"It seems my Haki can truly threaten you so-called 'immortals' now."
The words struck like a hammer.
Nasujuro's face changed drastically.
But Gern gave him no chance to speak further.
The blade of Bahuang pressing against Kitetsu suddenly twisted.
With a sharp turn of his wrist, Gern used the counterforce from Nasujuro's block—
And dragged his blade sideways along the length of the First Generation Kitetsu.
"SKRRRRAAASH—!!!"
A piercing scream of metal erupted as sparks burst violently between the blades.
Gern's body moved with the momentum of the strike.
He spun fluidly, his figure flashing past Nasujuro.
In a single seamless motion, he shifted from directly in front of him—
To the upper side of his flank.
And at the exact instant the movement completed—
Both hands tightened around Bahuang's hilt.
Every ounce of strength.
Every drop of boiling Conqueror's Haki.
He poured it all into this one strike.
"GODFALL!!!"
Gern roared.
Bahuang transformed into a bolt of dark-ashen lightning that seemed capable of tearing the heavens apart.
With the power to split mountains and sever seas—
It crashed downward toward Nasujuro's head.
This strike carried something far greater than raw power.
It carried—
The will of the King of this era.
Nasujuro's face twisted with alarm.
Gern's change of attack had been too fast.
Too strong.
Too overwhelming.
In his haste, he could only raise the First Generation Kitetsu upward again, barely managing to attempt another block.
Bahuang and Kitetsu collided once more.
But this time—
There was no stalemate.
The overwhelming gap in power revealed itself instantly.
Nasujuro felt an indescribable force surge through the blade into his arms.
The bones in his arms groaned under the strain.
The Armament Haki and black flames covering his body shattered under the impact of the dark-ashen slash and Conqueror's Haki.
"URGH—!!!"
A pained cry escaped him.
His enormous centaur body could no longer remain suspended in the air.
Driven downward by Gern's devastating strike, he was smashed from the sky straight toward the ground below.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOM!!!
A chain of sonic booms erupted across the sky.
Nasujuro crashed at horrifying speed into the already devastated surface of the barren island below.
Gern remained suspended in the air in his downward-slashing stance.
Slowly—
He withdrew his blade.
The self-proclaimed "god" had been struck down.
...
The smoke and dust gradually settled.
Revealing a horrifying sight at the bottom of the newly formed crater.
The First Generation Kitetsu was no longer a sword in hand.
Now it served as a crutch, stabbed deeply into fractured rock.
Leaning heavily against the cursed blade, Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro's shattered centaur body trembled violently as he struggled to support himself.
But the state of his left side was far more terrifying.
Beginning at the clavicle of his left shoulder—
A smooth, deep slash carved diagonally across his chest.
It tore all the way down to his waist and abdomen.
The strike had nearly split half of his upper body apart—along with the skeletal horse torso connected beneath it.
The severed left portion had not completely fallen off.
Instead, it dangled at a grotesque angle, barely attached by a few strands of muscle.
Even worse—
At the surface of the wound, there was no sign of regeneration.
No writhing flesh.
No rapid regrowth from the so-called Undying Blessing.
Instead—
Countless tiny dark-purple arcs of Conqueror's Haki flickered across the wound.
These lingering traces clung to the injury like savage predators.
They gnawed relentlessly at the wound—
Suppressing regeneration.
Crushing the power of immortality itself.
The supreme kingly Conqueror's Haki that stood above rules had not only cut through his body—
It had temporarily restricted his immortality.
"…Urgh…"
Nasujuro slowly turned his head, staring at his nearly useless left shoulder and the half-severed side of his body.
On the face that once carried cold authority—
There was no fury.
No dignity.
Only a mixture of agony, disbelief…
And a bone-deep terror.
He could feel it clearly.
The remnants of Gern's Haki were burning at the very foundation of his life force, obstructing the blessing that sustained his immortality.
Since the day he obtained the authority of "Undying", this was the first time he had truly felt it—
Death.
Approaching.
Step by step.
While the power that should repair him was forcibly sealed away.
Slowly, he raised his head.
Bloodshot eyes looked upward toward Gern, who hovered above the crater, gazing down at him.
Gern descended gradually from the sky.
Landing at the edge of the crater.
In his hand, Bahuang pointed diagonally toward the ground.
Looking at Nasujuro's miserable state, there was no pity on Gern's face.
No pride.
Only cold, absolute calm.
"…It seems,"
Gern spoke quietly, yet every word reached Nasujuro clearly.
"your so-called 'Supreme Blessing' isn't all-powerful after all."
He stepped forward.
His foot crushed loose rubble at the crater's edge with a faint crunch.
"So now…"
"What exactly are you going to use to stop me?"
His gaze shifted briefly to the First Generation Kitetsu embedded in the ground.
Then returned to Nasujuro's face.
"Or perhaps…"
Gern's voice dropped.
"Are you finally ready…"
"…to face your true end?"
"Saint Ethanbaron V. Nasujuro."