"Hao... Haoshoku?"
On the deck of the Oro Jackson, the red-nosed intern felt his grip fail. His short sword slipped from his fingers and hit the damp wood with a sharp clang. Buggy the Clown stood frozen, his teeth chattering uncontrollably against the cold sea spray.
"That Marine... he actually has Haoshoku?!"
Beside him, the red-haired youth, Shanks, remained silent. His hand tightened instinctively around the hilt of the sword at his waist. He did not look away, his eyes locked onto the solitary figure swaying precariously amidst the raging storm.
It was not just the apprentices who were shaken.
Rayleigh, Gaban, and the veteran officers of the Roger Pirates stared in disbelief. The pirate captains within the Golden Lion's massive fleet, those who had managed to survive the initial waves, felt a chill that had nothing to do with the rain. Even on Garp's battleship, the Marine soldiers who had just scrambled up from the deck stood paralyzed, trying to process the impossible scene unfolding before them.
Everyone was stunned into silence.
An obscure Marine recruit, a mere subordinate, had done the unthinkable. Under the lethal pressure of the Flying Admiral and in the presence of the greatest monsters to ever sail the Grand Line, he had awakened the kingly quality found in only one in a million.
What kind of insane turn of events was this?
"Pwahahahaha!"
Garp remained stunned for only a heartbeat before letting out a thunderous burst of laughter. It was a sound filled with genuine surprise, deep admiration, and a fierce, competitive pride.
"Good lad! Well done!"
Garp did not even glance at Shiki, whose face had twisted into a mask of pure rage. Instead, like a man showing off a priceless treasure he had just pulled from the mud, he roared toward Roger's ship.
"Roger! Did you see that? That is my subordinate!"
Meanwhile, Kane had no mental energy to spare for the shock of the onlookers. His focus was entirely internal, centered on the cold, mechanical voice he had been desperate to hear.
[Ding! System detected that the host's willpower has surpassed its limits during a life-or-death crisis!]
[Detected that the host possesses a powerful soul foundation derived from two lifetimes, with a mental threshold far exceeding that of ordinary people!]
[Congratulations to the host for achieving a leap-frog awakening! Skill Obtained: Conqueror's Haki (Intermediate)!]
[Unlocked Special Achievement: Chosen King!]
[Obtained Achievement Reward: Discipline Points +100,000!]
One hundred thousand?
Holy crap!
Kane stole a quick glance at his system balance. It had been completely emptied moments ago to survive, but now it was overflowing once again. As he felt a fresh, terrifying power surging from the core of his soul, the agonizing pain wracking his body seemed to fade into the background.
The sheer relief of survival, paired with the intoxicating rush of sudden strength, made his blood boil with excitement. He had made it. Not only had he survived Shiki's wrath, but he had bypassed the basic stages and awakened Intermediate Haoshoku.
This feeling of power was better than any vice he had ever sampled in the Pleasure Towns of the world.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Golden Lion was reaching his breaking point.
"You brat..."
Shiki's expression was hideous. He had missed his mark. He, the great Flying Admiral and overlord of the skies, had seen his killing blow evaded by a piece of "trash" he intended to crush. Worse yet, his own pressure had served as the catalyst for the boy to awaken the Haki of a King.
It was an unbearable humiliation.
"Today... I will personally tear you into ten thousand pieces!"
Shiki completely lost his composure. Ignoring Roger and Garp, his famous blades erupted with a blinding golden radiance. He transformed into a golden meteor, trailing light as he charged directly toward the floating plank of wood where Kane stood.
"Again?"
Kane could feel Shiki's murderous intent locking onto him like a physical weight. There was no room left to dodge, no place left to hide. He looked at the approaching golden streak, and instead of the fear he had felt before, a surge of reckless pride filled his chest.
Then come on, Golden Lion!
The experience of staring death in the eye and the mental evolution of awakening his Haki had pushed Kane's state to a peak he had never imagined. With a massive fortune now sitting in his system account, he no longer cared about holding back or the physical toll on his body. He pushed the Storm-Storm Fruit to its absolute limit.
He was going to earn back every single discipline point he had spent, and he was going to take interest.
"With me as the center—Storm, gather!"
Acting as the eye of a colossal vortex, Kane began to frantically swallow the surrounding air currents. He soared upward, throwing himself without hesitation into the massive waterspout he had summoned earlier.
He dove into the heart of the storm, the place where the winds were most violent and the center was most still.
"Hmm? This kid..." Roger watched Kane's movements, rubbing his chin with genuine curiosity. "Garp, aren't you going to save your precious recruit? It looks like he wants to settle this with Shiki one-on-one."
"Pwahahaha!" Garp smashed a falling piece of wreckage into splinters, laughing with total confidence. "He didn't ask for help. He chose to meet that monster head-on."
Garp grinned, his teeth white against his rugged face.
"In that case, I'll place my bet on him!"
To stand tall under the combined pressure of three legends, survive a direct strike from Shiki, and awaken Haoshoku on the spot—a brat like that had earned his place on the stage of the strong.
Shiki sneered with disdain as he watched Kane vanish into the funnel of wind. "Do you think hiding in a shell will save you? Before absolute power, your little tricks are meaningless!"
He followed immediately, diving headfirst into the spinning wall of water and wind. However, the moment he crossed the threshold of the storm, his arrogant laughter died in his throat.
He realized too late that the waterspout had changed. Under Kane's focused will, it had expanded exponentially. It was no longer just a weather phenomenon; it had become a world-ending beast.
The top of the vortex disappeared into the pitch-black clouds above, while the base churned the sea into a bottomless abyss. Thick bolts of purple lightning coiled around the wind like ancient dragons. Even more terrifying was the weight of the water—tens of thousands of tons of seawater had been shaped into circular waves hundreds of meters high.
They looked like the hands of a god, reaching out to crush Shiki's fleet.
"Is this... an Ancient Weapon?"
A pirate captain stared at the scene, his mind failing to comprehend the scale of the disaster. His legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the deck, his clothes soaking through as his courage broke.
"Run! Get us out of here!"
"Turn the ship! Retreat! Leave this sea now!"
"It's no use! The sails are gone! The rudder won't move!"
The invincible fleet of the Golden Lion fell into utter chaos.
The sound of snapping wood echoed across the waves as the keel of a heavy warship was broken in two by a massive surge of water. Another ship was lifted bodily into the air, spinning like a toy before being slammed down onto an allied vessel. Both disappeared in a roar of fire and debris.
Pirates were torn apart by the sheer force of the gale or dragged into the dark depths of the whirlpool. Others were reduced to ash by the raining lightning. The sky was filled with a horrific storm of broken masts, burning wood, and the remains of those who had dared to challenge the sea.
The Edd War sea area had been transformed into a slaughterhouse of nature.
At the center of it all, Kane floated in the eye of the storm. He kept his eyes closed, listening to the wailing wind, the roar of the thunder, and the desperate final cries of the men below.
This was his justice. This was Kane's power.
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