"My... my fleet..."
Golden Lion Shiki's mind went blank as he stared at the scene of living hell unfolding beneath him. The invincible grand fleet, which had cost him decades of painstaking effort and was meant to be the instrument of his world conquest, was being torn to shreds. In just a few dozen seconds, the unreasonable power of that super storm had reduced his lifework to splinters.
That fleet was the very foundation of his reign over the New World.
"Aaaahhh—!!!"
An uncontrollable madness surged from the depths of his soul. The Golden Lion's eyes instantly became bloodshot, his long golden hair stood on end like a predator's mane, and a terrifying wave of Haki erupted from his body, blasting outward in all directions.
"Unforgivable... unforgivable!!"
"Marine brat!! I will take your life!!"
He abandoned any thought of saving his drowning men. Shiki went completely mad, transforming into a golden stream of light that tore through the darkened sky and plunged straight into the heart of the raging storm circle.
Relying on the absolute gravity-defying power of the Float-Float Fruit, he was confident he could move freely in any aerial environment, no matter how complex. However, it was only when he truly rushed into the chaotic domain single-handedly created by Kane that he realized how terribly wrong he was.
To the east were violent upward hurricanes; to the west, crushing downward air pressure. Above him were sweeping cross-currents, and below were tearing whirlpools that defied physics.
His proud Float-Float Fruit ability became extremely difficult to manage at this moment. He could make his own body float, but he could not counteract the insane, immense kinetic power originating from the entire atmospheric environment.
He felt as though he had fallen into a high-speed centrifuge operating 360 degrees without a single blind spot. Even stabilizing his posture became a monumental task; he was blown back and forth in the gale, tumbling up and down in a sorry, disoriented state.
This was Kane's absolute domain.
"Damn it! What the hell kind of ability is this!"
The Golden Lion roared in frustration, swinging his famous swords, Sakura Ju and Kogarashi, in a desperate attempt to counterattack. But within that violent airflow, even maintaining a vertical position was a luxury he could no longer afford.
The overbearing slashes, which should have been powerful enough to cleave entire islands in half, became distorted and crooked due to the severe imbalance of his body. As soon as the golden sword energy left his blades, it was mercilessly ripped apart by the surrounding turbulent currents. The energy shattered into useless specks of golden light that vanished into the downpour, completely unable to condense into a shape that could carve a path forward.
In stark contrast to the chaos, the center of the storm was a place of absolute stillness.
Kane hovered there, sitting cross-legged in the eye of the hurricane.
His eyes glowed with an eerie, predatory cyan light. Half of his body had already transformed into pure gale and flickering lightning. Strange cyan patterns covered his face like spreading cracks in fine porcelain. This was a clear sign that his Devil Fruit ability was being pushed to its absolute limit, and his stamina and life force were being dangerously overdrawn to maintain the technique.
Kane watched the golden stream of light recklessly crashing through the outer walls of the storm, and a twisted, cold smile spread across his lips.
Time was running out.
Kane concentrated with every fiber of his being, meticulously controlling every wisp of airflow within the eye. His gaze pierced through layers of heavy rain, precisely locking onto a specific object tumbling haphazardly through the debris-filled air.
It was a broken rudder from a destroyed pirate ship.
"That's the one."
Kane's voice was hoarse and dry, sounding like grinding stones.
"Get over here... now!"
He stretched out his right hand and clenched his fingers into a tight fist in mid-air. An invisible tentacle of wind wrapped around the wooden rudder segment as it tumbled through the storm.
Aim.
Accelerate.
Kane violently injected the last bit of air pressure he could possibly compress into the makeshift projectile. At that exact moment, a monstrous wave—intentionally amplified by Kane—slammed into the Golden Lion like a collapsing mountain of lead.
"Pfft!"
Caught completely off guard, the Golden Lion was struck by the massive force. The impact caused his blood and internal energy to churn violently, and his body momentarily lost all balance in the air.
When monsters of this level clash, a single instant of weakness is all that is required.
"Vacuum Hell Prison!"
Kane let out a low, guttural roar.
Buzz—!
The air within a hundred meters around the Golden Lion was instantly sucked dry, creating a perfect void. An extreme sense of suffocation and weightlessness struck Shiki simultaneously, instantly emptying his mind of thought. More fatally, he lost all perception of sound and airflow, leaving him blind to the mechanical physics of the world around him.
"This is bad!" An alarm bell rang loudly in the Golden Lion's heart, but his body wouldn't respond.
Now!
"Go."
Kane's eyes showed no hesitation as he abruptly snapped his fingers shut.
Whoosh—!!!
The wooden rudder, enveloped in extreme, spiraling air pressure, instantly broke the sound barrier. With a shriek that tore at the eardrums, it transformed into an untraceable black line and shot forward with violent force.
The Golden Lion's battle-hardened Observation Haki had already captured the trajectory of his death, but the imbalance of his body and the vacuum environment prevented him from making any effective evasive maneuvers. He could only watch helplessly as the black shadow rapidly enlarged in his pupils.
Kane used the last shred of his strength to roar:
"Stick it in... now!!"
"No—"
Puncture—!!!
A dull, sickening sound of wood plunging into wet flesh echoed through the void. The high-speed rotating rudder deeply and fiercely pierced Golden Lion Shiki's skull, driven right through the very center.
"Ugh ah——————!!!'
The Golden Lion's body suddenly stiffened, and his forward momentum came to a violent halt. His eyes bulged, becoming completely bloodshot, as he raised a shaking hand in disbelief to touch the top of his head.
What his fingertips felt was warm, viscous brains and blood, mixed with the cold, hard texture of splintered wood. This strike was deeper, straighter, and possessed a more absurd yet perfect sense of symmetry than the image on the newspaper in the Kane's memories of the future.
"Jie... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
A harrowing scream, distorted by unimaginable pain, burst from the Golden Lion's mouth. The intense agony was unbearable even for a man with his legendary constitution.
His Haki, his will, and his power all collapsed at once. His consciousness rapidly drained away, and the world before his eyes began to spin into darkness. Through the haze of his failing vision, he saw the Marine brat, who had appeared before him unnoticed, sporting a genuine, calm smile.
"Shiki-senpai."
The brat's voice entered the last fading moments of his consciousness with chilling clarity.
"Your era is over."
Boom!
Golden Lion Shiki, the man who stood alongside Roger and Whitebeard at the pinnacle of the world, could no longer maintain his ability to fly. He plummeted straight down from the high altitude like a fallen stone. He crashed into the cold graveyard below, disappearing into the wreckage of his own fleet.
A maritime overlord of an era.
With that single strike, his fighting strength collapsed. The legend ends here.
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