(Final Chapter for the day, see you tomorrow.) BOOM!
Kael’s body drifted through the air with impossible lightness.
For a heartbeat, he seemed almost weightless.
Then he vanished into the center of Shiki’s fleet.
And only now did everyone truly understand what a Great Swordsman could do in a naval battle.
A circular wave of sword aura erupted from Kael.
The sea exploded with it.
Towering waves rose around him as the slash expanded in every direction, cutting through ships, masts, weapons—everything in its path.
Wherever the sword light passed, it left nothing behind.
Only empty space.
Nine mountains, ten seas… nothing in my path remains whole.
The words suddenly didn’t sound exaggerated at all.
Explosion after explosion tore through Shiki’s fleet.
No one could stop it.
Shiki himself escaped by flying into the sky, weaving away from the expanding slash.
Most of his ships weren’t so lucky.
One after another, they broke apart and sank beneath the raging sea.
Men were thrown into the water by the hundreds.
Apart from those with exceptional physical ability, almost everyone caught in the destruction disappeared beneath the waves.
Of the more than thirty-five hundred pirates in Shiki’s forces, nearly half vanished into the storm almost immediately.
Men.
Wood.
Steel.
Entire sections of shattered ships.
All of it was dragged into the depths.
“You bastard!” Shiki roared.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” He shot toward Kael.
The two figures collided in midair like falling stars.
CLANG!
Sparks exploded across the sky.
Clouds churned overhead.
The sea below split apart beneath the pressure of their clash.
For a moment, the entire battlefield seemed to detonate around them.
Kael raised Requiem horizontally.
Shiki’s overwhelming strength smashed into the blade and sent Kael flying backward.
But Shiki’s sword had made contact with Requiem.
And the instant it did— Kael felt it.
The blade became unnaturally light.
A strange force ran through the weapon.
Shiki had used the Float-Float Fruit on it.
Kael’s expression sharpened.
He twisted in midair and stepped downward.
Boom!
His foot struck the sea.
The impact erupted beneath him, throwing up a massive wall of water toward Shiki.
Seawater.
If it reached Shiki, it could interfere with his Devil Fruit ability.
But Shiki was too experienced.
His body curved through the air with astonishing agility, slipping around the wave like a butterfly moving between flowers.
Then he charged again.
Before he could reach Kael— A sharp whistle tore across the sky.
Closer.
Faster.
Then— “SHIKI!” Roger’s low, rough voice seemed to appear beside both men at once.
His figure crossed the sky.
“DIVINE DEPARTURE!” Whoosh!
BOOM!
Roger’s blade crashed into Shiki’s defense.
Divine Departure was a devastating Haki-infused strike, delivered with terrifying speed and force.
But Shiki had managed to bring both swords up in time.
Even so, there was no stopping the blow.
Roger simply smashed through the defense.
His raw strength exceeded Shiki’s.
And with the momentum of Divine Departure behind it, the blow drove Shiki backward across the sky.
That was when the battle truly descended into chaos.
“GO!” Rayleigh’s voice thundered across the Oro Jackson.
“Destroy the Golden Lion Fleet!” He had been waiting for exactly this moment.
Shiki’s forces were shattered.
Their formations had collapsed.
Their commander had lost his calm and was personally engaged with Roger and Kael.
There would never be a better opportunity.
Bullet growled.
The moment he heard Rayleigh’s order, he launched himself from the ship like a cannonball.
He landed atop an enormous chunk of wreckage floating on the sea.
Then he threw his head back.
“HAH!” BUZZZZ!
Conqueror’s Haki erupted from him.
Blue-black arcs of lightning cracked through the air.
The pressure spread in every direction.
Waves churned violently.
Pirates who had only just managed to swim back to the surface—or who were desperately clinging to floating wreckage—went rigid.
Their eyes rolled back.
Foam spilled from their mouths.
One after another, they lost consciousness and slipped beneath the water.
At a moment like this, being knocked unconscious in the middle of the sea was effectively a death sentence.
No enemy was going to save them.
And the onlookers could only stare.
Even a random combatant from Roger’s ship was this strong?
Then Sambel moved.
As a Fish-Man, the sea itself was his territory.
He dived into the water and began hunting down Shiki’s surviving crew beneath the surface.
Compared to humans, his strength underwater was overwhelming.
Waves burst upward.
Bodies vanished.
The sea swallowed men faster than anyone could count.
In mere moments, the battle had reached its most brutal stage.
…
That day, Shiki’s roars echoed across the entire Edd War Sea.
His battle with Roger continued for hours.
Morning became afternoon.
Afternoon became night.
And still they fought.
Every pirate who had rushed over from the Azure Sky Sea—whether a young newcomer or an old veteran—witnessed the greatest battle of their lives.
Then dawn came.
As the first light broke across the horizon, Shiki finally used the last of his strength to escape into the sky.
The Golden Lion Pirates were finished.
Their fleet— Destroyed.
The battle that would later be remembered as the legendary Battle of Edd War completely reshaped the balance of power at sea.
From that day forward, Roger stood as the undisputed pirate at the top of the era.
Whitebeard, who had never cared much about chasing the great treasure in the first place, was reportedly so stunned by the news that he drank himself senseless.
…
Three days later.
Biggs’s House, Azure Sky Sea.
The entire first floor had been cleared out.
From the second floor came wave after wave of roaring laughter.
Even Biggs and the others weren’t quite sure what to make of it.
The Roger Pirates— The most talked-about pirate crew on the sea— Had chosen this place for their victory banquet.
“KAEL!” Roger slammed a hand onto the table.
“Join my crew!” Rayleigh leaned forward.
Gaban did too.
All three of them were staring straight at Kael.
“With strength like yours, we’ll definitely reach the true end of the Grand Line!” They had remembered his wine.
Now they would never forget his sword either.
He was simply too strong.
Mihawk sat nearby and stared at Kael in silence.
His feelings were complicated.
During the battle, he had killed plenty of pirates himself.
He had fought beside Shanks.
Bled beside him.
Laughed beside him.
For the first time, Mihawk had experienced what it felt like to fight alongside companions.
And truthfully… A small part of him wanted to stay.
But that wasn’t why his thoughts were so tangled.
For the first time in his life, Mihawk had also discovered something else.
When Kael truly became angry… He was terrifying.
Perhaps Mihawk was the only person on the entire sea who understood what had actually happened at Edd War.
Kael destroying Shiki’s fleet had almost nothing to do with helping Roger.
It was because of one sentence.
Shiki had mocked him.
Won’t your parents worry about you, kid?
That was it.
If Shiki hadn’t said those words, Kael probably would have finished drinking with Roger and taken Mihawk somewhere off to the side to watch the battle unfold.
Unless Roger personally asked him for help, Kael might never have interfered at all.
But Shiki had touched the one wound Kael rarely allowed anyone to see.
And the Golden Lion had paid for it with his entire fleet.
Author’s Note : Want to keep reading?
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