Blackbeard endured the pain as he spoke out the intelligence he had analyzed. At this point, he didn't even have the luxury to scream in agony—he had to make use of every second.
"I have a plan! A plan big enough to overturn the entire world! When the time comes, it will definitely fulfill your need for revenge! Killing me is meaningless—I'm far more valuable alive!"
Begging for mercy is a skill, too. The method changes depending on the enemy.
In the original timeline, when facing Whitebeard, Blackbeard would shamelessly shout, "I'm your son too!"
Even though he had broken the iron rule of the Whitebeard Pirates and Whitebeard would never let him off, he understood Whitebeard's personality. That brief moment of hesitation ended up saving his life.
But he had no such relationship with King. If regarding King as his father could make him stop, Blackbeard could have considered doing it—but King's crazed demeanor clearly showed he wasn't planning to listen.
At this moment, Blackbeard urgently needed a reason that would make the other side stop.
If his guess was right, then King had an irreconcilable blood feud with the World Government. That was the last chance Blackbeard saw for himself.
The outside world didn't know much about the Lunarians, but it wasn't total ignorance either. Whitebeard himself had heard of the "Kingdom of Gods" and had mentioned it to some of his sons.
Back when his powers only worked halfway on King, Blackbeard hadn't made the connection—especially with Delia's case still fresh in mind. But with Shayna's appearance and their strikingly similar powers, suspicion began to creep in.
The Dark-Dark Fruit wasn't entirely ineffective—it just worked inconsistently.
One thing was clear: the Beasts Pirates had some kind of power that could bypass the Dark-Dark Fruit. Maybe it was the mysterious technology of Queen that was rumored in the outside world.
It was obvious that King's Devil Fruit ability had been sealed—what remained was his innate power.
His powerful flame-based defenses, the wings that let him soar through the sky, and his unwillingness to show his true face—everything convinced Blackbeard that his judgment was correct.
King's assault paused for just a moment, which made Blackbeard believe his words were getting through.
"It's just one of your subordinate's eyes—does that really mean anything? That woman isn't even one of your kind. Why go this far for her?"
Shing!
A flash of a blade swept by—several buildings behind Blackbeard were cleanly sliced in half by King's sword aura, while Blackbeard's chest was engulfed by darkness, beginning to absorb the damage King had inflicted.
"Ah! Damn it, that hurts! You lunatic!"
King hadn't been listening to a word he said earlier—he had only been charging up his attack. And now, Blackbeard suddenly noticed that King's expression looked even more vicious than before.
"Now I've got one more reason why you have to die."
"I'm not threatening you—I hate those World Government bastards too! Don't you want to live under the sunlight? Your captain isn't much better either. After all these years, he still hasn't actually solved the problem. But if you join me, I can help you fix all that in no time!"
The darkness snuffed out the flames clinging to his body, and Blackbeard's tone became more panicked. At that moment, however, King lowered the weapon in his hands.
"Zehahahaha—getting tempted, are you?"
"What I hate most… is self-righteous ba*tards like you. You don't know a damn thing, yet you dare run your mouth about things you don't understand!"
King reached behind his back and pulled out a new weapon.
"Ever since I left last time, I've been thinking—how exactly do I completely kill a freak like you?"
"Your body's vitality is ridiculously strong—among everyone I've seen, only a few can compare. But now I want to see… whether your soul is just as tough."
The blackish-purple blade in King's hand radiated an eerie aura, and even the hilt had a strange eye embedded in it.
Before setting out, he had borrowed a sword from Kozuki Hiyori—Enma, which had long since been transformed into a Honedge.
To completely kill a freak like Blackbeard, King had decided to make even his soul a target for annihilation.
Kozuki Hiyori had no objections when he borrowed the sword. She even considered giving King Ame no Habakiri as well—but King declined. He wasn't a Two Sword Style user. For him, just Enma was enough.
King focused all of his Haki into his right hand that held Enma. Thanks to their racial traits, Lunarians had extremely high defense, allowing them to pour all their Haki into offense without worry.
Enma was originally a sword that released its user's Haki on its own. With this ability, the user could unleash immense power—but if they failed to tame it, Enma would drain their Haki until it killed them.
After being transformed into a Honedge, the newly sentient Enma could now control this ability—it wouldn't drain the user's Haki at will anymore. However, the user could still voluntarily pour more Haki into it, allowing Enma to unleash even greater power.
"Rock Lock: Sealing Tomb!"
Four massive boulders came crashing down from the sky, sealing off all directions of movement for Blackbeard. At the same time, the ground beneath Blackbeard's feet seemed to come alive—several stone dragons formed from rocks opened their jaws and lunged toward him.
Rock Tomb limited the space for movement, and Earth Power controlled Blackbeard's movement by manipulating the ground beneath him.
The Dark-Dark Fruit could suppress the abilities of other Devil Fruits, but it had no real way to deal with physical constructs that were already created—let alone techniques executed using King's Aerodactyl powers. Blackbeard would need time to absorb all of those things into his dark space.
And that span of time… was more than enough to be fatal.
"Final Imperial Blade!"
Blue flames clung to the blade of Enma. A strange radiance began to shine from King's body as well—this was the sign of Giga Impact, a move just like Hyper Beam: immensely powerful and widely known.
It's a high-power move Pokémon can unleash with their bodies, —but to King, right now, it was nothing more than a booster.
The power of Giga Impact didn't erupt outward. Instead, under King's control, it flowed into his hands. King then gripped Enma's hilt with both hands.
"You b*stard! Stop it!"
Seeing King poised to strike, Blackbeard was completely consumed by fear. The shadow of death loomed over his heart.
The process seemed slow, but in truth, everything happened in an instant. By the time Blackbeard shouted those words, the blade of Enma had already pierced through his chest, nailing him to the rocky wall behind him.
Only at that moment did the King who had appeared to be charging up slowly vanish—he hadn't used Substitute. What remained was merely an afterimage left behind by his overwhelming speed.
BOOM!
Splurt.
A massive burst of blood spewed from Blackbeard's mouth, mixed with chunks of torn flesh. The entire force of the Giga Impact that King had just compressed into the blade exploded completely within Blackbeard's body.
Even for a freak like him, the inside of his chest had already turned into a shapeless mess.
"No matter what kind of freak you are… no matter what your goal is… today, you're dying right here at my hands!"
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