"Now you're the only one left, Commander Kong. Are you sure you still want to fight me?" Buggy said, his voice carrying over the battlefield with casual cruelty. "Don't expect mercy just because you've passed your prime."
The expression on Kong's face shifted instantly, his jaw tightening atop the high platform.
Shanks chuckled from the sidelines, arms crossed. "That mouth of yours, Buggy… Kong's not even a hundred yet."
Buggy shot him a crooked grin, eyes glinting with mischief. "Yeah? What a shame. Guess he won't be around to blow out the candles on his centennial."
Redfield shook his head slightly, stepping forward with an air of cold reminiscence. "Kong… after more than twenty years, I never imagined our reunion would look like this. As the Commander-in-Chief of the World Government, did you ever picture yourself standing alone like this, outmatched and abandoned?"
Their words struck a nerve. Cruel or not, they weren't wrong.
Every major force Kong had relied on, such as the Seraphim, the Knights of God, the Admirals, and the elite Marines, had all been stopped cold. Buggy's commanders held the battlefield with a grip like iron. Redfield, Shanks, Dragon, Mihawk… and Boa Hancock, Sunbell, even SunJuan. Any one of them could match an Admiral. Together, they formed an impenetrable wall.
And now, Kong stood alone at the peak.
He clenched his fists, eyes narrowing on Buggy. His voice rang out, hard and defiant. "Buggy, even if I stand alone, I won't back down. They say you're the strongest in the world today. So, tell me, do you have the courage to face me one-on-one?"
"Tch."
At those words, Red-Haired Shanks, Redfield, Dragon, and Hancock all stepped forward as one. But Buggy raised a hand, stopping them. He stepped out, his body relaxed, his expression unreadable.
In the next instant, he vanished. Wind stirred the dust.
Thirty meters above the ground, Buggy reappeared midair, his white cloak fluttering around him. The long blue horsetail of his helmet flowed behind him like a banner. He casually ran a hand over the dragon-beard-shaped crest atop his forehead and looked down at Kong.
"For your loyalty, I'll give you one chance," he said calmly. "You faithful hound of the Celestial Dragons. You want to test me, figure out how I fight, try to report something back to your masters. Fine. Try it, if you think you're strong enough."
Kong's brow twitched. His subordinates, watching from below, gritted their teeth in silence. His pride was being gutted in public, but none of them dared speak. Because Buggy wasn't wrong.
Kong let out a dry laugh. "Say what you will. I stand for order. You are the pirate. The criminal. I represent justice!"
As the words left his mouth, his body transformed. White fur erupted across his skin. His frame expanded several meters, thick with muscle. A long white tiger's tail whipped through the air behind him. Black streaks threaded through his mane of white hair like scars etched by time.
His transformation was overwhelming. A towering figure now stood on the platform, powerful and beastly.
"Roooaaaar!"
With a thunderous roar, a shockwave of pure force ripped from Kong's mouth, crashing through the air toward Buggy like a tidal blast. Trees bent. Stone cracked. Any normal person would have been blown halfway across the island.
Buggy didn't move.
The shockwave shattered before it even touched him, scattered by the platinum mask hovering protectively before his face.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Buggy gave a slow, mocking applause.
"Zoan-type," he said, his tone thoughtful. "Mythical Zoan, White Tiger Model. Awakening achieved. Impressive. Zoan awakenings are already rare enough, and most don't survive the toll it takes."
He paused, eyes narrowing.
"But you, Kong… You're old. Your body is slow, and even your Haki has dulled. This is the end of your journey."
"You little devil! Don't look down on this old man!!!"
On the high platform, Kong's fury erupted. Buggy had nearly broken his composure with just a few mocking words. With a deafening roar, Kong surged forward, his body flashing into a streak of white light as he launched toward Buggy.
Crackling energy surged around his fists. Conqueror's Haki flowed through his arms, tightly woven with each movement. Ryu Emission, a sign of the world's most elite fighters, came alive in a radiant blaze.
Even in his nineties, Kong's strength was monstrous. One clean hit from him could force even someone like Aokiji to spit blood.
This was the fearsome power of a Mythical Zoan in its Awakened state. Unrelenting force combined with supreme Haki. An ageing war god standing tall, unwilling to be erased from history.
From below, Marines erupted in cheers.
"There it is, the White Tiger Awakening!"
"Commander Kong's aura is as fierce as ever!"
"No wonder he was once the previous hero of the Navy!"
"Even the so-called strongest might struggle against this!"
But the cheers didn't last.
Boom!
A hollow thud echoed through the sky, followed by a massive burst of air that shook the battlefield. Heads turned upward, eyes widening in disbelief.
Buggy had not even moved his feet.
He had simply raised his hand and stopped Kong's massive, Haki-laced strike with a single, casual grip. His fingers wrapped around the incoming blow with no sign of strain.
"What… what is this?" gasped one Rear Admiral.
Kong himself stared, dumbfounded. "Even a double-fruit user shouldn't have this kind of raw power... You're only Awakened in Paramecia and Logia. Wait... Are you a master of all Rokushiki?"
The words dropped like cannonballs.
Even the Marines who had remained silent gasped. Viewers around the world leaned closer to their screens. Buggy had just caught a blow that fused Mythical Zoan Awakening, Advanced Armament, and Conqueror's Haki, as if it were nothing.
A beat passed.
Then Buggy smirked.
"I suppose I should reward your loyalty."
Without waiting for a response, Buggy's hand clenched. He gripped Kong's enormous tiger-shaped forearm, pinched the claws, and lifted him effortlessly into the air.
"Let me show you the difference."
He spun.
Boom!
With a single heave, Buggy hurled Kong backwards like a sack of stone. The former Commander smashed through the high platform, bounced across the battlefield, and ploughed through more than a dozen buildings before finally crashing into the earth.
Silence.
No one moved. Not even the wind dared stir.
They had known Buggy was strong. But this?
This was monstrous.
A Marine whispered, voice trembling, "He said... Rokushiki…"
There was only one man in living memory who had achieved that title—Garp the Iron Fist. Not even Kong had managed it.
But now, another had joined those ranks.
Buggy the Godslayer.
Master of Haki. Master of Devil Fruits. Master of Rokushiki.
There was nothing left below the peak. He had it all.
And yet, Buggy had not even used a proper technique.
Kong was powerful. Even now, in his old age, he held strength on par with an Admiral. Killing him outright without unleashing his full power would be impossible. But the gap had been made clear.
Clatter. Boom.
Rubble exploded outward. A figure rose from the crater, his body scraped and bloodied, but his will unshaken.
Kong shook the debris from his shoulders, roared again, and launched skyward with a second burst of fury, aiming once more for Buggy.
"Buggy!!!"
Kong roared, his mouth opening wide as he unleashed a concentrated beam of white energy straight at him.
Boom!
High above the battlefield, Buggy tensed, then launched forward with explosive force, legs snapping as he rocketed toward the incoming ray. He didn't dodge.
He charged through it.
"Tenfold Fist."
With a roar of his own, Buggy swung his arm and unleashed ten overlapping punches compressed into one brutal strike directly into the blinding beam.
Bang—Chi!!
In a split second, the devastating blast of light shattered. Fragments of radiant energy scattered like shattered glass across the sky.
Buggy hung in the air, barely slowed, his body frozen for a breath... and then he vanished.
"Shave."
In that instant, he disappeared.
"Not good!" Kong's eyes darted frantically across the sky, searching for his enemy.
Too late.
Buggy reappeared right in front of him, upright, calm, and already mid-strike.
He kicked a vicious hook that curved upward like a whip.
Boom!
The blow connected with Kong's head.
Scoff!
A storm of platinum, black, and violet lightning exploded from the impact, shattering the air. Coated in overflowing Conqueror's Haki, Buggy's strike smashed Kong downward like a meteor.
Bang!!!
The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the entire battlefield. The earth caved in beneath Kong's body, creating a massive crater that swallowed buildings and cracked stone for hundreds of meters.
Kong lay sprawled at its centre, coughing blood.
Everyone on the battlefield froze.
The man who had taken flight only seconds ago and once held the title of Supreme Commander of the World Government with strength on par with an Admiral was swatted down like a fly.
The silence was suffocating.
"He... he didn't even use a named technique," one Marine whispered.
The men watching the live broadcast trembled.
"This can't be real... That's Kong!"
"He's supposed to be one of the strongest men alive!"
"But... he didn't even make Buggy move from his spot..."
Was this truly the strength of the world's most dangerous man?
No. It wasn't.
Because the terrifying truth was—Buggy hadn't used any of his Devil Fruit powers.
Not the Paramecia he had awakened. Not the rumoured Logia affinity. He hadn't even tapped into the powers the world feared most.
He was still just... warming up.
In the crater, Kong wiped the blood from his lips, his face grim.
"Damn it," he muttered. "Rokushiki... only two of them at that. That's all it took for him to put me down."
He laughed bitterly.
"I'm hoping now that his abilities are slower than mine... That's all I've got left to gamble on? Speed?"
A pained grin stretched across his face.
"I really am getting old."
Before his thoughts could spiral further, Buggy's voice rang out across the battlefield.
And with it came a chill that seized every heart present.
"Commander Kong," he said, floating just above the pit. "You really are old. Just like Saint Saturn... A decent ability. But your body, your Haki. It's nothing but has rusted a long time ago now."
A pause. Then a smirk.
"You've served the Celestial Dragons well. So I'll show a little respect for all your years of barking on command."
The world froze.
Even Buggy's side flinched at the name he had just dropped.
Red-Haired Shanks stepped forward, eyebrows raised in disbelief.
"Wait. Did you just say Saturn? One of the Five Elders?"
Buggy didn't answer. But he didn't need to.
Swish.
Everyone nearby took an instinctive step back, clearing space.
The weight of the revelation pressed down on them like gravity itself.
Even four of the mighty Five Elders, watching from deep within Pangaea Castle, narrowed their eyes in silence. A sick feeling twisted in their gut.
Sure enough, in the very next moment, Ba lifted his hand, smacked his forehead, and chuckled.
"Oh, right. I never told you about that, did I?"
He turned to face Kong, voice light, almost teasing.
"While I was rescuing Vegapunk, I ran into someone you know. Saint Jaygarcia Saturn, one of the Five Elders, the same Valkyrie of Scientific Defence you fought not long ago. He was leading a full unit of the so-called Knights of God."
Buggy's grin widened, lazy and dangerous.
"We played a little game."
A pause.
"And in the end, well… I suppose you already know what happened."
The sky hung silent.
"We didn't lose a single crew member. Not one scratch. Saturn… and all his precious Knights of God… were wiped off the map."
Silence followed. The kind of silence that freezes the blood.
The entire battlefield stilled.
Every pair of eyes turned upward, locked on the figure floating high above the crater. Buggy stood there with his hands in his pockets, the wind brushing past his white cloak. The smile painted on his clown makeup was mirrored by the cold, amused curve of his lips, arrogant, fearless, untouchable.
And then the silence broke.
Chaos erupted.
"Wait—what?!"
"No way! Did he say one of the Five Elders is dead?!"
"Saturn's gone?! Completely?!"
The world reacted as if a star had just collapsed.
Monarchs and nobles watching the live broadcast from every corner of the sea jumped to their feet, shouting in disbelief. Many were stunned, some terrified, but in the eyes of more than a few, there was unmistakable joy.
"He killed a Five Elder!"
"That's one of the rulers of the world! Buggy actually killed him!"
"Hahahaha! Long live Lord Buggy! Long live the Crimson Empire!"
"Screw the World Government! The new throne is Buggy's! Long live the Godslayer!"
"First the Celestial Dragons… now the Elders… Who the hell is left?!"
From the Grand Line to the West Blue, from New World islands to the shadowed corners of the underworld, the name Buggy now echoed with a reverence that once belonged only to legends.
And yet, through all this, Buggy remained calm.
He looked down at Kong, who had pulled himself from the rubble, his breathing laboured, his eyes wide with disbelief. Their gazes met.
"It's over," Buggy said quietly. "Let's not drag this out."
He stepped forward, eyes sharp.
"You've earned your end with some dignity, Commander Kong."
Clap.
With a single motion, Buggy's voice boomed above the battlefield.
"True Several Thousand Hands."
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The ground trembled.
A radiant blue light burst upward from the Red Line itself. In a matter of seconds, countless titanic vines erupted from beneath the earth, spiralling skyward and weaving together into an enormous form—a giant Buddha hundreds of meters tall, its size deliberately restrained by Buggy's own will.
Behind its serene face unfolded row upon row of massive hands—thousands of palms, layered in divine symmetry, as if prepared to crush the heavens.
Mouths fell open. Even the most battle-hardened fighters stared in awe.
"Bodhisattva's Final Verdict!"
Buggy's voice dropped, like a hammer being lowered.
And then, the silence was shattered.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
The Buddha's hands moved as one.
Each colossal fist launched downward like a meteor, crashing toward Kong below. The sky darkened beneath their sheer number and size. The air screamed with pressure.
And at the centre of it all, Kong stood frozen, watching as judgment itself descended upon him.
Kong's heart surged with dread, but he let out a thunderous tiger's roar and shot into the sky without hesitation. He clashed head-on with the descending wooden fists, each one brimming with Conqueror's Haki and advanced Armament.
These were no ordinary attacks. They were colossal wooden elemental fists, summoned with terrifying precision.
A deep hum echoed across the battlefield.
Following Buggy's silent command, the massive fists that rained down suddenly ignited with black and golden flames. They were coated in the highest calibre of Haki, and their power surged with divine fury.
Kong's eyes widened.
He fought back valiantly, throwing hundreds of fists into the air, each one laced with raw force. But for every fist he struck, a dozen more shadows descended. There were too many.
The sky became a storm of fists.
Explosions rang out.
In the blink of an eye, Kong was swallowed whole by the tidal wave of black-and-gold punches. His body was driven down into the Red Line. Dust and stone erupted into the air like a volcano.
Cracks spread like lightning.
What had once been a raised plateau collapsed, a crater forming with a radius stretching beyond a kilometre. The ground caved in with a deafening roar.
Then silence.
From the swirling dust, a single wooden palm emerged, dragging a man out by his bloodstained body.
It was Kong.
He had reverted to his human form, his Zoan transformation undone by the force of the blows. Despite this, a faint aura of Haki still clung to him. His chest rose and fell, barely. His eyes burned with defiance.
But Buggy stood above, untouched. Hands still in his pockets. Looking down as if watching a child struggle against the tide.
"This is farewell, Commander Kong," he said.
A clap sounded.
The wooden palms surrounding Kong came together with devastating finality.
Kong's already faint aura collapsed completely.
Between those massive hands, his body was crushed in an instant, his vitality drained as if consumed by the dense energy flowing from Buggy's Ancient Power.
The broadcast didn't censor it.
The world saw it all.
Kong, the Commander-in-Chief of the entire World Government's military, the last pillar standing between the old era and the storm Buggy now embodied, was dead.
And in that moment, the sea itself seemed to fall silent.
---
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