Chapter 39: Battle Against the Red-Haired Shanks — Heaven and Earth Shatter
"Awakened?"
Shanks' eyes widened in disbelief.
Though surprised, a fire of battle was ignited within him.
"Our captain, of course, has Conqueror's Haki," Gion said with a proud smile on her face.
It was the same for everyone. Even Makino, who could feel the emotion of the moment, couldn't help but feel a swell of pride.
"I said it before—Conqueror's Haki isn't that special," Hancock lifted her head arrogantly.
From her as well, an aura began to emanate.
It was also Conqueror's Haki, awakened at the same time as Kuke's.
The members of the Red-Haired Pirates were left dumbstruck.
"There's someone like that in the Radiant Eclipse Pirates?" Ben Beckman stared at Hancock, astonished.
In his mind—and likely in the minds of everyone who knew of the crew—the only members worth paying serious attention to were Kuke and Gion. Even Hancock, with a bounty exceeding 100 million berries, wasn't taken very seriously by many.
"Another woman with Conqueror's Haki, besides Big Mom... Truly terrifying," Beckman muttered.
"With Kuke, Gion, and Hancock on board, the Radiant Eclipse Pirates will never be weak," Gaban murmured, his eyes narrowing. He couldn't hide his shock.
A clash of Conqueror's Haki was a rare sight, something he hadn't seen in years.
"No wonder Shanks is treating them so seriously. They're more than worthy," Gaban said, smiling with approval. Ace was now in the hands of someone who would make it shine once more.
"Wait... Could it be that it wasn't Ace that chose him, but that he conquered Ace?" Gaban's eyes widened further as this realization dawned on him.
"Come at me!"
Shanks stepped forward, the ground trembling beneath his feet. The coastline shook violently, the sea waves rising high as he swung his sword, Gryphon, and the blade seemed to ignite with lightning.
A crimson glow surged, swallowing all light.
Kuke stepped forward as well. The air around him swirled violently, pulling sand and stones into the sky in a whirlwind, his sword, Ace, warping space as it cut through the air.
The two blades moved towards each other.
Before they could even collide, the sheer force of their swings prevented them from making contact. The space between the blades cracked with lightning-like fractures, and a vast chasm split the earth.
The sandy shore disappeared, revealing the hard, damp bedrock beneath. Stones flew into the air as the ground trembled.
The forest shook, ancient trees being torn from the ground.
"They're evenly matched with the captain!" The Red-Haired Pirates dug their feet into the ground, using their Haki to avoid being blown away by the force of the collision. Their eyes widened in disbelief as they stared at the clashing blades.
"It's like the sky itself is splitting open."
"Is this the level they're fighting at?" Gaban couldn't help but exclaim, "At my peak, I was only ever this strong."
And yet, here they were—one barely over 20, and the other not even 20 yet.
The former third-in-command of the Roger Pirates, Gaban, felt a pang of defeat. "They're both monsters."
Especially Kuke.
Not even 20 years old, and his power was already at this level.
Gaban couldn't even imagine what the future held for him.
"Is this really a fight?" Makino's mouth hung open in shock.
Her entire understanding of the world shattered. In her mind, pirate battles should have been like fights between mountain bandits, perhaps with a bit of gunfire—being able to take on ten enemies was impressive.
But this?
This apocalyptic scene unfolding before her—what was this?
Do such people really exist in the world?
"Of course," Gion explained calmly to the others on board, "our captain fighting Red-Haired Shanks at this level is perfectly normal. This is the true nature of the strongest in the seas."
"So... humans can really become this powerful?"
Makino stared at Kuke, who was exchanging blows with Shanks.
Her eyes gradually drifted away from Shanks and focused solely on Kuke.
"They're fighting on equal terms?" Shanks' veins bulged on his forehead as the intensity of the battle increased.
Kuke's expression, however, showed excitement as a chilling aura began to radiate behind him. "Demonic Aura: King of the Underworld!"
With a twist of his blade, a massive shockwave of sword energy ripped through the forest, tearing everything apart.
The wave crashed into a distant mountain, carving a hole with a diameter of a hundred meters straight through it.
Shanks, sent flying by the force, twisted through the air before landing back on the ground. He leapt up once more, his sword crackling with black lightning and wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, slashing down like a burning sun.
Boom!
The entire coastline lifted off the ground, rising into the sky.
A massive crack split the sea and stretched to the horizon.
From within the deep crater, Kuke jumped up, landing steadily on the broken ground.
For a brief moment, he locked eyes with Shanks.
Neither spoke a word.
At the same time, they vanished.
Their swords clashed again and again, hundreds of times in mere seconds, with sword energy so sharp it caused the ground beneath them to crumble layer by layer.
They fought from the coastline...
Into the forest, which was obliterated.
Then to the mountains, which collapsed.
It was a clash between equals.
Even those far from the battle, miles away in the surrounding cities and towns, felt the ground tremble beneath their feet.
"What's happening?" Two boys deep in the forest climbed a tall tree to see the lightning crackling across the sky. "Is someone fighting?"
"No way! No one could fight so hard that it affects the weather!"
"Ace, wait... Don't tell me you're going?"
Further away, in a nearby city...
The people on the streets all looked up in confusion. "Is that an earthquake? Is a storm coming?"
In the vast city of Goa, reporters and journalists quickly realized what was happening. "No, someone's fighting—there's a battle going on that's affecting the entire island! Could it be some monster from the New World?"
"This is going to be big news. The East Blue is about to make headlines."