Chapter 230: The Fall of the Drought

"..."

"This mammoth lost its trunk... looks more like a wild boar now."

"Holy Judgment!"

Wright mused to himself as he took advantage of Jack's momentary vulnerability. Before the beastly pirate could regain his footing, Wright's blade slashed deep into Jack's exposed side on the deck.

"ARGHHH—!"

Another agonized roar echoed across the battlefield. However, the blade failed to cut clean through his massive torso. The sheer density of Jack's muscles and skin, reinforced with Haki, made non-lethal strikes significantly less effective.

The air carried the distinct scent of burning flesh—the result of Holy Fire scorching the wound.

BOOM!

Jack violently rolled over, freeing himself from the deck's grasp with sheer brute force.

"You're nowhere close!"

"This little wound... it's nowhere near enough!!"

Jack bellowed, though the loss of his trunk gave his voice an odd distortion. Realizing this himself only fueled his rage further.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!"

The gaping wounds on his body seemed inconsequential to his movements. No... they were healing so rapidly that they barely impeded him at all! Jack's Zoan-based resilience was absurd—his recovery rate in this form was nearly monstrous.

Jack charged into full-on rampage mode—relentless charges across the battlefield, each step carrying devastating force. If Wright took even a single direct hit, he'd be caught in a brutal chain of trampling strikes.

Leaping high into the sky to evade Jack's relentless stampede, Wright frowned at the sheer endurance of this living war beast.

"If this keeps up... taking you down might take an entire day."

"And if Doflamingo catches wind of this fight and shows up, that would be troublesome."

"In that case... let's take a shortcut."

"Ashes Awakening."

With a deep exhale, Wright activated his technique. The golden-red sword, Ashes,ignited in a furious blaze, extending to a massive twenty meters in length.

Raising the Supreme Grade Blade high above his head, Wright channeled an overwhelming surge of Holy Fire, its glow threatening to set the very sky ablaze.

"Judgment Strike!"

Jack, snarling defiantly, attempted to meet the attack head-on.

But he paid the price for his arrogance.

With a single, devastating strike, Wright's blade cleaved through Jack's massive ivory tusk, shattering it completely. The force sent his colossal front legs crashing onto the deck beneath him.

A perfect fusion of raw power and unparalleled sharpness—this single blow left Jack unable to even scream in defiance.

Had this attack landed on an island, the sheer destruction would have been catastrophic. Even with Jack's immense bulk absorbing some of the force, the impact still created a spectacular tidal wave, rippling across the ocean.

BOOM!

CRACK!

RUMBLE—

The mighty Mammoth could endure no more. The specially reinforced hull of his flagship, the Mammoth, finally reached its breaking point—shattered by the force of Wright's ultimate technique.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

Golden flying slashes rained down like a divine judgment from the heavens, ensuring that the collapsing Mammoth was completely obliterated.

ROAR!!

Jack could no longer maintain his mammoth form—unless he wanted to sink straight into the ocean.

Bloodied and battered, he reverted to his human form, leaping towards the highest remaining platform.

"You—"

"Shut up and DIE!"

"Final Judgement!"

The last, colossal flying slash completely shattered the platform Jack had landed on.

"Lightspeed!"

"Holy Smite!"

Jack barely had time to react before Wright delivered a crushing kick, sending him plummeting into the sea below.

"GLUB GLUB GLUB—"

Jack's furious expression remained unchanged as he sank. Though his body was rendered powerless in the sea, he wasn't worried.

"I'm a fish-man! Even as a Devil Fruit user, the ocean won't drown me!"

Staring up at the surface, he envisioned the Marine Vice Admiral's frustrated expression above.

"You're a Devil Fruit user too! You can't catch me... and you definitely can't kill me!"

"I, JACK, may be defeated, but I will not die!"

"I—"

His internal monologue was abruptly cut off when he suddenly choked on water—not from drowning, but from sheer shock.

His widening eyes saw something impossible.

The "Devil Fruit user" Marine Vice Admiral who had just cut him down...

...was now underwater.

With his twenty-meter-long holy blade still ablaze.

Unbothered by the sea, Wright dived effortlessly, far beyond what any Devil Fruit user should be capable of.

Jack's luck... had finally run out.

Even in the ocean, Wright's Wings of Holy Light granted him immense speed.

"Holy Light Wall!"

"Holy Wings: Ignition!"

"Lightspeed!"

Wright wielded his blade with both hands, Holy Fire burning fiercely even within the depths of the sea, illuminating Jack's furious yet terrified gaze.

"Secret Technique—Divine Void Slash!"

In a flash, Wright vanished, moving so fast that the surrounding water briefly formed a vacuum.

When he reappeared... he was beneath Jack.

Jack's massive body continued plummeting downward—but his head had separated from his shoulders.

"?"

A single decapitating strike.

For Zoan users, impalements or slit throats weren't always fatal.

But a clean beheading?

Wright, still bathed in the Holy Light, sensed something strange.

It felt as if... some form of energy was escaping Jack's lifeless corpse.

"What was that?"

"Was it... a soul? Life force? Or... the energy of a Devil Fruit?"

With no time to ponder, Wright grabbed Jack's severed head by the braided hair and launched himself towards the surface.

SPLASH!

Soaring into the sky, Wright glanced at the dark abyss below, where Jack's headless body sank into the depths.

"The Holy Light rejects Devil Fruit power... I learned that before."

"Which means... I probably can't eat a Devil Fruit or gain its abilities."

"But if the sea carries a similar suppressing effect... why could I vaguely sense that energy just now?"

He looked at the giant severed head in his grasp and shook his head.

"No point in overthinking it now. The Holy Light's mysteries... are far from fully understood."

A burst of Holy Fire dried his clothes instantly as he soared back toward the Dawn.

Below, the remains of the Mammoth drifted across the ocean, slowly sinking into the depths—witnessing the fall of one of the Three Calamities of the Beasts Pirates.

The Drought—Jack.

On the Dawn, the Marines had already crushed the remaining pirates.

"Jack-sama still isn't here yet...?"

"Damn it! These Marines are too strong! And those two Devil Fruit officers are a nightmare!"

"That Logia bastard is unstoppable! If Jack-sama doesn't get here soon, we're done for!"

The pirates were on the verge of breaking.

And then—

BOOM!

Something massive slammed onto the deck.

Both sides turned to look.

A massive, severed head lay before them.

The lifeless face of Jack the Drought—frozen in eternal fury.

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