Chapter 156: The Battle is Decided
Jaya Island — Mock Town.
Half of Mock Town now lay in ruins. Collapsed houses, torn earth, shattered walls, a complete wreck. The entire town had become a wasteland.
Several hundred meters to the east, two mysterious men, one with twin mustaches, the other sporting horn-like hair, were covered in dust and debris. They crouched behind what remained of a crumbling wall, visibly shaken.
"That power… How is this even possible?"
"Are my eyes playing tricks on me?"
They came from a secretive organization and had access to classified intelligence. They knew exactly who possessed such a power. That's why they were nearly driven to madness, refusing to believe what they had just witnessed.
A few hundred meters to the north, Owen knelt in the rubble between two collapsed buildings, his flamboyant outfit now in tatters. All of his crew were dead.
"Is that guy even human?"
Owen stared at the figure floating in the air, fear gripping his heart.
As a captain under the Demon Mask Pirates, he had seen his share of monstrous strength from the great pirates of the world. But this… this might even surpass his own captain, Demon Mask Gutte.
...
Back at what used to be the harbor:
"Damn it, Captain's gone completely overboard!"
Oliver growled, gripping his sword Nagamitsu.
"That new technique… I didn't think it had this kind of power."
Arlan muttered, a cigarette dangling between his fingers.
"What the hell, is he trying to bury us alive too?!"
Dimitri shouted in disbelief.
When the crew of the Chris Pirates had seen their captain take on Moria, they had immediately retreated, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. But even that hadn't been enough. A single move from their captain had razed half the town, leaving them stunned, mouths agape.
...
Ground Zero.
"Impossible… There's no way you have that power!"
Moria, bathed in blood, was down on his knees. His hands braced against the shattered earth as he looked up, his voice quivering with fear and disbelief.
He was dumbstruck. That ability, there was only one fruit like it, right? And it belonged to that man, the strongest man in the world.
"Hahahaha… The power to destroy the world! So this is what it feels like!"
Aeridar laughed wildly, drunk on the devastation he had unleashed.
Indeed, what Aeridar had just used was Airquake, a technique mimicking the signature move of the late Emperor Edward Newgate, a.k.a. Whitebeard. It was the terrifying power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, said to be capable of destroying the world itself.
[Note: In the anime and manga, Whitebeard's attacks were not named. It was only in the game that they were named. Since the technique here were used with the air, and the air cracked upon used, I translated it as Airquake, or Kushin if you like it in japanese-style.]
"There's supposed to be only one fruit per type… But I ate the Impact-Impact Fruit."
Aeridar spread his arms, grinning.
"But you know what? A quake is just a series of tiny, continuous impact waves. Only when the impacts are sustained and finely tuned, do they become vibrations, and when taken to the extreme… they can shatter the sky."
Whitebeard's power was the ultimate form of vibration. Aeridar had spent three years mastering the subtle art of converting impact into continuous tremors—calibrating frequency, refining his control, amplifying power—until he could vibrate the air itself to the point of rupture.
It had taken years, because impacts are instant by nature—sudden, violent bursts. Creating and sustaining small-scale impact tremors, then adjusting their frequency to reach a destructive threshold… that was no simple feat. At first, all he managed was a weak tremble, no different than a cheap Earth-world vibration toy. But with persistence, he had sharpened it, until it rivaled Whitebeard's legendary shockwaves.
And now, he had done it.
"The Impact-Impact Fruit..."
Moria murmured, eyes wide with realization.
"So… vibration is just sustained impact…"
In that moment, Moria saw the terrifying potential of Aeridar's fruit. In the right hands, it could even surpass the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"Damn it…"
Rage swelled in Moria's heart. Aeridar still wasn't on the level of a Yonko, and Moria wasn't in his home territory. He couldn't summon his zombie army, nor retrieve the shadows he'd cut, they were too far away. His trump cards were sealed.
He'd only come here to find strong corpses, or strong opponents to take shadows from. He never expected to run into this kind of monster.
And now? He was being humiliated, beaten like a ragdoll. It was unbearable!
"Don't think this means you've won!!"
Moria roared, pulling out a massive pair of scissors from who-knows-where. With a flick, he split them apart, forming two ominous black blades.
The shadow beneath him surged, transforming into a giant black spear that launched toward Aeridar with blinding speed.
Spiky Shadow Lizard!!!
"Hah… Worthless."
Aeridar scoffed and tilted his body, narrowly dodging the purple-black spear.
Then, boom, he kicked off mid-air, using Geppo from the Rokushiki.
"I'll kill you, you bastard!!"
Moria howled, his shadow lifting him onto a black platform. He swung his twin shadow blades, the air whistling with each strike.
"Kill you? Nah. I'll toss your sorry ass in Impel Down! Hahahaha!"
Aeridar dove from the sky, wind howling through his hair. As he raised his fist, a faint white glow surrounded it, a small air pressure dome roughly ten centimeters wide encased his knuckles.
He punched forward.
Airquake!!!
Crack—!
The sky split like shattered glass.
Crack!
Moria's twin shadow blades fractured, then exploded into glittering fragments.
"NO—!!"
Moria's face twisted in terror, bloodshot eyes bulging in disbelief.
BOOOOM—!
The earth trembled. The land ruptured. The ground sank.
Moria, along with his black platform, was smashed deep into the earth by Aeridar's fist. The chaos spawned a visible white shockwave that roared outward like a living beast.
Buildings collapsed. Stone shattered. The ground was gouged raw in every direction. The blast radius covered several hundred meters at least.
...
From atop a distant mountain overlooking the ruined town, a towering figure stood silently.
"The battle is over."
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