Marineford War: I Will Stand in the Sky

In a daze, Brooke even felt that the bones in his face had turned a little white with fright.

If it weren't for the aura of death constantly dispelling all approaching darkness, Brooke suspected that his skeletal frame would have been ground into dust in an instant.

"That is... the power of time..."

Finally, Teach realized the true nature of Brook's power. His eyes turned to the Skeleton Emperor, who hadn't moved an inch from beginning to end, as if he were taking a leisurely stroll, and his gaze was filled with apprehension.

However, hidden beneath this apprehension lies an even more extreme form of greed.

Most Devil Fruits related to time are not offensive; they merely change the age of an enemy under various conditions, and their effectiveness in actual combat is quite limited.

This was the first time Teach had discovered that it possessed such a terrifying ability to accelerate the passage of time to the extreme, causing all things to perish.

"This power... we must obtain it!!!"

Teach's eyes widened, bloodshot, and he slammed his hands on the ground again, unleashing a torrent of boundless darkness.

"Devoure everything, Dark Acupoints!"

Instantly, wherever darkness spread, everything was slowly swallowed up by it.

However, all darkness that gets within a certain range of Brook will quickly dissipate under the influence of the aura of death.

However, Teach showed no sign of stopping; instead, he continued to accelerate the darkness's engulfment of everything.

A moment later, the darkness suddenly paused, then surged back towards Teach's direction, before rising into the sky and completely obscuring the top of the island.

"Every ability has its limits, right? Skeleton Emperor, let me see if your limits can instantly melt away half an island's worth of objects!!"

The next moment, the darkness enveloping Brook spewed out a large amount of the matter it had just swallowed!

In an instant, stones, houses, trees, and other objects cascaded down on Brook like a waterfall.

The exaggerated scene made Brook's skeleton stiffen suddenly, and he instinctively wanted to slip away.

However, after several days of relentless bombardment by Perona, Brooke had completely etched a certain truth into his bones and soul.

When facing a truly monstrous opponent, there is no point in running away at your own speed; the best way to deal with it is to constantly maintain the "Skeleton Emperor's" ability called "aging".

In an instant, as he was about to be engulfed by countless falling heavy objects, Brook, who looked powerful and terrifying, still did not make any extra movements, not even raising his hand. Only the aura of death surrounding him increased a few more times.

In the next instant, countless falling objects came into contact with the aura of death, and then, as if thousands of years had passed in the blink of an eye, they withered, rotted, and weathered away...

This scene left Teach both shocked and greedy.

As expected... what a terrifying ability!

However, this ability will soon be mine!

While Teach maintained the liberation of matter, his hands were quietly and completely covered by darkness.

As a user of the "Dark-Dark Fruit," Teach can temporarily disable an opponent's power by touching them. Furthermore, Teach can absorb damage inflicted on him by enduring double the pain.

and so……

'Just a moment, just a moment to touch the Skeleton Emperor, and victory will be mine…'

Teach grinned, watching Brooke's head still gazing upwards at the skull. In that instant, he lunged at Brooke, his hand, shrouded in darkness, swiftly reaching out towards him.

As for how serious the damage those "death auras" would cause to him, Teach could only gamble at this point, hoping that he could reach out and touch the Skeleton Emperor before his endurance reached its limit.

Brook, whose true strength was far inferior to Teach's, was completely unaware of Teach's movements. When Brook looked down, Teach, grinning incessantly, was already right in front of him, about to approach the area filled with the aura of death.

"Hehehe, hand over your abilities..."

The next moment, as the "aura of death" began to act on Teach, the pain, which was twice as intense as Teach had imagined, struck him almost instantly. But Teach's face was filled with arrogance, madness, joy, and boundless ambition.

[Chapter 738. Almost...died]

Although it is different from the "Tremor-Tremor Fruit" that Teach originally envisioned, as long as he obtains this ability to "make all things age and perish".

So Teach can still compensate for his serious lack of offense, thus continuing with the next step of his plan, or even directly defeating his father and letting him experience the feeling of instant aging and death...

It was at this moment that Teach stared wide-eyed as he clearly saw his finger touch Brooke's bone.

We won!

However, contrary to Teach's prediction that the "aura of death" would dissipate instantly, everything... seemed unchanged!

"Huh?" Brooke looked down at his bones.

"what!!!"

Teach retreated frantically, screaming in agony as his body aged and decayed at a visible rate, starting with his limbs.

"Ahhhhh~~~"

And accompanied by Teach's extremely painful screams, his eyes were almost completely rolled back, and saliva was uncontrollably flowing from his mouth.

This is the double price Teach paid for the "Dark-Dark Fruit," and as Teach said, every ability has its limits.

Therefore, as Teach forcibly endured damage beyond his own limits, his body began to age rapidly while he was suffering pain far exceeding human limits.

Brooke was still somewhat dazed, his empty eyes staring at Teach, who was lying on the ground screaming incessantly until his voice became completely hoarse and he could no longer make a sound. He muttered to himself in a daze.

"I... I won?"

Suddenly, Yann's voice rang out from behind Brooke.

"That's right, you won."

"what???"

Brook, without any of the dignity expected of the Skeleton Emperor, scratched his skull with his finger bones and said, "But I didn't do anything."

"As I said before, your unique abilities don't require you to do anything unnecessary. On the contrary, the more unnecessary things you do, the more flaws you'll expose."

Yarn spoke again, admonishing Brook.

"You did a good job this time. Remember how it felt. All you need to do is maintain this level of style from now on."

Brooke nodded and replied, "Yes."

Then, Yann took two steps forward and looked at Teach, who was already unconscious in extreme pain, and whose body had aged to the point of being nearly eighty or ninety years old, with his limbs completely withered.

According to Aon's Observation Haki, Teach's life force had weakened to the point that it would naturally extinguish if left unattended.

However, after examining it for a moment, Yann took out a pair of sea stone handcuffs from his pocket and threw them at Teach, completely restricting Teach's Devil Fruit powers, and then said to Brook.

"Eliminate him completely, leave no future trouble."

Brooke nodded, then manipulated the "aura of death" around him to spread towards Teach again, and soon completely corroded Teach's body to the point of complete decay.

Even so, Yann didn't forget to use his Observation Haki to scan the entire island three or four times before he was completely at ease.

"Let's go, time is tight..."

Immediately, Yann led Brooke swiftly toward the airship in the sky, and then headed straight for the Sabaody Archipelago.

During this time, the Straw Hat Pirates had gotten quite close to the Sabaody Archipelago, and under Yann's deliberate control, the "Marine Heroes" fleet, which had turned back from the G-9 branch, was also getting away from the Sabaody Archipelago.

In an instant, with the departure of Yann and Brooke, Banaro Island, which had experienced two incredibly exaggerated battles, fell into complete silence and desolation.

Suddenly, a withered arm stretched out from the ground where Teach had perished, and the aged Teach, panting heavily, struggled to crawl out from underground.

"I almost...died..."

Just as Teach was incredibly lucky that the clones he created with his "Dark-Dark Fruit" were so realistic, otherwise he would have been completely dead.

Even so, Teach's body was still severely affected by the "aura of death," and he had aged to the point that he was not much different from an old man on his deathbed.

"That damned bastard, I'll get my revenge one day!"

Teach spoke with an incredibly ferocious and terrifying expression, his hateful and angry gaze seeming to devour everything.

This was supposed to be the day he captured Ace and successfully carried out his plan, the day his dream would truly begin to take off after obtaining the "Dark-Dark Fruit".

However, the situation suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse. Not only was Ace taken away, but all the companions he had painstakingly gathered during this time were also killed, and even his own body had aged to this state.

"boom!"

Teach slammed his fist into the ground, about to say something more, when he suddenly realized that there was a surveillance Den Den Mushi in front of him, its round and adorable eyes still staring intently at him.

"Oh no...oh no..."

Teach's expression froze, and he immediately realized something was wrong. Just as he was about to get up and leave Banaro Island, a white light suddenly flashed from the unseen end, accurately piercing through Teach and pinning him to the ground.

"Wh...what..."

The next moment, the power of the "Soul-Slaying Blade - God-Slaying Spear" was activated, and Teach's aging body mysteriously began to completely dissolve from the cells.

……

On the airship that was gradually moving away from Banaro Island high in the sky, Brook watched somewhat blankly as Arn slowly sheathed his Zanpakuto.

"Um, what happened?"

"No, it's nothing, it's already been resolved."

As he spoke, Yann continued to watch the images transmitted from the surveillance Den Den Mushi he had secretly placed throughout Banaro Island.

Originally, Yann was just being cautious out of instinct, so he secretly left several surveillance Den Den Mushi on Banaro Island before leaving. He didn't expect them to come in handy so quickly.

Or perhaps, Teach, who was secretly hiding underground, was no longer able to hold on with his aging body?

"You're really tenacious, Teach. The Dark-Dark Fruit truly lives up to its reputation as the most dangerous ability. You almost survived. But now, it's all over, isn't it?"

Yann stroked his chin, then placed the Den Den Mushi (snail phone) projecting the surveillance footage onto the table next to him. He then waved to a young comrade and said...

"Young comrade, I'm giving you a task: keep an eye on these surveillance cameras, and report back immediately if any living people appear."

"Yes."

The young comrade, whose face still looked somewhat childish, excitedly responded, then asked, "Um... how long will the surveillance last?"

Yann hesitated for a moment, then casually said something.

"Yes, keep it simple, just one year."

[Chapter 739. The Terrifying New World]

At the same time, Luffy, who was talking on the Going Merry, suddenly stopped.

Noticing Luffy's change, the attentive Sora asked, "What's wrong, Luffy?"

"No, it's nothing, I just suddenly had a strange feeling."

Luffy scratched his head and muttered something, then ignored it and turned to Sora with great interest. "Sora, continue."