The Purple Rat stared at Luffy with an indifferent expression, completely unmoved by his taunts.
To him, Luffy was already a dead man. And really, did it even matter what a dead man had to say before he died?
With each step the Purple Rat took toward Luffy, his presence grew heavier, the weight of his aura pressing down like a tidal wave.
Luffy kept his eyes locked on the advancing enemy, his expression serious. The pressure this guy was giving off was intense—not quite on the level of Kai, but still not someone he should theoretically be able to handle right now.
The problem was...
Theories were just theories.
Reality? That was a whole different story.
And in reality, no one could say for sure what would happen in a fight until the fists actually flew.
Rather than feeling fear, Luffy was fired up. The guy was strong, but not to the point where he couldn't be beaten.
And that meant...
It was time for the magic of sit-ups!
Without hesitation, Luffy shot forward, choosing to strike first!
—
Elsewhere on the battlefield—
BOOM!
A figure came crashing down from the sky at incredible speed, slamming into the ice with a thunderous impact. The sheer force of the fall carved out a massive crater, sending shards of ice flying in every direction.
Another figure landed at the crater's edge, looking down at the struggling man inside. His voice was calm, almost mocking.
"What's wrong, Teach? That's all you've got? And here I thought you were immune to death."
A hoarse, enraged voice echoed from within the pit.
"WHY?!"
Blackbeard's expression twisted in fury, but beneath the anger was something else—fear.
RAW, unfiltered fear.
His trembling gaze locked onto Kai, unable to believe what had just happened.
"Why?" Kai repeated, his tone light, almost amused.
"Why the hell doesn't my Dark-Dark Fruit work on you?!" Blackbeard snarled. His face was an ugly mix of rage and disbelief.
Kai snorted. "Do you think some brat could overpower his old man? Your fruit doesn't work on me because—let's be real here—it's garbage."
The words hit Blackbeard like a slap.
The Dark-Dark Fruit—the power he had sacrificed so much to obtain, the power he had waited decades for—was garbage?
Impossible.
Every battle he had ever fought, he had relied on its ability to nullify other Devil Fruits. His darkness had swallowed everything.
Just like when he fought Ace.
Yet here was Kai, standing completely unaffected. Worse still, Blackbeard's own drawback—feeling twice the pain—was still in effect. He had been completely overwhelmed.
It made no sense.
Had he been wrong all along?
Blackbeard hesitated, then finally asked the question burning in his mind:
"Then what the hell is your fruit?"
He had spent years studying Devil Fruits. There was nothing—nothing—in his knowledge that matched what Kai was doing.
It wasn't possible for him to be this ignorant... right?
Kai smirked.
"You tell me."
"YOU—"
Blackbeard nearly choked on his own fury. If he wasn't so thoroughly beaten, he would have rushed at Kai right then and there.
Too bad for him, Kai wasn't done yet.
In a flash, Kai vanished—
And reappeared in front of Blackbeard.
Before Teach could even process what was happening, Kai's staff came crashing down.
BOOM!
The impact smashed him back into the ice, sending him skidding through the battlefield like a ragdoll.
Chunks of ice shattered in his wake, and his body finally broke through the frozen surface, plunging into the sea below.
For a moment, silence.
Then—
SPLASH!
Kai dove in after him.
!!!
???
The entire battlefield fell into stunned silence.
Blackbeard being forced into the sea? That made sense.
But Kai—a Devil Fruit user—diving in willingly?
Was he insane?!
To everyone watching, it looked like suicide.
No Devil Fruit user could survive in the ocean. That was common knowledge.
Yet, Kai had jumped in without a second thought.
And if he was willing to expose this ability in front of everyone...
Then that meant—
He had a way to counter the sea's weakness.
A shiver ran through the Marines and the pirates alike.
What they had just witnessed shouldn't have been possible.
For centuries, the greatest weakness of every Devil Fruit user had been the sea. It was the unchangeable law of the world.
And yet...
Had Kai broken that law?
Fear crept into the hearts of every Devil Fruit user on the battlefield.
If Kai had truly overcome the ocean's curse, then what did that mean for the balance of the world?
For those who wielded Devil Fruits, a terrifying thought took root—
What if we could do the same?
—
Underwater, Kai streaked toward the sinking Blackbeard like a torpedo.
If he had been willing to expose this ability in front of everyone, then it meant one thing—
There weren't many people left in the world who could truly threaten him anymore.
And with every island he conquered, every battle he fought, his strength would only continue to skyrocket. Unlike other powerful figures who reached a plateau, he had no limits.
Which is why—
Even though Blackbeard was already sinking into the depths of the sea, Kai wasn't taking any chances.
Because if there was one thing he had learned about this world, it was this—
Main characters don't die easily.
Sure, Luffy was the biggest protagonist of this era, but let's not forget—
Blackbeard had been a cockroach throughout the entire story.
Which meant…
Kai wasn't letting him walk away from this.
A few seconds later, Kai caught up to him. With Blackbeard just meters away, Kai raised his staff high, letting it spin rapidly in his grip.
The ocean current twisted around him, forming a violent waterspout that pierced straight through the ice above.
Then—
With all the force of a meteor—
He swung.
"THREE THOUSAND WORLDS—HELLFALL!!"
BOOM!
The blow crushed Blackbeard's skull, sending his body plummeting through the ocean depths like a lead weight.
At the same time, the surrounding seawater exploded upward, shattering the ice from below.
A towering geyser of seawater and ice erupted into the sky, leaving the entire battlefield in shock.
Kai emerged from the depths, landing effortlessly on the ice. In his hands, two Devil Fruits.
With that final blow, Marshall D. Teach was dead.
The man who had wreaked havoc on the world, who had shaped so much of history, was gone—
And his script?
Completely erased.
No one had expected it to end this way.
But really, looking back—
Wasn't this inevitable?
For Kai, Blackbeard was never on his level.
Especially not when his Devil Fruit power was useless against him.
Honestly, if the Golden Lion hadn't stepped in back on Jaya, Blackbeard would've been long gone.
But now?
Now, the story of this world had officially gone off the rails.
Kai glanced at the two fruits in his hands and smirked.
"Well... things just got interesting."