“I didn’t expect you, Zephyr, to still be so formidable!” Golden Lion’s laughter abruptly ceased amidst the smoke.

He flicked his two famous blades, then suddenly reined in his killing intent, his twin swords clanging as they returned to their sheaths.

“That’s enough, let’s stop here for today.” Golden Lion casually brushed dust from his cloak, as if the fierce battle just now was merely a game.

“Shiki.” Zephyr’s fists remained clenched, but the taut lines of his shoulders imperceptibly relaxed a fraction.

He knew better than anyone that he didn’t have absolute confidence in defeating Golden Lion in a head-on confrontation now.

“Zephyr-sensei…” Gern wanted to step forward but was stopped by a look from Zephyr.

Golden Lion keenly caught this subtle movement, and his golden eyebrows shot up as he suddenly burst into laughter.

“Jie ha ha ha!” Golden Lion floated into the air, his golden hair like burning flames in the setting sun.

He hovered above, looking down at Gern, his eyes glinting with the malice of a cat playing with a mouse: “Little brat, where’s your courage now?”

The sea breeze carried the scent of blood into his nostrils, and every word Golden Lion spoke next burrowed into Gern’s ears like a venomous snake.

“Gern? Heh heh, I thought you were an interesting fellow.” Golden Lion’s voice was filled with undisguised contempt.

“I didn’t come here for that captured trash, but because I heard you crossed paths with Newgate. That’s what interests me.

But now, it seems, besides that unexpected punch, you don’t even qualify to make me serious.

No, no!! A brat without Haoshoku Haki, worthy of fighting Whitebeard? What a joke!

Newgate must have been kind-hearted and spared your life! Just like me now, ha ha ha!!”

The laughter, full of humiliation and mockery, caused Gern’s fists to clench abruptly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Every word from Golden Lion was like a knife piercing his heart.

The humiliating words echoed endlessly in his mind…

Sakazuki’s magma fist suddenly flared up, but Zephyr blocked him with his arm.

Zephyr’s sunglasses reflected a cold light as he imperceptibly shook his head.

Then, Zephyr turned his gaze to Gern, his brows tightly furrowed.

After three years together, he understood his disciple too well…

Gern seemed calm and composed, but in reality, his heart was wild and competitive.

Whether it was his clash with Whitebeard three years ago or his duels with Zephyr himself in the training ground, he never gave an inch.

And now, facing Golden Lion’s humiliation…

“What, not convinced?” Golden Lion, seeing Gern’s silence, laughed even more wildly, swooping down to within ten meters of Gern.

Then, he extended a finger and wagged it playfully: “Remember, the next time you see my flag…”

Before he finished speaking, a pebble grazed Gern’s cheek.

“Crawl away like a dog!!!”

These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing down on Gern’s dignity.

“Zephyr, teach your apprentice well. The weak should act like the weak!”

Golden Lion watched this scene with satisfaction, then turned and soared into the air, his wild laughter accompanied by the aftershocks of Conqueror's Haki.

It was suppression, deterrence! And also a strong one’s provocation of the weak.

…

The sea breeze solidified in Gern’s ears, Golden Lion’s wild laughter and the lingering power of Haoshoku Haki clung to Gern like rust.

The bloodstain on his face from the pebble burned, but it was far less painful than the surging humiliation in his chest.

“Crawl away like a dog.” The moment these words exploded in his mind, countless fragments of memory poured into his brain like glass shards.

Transmigrating into the slums of West Blue, curled up in a foul-smelling alley corner, swallowing moldy bread.

The system he thought he would awaken, eventually resigned himself to fate, joining the Marine as a chore boy to gain a chance to survive.

Himself, licking the training officer like a nobody in the West Blue Branch recruit training ground… frantically saving money trying to change his fate…

Finally, all the scenes froze into Golden Lion’s mocking golden pupils as he looked down.

“It would have been better to stay as quiet as when I was a recruit in West Blue.” Gern’s knuckles cracked under the strain, his fingernails already digging into his palms.

When he first joined the Marine back then, that’s exactly what he did—bow his head, remain silent, and survive.

Like a rat in a gutter, gnawing on scraps, barely clinging to life.

“I don’t have a system… I only have one life…”

“But if even ‘now’ my spine can be arbitrarily broken…”

Golden Lion’s cloak flapped in the setting sun, the golden hue in the sky stinging his eyes.

“Then what were my careful plans all these years for?!

What was the life I gambled when confronting Whitebeard for?! The day and night of tempering and baptism… what were they for?!”

His blood began to boil, his eardrums thrumming with an unfamiliar roar.

Something was tearing out from the depths of his bone marrow, like a trapped beast gnawing at its cage.

Golden Lion had ascended to mid-air, his back radiating contempt.

But Gern, holding black blade eight desolations, suddenly smiled.

He slowly raised his head, a grotesque arc pulling at his blood-stained lips.

Sakazuki’s magma, Zephyr’s arm, Gern’s own trembling knees…

All the sounds in the world faded at this moment, leaving only the roar of his heart pounding against his chest.

“I deny—” The air suddenly solidified.

“Hm?” Golden Lion, about to leave, his laughter abruptly ceased.

Then he spun around, seeing the young man he called an “ant” standing ramrod straight, a crimson light bursting from the depths of his dark pupils.

“In my heart, you are just a paper character. Before I transmigrated, I could flip a page and see your entire life.”

“Such as you, by what right?”

“I deny your rules!”

“I’m here, so I am the protagonist of this world! All rules should be set by me!!!”

The moment Gern’s shout erupted, the air seemed to freeze for an instant.

Then, centered on Gern, a violent Conqueror's Haki swept out like a tsunami!

The ground cracked inch by inch, pebbles floated into the air, and the dark clouds in the sky were forcibly torn open!

Zephyr and Sakazuki both took a step back simultaneously, shock flashing in their eyes.

Golden Lion’s cloak was torn to shreds by the shockwave, and Zephyr’s sunglasses cracked with a spiderweb pattern.

Conqueror's Haki!

It was not a gift of bloodline, nor the favor of talent, but a raging fire reborn from the ashes of the soul after dignity was crushed to dust.

“Kings don’t meet kings?” Gern took a step, and the ground beneath his feet crumbled and shattered inch by inch.

He stared at Golden Lion’s constricted pupils, letting the torrent of Haoshoku Haki collide head-on with the other party’s.

“Then let’s see…” Gern’s pupils contracted violently, his black hair wildly dancing under the impact of the Haki.

“Who is the one who should kneel!!”

As his words fell, Gern’s body was enveloped by pale white vibrating particles and black-red Conqueror's Haki lightning.

At the same time, black blade eight desolations suddenly trembled violently, and dark red patterns appeared strikingly on the dark blade, as if awakened by some force!

“Buzz!” Black-red lightning wrapped around the dark blade, resonating with Gern’s Conqueror's Haki!

Gern gripped the hilt of Eight Desolations, and the blade instantly erupted with dazzling black-red light.

The vibrating particles and Conqueror's Haki perfectly fused, forming an unprecedented power!

Gern looked up at the sky, his eyes sharp as blades.

—Boom!

A thunderbolt struck, illuminating his stern face.

Conqueror's Haki awakened, Black Blade resonated!

The ignorant monster Rocks spoke of… awakened at this moment!