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At this moment, in the village below Vermillion…
“…”
…Aio stood with her mother and grandmother, the three of them staring up at the sky.
They weren’t the only ones, either. The other villagers, who had already gathered together, were doing the same.
Every one of them wore a stunned expression. When Aio had first called them together, saying, “A strange uncle just flew towards the Royal Palace and said the island is about to fall,” they hadn’t believed her.
But as the overwhelming battle continued… they all began to believe.
Even from such a great distance, they could clearly see the collapsing Royal Palace and the falling fragments of the island above. They could also see the restless, ferocious beasts across the entire island.
But what they had never expected was to witness something like this.
The sky above Vermillion had been torn apart!
Or, more precisely… An unimaginably vast energy was spreading across the heavens.
Thick clouds were instantly vaporized and ripped apart as if made of fragile paper.
Even the sunlight beyond the clouds was visibly distorted.
To the naked eye… It looked as if the entire sky had been split open by that single attack.
And even though the villagers didn’t understand combat, they still understood one thing:
If that attack had struck Vermillion directly instead of taking place in the sky… The entire floating archipelago would likely have been completely destroyed.
‘…’
All the villagers held their breath.
And in their eyes, an unmistakable hope flickered.
They had realized it… The possibility they had waited over ten years for!
“Everyone, get ready; if Shiki really… We must make sure the people in the Royal Palace are safe!”
The eldest person in the village gave the order, and the villagers immediately began to act.
At the same time, just as they expected, beneath the torn sky of the battlefield…
The fight had already ended.
Thud.
Roy slowly descended onto the ground of Vermillion.
At that moment, the left side of his body was covered in a horrifying wound. Yet amid flickers of light, those injuries were rapidly regenerating.
[Sunflower Devil Fruit LV5] [Glint-Glint Fruit (Pika Pika no Mi) LV4].
“It’s been a long time since I’ve taken this level of damage… Well done, old man.” Roy’s gaze shifted forward as he spoke.
There, a massive crater lay in the ground.
And within it…
“Ha… ha…”
Shiki was at the bottom. But the legendary pirate was now in a miserable state. His already severed legs, along with Oto and Kogarashi, were completely gone from the waist down. His arms had been burned beyond recognition. Even his face and eyes had been completely scorched.
The outcome was clear… His life was rapidly fading.
“Of course…”
But clearly, Shiki no longer cared.
“I am… The Golden Lion Shiki… cough, cough…”
He coughed up blood, as if experiencing a final surge of clarity before death.
“You brat! That old man Zephyr really did take in a monster of a disciple at the end of his life…”
He struggled to speak, but Roy didn’t respond. He still harbored resentment for what Shiki had done in the past, but humiliating a dying man served no purpose.
Just then…
“But… brat, why are you hiding?”
Those words made Roy’s heart jolt.
‘Had that final clash somehow exposed his identity as Star-Lord?’
It shouldn’t have been possible; his control over vibrations should have been flawless.
But then, he heard the rest of what Shiki said.
“That beast-like aura… isn’t your true will, is it?”
There was a hint of regret in his voice.
“I wanted to see your real Haoshoku… Cough… You have that kind of spirit. Or do you think the current me isn’t worthy of seeing it, brat?”
Hearing this, Roy froze.
If he understood correctly, the meaning was clear.
Golden Lion Shiki had already sensed that Roy’s ‘Haoshoku-like’ aura wasn’t his own.
And that was indeed the case. Each time their Conqueror’s Haki collided, Roy had relied on the ancient aura of the winged dragon tyrant.
But that wasn’t the most important thing.
The most important thing was what Shiki had just revealed.
“Are you saying that I have the potential for Haoshoku Haki?”
Facing a man on the brink of death… Roy had no reason to hide anything.
When he said that… Shiki, who could no longer see anything, was taken aback instead.
He was genuinely surprised. He had assumed that Roy had already mastered his Haoshoku Haki and refined it through special training to create that beast-like aura.
But now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all.
Roy hadn’t even realized that he had the potential for Haoshoku.
If so…
Then what exactly was that beast-like aura?
Shiki didn’t know.
But clearly, at this point, it no longer mattered.
“Brat… a king can recognize another king.”
His pale, bloodless face suddenly flushed faintly with excitement.
“You have the qualities of a king. I won’t be wrong about that.”
Hearing this, Roy’s expression became more serious. He had no reason to doubt Shiki’s words.
In the original story, Kaido had sensed that Roronoa Zoro possessed Haoshoku Haki during the battle on Onigashima, even though Zoro himself had neither realized nor displayed it clearly.
So naturally… Roy was moved.
Ever since realizing that the Twelve Zodiacs had been targeted by the World Government and that Imu’s vigilance towards them far exceeded his expectations, Roy had been thinking about how to deal with Imu in the future.
Or, at the very least, how to face the God’s Knights.
Haoshoku Haki was the only known method capable of dealing with them so far.
So now… Shiki’s words mattered immensely to him. So much so that he didn’t even bother asking the question he originally intended.
What Roy didn’t expect, however, was that before he could even speak…
“Impressive!”
Shiki, forcing himself to hold on, spoke first: “Brat, I know what you want to ask. Haoshoku Haki… is the ‘spirit of the soul.’ It is not bound by the rules of the world. It is the will of kings who follow only their own rules, a form of absolute free will that can never be taken by others. Every wielder of Haoshoku Haki… is the king of their own ‘world.’”
At this point, he began to breathe heavily.
“But among all kings… only one becomes the true king. He must step over the corpses of other kings to ascend the throne.”
As he spoke, memories surfaced… Of his old rival Gol D. Roger, and an even earlier man…
Rocks D. Xebec.
They had each grown step by step in their own eras, overcoming other kings again and again.
Only then could they stand at the very peak of the world, possessing the strongest Haoshoku.
“If you want to quickly grasp Haoshoku Haki, find other powerful users of it. Use your soul to feel their ‘will.’ If your will doesn’t break under their dominance… You will awaken Haoshoku. The stronger the user you face, the better the result.”
After saying this, he shut his mouth in pain but even without him saying more… Roy understood.
This method might allow rapid awakening of Haoshoku Haki—
But, to seek out powerful Haoshoku users, not to fight them physically, but to clash purely in will and spirit was extremely dangerous.
“In the original story… Monkey D. Luffy training Haoshoku under Silvers Rayleigh… maybe they used this method too?”
Roy thought to himself.
But clearly… Shiki no longer cared about Roy’s thoughts. He was gasping heavily, his chest rising and falling like a broken bellows.
Yet, he was smiling.
Because he knew that without awakening Haoshoku, without Conqueror’s Haki infusion, Roy had already become this strong.
If that were the case…
“Black Kirin brat… I acknowledge you.”
As those words fell, he laughed freely.
“You will become a legend of the seas.”
For the ending he had chosen, he was satisfied.
And so, his breathing slowly stopped.
“Hey, wait!” Seeing this, Roy quickly asked: “About Rocks D. Xebec, do you know if he survived after God Valley Incident? Do you know what happened to him?”
“Rocks…”
But clearly, Shiki could no longer answer. Hearing that name, he merely murmured instinctively…
“…what kind of ending… did you choose…?”
The murmur faded… Into silence.
(End of Chapter)
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