Riser's left eye focused again on the exact point where the hand and the sword had disappeared. The red pattern rotated once, precise, and the space before him warped into a compact circle.
VRRROOOM!
The distortion opened.
Shamrock's hand and Cerberus reappeared in the air, as if they had been pulled from an invisible pocket of the world. Blood still dripped from the clean cut, the fingers rigidly remaining closed around the sword's hilt.
Riser extended his hand and grabbed the severed limb.
"Look at you, you were really attached to this sword. Even without the body you're still holding it." He raised the severed hand to the height of his own face, evaluating the strength with which the fingers were still locked around the metal.
Shamrock looked.
His eyes dropped to his own hand being held by Riser like some trivial object. Blood continued to flow from the mutilated arm, forming a thick trail across the cracked stone.
His jaw locked.
Riser grabbed the sword's hilt with his other hand and pulled.
The fingers of the severed hand resisted for a second before giving in to the force.
CRACK!
The tendons tore, and Cerberus was free.
Riser let the hand fall to the ground as if it were trash.
The limb struck the stone and rolled a few centimeters before stopping among the debris.
Shamrock reacted immediately.
Armament Haki concentrated around the stump of his arm, darkening the skin around the wound as he compressed the muscles and sealed the main flow of blood. The torrent slowed to a controlled stream, internal pressure stabilized by brute force.
He straightened.
His body still trembled from the pain, but his posture aligned again. His gaze burned.
"I don't need two hands to finish you." He stepped forward, his foot crushing his own severed hand without even looking down.
Riser spun the sword once, feeling the weight.
"Really?" He tilted his head slightly, as if genuinely entertained.
Around them, the God's Knights watched in rigid silence. Dragon kept his distance, understanding that the center had become an isolated confrontation.
Riser rested Cerberus on his shoulder for a moment, testing the balance of the living blade now silent.
"Then show me."
The ground between the two remained cracked, fissures spreading in irregular lines beneath the pressure of both presences.
Shamrock stayed still.
His remaining arm firm beside his body, the stump darkened by Haki still sealing the wound. He did not advance. He did not retreat.
The previous attack had not touched Riser.
His hand had been severed without him being able to react.
Now he had only one usable arm and an enemy who passed through attacks as if matter did not exist.
Riser tilted his head slightly.
"What's wrong?"
He spun the sword once, the sound of metal cutting through the air echoing across the open space.
"Your words were just cheap bravado."
Shamrock clenched his teeth.
His composure began to crack.
"You think that changes anything?" His voice came out louder than intended. "I am a God's Knight! My lineage has ruled this world for centuries!"
He stepped forward, his foot crushing fragments of marble beneath it.
"You are just a pirate! An invader! A mistake that should have been erased before ever setting foot here!"
His breathing was irregular.
The authority that once came naturally now sounded forced.
Riser let out an open laugh.
"Hahahahah."
The sound echoed between the broken columns.
"You know, Shanks is much better than you."
Shamrock reacted as if he had been struck.
"Do not compare me to that traitor!" His face twisted, his eyes widening for an instant. "He abandoned what we were! He chose to mix with filth!"
Riser adjusted the sword on his shoulder and took half a step forward.
"I'm not comparing, I'm stating it. He's better than you."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Shamrock trembled.
Not from fear alone.
But from something deeper.
The confidence that separated him from the other Celestial Dragons, the belief that his position and title alone were enough to dominate any situation, was beginning to collapse. Without his original sword, without one of his hands, and without the certainty of superiority, he seemed smaller, and for the first time he had no orders to give.
A God's Knight advanced from the rear, his white cape tearing through the air in the abrupt motion.
"Don't speak of Lord Shamrock like that!" He raised his blade and shot forward in a straight line, aiming for Riser from the exposed flank.
Time waited for no one.
Dragon appeared from the side with his fist wrapped in concentrated discharge, the air cracking around his arm.
CRAAASH!
The punch struck the God's Knight's stomach with direct impact, electricity ripping through his torso and launching his body backward like an uncontrolled projectile. He crashed into a broken column and fell without immediate reaction, the air leaving his lungs in a single spasm.
The battlefield did not slow.
Riser was already moving.
He vanished from his previous position and reappeared in front of Shamrock, the Knight's own sword now in his hand, aligned for a direct strike to the center of the chest.
Shamrock reacted instinctively.
Armament Haki spread across his entire body, darkening his skin like living armor as he planted his feet firmly on the ground.
"Tekkai!" The shout came with the contraction of his muscles, hardening every fiber of his body to the absolute limit.
Riser advanced.
The blade passed through Shamrock's torso as if there were no resistance at all.
There was no sound.
There was no visible rupture.
The sword simply passed through.
Shamrock did not feel the cut. He did not feel the defense break. For one entire second, he believed Tekkai and Haki had held the attack.
Then the intangibility ceased.
Riser deactivated the effect at the exact instant the blade was crossing the center of the chest.
THUMP!
The steel became solid inside the God's Knight's chest. The materialization tore flesh, broke ribs, and pierced organs at the same moment the internal impact reverberated like a contained explosion.
Shamrock's eyes widened.
Blood erupted from his chest in an intense arc, hot and thick, spreading across the already broken marble.
"Aaaaaaa!"
The scream tore through the battlefield.
The Haki armor was still active, the skin darkened, the muscles rigid. But there was no defense against something that became solid after already being inside.
Riser kept the sword embedded for one additional second, feeling the internal resistance before pulling it straight back.
The sound of the blade leaving the body was wet.
SHLKK!
Shamrock staggered backward, his remaining arm instinctively trying to press the open wound. Blood escaped between his fingers, impossible to contain through brute force alone.
He dropped to his knees.
His breathing came broken and irregular, air entering and leaving as if his own chest refused to keep functioning. Blood continued to spill steadily, spreading beneath his legs.
Understanding had finally arrived.
It was not Logia.
It was not superior strength.
It was something that ignored the concept of defense.
His gaze slowly lifted to Riser.
For the first time, there was no arrogance.
There was fear.
"Don't look at me like that, you make it seem like I'm the villain." Riser tilted his head slightly while cleaning the blade with a short flick of his wrist, shaking off the excess blood still dripping along the metal.
"Who are you really?" Shamrock forced the words out, his body still kneeling, blood forming an uneven pool around his knees.
"The dead don't need to know about me." Riser adjusted his stance, aligning his feet in front of the God's Knight.
Shamrock tried to raise his remaining arm.
It was slow.
Too late.
Riser advanced a single step, rotating his torso together with the motion of the sword.
SHRRRAAAK!
The blade cut through Shamrock's neck in a clean, precise arc, without hesitation.
The head separated from the body in a straight line.
For one second, the torso remained kneeling.
Blood exploded from the cut in a hot, thick jet.
SPLAAASH!
The head fell and rolled several meters across the broken marble, the eyes still open, the expression frozen between disbelief and terror.
The body toppled forward soon after, collapsing heavily onto its own blood.
Riser remained standing before the corpse.
The sword was still in his hand, angled downward, its edge letting slow drops fall that mixed with the red spreading across the ground. His arm did not tremble. His breathing remained steady.
Around him, the battlefield seemed suspended.
The remaining God's Knights did not advance. Some took a step back instinctively. Others kept their blades raised, but their feet did not obey the impulse to attack.
Dragon watched.
The wind around him had completely ceased. His attention was fixed on the headless body that seconds earlier commanded that front.
Riser tilted his face slightly to the side.
There was no triumph in the gesture.
Only acknowledgment.
A God's Knight had fallen.
Blood continued to run in thin streams through the cracks of the marble, seeping into the fissures opened during the battle.
Riser spun the sword one last time before letting it fall beside the corpse.
The metal struck the ground with a dry sound.
CLANG!
He took half a step forward, passing the body as if it no longer had any use.
The center of the battlefield had changed hands.
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