"Then tell me," Silver Snake said calmly, his voice cutting through the air,
"how exactly can I kill you completely?"
The question was so abrupt that anyone else present would have been stunned into silence.
An Admiral asking his enemy how to kill them was madness by any standard.
Disaster stared at Silver Snake with sunken, lifeless eyes. His shriveled face twisted as a hoarse, grating laugh escaped his throat.
"Blasphemer," he croaked. "You will perish beneath the gaze of God. Disaster will cling to you until you have nowhere left to flee. You dared to destroy the statue of God, so divine punishment will erase you completely. You will never be reborn."
Never to be reborn.
Silver Snake's pupils narrowed slightly.
Only God can completely kill him?
The hidden meaning surfaced instantly in his mind.
He cannot answer directly. Is it because he is being watched?
And this so-called God…
Does it refer to those two creator statues?
"Never to be reborn…" Silver Snake murmured.
Suddenly, realization struck.
So anything infused with the aura of that so-called God can kill him.
"Tch!"
Silver Snake clicked his tongue in frustration, glancing down at his empty hands.
"I left them behind."
The golden wristguards, melted down from the creator statue itself, were not with him.
He had removed them while resting and placed them in a drawer. When the Den Den Mushi dragged him awake, his focus had been entirely on locating Fujitora. He never thought those wristguards would become the only key to resolving this situation.
An improvised decision had turned into a fatal oversight.
"Good," Silver Snake snarled, looking straight at Disaster. "Then you can wait."
Without caring whether Disaster understood, Silver Snake's body erupted into silver-white lightning and shot skyward like a thunderbolt.
"If you dare," his voice thundered across the air, "follow me!"
Rumble rumble!!!!
The heavens roared.
Disaster activated again.
Disaster, Lost.
The sky instantly darkened as grotesque black clouds swallowed the region whole. Darkness pressed down so thick that even one's own hand vanished from sight.
Violent currents tore through sea and sky alike, trapping everything within an inescapable domain.
Zzzzt!!!
Silver lightning flashed wildly, briefly illuminating the darkness before being swallowed again.
"Child's play!"
Silver Snake's voice boomed like thunder.
"Silver Snake, Electric Fire Thunder Sun!"
Boom!!!!
A massive thunderball ignited in the sky, blazing with scorching power. In an instant, it expanded into a radiant sphere, its brilliance rivaling the sun itself.
The darkness was torn apart.
The black clouds recoiled as the world turned blindingly bright. Violent currents weakened, then collapsed entirely under the relentless, high-temperature electrical surge.
Crack! Crack!
Silver Snake identified his trajectory through the electromagnetic field, then vanished once more into lightning, streaking toward his warship in the distance.
"Blasphemer," Disaster rasped, his hollow gaze tracking the lightning tearing through the clouds. "You cannot escape."
His lips twitched.
"Servants of the plague," he murmured, "answer the King."
Far below, a massive vulture cried out from within a pit. A minor wound on its leg rapidly festered, spreading rot through its entire body until flesh dissolved into pus.
For beasts, injury was Disaster itself.
And Disaster magnified it.
The vulture staggered forward, feathers swollen and decayed. Disaster stepped onto its back as it flapped its ruined wings, lifting into the sky in agony.
"You cannot escape," Disaster whispered again.
Do not disappoint me.
Comrade Blasphemer.
Disaster, Fall.
"Damn it!"
Silver Snake cursed as his body lurched downward. A distorted magnetic field from the sea below dragged him toward the water at terrifying speed.
He reacted instantly, wrenching himself upward just in time to avoid plunging into the ocean.
"There's no room for carelessness at all!"
Silver Snake forced himself higher into the clouds, lightning crackling violently around him.
"No wonder that unkillable freak said avoiding one Disaster means nothing when the next one follows immediately!"
This ability was truly monstrous.
In less than three minutes, Silver Snake had already endured five consecutive Disaster events.
Disaster, Falling Object.
Disaster, Hurricane.
Disaster, Sea Beast.
Disaster, Cannonball.
Disaster, Fall.
The intervals were absurdly short, some chaining directly into one another.
A hurricane surged toward him. Within it, a colossal sea beast burst forth, jaws wide. As Silver Snake dodged, a pirate ship was revealed lodged inside its mouth.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The pirates fired cannonballs desperately, trying to escape, but the shots flew directly toward Silver Snake instead.
Fortunately, his lightning form ignored the explosions entirely.
"If this keeps going," Silver Snake muttered grimly, "even someone like Fujitora and I could die under this chain of Disasters."
His concern deepened.
Fujitora had been afflicted far longer.
If even one Disaster exploited a weakness the blind Admiral could not counter…
Zzzzt!!!!
Silver Snake accelerated even further, lightning tearing through the clouds as he surged ahead.
"Blind man, hold on," he growled. "I'll get that gold infused with the creator's aura and end this."
On an uninhabited island.
Fujitora sat heavily atop a boulder, clothes torn, staff-sword planted beside him. His breathing was ragged.
"Pfft!"
He spat a mouthful of thick purple blood onto the ground.
Sizzle. Sizzle.
The stone hissed and melted where it landed.
"A terrifying ability," Fujitora murmured.
His eyes opened slowly, their whites stained a deep, unhealthy violet.
"This old man never imagined," he said quietly, "that even rain could carry such lethal poison."
Disaster, Poison Cloud.
Far above the White Sea.
"Move faster! Secure the contaminated liquid into barrels immediately!"
A Marine warship sailed steadily across the fixed White Sea, clouds venting beneath it.
Marines rushed frantically, fastening sealed barrels marked with poison symbols inside the hull.
"I hope none of the leaked toxin reaches civilians," one Marine muttered.
At the stern stood a towering figure clad in black armor. A dragon-shaped helmet crowned his head, twin horns curving menacingly.
Admiral Youryuu stood silently, staring at the distant purple-tinged clouds through his helmet's filters.
"A grave mistake," he said quietly.
If any innocent lives were lost due to his toxin, that responsibility would rest entirely on him.
Marine Admiral Youryuu.