No roar, no bellow.
Shanks suddenly stopped all movement.
He held the hilt of gryphon firmly with both hands, his movements extremely simple, as if he were just performing the most ordinary sword-raising posture.
The blade was held level, and the tip pointed straight, without the slightest deviation, at the very center of Satan Saint's massive spider body—
There, beneath the hard dark purple carapace, one could vaguely sense an energy core, located approximately where a human heart would be, beating violently and chaotically!
That was perhaps the last symbol of his 'human' essence that remained in Satan Saint's 'Gyuki' form, and one of the most important hubs linking him to the rules of the 'Empty Throne'!
Man and sword as one, will as the blade!
Shanks' entire existence—flesh, Haki, soul, will, belief—at this moment, seemed to be condensed and compressed onto that single point of cold light!
And then—
"Puchi——!!!!!!"
A terrifying sound, so dull it seemed to resound directly in the depths of the soul, yet so clear that everyone on the battlefield could hear it distinctly, suddenly exploded!
It was the mixed sound emitted when the incomparably sharp blade pierced through the tough ancient carapace, the twisted demonic flesh, and a certain intangible yet real barrier of rules!
It shocked the entire scene!
Under the gaze of everyone—whether it was the Gorosei, the God's Knights, the Revolutionary Army, or the powerhouses of the Divine Kingdom on the battlefield, or the beings of the world watching from afar through video Den Den Mushi—whose eyes were filled with disbelief, almost to the point of splitting their sockets...
Shanks' figure and that streak of dark red sword light, which was condensed to the extreme, seemed to simultaneously pierce through the flow of time and the distance of space, abruptly yet naturally coming to a halt less than a meter in front of Satan Saint's mountain-like spider body!
Time seemed to have truly frozen at this moment.
The scene, frozen.
Shanks maintained his posture of thrusting forward with the blade held level, the hem of his red coat slightly raised by inertia, frozen in the air.
And the gryphon he held tightly in his hand...
The blade, wrapped in the ultimate Conqueror's Haki that was as solid and pulsating as dark red lava...
Had already deeply, without any obstruction...
Pierced into Satan Saint's massive spider body, which was covered in a dark purple carapace!
With absolute precision...
Pierced through the one beneath the carapace that was beating frantically, chaotically, and desperately...
Belonging to the 'Warrior God of Science and Defense, Jaygarcia Saturn Saint'—
Heart!
That one, which had perhaps been beating for eight hundred years, carrying supreme authority, the legend of immortality, and endless sins...
The heart of a 'God'!
The depth of the blade's penetration was just right—it pierced through the heart but did not come out the other side, as if every ounce of power had been calculated to pour all destruction and will into that heart!
The dark red Haki light flowed silently along the blade, soaking deep into Satan Saint's body...
Satan Saint's massive body froze completely.
All the frantically dancing legs solidified in mid-air.
The light in all his compound eyes suddenly became unfocused and dull.
Time...
Has it really frozen?
Dead silence.
A dead silence even more thorough, heavier, and more absolute—one that made souls feel frozen and unable to breathe—than the one brought about when all the Gorosei descended and oppressed the world earlier,
Like an invisible, spreading domain of ice, it instantly enveloped the entire battlefield and, through the video Den Den Mushi, spread to every corner of the world where people were watching the live broadcast.
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