After bidding farewell to Erza, Rowan immediately began taking action.
First, he used Card Magic to divine the Black Dragon's location. Then, using farsight magic, he searched the area indicated by the divination.
Although the Black Dragon Acnologia was immune to magic, that did not mean magic could not be used to locate him.
Rowan could still use divination magic to determine his whereabouts.
Before long, Rowan found the Black Dragon.
Through farsight magic, he discovered that the creature was currently sleeping soundly among a range of mountains.
After locking onto Acnologia's location, Rowan raised his hand and pushed, opening an air door.
The next instant, he stepped through it and appeared directly before the Black Dragon Acnologia.
When he had observed the dragon through farsight magic, Rowan had already noticed how enormous it was.
But now that he was truly standing before it, he realised that Acnologia was far larger than he had imagined.
Looking upward, the Black Dragon's massive body resembled a small mountain. Its scales emitted a dim metallic sheen beneath the thin sunlight.
Every breath it took carried destructive waves of magical power, distorting the surrounding air and causing even space itself to tremble faintly.
No wonder no one had managed to subjugate this creature after several hundred years.
It was simply far too powerful.
Because the Door-Door Fruit was not magic, Rowan had emitted no magical fluctuations when he appeared before Acnologia.
Naturally, he did not awaken the sleeping dragon.
At this moment, Rowan only needed to use the Soul-Soul Fruit to erase Acnologia's soul.
However, he did not do so.
Since he had already come all this way, he naturally wanted to see just how ridiculous the Black Dragon's strength truly was.
Thus, Rowan slowly raised his right hand, and a faint layer of light appeared around it.
This was the power of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
"Eat shit, Acnologia!"
Rowan roared and threw a punch.
His fist struck empty air as though slamming into an invisible sheet of glass.
With his fist as the centre, the atmosphere abruptly cracked. Countless spiderweb-like fractures spread in every direction, and wherever they passed, space itself released a groan as though it could no longer bear the pressure.
The power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit erupted and slammed into the Black Dragon's enormous body, instantly shattering the ground within several hundred metres around it.
Amid the deafening explosion, the entire mountain shook violently and fragments of stone flew everywhere.
The Black Dragon's massive body was pushed backward by the force, sliding several dozen metres and carving a deep trench through the earth.
At the same time, the sleeping dragon was completely awakened.
Rowan stared at the Black Dragon in surprise.
He had originally believed that this punch would at least send Acnologia flying.
Yet the creature had not even left the ground.
It had merely slid backward several dozen metres.
Its defensive power was simply unbelievable.
Meanwhile, the Black Dragon had been sleeping comfortably when it suddenly felt someone strike it with an incredibly powerful punch.
Although the attack had not truly injured it, the terrifying force still caused it to roar involuntarily.
Because that punch genuinely hurt.
But even stronger than the pain was the fury of being provoked.
The awakened Black Dragon instantly locked onto Rowan. It opened its enormous jaws as a devastating magical breath rapidly gathered within its mouth.
A black pillar of light carrying the aura of total annihilation shot toward Rowan.
It possessed enough destructive power to erase an entire city. Wherever the breath passed, the air broke apart, light was devoured, and even space itself developed tiny cracks.
Seeing this, Rowan's body suddenly erupted with dazzling golden light.
The Glint-Glint Fruit.
In less than a thousandth of a second, his body transformed into a streak of light. He escaped the range of the black breath and appeared directly above the Black Dragon's head.
"Hey, have you ever been kicked at the speed of light?"
Rowan looked down at Acnologia.
He raised his right leg high into the air as golden radiance gathered at its tip, forming a sharp blade of light.
A light-speed kick—
No, it should be called a light-speed slash.
His leg descended, and a golden arc tore through the sky before striking the Black Dragon's neck.
Its scales exploded, and black dragon blood sprayed outward.
Acnologia immediately released a heaven-shaking roar of rage.
Ever since he had ended the age of dragons, this was the first time anyone had injured him.
His fury erupted like a volcano.
His enormous tail swept toward Rowan like a mountain peak.
Its speed exceeded all common sense, and the air dragged along by the tail formed a devastating storm.
"That's more like it!"
Rowan laughed loudly.
White light appeared around both his fists as two tremor forces overlapped, allowing him to confront the sweeping dragon tail head-on.
Boom!!!
Amid the deafening collision, space shattered inch by inch.
Large portions of scales exploded from the dragon's tail, and Acnologia's enormous body was actually overturned by the reflected force.
It crashed heavily into the mountain, causing the entire peak to sink several metres.
But Rowan did not come away unscathed either.
The bones in his arms released faint cracking sounds, and the flesh between his thumbs and index fingers split open. Blood dripped between his fingers.
But it did not matter.
Rowan used the Reverse Cursed Technique and healed himself instantly.
The Black Dragon rolled over and rose to its feet.
For the first time, genuine killing intent appeared within its vertical pupils.
It opened its enormous mouth, and magical power gathered wildly in its throat.
This breath was more than ten times stronger than the previous one.
Black magical power formed a gigantic vortex, swallowing all the magic within several thousand metres and transforming it into pure destructive energy.
Black Dragon's Roar!
Blue-white energy poured outward.
This time, the range was so enormous that it was impossible to evade.
It seemed intent on destroying Rowan along with the entire mountain.
Rowan smiled faintly and switched Devil Fruit abilities once again.
Dark-Dark Fruit—
Black Star!
In an instant, darkness spread outward from his body, forming a pitch-black void before him.
The Black Dragon's destructive breath crashed into the darkness like a clay ox entering the sea, vanishing without a sound.
The power of the Dark-Dark Fruit could absorb all attacks and return everything to nothingness.
It was absolute gravity from which even the power of a dragon could not escape.
A direct attack like the Black Dragon's Roar posed the least threat to Rowan.
After swallowing the roar, Rowan kicked off the ground and transformed into a streak of light, instantly rushing in front of Acnologia.
The next second, Rowan grew incomparably enormous.
This was Makarov's Giant Magic.
Rowan's body expanded until he was nearly as large as Acnologia.
At the same time, his physical strength increased tremendously.
The most remarkable aspect of Giant Magic was that it could alter both body size and strength parameters.
The greater the increase in size, the greater the rise in physical power.
In the original story, Makarov had even used Giant Magic to wrestle against Acnologia.
Naturally, Rowan could do the same.
However, Rowan had not used Giant Magic to wrestle with the Black Dragon.
It was so he could unleash the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Just how outrageous would the Tremor-Tremor Fruit become when wielded by a giant several hundred metres tall who possessed tremendous strength?
Simply put—
it could destroy heaven and earth.
Bang!
The instant Rowan's fist landed, space completely shattered.
A black void with a diameter of one hundred metres abruptly appeared around the point of impact.
The scales covering the Black Dragon's chest exploded completely. The sound of its ribs breaking could be clearly heard, and black dragon blood poured down like a waterfall.
Acnologia released the most agonised roar he had ever made.
Rowan laughed loudly and delivered several more punches.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every punch unleashed the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
Even the Black Dragon Acnologia was beaten senseless.
Its supposedly indestructible scales shattered beneath Rowan's fists, while blood erupted like fountains.
"You bastard! How dare you—"
At that moment, the Black Dragon finally spoke.
This dragon had lived for hundreds of years and had never cared enough to communicate with humans.
But after being beaten into a daze by Rowan, it finally opened its mouth.
However, Rowan immediately struck it twice more.
Bang! Bang!
He had no intention of chatting with this dragon.
"Shut your mouth."
After beating the so-called Dragon of the Apocalypse until it was completely disoriented, Rowan decisively activated the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit.
He intended to end the battle.
It was not that he was unwilling to continue fighting.
Giant Magic simply consumed far too much magical power.
The larger the body became, the more terrifying the energy consumption.
If Rowan did not possess the Golden Gate within his body, allowing him to absorb magical energy from the atmosphere, he would never have been able to maintain this form for so long.
It was time to end the fight.
In an instant, Rowan grabbed the Black Dragon by the neck and pulled with all his strength.
"Get—
out here!"
With Rowan's furious roar, he violently yanked backward.
The translucent figure of a dark-skinned man was forcibly torn from the Black Dragon's body.
It was Acnologia's soul.
Like Irene, Acnologia had never originally been a dragon.
He had once been human.
More than four hundred years ago, Acnologia had been a healer who practised medical magic in a hidden region.
At the time, dragons ruled the world. Human lives had no protection, and people could be devoured by dragons at any moment.
However, the humans living within that hidden region had maintained a harmonious relationship with dragons.
One dragon even served as the region's guardian deity.
After his homeland was destroyed by a dragon, the healer began teaching himself Dragon Slayer Magic for the sake of revenge.
He eventually took the name of his hated enemy—
Acnologia.
After killing enormous numbers of dragons, scales began growing across his skin, his teeth transformed into fangs, and his body gradually became the Black Dragon Acnologia known today.
The instant his soul left his body, the Black Dragon's enormous form crashed to the ground.
The light rapidly faded from its dark golden vertical pupils.
It became nothing more than an empty shell—
a body without a soul.
As for Acnologia's human soul, Rowan devoured it.
Before Acnologia could even leave any final words, Rowan threw his soul to the God of Death and allowed it to be gradually digested.
And thus, the man who had once ended the age of dragons was brought to an end by Rowan.