Liam's mass of black hair condensed into a giant hand, seized the Lion Wei Qu's head, yanked him close, then delivered a single, thunderous slap.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Wei Qu was sent reeling, his head ringing violently from the blow. He staggered backward in a dizzy daze, the world spinning wildly, before he tumbled and rolled several times. Finally, he slammed into a thick wall with a heavy bang, stars bursting before his eyes.
The bald middle-aged man watched, stunned. The lion-man he had thought was a monster just moments ago was utterly helpless before Giorno!
So this is the power of a pirate with a 400 million Berry bounty…?
No, Stiel's heart trembled. This Chopper-na Giorno's true strength... it far surpasses his bounty! For someone who could chase the Sand Crocodile across the skies, that can't have been a coincidence!
Gance, panting heavily, raised both hands, which morphed into barrel-sized cannons aimed squarely at Liam's back.
But before he could fire, two figures suddenly WHOOSH, teleported into view before him.
Ross spread her arms, blocking the cannons' mouths. "Gance! Don't do it!" she shouted.
"Kujou Jolyne!"
Both Stiel and the bald merchant locked eyes on the tall woman standing beside Ross. Their faces turned grim in unison, just as expected, two ridiculously troublesome people had decided to meddle.
Robin's gaze flicked toward them, and the bald man immediately broke into a cold sweat. Stiel's pupils contracted; he quietly took a half-step back.
"Who are you?" Gance asked, his twin arm-cannons trained on Ross, confusion clouding his tone. "How do you know my name?"
"Don't do this anymore…" Ross shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "This isn't the real you, Gance! Your heart… it's been corrupted…"
"I don't understand what you're talking about!" Gance roared, the cannons on his arms flaring with fire aimed at Ross and Robin... The explosion of cannon fire filled the vault, scattering money and fragments of gold like a sudden, metallic storm.
Wei Qu let out a furious howl and charged straight toward Liam.
But Liam didn't move an inch. His black hair billowed out before him, forming what looked like a solid wall of darkness. Wei Qu's fist crashed into it, and it was like striking an iron girder.
"You're using Tekkai with your hair?!" Wei Qu shouted in shock.
No matter how many blows he threw, he couldn't so much as dent Liam's hair-wall. Instead, that same hair began to surge and grow like something alive, twisting into thick, long arms that coiled around Wei Qu, binding him tight and lifting him up into the air before Liam.
Wei Qu's face twisted in utter disbelief. "Giorno! Just how deep has your mastery of Life Return gone?!"
Liam didn't answer, he simply sent a rapid barrage of punches through his hair.
Wei Qu coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, crashing hard to the floor. He struggled to rise, spun, and kicked out a razor-sharp Rankyaku (Tempest Kick).
Liam offered a faint smile.
A cluster of his black hair formed a black blade, which cleaved downward in front of him.
Bang!
A wave of cutting force spiraled out from Liam's hair-forged sword, meeting Wei Qu's Rankyaku head-on, and slicing it apart in midair!
"To use hair for Tekkai… and even Rankyaku…" Wei Qu's expression was filled with stunned awe. "Such a thing… shouldn't even be possible…"
Under the hail of Gance's gunfire, Robin moved with impossible grace, shielding Ross without suffering even a scratch.
From across the room, Stiel barked, "Don't be stupid! That woman is Giorno's captain! You think someone like you could even scratch her?! Use your strongest attack, now!"
You're the stupid one! the bald man thought, his only wish being to get as far away from this cursed place as possible. What kind of rotten luck is this, running into two monster pirates here in Paradise?!
Gance's face darkened. He stepped back, his wounded subordinates struggling to their feet to shield him. Then his entire upper body morphed into a massive cannon, as wide as a water tank, and he bent forward, aiming it squarely at Robin and Ross.
Robin's expression hardened as she raised her hand toward the half-man, half-cannon Gance.
Meanwhile, Liam's wild black hair kept Wei Qu tightly bound. Two of the hair-formed arms pointed directly at Wei Qu's chest and abdomen... Wei Qu froze, instantly recognizing the pose. That stance, it was that move…!
B-B-BANG!!!
An overwhelming burst of power erupted from the twin fists formed by Liam's black hair.
Wei Qu's eyes went bloodshot, screaming, "No, don't... !"
He never finished the word.
Before the final syllable left his lips, his body vanished from before Liam... Blasted away by the Life Return: Rokuōgan (Six King Gun), Wei Qu's body spun through the air like a raging dragon, tearing through the chamber in a spiraling whirlwind. He smashed through Gance's black-suited men and several unconscious Marines, rolling them up into a massive ball of bodies that burst through the main doors with a thunderous crash!
The whirlwind of bodies tore through the room like blades, slashing wildly.
Robin instinctively pulled Ross behind Liam, shielding her from the shrapnel.
Stiel cursed under his breath, his expression twisting in fury.
In desperation, he grabbed the bald middle-aged man and ruthlessly dragged him in front as a human shield... The explosive power unleashed through Liam's Life Return technique, the move known as Rokuōgan, was, of course, a recognized technique.
But Liam wasn't the type who cared to give a fancy title to every attack he used.
In his view, most techniques, though differing in form, shared the same essence. For example, the Six Powers (Rokushiki), Soru, Rankyaku, Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, were all, at their core, methods of manipulating Life Energy, channeling it into the body to produce powerful physical bursts. Different names, same principle.
And what people called Rokuōgan was simply the natural culmination of uniting all those skills into a single, complete manifestation of that mastery.
The shockwave's aftereffect alone had drenched the bald, fat merchant in blood.
Liam grabbed the merchant by the collar with one hand. Under his boot lay Gance, still coughing up blood after being smashed aside by Wei Qu's earlier collision.
Hearing noise outside the vault doors, Liam lifted his head and saw several familiar figures standing there.
Among them were Fukuro, Blueno, and Jabra, all of whom he'd toyed with once before.
But the most eye-catching presence was the man standing at their center, his body half-human, half-leopard, exuding a wild and utterly oppressive aura: Rob Lucci.
"Hm? What's this, little cats and dogs come to play again?" Liam quipped casually.
"...Rokuōgan," Lucci said in a grave tone, his feline eyes narrowing.
Wei Qu, still spitting blood and now supported by Jabra, spoke weakly, "He used his hair… to perform Rokuōgan… Lucci… we're not his match…"
"What did you just say?!" The wolfman and his companions blinked in disbelief. "Hair?!"
"With his level of Life Return, it makes no difference," Wei Qu murmured faintly, before coughing up another mouthful of blood. "Hair, muscle, bone, it's all part of the same body… part of his life itself. There's no distinction… That's probably what a true immortal looks like…"
"Little cats, little dogs…" Liam said with a faint grin, casually tossing the bald merchant aside. His black eyes shifted toward Stiel, the man who had just moments ago used that same merchant as a human shield.
"As for you…"
Liam's figure blurred, vanishing, as he lunged toward the pale-faced Stiel.
"Don't you dare touch him!"
Lucci's roar split the air as his leopard shadow flashed forward, intercepting Liam's charge.
Boom!
Lucci's muscular arms crossed before him, his feline claws digging into the floor to anchor himself. Even so, the impact of Liam's punch drove him backward several meters, gouging deep cracks into the stone ground before he managed to halt his slide.
"This guy…" Lucci's golden beast eyes narrowed. "You're not someone I'll let lay a finger on him."
Liam smirked. "Then maybe take a look behind you, tell me if you're really helping the right person."
"Lucci! Watch out!" "Behind you!" Blueno and the others shouted in alarm.
Lucci's pupils contracted sharply, he spun around... And what greeted his eyes was the gaping barrel of a massive cannon.
Stiel's face was twisted with pure malice, his chest splitting open to reveal the huge artillery barrel that had extended from within.
With a thunderous BOOM, the cannon fired... And the royal vault erupted in a towering bloom of fire and light.
(End Of This Chapter)
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