"Eight Gates Release, Eighth Gate, open!"
The shout coming from within the explosion made everyone's expressions change.
Just from the voice alone, they could tell that the previous attack hadn't caused Rosinante any real damage.
"The Eighth Gate of the Eight Gates Release? Then does that mean...?" Sengoku felt a bad premonition rise in his heart.
Rosinante coming out unharmed didn't actually surprise him.
Ten years ago, he had already learned that attacks on this level weren't enough to truly injure Rosinante.
What truly shocked him was the Eight Gates itself.
If it was called the Eight Gates, then naturally each gate had to be stronger than the last.
He had already opened the Seventh Gate just now.
Now he was opening the Eighth.
That absolutely could not be something ordinary.
"It seems Rosinante didn't go all out just now. Or rather... even for him, this Eighth Gate probably isn't something he can casually open whenever he wants," Garp said.
"That only makes things worse," Sengoku said gravely.
At that moment, the smoke from the explosion slowly began to clear.
At the location where Kizaru had struck, an even larger crater had appeared.
And standing in the middle of that crater was a single man.
A man whose entire body was giving off blood-red steam.
Rosinante slowly raised his head.
At this moment, veins bulged across his forehead.
Even with his monstrous physique, the terrifying power erupting from within him was so overwhelming that it caused his body to strain to the limit.
The Eight Gates Formation was the ultimate secret of the Eight Gates Release.
The first seven gates merely removed the body's limits on chakra, stimulating it and drawing out the body's hidden potential.
But the Eighth Gate...
burned away life itself.
It consumed the body's entire life force in a short period of time, forcibly extracting dozens of times more power than normal.
"Be careful. This power is no joke," Sengoku warned everyone.
In truth, he didn't even need to say it.
The pressure pouring off Rosinante was visible to the naked eye.
Even without Observation Haki, anyone could feel how terrifying he had become.
"To be honest, even I rarely use the Eight Gates Formation. After all... if an ordinary person used this move, there would only be one outcome. Death. But the power gained at the cost of death... even I have to admit, it's terrifying," Rosinante said calmly.
Hearing Rosinante say that, everyone present fell silent, their expressions turning even more serious.
Clearly, the pressure Rosinante was giving off now was immense.
"Then let this old man test this power bought at the cost of death," Fujitora said, stepping forward first.
He slowly drew the sword hidden inside his cane.
As Fujitora's blade was unsheathed, a tremendously powerful gravitational force descended onto Rosinante.
"Oh? Gravity? Using gravity against me is not a very wise idea. I'm actually quite familiar with gravity and attraction," Rosinante said calmly.
With a casual wave of his hand, he directly erased the force of gravity.
"As expected... what a troublesome ability," Fujitora said.
"Gravity Blade: Fierce Tiger!"
An immensely powerful force of gravity gathered on Fujitora's blade, and then he swung it down violently.
The moment that slash came out, the very air twisted.
Gravity itself carried the slash as it came crashing toward Rosinante.
"Impressive. The Navy really did gain a fine talent," Rosinante said, slightly surprised as he looked at the distorted air around him.
Even as he spoke, Fujitora's gravity-infused slash, carrying an unimaginable weight, had already reached him.
Facing that gravity blade, so heavy it seemed to twist not just the atmosphere but even space itself, Rosinante simply swept his hand again.
Bang!
In an instant, with that single motion, the slash, the gravity, and even the distortion itself all vanished.
Everything disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, the winds calmed.
The skies cleared.
Everything returned to peace.
Even though Fujitora couldn't see it, he could feel it clearly.
His ultimate move had been brushed away like dust.
His expression changed dramatically.
Though he already knew Rosinante possessed the ability to erase all forms of power, even gravity and attraction, seeing his own strongest technique erased so casually still filled him with a deep sense of frustration and helplessness.
"Now then... my turn," Rosinante said as he slowly raised his fist.
The moment they saw him raise that fist, everyone's expressions tightened, all staring at him warily.
Then Rosinante stepped forward.
In a flash, he appeared not far in front of Fujitora, Sengoku, and the others.
"Evening Elephant - First Step!"
Rosinante threw a punch.
With that single punch, a massive air cannon instantly struck Sengoku, Garp, Fujitora, Momousagi, and Chaton.
Those five were standing relatively close together, so the enormous air blast covered all of them at once.
Sengoku and the others instantly felt an overwhelmingly powerful impact pressing down on them, so heavy they couldn't even move.
"Second Step!"
Rosinante flashed to another position in an instant and punched again.
A second massive air cannon crashed into the first from a different direction.
The two blasts collided and overlapped, and the center of that collision was exactly where Sengoku, Garp, and the others stood.
Two crushing forces pressed in from different directions, making them feel as if their bodies were being torn apart.
"Third Step!"
A third air cannon came crashing in.
What had been two intersecting forces became three.
Three overwhelming impacts struck from three different angles, and even Sengoku and the others were beginning to struggle under it.
"What terrifying power..." Redfield said with a grin, even as Sengoku was forcing him steadily backward in their fight.
Sengoku also saw what was happening over there, and his face darkened.
Unfortunately, he still had to deal with Redfield.
Even though Redfield's strength had declined greatly, he had once been one of the absolute greatest hand-to-hand combat masters in the world.
Even Sengoku couldn't simply take him down whenever he wanted.
"My body won't move!" Chaton said, desperately trying to resist the impacts from three directions.
But the force was too overwhelming.
His body couldn't move at all, much less fight back.
All he could do was rely on his physical toughness to endure it.
"This can't continue! We're too passive like this! Garp!" Sengoku shouted.
"Got it!" Garp roared back.
As expected of Garp.
He forcibly endured the immense crushing force from three directions, twisted his body, and threw a punch, blocking one of the air cannons.
At the same time, Sengoku struck out with a palm toward another direction.
The shockwave from his Buddha form blasted out and blocked another air cannon.
"I'll take the last one!" Fujitora said as he slashed with his sword.
A wave of gravity swept out horizontally, stopping the final air cannon.
"What horrifying power..." Momousagi said, finally gasping for breath after the air cannons were blocked.
"Oh? You blocked Evening Elephant?" Rosinante said with a faint smile.
He did not continue attacking.
The true strength of Evening Elephant was that by launching attacks at high speed, the air cannons would stack and collide at a single point, creating crushing and tearing forces from multiple angles.
If the enemy had no way to resist, the force would continue piling up endlessly.
At that point, they would be trapped in a constant barrage, only able to take the beating.
Even a Six Paths-level fighter would have trouble coming out unharmed if all five attacks landed at once.
But since Sengoku and the others had managed to block it, Rosinante didn't continue.
Because that would only waste energy.
"Huff... huff... Rosinante!" Sengoku and the others were all breathing heavily now that the air cannons had finally vanished.
"It's about time I gave you all the final blow," Rosinante said calmly.
"Don't think I'll let you!" Borsalino suddenly shouted as he shot toward Rosinante once again.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted once more at Rosinante's location.
Violent photons raged in all directions, sweeping everything nearby into the blast.
But then, from within the explosion, Rosinante's voice rang out:
"Gather!"
A massive surge of blood-red steam exploded outward, tearing apart the photon blast itself.
And from within it appeared Rosinante, his entire body wrapped in a monstrous torrent of crimson steam.
...