"If I get hit by you, I'll actually get hurt!"
Facing the King's Fist barreling toward him like a missile, Rosen's eyes locked onto the blow.
Even if it wasn't fully charged, if he were struck by it unguarded— especially one wrapped in high-density Armament Haki— then not even the body he forged through the Rokugan Rebirth (Six-Organ Rebirth) could shrug it off. His health bar would plunge rapidly.
After all, he wasn't a natural monster like Kaido or Big Mom.
Before entering the Naval Academy, he'd been just an ordinary person.
Even if the Rokugan Rebirth (Six-Organ Rebirth) could reconstruct the body and fortify it far beyond normal, a month of Refining wasn't enough to turn an average human into a beast-type physique like those two monsters.
As for using Tekkai (Iron Body)?
Forget it.
That technique is for physical conditioning and discipline. Using it for real defense in high-level combat? It's a guaranteed loss.
And as for using Geppō (Moon Walk) or Rankyaku (Tempest Kick) to dodge—
Too late.
Avalo Pizarro had timed the punch with cruel precision— just as Rosen emerged from the towering inferno. The moment he broke out of the flames, he was already squarely in the punch's path.
Unless he had a teleportation-type fruit like the Glint-Glint Fruit, which lets the user move at the speed of light with a thought, there was simply no time. Even Shave needed motion and execution. He couldn't move fast enough.
"You're done!"
Pizarro roared with laughter. Rosen had nothing left— not even the outer shell of the Blut Vene Anhaben remained. He looked completely open, defenseless.
Pizarro's triumphant cry seemed to release all the frustration and resentment he'd bottled up.
But...
Rosen didn't panic.
He didn't flinch.
Instead, his mouth curled into a subtle, confident smirk.
"Roar · Tenken."
He didn't even lift a finger. He simply murmured the words in his heart.
Crack!
In that instant, a gigantic fissure ripped open through the sky of Infinite Hell, and from within that dimensional tear, a colossal gray-armored arm emerged. It curled its fingers—leaving only the index finger extended.
Then—
BOOM!
As the armored arm flexed, black and red lightning surged to life, wrapping around the finger like a rampaging black dragon. It was pure Conqueror's Haki.
This was Conqueror's Haki Infused Armament, the highest level Conqueror's Imbuement.
Immediately, the gray-armored finger dropped like a meteor, cutting down through the layers of air with a sound like thunder.
Its momentum didn't just break the sky— it compressed the air around it so heavily that it became thick like syrup, rippling with vibrating pressure.
"What the hell is that?!"
Avalo Pizarro, still holding the punch that was supposed to finish Rosen, now felt a suffocating weight descending upon him.
The black-armored arm hadn't even made contact, and yet the pressure it exuded from above was crushing his spirit.
His eyes widened.
But—
"It doesn't matter!"
He didn't need Observation Haki to know that death loomed above.
But he had already committed. His King's Fist had been launched. He couldn't pull it back.
The arrow had left the bow.
So he did the only thing he could.
Bet everything— hope he could land the punch first.
And to his credit, Pizarro's punch was indeed faster than Rosen's last-minute summoning of the black-armored arm.
But he'd forgotten one thing.
The Conqueror's Haki Infusion— can strike from a distance.
Even without physical contact.
If the user is skilled enough, the sheer willpower can obliterate from meters away.
The armored arm? It was just the medium.
The attack— was already happening.
"Tenken · Shigan (Finger Gun)!"
Just as Pizarro's fist came within a palm's width of Rosen's chest, a piercing burst of force erupted from above.
Sssshhhhkkk!
The black-armored index finger hadn't touched him yet.
But the shockwave, infused with Conqueror's willpower, smashed through the air, laced with black lightning, and exploded like a cannon into Pizarro's skull.
"AAARRRGGHH!!"
To Pizarro, it was like a celestial hammer crashing down from heaven, cleaving his soul from his body.
He froze in place.
His fist, just a hair away from Rosen's face, was now suspended— frozen in time.
It was so close.
So close.
But the distance of a single breath had become a gap wider than worlds.
He was crushed.
By one finger.
The force slammed his body downward, caving in the ground beneath his feet. Maintaining his King's Fist stance, Pizarro was driven into the rock like a human nail.
BOOOOM!
When the black-armored finger finally landed, it shattered the surface.
Then, as though a sealed beast had been unleashed, black lightning surged from below, spiraling up like a writhing serpent, letting loose an immense pressure that swept across the entirety of Level 6.
The air howled.
The prison rumbled.
And Pizarro's form vanished beneath the crushed stone.
After a few long seconds—
The smoke and debris cleared.
The Conqueror's Haki lightning crackled once more, then faded, leaving only residual black-red arcs dancing in the air.
The gray-armored arm, forged from Rosen's Arms-Arms Fruit, completed its work.
It had appeared.
Crushed a king.
Then vanished.
Rosen exhaled slowly and raised his head. He dismissed the arm, watching it withdraw its massive finger, retreating into the rift in the sky, until finally—
The crack closed.
"Impossible..."
From above, nailed to the ceiling by the Totsuka no Tsurugi, Catarina Devon watched the entire scene.
Her face had drained of color.
From the moment the heavens split, to the arm descending, to the explosion of black lightning, to Pizarro's body being pulverized into the floor—
She had watched every single frame.
Her heart trembled.
"Besides that Susanoo avatar…"
"You can actually summon something even bigger?"
Her voice was shaky, almost disbelieving.
The Tenken Arm— though only its hand had appeared— was already as large as the full Susanoo.
If the entire body were summoned…
Catherine couldn't imagine.
Just one arm, and it manhandled the Corrupt King.
The being behind that arm—its true form— could likely grab a giant like Pizarro with a single hand and squash him like a bug.
In other words—
Even if she, Vasco Shot, and Pizarro had worked together with a dozen other prisoners, even if they had sacrificed their cards and exhausted every trick to finally destroy Rosen's Susanoo—
It didn't matter.
Because all of that effort?
It was just a prelude.
Rosen wasn't at his limit.
He had something greater waiting in the wings all along.
And they had walked right into it.
It was all a joke.
...
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