Chapter 611: Whitebeard Clashes With Peak Thanos
The bridge doors of Sanctuary II were kicked open with immense force as a peak-condition Thanos strode out of the cabin. Without relying on any flight equipment, he leaped directly from an altitude of several thousand meters. His massive body smashed toward the ruins of New York, dragging a piercing sonic boom in his wake.
Boom! The ground trembled violently, and massive swaths of reinforced concrete were pulverized. Before the dust could even settle, a large hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet reached out from the rubble. The Space Stone on the back of the gauntlet erupted with a blinding blue light. Thanos slowly stood up, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic, ruined battlefield.
"A boring farce," he rumbled. He clenched his fist, and the energy of the Space Stone suddenly radiated outward. The battlefields he had previously forcibly divided across various corners of New York underwent a bizarre folding at this moment. The surrounding buildings began to rapidly invert. Those who had been fighting to the death several kilometers away only felt their vision blur before the scenery completely shifted. In a matter of seconds, everyone was forcibly dragged back to this central ruin.
Imu stood atop a broken wall, staring coldly at Thanos as he descended from the sky. The Five Elders immediately swarmed up behind her, moving to block her from the front. Saint Jaygarcia Saturn tightened his grip on his cane. "Lady Imu, is this the true body of that fellow named Thanos?"
Imu didn't answer. Her eyes were locked onto the flashing blue light of the Infinity Gauntlet. "He has pushed the power of space to its absolute limit. This is far more troublesome than a Devil Fruit."
Hela gripped her remaining left fist, dark blood still dripping from her severed arm. She glared at Thanos, the fury in her eyes practically erupting as fire. "Another one coming to steal things. Do you really think the Goddess of Death of Asgard is just for show!?"
Kaido strode out from a pile of rubble, his spiked club resting easily on his shoulder. His dragon scales were tattered and torn, but the fanaticism on his face hadn't diminished in the slightest. "Worororo! Finally, someone who looks like he can actually put up a fight! That one without the glove earlier was too weak. Let's hope this one can make me break a sweat!"
Golden Lion Shiki floated in mid-air, half a cigar clamped between his teeth. "Jihahaha! This Grimace sure knows how to make an entrance, but let's see if he can actually back it up! Damn it all! What the hell kind of ability is this? All that spinning made me dizzy!"
Garp's booming voice shattered everyone's train of thought. He was dragging a thick, purple leg behind him. It belonged to the other Thanos—the one he had beaten half to death after opening the Gate of Joy. The glove-less Thanos had rolled his eyes back into his head, gasping his final breaths, completely reduced to a pulverized mess.
Garp had barely steadied his footing when he caught sight of the perfectly intact, peak-condition Thanos standing not too far away. He paused, looking down at the broken body he was dragging. "Hey! Grimace! You know clone techniques too?" Garp threw his head back and roared with laughter. He unceremoniously hoisted the half-dead Thanos into the air, spun twice in place, and violently let go. The massive body hurled directly toward the peak Thanos like a cannonball. "Catch your twin brother!" Garp hollered at the top of his lungs.
The fully intact Thanos watched his own body flying toward him without a single shift in expression. He didn't even attempt to dodge. He simply raised his left hand—the one clad in the Infinity Gauntlet—and threw a punch straight into the incoming mass.
A muffled, sickening boom exploded in the sky above the ruins. The Thanos that Garp had beaten half to death was instantly pulverized into a cloud of blood mist by peak Thanos's fist. Purple blood and shredded flesh rained down upon the rubble.
The entire battlefield fell dead silent.
In the distance, Star-Lord watched, completely dumbfounded, unable to stop a curse from slipping out. "Holy sh*t! When this guy goes hard, he even kills himself! This guy is a complete psychopath!"
Rocket Raccoon's hands were shaking as he gripped his oversized rifle. "I told you these aliens are all sick in the head! Why the hell did he hit himself!?"
Peak Thanos flicked the blood off his fist, his voice cold to the absolute extreme. "Failures have no value in existing. This is merely a cleansing of trash." He raised his head, his gaze sweeping coldly over Garp. "Now, it is your turn."
"Stop spouting your nonsense, you alien trash," Akainu's explosive voice rumbled from the flank. The entire right half of his body had fully transformed into boiling magma, the surrounding air warping and twisting from the sheer heat. "I don't care how many of you show up, you're all dying here today!"
Akainu swung his right arm violently, launching a Great Eruption directly at Thanos. The massive magma fist, carrying catastrophic, world-ending heat, roared forward.
At the exact same time, Sengoku made his move. A dark-golden Buddha, hundreds of meters tall, rose from the ground, its holy light illuminating the entire battlefield. Dozens of gigantic golden palms, coated in Armament Haki, slammed down toward Thanos from another direction.
Whitebeard didn't waste a single breath on words. He gripped Murakumogiri with both hands, the white halo of tremors flickering wildly along the naginata's blade. "Gurararara! Let me see just how much power a fully intact Grimace really has!"
Three top-tier combatants of the One Piece world launched their assaults simultaneously. The sheer oppressive force was enough to plunge the ruler of any planet into despair. Yet, peak Thanos didn't take a single step back. Watching the colossal magma fist roaring toward him, the corner of his mouth curled into a cold sneer.
The Space Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet flared blue once more. Thanos casually traced a line in the air before him, and a spatial rift instantly tore open. Akainu's Great Eruption plunged directly into the void.
A split second later, directly above the head of Sengoku's Buddha, another spatial rift opened without any warning. The boiling magma poured down, completely covering the giant's head. Caught entirely off guard, the golden light of the Buddha sizzled and hissed violently under the molten rock.
"Sakazuki! Do you have eyes!? Where the hell are you aiming!?" Sengoku cursed furiously, angrily swatting his massive Buddha hands at his own head to scatter the magma. The Buddha's stance was instantly thrown into chaos, and the attacks originally aimed at Thanos veered wildly off course.
Seeing this, Akainu flared up just as hotly. "Sengoku! You old fool! He used his space abilities to transfer it! Why the hell are you yelling at me!?" He barked back, already condensing more magma for another strike.
Sengoku continued to swat the sparks off his bald head, still shouting. "Can't you look before you shoot!? You scalded the gold right off my body!"
Hovering lazily in the mid-air distance, Kizaru watched the two bickering men below. "Oh my, my. If Boss Blake were to see this, the Marines would be thoroughly disgraced. Can't you two just settle down?" As he spoke, Kizaru raised a leg, firing a blinding light-speed kick straight at Thanos.
Thanos didn't even spare it a glance. He simply tore open another spatial rift. The light-speed kick vanished into the void and, in the blink of an eye, shot out from right behind Garp. The beam exploded directly onto Garp's rear end, blasting him forward in a staggering stumble and blowing a massive hole in his pants.
"Borsalino! You brat, are you trying to start a rebellion!? You dare sneak attack me!?" Garp hopped madly, whirling around to curse at Kizaru in the sky.
Kizaru innocently threw his hands up. "Oh my, Vice Admiral Garp, you really can't blame me for that. It was that Grimace playing tricks."
During this brief moment of Marine infighting, Whitebeard's attack arrived. Whitebeard couldn't care less what Sengoku and Akainu were arguing about. His towering physique leaped high into the air, Murakumogiri carrying a shockwave capable of tearing apart anything in its path as it cleaved downward. "Get the hell out of my way!"
Thanos felt the terrifying, world-shattering power behind the strike. He didn't use the Space Stone to dodge. Instead, he reached back and drew his massive double-bladed sword. Gripping the weapon with both hands, he brought it up to parry Murakumogiri head-on.
BOOM!
The instant the naginata and the double-bladed sword collided, the entire ground beneath New York sank by half a meter. White, rippling shockwaves rapidly expanded from the point of impact. The surrounding air was shattered into visible black fissures. Space itself groaned under the overwhelming pressure, sounding as if it were about to fracture completely.
The ground beneath Thanos's feet blew out into a massive crater. His legs buckled under Whitebeard's terrifying, monstrous strength, his knees nearly driving into the dirt.
"You have some strength, but it is not enough!" Thanos roared, the muscles in his arms violently bulging, thick purple veins popping out like roots. Bracing himself against the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, he forcibly pushed the double-bladed sword upward.
Two completely inhuman forces engaged in a fierce wrestling match in the center of the ruins. Shockwaves blasted outward ring after ring, grinding all the surrounding rubble into fine powder.
Hovering in the air, Tony stared at his energy scanners. The warning lights on his screens were already glowing an angry, deep red. "What the hell did this old man eat growing up? He's actually matching Thanos in pure physical strength!"
The younger Tony chimed in from beside him. "Probably ate his spinach. This is way too absurd."
Whitebeard laughed heartily as he continued to press down. "Gurarara! Grimace, that's a fine blade you've got there. To think I couldn't shatter it!"
Thanos gritted his teeth, saying nothing. He knew very well that continuing this contest of raw strength would yield no benefits. The opponent's power was freakishly immense, and the shockwaves were constantly degrading his armor's defenses. He violently yanked his double-bladed sword back, using the momentum of Whitebeard's downward press to slide dozens of meters backward.
Stabilizing his footing at the edge of the ruins, Thanos's chest heaved violently for two breaths. He didn't continue tangling with Whitebeard. His gaze swept past this group of troublesome pests and locked directly onto two figures in the distance.
One was a blood-drenched Doflamingo, clutching the Power and Reality Stones. The other was Shanks, holding the famous sword embedded with the Soul Stone.
Thanos raised the Infinity Gauntlet, pointing directly at the two of them. "The game ends now. Hand over the things that do not belong to you. Those are the keys to remaking this universe, not something you barbarians are fit to taint."
─
Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for just $7 to get early access to all upcoming chapters!
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations