Chapter 617: The Snap Occurs, But the World is Broken?
Garp let out a roaring laugh in the distance, rearing his fist back as he charged forward in massive strides.
Whitebeard marched forward, slamming the butt of Murakumogiri heavily into the ground. "You're a hundred years too early to try pulling cheap parlor tricks in front of me!" He gripped the shaft of his naginata with both hands, the muscles across his entire body bulging high. Pushing his Armament Haki and the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit to their absolute limits, Whitebeard violently plunged Murakumogiri down into the earth.
"Tremor: Atmospheric Quake!"
A terrifying shockwave, completely beyond words, expanded outward from him in all directions. The space across all of New York began to vibrate violently. Space collapsed on a massive scale, countless black fissures spider-webbing through the air.
The spatial barrier around Thanos groaned and cracked under the onslaught of the tremors. But more critically, this high-frequency spatial vibration acted directly upon Thanos's left arm.
His arm trembled uncontrollably. The spatial distance between his thumb and middle finger was infinitely stretched by the shockwaves, making it impossible for the two fingers to meet. No matter how much force he applied, he simply couldn't complete the simple motion of snapping.
"Damn it! You lunatics!" Thanos roared, his eyes bloodshot as he desperately tried to suppress the trembling in his arm.
"It's not over yet!"
Garp had somehow already appeared directly above Thanos. The green steam radiating from his body had reached its absolute peak. This was the signature of the Eight Inner Gates—the Seventh Gate, the Gate of Wonder, had been opened.
Garp's eyes went wide. Pulling his right fist back to his waist, the terrifying pressure of his punch completely expelled the surrounding air, creating a total vacuum. "Let me give your bones a proper loosening!"
"Fist Bone: Daytime Tiger!"
Garp threw his punch. The frenzied air pressure compressed into a massive, fiercely roaring white tiger. The tiger plummeted from the sky, slamming brutally into Thanos's right shoulder.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the clouds, and the earth collapsed into a crater hundreds of meters wide. Thanos's entire right side was reduced to a bloody, mangled mess, driving him straight down onto one knee.
Kizaru stroked his chin from a distance, speaking with a slow drawl. "Oh my, my. If we let him pull off that snap, who's going to pay my wages?"
Akainu snorted coldly, boiling magma dripping from his arm. "Cut the chatter. Just burn his hand off with magma and see how he snaps then!"
Standing on high ground, Doflamingo let out a wild, unhinged laugh. "Fuffuffuffu, now this is getting interesting. Drag the whole universe into it!"
Shanks's soul shockwave, Whitebeard's spatial tremors, and Garp's heavy physical blow. Three powers sitting at the very apex of the world struck simultaneously, backing Thanos into an absolute corner.
Tony and Steve watched from afar, completely dumbfounded. The combat prowess of this group was pushing way past the limits of human comprehension.
"We won! He can't snap!" Rocket Raccoon cheered loudly, excitedly waving his heavy rifle.
But Doctor Strange's face only grew grimmer. "No! The energy from the stones hasn't dissipated! It's gathering faster!"
At the bottom of the crater, Thanos was covered in blood. His right arm was completely ruined, hanging limply at his side. But his left hand, wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, was still raised high. Blood trickled down his fingers and onto the stones. The blue and purple light hadn't dimmed; rather, it had grown increasingly violent and blinding.
Thanos's eyes held a hysterical madness. He knew he wasn't going to survive today—these pirates would absolutely tear him to pieces. But even if he had to die, he was dragging all these variables down to hell with him!
"Since I cannot erase you..." Thanos ground his teeth together, large mouthfuls of purple blood spilling over his lips. He abandoned all defense, pouring every last ounce of his life force into the Infinity Gauntlet without reservation.
The energy of the two stones was already overloading, fine cracks webbing across the surface of the gauntlet itself. Pushing through the crushing weight of the three peak powers, Thanos exhausted the very last dregs of his strength.
His thumb and middle finger finally, agonizingly, ground against each other.
"Then we shall all descend into hell together!"
Snap!
A crisp snap echoed abruptly across the chaotic battlefield. It wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears with crystal clarity.
The entire field went dead silent.
Tony closed his eyes in despair, and Steve let his shield fall limply. Everyone assumed the apocalypse was here, that they would all turn to ash.
But one second passed. Then two seconds.
Nothing happened. No one turned to dust, and half of all life didn't vanish into thin air. Confused, the crowd opened their eyes and looked up.
A staggeringly massive wave of purple and blue energy had erupted from the Infinity Gauntlet. But the very instant that energy wave expanded, Shanks's soul Haki, Whitebeard's tremor force, and the lingering pressure from Garp's punch all collided with it simultaneously.
Four energies capable of destroying the world brutally clashed in mid-air.
It didn't result in an apocalyptic explosion. Instead, the purple-blue energy wave that was supposed to rewrite reality began to warp violently as it was pulled apart by the conflicting forces.
Space was ruthlessly torn to shreds. Time was severely scrambled.
In the blink of an eye, the energy wave twisted into a colossal, bottomless, eerie vortex right in the sky above New York.
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