Clang!
He could no longer hold onto the massive scythe.The weapon slipped from his grasp and struck the ground, ringing out with a sharp, brittle sound.
His entire body seemed as if its bones had been pulled away. His knees buckled, and with a dull thump, he slid forward helplessly, collapsing to his knees before Gern Reginald Sigmar.
His body convulsed violently, sustained only by a last shred of instinct that kept him from collapsing completely.
Gern looked down at the kneeling figure with an utterly indifferent expression. Slowly, he extended his left hand and seized the hard ram-skull mask.
"Humm—!"
A pure white ring of high-frequency vibration instantly bloomed in his palm, enveloping the mask—and the head beneath it—entirely!
"Ugh… ah…"The ram-skull–masked God's Knight let out his final, agonized, indistinct wail.
Gern's five fingers clenched sharply.
CRACK!!
The seemingly indestructible ram-skull mask—along with the internal structures securing it—shattered instantly under the extreme high-frequency vibration, exploding into countless fragments that sprayed outward!
Beneath the mask was revealed a face that looked slightly aged, now twisted in unbearable agony. Blood poured continuously from all seven orifices. Those once-cold, arrogant eyes had lost all focus, leaving behind only emptiness and despair.
Gern lowered his gaze, coldly looking down at the exposed face.
His right hand slowly lifted the Black Blade · Eight Desolations, still wrapped in dark-purple Armament Haki lightning.
"I told you…"
"I don't have time…"
"…to play your little make-believe games."
The moment the words fell—
Flash!
"Shhk!"
A black-purple slash, condensed to its absolute limit, swept through the air.
It met no resistance whatsoever.
The ram-skull–masked God's Knight's head separated instantly from his neck.
This time, there was no trace of any strange immortality.
From the severed neck, warm blood erupted like a fountain, blasting straight into the air!
Yet not a single drop touched Gern.The vibration force effortlessly scattered every spray of blood away from his body.
"…Strange. Aren't the God's Knights supposed to have some kind of immortality?""And Garling Saint… that bastard didn't even chase after me to counterattack…"
Though puzzled, Gern couldn't be bothered to dwell on it.As long as everything proceeded according to his plan, that was enough.
He casually reached out and precisely caught the flying head by its topknot.
Then, from the corpse, he pulled free a length of sturdy thin cord and, with practiced ease, tied the fresh head to the sash at his waist.
The severed head's eyes were wide open, filled with terror and despair—staring straight ahead, as if silently gazing upon the "Holy Land" it had once sworn to protect.
After finishing all this, Gern didn't spare the headless corpse even a glance.
Gripping the still-humming Black Blade · Eight Desolations, he lifted his foot and continued walking toward Pangaea Castle.
The head at his waist swayed gently with each step.Dripping blood traced a shocking crimson line across the sacred white ground.
Cold.Violent.And suffocatingly powerful.
...
The only remaining sniper God's Knight, hidden behind distant cover, forcibly suppressed the terror surging in his chest. He took deep, repeated breaths, trying to steady a mind on the verge of collapse.
He couldn't run.
As a Knight of the Gods, fleeing the battlefield carried consequences far worse than death—it would doom his entire family.
So he chose instead to perfectly conceal his presence once more, merging himself with the environment, and slowly raised his specially modified sniper rifle.
Inside the chamber was a Sea-Prism Stone bullet, its surface faintly gleaming with the sheen of Armament Haki.
"No matter how strong you are…""As long as you're a Devil Fruit user, in front of the Black Gun, you'll become weak and helpless!"
He repeated the words silently, desperately trying to summon even a shred of courage.
Through the high-magnification scope, he locked firmly onto Gern's completely unguarded back.
He held his breath.Focused his mind.Pulled the trigger.
BANG!!!
A suppressed yet unmistakably sharp gunshot rang out.
The specially made Sea-Prism Stone bullet tore through the air at supersonic speed, flying straight toward its target with flawless precision!
Through the scope, Gern appeared utterly unaware, still walking forward without pause.
But at the critical instant—just as the bullet was about to strike the word "Justice" on Gern's back—
Something bizarre happened.
The air behind Gern suddenly seemed to transform into an incredibly elastic yet unbreakable sheet of transparent rubber!
The deadly black bullet slammed into the invisible barrier, its speed dropping violently!
The air in front of it visibly caved inward, folding and twisting like a soaked cloth being wrung tight!
"ZZZZ—!"
High-frequency vibration waves ground violently against the Haki-coated Sea-Prism Stone, producing a piercing screech!
In the end—
That bullet—capable of instantly draining the strength of any Devil Fruit user—was forcibly stopped, suspended in midair just centimeters from Gern's back!
Once its kinetic energy was exhausted, it fell to the ground with a soft clack.
"W–What?!!"
Seeing this completely illogical scene through the scope, the sniper froze, his mind going utterly blank.
"How is that possible?! That was… air? Vibrations? Blocking a Sea-Prism Stone bullet?!"
In the split second he was stunned—his body rigid—
In the scope…
Gern's figure vanished.
"—!!"
The sniper jolted violently. He immediately lowered the rifle and frantically scanned his surroundings, trying to reacquire Gern's position.
But at the exact moment he lowered the gun and his eyes left the scope—
A razor-thin yet bone-chilling pain erupted without warning from the exact center of his skull.
"Pshhk!"
It felt as though something had pierced cleanly through the crown of his head.
His body stiffened instantly. His pupils dilated as his consciousness began to fade like a receding tide…
In the final moment before losing awareness entirely, he used the last of his strength to slowly, painfully lower his head.
And he saw it.
The deep-black blade tip, veined with dark crimson cracks, protruding from beneath his chin—warm blood dripping steadily from it.
Then he felt it.
An overwhelming, tyrannical surge of Conqueror's Haki, brimming with pure annihilation,flooding violently into his body along the blade that had pierced his skull and torso!
It crushed everything in its path, erasing all vitality—and obliterating the so-called "immortality."
"W-when… did you… notice me…"The God's Knight couldn't even turn his head, managing only a faint murmur.
Gern—was already standing behind him.
The Eight Desolations had pierced straight down through the crown of his head and out beneath his chin, skewering the short man entirely upon the blade.
Gern didn't answer.
Expressionless, he tightened his grip on the hilt and gave a slight twist of his wrist.
"HUMM!!"
An even more terrifying wave of Haki erupted outward!
Inside the sniper God's Knight's body, it was as if countless microscopic vibration bombs detonated simultaneously—shattering him completely from the inside out.
Gern calmly withdrew the Black Blade · Eight Desolations.
The sniper's corpse collapsed limply to the ground, terror and confusion still frozen in his eyes.
"As expected… this one didn't have immortality either."
Gern flicked the blood droplets from his blade, didn't spare the corpse a glance, and once more turned his gaze toward Pangaea Castle.
At his waist—
there was now one more head that needed to be tied on.