"I'm asking you—what the hell are you doing?!?!!!"
"Why are you wearing that face and doing something like this?!?!!!"
With that thunderous roar, the last of the Shiki's strength ignited completely.
An unprecedented surge of Conqueror's Haki—erupted from his body, fused with the pride and defiance of his entire life. It burst forth like a golden tsunami, crashing across the battlefield.
No longer an invisible pressure, his Haki became something tangible—visible to the naked eye—a blazing, golden aura shooting straight into the heavens.
Dark-gold and crimson arcs of lightning snapped and crackled wildly around him, coiling and lashing with heart-stopping intensity. The clouds above were seized by the force of it, twisting violently, spiraling madly with Shiki at the center.
In that moment, everyone on the battlefield understood—truly understood—
The man who had once stormed Marine Headquarters, Marineford, alone.
The sky-conquering pirate who, in the legendary era, commanded the greatest aerial fleet and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard—
The Golden Lion, Shiki—
Was still here.
The legend had not yet fallen.
Though he had just suffered a crushing defeat, when that Haki—infused with the final dignity of the old era—swept across the battlefield…
When someone dared to insult the legendary age and disgrace the man he acknowledged…
He was still the Golden Lion capable of making heaven and earth change color.
"G–Golden Lion?!!!"
The manic grin and boastful laughter on Blackbeard's face froze instantly, replaced by naked horror and disbelief.
He stared up at the figure suspended in midair, wrapped in dark-gold and crimson lightning. His mind went blank.
"Y–You… how are you still alive?!"
He had checked—again and again. After Gern's "Heaven-Falling Divine Strike" had smashed Shiki into that crater, his presence had completely vanished. Even if he hadn't died outright, he should have been nothing more than a dying man waiting for the end.
That was why Blackbeard had dared to step forward and harvest the fruits of victory.
But now…
The man who was supposed to be "waiting to die" was not only alive—he was erupting with an even more resolute, more terrifying aura than before.
This was beyond Blackbeard's expectations. Beyond his understanding.
The sudden collapse of his plans—combined with the suffocating fury of a true top-tier legend—clamped down on his heart like a vice.
Shiki's eyes locked onto Blackbeard below, killing intent blazing so fiercely it felt as though it would pierce him through.
"You bastard…" Shiki's voice was hoarse. The muscles in his arms bulged as he gripped his twin blades—"Kogarashi" and "Oto"—until the hilts creaked.
The boiling golden Conqueror's Haki around him surged without restraint, coiling, compressing, and devouring as it wrapped around the blades' steel.
"Even if you betray again and again…" he roared.
Above him, that overwhelming Haki and will condensed—manifesting into a colossal, lifelike golden lion's head, roaring soundlessly at the sky.
Its eyes blazed with fury. Its mane whipped like flames. It radiated sovereign majesty and the wrath to annihilate everything.
"But Newgate… Newgate—he… he took you in! You called him 'Father'!!!"
The accusation exploded in the hearts of everyone who knew the history between Whitebeard and Blackbeard.
"A true conqueror… will never be something like you…"
Shiki crossed his twin swords before him. The roaring golden lion overlapped with his own figure, as if spirit and man had fused into one.
This was his ultimate denial of Blackbeard's character. His final defense of the old era's creed.
"Disloyal! Ungrateful! Faithless! A conscience-less hyena!!!"
"For a time… I abandoned myself…" Shiki's voice suddenly softened, tinged with clarity.
"But now… I'll pick it up again."
"Otherwise… I'd have no face… to meet Roger and Newgate!!!"
Blackbeard stared at the Golden Lion descending upon him with the fury and will of an entire age behind him. Panic finally overtook him.
"Oi! Somebody—do something, damn it!!!"
He instinctively searched for his crew.
But the "companions" who had sworn loyalty moments ago all stepped back in silent, unspoken agreement. Faced with this suicidal strike from a legend, not one of them stepped forward.
No one was willing to meet the wrath of the old era head-on for him.
"Black Hole!!"
Terrified, Blackbeard unleashed the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit, attempting to drag Shiki toward him and disrupt the attack.
But before the ultimate strike of a peak legend—burning his life, his will, his Haki—
Devil Fruit powers were meaningless.
And Shiki did not even use the Float-Float Fruit.
He poured everything—every last drop—into this single slash, carrying the pride and fury of the old era.
"All pirates—!!!"
With the last of his strength, Shiki proclaimed to the seas. His voice echoed across every corner of Marineford.
"Burn what you see next… into your minds forever!!!"
His crossed blades swung forward in one decisive motion, merging with the roaring golden lion.
"This is the era—created by Roger! By Whitebeard! And by the Golden Lion!!!"
"The final era… of power and ambition…"
"The last… legendary age!!!"
Shiki's body transformed into a streak of golden light that split heaven and earth—like a falling star, like a newborn sun.
Carrying all the glory, regret, and dignity of the old era, he shot toward Blackbeard.
"Lion—!"
The crossed blades fell.
"Majestic Severance!!!"
"BOOOOOOM—!!!!!!!!!!"
A massive golden cross-shaped slash that pierced everything engulfed Blackbeard's twisted, horrified figure in an instant.
There was no explosion. No stalemate.
Only absolute penetration. Absolute crushing force.
Blackbeard didn't even have time to scream. His eyes rolled back, blood mixed with fragments of organs spraying from his mouth.
His body went limp as if every bone had been removed, collapsing to the ground, utterly unconscious—his fate unknown.
The golden cross-shaped slash continued forward, carving a bottomless cross-shaped trench into the earth, lingering like the final inscription of the old era.
At the end of that strike, Shiki's figure slowly emerged.
He stood with his back to the fallen Blackbeard. No taunts. No declaration of victory.
That final blow had consumed the last spark of life forcibly clinging to him.
Slowly, with immense effort, Shiki turned his head.
His gaze crossed the chaotic battlefield and fell upon the towering figure that still stood upright.
In the next moment, summoning every remaining shred of strength, he forced his nearly dissipated Float-Float ability to carry him—unsteadily—toward Whitebeard.
At last, he descended beside him.
His body faltered. He could no longer maintain levitation.
He collapsed to the ground, leaning against Whitebeard's cold, unmoving form.
"Hoi… Newgate…" Shiki's voice had become faint. Blood bubbled in his throat, interrupting him, but he forced the words out.
"I… taught that bastard… a lesson for you… but… cough… cough…"
A violent fit of coughing cut him off. After a long pause, he let out a self-mocking laugh.
"Forget it… you and that bastard Roger… each of you died more gloriously than the last… and I…"
His eyes drifted, reflecting on the rise and fall of his life.
"I guess I could never… be like you two."
He had once ruled the skies, commanded vast forces—yet he had also been imprisoned in chains, severed his own legs, and endured humiliation with a ship's wheel embedded in his skull just to survive.
His curtain call always carried a trace of awkwardness.
But then—
In his dimming eyes, a final spark of pride and stubborn brilliance flared.
He straightened his spine as much as he could and declared to his silent old rival:
"But after you two… whether it's Roger or you… I will never… never let our era be insulted…"
His voice grew weaker, exhausted—but there was peace in it. A wish fulfilled.
He turned slightly, looking at Whitebeard's serene yet stubborn face.
"Hoi, Newgate… you damn stubborn fool…"
"See that? This sea… couldn't swallow us in the end… even if we die in the ugliest way… we die standing…"
Like Whitebeard, Shiki seemed to have died standing in spirit—though he no longer had the strength to physically rise.
"Heh… and I finally got my legs back, too…"
"We've been competing since the Rocks D. Xebec crew days… and even in the end… I couldn't steal the spotlight from you…"
A crooked, weary smile tugged at his lips—filled with memories, and an unspoken loneliness no one could understand.
At last, his gaze softened.
"Do you remember?"
"You said… you wanted a family… I laughed at you back then… called you weak… but now…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
But in those unspoken words lay too much—regret, reflection… and perhaps a trace of envy.
Roger had reached his dream. Whitebeard had gained the family he longed for.
And the Golden Lion… had always stood alone.
The light of life drained rapidly from his eyes.
"Oi… Newgate… don't go making that sour face and leaving first… at least hear me out, I…"
"To be born… in the same era as you…"
"…it was… really… really good…"
His voice faded into the wind.
Shiki, the Golden Lion—the legendary sky admiral who once stood alongside Roger and Whitebeard, who stirred the world itself—
At last, leaning against his lifelong rival and comrade, slowly closed his eyes.
His breathing ceased.
The legendary great pirate, the Flying Admiral—Golden Lion Shiki—
Fell in battle.
The three great pillars of the old era—
Had all collapsed.