The sound of bones cracking echoed continuously, like popping beans.
Silver Axe's massive fifteen-meter-tall body left the ground, arching backward.
On his chest, where the heavenly dragon halberd had struck, flesh and blood turned to pulp, and dozens of ribs shattered and broke.
On his back, an entire spine protruded through his body, tearing the skin of his back apart like a hideous centipede trying to crawl out of him.
"Cough, ah!!"
Silver Axe opened his mouth wide in pain, and a large amount of blood sprayed out.
His bulging eyeballs were bloodshot, filled with shock and a hint of fear!
"Boom!!"
His body smashed through layers of air behind him, like a sharp arrow, piercing straight through half of Hachinosu before flying back to the harbor.
Then came another earth-shattering explosion.
The ground of Hachinosu harbor was smashed open at an angle, and countless giant Rocks blasted into the air, falling into the sea.
Until then, Carlo, standing in the square, still maintained the posture of swinging the heavenly dragon halberd.
His chest heaved as he gazed into the distance.
This strike had barely matched the strength with which Rocks had sent him flying that day.
However...
Compared to Rocks' easy and casual swing of a blade...
This slash of his was almost equivalent to unleashing one hundred percent of his total strength.
Under the full explosion of his powerful physical body and Haki...
He had only managed to send Silver Axe flying over a thousand meters and crashing into the sea.
However, Carlo could sense that Silver Axe had not died from this blow.
The power of the Karma-Karma Fruit was indeed formidable.
It could even absorb injuries of this magnitude.
It was almost equivalent to a weakened version of the Phoenix ability.
Hachinosu Harbor.
John, who had previously been blasted into the ground by Carlo's Undersea Drop, had just crawled out of the earth when he saw such a terrifying scene and was immediately stunned senseless.
"This guy, Silver Axe... was he defeated so quickly?"
"Hey!"
He looked at Silver Axe, who had been smashed even deeper into the ground, in disbelief.
"Are you dead yet? Silver Axe!"
At the bottom of the crater, more than ten meters deep.
His internal organs mangled, his surface muscles and skin burst open, and his entire spine nearly flying out of his body, Silver Axe arched his body like a shrimp, letting out a groan of extreme pain. He curled up, blood and fragments of internal organs constantly vomiting from the corners of his mouth.
At this point...
A look of fear finally appeared in his eyes.
"How can this be... that kid's attack power is actually so fierce?"
"It was almost beyond my current limit of karma endurance."
He gritted his teeth, endured the intense pain, and forced his body straight, making his protruding spine return to his body.
The Paramecia-type Karma-Karma Fruit power activated desperately.
Converting the 'cause' of the damage received into the 'effect' of increased physical strength.
Soon.
His severe injuries and tragic appearance, which looked impossible to survive, were rapidly being repaired under the influence of an invisible, great power.
Three seconds later.
The skin and muscles on the surface of his body had begun to heal.
Five seconds later.
His internal organs, which Carlo had shattered, had barely recovered.
Ten seconds later.
The dozens of broken bones in his body finished growing back frantically.
Fifteen seconds later.
His deformed spine returned to its place.
Then, the remaining, excess damage continued to transform into a more powerful and even more massive body!
Fifteen meters!
Eighteen meters!
Twenty meters!
In the deep crater, two giant palms rested on the edge.
Then, a massive head slowly rose.
A hideous smile curled the corners of Silver Axe's blood-stained mouth.
"Don't think you can defeat me like this! I am an immortal Karma Man! I—"
"Boom!"
A pitch-black halberd came flying and spinning, its shaft slamming heavily against Silver Axe's cheek.
With a crack...
The hideous smile on Silver Axe's face came to an abrupt halt.
Half of his face collapsed, and a mouthful of teeth mixed with blood sprayed out from his ruptured cheek.
The sudden attack made Silver Axe, who had just poked his head out of the pit, scream in pain.
Before he could finish experiencing this inhuman agony...
A fierce wind blew in his face.
A golden, brilliant figure descended from the sky, reaching out with a large hand to grab his short, buzzed hair and yanking it upward violently.
As a large piece of his scalp was torn off and flew away...
Silver Axe screamed as Carlo grabbed him by the scalp with one hand, pulled him out of the pit like a radish, and smashed him toward John, who was still dazed nearby.
Silver Axe's massive body, which had already expanded to over twenty meters, came crashing down.
As the massive shadow loomed over him...
John only then snapped out of his daze, his expression changing drastically as he tried to dodge.
But how could there be enough time?
He was immediately covered by Silver Axe's body.
A clear human-shaped depression was smashed into the ground.
Silver Axe lay in this massive depression, his face covered in blood and his eyes vacant.
John was pinned beneath him, completely disappearing from sight.
But Carlo didn't seem to have any intention of stopping.
Under the watchful eye of Kaido, who had rushed over...
Carlo grabbed Silver Axe's scalp with one hand, swinging him frantically and repeatedly slamming him against the ground.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!"
Silver Axe was like a tattered sack, violently beaten until he had no power to resist, only able to continuously let out screams of pain.
It was as if he had become a hammer in Carlo's hand.
And the nail, obviously, was John.
Carlo just held Silver Axe, using him as a hammer, frantically pounding John who had been smashed into the pit.
One blow, two blows.
Ten blows, twenty blows.
He smashed for an unknown amount of time.
He smashed until half the town of Hachinosu harbor had collapsed.
Only then did he finally stop.
By this time, Silver Axe was barely breathing, most of his body had turned to pulp, and his eyes were hollow; it was unclear whether he was dead or alive.
And John, needless to say...
His physical body was already inferior to Silver Axe's.
His Devil Fruit Power could not increase his physical strength either.
If he hadn't desperately mobilized his Haki for defense with all his might, he would probably have been beaten into a pulp by Carlo by now.
At the bottom of the hundred-meter-deep crater.
John lay there covered in blood, his gaze somewhat vacant.
The sound of footsteps reached his ears.
He slightly moved his eyeballs.
In his line of sight, a man with golden wings on his back, holding a pitch-black halberd, stepped forward and stood beside him.
The tip of the halberd, flashing with a cold light, was pointed at the center of his forehead.
A cold voice reached John's ears.
"Do you want to die or do you want to live?"
"I..." John used all his strength to barely open his mouth. He had just wanted to act tough and say something like 'I am the dignified Captain John,' but...
A piercing pain shot through the center of his forehead.
His eyes widened.
He watched helplessly as the heavy halberd thrust straight at him without hesitation.
The sharp tip of the halberd instantly pierced the skin of his forehead and made contact with his hard skull.
And the force coming from the tip of the halberd was still increasing.
At this moment, John seemed to hear the sound of his skull being squeezed and cracking.
A massive wave of fear made him roar out almost in a scream.
"Live!"
"I want to live!"
"I want to stay alive!!"
By the end, two lines of murky tears flowed uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.