Seeing Yemu rushing straight at him with that spinning red-black sphere of energy in his hand,
even a fool would know he absolutely could not let that attack hit him. Getting close to it was dangerous enough.
At that moment, John knew he could not hold anything back any longer.
Staring at the incoming Yemu, John's eyes sharpened, and the twin blades in his hands changed at once.
In that instant, black Armament Haki spread out from John's body and flowed into the twin swords in his hands.
But this time, it was no longer just ordinary Armament coating them. The Haki was being absorbed by the blades themselves.
Visible to the naked eye, the blades, edges, hilts, and guards of both swords all began turning black.
Not far away, Erik's face changed drastically at the sight.
"That's... He actually forged his own Black Blade? This is bad... the captain may be in real danger..."
Everyone was instantly alarmed by Erik's words.
Flare asked anxiously,
"Black Blade... what is that?"
Erik explained, his voice tense.
"A Black Blade doesn't refer to some special type of sword. It's a unique weapon forged when a swordsman tempers his blade through countless battles and fuses it together with his Haki. Once a Black Blade is forged, it becomes unbelievably tough and sharp, and its grade even rises, gaining incredible power. Forging your own Black Blade is the dream of every swordsman. There's a legend about a swordsman named Ryuma, who forged his own Black Blade, Shusui. With that blade, he cut down a giant dragon flying in the sky, and because of that he was called the Dragon-Slaying Samurai. I always thought it was just a legend. I never imagined I'd see a real Black Blade today..."
At that moment, Erik's emotions were mixed.
As a swordsman, he was thrilled to witness the legendary Black Blade. But at the same time, he was worried for the captain.
Dana, who had been listening from the side, did not fully understand some of what he was saying, things like Haki, for example. But she understood that the blade was incredibly dangerous.
Looking at the pirates on the deck, who were clearly worried yet still made no move at all, she asked in confusion,
"If the enemy is that strong, why aren't you going to help him?!"
Everyone glanced at her, but no one answered. They only kept their eyes fixed on the sky.
That left Dana awkwardly at a loss for a moment, but fortunately, Flare took her hand.
In that instant, Dana clearly felt the tension in the beautiful girl standing before her.
"Yemu's always been like this... He doesn't like other people interfering in his battles... no matter how dangerous the enemy is..."
"Why?"
Dana truly could not understand it.
"He says it's his responsibility as captain. As our captain, he's the one supporting all of us, so he has to walk ahead of everyone else. Some dangers, he has to face alone. Only then, when we run into that same kind of danger in the future, will he be able to protect everyone!"
And just then, the battle in the sky changed again...
...
The appearance of the Black Blade did surprise Yemu, but it was not enough to make him retreat.
He still had confidence in the burning Great Flame Rasengan in his hand, but the result caught him off guard.
When the two clashed once more,
the fireball, hot enough to melt anything, was actually blocked by those two Black Blades. And it did not seem to damage them in the slightest.
"!!!"
"Surprised?!"
At that moment, John was full of spirit, as if he had returned to his youth.
"You should be proud. Since the battle of God Valley more than ten years ago, you're the first person to see these two blades in this form..."
As he said that, John's twin swords slashed through. The overwhelming force split Yemu's Great Flame Rasengan in half and sent the two halves flying into the pitch-black crater behind him.
But John's blades did not stop. They continued straight toward Yemu's body.
In that instant, Yemu could clearly see it.
The Demon Bind Haki wrapped around his body was being cut apart as easily as paper.
Yemu shot backward as fast as he could, but he was still too late.
"Cross Star Slash!"
"Boom..."
A violent explosion erupted from the crater beneath them. Towering flames surged upward, dyeing the entire sea red.
And amid those flames, a bloody gash deep enough to expose bone had been carved down Yemu's left chest, slashing from top to bottom as blood sprayed out.
The intense pain caused all the Haki around Yemu's body to scatter. Staring in disbelief at the wound on himself, he raised his head and asked coldly,
"So this is the power of a Black Blade?"
"That's right."
John did not press forward to kill Yemu.
Because after that strike, the balance of victory in this battle had already tilted completely to his side.
Before killing Yemu, he still needed to learn the secrets of the dual fruits and the ability to extract Devil Fruits.
John held the two Black Blades before his eyes as though gazing at precious treasures and said,
"These two blades are called Phantom and Star. Like your Tengoku and Shishimaru, both belong to the Fifty Skillful Grade swords. I got them thirty years ago when I killed a swordsman. Back then, I thought that battle would be an easy win, but I nearly died instead, because the two blades he carried were far better than the ones I had at the time. That was when I understood how important weapons were. So after he died, I took those two swords for myself and began trying to forge my own Black Blades. The reason I agreed to join the Rocks Pirate Crew back then was also because I wanted to forge these two Black Blades through fighting powerful opponents. In the end, I succeeded. But then the Rocks Pirate Crew fell apart. Pretty ironic, isn't it? But it doesn't matter. My era has finally arrived..."
After saying that, John looked at Yemu and spoke with complete confidence.
"I won't kill you. This fight with you reminds me of when I was young, when I fought Rocks after I had already become a Grand Master. I lost that battle even more badly than you have. So if you're willing to tell me the secrets of the dual fruits and how to extract Devil Fruits, then just like Rocks once did, you can join my pirate crew. After all, a king on his own means nothing..."
But Yemu, looking at John as if he were already lost in fantasies of a glorious future, replied indifferently,
"You think you've already won?"
"!!!"
John froze, then frowned.
"You still have another trump card?"
Yemu shook his head.
"Unfortunately, I really don't have any trump cards left."
As he said that, Yemu glanced toward the Twin Goddesses in the distance.
John seemed to understand something, and his expression turned dismissive.
"You don't think your companions can stop me, do you? If I hadn't eaten that Devil Fruit, maybe they would still have had a chance. But now..."
Yemu shook his head.
"You misunderstood. I do believe that if it really came to that, they'd risk their lives to save me. But it hasn't come to that yet."
Now John truly did not understand. He hated the feeling of someone else controlling the pace of the conversation.
"Are you playing with me?"
"No..."
Yemu raised both hands. One arm burned with flames, while the other shone with blazing heat.
"You said that humans have limits, and I agree with that. But I still haven't seen where the limit of my body is, so I'm not in a hurry. What I have seen, though, is the limit of the two Devil Fruits I possess..."