Zephyr shattered Vane's ultimate sword technique with a single punch. His Black Arm still carried terrifying power as it continued driving forward.
Vane could only use a defensive sword form to block.
Clang! Boom!!
Vane was sent flying, his arms twisting at unnatural angles.
He had just used Armament Haki as well, but in front of Zephyr, his Armament Haki was unbearably immature. He couldn't even defend properly—both arms snapped on the spot.
He was flung away like a kicked ball, crashing into the ground and smashing through several ruins, reducing them completely to rubble.
"Even if you possess Conqueror's Haki, you're still just a fledgling youngster. The sea is far broader than you imagine."
That punch from Zephyr had been quite serious. He could clearly feel that he hadn't just broken Vane's arms—he had also injured his internal organs. With wounds like that, the opponent should have lost the ability to resist.
Thud… thud…
The stones atop the ruins shifted—someone was climbing out.
Zephyr's Observation Haki swept over the area, and his expression immediately changed.
"Why hasn't this man's presence weakened at all? If anything, it's getting stronger?"
In Observation Haki, a defeated person's aura feels distinctly "cold." After the surge of hot blood fades, the body cools down.
That heat isn't necessarily literal blood—just the momentum, the fighting spirit, gradually diminishing.
Yet Vane's presence was growing stronger.
"That really hurt… It's been a long time since I've been injured like this."
Vane crawled out of the rubble. With a sharp crack, his twisted arms snapped back into place as if nothing had happened. Such powerful recovery… Zephyr immediately thought of the pirate under Whitebeard known as the Phoenix.
This guy… is definitely a Devil Fruit user!
Vane's body was in pain, but his heart brimmed with irrepressible joy. Finally… his life level had undergone a tremendous evolution. Mere fractures? He could recover in minutes… though it did consume energy.
The more times the body was destroyed, the slower the recovery would become. Even if the Demon King himself were alive, he wouldn't dare claim he could endlessly endure bodily destruction.
The elevation of his life level wasn't reflected only in recovery speed, but in many other aspects as well.
"Blood Demon Art—Netherworld Demon Form!"
A surge of icy-blue energy burst outward and wrapped around Vane. His figure grew slightly taller, and a pair of demon horns—like Upper Rank Four Hantengu's Zohakuten form—emerged from his forehead.
His hair turned a ghostly blue, and a mist of blue energy constantly coiled around his body, giving him a mysterious aura.
"Devil Fruit user!"
The way Vane displayed his Blood Demon Art looked far too similar to a Devil Fruit ability being activated.
Zephyr's first thought was whether there had ever been a Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan—Netherworld Demon Model.
Even if history hadn't recorded it, that didn't matter. The types of Devil Fruits were always increasing. His friend and colleague possessed the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan—Great Buddha Model.
If a Buddha existed, then a demon wasn't strange either.
A demon… just hearing the name made it sound hard to kill. Having recovery abilities comparable to the Phoenix was only natural.
And that cold aura… that made sense too. In the Devil Fruit encyclopedia, there was a peculiar fruit called the Revive-Revive Fruit, whose ability allowed a person to come back to life once after death.
It seemed useless in battle at first glance, but when developed deeply, it could connect to the underworld and release the chilling aura of the nether realm.
This guy just called himself Netherworld Demon. Using cold energy was only logical.
"So it's the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Zoan—Netherworld Demon Model."
Vane: "???"
He categorized him that fast? Did he misunderstand something… Forget it. A misunderstanding was fine. It was an information gap. If anyone mistook him for a Devil Fruit user in the future and tried to deal with him using Seastone, they'd be in for a very big surprise.
Vane didn't refute it. Let Zephyr misunderstand.
Blood Demon Arts came in countless varieties, but two had left a deep impression on Vane.
One was Nakime's Infinite Castle. The other was Hantengu's manifestations of joy, anger, sorrow, and Zohakuten.
He liked Nakime because spatial abilities were always alluring.
Hantengu himself was wretched, but his clone Zohakuten was undeniably cool.
Far cooler than Gyokko's grotesque Blood Demon Art.
His current state resembled a fusion between Hantengu's Zohakuten and Doma's ice crystal manipulation.
Leaving recovery aside, his strength and speed were at least one and a half times his normal state—and this was only the first awakening of his Blood Demon Art.
Beyond raw attributes like strength and speed, the blue-white mist coiling around him was the ice-type energy he could control.
In this state, he could create and manipulate ice crystals like Doma.
"Netherworld Mist."
The icy mist wrapped around the Cursed Sword, and a layer of glittering white frost formed.
"White Frostfall!"
With a swing of the Cursed Sword, a powerful flying slash burst forth, and the surrounding temperature dropped sharply.
The sword technique was nearly twice as strong as before.
"Hmph!"
Zephyr showed no fear toward the empowered flying slash. Even doubled in strength, Vane was still weak before him.
At most, he had changed from an ant into something with a bit of resistance.
Another punch blasted forward, shattering the flying slash instantly.
"I can't let you escape!"
A Mythical Zoan was rarer than a Logia. One that could harness natural energy was even more dangerous. He absolutely couldn't let him get away.
"Netherworld Mist—Frost Wings!"
The mist gathered behind Vane's back, forming the shape of wings. Ding! In a crisp sound, a pair of ice-crystal wings appeared—closely resembling the wings of Articuno from Vane's memory.
His ice power came from Articuno, so he had gained the ability to fly.
Seeing this, Zephyr's resolve to capture him only intensified. A flying Devil Fruit user posed an even greater threat!
"Impact!"
He transformed into a streak of black afterimage, instantly appearing before Vane.
"Netherworld Mist—Ice Crystal Lotus!"
The mist condensed into a massive lotus platform beneath Zephyr's feet. All its petals instantly closed, trapping him inside.
Boom! Crack!
The Ice Crystal Lotus was beautiful, but before Zephyr's fists, it was nothing more than decoration. It shattered into icy fragments the next instant.
Outside, Vane used the opportunity to widen the distance between them.
"Thousand Needles of Crystal!"
White mist unfurled behind Vane like a seven- or eight-meter-long scroll. Points of light emerged—each one a ten-centimeter-long, double-pointed needle of ice.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh…
For a moment, Vane became several "Gatling guns," as ice needles poured down like a storm toward Zephyr.
As the ice needles fired, Vane thrust the Cursed Sword and unleashed another slash.