When the pressure between them reached its peak, Finn struck first.
He exploded forward like a tiger descending a mountain. The ground beneath his feet shattered backward from the force, sending chunks of earth flying. His body became a blur, crossing the distance to Newgate in an instant.
Red light flashed in Newgate's eyes. He stepped forward, Murakumogiri already rising to meet the attack.
"Open!"
Finn's roar split the air. Shindokutō crashed against Murakumogiri's blade with devastating force. Vibration and gravity, two fundamental powers of nature, collided violently at the point of contact.
The energies compressed together for a single heartbeat, condensing into an impossibly dense point. Then they exploded.
The shockwave radiated outward in a perfect sphere, using Finn and Newgate as its epicenter. The force carved trenches in the earth and sent debris spiraling into the sky.
Even the other combatants were affected. Kuzan and Smoker, locked in combat with Charlotte Linlin, both staggered as the aftershock reached them.
Ice layers that Kuzan had created moments before shattered like glass. He watched the destruction with a weary expression. "Ah, this is exactly why I hate these brutal, unreasonable abilities."
Smoker transformed into smoke, spiraling around Kuzan twice before reforming on the ground. "Didn't you say what you hate most is fire?"
Kuzan raised an eyebrow. "Did I?"
"You literally said it five minutes ago."
"Then I've changed my mind." Kuzan's shamelessness was perfectly deadpan.
Not only were Kuzan and Smoker affected. Charlotte Linlin's attention snapped toward the clash between Finn and Newgate, her combative instincts recognizing the surge of power.
In that same instant, the contest between Finn and Newgate reached its conclusion.
Finn had the advantage.
Before this battle even began, Newgate had taken Charlotte Linlin's blade to the chest. He'd fought both her and Kaido for over a day. His injuries were severe, his stamina depleted. Against a fresh opponent at full strength, the difference was telling.
"Hah!"
Finn roared, dark purple light flashing across Shindokutō. The muscles in his arm bulged as he gritted his teeth and pushed harder. With a single overwhelming surge of power, he drove Murakumogiri back.
Newgate's hands strained against the pressure. His feet slid backward across the broken ground, carving deep furrows. Three steps. Five steps. With each one, the earth crumbled beneath his weight as he dissipated the force.
Before Newgate could stabilize, Finn was already moving.
"Gravity Blade: Supreme Tiger!"
The horizontal slash tore through the air. A spectral tiger materialized around the blade, its roar shaking the atmosphere. Gravity escaped from Shindokutō's edge, and wherever the blade passed, the ground itself lifted and twisted. Space warped, bending around the concentrated power.
Newgate took two quick steps back, creating distance. Then he spun Murakumogiri over his head in three complete rotations, building momentum. With each rotation, the vibration force intensified, growing stronger, more concentrated.
Before Finn's attack could connect, Newgate brought Murakumogiri down from overhead.
The massive bisento fell like a hammer of judgment, carrying condensed vibration force powerful enough to crack the sky.
Two equally overwhelming forces, vibration and gravity, collided head-on.
Space itself exploded. A pitch-black void opened at the point of impact, and a blast of wind pressure erupted outward with enough force to flatten trees and scatter stones like leaves.
The collision didn't create a prolonged struggle. Instead, the opposing energies destabilized each other instantly. The chaotic fluctuations compressed, then detonated with a thunderous roar.
This wasn't an explosion of gunpowder or flame. It was pure energy tearing itself apart.
Finn was thrown backward, his body hurtling more than ten meters before he managed to land. Newgate suffered similar displacement, his face flushed as the recoil sent him skidding across the devastated ground.
The moment Finn's feet touched earth, his eyes blazed with excitement. A fierce grin spread across his face, wild and hungry.
"The blade cuts flesh," Finn murmured. "The heart cuts the soul."
He spun Shindokutō in his hand, creating a complex pattern of shadows, then held the demon blade horizontally before him. The dark curse radiating from the weapon intensified, growing thicker, more oppressive.
"To save others and yourself, you must first save your heart." Finn's voice was low, almost gentle. "This is Shindokutō. Today, I'll ferry you across, Newgate."
His free hand rose to touch the flat of the blade.
From a distance, Charlotte Linlin's expression turned grave. "That technique..."
Before she could finish, a flash of cold light cut through the air. Ice surged upward in jagged spikes. Charlotte Linlin's face twisted with fury. She raised her fist, coating it in Armament Haki, and slammed it into the ground. The impact shattered Kuzan's frost in an explosion of crystalline fragments.
"Bastard!" she snarled.
Meanwhile, dark energy began to emanate from Finn's hands. The air around Shindokutō distorted, bending inward as if being consumed by an invisible hunger.
"Secret Art: Void Slash."
Finn's voice was barely a whisper. His palm brushed slowly across Shindokutō's edge. Wherever his hand passed, the blade turned absolute black. Not the black of Armament Haki, but something deeper, more fundamental. The gravitational energy was so dense it devoured light itself. Even the space around the blade began to fracture, hairline cracks appearing in reality.
On the opposite side, Newgate's eyes grew solemn. "Here it comes."
The old pirate didn't hesitate. He shifted Murakumogiri to one hand and raised his other fist. White light gathered around his knuckles as vibration force condensed into a sphere of destructive power. He brought his arm back beside his head, winding up like a spring.
Then he roared and threw a punch through the air itself.
Air Quake
Devastating vibration force erupted toward Finn, tearing through space, atmosphere, and ground alike. To the naked eye, everything in its path looked like a shattered mirror, reality itself fracturing under the assault.
The tremor reached Finn in less than a heartbeat.
At that precise moment, Finn's palm swept across Shindokutō's tip. The demon blade turned completely black, radiating an aura of absolute annihilation.
Facing the overwhelming vibration force, Finn's expression remained utterly calm. He simply let Shindokutō fall in a natural, inevitable arc.
The instant the tremor made contact with the blade, it collapsed. The dark energy halo devouring everything around Shindokutō absorbed the vibration force like water into sand. Using the demon blade as his spearpoint, Finn kicked off the ground and charged straight into Newgate's attack.
Wherever Shindokutō's edge passed, the vibration force simply ceased to exist.
In a blink, Finn had broken through to striking range. His eyes burned with killing intent as he raised Shindokutō and brought it down toward Newgate's chest.
Newgate's gaze turned sharp. Vibration force erupted beneath his feet, and he used the explosive recoil to throw himself backward, gaining three to five meters of separation.
Finn's first strike missed its target. The power behind it tore through space itself, leaving a dark, slowly-repairing crack hanging in the air.
At that moment, a stream of scorching heat breath burst from the distance, accompanied by crackling thunder. It wasn't aimed at either Finn or Newgate specifically. Kaido's attack had simply missed Gion and was now sweeping directly toward Finn's position.
Without breaking stride, Finn slashed toward the approaching heat breath.
Shindokutō cleaved the attack in half. The two separated streams of fire and lightning swept past on either side of Finn's body, leaving him untouched.
But the interruption had slowed him for a fraction of a second. Before Finn could fully recover his stance, Murakumogiri was already descending from overhead, wrapped in concentrated vibration force.
Finn's reaction was instantaneous. Without dodging or defending, he simply swung Shindokutō upward to meet the attack.
BOOM!
The Void Slash struck Murakumogiri's vibration coating. In a single moment, the tremor force began to dissipate, consumed by the gravitational void.
But Newgate's other hand was already moving. A transparent sphere of energy formed around his fist as he drove it toward Finn's torso.
The strategy was clear: use Murakumogiri to occupy Shindokutō, then counterattack with a tremor-enhanced punch.
Red light flashed in Finn's eyes. He remained utterly unmoved. Faint purple light gathered around his free hand, transforming into a sphere that wrapped his fist. He met Newgate's punch head-on.
It seemed like Newgate wanted to lock them into a contest of strength, to wrestle for dominance. But Finn didn't give him that opportunity.
The instant gravity and vibration collided, Finn snarled, "Detonate!"
The dark purple gravity in his fist exploded.
A concentrated gravitational shockwave detonated point-blank. The force was tremendous, catching Newgate completely off-guard. His footing failed, and the explosion hurled him backward through the air.
As Newgate's massive frame flew helplessly, Finn's eyes blazed with lethal intent. He kicked off with Geppo, his body appearing above the airborne pirate in a flash. Shindokutō, still wrapped in the power of Void Slash, fell toward Newgate's exposed chest.
"Pops!"
A streak of blue flame intercepted the strike. Marco threw himself between Finn and his captain.
The next instant, Shindokutō cut Marco in half.
The Phoenix's severed body plummeted toward the ground, already beginning to regenerate in blue fire.
Had Marco's sacrifice bought Newgate the time he needed? Or perhaps there had been no need for the intervention at all.
Just as Shindokutō was about to pierce Newgate's chest, that same subtle, seemingly insignificant vibration appeared. An invisible defensive layer formed precisely where the blade would strike, intercepting the Void Slash with perfect precision.
Surprise flickered across Finn's eyes. This was the first time anyone had blocked this technique.
Shock registered in Newgate's expression as well.
Because he could feel it. The technique was still eating through his defense. It was unstoppable.
In the next second, both their faces changed drastically.
At the point where the subtle tremor met the Void Slash, a sphere began to form. Black and white energies spiraled together, fusing into something new. Something neither of them had created.
The sphere was roughly the size of a fist, but the power condensing within it radiated a threat that made both combatants' instincts scream warnings.
Their eyes met. Surprise and confusion reflected in both gazes.
"Not you?" they said simultaneously.
In that fraction of a second, each had assumed this fusion was the other's hidden trump card. But seeing the matching shock in their opponent's eyes, the truth became clear. Neither had intended this.
There was no time for further thought. Both Newgate and Finn immediately wrapped themselves in flowing Armament Haki, layering their defenses as thickly as possible.
The black and white sphere detonated.
An overwhelming surge of energy swallowed both men instantly. Their figures were hurled away like ragdolls. Then the shockwave expanded outward, a hurricane of pure destructive force that consumed the entire island.
Charlotte Linlin, Kaido, Kuzan, Smoker, and Gion all stopped fighting simultaneously. They braced themselves against the blast, Haki flaring as they weathered the storm.
The shockwave came fast and departed just as quickly. Within moments, it had dissipated completely.
But the damage remained.
Jam Island's iconic massive castle had collapsed entirely, reduced to rubble. The surface layer of earth across half the island had been stripped away, revealing barren sand and exposed bedrock beneath.
At the epicenter where Finn and Newgate had clashed, the devastation was even more extreme. A massive crater had formed, its walls smooth and glassy. The solid ground had been pulverized into powder by the energy discharge, transformed into fine desert sand.
"Cough... cough..."
Finn's head emerged from the sand pit. He spat out a mouthful of grit mixed with blood. Shindokutō was still clutched in his hand, but the black energy of Void Slash had vanished. The technique had been forcibly dispersed.
"What the hell was that?!" Finn spat out another mouthful of sand and cursed.
A hundred meters away, Newgate's head broke the surface of a different sand drift. When he fully emerged, it was clear that half his distinctive beard had been blown off, leaving the remaining half looking absurdly lopsided.
The moment Newgate pulled himself free, his face flushed deep red. He tried to hold it back, but couldn't. Blood erupted from his mouth in a violent spray, far more than what Finn had coughed up.
The outcome of their clash was unmistakable.
Finn had the upper hand.
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