As time slowly passed, seawater roared into the giant crater left where Warship Island had exploded, the sound echoing across the sea.
The dust from the blast gradually scattered, leaving the entire ocean murky and filthy, with dirt, rubble, and wreckage floating everywhere.
With Warship Island gone, the black clouds and mist that had hung over it also dispersed, and the sky became clean and clear again.
The bright moon hung high above, lighting up the sea, while stars shimmered across both sky and water.
In that flickering light, crimson fire and azure slashes reflected against each other throughout the world.
It was clearly a breathtaking scene, yet everyone watching the battle from across the sea was tense to the extreme.
High in the sky, Yemu, his whole body wreathed in flames like a god of fire, traced elegant crimson arcs through heaven and earth.
Around those streaks of flame, John stood atop a fast-moving white cloud, twin blades in hand, his figure turning into white waves that followed alongside and answered each movement.
The two were simply too fast. From the warship, people could only see one red streak and one white streak racing through the sky, crashing into each other from time to time as fire and lightning burst everywhere.
As the battle continued, John's control over the Devil Fruit he had just eaten grew more and more refined.
Not only could he ride white clouds through the air, he could also generate lightning from the cloud beneath his feet and wrap it around his twin blades, giving his slashes the effect of lightning.
By comparison, Yemu seemed to show little change. He simply wielded the black Shishimaru and the flaming Tengoku in his hands, focusing completely on dealing with John's attacks.
And the result was obvious.
The bloody cuts on Yemu's body had gone from one to five.
They ran across his cheek, the side of his neck, his chest, his elbow joint, and his waist.
Every one of them was near a vital point. If Yemu's reactions had not been fast enough, they would have been far more than shallow wounds.
Even so, it was still troublesome.
Because with Yemu's rate of recovery, those wounds should have healed already. Instead, not only had they failed to close, there was even a faint pain coming from them.
Then the answer was simple.
The Haki wrapped around John's twin blades was not ordinary Armament Haki. It was the power of advanced Armament destruction, something Yemu had failed to master even during his training on Rusukaina.
Back on that island, Yemu had originally planned to train in exactly that ability. But after discovering his D bloodline, he had changed direction and focused instead on developing the secrets of his body.
The outcome had been good. His physical strength had increased by more than a full level, his Devil Fruit had developed consciousness, and he had learned Anne's unique Haki-wrapping technique, Demon Bind. But in the end, he still had not mastered advanced Armament destruction.
Before this, he had never run into anyone who had mastered it, or if he had, they had never ended up fighting.
But now John stood before him, a powerhouse from the previous era, a man worth 2.38 billion Belly, and at last he had revealed that power.
Against a slash like this, Yemu's Logia elemental transformation was useless. He could not evade it at all.
Yemu's pupils moved rapidly, coordinating with his Observation Haki as he dealt with each of John's attacks. But he could already tell that if this kept going, sooner or later one strike would land cleanly.
No one could guarantee they would never make a mistake.
Yemu could not guarantee that either.
So as he watched John coming at him,
Yemu raised Tengoku high.
"Inferno Dragon Hellfire Slash!"
Pitch-black Armament Haki and blazing energy flames coiled around the blade.
A slash woven from red and black energy, carrying the force to destroy everything, cut straight toward John.
Seeing that strike, John, who had already begun to feel victory was in his grasp, was visibly startled. Then he shouted in excitement,
"Now that's a slash worth looking at!"
As soon as the words fell, John raised his twin blades high above his head. Light flashed where the tips crossed.
"Falling Star!"
As he swung down, the dazzling slash looked like a meteor falling from the heavens, dragging a long burning tail through the air.
In the next instant, the two slashes collided.
Across the sky, it was as if a falling meteor had crashed head-on into a slash that could cut through anything.
The violent impact became a shockwave like a raging storm, spreading in every direction.
The blinding flash forced everyone to shut their eyes.
The people on the warship's deck had no time to react and were blown off their feet.
The sea churned violently, and the warship rose and fell with the waves.
And at the center of that blazing light, the two figures clashed again.
Only now, Yemu had switched from two-sword style to one-sword style, gripping a single blade with both hands.
The effect was immediate.
John instantly felt the increase in power coming through Yemu's blade, and his body was actually forced half a step back.
The moment Yemu saw that, he seized the opportunity.
In an instant, the tide turned.
At that moment, John understood Yemu's plan.
"So that's it. You know you can't beat me with technique, so you're planning to crush skill with pure force!"
And as if in answer to him,
Yemu gave up all sword techniques, and even gave up slashing attacks altogether. Instead, he launched a storm of close-range blade-against-blade chops at John, like relentless wind and rain, leaving him no chance to dodge or respond.
The effect was immediate.
Faced with Yemu going all out, relying purely on physical strength and pressure from his weapon, John was forced onto the defensive for a moment, his brow tightening.
The sheer physical power Yemu displayed left him deeply shocked.
"To have this level of physical strength at such a young age... this kid is even more terrifying than Linlin was when she was young!"
"But... right now, you're full of openings..."
At that thought, a dangerous gleam flashed through John's eyes.
"Cross Star Slash!"
At an almost unbelievable angle and speed, John lowered his body slightly, dodged Yemu's strike, and swung both blades out.
"Pfft..."
Two streaks of blade-light cut across Yemu's chest, and blood sprayed out.
"Finally landed it..."
But before he could enjoy it for even a second, a tremendous sense of danger hit him. Turning sideways, he saw a fist wrapped in flames and Haki smashing toward his head.
"!!!"
"Boom..."
John's body instantly shot downward like a meteor, crashing toward the sea.
As a Devil Fruit user, John naturally knew what would happen if he fell into the ocean.
Just before he hit the water, clusters of white clouds appeared behind him and forcibly cushioned his fall, stopping his descent in midair.
But even so...
He touched his burning cheek and the scorched ends of his long hair.
Luckily, he had reacted in time and brought a blade across his side to block the punch. Otherwise, it would not have ended this simply...
"Did he do that on purpose?"
As if answering the thought in his mind, Yemu, suspended in the sky, suddenly sheathed the only blade he had left, Tengoku. Then he brushed a hand across the bleeding cross-shaped wound on his chest, looked coldly at John on the sea below, and said,
"Looks like I really am no match for you in swordsmanship. In that case, I don't have a choice. Using my body to take blades head-on may be stupid, but right now it's the only option I've got..."
"Demon Bind. Nine Dragon Inferno Garment!"