At that moment, looking at the pitch-black lion phantom behind Shiki, which seemed like a demon god brought to life, Yemu was deeply shaken.
This power truly lived up to the legend of a great pirate who stood alongside Roger and Whitebeard.
Compared to Captain John, who had also been a great swordsman, the pressure Shiki was showing now surpassed him by far.
A power like that of a demon god was simply astonishing.
Seeing the surprise in Yemu's eyes, the corner of Shiki's mouth lifted slightly. His body slowly floated upward, and he tightened his grip on the twin blades in his hands. Then he asked with boundless arrogance, "Well, brat, want to feel my way of the sword?"
"!"
Yemu froze for a moment, but then his entire body grew excited.
Under the pressure of this power, strong enough to feel like a demon god, he felt not the slightest trace of fear. Instead, every cell in his body seemed to come alive.
"In that case, I'll gladly accept. Come, Shiki. Let me feel the power of a legend!"
"Shihahaha… You're starting to suit my tastes a little, brat."
As the words fell, a crimson glow appeared in Shiki's eyes. The massive pitch-black evil lion phantom behind him followed, coiling around the twin blades he had raised high, before he slashed downward through the air.
"Lion Style: Secret Art: Lion God!"
In an instant, as Shiki swung both blades, a gigantic lion roared from the sky and pounced toward Yemu.
"Demon Bind: Nine Dragon Inferno Garment: Nine Dragons Possession!"
Without any hesitation, dense, pitch-black Haki wrapped around Yemu's entire body, protecting him. At the same time, he held Shishimaru and Tengoku in front of himself.
In the next instant, the surrounding space seemed to twist as Shiki's Lion God swallowed Yemu completely.
Rumble.
The center of the island was filled with a pitch-black aura. Everything around it churned like overturned seas and rivers. The ground was torn up layer by layer, cracking and exploding as shattered stone and ice flew everywhere.
At the center of that Lion God, the immense pressure made Yemu feel as if he were carrying a mountain on his back. He could not control it at all. The ground beneath his feet began collapsing nonstop.
That sensation reminded him of Sengoku's shockwaves, but Shiki's slash was clearly superior.
Because on top of its powerful impact, Shiki's Lion God also carried the sharpness unique to a swordsman's slash.
As faint stings of pain spread across him, Yemu caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye. Thin streaks of blood had appeared across his body.
With his current physical strength, pain like this naturally did not amount to much. But the fact that it could break directly through his Armament Haki defense and injure his body was already enough to show how powerful Shiki's slash was.
However, at that moment, he had no intention of counterattacking.
Because he understood that this might be an opportunity for him.
Just as Shiki had said, his swordsmanship really was terrible. His slashes were only swung with raw physical strength. They were nothing like those of a great swordsman such as Shiki, who relied on the power of Haki.
So Yemu calmed down instead and began using his Observation Haki to carefully sense the mystery behind Shiki's strike.
The revival of the power from Rocks's heart had not only strengthened his Armament Haki. His Observation Haki had also become even more powerful.
Although he still had not awakened anything like the ability to hear the Voice of All Things or foresee the future, his perception of this world had already reached an extremely refined level.
The moment he focused his senses…
In a world invisible to the human eye, a world made of the immaterial, something as tiny as a needle and as sharp as steel suddenly flashed into existence within the empty void.
The more he sensed, the more of those tiny steel needles appeared.
In that void, a fine black rain of needles instantly began to fall.
Among the black rain filling the sky, flowing streaks of bright red occasionally appeared.
That was crimson blood.
Finally, as his perception expanded completely, what appeared within his senses was a gigantic lion made of those steel needles, one that had swallowed him whole.
And now, he could see it clearly.
He could see exactly how those steel needles broke through the Ryuo defense of his Armament Haki.
Piercing the surface through a single point.
The strongest spear against the strongest shield.
If the Demon Bind Yemu now possessed used an endless flow of Haki like water, overcoming hardness with softness, then the Armament Haki contained within Shiki's slash used the most fierce and forceful method, like a wild beast, to turn into an indestructible blade that broke through Demon Bind's defense.
Suddenly, Yemu understood something.
He remembered his training with Rayleigh-san on Rusukaina.
That had been three months of training specifically meant to master the power of internal destruction in Armament Haki. Unfortunately, due to an unexpected incident, he had interrupted that training and instead started digging into the power of his own body.
Of course, it had not been entirely fruitless. From Anne, he had learned Anne's unique Armament Haki technique, Demon Bind.
Since then, whenever Yemu faced powerful enemies on the battlefield, it had practically become his strongest Armament Haki technique. Aside from facing Sengoku and the power of Conqueror's Haki coating, it could be said to have never lost.
From then on, he had stopped caring much about the so-called power of Armament Haki's internal destruction.
Because he felt that the technique of Demon Bind was already enough for him.
It was not until he faced Sengoku that his Demon Bind suffered its first defeat. But even then, he had believed it was because Sengoku combined his Devil Fruit and Armament Haki to produce such tremendous power. And after the power of Rocks in his heart awakened, the tide had turned in his favor.
But now, before Shiki's slash, he finally experienced just how powerful the purest form of Armament Haki's internal destruction truly was.
If he could master Demon Bind plus internal destruction, then perhaps he would reach the top of this world in terms of Armament Haki.
The strongest shield plus the strongest spear.
Both destructive power and defensive power would reach their limit.
And now might be that opportunity.
There was no better teacher than battle.
So what he had to do now was learn.
Learn from Shiki. Sense the power of Haki within his slash.
Learn. Control. Transform.
The strongest spear versus the strongest spear.
The result appeared quietly.
High above, beneath the cloud-covered sky.
Seeing Yemu struggling to hold on under his slash, countless bloody marks beginning to splash across his body, Shiki showed a proud smile.
But that smile did not last long.
After only a few breaths, his face suddenly filled with shock.