"This is the woman Kaburi spoke of, isn't it!"
A peculiar glint flashed in his sapphire-blue eyes.
This woman gave him a very strange feeling, as if she were a being of pure hatred, her soul filled with a mad aura. Yet, at the very core, at the deepest level of that madness, there seemed to be something different.
That aura, so antithetical to hatred and wickedness, made the woman appear contradictory in his eyes.
The red glow in his eyes intensified. Kong Tai ignored Karthes, his gaze fixed on the woman's blood-red eyes.
Perhaps it was an instant, perhaps an eternity.
Finally.
He seemed to see.
He saw.
Beneath the setting sun, a streak of white, a streak of red, a sorrow that even time could not erase, and a defiance against the heavens, and a...
Not towards ordinary people, but a colossal hatred towards the figure to her right.
This hatred and sorrow, buried within endless madness, would have been imperceptible to him if not for his exceptionally unique Kenbunshoku Haki and his spiritual strength.
"You are Gin-haku!"
Just then, a deep voice sounded again.
Karthes quickly suppressed the surprise on his face, his expression returning to its usual coldness. He looked at Kong Tai and said, "You brat, you've really kept me waiting!"
"Oh..."
Kong Tai retracted his gaze, tilted his head to look at Karthes, and a slight smile played on his lips, "Why were you waiting for me?"
"You don't want to invite me for a drink, do you!"
With a hearty laugh, he then raised his gourd, took a few deep gulps, and his entire demeanor suddenly shifted from his previous politeness and grace to one of unparalleled arrogance.
Ignoring Kong Tai's slightly mocking tone, Karthes loosened the button on his collar, stared at Kong Tai, his eyes narrowing, and suddenly... an overwhelming aura, capable of dominating the world, erupted.
It caused Kong Tai's drinking motion to freeze in mid-air.
It caused the windows around the church, the glass in those windows, to shatter instantly.
It caused the lone vultures in the sky, which had been incessantly screeching, to fall silent and plummet towards the ground.
It caused the smoke in the sky to become thick and still.
More than that, it caused the countless souls in the town below, souls that knew no fear, to raise their heads, a hint of terror in their eyes.
Crackling—!
Red lightning, like serpents, flickered incessantly around the church.
The people instinctively bent at the waist with the thunder.
Except for Kong Tai, Kuina, and Kuzan.
"So what if it's not a Devil Fruit?"
"So what if you can teleport?"
"As long as you enter my Hell Dimension today, no matter how great your abilities, you will be buried within it."
A low voice, like a demon's murmur filled with authority, echoed across the entire island.
At some point, in the town at the foot of the mountain, countless souls, along with new souls continuously emerging from various dark corners, had filled the entire town and the area outside the church.
Looking down from above, the countless souls resembled a black sea, and within that black sea were innumerable crimson, bloodthirsty eyes glowing red.
The madness and wickedness were such that it felt like stepping into a true hell.
Even the wisps of sunset that could previously be seen in the sky had completely vanished, plunging the place into darkness.
"Oh..."
"Is that so?"
Just as everyone's hearts were nearing the brink of suffocation, a slightly mocking voice resonated in their minds, followed by an equally world-dominating aura rising up.
Boom—!
The two auras, like two immensely powerful shockwaves, met at the church entrance and collided violently.
Forming a two-colored semicircle.
One half was purplish-black, the other was reddish-black.
Then, a deafening roar erupted. Lightning serpents intertwined at the point of collision, and space itself seemed on the verge of shattering, twisting incessantly. The walls at the church entrance collapsed with a boom, then, under the impact, were pulverized into dust, scattering to the sides of the collision.
Both Kuina and Kuzan, as well as the people behind Karthes, were forced to retreat repeatedly by the clash of Conqueror's Haki.
The oppressive pressure, surpassing that of single-handed Conqueror's Haki, even forced Kurot and the others to retreat to the base of the rear wall of the church. Only when their backs were against the wall did they feel slightly better.
At this moment.
Extending upwards from the point where the Conqueror's Haki collided.
The dense fog that enveloped the island's skies, as if bitten by something, revealed a large circular crater.
As the true sky and clouds were revealed, the setting sun's rays cast down, bringing a touch of warm vitality to this hellish space.
The countless souls surrounding the church also seemed to be impacted, like waves, recoiling and returning to the town.
With his back to the setting sun, Kong Tai's silver hair shimmered with an orange-yellow light, fluttering behind him.
His right hand, which had been holding the gourd, was now at his waist. His right hand, on the other hand, had grasped the hilt of Zankon.
At this moment, his entire being exuded a sharpness capable of cleaving the sky, instilling both dread and an insurmountable sense of power in the hearts of those who beheld him.
Of course, this feeling only flickered in the hearts of Kurot and the others deep within the church, not in Karthes or Kuzan.
However, Kong Tai's sharpness was now too intense, forcing them to be on guard.
Enduring Karthes's Conqueror's Haki, purple lightning flashed in Kong Tai's eyes, and he said contemptuously, "Old man, looking at your age, you must have half your body already in the grave!"
"Though I don't know what fruit you have that allows you to control souls and maintain your peak, I doubt you, no matter how powerful, can outlast me, a young man!"
"So!"
Zing—!
As the sword sang, the purplish-black space that had been clashing with Karthes's Conqueror's Haki, as if summoned by something, instantly retracted.
Then, they merged, forming a purplish-black energy that struck fear into everyone present.
The energy intertwined with purplish-black lightning.
Then, like a coiling dragon, it gradually wrapped around Zankon's silver-gray blade, turning the blade purplish-black, flashing with purple lightning, and causing the space around the blade to warp.
"Conqueror's Haki infusion?"
Staring at Kong Tai, who was crackling with purple lightning, and at the blade in his hand wrapped in purple lightning, both Kuzan and Karthes's eyes narrowed.
According to their intelligence, although Gin-haku could perform Conqueror's Haki infusion, it was clearly linked to his peculiar spatial abilities, and its offensive power was not as formidable as true Conqueror's Haki infusion.
But now...
"Grown so fast?"
"I really have you to thank!"
Kong Tai raised Zankon, shifted his right leg back, turned his body, pointed the tip of the sword at Karthes, and said with a faint smile, "Originally, I thought I'd have to reach the New World to encounter a powerful Conqueror's Haki user who would allow me to achieve true Conqueror's Haki infusion. I didn't expect... to meet you here."
As he spoke, the sharpness emanating from him grew even more intense, until he seemed to transform into a sword itself. Behind him, a phantom of a cerulean dragon head, adorned with shimmering purple lightning, appeared.