Chapter 239: Despair
“Hah!!!”
“Kaido!!!”
A roar shattered the firmament.
No one could associate it with a dying man; this roar was like an enraged red dragon or a world-shaking thunderclap!
“Pfft—!”*n
The sound wave exploded like a tangible force. Countless spectators below couldn’t even cover their ears in time before feeling their chests struck by a massive hammer. Their organs shifted instantly, blood spraying from eyes, ears, mouth, and nose as they fell in droves.
Crack~
This was the sound of bones shattering.
Abandoning all defense, even forcibly suppressing the body’s instinctive self-protection… Under the Momo Fruit’s hundredfold enhancement, Wald’s body naturally began to collapse.
Not just the bones…
His blood was burning too, flesh evaporating, soul boiling!
He was squeezing out every last bit of his remaining life and consuming it entirely!
He was charging headlong toward death without looking back!
But it didn’t matter anymore; none of it was important.
His right fist, raised to strike, remained intact. That was enough.
As long as he could swing this punch, it was enough!
A fist carried by hesitation is weak and powerless…
So the fist bearing his lifelong belief, unfulfilled dream, and all unrealized futures—TMD is naturally absolutely invincible!!!
……
Skin cracked inch by inch, blood turning to blood mist before it could splatter, coiling around the fist’s edge like a ferocious blood dragon!
Consciousness fading, but the belief etched into his soul turned to Haki, making his fist glow brilliantly!
This was the superhuman fist of the trinity: Wald’s entire life, dream, and future fused as one!
“Momo Hundred Times Fist!!!”
Clang!!!
The fist collided with the Wolf Fang Club as expected, then erased everything around it just like before.
The heavy dark clouds that had loomed over everyone’s heads vanished in an instant, the warm sunlight as if announcing that everything just now was an illusion.
……
『So light… Kaido’s attack.』
『And my body, my body feels so light too…』
After swinging the punch with all his might, Wald felt himself floating lightly, like sinking into cotton, unable to exert force anywhere.
Kaido’s attack opposite him was the same; each blow before had felt like a mountain crashing down… but now it had no substance, like clouds, as if a slight push could scatter him.
『Was his original power always this light?』
But unfortunately, he himself was too light too.
So light he couldn’t even control his own actions, drifting like willow fluff in the wind, unable to act on his own.
He just needed to push his arm forward a tiny bit, but…
『The air is so heavy, the wind so strong, am I about to fly away?』
『Fly into the sky…?』
Suddenly, as Wald’s consciousness grew ethereal and was about to drift away with the wind, his shoulder sank.
Like a thin paper on the verge of being blown away suddenly pinned by a paperweight, Wald’s consciousness was anchored back into his body.
『Wald.』
A familiar voice rang out suddenly, and Wald instinctively turned his head and spoke… just like he’d done countless times before.
『Boss?』
His line of sight confirmed it: Bin Jack.
『You feel so heavy, Boss.』
『Haha, is that so?』
『Yeah, before when you sat on my shoulder I didn’t feel a thing… Did you get stronger, Boss?』
Wald’s voice turned joyful, as if casting aside all sense of wrongness.
Time seemed to kindly stretch out for the brothers, letting them continue talking.
『Perhaps.』
『Great! Then Boss, can you help push my fist forward a bit?』
『I can’t muster the strength.』
『Haha, no problem, Boss will help you right now.』
Bin Jack’s figure leaped down from Wald’s shoulder, then under his gaze, extended those gaunt arms to gently push from behind his shoulder, and then…
The fist thrust forward.
……
Beep—!
Blinding light temporarily blinded eyes, intense vibrations turned ears to white noise… the brain entered self-protection mode.
To cope with the drastic environmental changes, the brain automatically shut off all external inputs—sight, sound, vibration… everyone’s consciousness briefly plunged into darkness.
……
……
How much time passed?
One second? One minute? Or ten minutes?
Time meant nothing in the darkness, so the crowd just counted numbers… hoping release from the dark after reaching a certain one.
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29…
Finally, the first prisoner was released.
Embers, with his heaven-granted body that could survive any environment, first regained his senses, ignoring those around him to immediately look toward the sky.
The sunlight was a bit glaring… but it had no effect on him.
But a humanoid silhouette gripped his heart tightly!
Whoosh—!
Jet-black wings unfurled instantly as Embers burst skyward at speed beyond his limits, steadily catching that figure.
“Mr. Kaido!”
“Mr. Kaido!”
Blood dripped continuously from between Embers’ fingers, taking several seconds to fall into the sea below, then scattered by the sea current and fully merged into the vast sea.
Kaido’s hands… no, he had no hands left.
From the upper arms down, only a short stump remained where bloodied flesh and bone twisted together into a ‘thing’.
The jet-black Wolf Fang Club once gripped in his hands was long gone, perhaps knocked into the sea or directly shattered into countless fragments by Wald’s fist… the latter seemed more likely now.
But what truly worried Embers wasn’t the arms or Wolf Fang Club, but Kaido’s chest—where the heart, once multiply protected by dragon scales, flesh, and breastbone, now lay bloodily exposed to the air.
Thump~
……
Thump~
……
It was still beating, right? It should still be beating…
Even with Embers’ superhuman hearing, it was hard to call this a heartbeat; more like unconscious trembling after exhausting all power.
No trace of life’s vitality, just feeble struggle at the end.
Pat~
Gently landing back on the ship, Embers carefully laid Kaido on the deck, then began shouting:
“Ship Doctor! Where’s the Ship Doctor!”
“…”
No response; everyone on the ship was still trapped in sensory deprivation darkness.
Helpless, Embers barged into the medical room… but the Ship Doctor inside had long since been shaken to bleeding from all orifices, dead for some time.
A sense of despair gradually crept into the heart of this young man from the Lunarian Clan.
