Chapter 1002: The Overwhelming Might of Aeridar

Chapter 1002: Chapter 1002: The Overwhelming Might of Aeridar

Boom—!

Brilliant sunlight poured down, illuminating the cavernous room as Nami and Usopp pushed aside a flipped steel worktable. Crawling out from underneath, they shivered as they took in the absolute devastation surrounding them.

Not far behind them, Zoro was largely buried under a mound of shattered concrete. One of his lower legs hung limply outward, twitching slightly, while Wado Ichimonji lay on the ground just out of his reach.

"Zoro!"

"Zoro, are you alright?!"

Nami and Usopp called out in hushed, panicked whispers. Crawling over on all fours, they frantically began clawing away the heavy debris covering his body.

Fortunately, the VIP Customization Area was located on the valley’s surface. Unlike the Munitions Vault and parts of the Arms Manufacturing District, it hadn’t been built underground. Had that been the case, the room would have long since been buried under tons of earth and stone, and Nami and Usopp would have been fighting for their own survival, let alone pulling Zoro out of the rubble.

"I must admit, I underestimated you. To think your technique possessed that kind of hidden power."

Aeridar looked over calmly at Law, who was pinned beneath several collapsed ceiling tiles a dozen meters away. His tone now carried a genuine shred of respect.

Rumble—!

Thrusting his hands upward, Law shoved the massive fragments of concrete off his body and pushed himself to his feet. Crimson droplets of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, staining the dusty floor beneath him.

His Paramecia-class Devil Fruit gave him supernatural spatial manipulation, but it did not grant him a superhuman body like Luffy’s. He couldn’t simply shrug off blunt physical trauma. Taking that massive shockwave directly to the chest had done severe damage, and as a surgeon, he knew exactly how grim his internal injuries were.

"To think you actually dared to betray us. Did you honestly think our Captain was on the same level as a lowlife like Doflamingo?" Mina stood at Aeridar’s side, her eyes flashing with mockery and lethal intent. "Kid, Urouge, Drake... you self-proclaimed Supernovas are all the same. So staggeringly full of yourselves, yet entirely blind to your own limitations. Did you truly believe any of you had what it takes to become the next King of the Pirates? Hehehehe..."

By the end of her sentence, Mina couldn’t help but cover her mouth, letting out a sharp, mocking giggle.

So what if they were Supernovas?

Enrod, Betilla, Abel, Cavendish, Caribou... who among them hadn’t been a celebrated Supernova in their own respective years?

Over the years, an endless stream of arrogant Supernovas had tried to challenge her Captain. Even among the rookies who had entered the New World during the same generation as Aeridar, barely any remained active today.

Fire Fist Ace had died during the Paramount War, but people forgot that he had been completely humiliated and beaten by her Captain back at the Sabaody Archipelago. Furthermore, Ace’s sworn brother, Sabo of the Revolutionary Army, was currently locked away on Alvis Island, serving as a glorified lab rat. Now, the Straw Hat brat had just been captured as well. It wouldn’t be long before the two brothers had a grand reunion in the dungeons.

With only Trafalgar Law and Roronoa Zoro left standing, did they honestly believe they could turn the tables?

Law completely tuned out Mina’s taunts. While keeping the majority of his focus locked onto Aeridar, his eyes darted subtly toward the surrounding landscape.

He knew that their only viable path to survival was to find an opening to escape, not to throw their lives away in a futile war of attrition.

On the other side, Zoro dragged himself up and clamped Wado Ichimonji back between his teeth. Turning his gaze to the remaining two, he muttered around his blade, "I’ll take the vanguard and buy you as much time as I can. You two need to run as far away from here as possible."

Without waiting for Nami or Usopp to protest, Zoro coated his blades in Armament Haki, turning them pitch-black as he surged forward with ferocious speed.

"Damn it! I’ll cover you!"

Usopp gritted his teeth, forcing down the paralyzing terror gripping his chest. Snapping open his black Kuro Kabuto slingshot, he locked his sights onto Aeridar and fired a black, seed-like projectile the size of a marble.

"Special Attack: Green Star – Skull Bombgrass!"

"The Sniper King, is it...? A presumptuous title. Blood Bullet!"

Sensing the incoming projectile, Mina casually flicked her wrist. A pool of stray blood on the floor rose as if pulled by an independent gravity, condensing into a fist-sized crimson orb. She hurled it forward, meeting the incoming seed dead-on.

Boom—!

A massive detonation erupted before them, sending a billowing cloud of purplish-red smoke shaped like a giant skull into the air, accompanied by three concentric shockwaves that blasted outward.

In the next instant, a colossal blue-and-white flying slash tore cleanly through the skull-shaped smoke. Enveloped in a razor-sharp gale, it howled through the air as it lunged toward its target.

"Impact Wall!"

Faced with the incoming strike, Aeridar expressionlessly held out a single flat palm. A tremendous concussive force instantly compressed the atmosphere before him, solidifying into a transparent barrier of displaced air.

The localized wall of air was denser than solid steel. The flying slash collided against it with a deafening, metallic screech, hanging in a violent deadlock for a fraction of a second before losing its momentum and dissolving into nothingness.

As the purple skull smoke completely dispersed, Zoro broke through the perimeter. His swords spun like a violent windmill, generating a localized tempest.

"Over the nine mountains and eight seas... there is nothing I cannot cut! Three Sword Style: Secret Technique... Three Thousand Worlds!"

In a flash, a blinding aura of cold steel exploded as the entirety of Zoro’s blade-intent reached its absolute zenith.

"Unbelievable...!"

Staring at the blinding flash of the sword strike, even Law couldn’t help but part his lips in shock.

Boom—!

The explosive shockwave detonated violently, causing the entire VIP Customization Area to rock so violently it felt as though a massive earthquake had struck the valley.

When the blinding glare faded, the remaining onlookers stood frozen in absolute horror. Aeridar stood completely unmoved, his bare, Haki-clad hands clamping firmly onto the edges of Zoro’s two hand-held blades, while his teeth were clamped down hard on the very tip of Wado Ichimonji.

Crack.

A sharp fracturing sound echoed out.

Three hair-line fractures materialized in the air directly behind Aeridar before violently rupturing into three deep, elongated chasms. The structural tears rippled outward instantly, tearing through the entire length of the VIP Customization room.

"Th-This can’t be..."

Zoro’s face turned completely pale. He stared at his three blades in utter disbelief, every single one of them completely neutralized.

He had cast aside his pride, kneeling before his ultimate enemy, Hawkeye Mihawk, to beg for instruction. He had endured two years of hellish, unremitting training, vowing that he would never lose another battle. Was this the reality of the world?

"A truly ferocious style of swordsmanship," Aeridar remarked, looking down at Zoro with a touch of genuine admiration. "I can see Hawkeye’s shadow within your blade. He who mimics the master dies; he who learns from the master lives. You have found the path to survival."

Right at that moment, Law deployed his ROOM circle once more. Vaulting forward in a desperate sprint, he brought Kikoku down in a savage arc toward Aeridar’s exposed neck, visible currents of high-voltage electricity crackling wildly along the edge.

"Get lost!"

Aeridar released his grip on Zoro’s blades and spat out the third sword. With a thunderous shout, his fist moved like a flash of lightning, slamming a devastating punch squarely into Zoro’s chest. The catastrophic impact shattered the swordsman’s breastbone, forcing a fountain of blood from his lips as he was blasted backward, crashing heavily onto the shattered ground dozens of meters away.

Swiveling around instantly, Aeridar unleashed a sweeping high-kick that whined through the air, colliding violently with Law’s incoming blade.

Clang—!

A deafening ring echoed through the room. Law felt as though he had struck a mountain of solid diamond; the terrifying feedback sent a violent tremor up his arms, splitting the skin of his palms and nearly tearing the sword from his grip.

Even with the combined force of Armament Haki and his high-frequency electrical charge, the blade couldn’t leave a single scratch on Aeridar’s defense. Panic flared in Law’s chest. Acting on pure instinct, he triggered his ability, swapping his position with a rectangular metal desk a dozen meters away.

Materializing across the room, Law’s expression was grim as he muttered to himself, "I have to find a way to..."

Before the words could fully leave his mouth, his entire body went rigid. A cold dread washed over him as he sensed a presence looming directly behind him.

"...to find a way to escape, right?"

Aeridar stood directly behind Law, his face entirely expressionless as he calmly finished the surgeon’s sentence.

In the next fraction of a second, Aeridar clamped a massive hand onto the back of Law’s head and slammed him violently into the dirt, burying his skull deep into the shattered floor.

The ground imploded, caving inward into a massive crater as Law’s upper body was driven into the earth.