"Garling!"
Saint Saturn threw his head back and roared, fury and shock tangled together.
For the first time, something called fear surfaced in his eyes.
Immortality was not invincibility.
The sea itself, and supreme Conqueror's Haki pushed to its limit, were natural counters to that twisted power.
Being burned to ash by magma might still allow regeneration.
But being smashed straight into the deep sea tens of thousands of meters below? Even Lord Im could not save him.
Saint Figarland Garling, commander of the God's Knights, head of the Figarland family, was dead?
Truly dead?
Across from him, Borsalino smiled faintly.
"You still have quite a voice, Saint Saturn."
"Borsalino!"
Saturn spun around. His aged face twisted with absolute rage as black lightning crackled around him. His body warped and transformed.
Spider-like limbs burst from his lower body. Twisted horns grew from his head. In moments, he took on the monstrous form of the legendary ox-demon.
"You faithless traitor!"
He roared, voice shaking the air.
"Turn back now and I can still forgive you in the name of the World Government!"
"Kill Hawk right now!"
"I can even consider a promotion."
"I will make you Fleet Admiral!"
Silence.
The teasing smile on Borsalino's face vanished completely.
He slowly removed his amber-tinted sunglasses, revealing eyes as cold and sharp as blades.
"My retirement fund is already more than enough."
He paused.
"And now…"
His voice dropped, stripped of all laziness.
"I just want to beat you senseless."
"Light-Speed Kick."
The instant the words left his mouth, Borsalino became a pillar of golden light that pierced the sky.
Boom.
Saturn had no time to react. A Haki-coated boot slammed squarely into his grotesque face.
Golden light exploded on impact, sending Saturn flying.
Blood sprayed through the air, mixed with shattered teeth.
But that was only the beginning.
Borsalino reappeared above him in a flash, driving a crushing kick straight down.
Saturn was hurled toward the ice.
Impact followed impact.
Borsalino became a merciless execution machine, every strike aimed squarely at Saturn's face.
Each kick carried the terrifying power of a Marine Admiral.
Each kick landed on the exact same spot.
Each kick twisted Saturn's self-righteous face further into something monstrous.
Don't worry, Saturn.
Borsalino's mind was ice-cold.
We are old acquaintances. I will not be the one to kill you.
Because someone else is far more suited to send you to hell.
In his thoughts appeared the image of a man who was always silent, always gentle.
Bartholomew Kuma.
Borsalino had watched Kuma fall, step by step, from the king of the Sorbet Kingdom into a tool of the World Government, nearly reduced to a mindless weapon.
And every tragedy led back to one man.
Saint Jaygarcia Saturn.
It was Saturn who, under the title of the World Government's God of Science and Defense, had conducted inhuman experiments on Kuma's lover, Ginny, a fellow revolutionary.
Those experiments gave her the incurable Sapphire Scale disease.
A sickness that caused blue-green scales to appear on the skin under sunlight, ending in a slow, agonizing death.
Ginny gave birth to a daughter amid that suffering.
Jewelry Bonney.
From birth, the child inherited the same curse. She was never meant to live past ten.
To save his daughter, Kuma gave up everything.
His crown.
His ideals.
Even his dignity as a human being.
He signed a pact with Saturn.
He became the prototype Pacifista.
Accepted total modification.
Allowed his consciousness to be erased.
All for a chance to cure Bonney.
Saturn destroyed everything Kuma had.
Turned a great father into a disposable tool.
Shattered a family beyond repair.
Hatred this deep could drown the sky and sea alike.
So Borsalino would not kill Saturn.
He would break him. Ruin him.
Then he would hand the right of execution back to the man who deserved a peaceful life.
Boom.
Borsalino's final kick gathered every shred of his rage.
"Heavenly Cluster Crash!"
Golden light reached its peak.
With one strike, Saturn was driven straight down into the ice.
The blue-white icefield shattered, forming a massive crater as cracks spread outward.
Just before the impact reached the bottom, the force vanished.
Freezing seawater rushed in, forming a watery prison that trapped Saturn inside.
Borsalino landed at the edge of the crater, looking down at Saturn's broken body struggling to regenerate in the water.
He quietly put his sunglasses back on, hiding the killing intent in his eyes.
"Kuma. He's yours."
Kuma appeared behind him in silence.
He looked at Borsalino. His heavy lips parted slightly, but no words came.
The gratitude in his eyes spoke louder than anything.
Borsalino understood.
He grinned, bright and shameless.
"Kuma-san, as payment…"
"You owe me a huge pizza."
Kuma nodded solemnly.
Borsalino said nothing more. His body turned into a beam of light and vanished.
Some grudges must be settled by one's own hands.
Kuma turned slowly, his expression blank as he looked at Saturn, trapped in the water and struggling to reassemble his ruined body.
He raised his palm toward the pit.
"Pressure Cannon."
An invisible shockwave blasted the seawater and Saturn's broken body out of the crater.
A mass of mangled flesh slammed onto the ice.
"Bartholomew Kuma!"
Saturn howled with venom and despair, half his face gone.
"You lowborn tool! How dare you…"
His words turned into a scream.
Kuma was suddenly in front of him.
A massive hand pressed lightly onto the half-regenerated spider limb.
With a wet burst, it exploded like a punctured balloon, scattering blood into the air.
Saturn screamed.
After Borsalino's beating and the seawater's suppression, his regeneration had slowed to a crawl.
Every strike now was agony.
Another limb regrew.
Another palm strike erased it.
Kuma moved slowly.
Patiently.
Like an executioner who had waited far too long.
Piece by piece, he erased Saturn's body from this world.
At the same time, the battles involving the other four Elders raged on, each reaching their own breaking point.
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