Chapter 154: The Ultimate Flash

Spider is slowly waking up from a deep darkness, his brain still somewhat groggy.

The severe pain coming from his wounds stimulated his nerves instantly, causing Spider to jerk awake from his semi-consciousness and instinctively adopt a defensive posture against potential enemies.

However, when he opened his eyes and looked around, he found the sea and sky remarkably serene. A magnificent, colorful sunset hung over half the firmament, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the gentle whispering of the sea breeze remained.

"Where is the Dark King Rayleigh?"

Disregarding his weakened body, Spider cast his gaze far and wide, searching for that heinous and vicious enemy.

Rayleigh's figure was nowhere to be seen; Spider only saw a familiar silhouette standing quietly atop the bow of a nearby warship.

The armor he wore reflected the dim orange glow of the setting sun, and the greatsword planted slantwise into the deck was illuminated by the twilight to an extraordinary brilliance, presenting a distant sense of detachment and solitary pride from the world.

Clutching his wounds, Spider moved forward with difficulty, his heavy footsteps immediately alerting Garen, who stood proudly ahead.

Garen turned to look at Spider and greeted him in a friendly tone: "You're awake?"

Spider had no time for pleasantries with Garen and anxiously blurted out a question:

"Rayleigh, he is..."

The question stuck entirely in his throat as his eyes, filled with extreme shock, landed on the sword clutched in Garen's hand:

It was a roughly four-foot-long chaotic-bladed katana, pitch-black, heavy, and as solid as a rock.

This was the renowned Black Blade Shusui among swordsmen, and moreover... the personal weapon of the Dark King Rayleigh.

Having just been defeated by this very sword, Spider could not help but widen his eyes, asking with ungraceful and terrified astonishment: "Why is this sword in your possession?"

"......"

Garen remained silent.

He had been standing at the bow of the ship daydreaming for so long that he still hadn't figured out how to make up a story.

But Spider quickly let his own imagination run wild:

He thought of the peak duel he had witnessed with his own eyes, recalled Rayleigh's slight display of fatigue during the battle before he lost consciousness, and then looked at the Black Blade Shusui now held firmly in Garen's grip...

"You defeated the Dark King Rayleigh?!"

Spider arrived at this earth-shattering conclusion.

"No."

Garen shook his head decisively; even with his thick skin, he couldn't bring himself to claim he had defeated the Dark King Rayleigh.

"Then why..."

Seeing that Spider was about to press on with more questions, Garen had no choice but to bite the bullet and say:

"After a fierce and protracted battle with me, he chose to leave of his own accord."

"Perhaps because he appreciated my swordsmanship, Rayleigh left this Black Blade Shusui behind before departing and presented it to me as a reward."

"......"

The astonishment on Spider's face still refused to settle; he found it hard to believe Garen's explanation:

A swordsman would never easily abandon his blade, let alone a master of the Dark King's caliber.

Even if Rayleigh had succumbed to some old habit of veteran experts nurturing promising newcomers, the right-hand man of the Pirate King shouldn't be "mentoring" an ally of the World Government...

That's right...

Because of Garen's dazzling display of daring to challenge even the Dark King Rayleigh in order to aid the Marines, Spider, who had always looked upon the Warlords with disdain, unconsciously regarded Garen as a reliable ally.

For a normal Warlord to witness that kind of spectacle and not kick the Marines while they were down was already considered a huge display of courtesy.

"So humble!"

Looking at Garen, who maintained a calm and composed expression, Spider could not help but exclaim in admiration:

"To possess such astonishing strength yet remain unarrogant—is this the true demeanor of a genius Grandmaster Swordsman?!"

The normally icy-cold Spider unknowingly turned into a chatterbox in his excitement:

"I've heard rumors before that you frequently spar in swordsmanship with Hawkeye Mihawk."

"I was somewhat skeptical at the time, but now it seems I was far too shallow..."

"Uh..."

"You flatter me, you flatter me."

Garen felt somewhat awkward, because that little rumor about "frequently sparring with Hawkeye" was something he had fabricated himself back when he was doing propaganda in Alabasta.

He quickly changed the subject and said:

"Shall we wake up the Marine soldiers first?"

Realizing that his emotional fluctuations had been a bit too extreme, Spider immediately adjusted his mindset to calm himself down.

He simply cast another astonished glance at Garen for a moment before turning around to wake his still-unconscious subordinates.

The Marine soldiers woke up one by one from their unconsciousness.

Upon seeing the peaceful battlefield, the undamaged warship, and the Black Blade clutched in Garen's hand, everyone realized something with expressions of profound amazement.

They exchanged glances and pointed discreetly at Garen, reaching an earth-shattering consensus in a split second.

In the end, no one spoke a word, and none of the Marine soldiers dared to casually address a top-tier powerhouse capable of repelling the Dark King Rayleigh.

Amidst an eerie atmosphere, the awakened Marines cleaned up the battlefield and settled the rescued prisoners. This encounter, which could well be described as a clash of world-class magnitude, finally drew to a close.

The Marines hoisted their sails, and the warship gradually steered away from Moria's somewhat shattered flagship.

With Moria's corpse and the bodies of numerous innocent victims still resting upon that broken vessel, the ship had effectively become an abandoned ghost ship.

"I must take my leave now."

Before parting ways, Garen nodded in farewell to Spider.

"Garen, thank you very much this time!"

The normally stern and unsmiling Spider managed to squeeze out a sincere and grateful smile.

"Think nothing of it, it's only what I should do."

Accustomed to putting on performances, Garen instinctively chimed in: "I am a Red Cloak... ahem... a Warlord."

With that, Garen prepared to step onto the Moonwalk and soar into the sky.

However, before leaving, Garen caught sight of the distant abandoned ghost ship laden with corpses, which looked like the ultimate target.

To protect the natural environment of the Alabasta sea area and to test the new skill he acquired upon reaching level 11, Garen paused his steps.

This new skill had a deep connection to Garen, as it was the ultimate ability of Garen's sister, Lux, in the game:

[Final Spark]: "Fires a dazzling beam of light."

Unlike the skills Garen had acquired from other sources, this was an ultra-long-range, ultra-large-scale AOE light cannon technique.

However, the skills Garen obtained from the system always differed slightly from the originals, so the ability he secretly learned from his sister naturally manifested with its own unique twist.

Amidst the bewildered and expectant gazes of the Marine soldiers, Garen raised his greatsword high above his head with both hands.

The blade suddenly burst with a dazzling, brilliant gold-and-white light, and this illusory glow condensed into something intensely solid within mere seconds, making the greatsword in Garen's hands shine as brightly as a miniature sun.

When the gold-and-white radiance condensed to its absolute limit, Garen swung his sword downward:

"Excalibur!"

A dazzling beam of light erupted from the greatsword, striking straight toward the distant vessel.

The blinding sunset and the colorful twilight completely paled before this single beam of light.

The golden radiance reflected upon the faces of everyone present, and the Marine soldiers found themselves utterly intoxicated by this vast and majestic power.

The scene seemed frozen for a split second, causing the entire heaven and earth to stand still.

The moment the beam of light touched the ship, the gold-and-white radiance burst open upon it, erupting with a terrifying shockwave of light and heat akin to a sun crashing into the ocean.

A thunderous explosion recalled the onlookers from their daze, and the ferocious sound wave rippled across a radius of several miles like a tsunami, causing even the sea to churn and heave with violent waves.

Moments later, everything returned to tranquility.

Light, heat, pressure, and sound completely vanished, leaving only a few fragments of the ship to tell the tale of the brilliant splendor that had just occurred.

"What kind of swordsmanship is this?!"

The Marine soldiers murmured involuntarily, a heavier sense of awe and reverence for Garen settling deep within their hearts.

"I have no idea. I've never seen anyone achieve such feats with a sword!"

"It looks somewhat similar to Admiral Kizaru's ability..."

"Did he call it something like 'Ex-curry-stick'?"

"What on earth does a curry stick mean?"

A chaotic murmur of whispers immediately echoed through the crowd.

Meanwhile, Garen had already stepped onto the Moonwalk and soared into the sky, leaving behind only an unfathomable and inscrutable silhouette for the gathered Marine soldiers.