Chapter 47: Heart
Although Blackbeard was in so much pain that his eyes were rolling back, he gritted his teeth and stood up, his face covered in sweat. He wanted to catch his breath, but then remembered the poison in the air.
Blackbeard quickly realized something was wrong. When he was writhing in agony earlier, he had involuntarily breathed in the air, yet his body showed no signs of poisoning now.
"Did the Devil Fruit ability finally kick in? Too slow."
Blackbeard grinned, revealing a few missing teeth—whether from beatings in his youth or something else.
Su Xiao didn't press the attack while Blackbeard was rolling on the ground clutching his head. The left side of his body was numb. He had just fought a brutal battle with Akainu and was severely injured. Even with the Ancient Secret Medicine, he couldn't recover in a short time. If Blackbeard hadn't tanked the Apollo blast, and if others hadn't dared to approach the flaming pit, Su Xiao wouldn't have attempted to fight Blackbeard at all.
Su Xiao had already completed Main Mission 3. As for Mission 2, dismantling the Blackbeard Pirates, he was still working on it. Mission 4, killing Whitebeard, was a trap. If Su Xiao directly killed Whitebeard, he would simultaneously face the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates. In that scenario, his chances of escaping Marineford were slim.
Even if he had to complete Mission 4, he would wait until either the pirates or the Marines were crushed. Otherwise, the risk was too high.
The numbness in his left side gradually faded. Su Xiao charged at Blackbeard, his blade aura sweeping across.
Boom!
Darkness and blade aura filled the giant pit. Outside the pit, near the port.
The roar of battle soared into the sky. A large group of Marines had surrounded the Whitebeard Pirates, who couldn't break through the port.
Aokiji and Kizaru blocked the way. Marco could only hold off Kizaru. Diamond Jozu was ambushed and severely injured by Apse. Flower Sword Vista was dead, surrounded by Fourth Rank contractors hidden among the Marines, with many Second and Third Rank contractors attacking from a distance. Vista had already fought Mihawk earlier and then clashed with Marine Vice Admirals Momonga and Onigumo. Already wounded, he couldn't withstand the contractors' siege.
The Whitebeard Pirates were now in dire straits, forced to gather together to resist the Marines' assault.
In truth, the Marines weren't much better off. Sengoku couldn't join the battle—he had to guard against the Blackbeard Pirates. Aokiji had fought Su Xiao several times and taken a beating from Whitebeard, leaving him heavily injured. The only high-end combat power in good condition on the Marine side was Kizaru. As for Garp, though uninjured, he was suffering more than anyone, torn between duty and family, forced to choose or do nothing.
On the other side of the deep trench in the plaza stood Whitebeard, his life hanging in the balance. Around him were Shiryu of the Rain and others. They hadn't fled yet—as long as Blackbeard was alive, they wouldn't leave Marineford easily.
"Hey, Shiryu, go reinforce the captain. He's fighting someone named Kukulin."
Burgess, slumped on the ground, spoke.
"Is Blackbeard so weak that he needs us to rescue him from a single enemy?"
Shiryu sneered. The reason he joined the Blackbeard Pirates was simple: Blackbeard was strong and ambitious.
"You..."
Burgess was left speechless.
Sss... sss...
The sound of soles burning came. The Blackbeard Pirates turned to see a figure walking out of the giant pit.
"Captain."
Burgess's face lit up, but the smile quickly faded.
"Zehahaha, that guy is really strong. Cough, cough, cough..."
Blackbeard coughed up blood. His right eye socket was a bloody mess, and three intersecting slash marks crossed his chest.
Inside the pit behind Blackbeard, Su Xiao crouched low, sticky darkness swirling around him.
With a sharp sound, Banishment stabbed out from the darkness, splitting and attaching to his sleeve.
Black smoke surged from the wound on Su Xiao's shoulder, worsening the injury. On his back were four bloody claw marks.
"Trying to complete three missions at once is too much."
Su Xiao muttered, standing up. The black smoke in his shoulder wound dissipated, devoured by the Azure Steel Shadow energy. He stepped toward the other side of the pit. After fighting this long, he had two trump cards left: Demon Hunting Hour and the Demon Blade execution of Dragon-Slaying Flash.
The former wasn't suitable for war. Activating Demon Hunting Hour made Su Xiao incredibly strong, but after 100 seconds, he would be completely drained. Unless he could kill all enemies within 100 seconds or abandon Main Mission 1 and flee the battlefield, he was dead.
The Demon Blade execution of Dragon-Slaying Flash had no chance to be used. Earlier, against Akainu, after using Blood Beast, Su Xiao immediately wanted to execute Akainu with the Demon Blade. But who knew that as he enhanced his blood energy and his Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes, the Blood Beast's power would be so terrifying that the blood energy directly blew Akainu to pieces.
Soon, Su Xiao reached the edge of the pit. As soon as he stepped onto the ground, over a dozen eyes locked onto him.
"Kukulin."
Blackbeard, covered in blood, roared. Su Xiao stopped and looked at him.
"A gift for you."
Blackbeard thrust three fingers into his eye socket, pulled out the mangled eyeball, and tossed it toward Su Xiao. It landed with a wet splat at Su Xiao's feet.
Blackbeard tore a strip of cloth from his clothes, wrapped it around his head to cover his right eye, and grinned, his killing intent in his remaining eye undisguised.
Su Xiao stepped on the ruined eyeball and continued walking.
"Shiryu, can you kill him?"
Blackbeard asked in a low voice. Shiryu narrowed his eyes.
"I can, but it's dangerous. In a fight, he would definitely die, but his deathbed counterattack... you can imagine, Captain."
"Is that so..."
Blackbeard wiped the blood from his face.
"Forget it then. Let's begin. Whitebeard is already dead."
Clearly, for an ambitious man like Blackbeard, losing an eye was nothing as long as he achieved his goal.
"We've been waiting for this, Captain."
The Blackbeard Pirates pulled out a black cloth, about to cover Whitebeard, when Whitebeard's eyes suddenly opened.
"Crack..."
Blackbeard instinctively stepped back. He hadn't expected that the dying Whitebeard, after enduring such an explosion, was still alive.
"Teach."
Whitebeard's voice was low, but the Blackbeard Pirates hesitated to approach, stunned by his monstrous vitality.
"What incredible vitality."
Shiryu couldn't help but remark.
"So you're still alive, old man. Let me send you off."
Blackbeard pulled a gun from Laffitte's waist and aimed it at Whitebeard's head.
"One Piece is..."
Whitebeard's voice grew weaker.
"What? Hey, don't die yet. Where is One Piece?"
As soon as Blackbeard asked, he shut his mouth. He felt a pair of eyes watching him—the eyes of a man named Sengoku.
"This bastard wants to take me down even in death."
Blackbeard pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet left the chamber and struck Whitebeard's neck. Whitebeard slowly closed his eyes, but he didn't fall. He stood firm before Blackbeard, before the leveled Marine Headquarters.
Thump... thump... thump...
The heart in Whitebeard's chest gradually stopped beating. Around this heart was a soft metal framework, with several white threads piercing the heart, transmitting bioelectricity at a special frequency to keep it beating.
The moment the heart stopped, the nearby silver-white metal frame slowly turned black. With a beep, something was activated.