"Quick reflexes, huh?" Daniel remarked, watching as Teach leapt toward him, right hand brimming with Armament Haki. Daniel immediately abandoned the Gate of Secrets, coating his own right hand in Armament Haki to meet Teach's attack.
Boom!
The clash of their powerful fists sent Teach crashing back to the ground. While the Navy's "Six Powers" martial arts weren't difficult for skilled fighters to master, not everyone learned all of them. Some were limited by their bodies. For example, Whitebeard might not have been able to master Moonwalk due to his sheer size, and the same applied to Teach. These fighters could still temporarily stay airborne, but not for long durations like Moonwalk allowed.
"What kind of ability is this?" Teach asked, looking up at Daniel with greedy eyes, even as seawater barely reached his knees. His quick reflexes had prevented the water from flooding in entirely.
"For truly strong individuals, being in contact with seawater doesn't immediately rob them of their power," Daniel mused. Unlike Luffy, who would immediately weaken if submerged even slightly, Teach was strong enough to remain mobile in the seawater for short periods, although long exposure would still debilitate him.
"I knew it. Even in this situation, he's eyeing my powers," Daniel thought, recognizing the avarice in Teach's gaze. Compared to the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, Daniel's abilities were far more mysterious and versatile, piquing Teach's interest.
"You don't need to know what my ability is, not as a dead man. But I will tell you this: you're the first to experience it." Daniel said coldly, waving his hand. The landscape within the Mirror Dimension abruptly shifted. The ground beneath Teach's feet rose up, causing the sand and seawater to topple under gravity, sending Teach tumbling.
As Daniel's strength had increased, so too had his control over the Mirror Dimension. Now, his mastery surpassed even Kaecilius, who had absorbed Dormammu's dark energy. If they had been in a city with buildings and structures to manipulate, the impact would have been even more devastating.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Teach, caught off guard by the constantly shifting terrain, grew frustrated and unleashed all his power, trying to break through the Mirror Dimension.
"He's already noticed the issue with the Mirror Dimension, but unfortunately for him, he's not Thanos. He can't break through this space," Daniel thought.
Daniel had intentionally kept the Mirror Dimension small, which helped Teach realize the problem. However, even knowing about it didn't mean Teach could escape.
"I wonder if Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit could break through the Mirror Dimension," Daniel pondered. "If it were Wong or Mordo controlling the Mirror Dimension, they might not have been able to stop Whitebeard."
"Dark Vortex!" In a flash, Teach gathered his strength and leaped, blackness oozing from his body as he descended. The seawater and sand that touched the darkness vanished in an eerie manner.
"As expected of the Dark-Dark Fruit, a truly formidable Logia fruit. But that doubled pain—it's not something an ordinary person can endure. Teach is definitely a tough one."
The Dark-Dark Fruit's unique trait was that its user suffered double the pain from any attack. Though it sounded trivial, the reality was much more severe. A normal amount of pain could be manageable, but double the intensity could render even the strongest fighters momentarily incapacitated.
During his fight with Ace, Teach had been writhing in agony after just a few hits.
Esdeath, with her penchant for torment, had even cultivated plants that could amplify a person's sense of pain, but even those couldn't compare to the torment of double the pain.
"What if someone without the ability to feel pain ate the Dark-Dark Fruit?" Daniel thought. As a master of the Op-Op Fruit and an expert in biochemical studies, Daniel had encountered rare medical cases, including people born without the ability to feel pain.
He had the knowledge and capability to alter a person's biology, making them unable to feel pain. Of course, this had its downsides. While eliminating the pain would negate the Dark-Dark Fruit's drawback, it would also mean the person wouldn't know when they were severely injured.
Most people born without the ability to feel pain didn't live past thirty, as minor injuries often turned fatal without them realizing it.
"Let's see how much you can absorb." Watching as Teach absorbed the seawater into his dark vortex, Daniel opened another Gate of Secrets, allowing even more seawater to flood in.
Devil Fruit users couldn't swim, but that didn't mean they couldn't manipulate seawater. Both Dragon and Shiki could, and even Aokiji could freeze vast oceans.
As more seawater rushed in, Teach absorbed it all into his darkness.
"If the Dark-Dark Fruit were trained to its peak, perhaps it could create a black hole capable of devouring everything," Daniel mused.
"Hahaha! Your powers will be mine!" Teach roared as the darkness around him intensified, spreading across half of the Mirror Dimension. With a maniacal laugh, he sent the darkness surging toward Daniel.
"You're still trying to turn the tables? I guess this is what I get for underestimating you," Daniel sighed, seeing the dark energy rapidly fill the Mirror Dimension. Teach was laughing, confident that victory was within his grasp.
Daniel had created a relatively small Mirror Dimension to deal with Teach. It was this limited size that allowed Teach's darkness to fill the space. Back on Banaro Island, during his battle with Ace, their powers had devastated half the island. While that island was smaller than Alabasta, it was still impressive.
"Logia fruits are certainly powerful." Even though the Dark-Dark Fruit couldn't grant true intangibility, it had massive AOE (Area of Effect) capabilities, a hallmark of Logia fruits.
Aokiji could freeze entire islands, Kizaru could bombard them, Akainu could turn them into molten hellscapes, and Ace could engulf them in flames. Logia fruits were indeed the strongest.
"Too bad for you, Teach. You ran into me," Daniel muttered. As the darkness closed in, Daniel closed the Gate of Secrets and opened another, much larger one in front of him.
Simultaneously, a second large portal appeared behind Teach.
The Dark-Dark Fruit could absorb any kind of attack, whether physical or elemental. In essence, it functioned like an intangibility power. Even if a bullet were to hit Teach's head, it wouldn't kill him—though he would still feel the pain.
However, Daniel's Gate of Secrets could teleport any attack, no matter how powerful. He could even reflect attacks back, just as Doctor Strange had done to Ebony Maw and as the Ancient One had demonstrated against Odin. No matter how strong the attack, if it couldn't hit its target, it was useless.
Teach's once-arrogant expression froze as the darkness that had been surging toward Daniel vanished into the giant portal, leaving him exposed. Maintaining such a large area of darkness drained his stamina significantly.
Worse still, Teach couldn't dispel the darkness entirely, because it had absorbed seawater and sand. If he released it now, all of that would come crashing down on him.
With the massive golden gate blocking his powers, Teach was left in a stalemate.
"Van Augur, be careful," Lafitte warned from several kilometers away. The area around them was entirely encased in ice.
Both Lafitte and Van Augur, core members of the Blackbeard Pirates, were trapped in an icy wasteland. Van Augur's formidable sniping skills were rendered useless in the icy maze that Esdeath had created. Without Lafitte's guidance, Van Augur would have been lost within the frozen labyrinth long ago.
While Lafitte could fly, giving him an aerial advantage, even he couldn't do much when faced with Esdeath's overwhelming barrage of ice spears.
Van Augur had hoped to regroup with Lafitte and fight Esdeath together, but despite their efforts, they had been kept apart throughout the battle. The closest they'd come to reuniting was when a massive ice wall separated them—an insurmountable obstacle for them, though it would have been child's play for Mihawk.
Esdeath's old habit of toying with her opponents had surfaced again. She could have ended the fight long ago, but she enjoyed watching them struggle.
"You!" While Esdeath continued her game, Akame had already finished her battle. Poor Doc Q hadn't even had a chance to showcase his powers before Akame struck him down with her cursed blade, Murasame, killing him instantly.
Akame, trained as an assassin, always aimed for a one-hit kill. Even though she had changed somewhat, her instincts when dealing with enemies remained the same.
With Doc Q dead, Akame quietly watched as Kurome battled Jesus Burgess. Like her sister, Kurome hadn't engaged Burgess in direct combat. She had summoned her puppets using Yatsufusa: a golden lion and a massive black spider, which held Burgess at bay. Meanwhile, a tiny golden viper slithered up and bit Burgess on the ankle.
The venom quickly spread through Burgess's body, and within moments, he collapsed.
"Sis, I've finished," Kurome said excitedly to Akame. Fighting alongside her sister had always been her dream.
"You did well. Now let's check on Esdeath," Akame replied, collecting the bodies of Doc Q and Burgess into a storage pouch.
As they arrived at Esdeath's battlefield, they saw her still toying with Lafitte and Van Augur. Akame shook her head slightly but didn't
interfere. Daniel had already warned Esdeath about this behavior, but it seemed to have little effect on her. It was part of her nature, after all.
Despite Van Augur's sniping and Lafitte's agility, both were steadily losing ground against Esdeath. With the ice armor Daniel had suggested she develop, even Van Augur's sniper rounds couldn't penetrate her defenses.
Back in the Mirror Dimension, Daniel had dismissed the Gate of Secrets. Teach lay on the ground, writhing in agony from the overwhelming pain of his injuries. Unable to maintain the Dark-Dark Fruit's power any longer, the seawater and sand he had absorbed came rushing back out, flooding the space.
Seizing the opportunity, Daniel delivered a series of devastating punches, enhanced by Armament Haki and the Bajiquan martial art. The blows, combined with the doubled pain from Teach's fruit, left the pirate helpless.
"Room." Daniel activated the Op-Op Fruit, slicing Teach into several pieces. He wasn't planning to kill Teach just yet—he intended to add him to Kurome's collection of puppets. However, since Yatsufusa wasn't in his possession, he couldn't finish him off now.
"Damn, such a waste of the Will of D." Even though he couldn't kill Teach just yet, Daniel could still extract some valuable information from his mind.
"Scalpel!" After retrieving the necessary information, Daniel reassembled Teach's body and made a few cosmetic changes. After all, Teach's appearance left much to be desired.
Daniel then took the corpse of another pirate and transformed it to look like Teach.
"Time to collect my bounty."
As a former member of the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach's bounty was over 200 million berries. While he had worked hard to hide his strength, if one could capture all 16 commanders of Whitebeard's divisions, their combined bounties would exceed Whitebeard's own.
Between Teach and the rest of his crew, the bounty was enough to fund Baroque Works for an entire year. Daniel had no intention of letting the Navy keep that money.
"Daniel Davis, hand over Teach's body!" A voice boomed across Rainbase just as Daniel contacted the Navy to claim the bounty.
"It's Whitebeard's second division commander, Fire Fist Ace." The pirates in Rainbase quickly recognized the man standing in the square, bearing the Whitebeard Pirates' symbol tattooed on his back.
With Ace's arrival, the crowd quickly dispersed. Whitebeard's traitor had just been taken down by a Warlord, and now Whitebeard's second-in-command was here. Things were about to get even more dangerous.
"Great. Another headache," Daniel muttered.
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