Chapter 812 - 811: The Cycle of Karma

The battle was gradually drawing to a close. It possessed none of the world-shaking grandeur of the Paramount War at Marineford, nor did it carry the righteous dignity that had defined Alucard’s clash with Garp, a battle that had truly represented the pinnacle of both pirates and Marines.

To Alucard, this felt far more like a game of house played by children who had all gathered together.

It was nothing more than a cleanup operation to thoroughly wipe out the remaining little mice.

It completely lacked the sheer momentum of Whitebeard squaring off against Marine Headquarters, or the grandeur of his own duel against a righteous Garp.

After freezing several division commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates into solid ice sculptures, Kuzan leapt up and landed on the branch of a massive tree directly behind Alucard. Surveying the battlefield below, where Ace faced Blackbeard, Sabo clashed with Kaido, and Luffy fought Garp, he couldn’t help but feel that the entire arrangement was dripping with sheer malice.

"What a terribly wicked sense of humor, Captain."

Seeing that the war was nearing its absolute end, Kuzan no longer had any intention of joining the fray. He simply sat on the tree branch and casually voiced his critique. In his eyes, Alucard had unleashed Garp to fight Luffy entirely on purpose.

If not for some unknown reason that had caused the physical bodies of Whitebeard and Dragon to be completely destroyed, Alucard would have almost certainly engineered a twisted lineup: Garp versus Luffy, Whitebeard versus Ace, and Dragon versus Sabo.

Just the thought of it was enough to send a shiver down one’s spine. Fortunately, that horrific spectacle would never come to pass.

To become a thrall of the River of Death meant forfeiting all independent reason and intellect. No matter how much of a genius a warrior had been in life, a mindless combatant could never replicate their peak operational performance.

Kaido couldn’t unleash his full power, and neither could Blackbeard; both were operating at roughly seventy to eighty percent of their original capabilities. It was the sole reason Sabo and Ace had managed to bitterly hold their ground for so long.

Garp, however, was a completely different story.

When Garp had fought Alucard on Mt. Corvo, he had already passed his physical prime.

Much like Whitebeard at the Paramount War, the heavy toll of old age meant he had long since been unable to unleash the absolute peak strength of his youth. In fact, relying on top-tier Armament Haki at that stage drained his very life force and stamina, to the point where he could barely sustain it toward the end of that battle.

But as a thrall of the River of Death, those mortal limitations evaporated. Garp could now wield top-tier Armament Haki with absolute impunity, free of any adverse side effects, or rather, even if the toll existed, his undead vessel would instantly regenerate.

To put it in perspective: if the living Garp on Mt. Corvo could only exert sixty to seventy percent of his prime combat capability, his current state within the River of Death allowed him to unleash seventy to eighty percent of his absolute peak.

A Garp reinforced to this terrifying degree was completely suppressing Luffy, suffocating any chance of a counteroffensive.

In his Gear 4 state, Luffy’s body had expanded like a massive balloon. In terms of raw destructive power, he was indeed formidable enough to rival an Admiral, yet he was still systematically overpowered by Garp at every turn.

"Gomu Gomu no...!"

Luffy retracted his fists deep within his Armament-coated balloon forearms. In the next instant, he compressed and unleashed them violently, causing the very air to shudder with a muffled roar.

"Leo Bazooka!!!"

Faced with Luffy’s ferocious assault, the undead Garp remained entirely unmoved. Clenching his fists, he similarly drew them back before hurling them forward in a savage counterstrike. His fists, heavily coated in top-tier Armament Haki, displayed none of the color-shifting properties of Luffy’s form.

"Meteor Fist!!!"

The grandfather and grandson’s fists collided, generating a violent shockwave of sheer force and oppressive pressure that forced everyone nearby to stumble backward.

Nami, who had already been captured and pinned down by Momousagi, shielded her eyes with one hand. As the residual shockwave gradually dissipated, she lowered her hand just in time to see Luffy being violently blasted away.

This strike was far more devastating than the last. Luffy crashed through several mountain ridges in succession before finally grinding to a halt. His Gear 4 state collapsed, forcing him back into his ordinary form. His body withered rapidly, deep wrinkles lining his face as the severe aging drawback took hold.

"The gap in raw strength is just too vast. Even if Straw Hat Luffy has grown, he amounts to nothing more than this in the end," Kuzan remarked, idly scratching his curly hair.

"Luffy!"

Ace and Sabo cried out in unison. They were acutely aware of Luffy’s critical vulnerability, the ten-minute window during which he was completely unable to use Haki after exhausting Gear 4.

The two desperately tried to break away to rescue him, but Blackbeard and Kaido seized the opening perfectly, leveling them both to the ground with devastating blows. Alucard let out a cruel, red-eyed laugh. "Do you truly have the spare time to be worrying about him?"

Watching the undead Garp walk step by step toward the immobilized Luffy, Kuzan exhaled a frosty breath, sighing with a trace of irony, "To think that Straw Hat Luffy, who stirred up so much chaos across the world, would ultimately die at the hands of Vice Admiral Garp... It really is a twisted cycle of karma."

"Luffy!!"

A few members of the Straw Hat Alliance who had not yet been subdued or killed, including Zoro and Duke Inuarashi, leapt into the air in a desperate bid to intercept Garp. Suddenly, a massive meteor tore through the sky, crashing heavily right in front of them.

BOOM!!!

Amidst the exploding, fiery debris, the figures of Fujitora, Chaton, and several others slowly materialized from the smoke.

"Old man Fujitora cannot allow you to take another step forward. If you wish to pass, you will have to step over my corpse first..." Fujitora stated, deliberately emphasizing each word.

"Damn it, it’s Fujitora!" Zoro growled, grinding his teeth.

"What a pity, Roronoa Zoro. There was a time when I genuinely wanted to invite you to join my crew."

Fallon, Bartolomeo, and the others advanced from behind, instantly trapping Zoro’s group in a flawless pincer movement.

"The captain I serve... will only ever be one man," Zoro stated defiantly.

"A pity indeed, because it looks like that captain of yours isn’t going to survive," Fallon sneered, gesturing with his chin for Zoro to look over at Luffy.

By now, Garp had already walked up to stand directly over Luffy’s withered form.

"Grand... pa..."

Covered in wrinkles, Luffy forced out the two words with the last of his strength. Yet the Garp standing before him was enveloped in a suffocating shroud of murderous aura, completely deaf to his voice.

When he was alive, he chose not to listen; now that he was dead, he could never hear it again.

Just as the undead Garp raised his fist, poised to obliterate Luffy’s skull, the remaining members of the Straw Hat Alliance let out screams of pure horror.

Yet, when Garp’s fist hung less than a single centimeter away from Luffy’s forehead, the lethal blow ground to an abrupt, violent halt. Ace and the others stared in stunned disbelief, the scene mirroring exactly what had happened with Whitebeard...

Back then, when Alucard had unleashed the undead Whitebeard, the thrall had been just one step away from executing Blackbeard Teach. Yet, in his final moment, the undead Whitebeard had redirected his final assault against the Marines, carving out a desperate escape path for his sons.

And now, Garp was doing the exact same thing. Faced with his final strike, he simply could not bring himself to slaughter his own grandson.

"Is that so? In that case..."

The sigil etched onto the back of Alucard’s glove flashed a brilliant crimson as he forcefully tightened his mental override. In an instant, Garp moved once more!

This time, the fist struck without a shred of hesitation, connecting squarely with Luffy’s heavily wrinkled face and cleanly claiming his grandson’s life with his own hands.