One Piece: Reborn in God's Valley

Clocktower Plaza.

Ashen and Ulysses had battled their way here, leaving a trail of shattered buildings and smoldering debris in their wake. 

The devastation spoke volumes about the ferocity of their clash.

Abbas, who had once soared through the skies, now lay sprawled on the ground, having reverted to his human form. 

His old wounds had barely begun to heal before new ones tore across his chest, deep enough to reveal exposed ribs. 

It was the aftermath of the aerial slash he took in tandem with Ashen's attack.

"Hah… Hah…"

Ashen gasped for breath, his chest heaving. His clothes were in tatters, little more than strips of fabric soaked with sweat and blood, clinging stubbornly to his body. 

A third gash now marred his back, adding to his tally of wounds.

His right eye was swollen shut, the blood flowing from it tinting his vision red.

Ulysses wasn't in much better shape. His once-pristine white suit was now stained with blood and caked with ash, it was impossible to tell how much of it was his or Ashen's.

His left sleeve was completely gone, revealing a frostbitten arm covered in jagged black ice crystals. It dangled limply, clearly useless. 

Half of his mask had been knocked away, exposing a pale, ghostlike face to the sun.

"What are you holding out for Helgrave? You're a swordsman, yet you chose to brawl with me barehanded. What reason could you possibly have for making such a reckless decision?"

Ulysses couldn't understand it. After landing that strike on Abbas with his blade, Ashen had continued the fight with his fists, blow for blow. 

For combatants of their caliber, a swordsman's attacks usually posed a greater threat, why throw that advantage away?

"Hahahaha. Reason? There's no reason, I just like it this way." Ashen barked out a laugh, and launched his next attack without warning.

Boom! Boom!

The fight reignited.

Outside the Clubhouse.

"Kill them. For justice. Don't let a single pirate escape."

The marines, now surrounded by fallen comrades, had gone completely berserk, eyes bloodshot, blades slick with crimson, they fought like demons.

The gang's momentum, on the other hand, was waning. For every marine that fell, three mafia fighters died alongside them. The loss ratio was simply too lopsided to sustain.

"Fear suppression."

Salles, seeing his crewmates and gang members falter, activated his ability with a commanding roar.

The effect was instant. Those who had begun to hesitate suddenly surged forward again like animals injected with adrenaline, charging the marines without fear.

"Damn you. I'll kill you."

But Salles moment of distraction had cost Lafitte, an agent from CP9 landed a Rankyaku that sliced deep into his abdomen. 

Seeing Lafitte wounded, Salles, fiercely protective of his brother, instantly snapped into a berserker rage.

Elsewhere, two CP9 agents were starting to deeply regret picking Walton as their opponent. 

The monstrous honey badger was riddled with wounds, his body pierced by Shigan strikes, but he fought like a beast possessed.

One agent had his arm clamped in Walton's bloody jaws. No matter how hard the other agent attacked, the badger refused to let go. 

Faced with the choice of disembowelment by claw or sacrificing an arm, they reluctantly let it go.

By contrast, Parnell was having a much easier time against his two CP9 foes.

The pair, neither of whom had mastered Armament Haki, worked in seamless tandem, but their bodies were already scorched and blistered by searing asphalt.

While not as hot as Akainu's magma, Parnell's asphalt possessed a devastating stickiness magma lacked. Once it clung to flesh, skin was the minimum cost.

If not for their proficiency in Soru, they would've long since suffocated under a hardened coat of asphalt.

Back at Clocktower Plaza, though calling it that now was a stretch. The once-proud tower lay in ruin, reduced to a pile of rubble beneath a cloud of dust.

Clatter…

A mound of debris shifted. Ashen, a walking corpse of blood and bruises, pulled himself to his feet.

"…It's almost time."

He muttered to himself.

"Oh? Time for what? Time to die?" 

Ulysses shoved aside a broken pillar, his condition only marginally better than Ashen's.

"You know why I went hand to hand with you?" Ashen grinned, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.

"Because I'm about to break through with my Armament Haki."

"Using me as a training dummy, huh?" Ulysses sneered. 

"But even if you break through, so what? Your stamina's shot. You can't even use your sword anymore. What the hell are you smiling for?"

Ashen's grin widened.

"Hahahaha. You think that's all I've gained? Let me show you what I'm really smiling about. Come on."

He charged, pouring every last ounce of strength into the attack.

"A final clash?" Ulysses matched him, unleashing his full power, combining his strongest Rokushiki attack with all of the Haki he could muster up.

"Rokuougan."

"Netherquake: Resonance."

Boom… Hum….

The instant they clashed, Ulysses felt something surge through his fist, something unlike any force he'd ever encountered. 

In the blink of an eye, it was as if his soul suffered a magnitude ten earthquake.

His body convulsed.

Blood burst from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he collapsed to his knees.

This was Ashen's newest technique. 

While recruiting crew members in this very plaza, he'd noticed something, pirates of similar strength fell unconscious at wildly different times when hit by his soulquake.

Some passed out instantly.

That sparked an idea. He tracked down one such pirate, hit him repeatedly with the ability, and observed through his Nether Eye.

Eventually, he discovered the truth, every soul vibrated at a different natural frequency. The closer his shockwave matched that frequency, the greater the internal damage, resonance.

During the earlier clashes with Ulysses, Ashen had been studying him, fine-tuning the frequency of his soulwave. 

Only when he was confident did he unleash the technique, gambling everything on a single strike.

Cough….

Ashen wasn't unscathed, he lay sprawled across the ruins, coughing up blood, pain wracking every inch of his body.

"My, my… that was intense," said a voice in the distance.

It was Abbas. He had gotten back to his feet.

"Abbas. If you've recovered, kill Ashen right now." Ulysses, barely conscious, barked the order.

"Yes, Ulysses."

Clang…

With a casual kick, Abbas sent Ulysses flying, crashing into the rubble beside Ashen, motionless.

"Hahaha. Ulysses. Bet you didn't see that coming." Ashen pushed himself to his feet, laughing hoarsely.

"Abbas has been working for me since a while now."

"Ashen… If he was on your side, why go through all this theater?" Ulysses finally snapped.

"It's simple," Ashen said, looking down at him. 

"If Abbas had joined me from the start, with your strength, you'd have just run away. I needed you to believe you still had the upper hand, to drain every last drop of your power."

"…Hahaha… Betrayal again, huh?" Ulysses laughed, but it was hollow. 

"My whole life, one long joke. Fine then… kill me Helgrave. I'll go to hell and ask him why he did this to me."

"Oh, don't worry," Ashen whispered, voice cold. "I didn't go through all this trouble just to kill you."

"Then what the hell do you want?"

"You're better off not knowing."

Ghost Aura: Black Coffin.