"This guy's gone mad."
In front of the temple, Kuina gripped the hilt of her Wado Ichimon and tilted her head towards Robin. "He's gained power, alright, but his state of mind doesn't match it. He's like so many ordinary pirates on this sea who suddenly ate Devil Fruits – arrogant, conceited, and utterly enslaved by their power."
"Mm!" Robin nodded, agreeing with Kuina's assessment.
*Zing—!*
Just then, a sword cry that echoed across the entire sky interrupted Kratos's booming laughter.
As Zankou was drawn, the dark sky seemed to split open from the middle. kanShuWu.ξà
And as the sky ripped apart, a silver-white crescent slash, laced with purple-black lightning, appeared instantly before Kratos, as if traversing through space.
Strong, ridiculously strong.
The appearance of the slash, even though it wasn't aimed at them, sent chills down the spines of the other giants present, including Fabre, and Canal, who had been standing at the other end of the plaza and hadn't approached. Their hairs stood on end under the overwhelming sharpness that filled the sky.
"Is this Mr. Konta's true power when he attacks?"
Fabre stared at Konta's back, sighing inwardly.
Facing this one strike from Konta, he estimated that even with his full defense, he would be severely injured.
"So powerful, he should be able to suppress Kratos as usual!"
But the next scene made the calm on his face ripple again, and he even frowned deeply.
"Weak."
Gazing at the slash that was mere inches away, a silver glint flashed in Kratos's eyes. He flicked his hand, as if swatting a fly, and his handback struck the slash.
*Clang—!*
The impact between the slash and his hand produced a sound like steel colliding.
Then, with a sudden force, Kratos, with a "bang," sent Konta's slash flying away.
*Crack—!*
The slash grew with the wind, instantly slicing through the black clouds overhead, sending lightning snakes writhing and thunder rumbling across the sky.
The sky then tore open again, allowing sunlight to stream through the cracks, bringing light back to the area.
Whether it was fate or not, the light landed precisely between Konta and Kratos, splitting the scene into half darkness and half light.
It was like innate black and white.
"Weak, too weak! Want me to let you go back and eat before we fight again!"
From the darkness, Kratos tauntedly yelled at Konta.
As if to vent his frustration, he retorted Konta's earlier words with even greater arrogance.
"Come on! You weakling, weren't you going to kill me? With this flimsy slash, how can you possibly kill me?"
"Giants, plus pseudo-gods, your lifespans must be incredibly long!"
Konta paid little heed to Kratos's taunts.
He raised Zankou, holding the blade horizontally before his eyes. Looking at the already chilling blade of Zankou, a hint of helplessness flickered in his eyes.
Many years had passed since he obtained Zankou. For all these years, he had incessantly tempered Zankou with Haki, but even with his monstrous, infinite Haki, he couldn't turn Zankou into a so-called black blade after all this time.
Perhaps, like Whitebeard, Roger, and Shanks, he truly lacked the talent for forging a black blade, or perhaps it was a matter of opportunity and luck.
As his strength accelerated, Zankou had gradually begun to fall behind his power.
Therefore, during his stay on Egghead Island, he had done something for Zankou.
He fused Zankou with the Time-Time Fruit he had obtained on Lamp Island from the nun controlled by Carthes.
Despite Zankou showing no visible changes at the moment, it was no longer its original form. It had become a true blade of time.
Time was the most coveted and the most difficult thing to control in this world.
The power of time could be said to be the most potent force in existence. No one could escape the erosion of time, not even the gods on high.
With a shift of his blade, Konta looked up at Kratos, gripping the hilt of Zankou with his right hand, and casually swung it to the right.
"Time Stop!"
As if he were an omnipotent god, he seemed to pull the river of time from this space, causing everything within this area to freeze in place.
Kratos's boisterousness, the guards' tension, Fabre and Canal's solemnity, Kuina and Robin's calmness.
Even the dust kicked up from the ground, the gentle breeze, and even light, were all put on pause without exception, frozen in their tracks.
It was as if this space had been abandoned by the world, completely separating it from the outside, about to transform into an eternal scroll.
And the one wielding the brush was the only silver-haired youth who could move in this space.
Even though it wasn't the first time Konta had wielded the temporal power gained from Zankou's fusion with the Time-Time Fruit, he couldn't help but marvel at the power Zankou displayed at this moment.
He could achieve a state where life seemed to cease, but that was space solidification. In reality, life within that space still operated according to the larger world outside. It was far from this moment, where beings were completely frozen and time stood still.
In truth, the power of the Time-Time Fruit alone was insufficient to achieve this level of control.
However, the Time-Time Fruit combined with the spatial domain was a different story.
The spatial domain was not of this world. It could be said that the rules of this world had no effect on the domain.
This was why he could accomplish things within the domain that were impossible in the outside world.
By fusing Zankou with the Time-Time Fruit within his domain, he was able to achieve its true release, thus creating the breathtaking scene before him.
In fact, neither the domain alone nor Zankou's temporal power could truly restrict Kratos, who already possessed divine strength.
Whether one plus one is greater than two, he didn't know before.
But now, he understood.
The stagnation of time, combined with the freezing of space, had utterly transformed Konta into the sole true god of this space.
Taking a step, Konta appeared before Kratos.
Staring at Kratos, who stood like a statue, completely frozen, Konta's eyes showed no fluctuations, only a profound calm.
A calm so deep it was indifferent.
He slowly raised Zankou and plunged it without hesitation into Kratos's chest.
At this moment, Zankou seemed to come alive. Strands of transparent, seven-colored energy, visible only to Konta, were rapidly extracted from Kratos's body by Zankou and stored in an unknown part of the blade.
As time passed, the seven-colored hue on Zankou's blade intensified. When the blade finally turned completely seven-colored, Zankou seemed to let out a satisfied sigh. In the void where space and time had stopped, a ripple spread, and it withdrew from Kratos's body.
It then automatically flew to Konta's side, circling him as if dancing with joy.