As Ian felt the soft lips touch his own, his mind went blank for a moment.
Women’s thoughts are truly hard to guess. Earlier, when he touched Reiju’s body to confirm her identity, she slapped him lightly. But now, she was initiating a kiss, and he couldn’t quite understand what she was thinking.
Despite knowing that Reiju was helping him absorb the residual toxins from his body, Ian couldn’t resist the temptation of such an intimate detoxification method.
He instinctively hugged her tightly in the darkness. Although they couldn’t see each other’s faces, both felt the heat radiating from the other.
As he felt something being pulled out of his body, the dizziness that had been plaguing him disappeared immediately.
After Reiju sucked out the toxins, she realized that Ian was still living the moment, but she smiled slightly and placed a finger on his lips, stopping him from getting carried away.
Ian regained some clarity and realized that it wasn’t the time to play around, so he immediately pulled Reiju closer and moved towards the location where he had sensed the others earlier.
Breathing wasn’t an issue in this strange space, perhaps because Teach had sucked in the air when he brought in everything else. But who knew when the air inside would disappear, so he had to hurry.
The second person Ian found was Doroni, who was dancing around. When Ian grabbed him, he was startled and almost attacked him, but he quickly realized what was happening and obediently followed Ian.
One by one, Ian found Ace, found Matthew, but when he tried to find Robin, he realized that she was being pulled towards the center of the vortex.
After spending some time in this strange space, Ian gradually realized that the vortex was actually caused by gravity. The closer they got to the center, the stronger the gravitational force, and eventually it would compress and crush everything into nothingness.
So Ian couldn’t afford to be careless. As soon as he realized Robin’s situation, the five of them held hands and rushed towards the center to save her.
Ace was not accustomed to the dark environment, so he freed up one hand to try and use his white fire to add some light to the space. However, although his ability worked, the white fire on his palm strangely did not emit any light!
At this point, Robin’s situation was becoming dire. The immense pressure brought by the gravitational force was already affecting her, and she was starting to have trouble breathing.
She could feel herself being pulled towards the center, and once she reached a deeper area, her entire body would be crushed.
Am I going to die? Is this it!? Robin thought as she slowly closed her eyes.
Oddly enough, she felt at peace. Perhaps it was because she had learned to accept death several years ago.
But just as she resigned herself to her fate, she felt something wrap around her waist, yanking her upwards.
Ian had intervened… thankfully, Teach’s Black Hole had sucked in tons of debris filled with construction materials, Ian quickly improvised, and used the iron sand sword technique, forming an iron sand whip out the sand with iron elements from around. He controlled it and swung it out, finally pulling Robin back.
Robin breathed in immediately after getting far from the center, knowing that it was Ian who had saved her, she tried to thank him, but then she found that she couldn’t make a sound.
This strange space seemed to absorb all light and sound.
But regardless, the six of them were finally reunited.
However, the situation was still not good, and they were still being pulled towards the center of the vortex.
Ian extended the iron sand whip and tied a rope around the waist of each person so they wouldn’t be separated. In the darkness, Ian couldn’t see the center of gravity, but he could sense the movements of the building debris and soil through his En field, estimating the location of the center.
Raising his hand, Ian unleashed a black dragon wave towards the center.
But to his dismay, the dragon disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea, without the slightest echo.
Ian’s heart sank instantly.
According to Ian’s understanding of the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit, although the center of the vortex was a place with strong gravity, anything sucked in would be compressed and crushed there. Therefore, the central zone was dangerous, but at the same time, it was also the most likely place to open an exit. If they wanted to get out, they had to venture into the heart of the vortex.
The gravity of the alternate space was unrelenting, dragging them closer and closer to their doom. Ian’s mind raced as he searched for a way to escape this deadly pull. He recalled the Door-Door Fruit, which was the Devil Fruit of CP9’s Agent, Blueno, and the Op-Op Fruit, which was the Devil Fruit of Trafalgar Law, both of whom had the ability to manipulate space.
But the Dark-Dark Fruit was different. The alternate space in the Dark Hollow was controlled by Teach, and its power was beyond anything Ian had ever encountered. He wondered if it was even possible to destroy this space from within.
However, it seems that this level of control is limited. Otherwise, Teach could directly shrink the alternate space to the smallest size, causing them to be torn apart by gravity as soon as they fell in, instead of slowly falling like they are now.
If that’s the case, then Ian and the others still have a chance.
Ian had hoped to use his Black Dragon Wave to destroy the structure of this strange space, but now it seemed like that wouldn’t work.
It could be that the energy of one Black Dragon Wave wasn’t enough, but it was also possible that this space couldn’t be opened from the inside by force…
If it was the first case, they might still have a chance. But if it was the latter, then Ian and his companions would have no choice but to wait for Teach to open the exit and “liberate” them.
Regardless, they had to keep trying!
When it came to the power of space, Ian knew a thing or two. The Orb Release of the Orochi was actually the ability to push out a fragment of space and attack a target with it. Thinking of this, Ian took a deep breath, poured a lot of mental power into his palm, and then pushed his hand forward.
Harae Released!
He used his maximum strength, and a disk-like space fragment much larger than usual was launched by Ian.
This space fragment flew towards the center of the vortex in a dreamy flight posture. When it came to the center of the vortex, it suddenly reacted!
Teach probably never imagined that Ian also had some spatial power, especially since he was using it within the strange space that he had created. It was like Ian had torn off a piece of the space and hurled it out like a thrown weapon! It was quite a feeling of using the enemy’s strength against them…
Suddenly, there was a slight tremor at the center of the vortex, caused by the impact of the space fragment that Ian had thrown.
Space fluctuations are very subtle, and if Ian wasn’t the initiator of the attack, he wouldn’t have noticed it.
Once he sensed its effectiveness, Ian’s spirit was lifted, and he once again pushed out another fragment of space.
The spatial shaking he felt was very slight, but outside, Teach suddenly felt a slight shock in his body, and then blood suddenly flowed from his nostrils!
“What the… what’s happening!?” Teach exclaimed, wiping his nose in horror as he saw the blood on his fingers.
In reality, the space created by the Black Hole was within Teach’s body. It was like Akainu’s magma fruit ability, where his body turned into flowing magma. Teach’s situation was similar; within his body, there was a pitch-black abyss, creating a special space where anything swallowed in would be considered inside him.
The destruction caused by Ian from within was ultimately reflected on Teach’s body…
The scientific principles behind this phenomenon were unknown, but Teach realized that trouble was brewing. He had initially thought that Ian and the others wouldn’t die easily after being swallowed into the darkness. But the current situation was beyond his expectations. He had no idea what methods Ian and the others used to cause damage to his Black Hole.
Teach’s body shook again, and this time blood oozed from his mouth and ears as well.
“Captain!?” Laffite and the others were terrified at the sight of Teach’s condition, unaware of what was happening.
“This is bad! I…I have to release them! Otherwise, I’ll die!” Teach shouted frantically.
As he spoke, a misty dark shadow rose and swayed from his body, and a large amount of black mist scattered in all directions, opening the hole.
Clattering! With the liberation of Titch, the first thing that gushed out from the shadows was a large number of buildings, but at this point, these buildings had already turned into countless fragments of stones and woods.
As the debris flowed out like a river of mercury, Van Augur and his crew tightened their grips on their weapons, their eyes locked on the surging chaos.
Teach’s gaze was also transfixed on the tumult, wondering how Ian and his comrades would emerge from the maelstrom.
But then, with a sudden burst, a strange flame exploded from the depths of the shadow. It was a twisted amalgamation of white and black fire, searing everything in its path as it crashed onto the ground with a deafening roar.
The resulting explosion sent shockwaves through the air, and the surging flames transformed into a raging inferno that consumed everything in sight. The Blackbeard Pirates were caught in its fury, their screams swallowed up by the flames as they were thrown back by the force of the blast.
As the smoke and flames cleared, a mushroom cloud rose above the port city, a testament to the fierce battle that had taken place…
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