One Piece: I'm not Roger

At that moment, Aether moved, slowly walking toward them as he spoke words that sounded almost incomprehensible.

"I'll use you to test my latest technique. If you can survive this move, I will personally let you leave."

Aether's words immediately gave the members of the Revolutionary Army an uneasy premonition. Was he underestimating their combined strength? The four opponents before him were all extremely powerful, especially Markas Luke, a member of the God's Knights. How could someone like him fail to withstand a single strike? Together, their strength was comparable to Admiral-level combat power.

The experienced Betty murmured upon hearing this.

"What is Roger doing? It's simply impossible to defeat the four of them in one move."

Although doubt filled many hearts, no one dared step forward to stop him. After all, Aether's prestige was not something they could challenge.

Hearing that his opponent intended to defeat him in a single blow, Markas Luke was suddenly overwhelmed by a rare sense of humiliation. From childhood to adulthood, no one had ever looked down on him like this. A surge of anger briefly suppressed the fear in his heart. For the first time since his debut, he pushed aside thoughts of survival and retorted.

"Don't look down on me, Roger! I can—"

"Houttuynia."

A faint voice interrupted him.

A peculiar pressure descended upon the entire battlefield. Under the stunned gazes of the crowd, Aether began to emit a white light. His body then transformed into pure energy, expanding continuously, ten meters, one hundred meters, five hundred meters, one thousand meters, two thousand meters, three thousand meters, four thousand meters.

Finally, a colossal figure stood like a god between heaven and earth.

The giant, with a perfectly formed physique, was clad in golden armor. His feet stepped directly into the ocean, the several-hundred-meter-deep seawater only reaching his heels.

From this new height, Aether looked up at the sky with quiet curiosity. In the distance, a small Sky Island floated ten thousand meters above. In this form, he felt that if he jumped with full force, he might actually reach it.

He clenched his fist, sensing power so overwhelming it felt as though he could shatter a planet. It was, however, an illusion born from surging strength. One thing was certain, his stamina was draining at an extreme rate. After all, he was forcing a divine-level technique through a mortal body.

The giant's eyes, glowing with divine light, slowly lowered toward the bridge below. The once-magnificent structure now looked no different from a small fence, and upon it stood a group of stunned ants.

As his gaze shifted, Markas Luke felt an even deeper terror grip him. A sense of death unlike anything he had ever experienced before swallowed him whole, like an ordinary man left naked in a frozen wilderness.

Would he die here?

The overwhelming disparity shattered his composure. Markas Luke began to scream in panic.

"No, I won't die! I am the future King of the World! How dare a mere mortal think of killing a future god!"

Aether, now in his giant form, had no intention of responding to the rant of an ant-like madman. This form consumed too much stamina. It was better to end things quickly.

He slowly raised an arm over a thousand meters long. The shadow of his fist alone covered the entire bridge.

The silver-white fist gradually turned dark red, crackling with countless bolts of lightning.

Air currents twisted violently around it, drawing in nearby clouds. At that moment, the giant's fist became the center of the world.

The overwhelming strike was formed by compressing an enormous amount of Conqueror's Haki. The energy radiating from the dark red fist made space itself feel distorted.

The terrifying sight left everyone frozen in shock. It was an Advanced Conqueror's Haki fist hundreds of meters wide. Mori had no doubt that this single blow could annihilate them all. Perhaps even the legendary Ancient Weapons, said to destroy nations in a single strike, were only at this level.

The fist, like a pillar supporting the heavens, came crashing down on the section of the bridge where Markas Luke stood. Even though Aether had carefully controlled its spread, the sheer destructive force instantly collapsed a portion of the bridge. The surrounding sections trembled violently, leaving a massive gap in the structure.

The remaining force continued downward, plunging deep into the seabed. The impact of Advanced Conqueror's Haki triggered a catastrophic shockwave.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

The earth shook violently. A massive shockwave pushed back the surrounding seawater for dozens of kilometers, exposing a seabed hundreds of meters deep. Several Sea Kings flailed helplessly without water. The displaced ocean failed to return for a long time, instead forming a sky-reaching tsunami that rolled outward.

Fortunately, Aether intentionally directed most of the force downward into the seabed. This limited the destruction to what was equivalent to a magnitude twelve earthquake. The bridge itself had been constructed to withstand even greater force. Otherwise, the entire structure, along with everyone on it, would have been obliterated.

Even so, the aftermath was severe. Several supporting pillars that should have been anchored into the seabed now hung suspended in the air. The bridge groaned under the strain, visibly destabilized as the terrain beneath it had been completely reshaped.

The entire structure emitted a deep creaking sound, as though it could collapse at any moment.

Nico Robin, barely managing to steady herself during the violent shaking, stared at the exposed seabed. A massive crater stretched hundreds of meters deep into the rock layer. Its surface was filled with terrifying fractures, and magma surged upward from beneath the earth. Even the incoming seawater could not erase the damage left behind.

Her hands trembled against the railing as she whispered, her worldview collapsing.

"Is this really something a human can do? Even the gods of legend would only be at this level."

The others who managed to stay on their feet were equally speechless. They had not yet recovered from the devastating strike. Fortunately, everyone present was an elite of the Revolutionary Army. Otherwise, the shockwaves alone would have caused heavy casualties.

As for the ordinary people who had already retreated to the rear sections of the bridge, they were fortunate to have avoided the main impact. Some were injured from the earlier tremors, but none could focus on that now. Many had collapsed to their knees, praying to the heavens.

"Please, God, let me return safely to my homeland."

[SS-rank character Dragon has generated a normal emotion toward the Host: High Surprise. Reward: 50,000 EXP.]

[SS-rank character Kizaru has generated a normal emotion toward the Host: High Surprise. Reward: 50,000 EXP.]

[S-Class figures, A-rank figure, and B-rank figures have generated a normal emotion toward the Host: High Surprise. Reward: 138,993 EXP.]

[C-rank and D-rank figures have generated a normal emotion toward the Host: High Surprise. Reward: 674,621 EXP.]

[Altered the fate of many. Reward: 132,537 destiny points.]

[Level Up: Level 99 (110,000 / 7,000,000)]