Pirate: I'm about to do something big!

Life Energy - Qi Slash!

Sabaody Archipelago, Peninsula No. 13.

Alyosha unleashed a serrated wheel of life energy from his left hand, aiming it directly at Rayleigh, who was wrestling with him.

A screeching sound rang out, and Rayleigh, too, raised his left hand, which was covered in Armament Haki, to catch Alyosha's attack.

The serrated air wheel kept rubbing against Rayleigh's left hand, but it couldn't break through the Armament Haki covering Rayleigh's left palm.

With a clenched grip of his left hand, Rayleigh shattered the sawtooth air wheel, causing the life energy and compressed air within it to explode, forcing Rayleigh to distance himself from Alyosha.

Shaking his numb left hand, Rayleigh's face was no longer relaxed as before. He gripped his sword with both hands, staring intently at the motionless Alyosha. The opponent's strength far exceeded his expectations. If he didn't take it seriously, he might be caught off guard and suffer a setback.

Seeing that his attack had failed, Alyosha was not annoyed. He raised his left hand again, gathered life energy, and formed the Qi Yuan Slash once more, which he then swung at Rayleigh, who had distanced himself from him.

Rayleigh swung his sword and unleashed a flying slash to break the attack, but Alyosha's energy slash turned in mid-air, avoiding Rayleigh's flying slash path in advance. Then, Alyosha stretched out his left hand, pointed his fingers into a sword, and swung it at the energy slash he had thrown. An incredible change occurred!

The energy slash, as large as Alyosha himself, split into eight in mid-air, and under Alyosha's remote control, surrounded Rayleigh along different trajectories.

Life Energy - Qi Element Severing and Modification - Eight-Part Light Wheel!

"He really is not a pure swordsman."

With the help of his Observation Haki, Rayleigh dodged and weaved through the encirclement of eight Spirit Slashes, and even had the leisure to complain that Alyosha's attack methods were not swordsman-like enough.

"As I said, just consider me a swordsman."

Alyosha retorted, knowing full well that his skills wouldn't harm Rayleigh; he was merely using them to buy time, giving himself a chance to charge up for a fatal blow.

Alyosha activated his Observation Haki to its fullest extent, visualizing Rayleigh's upcoming positioning and route in his mind. The half-finished black sword in his right hand also continuously absorbed the free-floating life energy in the air under Alyosha's control, mixing it with the Armament Haki on the blade, until Alyosha felt he could no longer control it and stopped.

As Alyosha's Observation Haki locked onto Rayleigh's position a few seconds later in his mind, Alyosha moved!

Right now, Life Energy - Crescent Moon Sky Piercing!

Alyosha unleashed another flying slash, this time infused with Armament Haki and life energy, transforming the invisible flying slash into a visible black blade-shaped shockwave. Its immense power and speed left Rayleigh, who was still dodging the Eight-Point Light Wheel attack, with no way to avoid it, placing him directly in front of the path of Alyosha's black blade-shaped shockwave.

Eight more beams of light attacked Rayleigh from all sides, putting him in a difficult situation.

Thallium Blade of the Other Shore!

Faced with Alyosha's deadly move, Rayleigh's expression turned serious, his muscles tensed, and he unleashed a powerful attack from his peak, colliding with Alyosha's attack.

boom!

The explosion resounded through the sky, like a thunderclap over the Sabaody Archipelago.

The raging winds, like sharp blades, carved shocking furrows into the ground. The force of their collision was so great that even other peninsulas outside the lawless zone were affected.

People frequently fall off the bubble cars, a unique vehicle in the Sabaody Archipelago, but the culprit remains elusive.

Rayleigh was panting heavily as he looked around at the billowing dust, but there was no sign of Alyosha.

His hand holding the knife was trembling.

Rayleigh, who had narrowly blocked the fatal attack, gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"Looks like I can't deny getting old. This is the first time I've ever felt so tired from playing like this. It's rare to see such skill from a young person."

"It's quite remarkable that an elderly person has such physical strength."

Alyosha's voice came from the smoke, and his figure appeared afterward.

Compared to Rayleigh, who was panting heavily, Alyosha was in slightly better condition. At least he could still unleash a Crescent Moon Slash with the same power as before several more times. However, it was hard to say whether the elderly Rayleigh could still deliver a strike like he did in his prime.

But Alyosha dared not relax for a moment, nor did he believe that his victory was already secured.

Rayleigh may be old, but his combat experience is definitely richer than Alyosha's. Alyosha is currently the only officially recognized core member of a pirate crew to have completed the Grand Line, and he is a contender to compete with the current generation of strongmen.

After a lifetime of fighting, who knows if Rayleigh has any ultimate, untapped tricks up his sleeve?

This is different from the battle with Shanks in the East Blue.

In that battle, Alyosha was able to sense that Shanks had deliberately made him cut off his left arm, even though Shanks said he was going all out and even used Roger's signature move, "God's Escape".

Alyosha broke through Shanks's "God's Evasion," but if Shanks wanted to, he had many options to dodge Alyosha's slash with minimal cost. However, he chose to fight head-on, sacrificing his left arm just to leave a shallow scar on Alyosha's chest.

But Alyosha was not as relaxed when facing Rayleigh as he was when dealing with Shanks.

Alyosha went all out with his killing moves right from the start. Apart from the Eight-Point Light Wheel, which he used to block Rayleigh's movement, he didn't use any other skills, as those skills didn't play a crucial role.

Alyosha and Rayleigh praised each other's skills, and the distance between them narrowed to just one person.

"Alyosha Ran, are you really that eager to know the mystery of the final island?"

"So you're planning to die rather than tell me the answer?"

"If you insist on knowing the answer, then I am indeed prepared to die. Roger and I arrived too early; we weren't the ones the final island was meant to wait for."

"Joy Boy's successor?"

Upon hearing Alyosha utter Joy Boy's name, Rayleigh's composed expression of facing death froze, and he stared in disbelief at Alyosha before him.

"You know?"

"I know part of it. He is a legendary figure from eight hundred years ago, the source of the World Government's erasure of the Void Century. I just didn't expect that a strong person like you would also believe in this legend so deeply."

Seeing Rayleigh's martyr-like expression, Alyosha lost interest in continuing to fight Rayleigh.

With a flick of his wrist, the wood shavings around him were drawn to the blade, adhering to it and transforming it back into its original wooden form, which Alyosha then sheathed at his waist.

Without even considering continuing the conversation about the final island with Rayleigh, he turned and left.

"Wait, don't you want to know the answer?"

"I don't think that way anymore. Seeing a strong person like you so convinced of this so-called prophecy, I've lost interest in what One Piece is. Rayleigh, I want to ask you a question."

"What do you want to ask?"

"If the arrival of a new era depends on a legendary figure from eight hundred years ago to usher in it, rather than the efforts of everyone in the world, can such a new era last? Well, I guess you probably can't answer that. So, live as long as you can, live long enough to witness the arrival of a different new era with your own eyes."

Alyosha answered his own question, then ignored Rayleigh behind him and walked straight to the Bamboo Bar, one of the few buildings that wasn't destroyed by the aftershocks of their battle.

Rayleigh, on the other hand, was quite confused by Alyosha's counter-question.

Alyosha's problem is also one that Reilly has been pondering for years.

After his close friend Roger visited the final island, he chose to disband his pirate crew, lost the permanent log that recorded the path to the final island, and surrendered to the World Government when he was nearing the end of his life.

He ushered in a great era of piracy with his own life before his public execution in Loguetown.

All of this was to bring about the emergence of the legendary successor to Joy Boy?

Is it worth it?

Rayleigh had no answer, so he could only trust Roger's judgment and go into seclusion in the Sabaody Archipelago, waiting for the successor to appear.

But he saw a completely different answer in the eyes of Alyosha, the young naval officer.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing, Rayleigh."

"What?"

"Although you haven't fulfilled your responsibilities as a close friend, since Ace is here, I think you have an obligation to talk to him about how you met Roger. It's what he deserves."

After saying that, Alyosha let go of his slicked-back hair, which he had maintained with his life energy, and took out black-rimmed glasses from his pocket and put them on, reverting to his previous disguise.