Blood, like a tide, surged over the stark white bones, dyeing everything dark red.

The agile body of a leopard chased across the wilderness, its fangs sinking into the taut throat of an antelope; beneath the grizzly bear's massive maw, snowy rabbit fur mixed with droplets of blood splattered; a pack of hyenas tore at the abdomen of a horned ox, its curved horns futilely scoring deep marks in the dust.

These images continuously overlapped and repeated, gradually losing their color, turning into black and white silhouettes, transforming into pale lines entangled in the void.

Finally.

All the lines converged and collapsed towards the center… forming a singularity that devoured all things—

It was an existence darker than darkness.

And in the surging sea of blood, countless scarlet arms stretched out from the surface, like the desperate struggles of the drowned, frantically trying to grasp…

But besides nothingness, they had nothing.

Black Swan reached out in terror, her slender fingers clawing at the void, as if trying to grasp the last shred of hope for escape.

But her body was being dismembered and pulverized by some invisible force… turning into scattered feathers, swirling down into nothingness, completely vanishing.

—

One Piece.

"Black hole."

Kuzan pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the terrified instant on Black Swan's face before she was dismembered.

No one dared to mock her, for they were no different from her. When the void, capable of annihilating everything, descended, nothing would be left but futile struggle.

"This is the true… gravity."

Kuzan subconsciously looked at Blackbeard beside him.

Blackbeard, who had just recently questioned the strength of Huang Quan, his expression completely frozen. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down, as if he wanted to say something, but only a few dry "hoo hoo" sounds escaped. The thick black beard trembled slightly, and his missing teeth were like the gates of hell—this characteristic feature, at this moment, made him appear utterly disheveled.

"What… what is in this woman's head?"

After an unknown amount of time, this slightly trembling sentence finally squeezed out of Blackbeard's throat.

He slumped onto the deck, somewhat despondently.

The Dark-Dark Fruit possessed the infinite gravity of a black hole, but when he gazed into the depths of Huang Quan, he realized that he was the one being firmly pulled in. Not just his body, but his mind… everything disintegrated and was destroyed in the black hole, just like the rabbit in the grizzly bear's mouth… utterly powerless to resist.

When Gold Dust revealed Huang Quan's identity as an Emanator, he had been curious if the effects of his Dark-Dark Fruit could work on an Emanator like Huang Quan; now, that speculation had an answer.

Black Swan was annihilated into pitch-black feathers in the black hole, and everyone finally—was able to escape from this hellish black hole.

"That was truly deadly…"

Shiryu felt his legs completely give out, only able to maintain a standing posture by leaning on his saber. The other captains also broke free from the Remembrance, their chests heaving violently, as if they had just survived a death match, even their breathing carrying an unnatural tremor.

—

"The last note vibrated and dissipated in the air."

"In the center of the dance floor, Black Swan collapsed weakly into Huang Quan's arms, who steadily supported her waist. After the dance, her damp, broken hair clung to her slightly pale cheeks. She gasped for air, her chest heaving violently, greedily taking every breath."

"And Huang Quan's eyes remained indifferent, even carrying some… confusion."

"'Annihilation Gang… who is that?'"

—

"Ha… she, she actually doesn't know the Annihilation Gang?"

Iaian's fingers trembled slightly as he pointed at Huang Quan's somewhat blank expression in the sky. After experiencing a nightmare-like Remembrance, a smile finally managed to squeeze onto his pale face.

"Master… her Remembrance is indeed very poor."

Atomic Samurai slowly turned his head in the sunlight, shadow covering most of his face. When he slightly lifted his head, his disciples finally caught a glimpse of his expression.

"Ma-Master?"

Iaian's smile froze on his face.

He rarely saw his master reveal such an expression: his pale face covered in cold sweat, the bulging veins on his forehead like two wriggling earthworms. The last time he saw this expression was during Phantylia's battle with Jing Yuan and the others.

"Idiot," Atomic Samurai's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, "Would you remember the name of an ant you stepped on and killed?"

Suddenly, a deathly silence fell over the surroundings.

Only the violent heartbeats of a few disciples… and the sound of chattering teeth remained.

"Master, what do you mean by that?"

"It means that Duke Inferno… is an ant she stepped on and killed."

"A strong individual like Duke Inferno, she has probably slain countless such individuals on her journey. A strong individual like him, a force like the Duke Inferno's Mansion—they don't even deserve a name in her Remembrance."

—

"I have observed her for a long time. Tonight is the last invitation. The Galaxy Ranger…"

Huang Quan walked alone on the long street.

The sky seemed to be quietly changing—the inky night sky appeared to be permeated by the blood of the dead, gradually seeping out a dark red hue. The red deepened, spreading across the sky like diluted blood, enveloping the entire street in an eerie glow.

"No, I made a fatal mistake."

"Everyone has a past, but some people's pasts are silent deep seas, filled with the corpses of the drowned."

When the scarlet faded, Huang Quan quietly walked down the street, trying hard to recall the name Black Swan had just mentioned.

"Annihilation Gang… Annihilation Gang…"

Suddenly, her footsteps halted, and Huang Quan slightly raised her head as if in realization.

"Ah… it was them…"

—

Demon Slayer.

"No wonder Black Swan's expression seemed somewhat apprehensive when Xing suggested acting with Huang Quan earlier…"

Shinobu Kocho let out a long sigh of relief; this breath had been held in her heart for a long time. When she saw that apocalyptic scene, she truly dared not breathe for a moment, until Stone Hashira gently patted her back, and she barely managed to recover from that endless "gravity."

"Just peering into her Remembrance, the result was even worse than falling under a hallucinatory Blood Demon Art. What is this woman's background? Why is she so strong?"

Although the appearance of these Path-walkers in the sky could not be crudely matched with human timelines, she was not an immortal species like the Xianzhou people. She looked to be in her twenties, even younger than them, the Pillars.

Shinazugawa Sanemi could not understand how many battles this woman had experienced to reach her current realm.

"…Could it be that the blessing of a Star God granted her nearly infinite life? Is she, like Lady Jingliu, just appearing young?" Mitsuri Kanroji offered her conjecture.

"In reality, she has experienced countless battles, and both her skill and her Path have progressed very far."