A terrifying roar exploded outward.
The empty ground collapsed into a massive crater spanning hundreds of ters in diater.
Dense cracks spread wildly in every direction, extending into the surrounding buildings and causing the residential structures nearby to collapse.
Dust and smoke billowed into the sky, blotting out the sun.
But in the next mont, a powerful gust swept through. The dust seed to be grasped and kneaded by an invisible hand before being blown high into the sky.
Natasha stepped forward with her right foot.
Her figure instantly blurred.
Using Soru, one of the Six Powers, she appeared at the edge of the crater in an instant and saw Matthew standing at the bottom. He slowly rose to his feet, turned around, and looked up at her.
"This is Haki."
As soon as the words fell, Matthew disappeared. When he appeared again, he was already standing before Natasha.
Looking at the massive crater his single punch had created, he spoke softly.
"I used strength equal to yours."
"Natasha, could you create this level of destruction with one punch?"
"No." Natasha answered imdiately without hesitation.
Her physical strength was around seventy-five tons. Among the Raven Warband, she stood at the very top, and even compared to the Astartes, the difference was minimal.
Yet even with such inhuman physical power, reproducing the sa destructive force as Matthew was impossible.
Of course, under normal circumstances, even soone possessing dozens of tons of strength wouldn't create a massive crater by punching the ground. More likely, their entire fist and arm would simply bury themselves into the earth.
That was purely a matter of insufficient control over power.
It was completely different from concentrating force into a single precise strike.
The latter represented an extrely high level of control over one's strength, while the forr was nothing more than throwing a brute-force punch with as much raw power as possible. The amount of force wasted during the swing was obvious.
When a true powerhouse threw a punch, the difference lay in whether the force was concentrated or dispersed after impact.
One focused on penetration.
The other focused on expansion.
Normally, in combat against an enemy, the more concentrated the force, the better, since penetrating damage was far more lethal.
But in a ground battle, if a downward punch missed its target and was inevitably about to strike the ground instead, which was better?
Driving the fist straight through the earth?
Or dispersing the force like Matthew had done to create a crater hundreds of ters wide?
The answer was obviously the latter.
In the first case, Matthew's fist and arm would plunge directly underground, leaving behind a massive opening. No matter how fast he was, an enemy could still seize that mont of vulnerability.
But by dispersing the force at the final instant and blasting out a crater instead, the situation changed entirely.
The altered terrain would imdiately destabilize any enemy attempting to dodge, while the resulting shockwave and pressure blast could obstruct opponents trying to counterattack.
This was simply combat experience gained through real battle.
Natasha's control over strength naturally needed no explanation.
But even if she used the full force of her body to strike the ground, she still couldn't achieve Matthew's result.
The gap was enormous.
"The amplification from Haki is really this great?" Natasha found it hard to believe.
"Correct. Having Haki and not having Haki are two completely different concepts." Matthew nodded.
Leaving aside Haki's restraining effect against Devil Fruit users, the enhancent it provided to raw power alone was worlds apart.
With equal physical strength, soone who possessed Haki could easily slaughter soone who didn't.
It was a true exponential increase in strength.
More importantly, once soone mastered Haki, their growth limit would also rise significantly.
After all, things as intangible as willpower and conviction could actually be harnessed.
The stronger and more unwavering one's will and beliefs beca, the stronger their Haki would grow, and the faster it would develop.
Were the beliefs of the two warbands strong? Extrely strong.
They shared unified ideals, a single leader, and faith so intense it was almost becoming fanaticism.
There was no need to explain how powerful the faith of fanatics like them could beco.
If they ever encountered an enemy they absolutely could not defeat, not a single one of them would retreat. If necessary, they would willingly throw away their lives just to make the enemy lose a tooth.
Matthew didn't particularly like situations like that.
He preferred overwhelming everything head-on with absolute strength.
"Then how are we supposed to awaken it? How do we use the power of will?" Natasha asked with slightly furrowed brows, clearly unable to grasp the concept.
Matthew's explanation had been very clear.
But when it ca to actually putting it into practice, she had no idea where to begin.
Willpower and conviction were easy enough to talk about, but they weren't physical objects. How were they supposed to be utilized?
And sohow they had to be transford into armor and weapons.
"Your physical strength is already sufficient, so you've crossed the most basic threshold. What you need next is to personally experience the power of Haki."
Matthew had already thought this through long ago.
In the world of One Piece, the basic conditions for awakening Haki were actually very simple. The first requirent was sufficient physical strength.
That point was crucial.
But there was also a major prerequisite.
Haki belonged to the world of One Piece. The Marvel Universe had no such thing.
No matter how one described it, Haki was fundantally a latent power possessed by all humans in the One Piece world. It was an innate ability they were born with.
It was sothing unique to the people of that world.
At the most fundantal genetic level, the people of the One Piece world were completely different from humans in the Marvel Universe.
After all, under normal circumstances, what kind of ordinary human race considered people over three ters tall normal, treated two-ter adults as children, and regarded anyone under two ters as disabled?
The reason Matthew had been able to awaken Haki was because he had fused with Big Mom's Iron Balloon physique.
That overwhelmingly powerful body ca with the aptitude for Haki, allowing him to awaken it successfully.
But Natasha and the others didn't possess such qualifications.
Unless the scientists in the technology departnt sohow deciphered his underlying genetic code and transford it into so kind of serum for Natasha and the others to inject, there might perhaps be a chance for them to awaken Haki.
But there was no way Matthew would ever allow that.
He would never let anyone research his genes.
He had no such hobby.
If he did, he would have contributed himself long ago and created Pacifista-style laser weapon robots modeled after Kizaru.
So with all those paths blocked, Matthew turned his attention toward magic.
Everything is magic.
At its core, Haki was simply a form of energy. And if it was energy, then it could naturally be stored.
Joy Boy had managed to seal Haki within a knot and preserve it for eight hundred years.
If that was possible, then why couldn't Armant Haki be stored as well?
Top-tier Armant Haki could already flow outward and be projected externally as energy. Naturally, storing it was possible too.
So Matthew had conceived of this idea long ago and had already begun experinting with it.
And just so happened, he had successfully intercepted and preserved Armant Haki energy before.
Buzz!!
Matthew gently raised his hand.
His right palm was pitch black as streams of purple-black energy continuously gathered within it, while his left hand ford a magic seal.
A tiny golden particle, roughly the size of a glass bead, slowly descended through the air.
Armant Haki energy swirled around it before gradually being injected into the golden particle.
If viewed through a magnifying glass, one would discover that the golden particle was actually a miniature magic array.
Dense rune markings were engraved across its surface.
"This contains stored Armant Haki energy," Matthew said as he looked at Natasha.
"Natasha, are you ready?"
...
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