One Piece's recent developments have proven to be some of the most important in the entire post-Wano run so far, with events that are quite possibly catastrophic taking place as one of the Yonko of Sea, Blackbeard, ambushed his fellow Worst Generation member, Trafalgar Law on a sea in the New World. Following his victory over Big Mom in Wano Country, Law departed to the north, going the farthest of any of the three Worst Generation captains.
As such, Law was a step closer to Lodestar Island compared to the other two. However, on his path awaited an Emperor of the Sea, Blackbeard, ready to pounce and give him what could be the toughest fight that he's ever fought so far. Blackbeard is quite a mysterious character himself and, for the most part, his plans and motivations remain unknown, however, here, his goals are pretty straightforward.
The Road Poneglyphs
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Every pirate on the sea right now fights for supremacy and aims to find Rogers's treasure, the One Piece. To do that, they plan to get a hold of the Road Poneglyphs. These red stones were introduced to the fans during the Zou arc, where it was revealed that four of these exist, and only by finding all four can the location of the final island, Laugh Tale, be known. Roger managed to find all four and, with Oden's help, he was able to decipher them and eventually, do the unthinkable to reach the final island, becoming the first person since Joy Boy, 800 years ago, to do so. In the current era, the road Poneglyphs are distributed. Zou held one, which was the very first red stone that the fans got to see.
Two of these four stones were in possession of Big Mom and Kaido. The last of these Road Poneglyphs is at an unknown location currently. Law, being with the Straw Hat group on Zou, managed to get his hands on their Road Poneglyph. In Wano country, he acquired Kaido's Poneglyph and shared its copy with Eustass Kidd. At the very least, he has two of the four road Poneglyphs in his possession at the moment, making him one of the pirates closest to the One Piece itself. The reason Blackbeard attacked Law was to gain access to what Law has acquired so far.
The Ope Ope no Mi
Blackbeard is also a very powerful pirate and he is notorious in more ways than one. One of the reasons that he's feared all across the New World is because he, along with his crew, has been hunting Devil Fruit powers, specifically the powerful ones. Having learned how to steal Devil Fruit powers, Blackbeard has been busy establishing a powerful crew of tremendous ability users. As already seen in the previous chapter, the majority of his crew consists of strong Devil Fruit users. Law, coincidentally, happens to have arguably the most powerful Devil Fruit in One Piece.
Law certainly has the ultimate ability that everyone in the One Piece world would crave. Curiously, Blackbeard made no mention of wanting to get his hands on the Ope Ope no Mi. While it is possible that he holds an interest in this fruit and simply chose not to mention it, it is also very likely that he simply does not want the Devil Fruit, for many reasons. It is possible that Teach already has 10 powerful Devil Fruit users in his crew at this point. As fans know, his crew consists of the 10 Titanic captains, and if every single one of them has already acquired a Devil Fruit power at this point, stealing more of these abilities would be useless.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that the Ope Ope no Mi does not grant one instant power. This fruit is only useful with tremendous amounts of medical knowledge that can only be acquired through years of study. Law is as formidable as he is currently only because he understands biology and, subsequently, anatomy so well. For Blackbeard, making use of this Devil Fruit would require a very specific person, which he most likely doesn't have.
The Consequences Of The Fight
The consequences of the fight between Blackbeard and Law are going to be massive. While a fight such as this could easily go either way, Blackbeard, being among the main antagonist of the series, is more than likely to stand out as the victor of the clash. Blackbeard, being darkness, is destined to clash against Luffy, the Sun God. As such, Luffy will be the only one to put him down. Blackbeard might struggle in his fight against Law, as is expected in a fight between men with bounties of 3 billion and above. However, at the end of the day, Blackbeard will most certainly get what he came for. This is already being set up by Oda, given the current cover stories.
Whole Cake Island, Big Mom's territory wa s recently raided by the Blackbeard Pirates. As revealed in the cover story for the previous chapters, Pudding was kidnapped. This is especially interesting as she is a member of the Three-eyed Tribe and they are known to hold the power to read the Poneglyphs. Although Pudding is only a half-blood, her ability may yet awaken and once it does, she is basically the key to the One Piece. The fact that Blackbeard has taken Pudding hostage means that he has acquired the tool to decipher the Road Poneglyphs and this implies that he will soon acquire the rubbings for the stones themselves. Acquiring Law's rubbings would make him one of the closest men to the One Piece on the seas and Luffy's biggest rival for the treasure.