BOOM!
A crimson pillar of light shot from earth to sky, crowned by an enormous, glittering five-pointed star.
The pillar soon dissipated.
Loki slowly rose from the ground, one hand covering his face and hiding his expression.
“You really hit hard, old man.”
Every injury John had just inflicted on him was gone.
Whether blunt trauma or cannon fire, not a single mark remained on Loki’s smooth skin.
At last, he lowered his hand.
The bandages covering his eyes slipped away, revealing those demonic pupils beneath.
Many of the spectators were stunned.
What was with those eyes?
And where had Loki’s injuries gone?
A giant anchor had smashed him straight in the face, yet apart from his ruined bandages, he looked completely untouched.
Whoosh!
Crimson light flared.
A pair of wings unfolded behind Loki.
Compared to his gigantic frame they were neither especially large nor small, and every pattern on every feather was clearly visible.
Above the curved horns on his head appeared a crimson halo shaped like a five-pointed star.
He stretched his limbs and stood upright.
John looked up at Loki’s new appearance and opened his mouth, ready to make some casual remark—only for the words to die in his throat.
Why…?
John was already taller than Loki now, wasn’t he?
So why did he still have to look up at him?
Because Loki had grown larger.
“Did that guy just get bigger?”
“I don’t think so.”
“He did.
I’ve been watching him the whole time.”
“Wait…
was he a Devil Fruit user all along?
If it’s a Zoan, that would explain everything.”
“Exactly!
Zoan users have incredible recovery, and the most obvious benefit is a stronger body!”
“Ohhh!
That makes sense!”
After pooling their wisdom, the observing pirates proudly concluded that they’d uncovered Loki’s secret.
And to be fair, the explanation sounded perfectly reasonable.
Loki had wings, so a Zoan wasn’t strange, right?
That would also explain why his wounds kept healing on their own.
Loki listened to the chatter with nothing but contempt in his heart.
‘Devil Fruit?
What a bunch of bumpkins.’
“You only get to eat one Devil Fruit in your life, so you need to choose the right one.
It’s an important decision.” John, unaware of how serious the situation had become, even adopted the tone of a senior lecturing a junior.
“Oh?
You mean like your Devil Fruit?” Loki tightened his grip on his greatsword.
“Treasure is a pirate’s greatest pursuit, and magnetism helps me steal treasure!”
John charged forward, ramming at Loki with his massive steel body.
Then his entire body abruptly stopped.
Loki had merely extended one hand, palm facing forward.
That was all.
And John couldn’t move another inch.
“What?!”
John was genuinely shocked.
Loki had stopped his charge with one hand?
A dark shadow fell from above in the next instant.
SHNK—!
Loki’s sword cut into John’s mechanical body.
It failed to sever it completely, however.
Because the machine was built from a chaotic mass of metal, more than half the blade became wedged inside.
“Perfect!”
John manipulated three mechanical claws to clamp down on Loki’s sword, then pulled sideways with all three at once, trying to snap it in half.
The strength Loki had inherited from the blood of the ancient giants erupted.
He planted himself against the machine and yanked the sword free in one violent motion.
He was about to continue attacking when something caught his attention.
Loki brought the sword closer and examined it.
There was a tiny chip in the blade.
At the same time, the machine he’d cut halfway through reassembled itself under John’s control.
“Pretty tough…
GAAH!”
John’s scream was so loud and sudden that every nearby pirate flinched.
‘What happened?!
What happened?!’
From the outside, nobody could see anything.
The mechanical giant had simply stopped moving, as though it had suddenly crashed.
Inside it, John’s forehead was covered in cold sweat.
Both hands pressed tightly against his abdomen, hot blood seeping between his fingers.
The pain wasn’t enough to kill him, but he couldn’t believe what he was feeling.
A wound had appeared on his body out of nowhere.
Who the hell would believe that?
Yet it had actually happened!
Startled, John looked frantically around the cramped interior, half-convinced an assassin had somehow slipped inside the machine to kill him.
A moment later he nearly laughed at himself.
The surrounding metal was packed so tightly around his body that there wasn’t even a gap.
Forget a person.
A mosquito couldn’t get inside.
John quickly calmed down.
Years on the sea had taught him one simple rule.
Whenever something impossible happened in the middle of a fight, the first person you should suspect was the enemy standing in front of you.
Even if you had no idea what they had done.
“Hey.
What did you do?
Why am I injured?”
John’s voice came from inside the machine, calm on the surface but carrying a hidden murderous edge.
His words caused an uproar among the surrounding pirates.
John had been injured just now?
By what?
Nobody had sensed anything happen.
Unable to figure it out, they all looked toward Loki.
The battlefield fell strangely silent.
Even the distant members of the Rocks Pirates said nothing, silently watching what would happen next.
“Heh.”
Loki sneered crookedly and raised his sword, its sharp edge reflecting the sunlight.
“See this?
You damaged my sword just now, didn’t you?”
Everyone narrowed their eyes and finally noticed the tiny chip on the greatsword’s edge.
Honestly, if Loki hadn’t pointed it out, none of them would have seen it.
So what?
Weapons got damaged in battle all the time, especially when metal weapons collided violently.
“My name is Loki.
My Schrift is M!”
“The Miracle!”
“A miracle is the manifestation of the impossible—the hopes of others given form as my sword!
If that sword is damaged, then hope becomes despair!”
“And that despair is returned to the one who damaged it.
That is the punishment for those who destroy hope!”
“I am the Miracle!
And the Miracle is me!”
Loki raised his greatsword high and shouted loud enough for every person on the battlefield to hear.
The reaction…
was less impressive.
“What is that guy talking about?”
“Nope.
I didn’t understand a word.”
“It just sounds completely unreasonable.”
“Wait!
I think I got it?”
“No way!!”
Most pirates had never been known for their intelligence.
Asking them to understand Loki’s explanation was clearly too much.
Fortunately, John wasn’t included among them.
“What?!
Are you screwing with me?!”
Disbelief filled John’s voice, as though the sky had just collapsed.
“Because I damaged your sword, the sword damages me back?
What kind of bullshit joke is that?!”
Now everyone understood.
A sword with built-in reflected damage?
The pirates looked at one another, unable to laugh or cry.
The whole thing felt absurd.
“Hmph.
Believe it or don’t.” Loki walked toward John with his sword in hand.
“All you need to know is that you’ll become rust upon my blade!”
John looked at Loki’s sword again.
The hilt was short and clearly meant for one-handed use.
The guard formed a V-shape, the body of the blade was black, and both cutting edges were white.
It was double-edged and, at first glance, completely ordinary.
Yet Loki’s words continued echoing in John’s ears, making the back of his neck feel strangely cold.
“W-Wait!
Hold on!”
John hurriedly stopped Loki, then continued speaking—partly to buy time, partly to probe for more information.
“That’s your ability, right?
Then why tell me?
If you kept quiet, almost nobody would ever figure it out!”
That question caught everyone’s attention as well.
Loki merely scoffed.
“Don’t make me laugh.
It’s for fairness.”
“When you fight me, I possess an advantage beyond anything you can imagine.
That means this battle is unfair from the very beginning.”
“By telling you how my ability works, I erase that imbalance.
In other words, I’m compensating for the overwhelming gap between us.”
“That’s why I told you.”
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Everyone stared at him, minds buzzing.
If Loki had given literally any other reason, with the intelligence level of most pirates here they probably would’ve accepted it.
But why did this answer sound so unbelievably arrogant…?
Absolute power had given birth to absolute pride.