“We can’t let an attack like that land on Hachinosu!
Abyssal Curse!!!”
Just before the torrent of spiritual power struck the ground, a dark figure appeared out of nowhere.
A downward slash followed immediately.
ZZZT—CRACK!!
Black-red lightning shattered the air.
The slash met the incoming torrent with unstoppable force.
No—
It didn’t merely stop it.
It obliterated it.
“UWAAAH!!”
The blast of spiritual power Loki had fired was split apart from the center, and the slash continued straight through into his body.
An enormous amount of blood rained down.
Loki screamed toward the sky, spat out a mouthful of blood, lost his balance, and began falling from above.
“Something that heavy can’t just crash straight down!
You’ll sink the island!”
The ground suddenly trembled as an enormous section of earth lifted upward.
The land curved into something resembling a giant net and caught Loki’s falling body.
It immediately rose even higher, separating from the island and becoming a floating mass of land supporting the giant in the sky, preventing his tremendous weight from smashing directly into Hachinosu.
Once that was done, Shiki lowered his hand.
He turned toward Rocks, who was sheathing his sword nearby.
“If you’re cleaning up your mess, then clean all of it!” Newgate complained.
The spiritual power Rocks had cut apart hadn’t disappeared completely.
Fragments were still scattering in every direction.
Newgate followed up with the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, shattering every remaining cluster of energy until nothing was left.
Only then did the battle finally come to an end.
Shiki moved his fingers and lowered the floating landmass back to the ground.
Once it settled, everyone saw Loki lying on top of it.
He had returned to his original size.
There were no wounds on his body, but his eyes were closed and he had completely lost consciousness.
“Hey, hey…
seriously?
Even the wound from my slash healed?
It’s only been a few seconds.” Rocks muttered in disbelief.
He had deliberately refrained from holding back too much.
While splitting apart Loki’s final attack, he’d also struck Loki himself.
Yet even a blow infused with Conqueror’s Haki coating hadn’t left a lasting wound.
By now, the surrounding land had been completely transformed.
Saying it looked as though an earthquake and tsunami had taken turns ravaging it would hardly be an exaggeration.
Fortunately, the battle hadn’t taken place near the center of Hachinosu.
Otherwise, every pirate on the island would probably have been forced to work together on reconstruction afterward.
With Shiki around, at least that might have gone a little faster.
“Damn it!
Now we have to rebuild the harbor too!
This is all your fault, Hua Ye!” Rocks complained.
“Do you have a construction crew here?” Hua Ye asked with a faint smile.
“So what now?
What do we do with this guy?” Shiki asked, putting a cigar between his lips.
“Didn’t he want to join us?” Kyo walked over.
“He’s strong enough.
He just needs somebody to teach him to behave himself from now on.”
“Everyone, hand the brat over to me!
Mamamamama!”
That voice.
That unmistakable laugh.
Everyone looked back to see Charlotte Linlin bounding quickly across the ruins on those long legs of hers.
Kaido was following beside her, though the bandages wrapped around his body drew a few extra glances.
When they arrived, Kaido looked around at the devastated surroundings and couldn’t help commenting, “This place looks like somebody tried to solo the entire Rocks Pirates.”
“You’re late,” Newgate said, hands in his pockets.
“I’m serious.
Give Loki to me!” Linlin repeated, her eyes practically glowing as she spoke.
Anyone familiar with her knew what that expression meant.
Her collector’s instinct had kicked in again.
She probably wanted to collect something from Loki’s body.
“Linlin, you’ll have to ask someone else first.” Shiki pointed toward Hua Ye, who was standing beside Loki.
The instant she saw him, Linlin’s expression darkened and she looked ready to explode.
She failed to notice the subtle change in Kaido’s eyes beside her.
Kaido hadn’t approached the battlefield earlier, but he had watched the entire fight from a distance—including Loki’s performance from beginning to end.
“Sorry, Linlin.
I can’t give Loki to you.
Whatever it is you want to do, wait until he’s older,” Hua Ye said calmly.
“You bastard!”
Linlin narrowed her eyes, danger flashing through the thin gaps.
“Linlin, that’s how it is.” Rocks chuckled.
“He gets the final say on this one.”
“What?!”
Linlin was genuinely stunned.
Rocks’s attitude itself wasn’t the strangest part.
At most, it showed that Rocks appreciated Hua Ye or had taken a liking to him.
But what about everyone else?
Shiki?
Newgate?
They were reacting far too normally.
It was as though Rocks saying Hua Ye had the final say was the most natural thing in the world and not worth discussing.
How was that possible?
How long had Hua Ye even been here?
Among everyone present, Linlin alone couldn’t understand why the others’ attitudes toward Hua Ye had changed so much.
The reason was actually simple.
Loki’s power had come from Hua Ye.
Unless the whole thing was an elaborate lie Hua Ye and Rocks had coordinated in advance, it was almost certainly true.
A man who could turn a giant child into something that powerful possessed an ability that bordered on absurdity.
And if Loki was like this…
Then what about Hua Ye himself?
This mysterious man who had suddenly appeared on Hachinosu—just how strong was he?
Kaido knew even more than the others.
Not long ago, Hua Ye had placed an opportunity in front of him—an opportunity that might have allowed Kaido to obtain strength comparable to Loki’s.
“See you another time.”
Hua Ye lifted Loki’s body with one hand, gave the others a simple nod in farewell, and turned away.
Everyone silently watched his back as he left.
Different thoughts moved through each person’s mind, but nobody expressed them openly, leaving behind a faintly strange atmosphere.
And so the enormous commotion came to an abrupt yet oddly natural end.
Rocks, Newgate, and the others had indeed intervened, but the only members of the Rocks Pirates who had truly fought Loki directly were John and Ganzui.
Calling it “Loki soloing the Rocks Pirates” was obviously an exaggeration.
But that was exactly how the story spread.
Yes.
Before long, the rumor had swept across all of Hachinosu.
What did pirates love most?
Getting drunk and wildly exaggerating stories, of course.
The people who had witnessed the battle and somehow survived naturally returned to the taverns and bragged about what they’d seen.
Harald could fight Rocks on equal footing, so surely it wasn’t shocking that Loki—the prince of Elbaph who had inherited Harald’s strength—was terrifying as well.
According to the stories, Loki had beaten every pirate on the battlefield until nobody dared step forward.
Eventually, members of the Rocks Pirates themselves had been forced to intervene.
Yet even they couldn’t defeat him.
To stop the giant brat, Rocks, Newgate, Shiki, and several other monsters had ultimately been forced to attack one after another before they barely managed to bring Loki down.
If that wasn’t soloing the Rocks Pirates, what was?
None of the actual participants bothered to correct the story, so naturally the rumors became more ridiculous with every retelling.
One particularly popular rumor claimed Loki was actually the illegitimate son of Rocks and Harald.
How else could anyone explain such absurd power?
And according to the storytellers, this wasn’t baseless nonsense.
There was evidence.
Loki had inherited his enormous body from Giant King Harald, while inheriting Rocks’s strength and talent from the other side.
Just look at the names!
Loki and Rocks both started with “Rock”!