"You don't understand anything!"
A blinding white light burst from Joy Boy's body. The way he looked now, it was clear—he was enraged and embarrassed.
Carl suddenly hurled the cursed blade, Muramasa, to the ground below. Darkness slithered across the battlefield like a venomous serpent.
"Being your companion... might just be the saddest thing in this world."
...
Zunesha suddenly trembled violently. Its flesh and blood began to wither at a visible rate, shrinking by half in an instant. Its eyes grew murky, like those of an old man whose oil lamp had finally run dry.
No sound escaped its mouth. The thousand-year-old elephant wept tears of blood, staining vast swaths of ocean crimson.
"Zunesha!!!"
Seeing the tragedy unfold, Joy Boy dove downward in a flash of white light, attempting to purge the darkness consuming Zunesha.
Carl's lips curled into a dangerous grin. As Joy Boy touched down, Carl hooked a finger, and a gaping maw of darkness opened on the ground, swallowing Joy Boy whole and forming a black sphere.
From the sphere's surface, fists bulged outward, cracks of white light zigzagging across it. Carl closed in, yanked Muramasa from the ground, and stabbed it straight into the dark orb.
...
The sphere exploded.
Joy Boy's body was flung out like a cannonball, skidding thousands of meters before finally coming to a halt.
After a moment, Joy Boy rose from the ground. His face was cold, his left hand clutching his shoulder blade.
A long, piercing wound ran clean through the area, black mist curling from its edges.
Caught off guard in the heat of the moment, Joy Boy had fallen into Carl's trap. But after taking that blow, he had calmed down.
Taking a deep breath, he activated the power of Nika to heal the wound. By the time Carl appeared before him again, the injury had mostly closed.
Joy Boy looked up at him and said flatly,
"You did it on purpose. You wanted to piss me off, didn't you?"
Carl simply smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.
"If you didn't feel guilty, you wouldn't be so easy to provoke. You know that yourself, don't you?"
Joy Boy nodded slowly, then sighed.
"Maybe you're right. Eight hundred years is long enough to change too many people and too many things. I've been too obsessed… and it's turned into a shackle."
...
Carl raised an eyebrow. Judging by that tone, was Joy Boy about to have a breakthrough?
And the very next second, as if confirming his suspicion, Joy Boy suddenly lowered his head and began to tremble—laughing in fits and starts.
His laughter gradually built up, louder and louder, until he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
"Hahahahaha!!"
The soundwaves of his laughter tore open a massive gap in the black curtain overhead. He clutched his face, white liquid leaking through the gaps between his fingers.
The power of Nika within him surged wildly, rising at a terrifying rate.
Carl's brow twitched. Seriously? He's actually powering up? Isn't that supposed to be his thing?
Had Joy Boy not only stolen Luffy's body—but also the so-called protagonist's aura?
Carl had provoked him deliberately, having long realized that Joy Boy's strength was tightly linked to his emotions.
Nika's power could be described as the power of joy. After doing so many things against his conscience, Joy Boy had been stuck in a conflicted emotional state—barely ever laughing, which in turn greatly weakened him.
If there was a flaw that could be exploited, Carl certainly wouldn't ignore it. He wasn't the type to fight with honor—and especially not in a life-or-death battle like this.
...
Now, watching Joy Boy spiral into madness, Carl didn't hesitate. He raised his blade and unleashed a wave of dark sword aura at him.
Joy Boy wasn't unfamiliar with Carl's tricks. Even as tears rolled from the corners of his eyes from laughing, he never let down his guard.
The moment the slash came, he released a wave of Conqueror's Haki to block it.
After the sword aura scattered, Joy Boy lowered his hand and smiled.
"Celestial Dragon... in some ways, you really should've learned from your ancestor, Cassilius. That man didn't stoop to attacking the weak."
Carl chuckled and retorted,
"If the old man were still around, I'm sure he'd say: 'For something as disgusting and hypocritical as you, the sooner it's wiped out, the better.'"
...
Joy Boy wasn't angered by the jab. He simply shook his head, his body starting to sway in a bizarre rhythm.
Then he let out a low chuckle, stretched out his arms, and lay flat on the ground.
Carl wasn't naive enough to think Joy Boy was submitting. No—he could sense it. From the earth beneath him, a strange energy began to ripple outward.
It felt eerily similar to what he'd experienced the first time he stood before Imu.
Lying there, Joy Boy whispered:
"Nika's Promise... the Gift of All Things."
...
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz!
Zunesha's entire body trembled rhythmically. Its massive form—35,000 meters tall—rapidly shrank.
Carl's eyes narrowed as he kicked off the ground, lifting himself into the air.
In mere seconds, Zunesha had shrunk to the size of a normal elephant—a shocking transformation.
But instead of weakening, Zunesha seemed reinvigorated. It raised its trunk and sprayed seawater over itself.
The salt did nothing to irritate its wounds—on the contrary, the gashes visibly began to heal under the water's touch.
Four milky-white halos formed under its wide feet, lifting it into the air.
Joy Boy sat cross-legged on Zunesha's back, gently stroking its head with a smile.
"My companion… I'm sorry for what you just went through. Now… let this Celestial Dragon feel your power!"
...
Zunesha's eyes widened. Golden pupils pulsed with ripples of black energy. It let out a thunderous trumpet, and then, wrapped in white light, launched toward Carl like a comet.
Its speed was astonishing.
In an instant, it was upon him. Carl quickly raised Muramasa to block.
With a deafening boom that echoed across the heavens, Carl was sent flying.
He barely managed to stabilize himself, a solemn look flickering across his face.
That impact just now—he could tell. Though Zunesha's body had shrunk drastically, its strength hadn't diminished in the slightest.
What the hell was this?
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+150 chapters on p@treon/tambeerg