"Damn it! What business does Gild Tesoro have bringing the Gran Tesoro all the way out here?!" Perospero's face darkened, his expression twisting into a grimace as he glared at the colossal golden leviathan steadily looming over the horizon.
"That man has always maintained a strictly neutral stance. Even the World Government formally recognized his ship as a sanctuary zone. Surely he hasn't come here to throw his hat into the ring?" Smoothie mused, her brow furrowing in deep perplexity.
It was common knowledge across the globe that the Golden Emperor, Tesoro, was a major business partner of Aeridar, commanding a fortune second only to Aeridar himself. Tesoro had once poured astronomical sums into bribing the Celestial Dragons, a move that coerced the World Government into declaring the Gran Tesoro a certified neutral territory, making it one of only two absolute sanctuaries in the entire world.
However, a stark boundary separated the two. The neutral status of the Clifford Kingdom was a global mandate, universally honored by both the lawful world and the criminal underworld, including all of the Yonko. In contrast, Tesoro's golden vessel was recognized solely by the World Government. The two could hardly be compared on the same scale.
Furthermore, within the confines of his golden city, Tesoro's power was amplified to an almost limitless degree. Between his absolute control and the gold dust drifting through the air, practically no one could threaten him inside his domain. Because the heavyweights of the Yonko crews usually preferred to carouse at the Clifford Palace Entertainment City anyway, top-tier powerhouses rarely bothered to stir up trouble on the Gran Tesoro.
For a man who had meticulously engineered his status as a neutral broker, it defied logic for Tesoro to suddenly entangle himself in this muddy conflict.
Backan and his allies were equally at a loss. Was Tesoro here to reinforce the Chris Pirates, or was he trying to curry favor with the Big Mom Pirates? One thing was certain: he wasn't just passing through.
Right then, a sharp crimson light flickered across Katakuri's eyes once more, signaling a flash of his future-sight Observation Haki.
"He is the enemy!"
Katakuri's voice rang out, dropping to a piercing, frigid register.
The collective faces of the Big Mom Pirates and the three Vinsmoke brothers shifted instantly into masks of shock and fury. Conversely, a wave of relief and triumph swept across Backan and his men.
Right on cue, the bow of the city-sized golden vessel began to churn like molten fluid. The liquid gold surged upward, shaping itself into the towering upper torso of a golden titan over twenty meters tall. Its stylized features bore a striking resemblance to Tesoro himself, highlighted by pulsing, neon-pink luminous circuits that delivered a staggering visual impact across the dark sea.
ZAP—!!!
A blinding beam of golden laser fire erupted from the titan's right eye, carving a stark, incandescent scar across the midnight sky before slamming dead-center into a Germa warship.
BOOM—!!!
A catastrophic explosion detonated, and a roaring inferno instantly swallowed the vessel whole.
"What?!"
"Damn it!"
"You absolute bastard, Tesoro!"
Ichiji and Niji bellowed in sheer fury at the sight of their obliterated ship, while Yonji spat out a stream of vicious curses.
Barely twenty minutes had ticked by since the start of the night's engagement, and Germa had already lost nearly ten warships. The toll was becoming excruciatingly severe.
"Hahaha! Beautifully done! That bastard Tesoro really knows how to make an entrance!" Backan threw his head back, laughing uproariously in sheer delight.
"So that's the true might of the Golden Emperor, Gild Tesoro... He certainly lives up to his reputation as a monster!" Shuzo muttered, clicking his tongue. It was clearly his first time witnessing Tesoro's power in person, and the sheer scale of it left him visibly shaken.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!!
Out on the water, the battered fleet of the Germa Kingdom began swiveling their cannons, opening fire en masse on the encroaching Gran Tesoro. The harbor shook as the sky tore open with thunderous volleys. A relentless hail of artillery shells hammered the massive ship, and within moments, the forward hull of the Gran Tesoro was pockmarked, cratered, and heavily scarred by the barrage.
"Senseless! Mere cannonballs cannot hope to breach my Gran Tesoro!"
An arrogant, booming voice reverberated from the golden monolith, carrying so much force that it echoed clearly even to the combatants standing on the Unzan Port docks.
In the next breath, the forward section of the Gran Tesoro began to ripple and churn as the fluid gold actively repaired every single crater and tear carved by the shells.
Within a few short heartbeats, the entire vessel shone as pristine and radiant as ever. It bore absolutely no sign of having just endured a synchronized bombardment from thousands of naval cannons.
Every speck of gold composing the Gran Tesoro was entirely subservient to Tesoro's awakening. Even if one were to blast a clean hole straight through this metropolis of a ship, he could reconstitute it in a flash.
ZAP—!!!
BOOM—!!!
Without giving them a moment to recover, another concentrated beam of golden laser fire shot from the right eye of Tesoro's giant construct, obliterating yet another Germa warship in a fiery explosion.
"Son of a bitch! I'm going to rip that guy apart!"
Yonji roared, entirely consumed by rage. White propulsion gas hissed from his Raid Suit technology boots, launching him directly into the sky. Ichiji and Niji trailed closely behind, their figures blurring as they surged forward through the air toward the Gran Tesoro.
"Perorin~ Very well. Let the lapdogs of Germa exhaust themselves against Gild Tesoro," Perospero hissed, extending his long tongue with a cold, predatory sneer.
Katakuri turned his head back around, his frigid gaze locking back onto Backan. "Now then. Your reinforcements have been intercepted. It's just you left."
The moment the words left his lips, Katakuri lashed out with a devastating kick. His right leg elongated and expanded exponentially, instantly coating itself in a thick layer of Armament Haki until it resembled a massive column of polished, pitch-black metal. It tore through the air, howling directly toward the defenders.
"Get back, now!!!"
Backan roared at the top of his lungs, throwing himself frantically to the side.
Even without Backan's warning, the crowd behind him had already scattered in sheer terror to avoid the path of destruction.
Suddenly, a cluster of thick, emerald vines erupted from the ground. Each vine was as broad as an adult's thigh, slithering through the air like a nest of vipers to coil tightly around Katakuri's leg, straining desperately to halt the trajectory of the massive, hardened mochi limb.
"Plants, hm...? A Devil Fruit user!"
Katakuri shifted his gaze, locking eyes with Binz. The Marine ninja was performing a bizarre, rhythmic dance, chanting his signature "Mosa-Mosa!" as several more massive vines tore through the earth around him, swelling and expanding at an alarming rate.
"We've got him!"
Backan's eyes lit up in triumph. He bellowed, "Keep him pinned right there!"
Without breaking stride, he hoisted his massive wheel-axe, covering the distance to Katakuri in huge, sweeping lunges.
"Don't look down on us!"
Oven stepped into the path with a savage grimace, driving a blistering, steaming fist straight toward Backan's chest.
"Heat Fist!!!"
The incoming strike brought with it a suffocating wave of superheated air. Backan's expression hardened into a fierce glare as he bellowed, "Let's see whose ability rots away first!"
With a resounding roar, his wheel-axe swung forward in a vicious, sweeping arc.
"Hmph—"
Witnessing the exchange, Katakuri's eyes flashed crimson once more as his future-sight mapped out the impending seconds.
In the very next instant, Katakuri's pupils contracted. The hardened mochi leg that was being tightly constricted by the vines suddenly dissolved, turning into a pool of fluid, liquefied rice paste that slipped effortlessly out from the vines' grip.
Simultaneously, Katakuri thrust his hand forward. His arm extended like a whip, catching Oven by the shoulder and violently wrenching him backward out of harm's way.
CRASH—!!!
Backan's massive axe slammed violently into the concrete dock, tearing open a long, jagged fissure that split the earth all the way down to the shoreline.
As Oven tumbled back onto the ground, he glanced over at the crater left by Backan's axe. His face paled in instant shock. A massive, spreading blight of rusty brown had corrupted the stone, the ground itself looked completely corroded and decayed.
It took him no time at all to realize that if Katakuri hadn't pulled him back, that horrific corrosion would have claimed his fist.
"Tch... That future-sight of yours is a real pain in the ass," Backan muttered, his brow furrowing into a deep frown as he stared warily at Katakuri.
Channeling his decay through his weapon to trigger a mid-range corrosion was a newly developed technique of Backan's, one he had specifically intended to use to permanently wither Oven's arm.
Had it connected, even if Oven's extreme heat had managed to transfer through the metal and scorch his palms, Backan would have successfully decayed Oven's fist into dust.
Regrettably, Katakuri's future-sight had completely unraveled the trap before it could spring. His lethal gambit had been exposed and neutralized from the very start.
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