After three more massive energy clashes that shook the island, Big Mom's Haki was finally nearing its limit.
Fortunately for her, the battle had moved.
She had finally reached the airspace directly above the ruined banquet hall.
She looked down at the rubble, where her children and the terrified guests were huddled as a cruel smile twisted her lips.
As long as there are souls, everything can be replenished.
Interestingly, Ray seemed to predict exactly what was about to happen.
He stopped swinging Tessaiga.
He lowered his blade, floating in the air, and simply watched.
"Hmph," Ray sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What a great mother you are."
Why didn't Ray continue attacking? Why didn't he interrupt her?
Simple.
He wanted Big Mom to grow stronger. He wanted to fight a monster at its peak to test his new blade.
As for how many of Big Mom's children would die in the process? That was their problem, not his.
...
Seeing Ray remain still, Big Mom felt a surge of intense frustration.
'Damn it,' she thought, her eyes flashing red.
'Does he really think I'm some soft pushover? Is he playing cat and mouse with me? Toying with me like a plaything before killing me?'
'He'd better watch out—I might just turn the tables and eat him alive.'
As a Yonko who had dominated the New World for decades, Big Mom couldn't tolerate such humiliation.
The rage consumed her, burning away whatever tiny shred of maternal instinct she had left.
She stood atop the ruined banquet hall on her thundercloud Zeus, coldly gazing down at her children below.
Her eyes were devoid of any emotion—no love, no recognition.
Just hunger.
In the banquet hall, her children reacted in various ways.
Most of them, the naive ones, sighed in relief.
They thought their mother was merely passing through to regroup before continuing the fight.
"Mama's here!"
"We're saved!"
In their hearts, Big Mom had long been an invincible deity.
Even after witnessing Ray suppress her earlier, they blindly believed their mother would absolutely emerge victorious.
The disadvantage was just an act, a game to give the prey hope before crushing them.
'Mama is the hunter.'
'We are just the audience.'
Only a few clever children noticed something unusual.
They saw the way she looked at them. In their memory, every time their mother had that specific, hollow look in her eyes, someone died.
It was the look of a farmer eyeing crops.
And now, wasn't her gaze aimed at everyone?
The guests.
The Ministers.
The siblings.
A chill ran down their spines.
Smoothie, who was hiding near the edge of the rubble, saw it instantly.
"Oh no," she whispered, her blood running cold. "Has Mama realized she can't defeat Ray... so she's going to eat us to strengthen herself?"
Even someone as strong as Smoothie trembled. Under the dual pressure of the Soul-Soul Fruit and Big Mom's Conqueror's Haki, resisting the fear was nearly impossible.
And once she felt even a trace of fear, her soul would be ripped out.
Smoothie glanced at the dozen or so siblings behind her—the ones she actually liked.
'There's no time.'
"RUN!" Smoothie screamed, her voice cracking. "MAMA IS GOING TO KILL US!"
She didn't wait for them to process it as she pushed off with her massive legs.
THUD. THUD.
She kicked three of her brothers away with one foot and throw three of her sisters to safety with another.
Then, she grabbed another two of her siblings in each arm and frantically sprinted toward the distance.
As for the rest? She couldn't save them.
Even she wasn't sure she could escape the range of the harvest.
She clamped her jaw shut and flooded her ears with Haki, trying to block out the sound of her mother's voice.
But certain energies cannot be blocked by earplugs.
That was the ability emanating from Big Mom, the ability that strike directly at the depths of everyone's souls.
...
Just as Smoothie made it about 200 meters away, the hammer dropped.
"LIFE OR DEATH!"
Big Mom's voice boomed, accompanied by a tidal wave of terrifying Conqueror's Haki.
WHAM.
Everyone in the ruined banquet hall felt their heads spin.
An uncontrollable, primal fear spread from the depths of their minds, paralyzing their limbs.
The children of Big Mom and the banquet guests cried out in despair... and the moment fear took root, the contract was sealed.
"Mama, please don't! I'm your daughter!"
"Mama, spare me! I can still fight for you! I'm loyal to you!"
"Yes, Mama, I'm still useful! Don't eat me!"
"Linlin! I'm your business partner! You'll lose billions if you kill me!"
"Linlin, aren't we best friends?! Don't do this!"
Their pleas meant nothing to her.
"AHHH!!! IT HURTS!!!"
White, ghostly substances began to leak from their chests.
Their lifespans.
Their souls.
To Big Mom, who had already discarded her humanity for power, the screams were just like dinner music.
She watched the crowd writhing on the floor as a triumphant smile stretching her face.
"SOUL FUSION!"
WHOOSH.
The soul energy scattered all around grew turbulent.
Accompanied by the final screams of her children, countless streams of white light surged into the sky and flooded into Big Mom's body.
In seconds, the banquet hall went silent.
The floor was littered with withered, zombie-like husks.
Young men looked like ancient mummies and beautiful women were reduced to skeletons.
It was a scene worse than hell.
In the distance, Ray observed this brutal massacre without blinking.
He noticed something else, too.
Massive amounts of soul energy were flowing from the distant forest toward Big Mom.
'The Homies,' Ray realized.
The monsters Big Mom had created earlier—the ones Ray destroyed with the Wind Scar—were returning their energy to the creator.
Now, Big Mom had not only absorbed the souls of her own children but also reclaimed the power of every Homie on the island.
This Yonko had finally entered her "True Form" on her home turf.
This was why the Marines feared the New World.
This was why the other Emperors stayed in their lanes.
On their own territory, surrounded by their own souls, a user of the Soul-Soul Fruit was a god.
Ray felt the pressure rising.
Her power was at least 1.5 times stronger than her peak at Enies Lobby.
Ray grinned.
'Finally,' he thought, gripping his sword.
'Come at me, monster.'
...
In contrast to Ray's excitement, Katakuri was on the verge of collapse.
He stood at the edge of the forest, watching the soul lights fade.
His hands were trembling uncontrollably. His eyes, usually so calm, were filled with a rage that burned hotter than magma.
"Mama," Katakuri whispered, his voice shaking. "Do you really have no heart at all?"
He saw the husks.
He saw his siblings dead on the floor.
"Smoothie... Brulee... please be safe."
At this moment, the calm and stoic brother died.
Katakuri stopped suppressing his aura. Plans? Strategies? Staying hidden?
Screw it.
Nothing was more important than his family!
BOOM.
He burst out from the forest, tearing up the ground as he dashed toward the banquet hall at extreme speed.
...
High in the sky, Big Mom was brimming with power.
She felt invincible.
From now on, every attack from her.... would be a calamity.
She glared at Ray with murderous intent, her eyes glowing with blue fire.
"RAY!" she roared. "Because of you, I've lost all my children! Look what you made me do!"
She raised her weapons.
"So, you must DIE!"
"SPEAR OF ELBAF: NATION'S MIGHT!" (Ikoku Sovereignty: Overdrive!)
She combined Zeus's black lightning with Prometheus's blue flame.
She hurled a hundred-meter-long thunderfire spear of pure Haki directly at Ray.
CRACK-BOOM!
The ferocious energy distorted space itself as it flew.
Naturally, Ray wouldn't take this with his bare hands.
He raised Tessaiga.
"Hmph."
He channeled his Demonic Power into the blade.
THUMP-THUMP.
With several heavy pulsations, the fur on the hilt bristled.
The blade transformed again.
The metal shifted, taking on a crystalline, shattered diamond texture.
"Kongōsōha!"
--------
Kongōsōha (金こん剛ごう槍そう破は, Adamant Barrage, "Diamond Spear Blast"), also known as the Spears of Adamant is a special attack that launches shards of diamond (known by the more archaic term adamant in the Feudal era).
The technique originally belonged to Hōsenki I, who passed the technique on to the Tessaiga after its user Inuyasha proved his worth by choosing to save his friends over strengthening his sword.