Muzan suddenly released a powerful shock wave, but this time it did not spread outward in every direction like before.
Muzan's stamina was almost completely gone. Maintaining his regeneration under the sunlight was a terrifying drain, and even the King of Demons could not withstand it for long.
He had only planned to use the strength he had left to reach the shadows. Once he released such a powerful Blood Demon Art, his stamina would weaken even further, and he might not have enough strength left to keep moving.
But at that moment, Muzan seemed to have given up on his own life. The shock wave he released struck Luffy directly from behind. Luffy's pupils shrank in shock as his chest caved in, and a huge amount of flesh instantly turned into bloody mist.
In just one second, a massive hole had been blasted through Luffy's chest. Facing Muzan Kibutsuji's final attack, Luffy—whose strength had already been pushed to its limit—had little power left to defend himself. He was sent flying and crashed heavily to the ground, where he lay completely still.
The enormous bloody hole in Luffy's chest was terrifying to look at. At that moment, Muzan shrank again, becoming only one-quarter of his previous size. He still looked like a dead infant, but now he was only about the size of an adult.
Nami, who was standing in front of him, was also in a miserable state. The flesh on her body was dissolving piece by piece, and she looked as if she were about to disappear completely.
Muzan laughed loudly. Several thorns extended from his body and pierced directly into Nami's body, which was on the verge of vanishing.
Red blood seemed to flow through those thorns. As Muzan Kibutsuji's body grew smaller and more shriveled, the terrifying dead-infant form became even more horrifying. He looked just like an evil spirit that had crawled out of hell.
But Nami's body began to recover. Most of her body had already been dissolved by the sunlight, yet as Muzan Kibutsuji's blood flowed into her, her body started rebuilding itself. It was still being burned away by the sunlight, but the newly formed flesh was dissolving more and more slowly.
"A new Demon King has been born!"
AlMuzan laughed once more. Then he pulled out the thorns and used the last of his strength to fling the restored Nami away, sending her straight into the shadows he had originally been trying to reach.
Nami had already passed out before the blood transfusion began. The sunlight had burned her body away until only her core remained. She never woke up while Muzan was giving her his blood, and even after he threw her into the shadows, she remained unconscious.
After doing all this, Muzan let out a miserable scream. The outer layer of his dead-infant form suddenly collapsed. As he tore through layer after layer of dead skin, holy light shone down upon him, and his five brains and seven hearts finally disappeared.
But before they vanished, Muzan's face showed both despair and a trace of fanatic excitement.
Muzan Kibutsuji…
was gone!
The battle seemed to have come to an end.
The sunlight was fierce, revealing everything beneath it.
After fighting through the entire night, West Rob Village seemed to have finally found peace.
Under the sunlight, not far from the battlefield, a group of people watched the situation unfold.
"Rear Admiral Scarlet, should we arrest them?" a man respectfully asked the woman who had appeared before Zoro earlier.
Scarlet—the woman from the Black Order—replied calmly, "The demon has been destroyed. The Marines deal with pirates. This has nothing to do with us anymore."
"Yes…"
The man still answered respectfully.
Had the demon really been destroyed?
Of course not. Bellemere and Nami were both still alive. Smoker had broken a large hole in a tree and stuffed Bellemere inside it, while Nami had been thrown by Muzan Kibutsuji into the shadows beneath the mountain.
Although Muzan Kibutsuji had disappeared, that did not mean the demon had disappeared with him.
Still, since Rear Admiral Scarlet had said they did not need to interfere, they would not interfere.
Scarlet had a special identity. She was not only a Rear Admiral of the Black Order Headquarters' special force, the Claymore; she was also a princess.
Because of certain events, she had fled her homeland. After joining the Black Order, she had volunteered to become a member of the Claymore.
The Black Order's special force, the Claymore, was an extremely mysterious organization. According to legend, all of its members were women. Every one of them possessed tremendous strength, and each could automatically rise one rank above her official position.
A Claymore Rear Admiral was equal to a Vice Admiral of the Black Order Headquarters.
People like her usually carried out missions in the New World. The enemies they fought were often the great demons who ruled the New World. For someone like her to come to the East Blue and become the head of an East Blue branch was simply unbelievable.
And yet…
She had stayed in the East Blue for three whole years.
Naturally, the people of the Black Order did not dare to disobey her orders.
Scarlet gave the fallen people one last look and said indifferently, "Lady Makima, it seems they have passed."
Makima?
The Fleet Admiral of the Black Order?
She was here?!
The people behind Scarlet looked nervous, but after searching for a long time, they still could not find any sign of Makima.
Scarlet ignored her subordinates. They obviously did not know that if Makima wanted to, she could hear voices from anywhere.
Even from the Black Order Headquarters, she would certainly be able to hear Scarlet's words.
"Let's go."
Scarlet turned around and looked at the rising sun. She murmured, "The New World…"
It's time for me to go back too.
Doflamingo, the day we meet again is not far away.
The figures of the Black Order slowly disappeared.
At the place where Luffy had fallen, Sanji arrived, looking exhausted.
He was carrying two people over his shoulders: the unconscious Usopp and Zoro.
Even at the very end, he had not managed to finish eating the Kraken's tentacle. It was simply too huge, and it could regenerate.
The creature also seemed to have no weakness. Sanji could not find its heart and did not even know where its head was. No matter where he attacked, it could regenerate.
After filling his stomach, Sanji could only fight it by staying out of its reach. He had originally planned to wear down its strength, but before he could do that, the sun came up.
The moment the sun rose, the tentacle melted beneath its light.
Sanji had wanted to bring the corpse along as emergency food, but under the sunlight, the Kraken's tentacle did not even leave behind ashes.
After the sun burned it to death, Sanji entered the island. Along the way, he found the fallen Usopp and Zoro, so he carried both of them with him.
"What happened to everyone?"
When Sanji saw the large hole in Luffy's chest, his eyes widened in shock. He then looked at the fallen Smoker and Ben, Nami in the distance, and Bellemere stuffed inside the tree. Finally, he looked over the battlefield, which seemed almost completely shattered.
What…
What happened here?!
Sanji was completely stunned. He could sense that a battle had taken place, but he had never imagined it could have been this intense.
He had not witnessed it himself, but even the destruction around him was enough to make his blood run cold.
"I don't know how to treat anyone…"
Sanji sighed.
.........
By the time Luffy woke up, it was already noon the next day.
"...!"
Luffy suddenly opened his eyes wide and sat up. "Nami!"
"Stop shouting. She's sleeping even more deeply than you were," Zoro said from the side without looking up from his sword. "Was Muzan Kibutsuji destroyed?"
Zoro had been the first to wake up. When he saw the huge hole in Luffy's chest, he immediately used his reverse-blade sword to heal him.
The reverse-blade sword could quickly heal Zoro's own injuries, but it seemed to be much less effective on other people. Although the hole in Luffy's chest appeared to have healed, it was only superficial.
Luffy had not truly regained consciousness until now.
Holding his chest, Luffy thought back to what had happened. A trace of confusion appeared in his eyes as he frowned and said, "I don't know."
"You don't know?!" Zoro seemed shocked by the answer. He immediately turned around. "You didn't kill Muzan? Why would he let you go?!"
He had assumed Luffy had destroyed Muzan. According to what that cook had said, by the time he arrived, only a few unconscious people remained on the battlefield, and there had been no sign of Muzan.
If Muzan was still alive, would Luffy and the others really have only been knocked unconscious? And if he was still alive, why had he not returned during the night to kill them while they were unconscious?
"I don't know." Luffy described what had happened during the battle the night before.
At the end, he said, "At that moment… he seemed to notice something and started laughing. After that, I passed out."
"By the way, where are Usopp, Bellemere, Ben, and that Marine officer?" Luffy asked.
"Usopp is helping the villagers rebuild West Rob Village. Ben is helping too. Bellemere is in the next room, looking after Nami. As for that Marine…"
Zoro remembered the smoking man. "He said he would let it go this time, but if he saw us again and we were still pirates, he would arrest us."
To be honest, that was an extremely irritating thing to say. Zoro had wanted to fight him right then and there, but Usopp had stopped him.
"He went back, and it seems he's responsible for Loguetown, which is the only route to the Grand Line. Looks like we'll have to fight him eventually."
"He's strong," Luffy said. Grinning through his teeth, he added, "It'll definitely be fun."
Zoro did not comment. Instead, he changed the subject. "By the way, the cook from the sea restaurant was the one who saved us. He left after I woke up."
"Sanji?!" Luffy's eyes lit up. "Then let's go to the sea restaurant right now!"
"We still don't know what happened to Muzan Kibutsuji," Zoro reminded him.
"Who cares? If he comes back, I'll knock him flying!" Luffy touched his chest as he thought of Muzan. Although it looked healed on the outside, pain still kept coming from inside his chest.
"Forget it, forget it. I want meat!"
.........
"It looks like Luffy really is hard to deal with."
The East Blue, Loguetown.
Uta frowned when she saw Smoker return. "Did you fail?"
"Yeah. But it wasn't that kid who did it." Smoker was covered in blood and looked battered. None of the Marines he had taken with him had returned.
With his cigar between his teeth, he told Uta what had happened after he left.
"A demon…" Uta had not expected such a monster to exist in the East Blue. She could not help asking, "How could the Black Order allow something like that to happen?"
"I don't know. I thought it was strange too." Smoker remembered the attitude of the people at the Black Order when he had gone there, and he frowned. "I don't think this matter is over. The Black Order has been making more and more unusual moves in recent years. It's possible they deliberately let that demon grow."
"Without proof, it's better not to say things like that." Uta walked through Loguetown with Smoker and spoke softly. "The World Government wants unity and stability right now."
"Tch." Smoker spoke with contempt. "I'm going to report this to Headquarters. After I catch that straw-hat kid, I'll return to Headquarters and personally report everything that happened here to the Fleet Admiral."
Uta smiled. "Don't rush. The Fleet Admiral just sent us an order."
"What order?" Smoker raised an eyebrow and asked at once. "Would the Marine Fleet Admiral send a special order to a tiny East Blue branch?"
Uta replied, "Wano Country has sent a powerful fighter to the East Blue."
?!
That simple sentence made Smoker stop walking. He even forgot to take a drag from his cigar.
"Wano Country?!"
Everyone who knew anything understood the relationship between Wano Country and the World Government.
Although Wano Country was officially a member nation of the World Government, it was actually completely independent. It was even allied with the Beasts Pirates, making it an enemy of the Marines.
How could a force that held such influence over the New World suddenly send a powerful fighter to the East Blue?
Smoker had many questions, but he let out a long sigh and said, "The Fleet Admiral's Observation Haki has become even stronger."
The Marine Headquarters did not have a particularly strong intelligence network. Although it had planted spies in some forces, they could only uncover the most basic information.
After all, the Marines were merely one department of the World Government. The World Government had the Cipher Pol agencies specifically handling intelligence, so the Marines had never needed to establish an intelligence department of their own.
However, as the World Government weakened and the Marines became increasingly independent, the World Government naturally could not continue supplying them with intelligence through Cipher Pol while also remaining wary of them.
At present, the Marines' source of intelligence was rather laughable: An, the Marine Fleet Admiral, who never left her office.
An had barely left Marine Headquarters since becoming Fleet Admiral, and she almost never fought anymore. Over the years, her Observation Haki had grown stronger and stronger. Even while remaining at Marine Headquarters, she could listen in on a great deal of information.
Smoker could not imagine what level she had reached. Perhaps even the legendary Pirate King Roger, if he were brought back to life, would be no better than her.l Projects Quick Summary
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