In Totto Land—
not a single sound remained.
Not the silence that follows chaos.
But the deathly stillness left behind by overwhelming power.
Even the wind now howled like a requiem for the palace of a sea emperor.
Neither the surviving Charlotte Family officers, nor the elite Beasts Pirates moved a muscle.
They stood frozen, stunned, as their minds struggled to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
That was—
Whole Cake Castle.
The heart of the BIG MOM Pirates.
The symbol of Charlotte Linlin's decades of rule over this sea.
A fantasy fortress built from unimaginable wealth and overwhelming power.
And just now—
That man, Lucian Thorn,
had annihilated it.
In a single moment.
Gone—without a trace.
"Plague" Queen trembled uncontrollably, his rotund frame shaking.
At some point, his sunglasses had fallen off.
The once-playful smirk on his face was now overtaken by raw, unfiltered horror.
He seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
Smoothie, one of the Sweet Commanders, gripped her sword so tightly her knuckles went white—
yet her hands felt hollow and powerless. A chill crawled from her feet to her scalp.
Cracker had collapsed completely, murmuring to himself in disbelief:
"It's fake… it's an illusion… it has to be…"
But that mirror-smooth crater screamed the truth:
This wasn't a dream.
This was reality—
a nightmare more hopeless than any dream.
And then—
From within that frozen despair,
two figures moved.
King the Conflagration.
Charlotte Katakuri.
As the vice-captains of two Yonko crews,
their wills were forged far stronger than the rest.
The terror in their eyes lasted only a heartbeat—
before being burned away by something far fiercer:
Wrath.
And
Humiliation.
Black wings burst open behind King.
Fire surged wildly across his body.
He was enraged beyond reason.
As Kaido's strongest subordinate,
as a Lunarian,
he had never tasted such helplessness or disdain.
Lucian hadn't even acknowledged him—
and had destroyed their ally's fortress right before his eyes.
Meanwhile, Katakuri stood up.
His crimson scarf whipped in the wind.
His eyes—capable of seeing the future—now burned with blazing fury.
Perospero was his brother.
That castle was his home.
Now, his brother was dead.
His home—gone.
This wasn't a provocation.
This was a complete and utter desecration of the BIG MOM Pirates.
Their eyes met.
No words were needed.
As Emperor's Right Hands,
they represented their captains' pride.
Their Emperors' dignity.
Even if the enemy was an unstoppable monster—
they had to fight.
Because this was their duty.
Their pride.
BOOM!!
Two auras surged into the sky like erupting volcanoes.
King ignited into a blazing streak—
his sword wreathed in flame, forming a fierce fire dragon.
Katakuri's body transformed into mochi,
and around him floated massive black fists—
each one cloaked in top-tier Armament Haki, radiating unstoppable might.
One to the left.
One to the right.
King—the fire of the Beasts Pirates.
Katakuri—the strength of the BIG MOM Pirates.
Two vice-captains.
Launched a full-force, do-or-die attack on the lone figure standing at the center of the crater.
But Lucian didn't turn around.
He simply looked up—
at the sky fissure torn open by his own Conqueror's Haki.
As if admiring a painting he had just finished.
He didn't even acknowledge the incoming attack.
This—
was the greatest insult of all.
"Bastard!!!"
King roared, merging with the fire dragon on his blade,
becoming a flaming meteor aimed at Lucian's back.
Ōmori Karyūdon!
At the same time, Katakuri pushed his Observation Haki to the limit.
His massive mochi fists streaked in from all directions—
each moving faster than sound, sealing off every escape.
"Peerless Donut Barrage!"
Two ultimate techniques—
driven by pride and hatred—
descended together.
But just three meters from Lucian—
HUMMMMM—
An invisible domain burst into existence, centered around him.
The domain of the Sun God.
King's fire dragon and Katakuri's mochi fists—
both began to disintegrate the moment they touched it.
Flames that could melt steel?
Silently extinguished.
Fists that could crush mountains?
Gone.
No clash.
No explosion.
Not even a ripple.
Two full-power attacks—
vanished three meters from target—
erased by an incomprehensible force.
The domain rejected their strikes.
"Too slow."
Lucian finally spoke.
His voice wasn't loud—
but it slammed into everyone's chest like a hammer.
"…And,"
he added,
his tone as flat as a weather report—
"Too weak."
Before the words even finished—
Lucian didn't even fully turn his head.
He simply glanced—
the barest flick of his golden eyes—
at the two stunned attackers.
That alone—
triggered a burst of Conqueror's Haki so intense,
it struck like a thunderbolt.
"PUHHH—!!"
"GAAAH—!!"
King and Katakuri—
both bounty holders over a billion—
were hit square in the chest by the full blast of Lucian's will.
Their sternums cracked audibly.
Their bodies were launched like broken dolls,
hurtling across the ruins before crashing into rubble hundreds of meters away.
BOOM!
Dust flew.
Debris scattered.
When the dust cleared—
The two lay crushed in the wreckage.
Bones shattered.
Too broken to even lift a finger.
Gone was the rage.
Gone was the pride.
Only fear remained.
Deep.
Unending.
Soul-crushing fear.
And silence.
Deeper than before.
More suffocating than ever.
If destroying Whole Cake Castle in one blow was a miracle—
Then what did you call it when he one-shot two Yonko's right hands… with a glance?
It was beyond words.
Under the gaze of the survivors—
eyes filled with despair—
Lucian slowly turned around.
His golden eyes didn't stop on those no longer worth seeing.
Instead, they calmly locked onto two figures:
Charlotte Linlin, trembling with fury.
And the Den Den Mushi in her hand—
still howling with Kaido's roars.
Lucian raised his voice—
cold, regal, absolute.
"Small fry—don't embarrass yourselves."
"You two."
"Come at me together—"
"So you don't waste my time."