Chapter 155: Red Dragon Coming from the Mist
Thriller Bark.
As the name suggests—this island ship is a strange and terrifying place.
On the island, countless twisted plants and bizarre creatures exist.
Or rather, calling them 'Creatures' isn't accurate.
Because essentially... they are all moving corpses.
They bear hideous suture marks, stitching humans with animals, humans with plants, and even humans with humans.
But bizarrely, these corpses, which shouldn't truly be alive, can not only speak and move but also have distinct personalities.
The reason is...
"Fosh! Fosh!"
"As expected of Lord Moria's ability... phew... although tiring, the zombies created this time are even stronger!"
Deep in the huge, ancient, eerie castle at the center of Thriller Bark.
A wretched man wearing a strange mesh outfit and high heels laughed wretchedly.
"Good work, please die quickly, Dr. Hogback."
Beside him, a zombie woman with a good figure and expressionless face replied.
She was Hogback's zombie maid—Cindry.
"EH!?"
Hearing this, Dr. Hogback was immediately hurt by her words. "You... you want me to die?"
"Please do so."
"She actually admitted it!"
Just as the master and servant were hurting each other as usual...
"Kishishishishi!"
In the shadows before them, a massive figure let out a high-pitched laugh.
"Well done, I knew I could count on you—this is the corpse of the great pirate 'Kentaro' and his executives from seventy years ago. Only your stitching skills and corpse restoration could make it so perfect... Hogback, my loyal subordinate!"
"Combined with the shadow of the famous South Blue swordsman 'Bear-Cutter' Aradon... a perfect match!"
It was a massive, obese man with protruding horns on his forehead, an extremely long neck, and sharp teeth and ears.
From any angle, his appearance could be called 'Alien'.
Of course, it fit perfectly with this Thriller Bark.
"Oh, you flatter me, Lord Moria."
Hogback's words naturally revealed the identity of the person.
One of the famous Warlords of the Sea, the owner of Thriller Bark—Gecko Moria.
"After all, I rarely stitched corpses before..."
Hogback grinned.
As a former genius surgeon, he naturally stitched patients' wounds in the past.
Since cooperating with Moria 8 years ago, he switched to stitching corpses.
So he knew well...
"Fosh fosh... my skills aren't 'Perfect' yet."
"After trying for a while, I found that only with truly fresh corpses of strong men who just died, combined with perfect stitching and the strongest shadows, can the created zombies be 'Perfect'."
Speaking here, he felt regretful.
Because clearly—he was far from meeting these three conditions.
"Kishishishi, no rush."
Moria just rested his hands behind his head, saying casually, "In the future, you will help me conquer the sea and become the Pirate King—strong corpses and shadows won't be lacking then..."
Speaking of this, Moria seemed to remember something.
"By the way, Absalom... where is Perona?"
He was puzzled. "Today is the day to test new zombies, why isn't she here yet?"
As his words fell...
VMMM!
In the room, a man with a lion face wearing a trench coat appeared out of thin air.
"Gah-oh!"
He roared like a beast first, then said, "She should still be sleeping—you know, once she sleeps, it's hard to wake her. Should I go find her now?"
"Kishishishishi... she gets grumpy when woken up, forget it."
Moria was very lenient with his subordinates.
"Since she's not coming, let's test..."
RUMBLE!
He couldn't finish his sentence.
Because at this moment, the entire castle began to shake violently.
"Wah!"
Dr. Hogback fell awkwardly, his round glasses askew, and his butt stabbed several times by scalpels.
"So... so painful..."
"Are you dying? Dr. Hogback."
"Not dying yet!"
While master and servant continued to hurt each other, Absalom stood up straight. "What's happening... seaquake?"
He knew the weight of Thriller Bark well—as an island ship, even the Grand Line's storms couldn't make it shake so violently.
Unless it was a seaquake.
"No..."
But Moria frowned.
He hadn't fought personally for too long; many things had naturally degenerated.
But even so.
He still had an instinctive feeling.
"Open the window!"
So he ordered the zombies nearby immediately.
When the window opened, from the castle's high vantage point...
They immediately saw the entire scene outside.
The Florian Triangle, usually shrouded in mist with relatively calm seas—had transformed completely.
WHOOSH!
Unprecedented gales swept through; trees in the huge forest on the island ship collapsed.
Unprecedented waves battered the hull; the mist flowed faster than ever.
BOOM!
In the pitch-black sky, piercing and dazzling lightning exploded continuously, silver snakes dancing wildly.
"Storm... storm and thunderstorm?"
"Too exaggerated, right? Even the New World rarely has such weather... how can it appear in the Florian Triangle?"
"If Dr. Hogback doesn't understand, don't speak nonsense. Why not die first?"
"Eh? Cindry, don't say that to me."
Looking at the terrifying weather, Absalom and Hogback instinctively judged it so.
But...
Gulp.
They clearly heard Moria swallow saliva.
"Lord Moria?"
When they turned, they saw the Warlord's body completely tense.
He trembled all over, massive fists clacking, even his eyes seemed twitching.
"No... not weather..."
He spoke tremblingly.
Memories from years ago, still bone-chilling, flooded his mind.
Because now, he could faintly see the massive figure in the mist.
It wound like a mountain, huge dragon horns like a crown in the mist.
Every movement of its limbs pulled wind and thunder, sweeping Flame Clouds.
"That is... that is..."
Absalom and Dr. Hogback gradually saw the creature clearly too.
"Dragon!?"
THUD!
At this word, Moria collapsed to the ground instinctively.
"Kaido... Kaido—how could he chase here? Impossible..."
He was like a fish out of water, struggling to speak and breathe.
But moments later...
"...Hm!?"
Moria noticed an anomaly.
Because the figure emerging from the mist was indeed a 'Dragon' like the demon in his memory.
But the difference was...
"Color..."
He saw the dragon in the sky—faint firelight surrounded its slender dragon body, but its scales were clearly Red.
"Red!?"
Not Azure (Blue/Green).
So...
"Not Kaido!?"
Moria realized this incredible fact, then noticed other things—like the Sea Beast Mask on the dragon's face, almost merging with the dragon head.
And a certain skeleton swaying in the wind near the dragon's whiskers.
"This guy is..."
Huge wariness and unprecedented fiery light flashed in Moria's eyes.
The next moment, the entire Thriller Bark heard the behemoth's voice.
"'The Zodiac' Ryuji."
"Here to visit and ask for some things."
☆☆☆
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