"Marine brat!!"
BIG MOM's battle instincts were monstrous—she gave Gern Reginald Sigmar not even a heartbeat to recover.
"In the middle of a fight, you don't get to relax!"
Almost before the last syllable left her mouth, her massive body moved with a speed completely at odds with its size. In the blink of an eye, she was already above him, an enormous shadow swallowing him whole.
"Zeus!"
Her left hand slammed downward. The thundercloud Zeus above her head erupted with a deafening roar.
"Thunder!"
A colossal bolt of lightning—thick as a titanic serpent and blazing with destructive violet light—ripped through the air and came crashing down toward Gern's head with the authority of divine punishment.
But in the instant before the lightning struck, BIG MOM's enormous pupils suddenly contracted.
As if sensing something, she forcibly halted the downward motion of her left hand. Her massive waist twisted with an unbelievable suppleness, defying her sheer bulk.
"Napoleon! Ikoku!"
The blade of the Emperor Sword Napoleon in her right hand ignited. Blazing flames wrapped around it like a volcanic eruption, surging and spiraling upward.
Without even looking—guided by a combat instinct that surpassed Observation Haki itself—she swung the massive sword in a sweeping horizontal slash toward the empty space behind her. The blade carried the will to sever all things, fused with flames that promised to incinerate everything in their path.
"Clang!!!"
A deafening metallic collision exploded into the air, sparks scattering wildly.
Along the exact path of Napoleon's sweeping strike, Gern's figure materialized as if emerging from the void itself.
Both hands gripped the fully released black blade Bahuang. High-frequency pale vibration particles coiled around its edge, intertwined with dark-purple Conqueror's Haki. From left to right, he unleashed a full-powered slash—precisely intercepting the flame-wreathed horizontal strike that had already predicted his position.
"Tch!"
His attack blocked, Gern didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
The air beneath his feet detonated—[Shock Flash] activated. His form dissolved into a molecular blur and vanished instantly.
In the next moment, he appeared directly above BIG MOM's flaming head. Bahuang rotated midair, the blade turning downward as he thrust straight for the crown of her skull.
The vibration force condensed at the tip caused space itself to ripple.
"Prometheus!"
BIG MOM didn't even bother to look up. She barked the command sharply.
The blazing sun Prometheus, coiling through her fiery hair, reacted with astonishing speed. It opened its "mouth" wide toward the sky.
A massive fireball, compressed to its absolute limit and radiating terrifying heat, shot out like a cannon shell—slamming directly into Gern.
"BOOOOM!!!"
The fireball detonated violently in front of him. A torrent of blazing flames and shockwaves swallowed his figure whole.
Gern's silhouette was blasted backward from the heart of the explosion. In midair, he flipped nimbly several times before landing steadily on the ground. He slid back several meters, Bahuang's tip carving a sharp trench through the earth before finally halting his momentum.
Then he slowly straightened.
With a twist of his wrist, Bahuang traced a sharp arc through the air.
"Twice…" Gern muttered, a faint crease forming between his brows as he stared at BIG MOM standing ready in the distance. "Twice in a row… you precisely predicted and reacted to my Shock Flash…"
[Shock Flash] wasn't a mere high-speed step technique. It was derived from the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, manipulating molecular-level flow. The moment of appearance and disappearance left almost no trace—Observation Haki alone couldn't track it.
Even Roger and Whitebeard had needed time to adapt before they could respond to it.
But this woman—this glutton who had spent decades doing little besides giving birth and feasting—
"There's no way this is just simple precognition…"
Gern's sharp gaze flicked over the three Homies surrounding BIG MOM.
The thundercloud Zeus.
The blazing sun Prometheus.
And the self-aware bicorne blade Napoleon in her hand.
A realization clicked into place.
"I see… shared vision, is it?"
His eyes turned cold.
"These three derivative lives created from your own soul are connected to your senses. They form a network—no blind spots. The moment my Shock Flash ends and my presence leaks out, no matter which direction I appear from, one of them sees it and instantly feeds the information back to you…"
"So your reactions aren't instinct alone—they're instantaneous synchronization."
Gern tightened his grip on Bahuang's hilt, an absurd thought flashing across his mind.
Damn it… this BIG MOM in front of him—terrifying combat instincts, perfect offense and defense, virtually no openings—
How the hell did she lose to two rookie brats like Trafalgar Law and Eustass Kid a year from now?
Especially just by combining their Devil Fruit awakenings? That made absolutely no damn sense.
His thoughts churned—but his body never paused.
"Bzzzt—crack!"
Gern's left fist smashed violently into the air ahead of him. The tremor fractured the atmosphere itself, cracks spreading like a spiderweb. Violent vibrations disrupted his opponent's balance and perception.
At nearly the same instant, he kicked off the ground. His body blurred once more, charging forward with Bahuang in hand straight toward BIG MOM.
"Hmph! Parlor tricks!"
BIG MOM snorted coldly. She didn't even need to move personally. With a mere thought—
"Prometheus—Stolen Fire!"
The blazing sun coiling in her hair roared and detached on its own, transforming into a violently raging pillar of flame that surged forward to meet Gern head-on.
The air warped in its wake. The ground melted and charred.
Faced with the incoming inferno, Gern neither dodged nor slowed. His forward momentum didn't falter in the slightest. He simply raised Bahuang horizontally before him.
"Clang!"
Flames crashed against the pitch-black blade, producing a deep, resonant boom.
Muscles bulged along Gern's arms as he forcefully resisted the pillar's impact. The earth beneath his feet shattered inch by inch.
Then his waist twisted. With a sharp flick of his wrist, defense became offense—Bahuang sweeping upward in a razor-sharp rising slash.
"Heavenly Tremor—Rebound!"
A massive crescent shockwave composed of highly compressed pale vibration particles roared outward along the blade's edge.
The wave didn't just carry cutting force capable of severing anything in its path—it also dragged along part of Prometheus's flames.
Pale and crimson intertwined into a devastating energy blast, hurtling back toward BIG MOM at even greater speed and power.
"Mamama! Useless!"
BIG MOM burst into wild laughter. She didn't dodge. She didn't retreat.
Instead, she thrust out her enormous chest and relied purely on her inborn "iron balloon" defense—her monstrous, steel-like body—to take the rebounding mixed blast head-on.
"BOOOOM!!!"
Shockwaves and flames detonated against her torso. Smoke and chaotic energy scattered in all directions.
Yet her towering body only swayed slightly.
The Haki-coated skin bore not even the faintest white mark.
"Come back, Prometheus!"
With a beckoning gesture, the scattered flames reassembled instantly, flowing back into Prometheus's body.
And in that fleeting gap—through the still-churning energy turbulence—Gern's voice carried clearly across the battlefield.
"BIG MOM… what exactly is Blackbeard seeking from you?"
"!!!"
The unrestrained grin froze on BIG MOM's face.
A flicker passed through her eyes.
She stared at him, her voice lowering, heavy and dangerous.
"Hm? So that's the real reason you barged into Totto Land and wrecked my tea party?"
"Marine brat…" Her grip tightened around Napoleon's hilt, mockery dripping from her tone.
"For that sneaky, tail-tucking 'hyena'?"