Chapter 70: I'll Make Your Death a Little Quicker
Ear-piercing slashing sounds were practically everywhere.
The ceiling, floor, windows, oil paintings, and even the treasures within the vault—the entire corridor, and indeed the entire palace, were erupting with countless slashes!
"Ahhh!"
Karamelo III was so terrified he kept letting out huge screams of agony, before quickly fainting.
And judging by the foul stench emanating from him, he could no longer comfort himself that the wetness in his pants was merely sweat.
But compared to him, Snack, who was beside him, had an ashen face.
"It's an Ability User..."
His gaze swept over the countless slashes, clearly seeing the source of the attacks throughout the corridor—blades that grew out like hands from everywhere.
But the problem was...
"I can't feel where he's hiding at all?!"
This was the part he couldn't comprehend.
As one of the Four Star Generals, his Haki training was naturally quite good—though not comparable to his strongest elder brother, his use of Observation Haki was still considered proficient.
Logically speaking, he should at least be able to roughly determine the enemy's location through their malicious intent and the source of their attacks.
Yet now, he felt nothing.
It was as if those continuous attacks were coming from another dimension.
But...
"You think this will leave me helpless?"
He reached out and grabbed the large katana behind him.
"No matter where you're hiding... I'll just slash it all down!"
"Buzz!"
Armament Haki covered it as he swung his blade.
Where his blade passed, except for Karamelo III who was already lying on the ground...
...the entire corridor's walls, along with the roof of this palace, were instantly split in two.
"Rumble!"
Massive architectural debris fell from above onto the ground, stirring up huge clouds of dust.
And almost all cover objects in the entire corridor were naturally and utterly destroyed by this single slash.
But...
"Swoosh!" "Swoosh!"
Snack, however, discovered that...
...even after his slash, there was no longer any cover object around.
Yet he still couldn't see the enemy.
And the slashes... were still continuing.
Those countless blade-like arms continued to grow out, non-stop.
"What exactly is this guy's ability?"
Snack gnashed his teeth.
Meanwhile...
"What exactly is this guy's ability?"
Inside the alternate dimension, Rat had the same doubts.
His gaze looked outside the alternate dimension, right at Snack and Karamelo III in front of him.
"It can be confirmed, the slashes definitely hit."
He could clearly see that his "Void Slash - Thousand Hundred Blades" attack had indeed hit two people—he could even feel the blades cutting their skin as an extension of his own arms.
But the problem was...
Although the slashes hit, they caused no damage.
"Judging by this guy's move name, did he eat a defense-type Devil Fruit?"
"It's so abnormal, having absolutely no damage effect?!"
Rat murmured.
The main reason was that although Charlotte Snack was a Four Star General, in the original work, he was stripped of his title after being defeated by 'Monk' Urouge before he even made an appearance, so he genuinely didn't know what the opponent's ability was.
However, although he had some doubts at this moment, Rat didn't panic.
Because...
When it came to Devil Fruit abilities, what he wanted to know, he would eventually know.
Meanwhile, outside the alternate dimension.
"It stopped?"
Snack discovered that the surrounding slashes seemed to have suddenly stopped.
The blade-like arms no longer grew out from around him; the only sound coming from around was Karamelo III's still ear-piercing whimpers in his unconsciousness.
"Hmph, finally realized it, have you?"
Snack sneered, "A sneaky fellow, aren't you? While your ability is impeccable for an assassin, it's completely ineffective against me, 'the strongest shield'."
"On the contrary, if I discover your traces, you'll..."
His harsh words caught in his throat before he could finish.
Because at that moment...
"Whoosh!"
He clearly saw, at the far end of the corridor in front of him...
...a figure wearing a mouse-head mask had slowly emerged from the air.
"The strongest shield?"
He tilted his head, looking at Snack, "Now even any random person dares to call themselves 'the strongest', huh?"
"...Rat?"
And after seeing that figure, Snack's eyes also instantly flashed with sharp light.
Recently, 'Rat's' name had become quite renowned in the Underworld; as a high-ranking cadre of the Big Mom Pirates, he had obviously heard of him.
Even Big Mom herself had heard of him and was quite interested, especially regarding the organization 'Twelve Star Generals' itself.
"So that's how it is. Someone commissioned you to kill this fool, did they?"
He had logically deduced the source of the matter.
Then...
"I really am... quite lucky!"
A smile appeared on his lips: "One of the highest-ranking cadres of the Twelve Star Generals, unexpectedly encountered by me."
He could almost imagine how happy his Mama would be when he brought Rat to Big Mom.
"Hahahaha!"
Laughing excitedly, his eyes fixed firmly on Rat, he raised the large katana in his hand.
Armament Haki covered it.
Then, he unleashed a slash.
What was interesting was that the position of the slash he unleashed at that moment, whether in terms of direction or distance, didn't seem aimed at Rat at all.
But...
"Slice Point!"
As his words fell...
"Whoosh!"
...from beside Rat, a sharp slicing sound instantly roared forth.
And if one looked closely, one would find that a small red dot had appeared on Rat's abdomen at some unknown time.
"Swoosh!"
And at this moment...
...the slash that Snack's blade had swung out actually flew out from the red dot out of thin air!
"You, if you had continued to hide, that would have been fine... but to dare appear in my field of vision is your greatest folly!"
Seeing this scene, Snack's laughter grew even louder.
"You'll be the best gift I can give Mama for her birthday, huh?!"
But not until he had finished imagining Mama's praises did he realize...
...the expected blood spray had not flown out, and Rat's figure had also not fallen.
On the contrary, he simply watched Snack calmly.
"No—impossible!"
Snack's face suddenly changed, then he immediately continued to swing his blade.
"Slice Point - Nine Consecutive Slashes!"
He continuously swung his greatsword, unleashing a total of nine slashes.
Thereupon, nine slashes instantly took the red dot on Rat's abdomen as their center, continuously flying out from nine directions.
But...
"So that's how it is..."
At this moment, Rat lightly sighed.
He seemed completely unconcerned by the strong slashes coming from beside him.
And the next moment, the facts also proved—he truly didn't need to be concerned.
Because...
"Click."
At this moment, a sound of a door opening came from the air.
Nine spatial doors opened out of thin air, whereupon those nine slashes also cut into the doors and disappeared without a trace.
"This is..."
And after seeing this scene, Snack's pupils also suddenly constricted.
He completely couldn't understand—what had happened?
Isn't this guy's ability to create slashes?
No, if he thought carefully, the opponent's sudden appearance just now was also... What exactly is his ability?!
But it was precisely when Snack was in disbelief...
...Rat, standing still, was very calm.
Because at this moment, what Rat saw in his field of vision was completely different from Snack.
In his perception, he could still feel the alternate dimension opened by the Door-Door Fruit.
And at this moment, that alternate dimension was filled with his hands.
Those hands were like individual safety locks, surrounding him completely without anyone noticing.
And whenever Snack's slashes came, a certain hand would open a door within the alternate dimension.
The slashes flew into the alternate dimension, and naturally disappeared without a trace.
This was the source of Snack's shock just now.
That was also another way Rat used his Clones ability.
[Void Slash Defense · Thousand Doors]
But very obviously, what Rat was most concerned about at this moment was not how cleverly his ability was developed.
Rather...
[Devil Fruit User 'Charlotte Snack' has been discovered.]
[Devil Fruit confirmed as 'Paramecia-type - Mark-Mark Fruit', currently being analyzed and stored in the 'Devil Fruit Encyclopedia'.]
[Devil Fruit Ability: Can mark objects, redirect incoming attacks.]
[Level Effects:]
[Level 3: Gain all Devil Fruit effects. Can mark objects and living beings by touching a specific entity, creating a 'mark point'. Can transfer all nearby attacks to the vicinity of the mark point. Requires 800 million Beli to unlock.]
[Level 4: Devil Fruit deeply developed. Can mark without touching, solely relying on line of sight. Number of mark points increased to two. Can mark within an extreme range of 1000 meters. Requires 2.2 billion Beli to unlock.]
[Level 5: Devil Fruit Awakening - Giant Mark. Number of mark points no longer limited. Can mark within an extreme range increased to 5000 meters. Continuously consumes stamina; the more mark points used, the greater the stamina consumption. Requires 10.3 billion Beli to unlock.]
[Note: Once a mark point is selected, it cannot be changed within five minutes.]
[Mark points can be discovered and destroyed, and cannot be marked again within ten minutes.]
[Current analysis progress: Completed.]
"What 'strongest shield'? Making it sound real... It's clearly just a simple matter of making a mark point somewhere and transferring the damage."
Rat looked at Snack, "And you even specifically made up a move name like 'Defense' to mislead others?"
Just the sort of 'talent' needed to deceive the simpletons of the Pirate world!
But after such a rant, Rat's aura strangely changed again.
"However... you just said meeting me was lucky—now I feel precisely the opposite."
"My accepting this commission is the lucky thing."
Beneath the mask, Loy's words were truly sincere.
Because Snack's ability was not only quite strong...
More crucially, Loy had already discovered at this moment that this ability seemed to be precisely the last piece of the puzzle to complete his next Clones ability!
Therefore...
"As a return... I'll make your death a little quicker."
And after hearing these words, Snack's expression instantly became unpredictable: "What have you been talking about since just now?"
And at this moment, Rat completely ignored Snack's words.
"Click."
He simply reached out and pulled open another door, and stepped into the alternate dimension once more.
And in front of him, several hands were presenting a pair of gloves.
The surface of the gloves was sprinkled with fragments of some kind of yellow pill.
And at this moment, it was continuously squirming, seemingly swallowing those fragments.
Then...
Rat picked it up and put it on his hand.
(end of chapter)