"..."
At this moment, the scene displayed on the live broadcast plunged the entirety of Totto Land into absolute silence.
It was also the source of the shock that Katakuri had previously been unable to conceal.
"Th-This actually... really..." Perospero clutched his head with both hands, his tongue practically tying itself into knots.
"M-Mother... was..." Smoothie's expression was even more vacant, as though she had completely frozen.
And it was not just them.
Throughout Totto Land, whether ordinary citizens or members of the Charlotte Family, everyone's jaws nearly hit the floor. Some people even fainted on the spot.
What they were witnessing had completely exceeded the limits of their understanding.
A Yonko was a ruler of the seas, a pirate among pirates.
Ever since they had established themselves in the New World and earned the title of "Emperor of the Sea," countless challengers had risen against them. Yet not a single one had ever successfully dragged them from their throne and killed a Yonko.
They were the strongest pirates, monsters feared even by Marine Headquarters and the World Government alike.
That was common knowledge to almost everyone on the seas.
But now, right before their eyes… Inside a Yonko's own territory.
In the capital of Totto Land itself.
Yonko Big Mom had been killed with astonishing ease!
Such a scenario was beyond even the wildest fantasies of the most imaginative people. Nearly everyone present felt as though reality itself had become unreal.
"You've got to be kidding, right? That's Big Mom! How could she possibly…"
"H-Hey! Look at the Homies!" Someone suddenly cried out.
And then everyone saw it.
The strange transformation occurring throughout Totto Land.
The lively ground, the talking walls, the dancing clouds… All of them seemed to become unfocused and unstable.
Their eyes rolled white and their faces began to fade away.
The change in their presence was so obvious that even ordinary people could sense it.
And at the center of the broadcast screen…
Bzzzzt!
The face of the Thunder Cloud, Zeus, began to disappear and the same thing happened to Napoleon, the tricorne hat.
"Are the Homies disappearing? Does that mean Mother really...?"
Seeing this, Perospero nearly jumped out of his skin.
The scene looked exactly like the standard phenomenon in which creations produced by a Devil Fruit ability vanished after the user's death.
But at that very moment…
"You..."
He heard the voice of his younger brother, filled with disbelief.
Turning around, he looked toward Katakuri.
Katakuri's fists were clenched tightly and the complexity in his expression and voice was impossible to hide.
"What kind of monster are you, Mother...?"
Even this powerful warrior, who had followed Big Mom across the seas since childhood, could not conceal the astonishment in his voice.
…
Meanwhile… Above the ruins of Cake Castle.
Zishu, Youji (Rooster), and Inu had already dismissed their strongest combat forms, believing the battle to be over.
Whether it was the Winged Divine Dragon Form, the True Mirage Shadow, or World Severance, each consumed far too much stamina to maintain.
Yet even now, all three remained tense and vigilant.
They had naturally noticed the condition of the Homies.
Especially the non-combat types, dessert Homies and household furniture Homies responsible for cleaning and maintenance.
All of them were emitting strange, meaningless wails, as though they were about to dissipate.
But therein lay the problem.
They knew very well that the Soul-Soul Fruit was an exceptionally unique power.
At its core, it extracted the souls and lifespans of others to create entirely new lifeforms and according to what was shown in the original story, those creations could continue to exist even after the Devil Fruit user died.
For example, after Big Mom's death, Zeus still remained by Nami's side.
In other words… The abnormalities affecting the Homies now were not the result of a Devil Fruit user's death.
And if that alone were not enough to prove it…
Whoosh!
As blazing flames erupted, the gigantic figure descending from the sky made the truth unmistakable.
It was an enormous fireball, like a miniature sun.
One of the three great Homies created from Big Mom's own soul… Prometheus, the Sun.
At this moment, the Homie extended two arm-like appendages from its massive flaming body and what those appendages held were none other than Zeus, the Thunder Cloud, and Napoleon, the tricorne hat.
Yet something was strange.
Unlike Prometheus, whose consciousness was clearly intact, both Zeus and Napoleon had fallen into the same bizarre faceless state. Their auras remained powerful as ever, but their consciousnesses seemed to have vanished completely.
"Mother... I'm sorry. I failed to protect your body."
Prometheus respectfully addressed Big Mom's severed corpse and the head that had fallen nearby.
It spoke as though it had been driven utterly insane by its master's death.
But in the very next moment…
"It's not your fault, Prometheus." A deep voice echoed across the ruins.
It sounded like Big Mom's voice. Yet its tone was entirely different from hers.
The previous Big Mom's voice had always carried a mixture of chaos, selfishness, and a strangely childlike innocence.
But this voice...
Contained only coldness, brutality, and… Evil.
"If I didn't truly 'die' once, how could I completely seize control of this soul?"
"As for the body... it doesn't matter!"
"Even if it's split apart, even if the head is severed, Linlin's body is a genuine monster. And besides... this is Totto Land. This is my country!"
…
At the same time...
"Hey, hey, I found something."
The voice of another Zodiac echoed within the minds of the three members of the Twelve Zodiac.
"The main body will share its vision with you. As expected, Big Mom really is a bona fide monster."
As he spoke, the vision of the three Zodiac members abruptly changed.
Their perspective seemed to rise into the sky itself. More than that, they no longer appeared to be observing only the physical world. Instead, they could now perceive everything through the perspective of souls.
[Lord of the Underworld · Soul Vision]
From above the clouds, they gazed down upon the ruins of Cake Castle.
And there, amidst the wreckage… Something was slowly standing up from within Big Mom's "corpse."
It was a soul of unimaginable size.
Or rather… It was a monster born from countless souls fused together.
One soul. Two. Three. Four… Most of the souls within it were small, pure, and brightly colored.
There was the red of courage.
The green of kindness.
The blue of joy.
Yet among them, only two souls were different.
One was a pink soul. It too was pure and spotless.
The other, however, was a black soul and within that black soul resided…
Greed.
Cruelty.
Violence.
Malice.
Its ugliness was so overwhelming that it stained all the other innocent souls around it.
Both of these souls were far larger than the rest, but now, the pink soul seemed to have lost its vitality.
It rapidly shrank, completely suppressed by the black soul.
And that… Was the true source of the changes sweeping across Totto Land.
"Soul Extraction - Homies!" As Big Mom's sinister voice rang out, her shattered corpse suddenly began to change.
Countless particles of light rose into the sky from every corner of Totto Land.
The source of those lights was none other than the strange Homies scattered throughout the country.
The difference was that the Homies emitting these lights were not combat-type Homies. Instead, they were the dessert Homies, cleaning Homies, weather Homies, and all the other support-type Homies that maintained daily life across Totto Land.
"Linlin, that little brat… No matter how much I influenced her, she insisted on turning this country into some kind of 'Fairy-Tale Kingdom.' Some kind of utopia. She's nothing more than a child whose soul stopped growing at six years old, yet on this matter she was stubborn enough to suppress even me... what an idiot."
Big Mom's voice echoed quietly.
"Weather? Desserts? Daily life?"
"Who wastes collected souls and lifespans on such meaningless things?"
"With power like that of a monster, every citizen of this nation is nothing more than a slave. This country was never some dreamland or home. It's merely disposable trash. The only purpose of slaves is to earn money for me and provide me with souls and lifespan."
"If they disobey, kill them."
"The lives of slaves are irrelevant. The weather can do whatever it wants. The only Homies worth creating are weapons and instruments of war."
"They should help me conquer the world. That is what a Yonko ought to do!"
It seemed she had been suppressed for so long that her words poured out endlessly.
But then…
"Soul Bestowal -Body Self-Regeneration!"
With a furious roar, the countless particles of light surged into Big Mom's shattered body.
Then…
"Mother!"
Her bones seemed to come alive, calling out to one another as they regrew and reconnected.
"Welcome back, Mother!"
Her flesh gained life, roaring as it gathered and fused together once more.
"Welcome back, Mother!"
Fragments of her shattered heart and severed head also began to mend themselves, rejoining into a whole.
"Welcome back, Mother!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A deafening chorus reverberated throughout all of Totto Land.
Those voices came from every Homie in the nation. The combat Homies that had previously lost their faces and vitality suddenly began laughing in unison.
New faces emerged upon them… But they were completely different from before.
No longer did they sing. No longer did they dance. No longer did they resemble the cheerful fairy-tale inhabitants of a utopia.
They were quite the opposite.
Every newly transformed Homie in Totto Land now possessed eyes filled with vicious, sinister malice.
"Welcome back to rule over everything."
"Welcome back to possess everything..."
Amid those fanatical cheers…
Fwoosh!
Flames blazed atop Prometheus.
And then, Big Mom's enormous figure stood up once more.
Only now, her expression had completely changed. And the soul within her, almost entirely consumed by blackness, revealed her true nature.
She was no longer the Charlotte Linlin of the past.
She was still Big Mom.
But the one holding dominion over her soul now belonged to…
"Our Mother… Lady Charlotte Carmel!"
(End of Chapter)
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