As Buggy and Shanks's auras surged dramatically, even Big Mom's advancing footsteps seemed to hit an invisible wall, faltering for an instant. Two compressed flames burst outward, and two small figures took a determined step forward.
Big Mom's eyes widened in shock. How had these two kids' Conqueror's Haki suddenly ballooned so much?
Rayleigh had been partly right. Conqueror's Haki was indeed very difficult to improve through training alone. But there was another possibility — someone who had already awakened their Conqueror's Haki might never have fully developed that power, and so every time they were pushed to the brink, the dormant force erupted once more. That was exactly what was happening with Buggy and Red Hair.
Both of them had been born with tremendous Conqueror's Haki. They had unlocked it before but never truly stimulated it further. Only now, facing an enemy as formidable as Big Mom, had they drawn out the full depth of that power.
Seeing his two comrades powering up, Doflamingo was not about to be left behind. Everyone had their pride — even Kid, whose Conqueror's Haki was widely considered the weakest, refused to lose face in front of Luffy and Law, let alone Doflamingo. The arrogant flamingo drew out his own hidden potential and gritted his teeth as he stepped forward.
Big Mom glared at them furiously. For her, failing to cleanly dominate these brats in a clash of Conqueror's Haki was nothing short of humiliation. She was Charlotte Linlin — children cried at the sound of her name. She was one of the uncrowned kings of the New World. Would she tolerate this disgrace?
Absolutely not.
She moved without a word. In a blur of speed, she appeared before Shanks. Her right hand, adorned with jeweled gold rings, gripped her legendary blade Napoleon so tightly that even the living sword cried out in agony at the force.
The soul-imbued weapon came crashing down.
BOOM!
She was using her full power. She had not withdrawn her Conqueror's Haki but channeled it directly into Napoleon — an application of Advanced Conqueror's Coating that turned the entire island dark. The group looked up to see the vast sky swirling into a vortex above them, lightning tearing through the eye of the storm.
"Ikkoku Hakkei!"
Big Mom screamed the name of her technique and swung the massive blade downward. In that instant, Shanks and the three others saw a blinding white light rushing toward them. The ground beneath their feet cracked apart as though struck by some cataclysmic blow.
This was no ordinary slash. It was like a meteorite plummeting from the heavens.
BOOM — !
Whole Cake Island shuddered three times, convulsing as though in the grip of an earthquake. A tremendous shockwave expanded outward, dragging columns of dust all the way up to sea level and forming a colossal ring — from a distance, it looked like the rings of Saturn.
Under such devastating force, every other battlefield on the island was swept clean in an instant. Crocodile, who had been fighting Oven, nearly lost his footing and was almost carried off to the icy sea by the blast. The ruins dragons and other autonomous machines rampaging through the city were knocked flat, though the machines themselves were merely toppled, not destroyed.
CRASH — !
Mihawk braced one hand against a massive slab of debris and shoved it aside. He had been battling several of Big Mom's daughters — she had so many children that it seemed like an endless procession, and among them were no shortage of sword masters. The shockwave had engulfed the entire island; every structure of any height on Whole Cake Island had collapsed, and countless people were buried beneath the rubble.
But the air was surprisingly clean — the shockwave had carried away all the dust. At the center of the blast, a few seconds of near-vacuum had formed.
Mihawk cast a worried glance toward where Shanks and the others were fighting. The aftershock alone had been terrifying. Could Shanks and his group really survive a direct hit from that? The ground in the distance had caved in, and no trace of them remained — they had presumably been swallowed by the earth.
He wanted to go check on them, but a voice came from behind.
CRASH — !
Mihawk turned to see a man dressed like a prince from a fairy tale, with the face of a cunning Venetian merchant. Charlotte Daifuku spat out a mouthful of dust. He too wanted to see the result of his mother's battle, but his gaze had already locked onto Mihawk, and there was no question of standing down.
The Lamp Spirit emerged from his sash, gripping its weapon and fixing Mihawk with a hard stare. If you did not know better, you might think the weapon itself had eaten a mythical Human-Human Fruit, Lamp Spirit Model.
"Jinun Hunting!"
Daifuku took Mihawk seriously — he knew this man had already cut down several of his sisters. Mihawk had initially been curious about this famous monster, but the moment his sword Yoru clashed with the Lamp Spirit, he found himself bored.
Charlotte Daifuku was not weak — the slashes his Lamp Spirit produced carried extraordinary power. But the Lamp Spirit was ultimately a product of Devil Fruit ability. It could deliver devastating strikes, but its swordsmanship was crude. The moment they crossed blades, Mihawk had sensed this. It bored him.
At precisely that moment, a striking figure descended from the sky. Fillet folded her wings and landed before Mihawk, speaking softly: "You look bored. Want me to take this one?"
Mihawk nodded, silently slid Yoru back into its sheath, and turned away — walking directly toward Big Mom's battlefield.
"Is that guy insane?" Daifuku muttered, watching his retreating back. Mihawk had to be mad. After witnessing that last strike, could he not see the gap in their power? That was their mother — a born monster. Walking toward her was no different from walking to his death.
Mihawk knew full well that he was not yet on their level. But since he was standing here today, he needed to see exactly how wide the gap was between himself and those legends. If he truly died here, then he was simply "a man of only this caliber."
But still — his goal was to become the world's greatest swordsman. Before surpassing the Thunder God General, he refused to die. Mihawk thought this to himself in silence.
[
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