Chapter 45: Second Release Or Awakening?
“Brother Katakuri, your judgment is as accurate as ever!”
Returning to the Queen Mama Chanter, Snack gazed at Katakuri standing tall at the ship’s bow with admiring eyes. Earlier, he had volunteered to fight, but was stopped by Katakuri. Although he did not doubt Brother Katakuri’s judgment, he still felt a stifled breath in his heart, not entirely willing to believe that a kid only twenty years old could bring him a crisis of death.
This small bit of resentment did not last long.
While he and Cracker commanded the Egg Tart Ships to move away from Saiboi Island, they did not forget to pay attention to the fierce battle between Elus and Mom. In Snack’s impression, the invincible Mom did not end the battle cleanly and neatly. More accurately, she could not end the battle quickly.
Although up to now,
That Black Prince had always appeared to be passively taking hits. Several counterattacks were nothing to Mom at all. On the contrary, Elus had been beaten into serious injuries multiple times by Mom, and those gruesome wounds made Snack furrow his brows deeply.
But,
Seeing Elus in such a sorry state, Snack had no thought of mockery in his heart.
If the injuries Elus suffered fell on his own body, Snack had no doubt he would have long been lying dead on the ground. Being honest with himself, in terms of damage resistance and recovery ability alone, he was completely no match for Elus.
In the New World, being able to avoid being instantly defeated by a Four Emperor was already enough to brag about to others.
The so-called Four Emperors,
Were such terrifying existences.
Even if just a defeated subordinate of a Four Emperor, as long as not killed on the spot, every guy who survived from under a Four Emperor’s hand would inevitably become a prominent figure in the New World as long as their luck was not too bad.
“Sokachio Elus······”
Katakuri did not respond to his younger brother’s nonsense.
He exerted his Observation Haki to the extreme, fully focused on monitoring the battle between Mom and Elus, silently recording the information data that Elus displayed in the combat.
“Zoan Mythical Zoan ability user, possesses limb regeneration recovery ability······ special energy waves that interfere with the soul······ exceptional swordsmanship······ masters some kind of special high-speed movement technique······ although not as good as Mom, his body’s defense is also quite excellent, weaker Armament Haki might not even break through that defense······”
Pieces of information were summarized and listed in his mind.
As the entries increased, Katakuri suddenly had an unpleasant premonition.
This time,
Mom probably could not achieve the expected goal.
His Observation Haki, due to excessive training, had reached the realm of foreseeing the future. In repeated battles, constantly foreseeing the future had gradually given him a strange premonition that worked sometimes and not others. It was not accurately seeing future scenes, but a vague perception of the future situation of something or someone.
At that moment,
The battle in the sky had a new change.
Ikoku’s majestic sword qi filled the sky. With no room left to maneuver, Elus had no second choice and could only hard-counter BIG·MOM’s terrifying sword with world-destroying might.
“Tricky!”
Elus raised his eyebrows, his slightly furrowed brow peaks revealing his seriousness.
This move,
Was a bit scary!
After fighting BIG·MOM for several rounds, using this top-tier touchstone, Elus had roughly grasped the level of his current state. This form’s combat power evidently had not yet reached the level to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Four Emperors, with being beaten up by BIG·MOM as the best proof.
But BIG·MOM had not brought him a fatal sense of crisis either, only unprecedented immense pressure.
“Second stage release, ah! No, this should be Devil Fruit awakening······”
The murmur was drowned in the destructive storm stirred up by the majestic sword qi. Elus was like a lone boat floating in a tsunami, looking as if he would be completely ground into tiny particles invisible to the naked eye by the sword qi storm in the next instant.
“It’s over!”
Sun Prometheus circled around BIG·MOM, watching Elus engulfed by the sword qi storm, and let out an extremely joyful laugh.
“Mom, shall we go back to the ship?”
Even thundercloud Zeus raised its head to look at BIG·MOM standing on its back.
However,
“Zeus, full-power attack.”
Without the joyful response after victory, BIG·MOM stomped hard on the black cloud mass under her feet, while extending her left hand to grab Prometheus. Blazing flames wrapped around her fist. With her fierce punch, a vast sea of fire poured down from the sky into the still churning sword qi storm.
“Gurara!!!”
Thunder roared.
Obeying Mom’s command, thundercloud Zeus opened its huge mouth and spat out thunder and lightning that could rival the sun’s brilliance. Without needing extra instructions, as a homie created by BIG·MOM infused with a soul, its attack accurately chased toward Elus, who should have been annihilated by the sword qi storm.
“Boom!!!!!”
In the sky,
The roar produced by the collision of destructive forces was enough to shake the Vast Sea and the dry land.
A circle of fine, dense ripples oscillated out from the source of the thunder-fire clash and crisscrossing sword qi, spreading toward the sky above and below, and all directions.
Wherever the ripples passed,
The sea of clouds churned like boiling water, pushed toward the distant horizon in the raging winds that blew up. The victims were not just the sea of clouds that witnessed the mortal world’s rise and fall; the storm swept up by this ripple assaulted everything tangible on Saiboi Island. Great trees were uprooted, and unstable buildings collapsed in the storm.
Ships anchored at sea also suffered completely, with many fishing boats directly capsized by the gale.
Even some weaker members of the Charlotte Family on the Queen Mama Chanter could barely withstand the impact of this aftermath.
At the same time,
They increasingly admired Katakuri for ordering the Egg Tart Ships to move away from the port in advance.
If not for Brother Katakuri, just this wave alone would have caused more than half of the Egg Tart Ships in this expedition to be lost.
“This is······”
Katakuri stood like a rock in raging rapids. Inside the scarf that his younger brothers and sisters could not see through, on that ferocious face not conforming to mainstream aesthetics, appeared a shocked expression he himself might not have seen before. His constricted pupils stared unblinkingly at the blazing sea of fire with lightning flashing through, falling downward in mid-air.
A burst of ink-green light suddenly split the sea of fire.
Even the falling lightning was cut off at the waist.
The ink-green streams of light fluttered like flying catkins, like ribbons, like rainbows, gently drifting above the sea of fire with the wind and waves, as if weightless. In fact, they indeed had no weight; these ink-green streams of light were merely spiritual pressure overflowing from Elus’s body.
Devil Fruit,
As far as Elus knew, Zoan and Paramecia Devil Fruits possessed a latent power called “awakening.” Only a few Devil Fruit ability users could unlock the awakening realm, and awakening often came with great power.
Once a Paramecia ability rarely awakens, it can affect “things other than the ability user themselves,” turning surrounding things into part of their ability, making their ability stronger, with greater range and effects.
While Zoan ability awakening,
Grants a “powerful body,” as well as “tenacious vitality” and “recovery power” to stand up no matter how many times beaten down, along with abnormal strength and attack power, and even changes in physical appearance and posture to a certain degree.
Just like Elus’s current form,
The jet-black wings fully spread, appearing about a third larger than before. A thin and long jet-black tail with a knife-like bony object at the end moved flexibly. Sharp claws extended from the feet, the pale curved horns on the head became longer and larger, the over ten-centimeter horns suddenly becoming thirty centimeters long.
And,
His clothes disappeared with the change to the ‘beast’ form, with black feathers covering from the abdomen to legs, arms, and back.
Yes, the ‘beast’ form.
This current appearance was merely the ‘beast’ form with a humanoid posture, the awakened ‘beast’ form of this Bat-Bat Fruit Mythical Zoan Black-Winged Great Demon form Devil Fruit elevated by the Hogyoku, similar to Fleet Admiral Sengoku’s great Buddha form, both humanoid Mythical Zoans.
“What is that thing?”
An incomprehensible bewilderment arose in his heart.
Standing on the deck, Katakuri felt extremely heavy-hearted. He looked up at Elus in the sky, feeling like he was gazing at a vast ocean suspended above the heavenly dome. That terrifying spiritual pressure incessantly intimidated all living, intelligent beings nearby.
Even Katakuri himself could clearly feel the intangible, substanceless pressure falling on him.
Not to mention the weaker younger brothers and sisters behind him. At this moment, many less strong ones had sweat beading on their faces, as if enduring great painful oppression. Many had already turned pleading eyes toward their omnipotent Brother Katakuri in their hearts.
“Cracker, Smoothie, Snack, do not intervene. This is a good chance to train everyone.”
Katakuri did not extend a helping hand.
He even stopped Smoothie and others who had spare capacity to help.
He had felt the properties of spiritual pressure before, though back then it was far from as powerful as now. But he had still noticed the difference between spiritual pressure and Conqueror’s Haki. The intimidation of Conqueror’s Haki was like a fiercely hammered iron mallet, directly beating people to death or unconsciousness.
While the spiritual pressure Elus used was more vast and majestic, making one feel pressure like carrying a thousand-jin boulder.
There was no essential superiority or inferiority between the two,
But compared to the violent effect of Conqueror’s Haki, spiritual pressure was evidently better for training others, which Katakuri had discovered.
“This is a chance to temper your mental will. If any of you, like Snack, still want to become stronger, endure it. Only by tasting the flavor of pain can you have a chance to break your current bottlenecks.”
Katakuri,
This man regarded as the pillar and core of the Charlotte Family, was using Elus’s unrestrainedly displayed spiritual pressure to temper these younger brothers and sisters who were above average but stuck in bottlenecks for a long time.
Of course, this was just training,
Katakuri’s top-tier Observation Haki monitored his younger brothers and sisters’ conditions without blind spots, able to rescue them in the first instant if any real problem arose.
If Elus saw this slick operation, he would probably clap in admiration.
Over these years,
He had never thought to use spiritual pressure to train his aides-de-camp or guards. This was not because Elus did not use his brain, but because with the Hogyoku in hand, there was no need for such crude methods for cultivation. Of course, Katakuri’s operation was still worth some applause.
Having conveniently used Elus, Katakuri still involuntarily raised his head to look at the sky.
Gazing up at Elus, the enemy who gave him a sense of danger.
In the sky.
Elus waved to stir up evil winds that easily extinguished the sea of fire around him. His swinging long tail, like a black whip, “whoosh” severed the falling lightning.
He raised his head,
Looking at BIG·MOM standing on thundercloud Zeus looking down, and immediately shouted loudly:
“Sorry! I wasn’t in good condition before, now······ let’s start over!”
“Mamama, is this your full strength? No matter what you turn into, I will kill you.”
Standing on thundercloud Zeus, sizing up Elus’s changed form, BIG·MOM burst into laughter. That manic smile held not the slightest irritation, only brutal and twisted anticipation. She did not dislike such hard-to-kill enemies, because they could be killed many times!
The instant BIG·MOM’s words fell,
The jet-black wings vibrated, and Elus’s feet lightly stepped at extreme speed. The ‘Sound Step’ high-speed movement technique was pushed to the limit, and under the speed boost of the lightly fanning wings, it was like frame-skipping movement with the middle process cut out, abruptly appearing in front of BIG·MOM.
“Bala.”
Crimson high-density spiritual pressure bullets were ruthlessly pressed onto BIG·MOM’s face by Elus.
Not shot out.
But like a ‘Rasengan,’ slapped onto BIG·MOM’s big face that had long lost its youthful charm. Such an attack naturally could not break the Steel Balloon’s defense, but this impact force successfully blasted BIG·MOM off Zeus like a cannonball.
Sun Prometheus wrapped around BIG·MOM’s left hand rapidly expanded, replacing thundercloud Zeus as BIG·MOM’s mount, supporting the unscathed BIG·MOM to stand up again. Standing on this blazing fireball, without a word, she directly swung the great sword ‘Napoleon’ in her hand.
“Clang!!”
The clash of blades echoed through the sky.
Moonlight Sword clashed with great sword ‘Napoleon’ again. This time, the Moonlight Sword’s glow was much more intense than before, with even greater destructive power. Moreover, this form indeed boosted part of his physical strength. Although his power still fell short of BIG·MOM the humanoid monster, he now had some capital.
Sparring swordsmanship with BIG·MOM without being sent flying repeatedly, without his forearm bones cracking from her brute force.
This was a true evenly matched fierce battle.
BIG·MOM held a very slight upper hand, while Elus was slightly at a disadvantage but could still exchange blows with BIG·MOM. The combat had entered a true stalemate!
