"Rebecca! How-"
Kyros's shout was cut off by a sudden attack.
As a gladiator, even though he had been turned into a toy by Sugar, Kyros's combat skills were still proficient.
At the critical moment, he used the toy rifle he carried to block in front of him, deflecting the force and narrowly avoiding being shattered in one blow.
Of course, that toy rifle was definitely broken in two.
Cracks even appeared on his toy arm.
'Such tremendous strength!'
Kyros was horrified, but there seemed to be no time for further thought now.
Right in front of him, Rebecca, who had just inhaled the pink mist, had already stood up again.
Her skin had become somewhat pale, and fine scales had appeared on the joints of her skin that the gladiator attire couldn't cover.
They didn't look like fish scales, instead, they were more like… snake scales.
Ninety percent of the people in the preparation area showed the same changes as Rebecca.
They had also grown white scales, their bodies began to 'lengthen' from their original forms, and their skulls became increasingly flat, like snake heads.
There were one or two guys who didn't undergo these changes, but their fate seemed even worse.
A pirate, seeing the changes in the people around him, immediately sensed something was wrong and instinctively used his Devil Fruit's ability, transforming into a giant standing bear.
A Kuma Kuma no Mi's user.
Sure enough, the next moment, those half-human, half-snake monsters pounced.
Their lower jaws opened at an exaggerated angle, even tearing slightly at the corners of their mouths.
In their mouths, four sharp fangs had grown.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
The pirate turned into a giant bear felt intense pain on his body, followed by numbness where he was bitten.
He slammed the creature biting him away with a mighty paw.
The snake-person shot into the wall like a cannonball, its head bent at a ninety-degree angle, which would have meant instant death under normal circumstances.
But now, it acted as if nothing was wrong, just twisted a few times and stood back up.
At the same time, the blood in its mouth seemed to stimulate some primal predatory instinct, causing its eyes, now with vertical pupils, to erupt with a terrifying desire to hunt.
However, before this snake-person could do anything,
other snake-people around him attacked him first.
Whether it was the snake-person stained with blood or the giant bear with bite wounds, they all seemed to become targets for the other snake-people.
They even began to fight and kill each other.
The vitality of these snake-people was extremely tenacious. Kyros watched as a snake-person had half its body torn off by a companion but still clung to life, even attempting to attack the surrounding snake-people.
'Too... too terrifying! What kind of hellish scene was this?'
The preparation room, originally just a bit smelly from sweat, was now filled with the stench of blood.
Of course, what worried Kyros more now was his daughter, Rebecca.
But Rebecca didn't seem to be attacking others madly like the other snake-people.
-In fact, apart from slapping Kyros away at the very beginning, Rebecca hadn't taken any action since.
She stood there quietly like a statue, but expressions of pain kept flashing across her face.
"... Hurry... go..."
Tiny sounds came from her mouth, word by word. It was only because Kyros was close enough that he could hear them clearly.
'Rebecca! She's still conscious!'
Kyros could sense that his daughter seemed to be struggling against that bestial nature.
"Don't give up! Rebecca!"
"I won't abandon you."
Despite the risk of being destroyed, Kyros still chose not to leave.
What was happening in the preparation area was now playing out all over Dressrosa.
Countless people turned into half-human, half-snake monsters, beginning to attack any moving creature around them following some instinct.
But some people, like Rebecca, even though they had mutated, were still trying to retain their reason.
Of course, the most confused were the Devil Fruit users.
The pink mist seemed completely ineffective on them.
Therefore, from their perspective, the scene around them became utterly terrifying.
On the arena platform, Gladius, who had been blocking the way and about to say something, suddenly fell silent.
In front of their group, Chinjao, who had looked disdainful just moments before, suddenly had his expression changed drastically. He clutched his chest and began to roar.
"Argh!!"
A terrifying Conqueror's Haki was also released in the process, spreading continuously around him.
"What an overwhelming aura! What's wrong with him?"
Gladius looked incredulous.
From this old man, he actually felt Conqueror's Haki not inferior to Doflamingo's!
"Gladius, get away!"
Suddenly, Pica's sharp voice rang out. Before Gladius could react, he felt a sharp pain in his back.
Thud!
The one who attacked was actually Lao G, who had come with them!
The originally shaky old man had now transformed into a muscular, inverted triangle shape, and his body was constantly lengthening due to the [Pink Memories].
Pica immediately recognized that Lao G's current appearance was practically another Orochimaru!
"It's the mist! This is all Orochimaru's plot!"
Before Pica could finish his words, Lao G launched an attack on him.
"Roar!!"
"Dammit! Stone Pin!"
Facing a member of the same family, especially a senior executive like Lao G, Pica didn't want to go for the kill.
He instantly merged into the ground, and then two huge stone cylinders extended from the wall beside Lao G.
The tops of the cylinders had numerous elongated stone stakes… originally, they should have been sharp stone spikes.
These stone stakes trapped Lao G like a cage. No matter how much he destroyed them, the stones would 'grow' back at an even faster rate.
The good news was that the current Lao G didn't seem to be able to use Armament Haki, and could only rely on his enhanced body for destruction.
This level of destruction speed was still barely acceptable for Pica.
But the bad news was that there was more than just Lao G to deal with here.
…
Trebol had considered whether the battle between Big Mom Pirates and the Beasts Pirates would be intense, and whether the two sides might even destroy the port along with it.
After all, members of two Emperors' crews wouldn't care about a little destruction in Dressrosa.
It's just that the scene on-site was far more 'tidy' than he had imagined.
When Trebol and his group arrived at the port, they only saw a ship from the Beasts Pirates.
"What's going on here?"
Trebol directly pulled over a person in charge to ask.
That person tremblingly explained the earlier situation: how the two sides had clashed, how an expert like a god descending from heaven appeared on the Beasts Pirates side, single-handedly overwhelming the Big Mom pirates.
'Could it be Kaido himself?'
That was Trebol's first thought.
But soon, his question was answered.
A tall woman he had never seen before strode over at the forefront.
Behind her, several pirates Trebol recognized were following obediently.
Among them was Fúzé, who had previous dealings with the Donquixote Family.
'Even her status surpasses that of the [Tobiroppo]? Could this woman be the next Disaster?'
This was before Trebol knew that two Sweet Commanders had come from the Big Mom Pirates.
Otherwise, that assessment could have been even higher.
"Hey, are you the person in charge here right now?"