Chapter 306: You Really Were Adopted
"What are we waiting for? Let's start right now! If we let this thing continue its endless destruction... Elegia is truly doomed!"
The frantic urgency of the Red Hair Pirates didn't compel Alber to act immediately. Only after Nanamo gave a firm nod of approval did Alber finally initiate his technique.
Alber stood his ground amidst the apocalyptic ruins created by the Demon King of Songs. The destruction surrounding them didn't seem to affect him in the slightest; even the burning structural beams collapsing mere inches away elicited absolutely no reaction from him.
"Step back."
The moment the words left his lips, Alber's body began to rapidly expand. He didn't take on his hybrid beast form—which was typically vastly superior for close-quarters combat—but instead fully shifted into his complete Beast Form.
Razor-sharp, obsidian scales rapidly coated his entire body as his limbs morphed into heavily armored beast legs. A fiery, glowing orange mane danced wildly in the wind, and a single, majestic horn protruded backward from his skull. His face elongated, his snout pushing forward to reveal rows of bone-white fangs. His eyes completely transformed into golden, reptilian slits, reflecting countless twisted, terrifying illusions within their depths.
Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Type, Model: Qilin.
However, the Qilin of the sea was absolutely not the auspicious, benevolent beast of ancient legend that rode upon sacred clouds to bestow blessings upon humanity. Instead, it was an apocalyptic Nightmare Qilin that walked the razor-thin boundary between dreams and reality, feeding entirely upon pure, unadulterated terror.
"A Mythical Zoan...?" Yasopp instinctively took a step back, gripping his rifle tightly. "That looks incredibly sinister..."
Alber didn't answer. Having fully entered his Beast Form, his colossal size meant that only the Demon King of Songs hovering in the sky was larger than him in the immediate area.
The three stages of transformation were standard for Zoan users. Anyone with a basic understanding of Devil Fruits knew that Zoan users excelled in this exact versatility. In the hybrid form, the power of the mythical beast was perfectly infused into the human body, resulting in the most direct, explosive boost in raw combat prowess. But to purely utilize the mythical beast's unique, conceptual abilities, the full Beast Form was exponentially more potent.
"A warning in advance: this is not safe. My ability allows me to forcefully manifest creations from nightmares into reality, and conversely, I can violently drag real-world entities directly into the nightmare."
Alber briefly explained his powers to ensure Shanks and his crew fully understood the lethal risks involved.
"The world created by the Sing-Sing Fruit is fundamentally a mental dimension, identical in nature to my Dream World. However... if you enter that world by hearing her song, only your consciousness—your soul, so to speak—enters that dimension. As long as your physical body outside can successfully 'wake up', you can leave unscathed."
This was the unique property of the Sing-Sing Fruit. Theoretically, as long as the mental world wasn't destroyed, the souls trapped inside could exist indefinitely without physical harm.
"But my Nightmare World is different. Bringing you into that world means forcefully transforming your actual, physical bodies into a part of the dream. You aren't just taking a nap. After all, we are essentially committing an illegal, forced intrusion.
"Whatever injuries you sustain in there, your physical bodies will suffer. And if you die in there..."
Alber didn't finish his sentence, but everyone instantly understood the grim implication. If they died in that dimension, they would die for real. There was no waking up from death.
"This is a highly lethal operation. Who is going in?"
As he spoke, Alber kept his glowing golden eyes firmly fixed on Shanks and his crew, entirely excluding Nanamo from the roster.
The inside was a chaotic, unpredictable dimension vastly different from the real world, and he absolutely refused to let Nanamo take such a catastrophic risk. That would be completely irresponsible to Nereus. If the Red Hair Pirates were unwilling to shoulder the risk, Alber would simply refuse to sustain the dreamscape. To Alber, it didn't really matter what happened to Elegia. Even if the kingdom was completely destroyed, it was ultimately the fault of the Red Hair Pirates.
As the only living member of the Lunarian race who shared Queen Amphelite's bloodline, Alber could loosely be considered extended royalty. Nereus's absolute protection was a debt he intended to repay with his life. He only followed Nanamo's orders because she was Nereus's daughter.
"Shanks, I'll lead a team inside. You stay out here and coordinate the attack," Benn Beckman declared, taking a final drag of his cigarette before stepping forward to take on the suicidal mission.
But Shanks instantly grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
"You can't. Didn't Gordon just say? We need to strike the exact same spot simultaneously from both the inside and the outside to inflict actual damage. If you want to perfectly synchronize your attacks with Princess Nanamo's brute strength, you're still lacking a bit of raw power."
"But..."
"That's Uta. She's my daughter."
"She's a member of the Red Hair Pirates! We're her family too!"
"Which is exactly why you need to stay out here and support me flawlessly! A perfectly synchronized, cross-dimensional attack requires an absolute, brilliant commander. I'm leaving that entirely to you, Beckman... my First Mate."
Shanks placed a heavy, undeniable emphasis on the words "First Mate." This instantly made Beckman understand his Captain's absolute resolve. No matter how casual or goofy a Captain might usually be, at a critical moment like this, his orders were absolute law. The Red Hair Pirates quickly split into two teams, finalizing the roster for the assault.
"If you're ready, let's go."
Alber's terrifying power activated. A surreal, dream-like cloud rapidly formed around Shanks and his strike team. But the scenery waiting inside the cloud was anything but beautiful.
A pitch-black sky, a churning ocean forged entirely of musical staves, and countless musical notes swimming overhead like schools of predatory fish. The only constant was the Demon King of Songs, identical to its real-world counterpart. Whatever the Demon King did on the outside, its reflection inside synchronized perfectly.
"That's our target! Move fast! The quicker we end this, the safer you'll be!" Alber roared.
"Understood."
Shanks tightly gripped Gryphon, the muscles in his single arm bulging with explosive tension.
"Building Snake, Howling Gab, Limejuice! You're with me! The rest of you, stay outside and follow Beckman's lead!"
"Got it," Beckman replied, checking the chamber of his rifle, his eyes sharp and violently focused.
The very moment Shanks and his team entered, razor-sharp blades composed of highly compressed sound waves rained down from the sky. Clearly, the Demon King of Songs had immediately detected the intruders.
However, after unleashing the initial barrage of musical notes, the Demon King unexpectedly ceased its large-scale destruction. Its massive, piano-key arms began striking themselves frantically.
The melody it played became erratic and chaotic—no longer the rhythmic symphony of destruction from before, but an ancient, forbidden, and deeply cursed tune.
Guided by the horrific music, its colossal body began to swell. Something grotesque writhed beneath its black tailcoat, as if a monstrous entity was trying to violently tear its way out of a cocoon.
The Demon King in the outside world was undergoing the exact same horrific metamorphosis. What had originally been a phantom-like torso floating in the air was now rapidly sprouting massive, grotesque legs.
"Princess Nanamo," Hermes noted, floating nearby. "Based on my years of extensive video game experience, it looks like this boss is about to enter Phase Two."
Clouds could apparently play video games too. According to Hermes's vast gaming expertise, this was undeniably a mid-battle transformation sequence. And as gaming logic dictated, once a boss completed its transformation, its stats would skyrocket astronomically.
"I can clearly see that! Red Hair! Are you in position?!" Nanamo shouted.
Because Alber had established a conceptual link between the two dimensions, they could perfectly synchronize their communication. He even managed to project a translucent phantom image of the Dream World into the real world, allowing the outside team to clearly see what was happening inside.
"In position! Let's do this!" Shanks yelled back.
"Then we start... with its head! Hermes, support!"
In the real world, Nanamo moved. She leapt high into the sky. The terrifying, innate brute strength of the Fish-Man race condensed in her fist, completely coating her arm in pitch-black Armament Haki. She launched a devastating punch straight toward the increasingly grotesque mask of the Demon King.
"Shanks! Upper left eye! You're too slow! Faster!"
Beckman wasn't actively fighting on the outside. Instead, he stood back, his brilliant tactical mind processing the battle across both dimensions and flawlessly coordinating the strikes.
Hearing Beckman's command, Shanks's body erupted with an even more terrifying surge of Conqueror's Haki. Gryphon slashed upward toward the exact same coordinate in the mental dimension.
"Kamusari! (Divine Departure!)"
BOOM—!!!
Two dimensions. The exact same microsecond. A flawless, perfectly synchronized impact.
The Demon King of Songs unleashed an ear-piercing shriek of agony. A massive chunk of its mask near its left eye violently shattered. Confronted with a perfectly synchronized cross-dimensional strike, the monster's invincible, conceptual armor was finally shattered. It was no longer an unkillable god.
"It's working! Keep up the pressure! Gab, Yasopp! Target the right shoulder!" Beckman commanded.
Inside the Dream World, Howling Gab opened his massive maw. A terrifying beam of highly compressed sonic energy gathered in his throat before blasting upward toward the Demon King's arm.
Simultaneously, Yasopp's crosshairs flawlessly locked onto the monster's right shoulder in the real world. The bullet in his chamber was already steeped in Armament Haki so dense it was darker than ink.
BOOM!
BANG!
The two catastrophic attacks struck simultaneously, inflicting another massive, irreversible wound upon the Demon King's colossal body.
The monster completely halted its mindless rampage, fully turning its apocalyptic fury toward the gnats attacking it. But it was already too late.
"Top of the head!"
"Ikoku Sovereignty!"
"Aramitama!"
After a relentless barrage of perfectly synchronized, catastrophic strikes, the Demon King's body began to violently destabilize. It didn't just slowly fade away; it was as if someone had violently pressed the "Delete" key on reality itself. The monstrosity rapidly vanished across both dimensions, ultimately reverting into a few scattered pages of ancient sheet music that fluttered harmlessly down into the subterranean ruins of Elegia.
As the Demon King of Songs vanished, Uta's unconscious body materialized in the sky where the monster's core had been, plummeting rapidly toward the earth.
Even though she had been hypnotically lured by the cursed sheet music of Tot Musica into inadvertently singing the forbidden melody, the monstrous summoning had still forcefully drained her physical stamina. With the Demon King defeated, she inevitably slipped into a deep coma.
However, catching falling people was something Hermes had abundant experience with. Falling from the sky was nothing new; back when Nanamo was aggressively teaching Chloe how to fly, Hermes had essentially acted as a full-time crash pad.
Flawlessly maneuvering through the air, Hermes gently caught Uta and safely brought her down to the ground.
In the alternate dimension, Shanks wasn't celebrating; he was running for his life.
With Uta unconscious and the Demon King annihilated, the mental dimension had completely lost its anchor and was rapidly collapsing. Everything around them was instantly dissolving into absolute nothingness. Naturally, they didn't dare let that void touch them. Fortunately, the dream-cloud gateway Alber had constructed wasn't far, and they barely managed to dive through it and escape back to reality.
"Looks like that massive headache... has finally been resolved," Beckman exhaled deeply, profoundly relieved to see Shanks and his team return in one piece.
However, Shanks's expression remained incredibly grim. "No. It's not over yet."
Shanks pointed to their surroundings. The apocalyptic destruction caused by the Demon King of Songs was a stark reality. More than half of the kingdom's architecture had been reduced to rubble. Although Hermes and the others had aggressively evacuated the civilians from the very beginning, achieving absolute zero casualties was impossible.
The manifestation of the Demon King had inflicted irreversible, catastrophic losses upon Elegia.
"This destruction... cannot be undone," Shanks murmured heavily. "I absolutely refuse to let Uta know about this. She inadvertently harmed the very people who loved her voice and practically destroyed this entire country. This kind of guilt... is far too cruel for a child to bear."
"What do you plan to do?" Beckman asked quietly.
"We're pirates. Isn't it completely natural for vicious pirates to covet a nation's wealth, pillage their cities, and leave destruction in their wake? We will... take the absolute blame for this incident. Let the world believe it was us.
"Besides, the path we walk from here on out will be astronomically dangerous. I don't want Uta risking her life on our adventures anymore. It is time... for her to leave the ship."
"Please, allow Uta to stay here," Gordon stepped forward, his voice trembling but resolute. "This nation harbors a profound love for music. We can provide her with the perfect environment to grow and thrive. This tragedy wasn't her fault. No one could have possibly predicted that Tot Musica would specifically choose Uta's voice as its vessel."
Gordon pleaded to take on the responsibility of raising her.
"They don't know the origin of the monster. If the citizens found out it was because of that little girl... do you honestly think they would still welcome her with open arms?" Alber sneered coldly from the sidelines, displaying absolute contempt for Gordon's naivety.
Having spent his entire childhood as a hunted fugitive, Alber had witnessed the absolute worst of human nature. To be precise, he had only ever experienced the cold cruelty of the world, never its warmth. He knew perfectly well how terrifying the malice of ordinary people could be when fueled by grief.
Strictly speaking, Uta was also a victim. But the other victims who had just lost their homes and loved ones would absolutely not see it that way.
"That..." Gordon was utterly speechless. It was undeniably true that the citizens of Elegia were peace-loving, but faced with this horrific reality, no one could guarantee what they would do if they learned the truth.
Shanks also silently agreed with Alber's grim assessment. Turning around, he asked Nanamo about the idol agency contract she had mentioned earlier.
"What? Are you trying to act exactly like Kaido? Pawn your own daughter off on someone else to raise?" Nanamo raised an eyebrow, her tone sharp.
"Like Kaido?" Shanks blinked in confusion.
"That doesn't matter," Nanamo waved her hand dismissively. "Let me get this straight. You want to shoulder all the blame, brand yourselves as the absolute villains, and lie to Uta for the rest of her life?"
"I'm not trying to lie to her forever, but..."
"'The evil Red Hair Pirates pillaged Elegia's treasure and violently destroyed half the kingdom! The little girl was nothing but a convenient cover for their infiltration...' Tsk. Tell me, Red Hair... if my memory serves me correctly, you were practically adopted and raised by Gol D. Roger, weren't you?"
Shanks could suddenly feel the exact same aura of contempt radiating from Nanamo that Alber had just directed at Gordon. Her expression clearly said: Your proposed solution is profoundly, unbelievably idiotic.
"It is true that Captain Roger raised me," Shanks admitted defensively.
"So, what if Roger had forcefully kicked you off his ship when you were nine years old, telling you that your entire bond was a lie and he never cared about you? How would you have felt?!
"Do you honestly think a child can just effortlessly accept being brutally abandoned by her cherished companions?! Or worse, casually accept that the family she trusted with all her heart were nothing but liars?!
"You really have absolutely no idea how to raise a kid, do you?" Nanamo scoffed.
Compared to the Red Hair Pirates, who had only ever raised this one child, Nanamo possessed vastly more practical experience. From taking care of her numerous younger siblings in the palace to handling Chloe and even Rebecca, Nanamo had interacted extensively with children. She could easily put herself in Uta's shoes and understand the agonizing emotional trauma Shanks's plan would inflict.
"You... I... Well, do you have a better idea?!" Shanks stammered, completely out of his depth.
"I will gladly sign her to a contract," Nanamo stated firmly, her eyes locking onto his. "But I absolutely refuse to help you lie to her. She has every right to know exactly what happened today. She has the right to know the truth."
☆☆☆
-> 30 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you