The ear-piercing sound of slashes echoed everywhere.
From the ceiling and floor to the windowsills, oil paintings, and even the treasures within the vault, the entire corridor and the Royal Palace itself erupted with countless slashes!
"Aaaaaaaah!"
KaraMiro III screamed in terror, then quickly fainted.
Judging by the foul stench emanating from him, he could no longer delude himself that the wetness in his pants was just sweat.
Beside him, Snack's face had turned ashen.
"A Devil Fruit User," he murmured, his gaze sweeping over the countless slashes until he located their source: blades that grew like hands from every surface.
But the real problem was...
"I can't sense where he's hiding at all?!"
This was what baffled him most.
As one of the Four Sweet Commanders, his Haki training was naturally quite advanced, though not on par with his strongest older brother; he was still highly proficient in Observation Haki.
Under normal circumstances, he should have been able to roughly pinpoint an attacker's location by sensing their hostility and the origin of their attacks.
But right now, he felt nothing at all. It was as if the relentless attacks were originating from another dimension entirely.
But
"Think you can stop me with this?"
He reached behind him and gripped the hilt of his great katana.
"No matter where you're hiding... I'll just cut through it all!"
Buzz!!
Coating the blade with Armament Haki, he unleashed a devastating slash.
The edge of his blade sliced through the air, leaving nothing standing in its wake, except for the already fallen KaraMiro III.
The entire corridor's walls, along with the Royal Palace's roof, were instantly split in two.
Boom!
Massive fragments of the building crashed to the ground, sending up towering clouds of dust and smoke.
Naturally, every concealing object in the corridor was utterly annihilated by this single slash.
But…
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Snack realized that even after his slash had eliminated every possible hiding place, he still couldn't see his enemy.
And the slashes... continued unabated.
Countless arm-like blades continued to erupt from the void without pause.
'What exactly is this guy's ability...?'
Snack gritted his teeth.
…
Meanwhile, in the Pocket Dimension:
'What the hell is this guy's ability?!'
Zishu wondered, his gaze fixed on Snack and KaraMiro III just beyond the Pocket Dimension.
'I can confirm the slash definitely hit.'
He could clearly see that his 'Void Slash - Thousand Eight Hundred Blades' attack had indeed struck both targets. As an extension of his own arm, he could even feel the sensation of the blades cutting through their skin.
But the problem was:
Although the strikes landed, they inflicted no damage.
"Judging by the name of his technique, did this guy eat a defense-type Devil Fruit?"
"Not even a scratch? How utterly perverse is that?" Zishu muttered.
The main issue was that while Charlotte Snack was one of the Four Sweet Commanders, he had been stripped of the title in the original story after being defeated by the "Mad Monk" Urouge before even making an appearance. As a result, Zishu had no idea what Snack's abilities were.
However, despite the momentary confusion, Zishu remained calm.
Because...
Devil Fruit abilities were something he would always uncover in the end.
Meanwhile, outside the Pocket Dimension:
"It stopped?"
Snack noticed that the slashing attacks around him had suddenly ceased.
No more blade-like arms emerged from the surroundings; only the piercing cries of KaraMiro III, still unconscious, echoed through the air.
"Hmph, finally realized it?" Snack sneered. "You cowardly sneak. While your ability is impeccable for an assassin, it's utterly ineffective against me, the 'Strongest Shield'."
"On the other hand, if I ever catch a glimpse of your trail, you'll, "
His threat caught in his throat.
Because at that moment…
Buzz!!
He clearly saw, at the end of the corridor before him, a figure wearing a rat-headed mask slowly materialize from thin air.
"Strongest Shield?" The figure tilted its head, glancing at Snack. "These days, even the most insignificant mongrels dare to call themselves 'strongest'."
"...Zishu?"
The moment Snack recognized the figure, his eyes flashed with a sudden, intense light.
Recently, Zishu's name had become quite renowned in the Underground Underworld. As a high-level officer of the Big Mom Pirates, Snack had undoubtedly heard of him.
Even Big Mom herself had taken notice and expressed considerable interest, particularly in the organization known as "The Twelve Zodiac."
"Ah, so someone hired you to kill this fool?"
He naturally deduced the source of the conflict.
Then...
"I must be... incredibly lucky!"
A grin spread across his face. "One of The Twelve Zodiac's highest-ranking officers just happened to cross my path."
He could already imagine how thrilled Big Mom would be when he presented her with Zishu.
"Hahaha ha ha ha!"
Laughing wildly, he glared at Zishu, raising his massive katana.
Busoshoku (Armament) Haki: Armament Cover.
With a single, decisive slash, he struck!
Interestingly, the trajectory and distance of his sword strike didn't seem to be aimed at Zishu at all.
But then…
"Severing Point!"
As the words left his lips...
Buzz!!
A sharp, slicing sound erupted from beside Zishu.
Upon closer inspection, a small red dot had inexplicably appeared on Zishu's abdomen.
Shick!
At that moment...
Snack's blade swung, and the strike materialized out of thin air from the red dot!
"You bastard! Hiding would have been one thing, but daring to show yourself in my line of sight was your greatest mistake!"
Seeing this, Snack's laughter grew even louder.
"You're the perfect birthday gift for Mom, aren't you?!"
But just as he was imagining his mother's praise, he realized...
No blood had spurted forth, and Zishu's figure hadn't fallen.
On the contrary, Zishu merely stared calmly at Snack.
"N-no way!"
Snack's expression twisted violently, and he immediately swung his blade again.
"Severing Point: Nine-Strike Barrage!"
He unleashed a relentless flurry of nine consecutive slashes.
Instantly, nine strikes erupted from the red dot on Zishu's abdomen, converging from nine directions in a relentless barrage.
But...
"So that's how it is," Zishu murmured, a soft sigh escaping his lips.
He seemed utterly unconcerned by the fierce slashes hurtling toward him from the side.
And in the next moment, reality proved he had no reason to be.
For...
Click.
The sound of doors opening echoed through the air.
Nine spatial portals materialized out of thin air, swallowing the nine slashes whole, leaving no trace behind.
"What is this...?" Snack's pupils constricted sharply as he witnessed this bizarre scene.
He couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
'Isn't this guy's power supposed to be creating slashes?'
'No, wait... his sudden appearance earlier was... What exactly is his ability?!'
But while Snack was reeling in disbelief, Zishu remained perfectly calm, rooted to the spot.
Because what Zishu saw was entirely different from Snack's perspective.
In his perception, he could still sense the Pocket Dimension created by the Door-Door Fruit.
And within that Pocket Dimension, it was now teeming with his hands.
The hands, like countless safety locks, encircled him without anyone noticing.
Whenever Snack's slashes approached, one of the hands would open a gate within the Pocket Dimension.
The slashes flew into the Pocket Dimension and vanished without a trace.
This was the source of Snack's shock.
It was also another application of Zishu's clone ability:
[ Void Slash Defense: Thousand Fan Gates ].
But at this moment, Zishu's primary concern wasn't the ingenuity of his ability development.
Instead, it was:
[Devil Fruit user 'Charlotte Snack' detected.]
[Devil Fruit confirmed as 'Paramecia: Mark Devil Fruit'. Analyzing and storing to 'Devil Fruit Encyclopedia'.]
[Devil Fruit ability: Can mark objects and redirect enemy and ally attacks.]
[Effects at each level:]
[Level 3: Gain full Devil Fruit effects. By touching an entity or living being, you can create a 'Mark Point' and redirect all nearby attacks to its vicinity. Unlocking this level requires 800 million Beli.]
[Level 4: Deepen your Devil Fruit mastery. Mark targets through line of sight alone, without physical contact. Increase the Mark Point's Fruit Ability Slots to two. Maximum marking range: 1000 meters. Unlocking this level requires 2.2 billion Beli.]
[Level 5: Devil Fruit Awakening: Giant Mark. Remove all limits on the Mark Point's Fruit Ability Slots. Increase the maximum range to 5000 meters, sustained by stamina consumption. Stamina drain increases with the number of active Mark Points. Unlocking this level requires 10.3 billion Beli.]
[Note: Once a Mark Point is selected, it cannot be changed for five minutes.]
[Mark Points can be discovered and destroyed, preventing further marking for ten minutes.]
[Current Analysis Progress: Completed]
"Strongest Shield? As if it were the real deal! All you did was mark a spot and transfer the damage."
Zishu turned to Snack. "Did you really have to name it 'Guardian Talisman' just to confuse people?"
[This is an embarrassment to the brutes of the Pirate world!]
Yet, after this scathing critique, Zishu's tone shifted abruptly.
"Still... you said meeting me was lucky, now I think the opposite is true."
"Accepting this commission was the real stroke of luck."
Beneath his mask, Roy's words rang with genuine sincerity.
Snack's ability wasn't just remarkably powerful.
More importantly, Roy had just realized it might be the final piece needed to complete the puzzle of his next clone's ability!
Therefore...
"As repayment, I'll grant you a swift death."
Upon hearing this, Snack's expression flickered wildly between fury and fear. "What the hell are you babbling about?"
Meanwhile, Zishu completely ignored Snack's words.
Click.
He simply reached out and opened another door, stepping once more into the Pocket Dimension.
Before him, several hands extended, offering him a pair of gloves.
The gloves were speckled with fragments of some kind of yellow medicinal pellets.
They were wriggling incessantly, as if swallowing the fragments.
Then,
Zishu picked them up and put them on.
From now on, except for necessary cases, all Devil Fruit descriptions will skip Levels 1 and 2, as the protagonist rarely uses them, and they only serve to pad out the word count.
(End of Chapter)
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