The truth was, Sadgeo had never really gotten serious.
After all, from the very beginning, he had seen no chance whatsoever for his opponent to win.
He had not even bothered using the second Devil Fruit power at his disposal, the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability to counter other fruit users.
But now...
What was going on?!
Facing this swordsman wrapped in ghostly aura, one who had even grown three heads and six arms, Sadgeo felt his whole body trembling. It was as if even his mind were being torn apart. His pupils shook violently.
Instinctively, he tried to use his full strength.
But against a Haki-based attack rather than a Devil Fruit technique, even the Dark-Dark Fruit had no especially effective answer.
But how could this be?!
From their earlier clash, he had already roughly gauged the level of the swordsman before him.
At full power, the man might cause him some trouble. That much he could admit.
But...
Looking at the massive spray of blood bursting from his chest, cold sweat poured down Sadgeo's face.
This was absolutely not a level of power that this swordsman should have been capable of producing.
It was not just that unknown and terrifying black ghostly aura.
Even within that slash...
There had been Conqueror's Haki as well.
A power that even Sadgeo himself had yet to fully master.
"You..."
"Do you also have the ambition to become a king?!"
Though Zoro had landed the blow, even he found the feeling strange.
Originally, he had only meant to combine Armament Haki with his Demon Aura Nine-Sword Style.
But at that crucial instant, a tremendous force had joined his attack, allowing him to unleash a blow beyond his own limit and heavily injure Sadgeo, who had only just stepped into the Emperor tier.
"This is..."
The ghostly aura around Zoro and the phantom Asura slowly faded. Exhaustion was written all over his face.
He removed Yama Crow from his mouth and held it in his hand, staring uncertainly at the black blade.
"Zoro!!!"
The rest of the Straw Hat crew, along with the fish-men of Fish-Man Island, were all so shocked they could not even close their mouths. Cold sweat ran nonstop down their faces.
Only Ozz Dotor, far in the distance, pinched his chin and raised a brow with interest.
Interesting.
So this was how he managed to find a sliver of hope.
Sadgeo had never directly experienced Ozz Dotor's Conqueror's Haki. The fear and wariness he carried toward him had been written into his lineage factors. More precisely, it was rooted deep within the bones of Luffy, Teach, and Shanks.
The principle was much like how Seraphim Snake would still like Luffy in the original story.
And when Ozz Dotor had personally trained the Straw Hats before, the difference in level between them had been far too great. There had been no need for him to use Conqueror's Haki, and in any case, they never would have endured long enough to reach that point.
So in the entire battlefield, the one who understood the situation most clearly was Ozz Dotor himself.
The blade Yama Crow contained the Haki he had accumulated in countless battles during his youth.
And beyond that, it still held the ghostly aura he had forged back when he was young, when he constantly pursued breakthroughs in combat and killed enemies by the score.
"So Haki really can be stored..."
Whether it was the Haki Joy Boy had sealed into the giant robot Emet eight hundred years ago, or the Haki Kozuki Oden had left behind within Enma, both were examples of Haki being embedded within objects.
And Yama Crow...
To a certain degree, it still preserved the Conqueror's coating and ghostly aura that Ozz Dotor had once wielded in his youth.
That was why, when Sadgeo had faced Zoro's ultimate move, he had vaguely seen the phantom of a black-clad young man with scarlet eyes, wrapped in pitch-black ghostly aura, like a god of slaughter, like an Asura.
The cold sweat and terror on Sadgeo's face had never truly been because of Zoro.
It had been because of that phantom, the one wreathed in black ghostly aura, with Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the blade, that black-clad young man with scarlet eyes.
The instant their gazes had met, Sadgeo had truly felt that he might die.
But that phantom was not the real Ozz Dotor.
And what remained inside Yama Crow was not the power of Ozz Dotor at his peak.
Zoro slowly turned around.
Sadgeo was clutching the enormous wound across his abdomen, staring at him in uncertainty.
"How can this be..."
"So even with the power inside Yama Crow, it still isn't enough..."
Sadgeo showed no sign of collapsing. If anything, he looked just as vigorous as ever.
His body was simply far too monstrously tough.
"No good..."
Looking at the towering giant in the straw hat slowly approaching him, Zoro's eyes began to roll back, his consciousness gradually slipping away.
Just as he had said before drawing his blade, this was his limit.
At that moment...
"Thirty Fleur!!!"
Countless pale arms suddenly bloomed from the ground, obstructing Sadgeo's vision.
At the same time, an enormous pair of giant-like feet appeared, scooped Zoro's body up, and kicked him straight into the safe half of Fish-Man Island.
Zoro had bought them time.
And that little bit of time was enough for all of them to retreat into the protected zone.
Sanji used Sky Walk while carrying Luffy, catching Zoro's unconscious body in midair. At last, they landed safely.
"Thank goodness..."
"That mosshead really came through this time."
A battered Sanji sat on the ground, laying both of them down before lighting a cigarette for himself.
Then he looked coldly toward Sadgeo in the distance.
In theory, this half of Fish-Man Island lay under the protection of Ozz Dotor's black flag. No outsider was allowed to damage it.
But if Sadgeo decided to go all in and stop caring...
Then the only remaining combatant on the Straw Hats' side who could still resist a monster like this would be Sanji himself.
Fortunately, the giant figure did not continue forward.
Instead, he looked at the Straw Hats and revealed an expression of regret.
"You've really got some tricks, huh..."
Sadgeo indeed would not cross this boundary to fight, because that restriction was baked into his underlying code.
However...
His face fell into the shadow of his giant straw hat, then slowly lifted again. The face that so resembled Luffy's now wore a somewhat gloomy look.
"You don't seriously think that hiding over there means you're completely safe, do you?"
Sadgeo walked up to the boundary line.
His eyes fixed directly on Shirahoshi, whose body, despite her size, only reached up to his thigh. A smile spread across his face.
"You can summon Sea Kings, right? Come out to sea with me!!!"
"No~!!!"
Timid as ever, Shirahoshi recoiled and hid behind Neptune.
"Withdraw, giant!!! I will never hand Shirahoshi over to anyone!!!"
Neptune glared furiously at Sadgeo, his fists clenched tight.
"Is that so..."
Sadgeo grinned.
Though he looked the same, he was no righteous Joy Boy.
"Then King Neptune, are you prepared to abandon all the people still living in the other half of Fish-Man Island?"
There were indeed still many fish-men and merfolk living on the other half of the island. Some could not bear to leave their homes, while others were roughnecks from Fish-Man District.
But in the end, they were all still children of Fish-Man Island.
"Heh heh heh... then let me repeat myself."
Sadgeo bared his teeth in a bright smile.
"In the name of a king who opposes the World Government, I promise you this. I will give you my protection."
"Lend the strength of the fish-man race to me."
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