The hideous muscles all over his body twisted and tangled up; not to mention the three shoulder plates formed purely by muscle on his shoulders, and the "exhaust ports" at his shoulder sockets—warped out by over‑exploding muscles and spewing white flames—just looking at him already felt inhuman, downright terrifying!
Sage directly revealed his true body, the form before Full Form!
"Ah... I haven't seen this form in a long time. Compared to before, this is the real body, huh." Moriah sighed.
It wasn't like last time on Egghead—back then Sage's enlargement was just his Full Form compressed and then expanded again, he'd still been holding back.
The moves of Full Form are essentially ability and Haki fully unleashed, expanding based on how far his Ability Development has gone, and they naturally include this '100% of the 100%' form—but that's still the compressed state. Once he frees his true body, by rights it should return to what it looks like now.
But he didn't use it back then.
Now he's finally let it out...
The Ancient Giant Race, the so‑called "Ancient Demon" race, in terms of terror and pressure, still can't compare to Sage as he is now.
Whether it's his size, or his presence.
"Full Form · Liberation Stance."
Sage clenched his fist, looking at the little water wall that only reached his head. He simply stretched out a hand and chopped, splitting the water wall apart, letting the people on that distant fortress see this form too.
Just that sudden reveal alone made the people on the fortress suck in a breath. The panic that had been on the Disaster Pirates' faces before now appeared on the faces of the people in the fortress.
At first glance... it gave people a flashback of the fear of once being ruled by Giants or something.
"This form... really brings back memories."
Inside the upper part of the fortress, Kuzan, standing before the window, was slightly taken aback. "Back then, this was the form Sage was in when we caught him."
"Quit joking."
Shiryu's motion of bringing his cigar up to take a drag stopped. He let the ash fall onto his clothes, one hand clamped tightly around his sword hilt, cold sweat running down his forehead.
"Is this something normal people can catch? What the hell is with that size? Hey, Augur! Was the size you saw back then anything this exaggerated?" Shiryu asked.
During the Egghead battle, the ones who faced Sage head‑on and survived were Van Augur and Devon.
Right now Van Augur had just Instant Teleportation'd Teach out, and happened to catch the scene of Sage smashing apart the tsunami. Sweat also rolled down his forehead, but after thinking for a bit, he stayed calm and said, "More terrifying than before, and his size seems to be a lot bigger... yeah, nearly a hundred meters taller."
"A hundred meters taller? Don't mess with me! That's not some word you use in a casual review."
Shiryu shook his head with a laugh, looking at Teach beside him grinning wide like he wasn't scared at all. "Still, with Teach here, it's not like we can't fight."
"Zehehehehe, that's really scary alright. Guess my little greeting worked—otherwise how would I have fired up my good Aibo this much?" Teach roared with laughter.
"But dealing with him is going to be a real pain."
Kuzan pressed one hand against the window, staring solemnly at the Giant's movements ahead. "He's coming."
Sage chopped the water wall apart with a hand‑knife. Then he drew his hand across, his fist hammering into the tilted sea surface behind. The moment that fist entered the water, it was like he'd smashed something flat—those surging waves instantly fell, returning to stillness.
After that one punch, Sage stretched his hand out again and swept forward. Three water walls along with the surrounding sea all spiraled together, converging in his hand into a highly condensed water sphere.
As a grandmaster of Body Techniques, tricks like "using fists to force stillness" weren't just polished to perfection—at the very least, they were second nature.
All that about currents never stopping and being impossible to strike, none of that existed for Sage. No matter how slanted the sea surface, with his current size, a single punch could neutralize it.
And these tsunamis... weren't much different from small water walls.
And to fight in water that only flooded him to the waist or lower—this degree had no effect on him at all.
As for another approach, like Fishman Karate or whatever—if it counts as Body Techniques, there's nothing he isn't a master of.
Using explosive force to blast water currents out as attacks—he didn't just know how, he was many, many, many times better at it than Jinbe!
"Gun Wave!"
The water gathered by that special force in his hand blasted out as a column in a shock‑style release, rocketing toward the fortress opposite at extreme speed.
With Fishman Karate, normally just a one‑person‑thick jet of water can pierce a ship.
With Sage using it, it was still one‑person‑thick—and punching a hole straight through a fortress was no problem.
But the catch now was, given Sage's current size, this was just a little stream, only as thick as his arm. Yet to the people packed on the fortress, that was the sky collapsing!
The gigantic torrent came sweeping over, and just the spray thrown off and the diffused impact pressure condensed into a tempest was enough to blow in and leave people gasping for breath. That massive water pillar, nearly blotting out their vision as it carried absolute pressure toward them—if it hit, there was no need to even think about it, they wouldn't just die in any normal sense.
They'd likely be mashed into the high‑impact water column, fused into blood‑water, then the fortress would be blasted open with a massive hole and shatter to pieces!
"Ice Century!"
Just as they fell into despair, a figure leapt out at the window above the fortress. With that full‑chested shout, the water pillar barreling in, just about to slam into the fortress, suddenly froze solid in that instant—becoming an ice column channel that linked the distant fleet and the fortress here!
Chill spread out along the ice column, freezing the coastal strip in front of the fortress into solid ice.
Then that cold also froze the storm itself, turning the wind‑driven raindrops into razor‑sharp ice crystals. As they sprayed down, they pierced some people's skulls and bodies, dropping them on the spot.
Yet no one cared about that right now.
Whatever the cost...
"We–we're saved!"
A Pirate collapsed onto the ground, eyes unfocused, panting hard.
He was a prisoner from the first level of Impel Down, pulled out by Teach to serve as a subordinate and join this battle.
At first, seeing the Blackbeard King flex his might, raising a colossal tsunami with a wave of his hand, he'd felt proud, thinking this time they'd definitely win.
Disaster or whatever—that was just a big reputation. He'd seen the Blackbeard King's strength with his own eyes; they were sure to win.
As long as they won, he'd be fully converted into a proper member. After that he'd get to serve as a legitimate noble in the Pirate Kingdom and then rule the New World.
But the next second, that gigantic water pillar—and that terrifying Giant appearing on the sea—shattered his dream completely.
Wouldn't it have been better to just stay quietly in Impel Down?
It was painful, sure, but at least you wouldn't die...
He started regretting everything.
"Kuzan, huh?"
Sage turned his pupils, looking toward the slightly taller silhouette among the tightly packed heads on the distant fortress. With a vicious grin, he plunged one hand into the sea. "Not a bad landing point. Let's use it!"
Boom!
With no need for any additional propulsion, as his hand swept forward along the sea surface, the ships behind them rode the high‑speed current and instantly accelerated, speeding ahead like they'd hit nitro. In just a few breaths of rapid sailing, they shot up to the frozen strip; the vessels didn't even slam into the ice—instead they came to a steady stop embedded in it, without carrying even a bit of leftover momentum.
In terms of control over force, no one could rival Sage!
"Charge!"
The instant the ships docked, a clear shout rang out—and from the Death Star a bolt of lightning burst forth, drilling straight into the very front of the fortress, carving out a streak of cold light that looked like it would slice the air itself apart.
Pu!!
Under that cold gleam, the outermost group of people were all cut clean at the waist, their bodies carried back by the impact force and splattering away, clearing out an area so that lightning could reveal its form: Lily, sword already drawn, standing there.
With her strike, a storm of shouts erupted from the ships. One Pirate after another leapt from the decks like dumplings dropped into boiling water, all jumping down onto the fortress edge and crashing into the Pirates who'd finally reacted, the two sides brawling together.
Boom!!
Yet just as their weapons met for the first time, a figure surged in right at the center with an immense gust of force, carving out a massive gap in the front. Everyone caught in that impact was turned to paste, erupting into a rain of blood.
Sage had already compressed himself back down to his normal form, appearing at the heart of the breach. He didn't even spare a glance for the crowd, faces full of panic; his eyes were locked on the top of the fortress as he bared his teeth in a grin and said:
"Teach, I've come for you! This time, I don't want you running—and you won't be able to run!"
He clenched his fists and laughed loudly. "Come on! Let's decide the ownership of the New World right here! Let me see where you got the guts to stand against me!"