"Dark Hole!"
"Poison Dragon!"
Crocodile's sudden descent into madness shocked everyone present. Magellan, Blackbeard, and the others immediately acted, each moving to stop the ten raging sandstorms. If those storms were allowed to continue spreading and fully desertify the surroundings, even Impel Down's copper walls and iron barriers would not endure for long. They would crumble into sand.
Once that happened, seawater would pour in from all directions.
There would be no survivors.
"Mama… Mama…"
Lucien gripped Napoleon tightly, lightning crackling and flames roaring around his body. Nearby, Katakuri and Cracker had already crushed Daz Bones and the others, sealing them inside books conjured by Mondor.
"Move."
A violent gale lifted Lucien's voluminous pink dress as he raised Napoleon high. He brought it down in a single, devastating swing. The slash, wrapped in lightning and burning fiercely with flames, tore straight through one of the sandstorms like a blade through paper.
At the same moment, Lucien vanished.
A massive sense of danger exploded in Crocodile's chest. His blood ran cold. When Lucien disappeared from sight, Crocodile barely had time to register it before Lucien reappeared directly in front of him.
In less than a blink.
"How is that possible?!"
The sheer speed sent a chill racing up Crocodile's spine.
"Haki Slash!"
Napoleon, still blazing with lightning and fire, instantly expanded to over ten meters in length. Armament Haki coated its entire surface as it descended from above, aiming to cleave Crocodile apart.
The surrounding air cracked violently.
Crocodile's pupils shrank to pinpoints. He knew without question that he could not take that attack head-on.
Already prepared, his body dissolved instantly into sand, scattering under the raging winds.
A sharp red light flashed through Lucien's amethyst eyes.
Twisting his body mid-air, Lucien drove his right fist forward. Lightning and flames surged together as the punch erupted with a force capable of sweeping away entire armies.
In the next instant, Crocodile slammed directly into it.
"Pfft!"
His elemental form shattered violently. Crocodile was forced back into his human body, eyes bulging as blood erupted from his mouth and nose. His body bent unnaturally as he was blasted away like a cannonball, smashing through rows of prison cells and carving a long trench through the ground before collapsing in the rubble.
"Mama… Mama…"
Lucien laughed loudly, his movements and posture perfectly mimicking Big Mom herself. At this moment, he was completely immersed in the role.
"Pfft…"
Amid the ruins, Crocodile knelt on one knee, blood continuously pouring from his mouth and nose.
What was that attack?
Why did he run straight into it?
Or had his movements been predicted from the very start?
"Conqueror of the Nation!"
Before Crocodile could process his thoughts, a massive slash infused with lightning and flames ripped through the ground and surged toward him with unstoppable momentum.
"Desert Sword!"
A deafening explosion followed. Sandstorms erupted in every direction, completely swallowing the battlefield and obscuring all vision.
In the distance, Magellan, Blackbeard, and the others succeeded in destroying the remaining massive sandstorm created by Crocodile.
"Zehahaha… Magellan, I'm done playing with you. Big Mom showing up was truly unexpected. You should worry more about stopping her."
Blackbeard glanced toward the area where Big Mom and Crocodile were locked in battle, his voice dripping with mockery.
He had already decided to retreat.
Staying here any longer would only invite disaster. He still had no idea what Big Mom wanted, and that uncertainty alone was dangerous.
Among the Four Emperors, aside from Red Hair Shanks and Kaido, who wandered freely, Whitebeard and Big Mom almost never left their territories. At least, not for more than ten years.
Yet now Big Mom had not only left Totto Land, she had come personally to Impel Down.
If she had no special purpose, there was no way she would do something like this.
Magellan's face darkened as venom dripped steadily from his body. Blackbeard's taunts did nothing to improve his mood.
He hesitated.
Should he continue pressing Blackbeard's crew, or should he focus on stopping Big Mom?
A single Four Emperor exerted far more pressure than Blackbeard and his entire crew combined.
As the sandstorm began to settle, the sound of footsteps approached. Magellan and Blackbeard both tensed.
"Marshall D. Teach."
"Champion Jesus Burgess."
"Shiryu of the Rain."
"Supersonic Van Auger."
"Evil King Avalo Pizarro."
"Demon Sheriff Lafitte."
"Crescent Moon Hunter Catarina Devon."
"Big Barrel Vasco Shot."
"Death God Doc Q."
"San Juan Wolf."
Katakuri stepped forward, his trident held diagonally at his side. His calm gaze fixed on Blackbeard's crew, lingering briefly on San Juan Wolf, whose massive frame dwarfed even giants.
Behind Katakuri stood Cracker, Smoothie, Snack, Daifuku, Oven, Mondor, Daz Bones, Bon Clay, and Galdino.
Several Jailer Beasts remained nearby.
Daz Bones and a few others had already been transformed into demons by Cracker.
"Hey, hey… this feels wrong."
Shiryu exhaled smoke from his cigar, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes as he studied Katakuri and the others.
"Zehahaha…"
Blackbeard's laughter had lost its earlier confidence.
"Wehahaha, looks like we're the ones being hunted."
Burgess laughed loudly, flexing arms thicker than most men's legs.
"Zehahaha… And what exactly does this mean?"
Blackbeard stared at Katakuri, his expression grim.
"It means nothing complicated," Katakuri replied calmly. "Mama wants to recruit you."
His eyes widened.
Conqueror's Haki erupted outward like a tidal wave. Black and red lightning cracked violently through the air, and the entire space fell into an eerie silence.
Criminals and jailers alike collapsed where they stood, eyes rolling back as they lost consciousness.
"Conqueror's Haki…"
A violent wind tore through cloaks and clothing. Lafitte pressed his hat down firmly, the muscles in his pale face tightening.
"Whoosh!"
Cracker, Oven, and the others charged forward without hesitation, clearly uninterested in further discussion.
"Damn it."
Blackbeard cursed under his breath. He had never imagined Big Mom would set her sights on him.
After everything he had done to reach this point, there was no way he would submit to her.
"This is bad."
The two sides collided.
For Blackbeard's crew, this was the worst possible development.
Magellan stood outside the encirclement, watching the clash with a conflicted expression. After a brief moment of hesitation, he chose not to interfere and instead rushed toward the sixth level.
He needed to confirm the status of certain prisoners.
If they had already escaped, the consequences would be beyond catastrophic.
"Boom… rumble…"
At the center of the chaos, Lucien continued to suppress Crocodile completely. The former Shichibukai was utterly outmatched.
Lightning and flames tore through the air as Crocodile was blasted away once more, his body slamming into the wall and forming a massive X-shaped crater. He vomited blood continuously, his presence visibly weakening.
"Old hag…"
As Lucien appeared directly in front of him again, Crocodile raised his right arm instinctively to shield his face.
A lightning-infused flaming fist struck.
Crack.
His arm snapped, and the blow smashed into his face. Crocodile was sent flying diagonally, tearing through everything in his path before crashing into the ground.
Lucien's massive body descended from above.
Crocodile curled inward like a shrimp, his face twisted in agony. Lucien's kick slammed into his abdomen, collapsing the ground within a hundred-meter radius and punching straight through into the fifth level, Freezing Hell.
Snow and frost exploded upward as Lucien followed, dropping into the frozen level below.
Standing over Crocodile's broken body, Lucien scanned the surroundings calmly. Two thorny demonic vines extended from his tailbone, wrapping tightly around Crocodile's neck and lifting him into the air. A third pierced straight through his heart.
Lucien assessed him silently.
Even if Crocodile was not a major supporting figure, he was at least a minor one.
He could not be killed yet.
He would be useful later, especially against those so-called fellow countrymen.
Demonic blood surged into Crocodile's body. His eyes bulged as his body convulsed violently. He had no strength left to resist, only the ability to endure the forced transformation.
To Lucien's surprise, Crocodile's tolerance for demonic blood was nearly equal to Cracker's.
If Lucien's demons were divided into stages, then the first stage contained only Katakuri.
The second stage included Cracker, Smoothie, Oven, Doflamingo, and others.
The third stage was significantly weaker.
Lucien had not expected Crocodile to be this resilient.
It seemed that his defeat at Luffy's hands in the past hid far more than anyone had realized.