"Shadow Box!"
"Shadow Horn Blade!"
"Shadow Doppelganger!"
The giant Moria's roar thundered across Thriller Bark, his massive body casting a shadow that swallowed half the island.
His blood-red eyes locked onto the four tiny but insanely dangerous figures on the ground below. Countless shadows surged toward them like a black tide.
A giant shadow coffin rose from the earth like something dragged straight out of hell, radiating crushing pressure.
But Feitan moved like a ghost. The instant the box started to close, he blurred into an afterimage and slipped out cleanly.
Shadow Horn Blades—razor-sharp spikes formed from pure darkness—were caught dead-on by Nobunaga's twin blades, Cherry Ten and Wood Wither.
Uvogin bulldozed through everything. Every punch exploded with a sonic boom, and the shadow clones shattered under his savage onslaught.
"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!"
"I'm a Warlord of the Sea!"
Moria screamed in pure rage, his voice whipping up icy winds across the Ghost Island. His huge face twisted with fury.
Before he could finish, his two enormous hands swung down like moving castle walls, slamming shut in mid-air.
The sheer pressure from his colossal size ripped up rubble and broken trees from the ground.
"Barrier—!"
A dark-green shield snapped open. Phinks held it steady, catching Moria's strike head-on.
Then Uvogin stomped forward, using the floating stone path Nobunaga had made with the Float-Float Fruit to charge straight up to the top of Moria's head.
Uvogin's mouth curled into a feral grin. His right fist rose high, pitch-black Armament Haki coating it. Every ounce of aura in his body compressed into a single glowing orb at his knuckles.
Thanks to the Karma Return Fruit, his body had already ballooned to over ten meters tall.
"Karma Return · Armament Haki · Ultra Destruction Fist!"
The punch carried so much raw power that the air around it cracked like glass and a violent shockwave erupted outward.
Moria's eyes glazed over. An indescribable premonition of death washed over him.
"You bastards!"
"I can't lose here!" Moria's face twisted into something ugly and desperate.
What met him was that fist—growing impossibly huge in his vision.
BOOOOOOM—
A cataclysmic explosion ripped across Thriller Bark like a miniature nuke. Moria's eyes rolled back, bloodshot and bulging out of their sockets. His brain shut down completely.
The hundred-meter-tall giant toppled with a deafening crash.
Countless shadows poured from his mouth, flying back to the captured pirates and civilians scattered across the island.
Far out at sea, on a battered pirate ship, a skeleton in a top hat lit up with joy as his shadow finally returned. He happily sat down at his piano, the notes dancing alongside the distant Drums of Liberation.
Uvogin looked down at Moria, who had shrunk back to his normal seven-meter size, and let out a mocking laugh. "Heh. Warlord of the Sea? What a pathetic Warlord…"
"Clap… clap… clap…"
Chrollo stood up, lips curving into a satisfied smile, and walked toward the four of them, clapping slowly. "Not bad. I'm impressed."
In just a few short months, the Troupe members had grown beyond anything they were when they first arrived in this world.
He still remembered their very first fight here—Uvogin versus Urouge. Uvogin had barely scraped out a win, and only because Chrollo had lent him Phinks's [Ripper Cyclotron].
Now? He didn't even need to lift a finger.
These four had taken down a Warlord-level fighter using nothing but their own power.
Sure, in Chrollo's eyes Moria was arrogant, cowardly, and easily the weakest of the Seven Warlords.
But even the weakest Warlord was still a Warlord.
And now Uvogin and the others could crush one without any outside help.
It meant each of them—plus Machi, who now had the Sand-Sand Fruit—had become a powerhouse who could stand on their own in this pirate world.
Shizuku, who was about to claim the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, would join that list very soon.
The four who had just earned their captain's praise kept straight faces, but you could see it:
Uvogin was grinning ear to ear with excitement. Nobunaga's lips had curled upward. Phinks looked outright smug. Even Feitan's usual scowl had softened into something almost relaxed.
Chrollo walked over to the fallen Moria, ready to collect his prize and steal the Devil Fruit.
Then—right in that moment—Chrollo froze mid-step. His head snapped toward the center of the battlefield, eyes wide with disbelief. For the first time, a grave expression settled on his face.
RUMBLE—CRACKLE!
Pitch-black lightning tore down from the sky, connecting heaven and earth in a blinding arc that made the already gloomy Ghost Island look even more sinister.
A massive, pitch-black pentagram magic circle burned into the ground.
The runes pulsed like living flesh—thick, disgusting, and alive—wrapping around the corpses of Ox and Tiger.
A wave of black energy rippled outward, crackling with electricity.
"This power…"
"I see…"
Chrollo narrowed his eyes, instantly on full alert. "So that's which side they belong to."
"Guh… ugh…"
The two Zodiac Knights who had been stone-dead slowly twisted and rose from the ground.
Thick, black, viscous liquid crawled over their bodies.
Crimson light glowed in their eyes.
The two dead men… had just come back to life.
"Surprised, Chrollo?" Mizaistom sneered, staring straight at him while Kanzai stood behind him looking pissed off.
"You can't kill us."
"No one in this world can kill us."
CRACKLE—
The black array faded. In its place, glowing blue magic circles filled with ethereal light appeared, enveloping Ox, Tiger, Moria, and the fallen zombie corpses of the Rocks Pirates crew.
Their bodies slowly faded into the blue radiance.
"Is this some kind of large-scale teleportation array?" Uvogin muttered, stunned. He clenched his fists, ready to charge in.
No way were they letting the captain's hard-earned prey get snatched like this.
But Chrollo raised his arm and blocked them.
"Captain…"
Uvogin looked over, confused.
This was the first time since they reached the Dark Continent that he had seen that expression on Chrollo's face.
Mizaistom kept that mocking smile. "We're taking Moria with us. Can't let him become your little trophy—he might know a few things we need."
"See you next time, Chrollo."
Chrollo could only watch as they took his prize. The last speck of blue light vanished, leaving the Phantom Troupe alone on Thriller Bark amid the wreckage of battle.
After a long silence, Chrollo finally spoke, his voice ice-cold.
"Black Transmutation Dominion…"
"So they're…"
"Members of the God's Knights."