Chapter 363 - 202

Chapter 202 RED (9): The Song Demon KingAppears and Luffy's Iron Fist Roars!Gordon's hands were trembling slightly as he handed a scroll wrapped in dark, almost black, unidentified leather to Uta."Uta... take this."Uta looked down. The moment her fingertips touched the leather, an indescribable, bone-chilling sensation, faintly carrying an eerie attraction, shot straight into her heart.Flowing across it were twisted, dark golden patterns that seemed to possess a life of their own.They slowly writhed and shifted of their own accord, combining into a... musical score that was difficult for ordinary people to comprehend, yet struck a chord deep within the soul."This is...?"Uta's pupils suddenly contracted. Her amethyst-like eyes reflected the flowing dark golden patterns, and a wave of intense dizziness washed over her.Her breathing involuntarily became rapid, and her hands holding the score began to tremble slightly.The score felt less like a dead object and more like a living, whispering abyss.[Sing it...]It was as if a magnetic, seductive voice was whispering directly inside her mind, teasing the most fundamental impulse she had as a diva.[Sing it... and you shall gain unparalleled power... Your singing voice will truly "create" everything...]The temptation was so strong, so perfectly aligned with her inner longing for a "perfect musical world," that her fingertips almost uncontrollably began to slide along those patterns. Her throat itched slightly, and her vocal cords were already producing a subtle, resonant tremor."This is the summoning score for the Song Demon King, Totem Gika!"Gordon's old, hoarse voice was like a basin of ice water dumped over her head in the dead of winter, instantly extinguishing the eerie desire that was about to ignite, leaving Uta cold from head to toe, as if her very marrow had been frozen.She snapped her head up to look at Gordon, her eyes filled with belated horror."It records the 'melodies' and 'rules' to directly communicate with and even summon the true body of the Demon King."Gordon's voice was as heavy as if he were reading an epitaph.He stepped forward, his eyes, clouded by age and obsession, now erupting with a scorching light as he stared fixedly at Uta.He reached out with thin, yet unusually strong hands, gripping Uta's shoulders tightly, his fingernails almost embedding themselves into her clothes."Uta, listen well, and remember every word I say!"Gordon's speech was extremely fast, yet every word was resonant and left no room for omission."Once Totem Gika is successfully summoned by you using this score, what descends will not just be its power, but its will—filled with twisted and devouring desires accumulated over countless ages!""It will immediately and most violently erode your soul, attempting to forcibly occupy your body and turn you into its 'vessel' and 'instrument' to operate perfectly in this world!"His fingers tightened, conveying not just strength, but a desperate plea and warning:"Once your consciousness is lost under the erosion of the Demon King, even for a single moment of relaxation, letting it take control... the situation will become irreversible!""You might become the Demon King's puppet, or perhaps even worse, become an accomplice in the Demon King's devouring of the real world!""All our plans, Luffy and the others' adventures, will all fall into the deepest abyss!"Gordon's eyes were bloodshot. He was an old man who had guarded a secret for eleven years and carried endless guilt, and now, as he bet everything, he showed the utmost seriousness and sincerity.Uta felt her heart pounding wildly, slamming against her ribcage, almost ready to burst out.Gordon's words were like heavy hammers, smashing her awake from the edge of that eerie temptation.The cold, the fear, and the weight of responsibility stacked up like shackles.However, when she caught a glimpse of Luffy not far away, lying on the ground with his consciousness deep in the Uta World; when she saw Rayleigh standing steadily with his sword...She took a deep, deep breath, as if to inhale all the fear and hesitation into her lungs, then slowly exhaled."Okay..."Uta's voice trembled, but it was exceptionally clear.She nodded firmly and heavily, raised her face to meet Gordon's anxious gaze, and forced a smile—a smile that was reluctant but resolute.In that smile, there was fear, but even more so, the courage to burn the bridges behind her."I understand, Gordon!"She said, enunciating every word, each syllable like an oath sworn with her soul."I will hold onto myself. For Elegia, for everyone... and for Luffy."Having said that, she hesitated no longer. Her gaze returned to the strangely writhing score in her hands.Her thin lips parted. It was no longer the ethereal, tentative melody from before, but a deep, obscure movement—a nightmare score where every note carried the power of ominous rules!Eerie tones flowed from her throat, and the surrounding air seemed to stagnate and twist in response.The sound was not loud, but it seemed to penetrate matter and reach some unspeakable dimension.The dark golden patterns on the score writhed madly, emitting a faint, ghostly light, creating a terrifying resonance with Uta's singing.The summoning had begun.And Uta's soul had officially stepped onto the most dangerous tightrope, a head-on clash with the Demon King's will.Centered on Uta, a huge, writhing inverted musical staff, seemingly composed of melted black musical notes, appeared on the ground.The surrounding ruins and rubble floated, defying gravity, buzzing and trembling in a deadly resonance with the silent summoning.Gordon stumbled back, clutching his chest. Even though he couldn't hear it, the pollution at the level of rules made his soul tremble....Meanwhile, in the Uta World!"Oh, finally here? That's quite a commotion!"Luffy was having fun poking a giant glass flower that made a "ding-dong" sound when suddenly, his eyes flashed with an eerie red light, and his expression gradually became serious.As soon as he finished speaking,The flowing river of musical notes froze in mid-air.The swaying cloud meadows became stiff as iron.The wind stopped, the sound ceased, and all was deathly silent.All colors rapidly faded, turned muddy, and blackened.Those floating, beautiful musical notes began to twist and stretch, turning into writhing pitch-black tentacles, emitting shrieks that no human ear could perceive, directly grating against the soul.The "Score Cloud" sky cracked and peeled away, revealing the bottomless void behind it, churning with chaotic color blocks.The entire world resounded with the ultimate dissonance, mixed with crazy laughter, desperate crying, and a kind of greedy, wet, sucking echo.It manifested from the center of the "Dissonance."It had no fixed form, looking like a monster constantly writhing and deforming, forcibly aggregated from musical corpses and the body of noise itself.About several dozen meters tall, it squatted in the center of the now black-and-white ruins of the Uta World, like a profane, living singularity of noise.— The Song Demon King, Totem Gika, descended here.The laws of the entire Uta World began to groan under the burden, on the verge of being completely rewritten with it as the center.Those remaining fragments of beautiful melodies were being rapidly polluted, covered, and devoured by the "dissonance" radiating from its body.Luffy looked up at this monster that defied all reason, his rubber fists slowly clenching, his knuckles popping.There was no smile on his face, nor fear, only a focused excitement and gravity when facing an unprecedented enemy."So you are..."Luffy grinned, revealing white teeth, his fighting spirit rising like fire."The noise bastard that messed up Uta and this country..."Countless "eyes" on the Demon King turned simultaneously toward this tiny human who radiated an astonishing "presence."In an instant, a more violent torrent of noise, enough to shatter a soul, rushed toward Luffy like a tangible wave of darkness!The battle, on the border between music and noise, was about to break out.Bang —!The dark wave of noise slammed into an invisible wall, exploding less than three meters from Luffy, turning into scattering, ink-like fragments of twisted sound waves.Luffy stood in place, not even a corner of his clothes moved. He just tilted his head, with an expression that said, "Is that it?""Your voice," he picked his ear, as if he had just been annoyed by a mosquito."Is so noisy, and —"He grinned, his smile filled with pure disgust.— It sounds terrible!!!"Before he finished speaking, Armament Hakispiraled and wrapped around him, emitting an aura as if facing an abyss."Sizzle, sizzle~"His rubber arm shot out like a cannonball, suddenly stretching!"Gum-Gum —!"His arm accumulated terrifying power as it extended, tearing through the air solidified by noise pollution, carrying Luffy's purest anger and fighting spirit, blasting straight toward the center of the Demon King's torso, which was composed of broken musical instruments!"Gatling!!!"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom —!!!In an instant, hundreds of fist shadows carrying black lightning, like a violent metal storm, smashed heavily onto the Demon King!Broken violins, horns, and cymbals exploded into finer powder under the heavy blows; dirty, tattered pages of the score were torn apart; those greasy ribbons of sound waves were shredded by the fierce wind of the punches.The Demon King's entire massive body shuddered violently, tilting backward, emitting an even more piercing shriek, as if countless pieces of glass were being scraped at once.However —Luffy's fists penetrated the "object," but it was like hitting a viscous, constantly regenerating swamp of noise.The broken parts did not disappear; instead, under the rapid convergence of the surrounding dissonance, they "reassembled" in a more twisted and gruesome way.Even those scattered noise fragments, in turn, acted like living parasites, attempting to erode and climb up along Luffy's rubber arm!"Tch! So smashing it isn't enough!"Luffy clicked his tongue, his arm snapped back, and at the same time, Conqueror's Haki instantly covered it, shaking off the stray black noise energy that had attached itself to him.His storm-like barrage seemed to have only caused "visual" damage, with minimal impact on the Demon King's core essence.Clearly, the time had not yet come!