Meanwhile, on Whole Cake Island, inside the central kitchen.
Chiffon and Pudding were shoved and watched by a crowd of brothers and sisters as they stumbled into the kitchen where the wedding cake was being stored.
These people had originally been holding back the urge to capture Chiffon, but the current situation allowed no rash moves.
After all, they still needed Chiffon's skills to stop Mama.
The kitchen was already a wreck.
Broken pots, bowls, and utensils were scattered across the floor.
The half-finished cake that had been close to completion had been smashed to pieces, sticky cream mixed with crumbs smeared across every inch of the ground.
According to the few chefs who had luckily escaped disaster, the kitchen had been attacked by unknown intruders not long ago, and the head chef had been badly injured.
All they remembered was their vision suddenly going dark, then losing consciousness.
When they woke up, the cake they had spent so long preparing had already been completely destroyed.
After hearing what happened, Chiffon did not hesitate for even a second. She immediately rolled up her sleeves and directed the remaining chefs to start again.
Capone Bege stood guard at the kitchen entrance, his expression as dark as water.
The moment he learned that Chiffon had decided to risk everything and remake the cake, he released Law and all the Heart Pirates who had been hidden inside his body, ordering them to leave immediately and search for Cain.
Bege's plan had always been clear.
As long as they stabilized Big Mom and rescued Cain and Uta, he would immediately take Chiffon and escape this island.
The farce of this banquet had already collapsed completely.
His original goal had been achieved.
Now, his only thought was to keep his promise and take Chiffon away from this place that had caused her so much suffering.
Watching Chiffon's back as she busied herself amid the wreckage, Bege clenched his fists tightly.
The restless fire surging in his chest had nowhere to go. He could not help with baking at all, and he was afraid that stepping in carelessly would only cause trouble.
No matter how strong he was, at this moment, he was trapped in deep frustration.
Chiffon sensed Bege's gaze, but she did not dare look back at him.
They had only known each other for seven short days, yet this man's figure had already carved itself firmly into her heart.
At this life-or-death moment, any words felt too pale, leaving Chiffon unable to give him an answer.
One hour passed in the blink of an eye.
Everyone gave everything they had, but they had only barely stacked up a four-meter-tall cake base.
"Miss Chiffon, we won't make it!"
The baker beside her was drenched in sweat, his voice filled with uncontrollable terror.
"Fish-Man Island's secret syrup alone takes more than an hour to boil, and cooling it takes another ten minutes! Most of the ingredients were destroyed too! A cake of this height will never fill Mama's stomach. We're all dead!"
"Make as much as we can. Don't stop!"
Chiffon's hands did not stop moving as she spoke urgently.
"If we stop now, that's when we're truly dead."
Just then, a deafening crash suddenly exploded.
The entire building shook violently, and broken bricks and stones rained from the ceiling. Luckily, Chiffon reacted quickly and kept them from falling onto the cake.
Everyone looked up.
A fist larger than an adult's entire body instantly punched through the thick kitchen wall.
Beyond the hole, Big Mom's drooling face, twisted by her extreme appetite, appeared.
She stared fixedly at the unfinished cake base inside the room, and a beast-like growl rolled from her throat.
"Cake… my cake…"
Bege reacted extremely quickly.
He rushed forward in one step and shielded Chiffon behind him, shouting urgently, "HOW DID SHE GET HERE?! WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE PEOPLE DOING?!"
After Big Mom's craving fit fully erupted, the surging hunger instantly crushed the last shred of reason in her mind.
All that remained was the most primitive, obsessive instinct to eat.
Relying on her remaining impression of the cake, she dragged her heavy body forward and charged madly toward the central kitchen without stopping for even a moment.
Even though Katakuri had led many of their brothers and sisters to set up defensive lines to block her, in that brutal hour-long battle, the berserk Big Mom's strength had only grown more violent.
With Napoleon, Zeus, and Prometheus protecting her at full power and clearing the way like mad, every layer of obstruction was eventually torn apart by force.
In the end, she had still reached this place.
On the open ground outside the kitchen, Katakuri, who had rushed over, led the others in attacking once more.
Katakuri slammed both of his palms onto the ground.
In an instant, the hard ground turned into a sticky mochi swamp.
Dozens of giant mochi hands wrapped in Armament Haki burst from the earth, locking tightly around Big Mom's limbs and waist, trying with all their strength to drag her underground.
Perospero followed immediately, slamming his candy cane heavily against the ground.
Thick, hardened candy syrup instantly covered Big Mom's entire body, firmly reinforcing her against the ground.
"WE CAN'T HOLD HER!"
Perospero shouted anxiously, watching dense cracks crawl across the surface of the candy.
"MAMA WILL BREAK FREE IN A MINUTE AT MOST! HURRY AND HAVE MONT-D'OR USE THE BOOK-BOOK FRUIT TO CREATE AN ILLUSION AND TRAP MAMA INSIDE A BOOK! I KNOW IT WON'T HOLD FOR LONG, BUT IT CAN STILL BUY US SOME TIME!"
But before Katakuri could speak, they heard a shout from the distance.
Smoothie was rushing over from far away, carrying the unconscious Mont-d'Or over her shoulder as she shouted.
"MONT-D'OR TOOK A DIRECT HIT FROM MAMA JUST NOW! WE CAN'T WAKE HIM UP AT ALL!"
Katakuri's pupils suddenly shrank.
At that moment, the giant mochi hands wrapped around Big Mom began to tear apart under the strain.
...
Inside the kitchen, Bege saw everything clearly.
He looked at Big Mom, who was about to break free, then glanced back at Chiffon, who was still racing against time to fix the cake base.
The last trace of hesitation in his eyes disappeared completely.
He turned around and released every subordinate inside his body, ordering them to protect Chiffon with their lives.
Then he took off the top hat on his head and tossed it to one of his men beside him before tearing open his suit jacket.
Muffled sounds of bricks colliding echoed from within his body as castle patterns quickly spread across his entire frame.
Katakuri's Observation Haki instantly caught Bege's intention.
He suddenly turned and roared, "CAPONE BEGE! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?! YOU CAN'T WITHSTAND THAT LEVEL OF ATTACK!"
Bege did not turn around, but the corner of his mouth lifted into a faint smile.
"At a time like this, it's a man's turn to step up."
The moment his words fell, he rushed straight forward into Big Mom's crazed roar.
One second before Big Mom completely broke free, Bege suddenly opened the castle gates on his chest.
In nearly the blink of an eye, he forcefully sucked the berserk Big Mom, along with Zeus and Prometheus in midair, into his body.
"BEGE!"
Chiffon noticed what Bege had done and shouted in panic,
"HURRY AND LET MAMA OUT! YOUR BODY WON'T BE ABLE TO TAKE IT!"
The instant he swallowed Big Mom inside, Bege's body began shaking violently.
Countless fine bloody cracks burst open beneath his skin, and blood kept dripping from his chin and the edges of his clothes.
The bricks on the surface of his body continuously bulged outward and caved inward.
That was Big Mom inside him, launching mad, indiscriminate attacks.
His legs turned into heavy steel treads, forcibly withstanding the overwhelming pain and impact.
With great difficulty, he turned his head toward Chiffon as she rushed toward him.
His face was covered in blood, but he still forced out a smile.
"Chiffon."
His voice trembled from extreme pain, yet every word was perfectly clear.
"Don't come over."
Another heavy blow landed inside his body.
Bege suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, but his gaze grew even more determined.
"From the moment I decided to come back here with you, I had already made up my mind. I, Capone Bege, have lived in the mafia and fought my way through the New World. There's plenty of blood on my hands. In my life, I've only ever calculated bargaining chips. I've never feared anything."
His treads slowly turned.
Though his body kept twitching, his tone gradually steadied.
"Until I met you. In these seven days I've known you, I saw the way your eyes lit up when you looked at cake. I saw how terrified you were, yet you still gritted your teeth and stood forward. That was when I understood. In this world, there are some things more important than territory, treasure, even my life. Now, I finally have something I'm afraid of. What I fear most… is losing you."
Chiffon froze in place, tears sliding down her cheeks uncontrollably.
She had just taken a step forward when Bege sternly stopped her.
"Keep making your cake."
His voice carried an authority that allowed no argument.
"As long as I'm here, she won't touch you. Even if I have to throw away this life, I'll buy you enough time!"
"NO! BEGE! PLEASE!"
Chiffon cried out heartbreakingly and tried to rush forward, but Bege's subordinates held her firmly in place.
Bege looked at her tear-streaked face, and his voice softened, hiding a tenderness he had never shown in his life.
"Chiffon, there's actually something I've always wanted to say to you…"
"I've fallen for you."
Amid the intense pain, Bege suddenly turned his head and looked toward Katakuri not far away.
His eyes were bloodshot, but they carried a calmness born from staking everything on one final gamble.
"KATAKURI! YOU'RE THE ONLY PERSON HERE WHOSE WORDS CARRY WEIGHT, AND YOU KEEP YOUR PROMISES, RIGHT?"
Katakuri froze for a moment, the mochi afterimages behind him still surging violently.
He answered in a low voice, "What are you trying to say?"
"I'LL TAKE BIG MOM AWAY AND BUY YOU TIME!"
Bege gritted his teeth as blood continuously overflowed between them.
"IN EXCHANGE, YOU MUST GUARANTEE THAT AFTERWARD, YOU WON'T MAKE THINGS DIFFICULT FOR CHIFFON! GIVE HER FREEDOM AND LET HER LEAVE THIS ISLAND SAFELY!"
Katakuri looked at this man covered in bloody cracks, yet still standing like an iron tower.
After half a second of silence, he nodded heavily.
"Fine. I promise you. In the name of a Sweet Commander, no one will stop her."
With that answer, Bege finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He turned to look at Chiffon, who was already crying so hard she could barely stand.
His gaze instantly became incredibly gentle, yet it carried an irreparable regret.
"Chiffon, I'm sorry. I said I would personally take you away from here. Looks like I'm going to break that promise."
"NO! BEGE!"
Chiffon desperately shook her head, her fingers digging tightly into the worktable in front of her.
"Don't cry."
Bege tugged at the corner of his mouth, trying hard to form a proper smile.
"With Katakuri's promise, you can leave safely on your own. I can only walk with you this far. The road after this… you'll have to walk it alone. Remember, live the life you want."
He looked at the tearful Chiffon, his eyes filled with apology, yet also with a trace of relief.
"What a shame. I wish I'd met you sooner. I really wanted to taste a cake made by your own hands."
As soon as he finished speaking, Bege suddenly started his treads.
The roar of his engine shook the sky.
Carrying Big Mom's mountain-shattering attacks inside his body, he suddenly turned and charged resolutely toward the wasteland far away from the kitchen.
Everyone froze in place.
That blood-soaked figure crushed two deep tread marks into the ground before finally vanishing into the dust filling the air.
Pudding quickly stepped forward to support Chiffon, her eyes red.
She wanted to say something, but no words came out from her mouth.
'So this… was love?'
'For one person, he could even stop caring about life and death…'
One minute later, a muffled explosion came from the distance.
Immediately afterward, Big Mom's enraged roar echoed across all of Whole Cake Island.
"BEGE!"
Chiffon screamed with all her strength toward the direction where he had disappeared, her tears falling onto the flour-covered floor and spreading into mottled stains.
At this moment, she could no longer hold herself together.
The words that had been buried deep inside her heart finally tore free with her heartbreaking sobs.
"BEGE! I LIKE YOU TOO!"
"I'VE LIVED ON THIS ISLAND FOR SO MANY YEARS, AND ALL I EVER RECEIVED WAS DISGUST AND HATRED. NO ONE EVER ASKED IF I WAS AFRAID. NO ONE EVER PUT MY SAFETY FIRST. ONLY YOU. ONLY YOU WORRIED THAT I WOULD GET HURT! I…"
Hearing this, Katakuri subconsciously raised a hand and covered his forehead.
He looked at the brothers and sisters beside him, all of them watching coldly from the side, and deep shame flashed through his eyes.
"DID YOU HEAR ME, BEGE?! YOU CAN'T DIE!"
Chiffon's voice had grown hoarse from crying, but she still shouted with all her strength.
"I STILL HAVEN'T PROPERLY SAID THESE WORDS TO YOU! I STILL HAVEN'T LEFT THIS PLACE WITH YOU! I STILL HAVEN'T LET YOU EAT EVEN ONE BITE OF MY BEST CAKE!"