Amazon Lily, Kuja City.

The high mountains surrounded the entire city like a fortress, so much so that the recent intense bombardment by the Marines hadn’t caused any obvious damage to the city.

Atop the high mountains surrounding the city, female warriors dressed lightly with snakes coiled around them held their weapons.

They gazed vigilantly at the figure gradually flying closer in the distant sky, silently tightening their grip on the bows and arrows in their hands.

And at the same time…

“Is that guy the guest you’re waiting to see this time?”

At the entrance of Kuja City, a tall, exceptionally beautiful woman wearing a cheongsam was leaning against a giant snake.

Needless to say.

The one possessing this peerless beauty could naturally only be the globally recognized ‘World’s Most Beautiful Woman’—’Pirate Empress’ Boa Hancock.

She watched that gradually approaching figure, her voice proud and cold.

“Mm, if my guess is correct.”

Beside her, a man with completely white hair and beard, wearing glasses, and a scar over his right eye smiled and nodded.

He was none other than ‘Dark King’ Silvers Rayleigh.

“Yes—Snake Princess, if nothing unexpected happens, that person should be a member of that organization!”

Beside Rayleigh, a short old woman holding a snake staff took the opportunity to speak up hurriedly.

She was Gloriosa, the Empress of Amazon Lily from three generations past, and also a former member of the Rocks Pirates.

Of course, she had long abdicated and now lived in the village under the name ‘Elder Nyon’.

“You’ve seen it too, right? The Marines’ recent attacks… this is just the first wave; the invasions will be endless from now on.”

“Even with Rayleigh’s help, things will become more and more troublesome. If we attract an ‘Admiral’, things will be out of hand.”

“So quickly tell the warriors to withdraw their hostility and retreat back into the city!”

She advised earnestly.

“Ha?”

But hearing her words, Hancock just glanced at her and sneered.

“Old hag, what are you talking about?”

She pointed at Elder Nyon: “The warriors chose to step forward to protect me because they were worried about me. It wasn’t an order from me.”

“Moreover, it’s just the Marines—even without Rayleigh, I could annihilate them all right here!”

Saying this, she proudly raised her head.

“After all, I am so beautiful and strong.”

“Yes, yes!”

At this moment, even Gloriosa, who was being insulted by her, couldn’t help but have pink hearts popping out of her eyes.

However, as a former Kuja Empress, she quickly reacted, snapping out of Hancock’s beauty, and hurriedly said: “No… I didn’t mean that. I was talking about that ‘Prophecy’.”

Her expression became solemn.

“You know it too—that is a great prophecy related to a ‘Change’ that will happen to this country’s future. You absolutely must not act recklessly!”

She said in a deep voice.

“Hmph!”

But Hancock clearly didn’t listen.

She just snorted coldly: “Things like prophecies, I have never fully believed in them—I won’t entrust everything to a guy of unknown background just because of something like that.”

As she spoke, she proudly raised her head again, looking at that figure in the sky.

“Men are not allowed to step foot on Kuja Island—Rayleigh is my savior and can be an exception, but other men cannot.”

She was the Empress of the Kuja.

Even though she knew the prophecy Elder Nyon spoke of had considerable accuracy.

But just as she said, as Empress, she would not gamble her own and her country’s fate on a guy of unknown background.

On this point, even her savior ‘Rayleigh’, even the former Kuja Empresses ‘Shakky’ and ‘Elder Nyon’, could not persuade her.

She said coldly: “Unless he can prove to me that he is a true ‘Strongman’ who can defy the rules.”

Kuja Island worshipped the strong, believing ‘Strength is Beauty’.

She was the Empress of Kuja Island, and also the strongest of the Kuja.

If the newcomer truly was as the prophecy foretold, bringing change to Kuja Island—

Then she must personally confirm that he was ‘Strong’ enough.

“You… your stubbornness will cause the country’s destruction!”

Thus, Elder Nyon nearly stomped her feet in anger.

But Hancock didn’t care at all, just slowly standing up from the giant snake behind her: “So what?”

“Even if it causes the country’s destruction, the citizens will forgive me…”

She lifted her leg and took a step forward.

“After all, I… am truly too beautiful!”

The next moment—

Zzt!

Intense Conqueror’s Haki instantly permeated from her body.

And the target of that Conqueror’s Haki was exactly… that flying ‘Sword God’.

At the same time—

VMMM!

An invisible pink domain also spread out around her, with her at the center, in this moment.

So the next moment, whether it was the vigilant warriors around, the stomping Elder Nyon, or the vegetation and even falling leaves, all were ‘Petrified’ in an instant.

[Love-Love Fruit · Fruit Awakening · Mero Mero Domain — Can petrify any ‘creatures’ and ‘objects’ within the nearby area whose charm value is lower than one’s own]

Meanwhile, Rayleigh, watching this scene, didn’t change his smile in the slightest.

Knowing Hancock as well as he did, he had clearly already guessed she would do this.

And he had no intention of stopping her—because he had already seen that there was no killing intent in Hancock’s strike; it was merely a test.

Even now, he cast an expectant gaze toward that figure in the sky.

Then—

“Oh?”

He let out a somewhat surprised voice: “It’s actually to this extent?”

And at this time—

“!!!”

Hancock had similarly noticed it.

The Fruit Awakening she activated had clearly already spread to the vicinity of where the Sword God was.

But…

“No petrification!?”

Hancock was horrified to find that his body was not petrified.

Or to be exact—his body indeed showed a brief tendency of petrification for a moment.

But only in the next instant—

Zzt! Zzt!

Accompanying the continuous emergence of black-red Conqueror’s lightning.

The petrification effect, which hadn’t even had time to spread across his body, was instantly ‘erased’.

At the same time—

BOOM!

Hancock’s Conqueror’s Haki also collided with his Conqueror’s Haki.

Then—

“…”

Hancock’s face instantly turned pale.

She pursed her cherry lips, gritting her teeth tightly.

Because in this instant, she clearly sensed it—her Conqueror’s Haki was suppressed.

If her Conqueror’s Haki was an unrestrained snake wandering in a river—

Then his Conqueror’s Haki was a dragon soaring in the sky, churning the four seas.

That spirit on a completely different level caused her Conqueror’s Haki to be crushed to pieces almost in an instant.

And the next moment—

Clang!

She heard the sound of a sword being drawn.

She instinctively raised her head, and then saw the Sword God, wrapped in intense Conqueror’s Haki and flying over from the sky, had already raised the sword in his hand.

On the blade’s edge, the black steel flowed.

“Shimotsuki Style · Falling Dragon!”

The next moment—

BOOM!

The blade slashed down, and the figure plummeted along with the slash, his posture like a dragon!

And in this instant, Hancock’s expression changed even more.

“Perfume Femur!”

She instinctively wrapped Armament Haki around her body, lifting her leg, intending to meet his strike.

But—

“That’s enough, Hancock.”

Her action was stopped in the next moment.

She heard Rayleigh’s voice in her ear: “Conqueror’s Infusion pushed to its absolute extreme, combined with a physique tempered through countless trials to far surpass human limits—the combination of the two can resist and even completely obliterate Fruit effects… The fact that he can do this should be enough for you to confirm his strength.”

“If you attack again, it won’t be a ‘test’, but a true ‘provocation’.”

Hancock clearly also heard the surprise and slight excitement in Rayleigh’s words.

“Let me talk to him next.”

As the words fell—

Rayleigh’s figure leaped out.

And in his hand, a sword was already held.

“Higan Bato! (Other Shore Blade)”

He raised his hand, and an equally intense Conqueror’s Haki accompanied the sword’s edge toward the Black Blade.

The next moment—

BOOM!

The edges of their swords crashed violently in the sky above Amazon Lily.

Thus—

Zzt!

The entire Kuja Island suddenly began to tremble violently.

The rock walls at the edge of the island, already fragile due to the previous naval battle with the Marines, began to peel off and fall into the sea.

Black-red Conqueror’s lightning collided continuously, splitting open the cloud layers in the sky.

The sea surface within the Calm Belt, which should have been still, also suddenly surged violently.

Massive waves formed out of thin air, causing the Marine warships stationed outside Amazon Lily to rock continuously before being swept away by huge tsunamis.

“It’s started!”

“The Dark King and the Sword God… are actually really fighting!”

“That swordsman actually has the strength to fight the Dark King?”

“Report this to Headquarters immediately!”

“As expected… halt the attack on Amazon Lily according to plan first. We’ll talk after their outcome is decided!”

Panicked voices rang out continuously from the Marine warships.

And right now—

In the sky, the figures of Rayleigh and the Sword God collided.

The long swords in their hands were locked in a stalemate, trembling slightly.

“Hoh…”

And at this moment, the gentle smile Rayleigh had worn while observing had vanished.

In its place, his eyes shone with sharpness and admiration.

“Truly amazing. Not just the Haki, but this physique too… I almost thought I was wrestling with a giant!”

His hands were trembling.

Yes—in the contest of strength, he had actually fallen to a disadvantage.

“You’re not bad yourself.”

And at this moment, the Sword God finally spoke his first words since appearing.

“As expected of the Pirate King’s right hand—after so many years, you actually still have this level of strength?”

“I can’t anymore.”

Hearing this, a smile also appeared on Rayleigh’s lips: “I’m old. I can’t keep up with the waves of the era anymore… It’s time to retire.”

“I don’t think so—you appearing here doesn’t look like someone who wants to retire.”

The Sword God spoke thus.

But as he spoke, he also sensed a trace of strangeness—because right now, although Rayleigh erupted with intense Haki to confront him…

He could clearly sense it.

There was no malice in the Dark King’s sword.

“Hahaha!”

And the truth was exactly so.

At this moment, after hearing this, Rayleigh actually let out a few loud laughs instead.

“It is exactly because I am going to retire that I appeared here.”

“As an old man from the previous era, there are always some things I can’t let go of, and I should always leave something for the new era.”

“The last time your people came looking for me, I happened to not be in Sabaody—by the time Shakky told me, you had already left.”

“So this time, I took the initiative to come here and wait for you.”

He said so.

And hearing this, the Sword God’s gaze also seemed to narrow.

Last time, Sabaody—those two words were already enough for him to hear the meaning in Rayleigh’s words.

“You…”

But before he had time to speak—

Rayleigh’s words had already corroborated his guess.

“‘Sword God’, you are a member of The Zodiac, aren’t you?”

☆☆☆

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