"Teacher Zephyr, don't tell me this thing is a Devil Fruit user."
On the cliffside above the basin, Rorschach's body shrank, returning to human form. He stood beside Zephyr, looking up at the monster letting out a shrill scream.
It was a colossal, mountain-sized spider, covered in countless black hairs, at least eight hundred meters tall.
The black spider's face had a woman's face over a hundred meters high, and sixteen enormous eyes were arranged on its highly swollen abdomen.
Its eight segmented legs, covered in black thorns and barbs, were dug into the ground, resembling towering, arched bridges.
Most striking was the woman's face on the spider's head. Despite its frightening size, its beauty was arguably the most perfect Rorschach had seen among all women since coming to this world.
Its snow-white face possessed a natural allure, its captivating eyes fluttering beneath long eyelashes, now glistening with tears, making it appear even more pitiful and endearing.
Its delicate eyebrows were like a crescent moon, and its red lips were as vibrant as fire. Even as it cried out in pain, its voice was like a soft, lingering moan, making anyone who heard it feel weak all over.
Notably, it also had a third eye on its forehead.
This third eye, far from ruining the face's beauty, added an extra layer of mystery, making it even more attractive.
However, one could not look at any other part of its body beyond that captivating face.
Otherwise, its colossal, mountain-like size and monstrous appearance would surely scare one half to death.
At this moment, the giant human-faced spider's body had two gaping flesh wounds, dozens of meters in diameter.
Large quantities of blood, like a flood, gushed from these broken flesh cavities, cascading like a waterfall onto the ground, submerging weeds and rocks, and flowing towards where Rorschach and Zephyr stood.
Rorschach waved his hand, and invisible air formed an air wall in front of him, blocking the surging blood.
He frowned, looking at Zephyr beside him.
"Teacher Zephyr, what in the world is this thing?"
"Of course, it's a Devil Fruit user. Have you ever seen a giant beast that can talk?" Zephyr coughed a few times, pulled out a bottle of asthma medication from a compartment in his mechanical arm, poured a few pellets into his mouth, and chewed and swallowed them with a crunch.
"It's really a Devil Fruit user?"
Rorschach was somewhat dumbfounded.
The human-faced spider in front of him was the size of a medium-sized Sea King, and it was actually a Devil Fruit user.
Kaido's Azure Dragon form was only a few hundred meters long; compared to this creature, it wasn't even as big as one of its legs.
From Zephyr's tone, it seemed he knew this monster.
Glancing at Rorschach's dumbfounded expression, Zephyr sighed and shook his head, "I also never imagined this woman's body would grow so large. When I saw her back then, she was at most a tenth of her current size."
That's still big enough, isn't it?
Rorschach rolled his eyes, about to ask Zephyr what else he knew, when he saw the screaming woman's face stop. Its hundreds of meters long black segmented legs bent, and its hundred-meter-long beautiful face lowered, looking down at Zephyr with malicious eyes.
"Zephyr! You old ghost, you're such a heartless fellow. Was all that tenderness earlier just your disguise?"
Zephyr looked up at the human-faced spider's beautiful face and said solemnly, "No, I'm grateful to you, Rose. Thank you for giving me ten days to be with them. No matter what insidious purpose you had in extracting my memories and creating them, I still thank you."
"Thank you?" The woman's watery eyes widened, and she let out a sarcastic, eerie laugh, "Hehehehe, is this your gratitude? Disguising yourself as being completely under my control, bringing this Marine kid, and carving two holes in my body?"
As she let out her eerie laugh, the ground beneath her began to rumble and tremble, as if the entire island was shaking.
Rose?
Rorschach looked at the giant face above with some surprise.
This monster actually had such a beautiful name.
He looked at Zephyr again.
Zephyr, however, fell silent.
He had not been completely controlled by Rose's mental abilities.
The reason he stayed on this island for ten days was partly because Rose, based on his memories, had created his wife, son, and students, allowing him to see the faces of his longed-for loved ones after a long time. He truly, deeply missed them.
The other reason was that Zephyr wanted to rescue the residents of this island who were under Rose's mental control.
And with his current body, which suffered from occasional asthma attacks, he wasn't necessarily capable of properly resolving the island's problems.
One wrong move could lead to a large number of civilian casualties.
And that was not the outcome Zephyr wanted to see.
So, he played along, pretending to be mentally corrupted and controlled by Rose.
Zephyr knew that his disappearance would surely trigger a search by Marine Headquarters.
If he had gone missing, the rescue party would at least be Marine Admirals.
The moment the Headquarters forces landed on this island would be his time to act against Rose.
Zephyr had not expected that the one who came would be Rorschach.
He had initially thought it would be Kizaru or Aokiji.
However, this didn't affect his plan.
Rorschach's current strength was already quite impressive. Aside from some deficiencies in combat experience and technique, his physical prowess and Haki level were already approaching the threshold of an Admiral.
Laughing eerily a few times, Rose rotated her three shimmering eyes, looking at Rorschach. Her alluring red lips curved into a seductive arc, and a sweet, delicate voice echoed in Rorschach's ear, as if tickling his heart.
"Oh, so you're the Marine Rorschach that Doflamingo's smelly little brother asked me to kill? Hehehe~, what a handsome little brother. I can feel the immense physical power contained within you, mmph~, would you like to be my good little brother? Big sister will dote on you very much."
The words Rose spoke made Zephyr freeze.
Rorschach also froze.
"Wait."
Rorschach scratched his head and blinked, "You said Doflamingo asked you to kill me?"
"Oh dear~, did I let that slip? Hehe, well, it doesn't matter anyway. You're here now, in my dream kingdom, and you can't escape."
A blush appeared on Rose's face, making her seem somewhat shy, which Rorschach found rather disgusting.
However, he was angrier now.
Combining Rose's words with what Violet had said in Mock Town, Rorschach finally understood that Doflamingo's big move, the person he invited to deal with him, was not the Pirate Empress at all, but this woman with an unknown ability.
That bastard had set so many traps for him.
One Kaido was already absurd enough.
Now there was another one who clearly wasn't an easy opponent.
'Just you wait. When I go to the New World, I'll send you to meet Crocodile.'
Rorschach cursed inwardly.
It was never-ending.
Just as he was thinking, the ground beneath his feet began to rumble and tremble. Rose's face lifted high, and her three eyes on her face, along with the sixteen eyes arranged on her abdomen, all simultaneously looked at Rorschach.
The moment he was locked on by these nineteen eyes, Rorschach felt his mind being pried open by an invisible force, and his consciousness experienced a momentary daze.
This feeling was like being drowsy, wanting to sleep soundly.
"Don't fall asleep, or you'll enter her dream. Then, no matter how strong you are, she'll butcher you at will."
Zephyr shouted a warning.
Rorschach turned his head to him, also asking loudly, "Teacher Zephyr, quickly tell me the specifics about this guy. She doesn't seem easy to deal with. How did she get such a huge body? Could she be stronger than Kaido?"
"Not necessarily." Zephyr shook his head, looking at Rose, who was slowly pulling out a giant spider leg deeply embedded in the ground. He said solemnly, "This woman's name is Rose. She was a member of a certain great pirate crew from the old era that virtually ruled the entire New World..."
"No way? This woman was also part of the Rocks Pirates?" Rorschach was stunned.
Rocks, truly a producer of talent.
One Rocks Pirates, how many legendary great pirates did it cultivate?
Three of the Four Emperors of the New World were his legacy.
And there's that guy with a ship's rudder on his head, currently hiding somewhere unknown.
Oh, and Wang Zhi too.
Zephyr was a bit surprised, "You even know Rocks?"
"Grandpa Garp told me a bit."
"Oh, so it was Garp's big mouth who said it. I thought so. The name of that pirate crew is now a taboo, rarely mentioned. The higher-ups also specifically instructed us to keep information about it under wraps."
Zephyr continued, "Spider Mother Rose, a crew member of the Rocks Pirates, is a Devil Fruit user of the Spider-Spider Fruit, Mythical Zoan Jorogumo form. Her ability is somewhat similar to Tenzan's Nightmare ability; both can influence a person's mind through their dreams and subconscious. However, unlike Tenzan, Rose's Jorogumo form only needs to see you with her eyes to affect your subconscious, see your deepest memories, and use her ability to directly replicate and project the extracted memories into the real world. That's how those people you saw in the city, covered in a layer of spider silk, came to be."
"She can see your memories just by looking at you with her eyes?" Rorschach's eyes widened.
Is it that powerful?
This ability is even more terrifying than Red Earl's mind-reading.
But it seems Rose didn't replicate the person he missed most.
He wondered why.
"Not only that, the Jorogumo's Mythical Zoan ability, when applied to her, is several times stronger than when applied to others," Zephyr added.
Rorschach was confused, "Why?"
Zephyr raised a finger and pointed at the third eye on Rose's forehead, "Because she is not purely human, but from the Three-Eyed Tribe. The Three-Eyed Tribe's third eye has latent racial talent. Once awakened, it can not only understand ancient texts but also, like the Glare-Glare Fruit ability, see extremely distant scenes, and even penetrate people's hearts. This racial talent enhances her Mythical Zoan's ability to manipulate minds."
"Awakening their talent allows them to understand ancient texts? What kind of logic is that?" Rorschach didn't understand.
[Note: This isn't something I made up; it's Pudding's racial talent in the manga.]
"I don't know, Vegapunk said it might be a bloodline instinct etched into the lineage factor or something."
"Then aren't the Three-Eyed Tribe more impressive than the scholars of Ohara? They don't even need to study; they can understand ancient texts after their talent awakens."
"Indeed, that's why the Three-Eyed Tribe members are almost extinct now. Besides Charlotte Linlin having a daughter, this woman in front of us is probably the last remaining Three-Eyed Tribe member."
Zephyr's words left Rorschach speechless.
Indeed, with such an ability, the World Government would be impressive if they didn't eliminate you.
"Oh, right," Zephyr seemed to remember something and added, "I heard Rose was also Shiki the Golden Lion's woman."
"Golden Lion's woman?"
Rorschach's mouth hung open, looking at the human-faced spider over eight hundred meters tall. He thought, 'Golden Lion, you're quite a man. The size difference here is hundreds of times greater than the difference between Neptune and Otohime.'
"Cough, cough, don't think too much. This woman's true form is just an ordinary size. God knows what method she used to turn herself this big." Zephyr coughed. "Alright, it's time to act."
Both of them looked up at the sky and saw a thousand-meter-long spider leg, covered in barbs, raised high and directly stabbing down towards their location.
Its immense size alone created a massive, hair-raising whooshing sound from friction with the air.
As the column-like spider leg stabbed down with a rumble, the entire world seemed to be shaking.
With such terrifying size, Rorschach truly didn't know who could directly block that incoming super-giant spider leg.
"What are you standing around for? Quickly block that leg! Do you want everyone on the island to be shaken to death?"
Zephyr activated Geppo, ascending into the air, shouting at Rorschach.
Rorschach froze, pointing at his nose.
"Huh? Me? Block that leg? Teacher Zephyr, are you serious?"
"Nonsense! Or do you want me, this sick old man of nearly seventy, to take it? I'm your teacher, do you understand respect for your elders, you brat? Hurry up! I'll attack her body."
Having thrown out those words, Zephyr's speed soared, and he charged directly towards Rose's swollen, massive abdomen.
"I... I'll go, alright?"
Rorschach was on the verge of tears.
Was Zephyr treating him like Kaido?
"Roar!!"
A resounding roar shook the heavens and earth. Rorschach's body rapidly expanded in sections, inflating wildly as if being blown up.
The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch, and the surrounding air became chaotic like paste, transforming into a violent hurricane, howling across the land.
Azure scales covered the body of the sixty-meter-long divine Kirin. Its majestic, imposing dragon head roared to the sky.
Rumble!
The earth exploded, and the Kirin ascended with the wind. From its wide-open maw, lightning power, shining like the sun, rapidly gathered, and it unleashed a colossal pillar of thunder, as thick as an ancient towering tree, towards the giant spider leg stabbing down from the sky.
"500 Million Volts! Divine Judgment!"
Note: The original text includes a small author's note at the end explaining the inspiration for this chapter. I've translated it and included it here for context:
This original plot inspiration comes from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Spider and the Lion", combined with the Jorogumo (络新妇) spider yokai from Japanese mythology. By the way, the Five Elders Saturn's Ox-Demon form in the latest chapter is actually also a type of spider yokai from Japanese mythology.
(End of Chapter)
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