Rorschach looked at the human-faced spider rapidly bouncing towards him, a little astonished.
The human face growing on the spider's back was, surprisingly, Enel's face.
Thick lightning bolts shot from the human-faced spider, causing the deep blue Haki covering Rorschach's body to flicker, but they couldn't penetrate it.
In fact, even if Rorschach didn't use Armament Haki for defense, the lightning power on Enel, which wasn't mixed with Armament Haki, couldn't harm him at all.
On the contrary, it would even recharge some of his electricity.
However, to prevent the 'big sister' Rose, under his foot, from launching any surprise attacks, Rorschach kept his barrier-like Haki armor activated throughout.
Stepping on the shattered, scorched flesh beneath his feet, Rorschach approached the bouncing Enel human-faced spider. Ignoring the flashing lightning, he reached out and lifted the three-meter-long spider.
Enel's eyes were hollow and vacant, looking no different from the old man earlier.
Only the degree of numbness seemed not as deep.
Rorschach poked his face, "Hey, hey! Enel, wake up! How did you end up like this? Hey!"
Enel didn't react, still stubbornly shooting lightning at Rorschach.
It's over.
Rorschach's lips curled up, and he unceremoniously slapped Enel's face. The Haki-infused slap instantly knocked Enel unconscious.
Waving his hand to summon a swirling mass of air, Rorschach bound Enel, then kicked him hundreds of meters away, sending him flying into the distance.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Just as he kicked Enel away, a dense swarm of human-faced spiders sprang at him again. Rorschach waved his hand as before, swirling the air into invisible chains, locking all the pouncing human-faced spiders and pulling them high into the sky.
He held the lightning-flashing Heavenly Dragon Halberd in his right hand and stepped onto Rose's gigantic face, which subtly revealed a hint of panic. The corners of his mouth curved into a slight smile.
"Since earlier, I've been wondering why you're willing to endure injuries just to maintain this enormous beast form, instead of returning to human form to fight us."
He rested the sharp tip of the Heavenly Dragon Halberd on the surface of Rose's black Haki-covered skin, looking at the three giant spider legs stabbing down from above his head.
"The scene of you releasing these small spiders, and that insect I encountered earlier, both made me think of the concept of parasitism. Combined with the fact that this island doesn't appear on our Marine navigation charts, I have reason to suspect that the country you reside in might itself be a mobile island. Or rather, a super-giant Sea King whose body size is comparable to an island."
"And you, Animal-type Devil Fruit users who resemble insects, particularly like to use this characteristic of parasitism to acquire power that doesn't belong to you. So, is there a possibility..." Rorschach looked at Rose's other spider legs, which were still plunged deep into the earth and hadn't been pulled out, "that the reason your body is so large, the reason you've always maintained your beast form without transforming into a human, and the reason you can control this super-giant Sea King beneath our feet, is because you've parasitized its body?"
"Shut up!" Rose shrieked.
The howling spider legs struck heavily. Rorschach lightly stepped, and wind and thunder flashed around his body as he leaped over a hundred meters to the side.
The next moment, three mountain-like spider legs simultaneously pierced Rose's own forehead.
The immense impact caused her colossal body to slump downwards, crashing onto the ground below.
The force of a thousand-meter-tall body crashing down was no different from a mountain collapsing.
The ground within several kilometers below was smashed, shattered, and collapsed.
As the ground violently shattered, an astonishing scene unfolded.
From the fissures in the cracked ground below, endless blood gushed out like a fountain.
And with the shattering of this land and the gushing blood, the entire island, the entire Bug Kingdom, began to tremble violently.
The island, dozens of kilometers in radius, shook violently on the sea of the Calm Belt. The agitated seawater caused the sea within hundreds of kilometers to ripple, drawing out Sea Kings that came out to feed at night, which surfaced in confusion, looking around.
At the same time, the waves caused by this massive vibration also spread to more distant places.
Hundreds of miles away on the sea, Aokiji, standing at the bow of a large warship, subtly moved his brow. He looked at the undulating seawater below, then up towards the dark distance, muttering, "Is it there? The anomaly Rorschach mentioned."
Not long ago, Rorschach contacted Marine Headquarters, informing them of the Kirin Go warship's loss of contact and roughly stating his location.
Upon receiving the confirmed news, Sengoku did not delay. He immediately contacted Aokiji, instructing him to head towards the Calm Belt.
The mysterious disappearance of the Bug Kingdom's land also made these high-ranking Marines consider the possibility of a mobile island.
After all, some creatures in this world are indeed large enough to rival islands.
For example, Zou the Elephant, the carnivorous island of Boin Archipelago, and giant island turtles.
These creatures are even larger than the five-thousand-meter-long super-large Sea Kings in the deep sea.
Due to their immense size, making movement difficult, and their long lifespans, after thousands of years, the submerged backs of these creatures are very likely to have been occupied by humans or other beings, forming a town or even a country.
The only thing that puzzled Sengoku and the others was how the people of the Bug Kingdom controlled it to leave the Red Line if it truly was a super-giant creature floating on the water.
"You sail forward along the waves, and at the same time, contact Headquarters to report the situation here. I'll go ahead and check it out."
Aokiji turned and instructed, then jumped directly from the bow.
The moment his body touched the water below, a small path of ice appeared on the sea, rapidly extending into the distance.
Aokiji's body then shattered, turning into ice crystals, and merged into the rapidly extending ice path. Using this quickly expanding route, he moved swiftly into the dark depths ahead, at a speed far exceeding that of a warship.
On the land of the Bug Kingdom, Rose's forehead had been pierced by three of her own legs, creating a shattered bloody hole.
The gushing blood stained her flawless face crimson, making her appear extremely monstrous and terrifying.
The immense impact had nearly given her brain a concussion. At this moment, her three eyes were blank and lifeless. She didn't even react when Zephyr individually blasted her sixteen large eyes on her abdomen.
After a while, when the light in Rose's three eyes on her face re-coalesced, she felt a piercing pain from her forehead and couldn't help but groan in agony.
She couldn't see Rorschach standing on her head, but her Observation Haki could sense that Rorschach was currently holding the hilt of the Heavenly Dragon Halberd, having plunged the entire battle-halberd deep into her skull.
"Now, I think we can talk properly, Sister Rose." Rorschach sat down calmly, ignoring the gigantic spider legs hanging overhead like inverted mountains.
Rose's three long legs suddenly hovered a dozen meters above Rorschach's head. Feeling the terrifying energy fluctuations that threatened to explode in her brain at any moment, Rose gritted her teeth unwillingly, squeezing out a few words, "What do you want?"
"What do I want? Release the ability you've inflicted on these innocent people. You've harmed so many people by yourself. Do you think your conscience can live with that?"
"Conscience? Hahaha, hahahaha."
Rose seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. Her maniacal laughter erupted from her vivid red lips, echoing throughout the basin.
"Conscience? You Marines dare to talk to me about conscience? It's disgusting." The expression in Rose's three eyes was icy cold, her tone chilling, "Back at God Valley, those disgusting Celestial Dragons gathered us, the different races, in that bloody and cruel gladiatorial arena, forcing dozens of races and thousands of innocent people to slaughter each other, just to satisfy their desires. Did they have a conscience?"
"Hmm? God Valley?" Rorschach's expression shifted, his eyes brightening. He seemed to have heard something incredible.
That's right, this creature beneath him was a member of the Rocks Pirates; she should have also participated in the God Valley incident.
It was not surprising that she knew about that war, the truth of which the World Government had deliberately buried.
Rose's eyes were filled with intense hatred as she glared at the dark sky.
"What were you Marines doing then? Weren't you helping those pigs, jointly harming all the races of this sea?
This even included your own humans!
Because those pigs didn't consider themselves human at all; they thought they were gods.
In the eyes of gods, all living beings are mere pigs and livestock. Marine brat, don't talk big about conscience to me.
If you Marines had such a thing, you wouldn't have stopped Captain Rocks from slaughtering those pigs back then.
Hehehehe, do you know? That day was truly the happiest day of my life, because I saw those high-and-mighty gods struggling and crying at Rocks' feet, their flesh and blood crushed into dust by Rocks!"
"Shut up! Rose!"
Zephyr's deep voice sounded. He walked onto Rose's head, dragging his mechanical arm, which was stained with viscous blood.
"Why should I shut up? Are you not allowed to speak about the disgusting things you Marines do?" Rose shrieked sharply, no longer possessing her previous allure.
"What damn Marine Hero Garp, and what damn Pirate King Roger!
They talk about upholding the order of the sea, yet they turn around and protect those beasts who treat the world as their plaything!
Rocks was slaughtering gods, saving this world, and yet you treated him as a devil.
And that brainless idiot Shiki, who knows what he saw in Roger, that hypocrite. Not only did he not kill him to avenge Rocks, he even allowed himself to be imprisoned in Impel Down for Roger! What a waste!"
As Rose spoke, she began to writhe her enormous body, seemingly attempting to pull her remaining four legs from deep within the earth. The three giant spider legs suspended above also stabbed down again.
"The Celestial Dragons treat billions of people like pigs, raising and slaughtering them, and you Marines turn a blind eye. I merely enslaved tens of thousands of trash, and you Marines come demanding I have a conscience. It truly disgusts me!"
"Rorschach!" Zephyr shouted loudly.
Rorschach held the hilt of the Heavenly Dragon Halberd, sitting there with a frown.
Rose's words had touched him somewhat.
He truly wanted to know what happened at God Valley back then, and he also wanted to know the story of Rocks and the Rocks Pirates.
"But by doing this, aren't you becoming as disgusting as those pigs yourself?"
The words that came from Rorschach's mouth not only made Zephyr's body tremble but also caused the enraged and deranged Rose to freeze, her violent struggling coming to a halt.
Zephyr looked at Rorschach's unmoving figure, recalling the incident at Sabaody Archipelago. The expression in his eyes became somewhat complex.
Indeed? The truth of that matter was...
A terrifying surge of lightning energy erupted from within Rorschach's body, flowing through the Heavenly Dragon Halberd in his hand, and releasing into Rose's brain.
The lightning, intertwined with vast amounts of deep blue Haki, exploded within Rose's mountain-sized skull.
Boom!
Flesh and blood were penetrated, torn, and scorched into charcoal from the inside out.
"Arghhhh!" Rose let out an agonizing shriek. Her colossal body trembled violently, causing the ground beneath her to rumble and shake incessantly.
Terrifying energy ruthlessly destroyed her body from within, unstoppable.
Fizzzzzzzz!
Violent electric light emanated from Rose's body, spreading and surging across her mountain-sized form, illuminating the world.
The rampant lightning was rapidly draining her incredibly vigorous and immense life force.
Seemingly sensing Rose's life rapidly fading towards death, the island below, floating in the Calm Belt, began to tremble violently.
The coastal reefs dramatically rose, and millions of tons of seawater cascaded down from them with a whooshing sound, forming enormous waterfalls.
The entire Bug Kingdom vibrated and hummed.
If one were to look from a distance, they would be horrified to discover that the rocky outcrops along the coast of this colossal island were not reefs at all, but countless sharp spines protruding from enormous segmented legs.
This colossal island, dozens of kilometers in radius, was actually a spider!
A super-giant water spider, several times larger than a super-large Sea King.
The entire Bug Kingdom was built on the spacious back of this water spider.
As Rose approached death, this giant monster, freed from her parasitic control, gained its freedom.
It first shook its body, trying to dislodge the heavy land it carried on its back.
Upon realizing that the land on its back seemed rooted and could not be shaken off, the colossal creature began to submerge into the deep sea of the Calm Belt.
Its terrifying size meant that a single leg was larger than the surrounding Sea Kings.
Just one act of submerging triggered waves of surging tsunamis, swatting away the Sea Kings that had come to investigate.
Billions of tons of seawater roared outwards in all directions, and the deafening crash broke the tranquility of the Calm Belt.
"Oh no! The island is sinking!" Zephyr's face changed drastically as he stood on Rose's back, seeing the seawater continuously pouring onto the island.
Rorschach pulled out the Heavenly Dragon Halberd and looked down, meeting Rose's widened three eyes.
He dispersed the thick Armament Haki covering his body. Rose's third eye suddenly brightened, as if seeing something. Her painful howling gradually stopped, and she stared unblinkingly at Rorschach, then suddenly smiled.
"Heheheh, so that's it? Hahaha, it's all a dream after all."
"Rorschach, you won't become a Marine Hero. Heheheh, you will become Rocks. I've already seen it..."
Rose laughed maniacally, her three eyes slowly closing. The last light faded from her eyes.
From her mouth, the last words of her life were uttered.
It was a name.
"Shiki... where are you?"
(End of Chapter)
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