Hathaway's Observation Haki had been honed to its absolute limit. Though her opponent's ability was strange and invisible, it could not escape her Haki. After cutting down Aberdeen, she pivoted sharply in place, spinning with blinding speed before slashing behind her.
A hiss split the air as her blade passed cleanly through Colson's body, cutting straight through without drawing a drop of blood. Hathaway hadn't even used Armament Haki in that strike—few could withstand her sword anyway.
"Logia?" she muttered, frowning. Raising her Sunblade, crimson light flared as Armament Haki coated the edge. With a mighty swing, she unleashed her Infernal Slash, cleaving Colson in two.
But from the ground behind her, another Colson silently rose, wearing a confident smile. His presence was perfectly masked—even Hathaway hadn't sensed him.
The decoy had worked. It was a tactic he had used countless times as an assassin, slaying targets far stronger than himself. This would be no exception.
Blame your captain, he thought coldly, for spreading such dangerous ideas that even Lord Raymond found unsettling. What a waste of such an angelic face.
He lunged. The poisoned dagger in his hand was meant to pierce Hathaway's heart from behind—but only grazed her left side instead.
"What? Impossible! I erased every trace of my presence—how did she notice?" Colson froze in disbelief. A moment later, a terrifying wave of killing intent crashed over him like a storm.
Conqueror's Haki.
Damn!
"Riot Slash!" Hathaway's voice was cold as she glanced at her darkening wound. Her expression remained unchanged. The assassin's strength was formidable, and his ability was clearly not ordinary.
This didn't feel like a typical Logia user.
With a single motion, she unleashed a storm of slashes that shredded Colson into fragments—yet again, no blood, only shattered illusions.
"You may have dodged my strike," Colson's voice echoed, "but the poison will eat away at you slowly. And your attacks are useless. I'm the Logia-type user of the Image-Image Fruit. Everything you see is just my manifested reflections. Unless you find my true body, your Haki means nothing."
All around her, dozens—then hundreds—of Colsons emerged from thin air like mirages.
"Heartbeat, breath, aura—all identical," Hathaway murmured as her eyes swept the crowd. There was no way to distinguish them—or perhaps, they were all real to some extent, each capable of attack.
"Die." Though poisoned, Hathaway's tone was calm and detached, like a fallen angel untouched by mortal emotion. A crimson mist radiated from her as her entire body began to glow scarlet.
Her skin reddened, halting the poison's spread. Swinging her Sunblade in a full 360-degree arc, she spun three times rapidly. Three circular waves of sword energy expanded outward at different heights.
Boom!
The triple rings of sword energy erupted in all directions, obliterating the battlefield. Countless Colsons shattered like torn photographs, their fragments scattering in the air.
"The real one isn't among them… and each copy's power and number of attacks seem limited. Which means—the strongest one will be the real body," Hathaway concluded, her instincts sharpening.
"As expected of a woman worth 790 million," Colson said coldly. "You're not easy prey. But who said I can only copy myself? Anything captured in a photograph becomes mine to reproduce. Weapons, blades, cannons—you name it. Costly and limited, yes, but more than enough to deal with you."
New Colsons emerged from the walls, each carrying photographs—some of swords, others of firearms, many of famed blades and powerful guns.
In an instant, Hathaway was surrounded by an entire army.
Gunfire erupted—
Booming cannon blasts shook the ground—
Blades of air streaked toward her like a storm.
Hathaway deflected or shattered every attack with breathtaking precision, her movements like a deadly dance in hellfire.
"What a magnificent figure and swordsmanship," Colson mocked. "But how long can you last? My army is endless." He drew more photographs.
Despite her skill, the relentless barrage began to draw shallow wounds across Hathaway's body—proof of Colson's bizarre and formidable power.
"Annoying." Her voice thundered as she released a pulse of Conqueror's Haki. The shockwave rippled outward, and among the countless copies, one Colson flinched back instinctively.
"Found you. Infernal Slash!"
She swung, releasing a devastating wave of sword energy that tore through the ground toward the true Colson.
"Image Shift!" he gasped. So quickly discovered—but he was a Logia. Though not a destructive element user, his mastery of the Image power was absolute after decades of refinement.
His body split into two projections, narrowly dodging the Haki-infused strike before melting back into the ground to hide among his clones.
Boom!
Hathaway crouched, then launched herself skyward. "No matter which copy you hide in, activating your ability means you're within range. That's all I need."
"Solar Wheel—Crimson Radiance!"
All the scarlet aura from her body was absorbed into her blade. Then, at impossible speed, she struck six hundred and sixty-six times in a single instant.
A deafening hum filled the air as hundreds of crimson, Haki-laced blades of energy rained down, engulfing everything within five hundred meters.
"Damn it!" Colson cursed as the massive attack consumed the battlefield. He hadn't expected her power to be this overwhelming—he had badly underestimated her.
Explosions rippled across the land like a storm of missiles. When the smoke cleared, everything around them had been leveled to the ground.
Hathaway landed lightly, her senses sweeping the silence. No presence remained. "He escaped."
This place was no longer safe. If Duke Raymond had already ordered her assassination, it meant his plans were in motion. Her surveillance mission was complete.
Her Observation Haki detected waves of soldiers approaching from all sides—clearly meant to wear her down as cannon fodder.
With Colson's peculiar Logia ability, staying would only invite more trouble, and though she had suppressed the poison, she was still mortal flesh beneath the modifications.
But if she chose to leave—no one could stop her. She made a mental note of this debt and resolved to warn the others about this ability user.
"I must report to Lord Raymond," Colson said nearby, a shallow cut on his chest. "Crocodile's power far exceeds expectations. Thrilling, isn't it? To think someone like her might die by my hand—it would be glorious."
He intended to let the soldiers exhaust Hathaway. His ambush had failed—he hadn't expected her to resist such potent poison.
But Hathaway wouldn't wait to be surrounded. With a few swift leaps, her figure blurred and vanished into the distance.
(End of Chapter)