At that moment, the very top of the city suddenly fell silent.
Just when everyone thought it wouldn't collapse, the stone wall suddenly shattered again!
A gigantic head thrust down from above — its bird-like beak as tall as two or three stories, slender forelimbs contrasting sharply with its massive hind legs.
The third-layer's leader, the "Awakened One (OC)", tore open the stone wall completely. Its body, even larger than the Giant Warrior's and comparable to the legendary demon Oz, came crashing down into the second-layer city, leveling entire districts into rubble.
"ROAR——!"
The Awakened One bellowed, rampaging like a colossal tank. Every building it trampled crumbled like tofu beneath its body.
The monsters that had gathered within the city sensed the crisis. They fled in panic.
Like a rising tide and then a retreating one, they poured in, then vanished. In less than thirty seconds, the city was emptied.
Then, beams of light shot out from the Awakened One's body, writhing like flexible threads.
One of them darted straight toward the Heart Pirates. It ignored everyone else, its tip aimed directly at Law.
"ROOM!" Law bent his fingers and swung down his long blade Kikoku. His "Surgery" activated!
Yet, the Awakened One's threads were not severed. Kikoku passed through them as if striking running water.
Law's expression darkened. It was too late to retreat.
Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo could only watch helplessly as the threads pierced through Law's chest.
"Law!" his crewmates cried out.
But the searing agony he expected never came. Law realized in shock — the Awakened One's threads, much like his "Surgery" powers, had not wounded him. Instead, they were draining something from inside his body.
His knees buckled. Already drained from using his powers, he now felt his strength vanish all at once. Dizziness consumed him, and he collapsed flat on his back.
The threads didn't stop there — they skewered the unconscious Crocodile, then caught the unprepared Buggy, Alvida, and Mikita.
Everyone except Crocodile felt their energy being siphoned away, leaving them weak-kneed, barely able to remain half-kneeling.
There was one thing they all had in common — they were Devil Fruit users!
The Awakened One suddenly withdrew its threads, its body swelling even larger.
Its golden eyes turned, finally locking onto Davy Jones.
In truth, what it sought were the two keys in Davy Jones' possession.
"You want these?" Davy Jones opened his palm, revealing a red key and a green key. "Then come and take them."
The Awakened One roared, raising its torso upright like a dinosaur, before charging forward with thunderous steps.
But in its path lay Law, collapsed on the ground, along with Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo.
Law struggled to rise, but his vision was dark, his body heavy as though starving and exhausted.
Through the ringing in his ears, he heard his crewmates' cries — and a thunderous sound that shook the very ground.
He lifted his gaze just in time to see the Awakened One's massive body lunge past him — one colossal hind leg stomping directly down on him.
Damn it!
Law tried to activate his powers, but he was too late.
Just then, Shachi's voice cut through the chaos.
Shachi gripped Law with both arms, yanking him with all his strength and flinging him clear of danger. But in doing so, Shachi himself was left beneath the Awakened One's descending foot.
BOOM!
A shockwave like a bomb blast hurled Law through the air.
But Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo weren't so lucky. Penguin and Bepo, caught dead-center beneath the Awakened One's stomp, had no time to escape.
Law rolled across the ground before coming to a stop. A terrible premonition gripped him as he turned his head.
The place he had just stood was nothing but ruins — a giant footprint embedded in shattered stone.
Staggering to his feet, Law's eyes widened at the mangled remains lying far off in the rubble. Childhood and adolescent traumas surged back in his mind.
Another tragedy. Another family lost.
How many times had he been forced to endure this?
Despair twisted his expression, soon giving way to uncontrollable rage.
Yet the Awakened One didn't even realize it had snuffed out three lives.
It barreled onward like a runaway train, charging straight at Davy Jones and his two keys.
BOOM——
The ground exploded as its gaping beak crashed down, shattering the spot where Davy Jones had stood.
But in the blink of an eye, Davy had teleported to its flank.
Its golden eyes tracked him, but its hulking body failed to catch up.
CRACK!
Davy Jones' Armament Haki smashed through its defenses, shattering the skull's outer shell and exposing its pale brain.
But the broken shell immediately began to heal.
It could regenerate!
The Awakened One groaned, but remained ferocious, snapping its beak at Davy again.
Yet before it could strike, the beak was caught and held back — crossed by Hachi's twin blades, Scythefand and Hanashu.
Using Hachi's shoulder as a foothold, Kuro leapt upward, sprinting across the beak with Soru. He launched himself past its bristling gray-blue fur, driving his Ten-Blade Claws straight into its eye.
SHHHT!
Blood gushed forth.
The Awakened One howled in agony, thrashing violently. It flung Hachi aside and slashed at Kuro with its claw.
But just before the claw could strike, its entire body froze — then collapsed with a thunderous crash. Its remaining golden eye dulled into lifeless gray.
Davy Jones had destroyed its brain at close range.
Kuro exhaled in relief.
Landing, he hurried to Hachi, finding the octopus fish-man battered but alive, only one leg injured.
Kuro helped him up. For the first time, he didn't recoil from touching Hachi's suction cups. Perhaps it was because of the oath he had sworn with Captain Davy Jones.
Or maybe… the revulsion was still there, just not as strong.
Just as they thought the battle was over — sudden upheaval struck again.
The Awakened One's mountain-sized body twitched, then was engulfed in radiant light.
In the next instant, it rose once more, standing proudly on four limbs, unleashing another thunderous roar!
"ROAR——!"
The Awakened One not only regenerated — it resurrected!
Its head and eye wounds vanished completely. Its power surged, stronger than before.
This was its one and only Awakening ability.
Its long tail feathers whipped around toward Kuro and Hachi, the wind shrieking as the plumes struck like steel whips.
CRASH!
But just then, a spiked iron club blocked the blow.
It was Alvida, wearing the Champion's Belt, her strength magnified. With sheer brute force, she had knocked aside the tail feathers!
But the recoil hurled her away, smashing her into the rubble.
The Awakened One shrieked and brought its massive claw down on her, driving her deep into a crater-like footprint.
It raised its claw to strike again—
—when a beam of light blasted it from the side, toppling its body.
It came from Buggy's History Stone. After unleashing the strike, it returned to its dormant, icy form.
As the Awakened One staggered, Mikita dropped from the sky, her 10,000 Kilogram Guillotine slamming down like an executioner's blade.
But the creature twisted at the last second, narrowly dodging.
Mikita's attack carved a crater into the ground. She snapped open her parasol and floated back into the air, waiting for another chance.
By now, enough time had passed since the Awakened One drained their strength. The Devil Fruit users were recovering and rejoining the fight.
Buggy flew to the pit where Alvida had fallen.
Expecting to see her mangled and broken, he steeled himself — only to find her merely battered, still alive.
"What?!"
How was that possible? She should have been crushed into paste — or at least crippled!
Buggy gaped in disbelief.
Alvida herself was just as surprised.
But she knew the reason. At the last moment, she had drawn upon the power of the Terror Ghost.
The Awakened One's strike had indeed injured her heavily.
Yet now her wounds were knitting shut, her body recovering rapidly. She could even sit up from the crater.
So this is the power of swearing an oath with Captain Davy Jones…?
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