Shiki's threat didn't rattle Creed. Sure, the Golden Lion could drop Fish-Man Island—but Creed had the power to "catch" it.
The problem was stamina. He'd burned through a lot of it, so he wasn't fully confident. He needed to stall.
Shiki, though, read that intent and refused to give him even a heartbeat.
"I made a pact with Big Mom," Creed called out, voice steady. "Loser serves the winner. Why would I kill her?"
Zeus and Prometheus scooped the unconscious Big Mom away. Creed let them go.
He felt a flicker of relief. Good thing he'd resisted the temptation back then and let Ain take the Goro Goro no Mi (Rumble-Rumble Fruit); otherwise he'd be fearing seawater right now, just like Big Mom…
If he hadn't shattered that section of the Red Line, forced Big Mom into the sea, and then, at the moment of their full-power clash, secretly pulled seawater with the Ope Ope no Mi (Op-Op Fruit) to foul her footing—winning would've taken far longer, maybe at a terrifying cost.
"An SSSS-class Big Mom is already this hard to put down… what about the ones above her? SSSS+—Kaido, and the world's strongest man, Whitebeard?"
As the thought passed, Creed's eye caught Shiki arcing back toward Fish-Man Island, carrying Big Mom—and jolted him.
He became a lance of light and streaked after them with the Pika Pika no Mi (Glint-Glint Fruit).
Shiki going back could only mean one thing: he was after Shirahoshi.
Princess Shirahoshi—the Ancient Weapon Poseidon—appears once every eight centuries, able to command the Sea Kings. If Shiki took her and then teamed up with Big Mom, who in the New World could still match them?
Creed had to stop him.
Redfield flashed into a crimson streak and followed. One after the other, the two landed on Fish-Man Island.
By then, the island was chaos. Shiki was lunging for Shirahoshi, but Ain and Falkor blocked him. In moments, Ryugu Palace blazed with lightning and sword-light.
"U-uu—!"
Seeing her father and brothers cowed by Shiki's Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki), Shirahoshi wept like a rainstorm, lost and trembling.
Thankfully, Robin and Perona—out shopping earlier—had rushed back the instant the island shook. They flanked Shirahoshi, keeping Shiki's men at bay.
"Damn it! What a troublesome pet—and you! Did you eat the strongest of the Logias, the rumble fruit?" Shiki snarled as Creed and Redfield arrived.
He'd thought a sweep of Conqueror's Haki would flatten all opposition. He hadn't expected Ain and Falkor to be this strong, certainly not opponents he could finish in one or two moves. Instead, they were trading evenly with his elites.
"Down you go!"
Shiki gritted his teeth and cut the island's Fuwa Fuwa no Mi (Float-Float Fruit) lift. Fish-Man Island lurched and began to plummet.
Creed appeared before him in a flash—steel rang as their blades met.
He let the recoil hurl him backward, using the kickback to rocket off the island.
He knew the truth: Creed and Redfield together could keep him here. Better to abandon Shirahoshi and live to fight again.
The island fell. Two pirate ships rose into the air on shimmering lift and fled with Shiki—the Queen Mama Chanter and the Lion King.
A single, radiant cut from Creed chased the two ships—Shiki flashed into its path to block.
Steel howled. Shiki split the slash apart and laughed. "In ten-odd seconds, Fish-Man Island hits the sea. You still have time to duel me?"
Creed didn't answer. Rinne no Ken hummed in his hands—six luminous rings spun around the blade, colors brightening. After three, four seconds of stillness, he gripped the hilt in both hands and struck.
This cut was far beyond the last—vaster, crueler, regal and unstoppable—and it locked onto both the Queen Mama Chanter and the Lion King.
"Creed!"
Shiki roared up and kicked out twin crescent blades, meeting the slash head-on—Twin Slash Wave!
Impact blew sword-aura in sheets. Shiki skidded back, arms whirling his twin blades to shed the "leaking" edges of Creed's strike.
"So that's the slash that beat Big Mom… monstrous. My Twin Slash Wave can't even hold it…"
He swallowed and heaved both ships higher.
"Heh. Let's see you save Fish-Man Island now. Hand over Shirahoshi, and I'll keep the island safe."
Even as he taunted, the sixfold radiance gathered on Creed's sword again. Shiki's pupils shrank—he yanked both ships even higher and bailed.
"What a fiend! Why did I have to run into him!"
Rage boiled in him—and a bitter jab at Big Mom. Tch. A Four Emperor, can't even beat one Creed. What a disgrace.
He'd "accidentally" bumped into CP0, learned the truth of Shirahoshi from their tongues, and thought he could snatch the Ancient Weapon in a clean sweep. Now, with Creed ruining everything, the plan was in tatters. From here on, dreaming about stealing Poseidon again was just that—a dream.
Wind screamed as Fish-Man Island plunged. The island's rim shed rock and mud; millions of residents shrieked.
They knew: from such a height, even with the sea to "soften" the blow, the odds were nine deaths out of ten.
"I don't want to die! Somebody save us! I'll pay a hundred million belly!"
"Just let him take Princess Shirahoshi! He only said he'd take her as a disciple!"
"Argh! We're dead! Fate, fine—I'll say it: Smith, I slept with your wife!"
"…Whatever, Fred. We're all doomed anyway."
Under death's shadow, panic devoured reason.
"Redfield—protect the princess."
Redfield nodded. He planted the Rinne Sword into the ground; silver-white light rippled out. In a single second, Ryugu Palace—no, all of Fish-Man Island—was sheathed in black ice. The island's edges stopped crumbling.
At the very bottom, the ice condensed into a bed hundreds of meters thick.
Creed vanished.
A heartbeat later, he was on the sea's surface. Above him—more than a kilometer up—Fish-Man Island fell like a dark moon.
A tens-of-kilometers-wide island, dropped from ten thousand meters—worse than a titanic meteor. Even from a thousand meters out, the wind-pressure alone smashed the sea flat.
The force in it was colossal, beyond mortal strength to resist.
Even Creed wasn't sure—half his stamina gone—if he could safely stop it.
"ROOM: Takt (Telekinetic Lift)!"
Creed raised his right hand, thumb pinching his forefinger. A ROOM two kilometers wide bloomed into being. He flipped his hand and pointed straight upward.
"—Create!"
Fish-Man Island thundered down.
(End of Chapter)
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