The graveyard had become a warzone.
The Vearth was torn apart, graves shattered into rubble, the fog ripped open by every swing of blade and club. Corpses poured from the soil in endless waves, their stitched limbs jerking, their jaws gnashing as hollow groans rolled like a funeral dirge across the battlefield.
But they did not meet silence.
Brogy's axe descended like a falling mountain, splitting the ground and scattering corpses by the dozens. The shockwave alone blasted a crater through the graveyard, gravestones toppling like children's toys. His laughter rolled through the mist, booming like thunder.
"GABABABABABABA! This is no army! This is mulch for Elbaf!"
Beside him, Dorry swung his massive sword in a great arc, cleaving through zombies and earth alike. The sheer force of his strike uprooted coffins, their rotted contents sent flying before being trampled underfoot. His laughter was wild, jubilant, as though every strike returned him to the battlefield of old.
"GEGYAGYAGYAGYA! The dead cannot frighten giants!"
And behind them, the Elbaf warriors they had brought roared as one.
Dozens of giants in armor of iron and bone advanced shoulder to shoulder, their weapons crashing down like hammers of judgment.
Every swing crushed hundreds of corpses, bones and flesh bursting under the sheer weight of their strength. Each step shook the battlefield, stamping shallow graves into pits of ruin.
The shadow army faltered under their might, but it did not stop. The graveyard itself seemed endless, the soil vomiting up more bodies, more puppets, more stitched abominations to throw themselves at the intruders.
Bullet bellowed with laughter as he met them head-on, his body a storm of iron. His fists split the air, each punch collapsing a zombie into gore, his voice wild as he challenged even the flood itself.
"COME ON! BRING MORE! IF THIS IS YOUR BEST, MORIA, THEN YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD!"
Kael stood nearer the center, the calm eye of the storm. His spear darted like lightning, precise thrusts piercing skull after skull, every movement efficient and without waste.
His expression was cold, but his voice carried steady across the chaos.
"Hold the line! Do not let the swarm push forward! Captain entrusted this ground to us we will not fail him!"
Gryphon swung his massive club in both hands, sweeping corpses aside like straw.
The giant's fury boiled in every strike, his roars echoing with vengeance for every day he had been chained.
Around them, the battle raged on. The clash of titans against the dead painted the graveyard with ruin, the air thick with smoke, blood, and the sickly stench of rot.
Above it all, Perona's laugh echoed faintly, her ghostly form drifting just beyond reach.
"You can fight all you want! The zombies will never stop! They'll keep coming until you're buried with them!"
Kael's eyes narrowed, his spear spinning once as he cut down another abomination.
His reply was cold, sharp."Then we'll bury them first."
And somewhere above within the castle's highest spire, their captain climbed closer to the throne of the one who commanded this nightmare.
---
The throne hall of Thriller Bark stretched like the gullet of a beast. Black banners draped from the ceiling, their fabric torn and rotting.
The walls crawled with shadow and a grotesque figure lounged upon the throne at the far end, his body swollen and stitched like a bloated corpse.
Gecko Moria.
His grin split wide, jagged teeth flashing in the dim firelight as his distorted voice bounced across the chamber.
"KISHISHISHI… So you've come, Magnus Delmar. The new demon of the seas. Did you think you could waltz into my kingdom and walk away alive?"
Magnus walked forward with steady steps. Shusui hummed faintly in his hand, arcs of black lightning crawling across its edge.The weight of his aura pressed down on the hall, every step dragging the shadows
themselves backward.
His voice was calm, yet it cracked the silence like thunder.
"Your kingdom is built on corpses and lies but Tonight, it falls."
The air snapped.
A wave of Conqueror's Haki exploded from Magnus, black and violet lightning ripping through the hall, shattering banners, cracking stone and forcing the shadows to writhe as if burning.
Moria's grin faltered for only an instant before he threw back his head and howled with laughter.
"Impressive! But you'll need more than lightning to take my throne. SHADOWS—ASGARD!"
The darkness surged. Every shadow in the chamber ripped free, swirling into a massive form. Corpses collapsed as their shadows were stolen and even the walls stretched, screaming as Moria devoured them all into his body.
His frame bulged, grotesque and titanic, swelling until he loomed like a nightmare giant of pitch-black flesh. His laughter shook the hall, his massive hands crashing down like avalanches.
"DIE WITH YOUR DREAMS, BOY!"
Magnus's eyes narrowed, unflinching. He raised Shusui, his grip tightening, his will crackling along the black steel. Advanced Conqueror's lightning surged down the blade, wreathing it in storm and shadow alike.
He stepped forward, cutting through the air with a voice like a war drum.
"Void Rend!"
Shusui carved a slash through the hall, its arc invisible for a heartbeat but then reality itself split apart. The throne cracked, the floor shattered into a gaping canyon, and Moria's massive arm was torn open, shadow bleeding like black flame.
The Warlord roared, his grin twisting into rage. He swung again, his giant fist tearing through walls and pillars as if they were paper.
Magnus moved. Lightning erupted beneath his feet as he surged upward, meeting the titanic shadow hand head-on. Shusui howled, black sparks flooding the air as steel and shadow collided.
The impact detonated like a cannon barrage, stone bursting outward in waves of ruin.
Moria howled, summoning hordes of shadow bats that swarmed in a storm, gnashing their fanged maws. They dived at Magnus in an endless tide.
Magnus raised his blade, his voice a low growl as he called the storm once more.
"Sovereign Rend!"
His swing split the swarm in two. A colossal wave of black lightning erupted outward, a crescent slash that carved through bats, walls and the very ceiling itself making castle tremble, light from the moon tearing through the wound in the roof as debris rained around them.
Moria staggered, his bloated frame shuddering under the storm. Still he roared, still he threw his swollen fists down like a god of shadows.
But Magnus's gaze was sharp, cold and unrelenting. Every swing of Shusui cleaved through the darkness, every surge of his haki made the very air scream.
The throne hall became an apocalypse of shadow and lightning, ruin crashing down with each exchange.
And at its heart, Magnus advanced step by step, carving his way through the nightmare.