The blizzard paused for a single beat.
Or rather, every single person was frozen by the bizarre scene unfolding before them.
Deep brown mire surged from the barren island's coast, rolling outward like a silent, ravenous sea. Baby 5's shell didn't detonate. It was swallowed. The powder, the casing, the force—all of it simply disappeared into the depths of that bog.
"What the hell is that?"
Buffalo's grin froze on his face.
In the next second, a massive hand forged from mud erupted from the ground and seized his ankle.
"Whoaaa!"
Buffalo spun his body frantically, trying to lift back into the air. But the mud hand was as heavy as a mountain. It wrenched him out of his spiral and dragged him toward the frozen earth.
Diamante's expression sank. He swung his sword at the mud hand.
*Clang!*
A silver-black blade was faster.
His sword was blocked dead.
Amid the blizzard, a woman with a dark red ponytail had materialized in front of the Polar Tang. Left hand clutching the blunt heavy blade Meteor Fall, right hand wielding the swift blade White Night. The metal disk behind her hovered in the air like a cold black moon.
Leonora swept a chilled gaze over the battlefield.
A boy beaten to the point of collapse. A damaged yellow submarine. A maid still pulling the trigger. A fat man spinning in the sky. And the man in the red cape who couldn't shut up about "the Boss."
She didn't know them.
But she had heard the exchange just now.
Law.
The Ope Ope no Mi.
The Donquixote Family.
Diamante's pupils constricted. He recognized this woman.
Eclipse Pirates Executive. With a bounty of six hundred and fifty million berries.
"Mad Chef" Leonora.
At the same moment, the mire surged violently upward.
Massive amounts of deep brown mud converged in midair, coalescing into a Mud Giant that towered over ten meters high. Its head faintly held the outline of a great white shark fishman, and its hollow mud vortexes radiated a chilling, murderous intent.
"Monster Shark... Shack."
Leaning against the hatch, Law lifted his head with visible difficulty.
He had just seen these faces in a recent news extra. Eclipse Pirates. The monstrous executives under the Fifth Emperor.
Why were they in the North Blue? Why here, at this barren island?
Leonora didn't offer an answer to anyone's questions. She just tilted her head slightly, as if listening.
She was, in fact, already beaming the scene back to the sky island ten thousand meters above, using Carina's telepathic network.
A moment later, Ace's voice sounded in the channel.
"Oh? So it really is Law."
Carina chimed in too, clearly a bit surprised. "Confirmed, Captain. Trafalgar Law, North Blue, Ope Ope no Mi user. I flagged his name for my listening coins a while back, but this guy hid incredibly deep. Hardly any solid intel ever surfaced."
Ace laughed. "Hiding from Doflamingo this long? Of course he's dug in deep."
Leonora's gaze shifted to the thoroughly exhausted Law. "Captain, how do we handle this?"
Ace's response was casual. "Save him."
"Ask him if he wants to come aboard."
"If he doesn't want to be a full crew member, he can fly the Eclipse flag as an affiliate captain."
"At the very least, keep the Ope Ope no Mi inside the Eclipse Pirates."
The channel fell silent for a moment.
Ace continued.
"He wants to kill Doflamingo, right?"
"Then tell him."
"I can give him the power to take that revenge."
"Haki, martial arts, the real capital to step onto the New World stage."
"As for Doflamingo's head, he can cut it off himself."
The corner of Leonora's mouth quirked upward. That sounded exactly like their captain.
She pressed again. "And these Donquixote Family executives?"
Ace's voice took on a hint of dark amusement. "Take them alive if you can. The Buki Buki no Mi, Guru Guru no Mi, Hira Hira no Mi... they all sound pretty interesting."
The Mud Giant let out a low, rumbling chuckle.
Shack understood.
Not kill. Capture alive.
Diamante couldn't hear their telepathic exchange, but he could read something deeply unsettling in Leonora and Shack's eyes. It wasn't hostility. It was more like they were appraising objects on a shelf.
"Are you Eclipse Pirates trying to start a war with the Donquixote Family?" Diamante asked, his voice cold.
Leonora looked at him as if he'd just said something utterly hilarious.
"A war?"
She slowly drew White Night, its silver-white blade gleaming with a chilling light through the blizzard.
"Are you even qualified?"
Diamante's face darkened completely. "Arrogant woman."
He swept his cloak aside and slammed his palm against the frozen ground.
"Army Banner!"
*Boom!*
The solid snowfield instantly rippled and softened like spread fabric. The heavy earth, turned into a massive flag by the Hira Hira no Mi, lost all its hardness. Layers of ice, rock, and frozen soil became undulating ground waves that surged straight at Leonora.
Leonora arched an eyebrow slightly. "Turning dead matter into a flag?"
A spark of interest lit in her gaze. "Not a bad ability."
She tapped her left foot lightly.
The power of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi rippled out through her boot and instantly seized control of the ground Diamante had already "flagged."
The ground wave charging at Leonora froze in midair.
And it wasn't just stopping. The entire swath of frozen soil, soft as cloth, was peeled away by a higher-level dominance over inanimate matter. The flagged earth lifted into the sky, like a torn rag clutched in the grip of an invisible giant.
Diamante's pupils shrank. "You can control the ground too?"
"Not the same," Leonora said flatly. "You just made it light, soft, and flag-like."
She raised her left hand, her five fingers slowly closing into a fist.
The massive rock flag floating overhead instantly twisted, folded, and compressed into several snarling, ferocious stone lions.
"I make it obey."
"Pouncing Lions: Ice-Rock Bind."
*Boom!*
The massive stone lions, fused from frozen soil, ice, and rock, dropped from the sky and lunged at Diamante. He brought his sword up to guard on pure combat instinct.
*Clang!*
The impact blew him away. His blade bent back, and his body crashed through massive chunks of glacier ice.
Elsewhere, Baby 5 transformed both arms into twin rotary cannons and opened fire on the Mud Giant.
"Weapon Morph: Gatling Maid!"
*Rat-tat-tat-tat!*
A hail of bullets tore through the blizzard and punched into the Mud Giant's torso.
But there was no blood. No wounds. The bullets vanished into the swamp like pebbles swallowed by a deep, dark pond.
Shack looked down at the bullet holes slowly sealing in his chest.
"So this is what being a Logia feels like."
He raised his colossal mud arms.
"Swamp Hell."
*Boom!*
The snowfield under Baby 5 collapsed instantly. A deep brown swamp vortex yawned open and swallowed her calves.
"What the?!"
She morphed into a missile, trying to ignite and fly out. But dozens of mud tentacles shot out of the mire, coiling tightly around her waist, her arms, and her cannon barrels.
"You're a Devil Fruit user too," Shack's voice rumbled from within the giant. "Then just stay put until we get you some Seastone."
"Fishman Jujitsu: Mud Sea Prison."
The mud snapped shut around her, forming a massive mud sphere that sealed her entire body inside, leaving only her head exposed and gasping for air.
"Baby 5!"
Buffalo screamed, spinning his body frantically to break free of the mud hand. Shack didn't even bother to glance at him. He just clenched his fist. The mud hand squeezed tight.
*Crack.*
Buffalo's rotation was forcefully broken. He slammed into the snow like a swatted fly.
"One left."
Riding floating chunks of debris, Leonora strode slowly toward Diamante, who was just climbing out of the glacier ruins.
Blood trickled from the corner of Diamante's mouth. That smug, exaggerated grin on his face had finally been wiped clean off.
He glanced at Baby 5 and Buffalo, trapped in the mire, then at Law, who was barely capable of putting up a fight anymore. For the first time, the urge to retreat swelled fiercely in his heart.
These weren't ordinary officers. These were true monsters, veterans who had actually survived battlefields against Admirals and the Five Elders.
Diamante whipped out dozens of confetti-like metal sheets.
"Death Stardust!"
Those light, paper-thin metal slips instantly regained their full weight in midair and came howling down like a storm, crashing toward Law and the Polar Tang. He was aiming to force Leonora onto the defensive.
A cold light flashed in Leonora's eyes.
"Shack."
"Got it."
The Mud Giant slammed both palms into the ground. Deep brown mire instantly surged upward around the Polar Tang, forming a thick, towering rampart of mud ocean. Every piece of metal stardust that touched the wall sank without a trace and was swallowed whole.
Law stared at the scene, utterly stunned.
He'd been sure his path ended here today. But these two Eclipse executives were crushing the Donquixote Family's top officers like they were swatting trash.
Leonora glanced back at him.
"Trafalgar Law."
"Our captain has a message."
"If you want revenge, you can come with us."
Law's pupils constricted slightly.
Leonora went on. "He can teach you the power you need to actually kill Doflamingo."
"To cut off Doflamingo's head, with your own two hands."
In the blizzard, Law tightened his grip on Kikoku and was silent for a long, long time.
Finally, he asked in a low voice, "Your captain... how does he know I want to kill Doflamingo?"
Leonora smiled.
"Because he's Portgas D. Ace."
"On these seas, whatever he wants to know, he finds out. Sooner or later."
Once she had spoken those words, she turned back to face Diamante.
"As for you."
"The captain said he wants you alive."
Diamante's face went white.
The next instant, silver-black sword light and a deep brown ocean of mud surged forward together. The blizzard of the North Blue was completely torn apart.
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