Staring at the two figures on the altar who were about to enter the kissing phase, Big Mom's eyes flashed with a brilliant light.
However, her gaze continuously drifted toward the magnificent wedding cake beside her; she was unquestionably enduring the onset of her Craving Sickness! As long as Sanji was eliminated and her forces successfully secured the Vinsmoke Family, she could finally indulge in the wedding cake she had craved for so long.
The psychological effects of her starvation parameters were truly anomalous. When the Craving Sickness gripped her system, her cognitive reasoning would degrade completely—and that was exactly what had happened.
Within that infinite, gray void, she had systematically unleashed her destructive output, frantically charging forward to locate an exit vector. When her efforts yielded zero mathematical results, a severe caloric deficit had set in. Realizing she might permanently miss out on her long-awaited wedding cake, Big Mom had slowly devolved into absolute frenzy.
The Craving Sickness!
Under those extreme restrictions of starvation and the anxiety of missing her grand event, the sickness had manifested. She had lost her cognitive identity, embarking on an endless cycle of random destruction and searching.
Ultimately, just as she neared absolute despair, her frantic output had warped the local environment, her screams echoing across the dimension. At that exact microsecond, the spatial fabric had fractured!
An egress portal had manifested before her, and her raw instincts told her the channel would map back to reality. Stepping through the breach, she had plummeted back into her domain. Clearly, her instincts were mathematically sound.
Although her consciousness remained heavily affected by the Craving Sickness, the primary objective was right before her eyes, and she had chosen to endure the strain for the moment. After all, it was a necessary sacrifice for the sake of her grand empire.
Yet, despite her lingering restraint, her physical frame subconsciously drifted closer and closer to the wedding cake, a thick stream of saliva dripping from her jaws. She had reached the absolute threshold of her endurance. Her gaze flicked relentlessly between the high altar and the confections, waiting for Pudding to fire the opening signal so she could begin her feast!
Up on the raised altar, the exact moment Sanji peeled back the bridal veil, his expression froze. "What beautiful eyes..."
"W-What are you talking about...?" Pudding's pupils shrank to pinpricks, her entire body locking up in sheer shock.
Fire! Pudding, what the hell are you doing? Why haven't you pulled the trigger!? Below the altar, the Charlotte siblings grew exceptionally anxious. Big Mom, her patience entirely exhausted, shot a sharp glare toward the homie master of ceremonies. The司仪 immediately processed the command, drawing a specialized pistol to execute the target himself.
He'll evade it! A flash of sharp crimson light erupted within Katakuri's eyes. Moving on sub-second reaction speeds, he flicked a jellybean from his fingers like a bullet.
However, Sanji's Observation Haki registered the threat trajectory perfectly. He shifted his weight backward to dodge the projectile, and the jellybean tore straight through the chest of the master of ceremonies instead.
BANG!
Simultaneously, the pistol clutched in the司仪's hand discharged randomly into the air.
An absolute silence fell over the venue, leaving the guests thoroughly startled. In that exact microsecond, Big Mom's elite children launched their synchronized offensive. Before the Vinsmoke Family could execute a single defensive maneuver, Perospero swung his candy cane staff, unleashing a massive wave of high-viscosity fluid that coated them entirely.
Perospero was the user of the Candy-Candy Fruit, a Candy Man capable of manifesting exceptionally sticky fluid that solidified instantly into hardened candy infrastructure. Carrying a bounty that reached the seven-hundred-million threshold, his raw power placed him firmly within the upper tiers of elite combatants.
Trapped within the solidified candy matrix, the members of the Vinsmoke Family were pinned instantly, stripped of all physical capability to resist.
"Move out!"
Right on cue with the gunshot, the hidden forces of the alliance initiated their deployment.
Seeing the Vinsmoke lineage completely neutralized in a single move, a cold, vicious smirk spread across Big Mom's face. She whipped around, her glare locking onto her highly anticipated wedding cake.
BOOM!
Just as her massive hand reached out to claim her prize, the colossal cake violently exploded from the inside out, spraying thick layers of frosting and confections across her frame.
"Kyaah!" "Ji-ji-ji!" "Mphf...!"
In that exact instant, countless identical clones of "Straw Hat Luffy" clad in brilliant red formal attire shot into the sky, bursting out of the ruined cake structure. Too many anomalous variables had converged within a single microsecond, leaving the guests entirely dumbfounded.
The only individual in the entire venue whose face remained devoid of shock was Katakuri. And, of course, the members of the joint alliance who had engineered the parameters of this very deployment.
"Straw Hat kid! LUFFY!" Big Mom shrieked at the sky, her eyes flushing a violent, catastrophic red.
She had spent the last several hours exerting immense internal restraint to suppress her hunger; now that her prized confection had been obliterated, her remaining sanity shattered completely. The full, unadulterated weight of her fury and her Craving Sickness erupted simultaneously.
"AAAAAAAGH!"
A visible, concussive shockwave of pure sound rent the upper atmosphere, rippling violently across the venue.
"Who the hell would be stupid enough to answer a prompt like that?" Bege muttered through the communication channel, his face an unreadable mask.
"I'm right here! BIG MOM!" A lone figure suddenly materialized atop the ruined cake base, standing perfectly straight as he continuously stuffed chunks of the freshly ruined wedding cake into his mouth.
It was Monkey D. Luffy!
Bege's jaw literally dropped in sheer shock. "H-He actually replied to her call... Is something fundamentally wrong with his brain?"
"Napoleon!" Her fury and frantic hunger completely overriding her cognitive restraint, Big Mom drew her colossal blade and unleashed a devastating downward slash straight toward Luffy's coordinates.
Jinbe and Bege felt their hearts stop. She's aiming to kill in a single strike!
"Armament: Hardening!" Luffy displayed zero hesitation. Blowing a massive surge of air into his arms to scale his dimensions, he drove his fists forward. "Gum-Gum Elephant Gun!"
BOOM!!
Fist met steel in a catastrophic collision that shook the very foundations of the chateau.
"Gah...!" Ultimately, Luffy's baseline power was overwhelmed by the Emperor's mass, and he was blasted backward through the air.
"Mamamama... Mamamama! A mere rookie actually calculates he possesses the leverage to defeat me!? Eh!?" Big Mom growled, her massive frame accelerating as she charged after his airborne trajectory.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Her strides shook the earth like rolling thunder as she raised her massive broadsword once more.
The high-profile guests at the venue scattered in a frantic panic. Getting caught in the crossfire of a conflict of this magnitude meant suffering a casualty rating that was entirely unacceptable.
"Luffy!" The members of the Straw Hat crew paled in unison.
"Not good!" Jinbe shifted his coordinates instantly, intercepting her path as his hands darkened into a polished finish. "Fish-Man Jujutsu: Buraikan!"
BANG!!
Jinbe successfully parried the concussive blow. However, within a fraction of a second, his legs began to give way, his heels carving deep trenches into the stone floor as he was pushed back. "Ugh..." The sheer physical strain was immense.
"Jinbe!" Big Mom's eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare, her arms exerting another massive surge of raw force.
BOOM!
Blasted backward by the feedback, Jinbe executed a smooth micro-maneuver to stabilize his posture, planting his feet firmly on the ground.
"Are you committing treason, Jinbe!?" Big Mom growled, her glare locking onto the fish-man. "I assumed you had abandoned your foolish notions of departing my fleet. What exact choice are you making right now?"
"As for me... I am officially resigning from the Big Mom Pirates to enlist as a core member of the Straw Hat crew!" Jinbe spoke calmly. He slowly lowered himself to one knee, produced an imperial sake cup from his robes, and set it smoothly onto the stone floor. "I am returning your pledge cup to you!"
"What!? The former Warlord, First Knight of the Sea Jinbe, is officially enlisting under the Straw Hat banner!? This is a monumental headline!" Morgans shrieked with pure ecstasy, frantically snapping photos with his den den mushi camera.
Coupled with his earlier shots of Big Mom's grand descent, this material possessed enough narrative leverage to construct an entry that would shake the global architecture! The previous report regarding Ace ascending to the tier of a Yonko had yielded spectacular engagement parameters, and now Luffy was delivering another massive variable.
Every single action executed by these Legendary Four Brothers triggered a world-altering shift in the era!
Morgans felt an uncontrollable surge of excitement rattling his frame; he wanted to personally author the chapters defining this chaotic, evolving era.
When the surrounding pirates and underworld tycoons finally processed the data, they stared at Jinbe in absolute, paralyzed shock. Jinbe drew himself up to his full height, puffing his chest out as his voice boomed across the summit:
"I am a man destined to enlist on the ship of the King of the Pirates! Why the hell should I harbor fear toward a mere Emperor of the Sea!?"