Emperor Requiem

In the midst of her shock, a raging anger rose within Big Mom: "How long has it been since anyone dared to challenge me?!"

"Since you are looking for death, I will send you on your way!"

Bang!

Big Mom jumped up and broke through the cabin directly.

No more orders were needed.

The hat on her head, which was the homies named Napoleon, instantly turned into a long sword and was held in Big Mom's hand.

According to past experience, the next moment would be Big Mom swinging her sword, sweeping away all the weaklings in front of her.

Many newcomers who had entered the New World and faced her had been dealt with in this way, defeated with a single slash!

Everything was supposed to go as expected!

But her pupils suddenly contracted to the size of needle points the next moment!

"What is that?!"

"The sun?!"

"No, it's a compressed, ultra-dense energy source! If this thing detonates at this distance, my fleet..."

"What a joke!"

Big Mom instinctively raised her hand and swung her sword. But her action was a step slower after all. 

Before the sword strike could form or her Conqueror's Haki could gather, the energy ball exploded in mid-air... 

"Emperor Requiem!"

With a thunderous roar, the world suddenly fell silent.

The droplet, which resembled the sun, erupted. 

The earth's vitality, compressed to the extreme inside, instantly spread over a radius of several kilometers, nearly swallowing the entire harbor.

Boom!

The extreme heat evaporated the seawater and the blood and flesh of some pirates.

Big Mom, who took the full brunt of it, could only use Napoleon to shield her body, and in the next moment, she was completely covered.

Even with her monstrous physique, she felt as if she were being roasted alive!

Despite having endured attacks like Kaido's heat breath or the element-based assaults from the marine admirals, she had never been hurt. But this thing, upon first contact, had breached her defenses.

When the surrounding noise finally died down, the pirate ships docked in the harbor... 

No, it wasn't just the pirate ships. Even the entire harbor's buildings had been flattened, and the ground was covered in flowing lava.

The vast majority of the pirates from the Big Mom Pirates perished in this attack, including some of the desert ministers.

Even those who survived were in a dreadful state.

Many were charred, their flesh burned beyond recognition, and they were crying out in pain. 

With such injury, they were better off having died in the explosion!

"What on earth happened... Cough cough!"

Perospero pushed aside the candy that had protected him, only to feel that every breath he took felt like flames licking at his lungs.

His own skin was a deep red, severely burned.

But Perospero didn't care about anything else. With what little strength he had left, he made candy to form armor around himself.

This was the power of the Lick-Lick Fruit, which allowed him to create candy from nothing or transform objects into candy upon contact.

He then looked around.

Everything in sight had almost melted, the crimson lava flowing like rivers, entering the sea and creating massive steam.

"This... Was it caused by that thing just now?!"

"What a joke!"

"Even an Ancient Weapon shouldn't be capable of this level of destruction?!"

Perospero could hardly express his shock, but what followed was overwhelming anger and fear, especially when he heard the screams from around him!

With just one attack, the Big Mom Pirate's ships had been completely destroyed, and the losses in troops were countless.

"Mama!"

Perospero instinctively called out to Big Mom, the anger building up inside him needing to be released.

Even just by seeing that figure in the sky, he knew he wasn't a match for the opponent. To defeat such a monster, only an even more powerful monster could do so.

And his mother was that invincible monster.

When those self-proclaimed powerful newcomers had arrogantly walked up to Big Mom in the past, none had been able to withstand her deadly strikes.

The might of the four emperors was built on absolute strength!

No one could defeat his mother, absolutely no one!

Even after all these years, no enemy capable of injuring her had ever appeared.

As long as his mother was here, she could crush any foe that dared to challenge her.

Perospero and the others from the Big Mom Pirate almost fanatically believed this.

Perospero looked left and right, searching for Big Mom's figure, but his gaze froze the next moment:

"Mama... You..."

But what appeared in his sight was Big Mom, who was utterly disheveled.

She had been directly hit, taking most of the brunt of the Emperor Requiem.

Even Big Mom, who had never been injured, was seriously wounded when faced with the massive amount of energy concentrated and released by Gawain.

Her outer clothing had been burned to ashes by the previous explosion, revealing her bloated body, now bright red, her flesh distorted, and her once-pink hair burned to a crisp, leaving only a scorched scalp.

"How could he… actually hurt Mama to this extent?!"

Perospero could not describe the shock he was feeling at this moment.

As Big Mom's eldest son and one of the longest-serving ministers in the kingdom, Perospero had never seen Big Mom injured to this extent.

Even during the God Valley Incident over thirty years ago, a battle that had gathered many of the strongest in the world and nearly changed an era, Big Mom had never been wounded like this.

"A monster!"

 "That guy is definitely a monster, just like Mama, but who the hell is he? And why is he attacking us?!"

The few remaining survivors were just as confused while looking up.

They saw the red dragon in the sky shrinking, eventually transforming into a human figure with wings on its back.

The man had blond hair, handsome features, and a cold, murderous intent in his eyes, but he made everyone feel indescribably familiar.

It wasn't until someone gasped that everyone finally recognized the person, followed by an indescribable shock and... reverence.

"That guy is White Knight Gawain?!"

Perospero's eyes widened in disbelief: "White Knight Gawain? That scapegoat? How could that guy... How..."

His voice grew smaller and smaller until it was almost inaudible.

Why couldn't it be possible?!

That guy had defeated the former marine admiral to become a warlord of the sea.

This could only mean that he was stronger than the former marine admiral, but how much stronger, no one knew.

Was that battle a fierce, evenly matched life-and-death struggle, or was it a one-sided massacre?!

No one knew; Perospero didn't know either. All he knew was that his hands were trembling uncontrollably.

Without a moment's hesitation, he threw everything aside and turned to run, not even sparing a thought for his siblings, who were still struggling to survive.

He didn't see the despair in their eyes. 

"If... If it were Brother Katakuri, even if it meant risking his life, he would definitely save us!"

"Perospero, you're not even worthy to be compared to Brother Katakuri!"

"Hiss—!"

An ear-piercing sound suddenly came from the center of the explosion.

Big Mom slowly regained consciousness, her entire body writhing in excruciating pain, yet it only fueled a viciousness inside her that hadn't been awakened in a long time.

So close!

Just a little bit more!

If she hadn't blocked it in a timely manner using Napoleon and Prometheus, she would have already been dead!

The near-death experience made Big Mom tremble all over, and in contrast, her Conqueror's Haki began to rise more powerfully around her.

Strong, violent, fierce... 

The Conqueror Haki of an emperor at that moment became a tangible shockwave, dispersing the clouds in the sky.

The hair on the front of Gawain's head was even blown wildly.

"You still have the energy to move after taking a direct hit from me?"

"What the hell!"