Big Mom Versus Gawain

Gawain gaze landed on Big Mom with a heavy expression: "This Conqueror's Haki, both in quality and intensity, is above mine. Even among the peak powerhouses, there's such a difference?!"

"That's right."

"Back then, Roger was able to suppress Big Mom and even took the poneglyph from her without suffering any harm."

"However, the gap isn't so wide that it's impossible to fight."

Gawain instinctively gripped the hilt of his sword, but his vision blurred the next moment.

He felt his body suddenly weaken.

The Emperor Requiem, which had flattened the Big Mom Pirate's fleet, had almost drained all of his stamina, and now he couldn't even maintain his Beast Form.

"Ugh!"

"I can't fight in this state now. I need to find a place to absorb a wave of earth's vitality first and restore myself to peak state first."

Gawain's gaze fell on Big Mom with an expression of unabashed wariness.

He knew Big Mom's defenses were formidable; after all, she was known as the iron balloon and had been in the business for decades without suffering much injury.

But he didn't expect her to be this strong.

Such massive earth's vitality hitting Big Mom had even burned her entire body.

For others, such injuries would almost certainly be fatal, even if they were saved. Yet at this moment, Big Mom still had the ability to fight back, and her Conqueror's Haki erupted with astonishing force!

While Homies like Prometheus and Napoleon had absorbed most of the damage earlier, Big Mom's ability to withstand this level of harm and still be able to fight back spoke volumes about her physical defense. 

In fact, Big Mom might just be the strongest person in the entire sea when it comes to raw physical resilience.

Even Kaido and the Lunarian race would have to step aside, and even Gawain, with his enhanced defenses from his awakened Battle Armor and the power of his Diamond Body, was far inferior.

"A normal human, even one from the Lunarian race, which was once considered god, can't do this. Is this woman... truly human?!"

"Or is she... a monster created by the World Government through some experimental race?"

"After all, the World Government has been up to all kinds of shady things over the years, and there are underworld forces conducting gigantism experiments."

"Caesar Clown's human gigantism experiments at Punk Hazard were funded by Donquixote Doflamingo."

"The symptoms exhibited by those modified children resemble Big Mom's hunger sickness quite a lot."

Gawain couldn't help but exclaim, but his pupils shrank in the next moment.

Big Mom, who was now coming to her senses, was filled with both shock and fear, to the point that she had completely lost her rationality. Her eyes no longer had pupils, just pure white sclera.

Only the desire to eliminate the threat in front of her, fueled by the pain, grew stronger and stronger!

Napoleon and Prometheus, her two Homies, had already dissipated in the previous explosion. 

The only homie she had left to use was the thundercloud Zeus.

These naturally occurring elements, created by Big Mom's Soul-Soul Fruit, were born from her own soul. She could separate her soul from her body and imbue it into non-living things, thus giving them self-awareness and the ability to control elements like a logia user.

At this moment, a mass of pitch-black thunderclouds emerged beside Big Mom, crackling with lightning. Under her control, it transformed into a massive sword wrapped in lightning.

This sword resembled Napoleon, but because of the crackling thunder surrounding it, it looked even more domineering.

"Hakoku Sovereignty!"

Big Mom roared, slashing with all her might, sending a pure white shockwave with crimson lightning, like a pillar of light that cut through everything in its path!

In that instant, even the lava flowing on the ground dimmed in comparison.

Big Mom's ultimate technique, passed down from the Elbaph, revealed its most terrifying fangs.

This attack came far quicker than Gawain had anticipated. In the blink of an eye, it was already upon him.

"Is it too late?!"

"I have no choice but to take it head-on!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Gawain drew the sword from his waist.

The Conqueror's Haki on his sword triggered the crimson lightning, and the Armament Haki enhanced his slash's power. The sword was further covered in a faint blue glow that symbolized Extreme Force!

At that moment, Gawain chose to exhaust his already limited stamina and face Big Mom head-on. 

In the end, the only way to find out who was stronger was to fight!

"Moonlight!"

A similarly domineering slash erupted from his sword, crashing directly into Big Mom's Hakoku Sovereignty mid-air.

Boom!

A deafening explosion followed.

The survivors from Big Mom Pirate in the harbor only felt a sharp pain in their ears before they couldn't hear anything at all.

But the ground beneath their feet kept trembling, and many places were torn apart by the shockwaves from Gawain and Big Mom's clash, leaving wide cracks several meters long.

They struggled to steady themselves, only to be blown away the next moment. 

All they could see was an endless, pure white light mixed with crimson lightning!

"What happened?!"

"What in the world happened?!"

Some people, unable to bear the intensity of the bright light, were momentarily blinded, only to be stunned to find that they couldn't make a sound no matter how hard they tried. 

All that reached their ears was the maddening sound of a buzzing like cicadas.

It was then they realized it wasn't that they couldn't make a sound but that their eardrums had been shattered by the impact.

In the distance, Perospero, who had abandoned his younger siblings and fled to a safe area, stared blankly at the scene before him.

The shockwaves lifted his hair, revealing his pale complexion.

"What kind of monster have I provoked?!"

Lava flowed across the ground, steam rose from the air, and the surroundings should have been suffocatingly hot, almost to the point of making it hard to breathe.

But at this moment, Perospero only felt an overwhelming coldness.

White Knight Gawain really has the power to compete with his mother on the same level!

The scene before him made him begin to doubt his blind trust in Big Mom, and his heart was filled with fear.

If... if that guy knew that he was the one behind all of this, that he was the one who made him take the fall for everything... he... would be finished!

And if White Knight Gawain was willing to lower his head, his mother would forget everything that happened today!

After all, Big Mom had once said that she was interested in that kid's blood, even hoping to have a child stronger than Katakuri with him. At that point, would there still be a place for him in Whole Cake Island?!

"Mama, don't let that guy go!"

"He must..."

He was halfway through his sentence when Perospero's voice suddenly cut off, his face turning red like a rooster having its throat squeezed.

The sky was clear and cloudless; the waves rolled back and crashed onto the beach of the harbor, merging with the flowing lava and producing a screeching sound.

Where was Gawain's figure?!

"Did Mama succeed?!"

Perospero muttered to himself but immediately rejected his own thoughts.

That kind of guy... 

A guy who could wipe out the Big Mom Pirate fleet with one blow and still have the energy to trade blows with his mother's ultimate attack, how could he possibly be so easily defeated?!

"Wait... If that kind of attack is repeatable, then doesn't that guy himself become a walking Ancient Weapon?!"

"He even has the power to rival Mama in direct combat!"

"A monster, an absolute monster!"

"If we let this guy into the New World, it could spark a storm beyond anyone's expectations!"

"I..."

Perospero opened his mouth, only to feel his mind go blank.

Just then, several cries from the distance woke him from his stupor.

"Mama!"

"Mom lost consciousness again! Her hunger pangs have kicked in!"

"Damn it, where's Katakuri?!"

"Ah!"

A painful scream echoed, and Perospero once again witnessed the scene that made his scalp crawl.