Katakuri's Last Thought

Compared to twenty years ago, Shiki has aged a lot.

His face was wrinkled, with noticeable age spots, but the Conqueror's Haki emanating from him remained unchanged.

Even as time passed and his body declined, Shiki was still the king who once ruled the skies.

"Linlin's son?"

"It seems that I am lucky. White Knight Gawain is indeed used as your scapegoat. I guess Pluton's clues are also in your hands?"

"Surrender or die!"

Shiki's rebellious voice echoed as the sea roiled and the waves grew fiercer.

The waves alone were already a hundred meters high, and the entire ocean was under this man's control.

Only his mother could rival this guy!

It only took Katakuri a moment to realize this.

He is very strong.

But after all, there is an insurmountable gap between him and these powerful people who call the wind and rain on the sea.

That is not something that can be made up by the accumulation of time.

Talent, character, and fighting spirit may have different degrees of emphasis on each other due to personal reasons, but none of them can be missing.

Even Big Mom, who is extremely talented and unprecedented, has experienced countless battles and fought against countless strong men.

"Flampe, retreat!"

"With our strength, we can't compete with that guy!"

"How could it be?"

Flampe said in disbelief: "Even brother Katakuri..."

This was the first time that Flampe saw her brother retreat without fighting, so her face was full of astonishment, and she even fell into stagnation for a while.

But the pirates on the ship had already reacted first; the sails were raised, and the whistling sea wind caused them to swell and deform, with the mast creaking.

Whoosh!

The speed of the Big Mom Pirate ship suddenly increased and reached the upper limit of the ship's tolerance in a few seconds.

If an opponent could make even Katakuri lose the will to fight, it could only mean that the opponent's power far exceeded their expectations. This was someone of the same level as Big Mom.

Run!

The farther, the better!

This was the only thought on everyone's mind at this time, but the next moment, an inexplicable sense of weightlessness made them choke on their breath.

"What's going on? Are we so fast?!"

"What happened?!"

"Our ship is floating?!"

While everyone was at a loss, Flampe, standing on the deck, stared blankly at the sea in front of her.

She knew clearly that it was not the ship that was floating but the entire sea that was floating.

Everything was under the control of that man, and such power was far beyond the description of strength. 

It was beyond the scope of human power and reached another realm.

"Is he a God?!"

Flampe finally understood why Katakuri had ordered her to retreat just when he saw those floating islands appear.

"What should we do, brother Katakuri...?"

Flampe's voice now carried a sobbing tone, and at this moment, Katakuri had become her only reliance.

"I'll stop them, and you guys take the opportunity to escape!"

Katakuri's voice was firm, with a will as hard as iron.

Golden Lion is definitely not a quiet character. Once he gets Pluton's blueprint, he will definitely try to conquer the whole world in the future, just like he did 20 years ago.

This guy's goal has always been the whole world, and he will definitely threaten everything in the world in the future.

Besides, Katakuri can't let his brothers and sisters on the ship fall into the hands of Golden Lion, even if it means risking his life.

And then, without waiting for Flampe to react, Katakuri grabbed the trident in his hand and jumped high into the sky.

He was surrounded by a domineering aura, and his eyes were already filled with the determination to die!

"It seems you made the wrong choice. After all, you are Linlin's offspring. Speaking of which, I had some friendship with her back on Rocks' ship."

"What a pity."

Golden Lion's voice was filled with a hint of regret, but his eyes were filled with the same cruelty that had never changed.

He stretched out his hand and clenched it in the air.

The dark clouds in the sky seemed to come alive at this moment. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of lion heads condensed, opened their bloody mouths, and bit Katakuri.

Boom!

The sea of clouds churned, almost connecting with the sea itself.

In an instant, Katakuri was consumed by the dark clouds and unable to even scream.

His attack was immediately crushed by Golden Lion's overwhelming power, and the pain that surged through his body made him realize that he had no strength left to resist.

The gap... was too large!

The gap between him and his mother was never this big, never!

Is this the power that competed with Whitebeard and Roger back in the day?!

For some reason, before losing consciousness, the last image that flashed in Katakuri's mind was of Lucci, who threw himself in front of him without hesitation, buying time for his comrades.

Now, as the roles reversed, Katakuri realized that he and Lucci were the same kind of person.

"How ridiculous..."

"It's not just that guy who's laughable; it's me too..."

… … …

The next day, at dawn.

On the site of the Big Mom Pirates' fleet, the flowing lava had cooled and solidified, leaving behind chunks of scorched volcanic rock. In many places, the sand had even turned into a glazed, glass-like material that shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

But this beautiful scene no longer held any appeal for Perospero. His gaze was fixed on Big Mom, who had recently regained consciousness in the distance.

The injuries on Big Mom's body have basically healed.

The burns left by Emperor Requiem have completely healed. She has new skin all over her body, and even the hair on her head that was burned has grown back, but only a thin layer.

A sail that was not burned because it was too far away was draped over her, barely covering her body, but it couldn't hide her extremely gloomy face: "Damn it!!"

"Decades of accumulation, most of it lost overnight; even the children except Perospero died in the explosion."

"I will kill you!"

"No!"

"I will make you endure the most painful torture in the world and die with resentment and hatred!"

A series of curses came out of Big Mom's mouth, and with her embarrassed appearance at the moment, she had a bit of an incompetent and furious posture.

Perospero couldn't help but think of this, but he didn't have the courage to speak out the truth of what really happened.

Gawain's attack did destroy most of the fleet, but a lot of it went into Big Mom's stomach.

He didn't know whether his mother had truly lost her memory or if she was subtly interrogating him.

But he knew that once he told this fact, with his mother's character, she would never let him live anyway.

So those people can only die at the hands of White Knight Gawain!

But now the question facing Big Mom Pirate is no longer how to avenge Gawain.

"Mama, the most correct strategy for us now is to retreat in time and stabilize the overall situation."

"Anyway, Katakuri has already captured the key person related to the Pluton blueprints. Staying here has no benefit for us and could instead make us the public target."

Big Mom turned her head to look at Perospero, her eyes burning with anger: "What did you say?!"

"Mama, calm down; you should be able to see it, right?"

Perospero sighed and spoke out to refute his mother's will for the first time: "How serious is the problem before us."

"You..."

Big Mom was stunned for a moment; her eyes fell on Perospero, her face was full of astonishment, and then turned into relief the next moment.

If her previous praise for Perospero was just a symbolic expression of her attitude, then now, this eldest son, who had always been suppressed by Katakuri, even Smoothie, Cracker, and others, really caught her eye.

"Very good."

"You can stop me at the critical moment, but if your reasons cannot convince me, even if you are my eldest son, you must pay the price."