“What are we waiting for, then? Let’s start now! If we let that thing continue destroying everything without end… Elegia really will be finished!”
The Red Hair Pirates’ urgency did not make Alber act immediately. Only after Nanamo nodded did he make his move.
Alber stood amid the ruins created by the Demon King of Songs’ rampage, yet none of it seemed to affect him. Even with a burning roof beam right beside him, its flames caused him no discomfort whatsoever.
“Move back.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Alber’s body began to expand. Rather than assuming the Human-Beast Form better suited for combat, he transformed into the most basic Beast Form.
Sharp scales covered his entire body, his limbs turning into bestial legs encased in scale armor. His orange-yellow mane fluttered in the wind, while a single horn extended backward over his head.
His face elongated, his muzzle protruding forward to reveal rows of ghastly white sharp teeth. His eyes became entirely golden, with vertical pupils in whose depths countless distorted illusions were reflected.
Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Kirin.
The kirin of the sea was never the auspicious beast of legend that trod upon propitious clouds and bestowed blessings upon the mortal world. It was a nightmare kirin that walked the boundary between dreams and reality and fed upon fear.
“A Mythical Zoan?”
Yasopp instinctively took a step back. “That thing looks seriously sinister…”
Alber did not answer. He had already fully transformed into his Beast Form, and with his enormous size, only the Demon King of Songs in the sky was larger than him.
The three-stage transformations of a Zoan-type were commonplace. Anyone with even a basic understanding of Devil Fruits knew that this was what Zoan-type users excelled at.
In Human-Beast Form, the power of the mythical creature was bestowed upon the human body, the combination producing the most direct increase in combat strength.
But when it came to purely unleashing a mythical creature’s special abilities, Beast Form was actually more powerful.
“Let me make this clear beforehand: this isn’t safe. My ability allows me to turn things born from nightmares into reality. Likewise, I can also merge things from reality into nightmares.”
Alber began explaining his ability so Shanks and the others would know what precautions they needed to take.
“The world created by the Sing-Sing Fruit is, in essence, also a mental world, just like a dream world. However…
If you enter that world after hearing her singing, then only your consciousness—or rather, your soul—enters it.
As long as your body outside can ‘wake up,’ you can leave that place.”
That was what made the Sing-Sing Fruit unique. In theory, as long as that world was not destroyed, the souls that entered it could continue existing there indefinitely.
“But my nightmare world is different. When I send you into that world, I turn your physical bodies in reality into part of the dream instead of simply putting you to sleep.
After all, this technically counts as an illegal intrusion.
If anything happens to you inside, your bodies will also be harmed. If you die in there…”
Alber did not finish, but everyone understood what he meant. If they died in that world under these circumstances, they would truly be dead. There would be no coming back to life.
“This is a very dangerous operation. Who among you intends to enter?”
As Alber spoke, his gaze remained fixed on Shanks and the others, excluding Nanamo from consideration outright.
That world was different from reality. He would not allow Nanamo to take such a risk.
Doing so would be irresponsible toward Nereus. If Red Hair and his companions were unwilling to take that risk, Alber would not maintain the dream.
As far as Alber was concerned, it did not matter what happened to Elegia. Even if this led to disastrous consequences, the Red Hair Pirates were the ones who had caused them.
As Amphitrite’s only surviving tribesman who shared her bloodline, Alber could just barely be considered a member of the extended royal family through marriage.
What he needed to repay was the protection Nereus had given him. The only reason he followed Nanamo’s instructions was that she was Nereus’s daughter.
“Shanks, I’ll take some people inside. You stay out here and support us.”
Beckman finished his cigarette in a single drag, then walked in front of Shanks, intending to take on the dangerous task, only for Shanks to grab him and pull him back.
“You can’t. Didn’t Gordon say that we have to attack the same spot from inside and outside simultaneously to inflict effective damage? You’re still not quite strong enough to coordinate with the princess.”
“But…”
“That’s Uta. My daughter.”
“She’s a member of the Red Hair Pirates! We’re her guardians too!”
“Which is why you’re going to stay out here and coordinate with me! We need someone to command the synchronized attacks between the two worlds. I’m leaving that to you, Beckman—my vice-captain.”
Shanks heavily emphasized the words “vice-captain,” making his stance clear to Beckman.
No matter how unserious a ship’s captain usually was, the captain’s orders were absolute at times like this. Then the Red Hair Pirates swiftly split into two groups and decided who would enter.
“Since you’re ready, let’s go.”
Alber activated his ability, and a dreamlike cloud soon formed around Shanks and the others. However, the scene within it was anything but beautiful.
A pitch-black sky. An ocean formed from musical staves. Countless musical notes swimming overhead like schools of fish. The one thing unchanged was the Demon King of Songs, identical to the one in the real world.
Whatever movement the Demon King of Songs made outside, the one inside would mirror it perfectly.
“That’s the thing! Move quickly! The sooner you end this, the safer you’ll be!”
“Understood.”
Shanks tightened his grip on Gryphon, the muscles of his lone arm tensing.
“Snake, Gab, and Limejuice, come inside with me. Everyone else, remain outside and follow orders.”
“Understood.” Beckman checked his gun’s chamber, his gaze sharp.
The moment Red Hair and the others entered, blades formed from sound waves descended from the sky. The Demon King of Songs had clearly noticed the intruders.
After unleashing a barrage of musical-note attacks, however, the Demon King of Songs ceased its wider destruction. The piano keys forming its arms began playing frantically.
The melody became rapid and chaotic, no longer the orderly symphony of destruction from before, but some far older and more forbidden tune.
As the music played, its body began to swell. Something writhed beneath its black suit, as though it were about to break free from a cocoon.
The Demon King of Songs outside was undergoing the same transformation. Its half-body, which had originally floated in the air like a ghost, was now on the verge of growing legs.
“Princess Nanamo, judging from my many years of video-game experience, it looks like this thing is about to enter its second phase.”
Clouds could play games too. From Hermes’s experience, this was clearly a transformation, and convention dictated that once the enemy completed its transformation, it would undoubtedly become even stronger.
“I can see that. Red Hair! Are you ready?!”
Alber had established a connection between the two worlds, so naturally, he could allow the people in them to communicate with each other. He could even project what was happening in the dream world, allowing those in reality to better understand the situation there.
“Ready! Let’s begin!”
“Then… we’ll start with its head! Hermes!”
In the real world, Nanamo moved.
She leaped high into the air, the Fish-Men’s innate monstrous strength gathering in her fist as Armament Haki turned her arm jet-black. She slammed her fist into the increasingly getting ferocious mask of the Demon King of Songs in the sky.
“Shanks, above the left eye! You’re too slow! Faster!”
Beckman did not participate in the battle outside. Instead, he watched the fighting in both worlds and coordinated the two groups’ movements.
Hearing Beckman, Shanks erupted with even greater strength and swung Gryphon toward the same spot.
“Divine Departure!”
Boom!!
In both worlds, at the exact same instant, the attacks struck.
The Demon King of Songs unleashed a shrill roar as a large section of the mask around its left eye shattered. When the attacks landed simultaneously, the Demon King of Songs lost its invincible body and was no longer an untouchable monster.
“It worked! Keep going! Gab, Yasopp, attack the right shoulder!”
In the dream world, Gab opened his mouth, gathering a beam of light within it before firing it at the Demon King of Songs’ arm above.
Yasopp’s sights also locked precisely onto its right shoulder. The bullet inside his gun barrel had already been infused with Haki until it was blacker than ink.
Boom!
Bang!
The two attacks struck simultaneously once more, inflicting further irreversible damage upon the Demon King of Songs.
It stopped its indiscriminate rampage and turned its attention toward those attacking it, but it was already too late.
“Top of the head!”
“Ikoku!”
“Rampaging Spirit!”
After several rounds of attacks, the Demon King of Songs’ body began to collapse. It did not slowly dissipate, but instead vanished from both worlds as though someone had pressed the delete key. In the end, it reverted to several sheets of music that reappeared beneath Elegia.
With the Demon King of Songs gone, Uta’s figure appeared where it had been in the real world and plummeted from the sky.
Although she had been lured by the Tot Musica sheet music and unintentionally sung its melody, her stamina had inevitably been drained as well. Once the Demon King of Songs was defeated, she unavoidably fell unconscious.
Hermes, however, had plenty of experience with this sort of thing. It was only someone falling from the sky. Back when Nanamo took Chloe out to practice flying, Hermes had often served as their cushion.
Hermes therefore caught Uta with perfect accuracy and carried her back to the ground.
In the other world, Shanks was running at full speed—not in celebration, but for his life.
With Uta unconscious and the Demon King of Songs gone, that world naturally ceased to exist and began rapidly disintegrating.
Everything that disappeared seemed to vanish into nothingness in an instant before Shanks and the others’ eyes, so naturally, none of them dared touch it. Fortunately, the dream-cloud passage Alber had created was not far away, and they quickly escaped through it.
“Looks like all this trouble… has finally been resolved.”
Seeing Shanks and the others emerge safely, Beckman breathed a sigh of relief, but Shanks’s expression remained grave.
“No. It isn’t over yet.”
Shanks gestured around them. The destruction caused by the Demon King of Songs remained. More than half the kingdom’s buildings had been destroyed, and although rescue efforts had begun as soon as the destruction started, it had been impossible to avoid casualties entirely.
The Demon King of Songs had still inflicted irreparable losses upon Elegia.
“These things… can’t be undone. I don’t want Uta to know. She unintentionally hurt the people who loved her singing and destroyed this country. That would be… far too cruel for her.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“We’re pirates. What could be more natural than pirates coveting a country’s wealth, destroying it, and plundering it? We’ll… take the blame for this.
Besides, what we’ll be doing afterward will be very dangerous. I don’t want Uta to keep risking her life with us. It’s time… for her to leave the ship.”
“Let Uta stay here. This country loves music and can give her a better environment in which to grow. This wasn’t her fault. No one expected Tot Musica to choose Uta’s singing too.”
Gordon stepped forward and offered to continue looking after Uta.
“Are you joking? You may not care, but do you think the rest of the citizens won’t? Do you think those who lost family in this incident won’t care?
They don’t know where that monster came from. If they learn it appeared because of that girl, do you really think they’ll still welcome her warmly?”
Alber regarded Gordon’s naïveté with disdain. He had wandered the world since childhood and witnessed the fickleness of human nature countless times. Though, to be precise, he had only ever seen its coldness, never its warmth. He knew all too well what the malice of those around him looked like.
Strictly speaking, Uta was also a victim, but the other victims might not understand that.
“This…”
Gordon had no response. The people of Elegia did indeed love peace, but in the face of this reality, no one could guarantee what might happen.
Shanks also felt that Alber was right, so he turned to Nanamo and asked about arranging an agreement for Uta.
“What, are you going to entrust your daughter to someone else just like Kaido did?”
“Like Kaido?”
“That isn’t important. From the sound of it, you intend to shoulder all the blame yourself and lie to Uta for the rest of her life?”
“Not for the rest of her life, but…”
“The evil Red Hair Pirates stole Elegia’s treasure and destroyed most of the country, while this little girl was merely cover for your infiltration…
“Tch. Say, Red Hair, if I remember correctly, Roger adopted you, didn’t he?”
From Nanamo, Shanks sensed the same sentiment Alber had shown Gordon moments earlier—your solution is utterly idiotic.
“Captain Roger did raise me.”
“Then how would you have felt if Roger had thrown you off the ship when you were nine and told you that everything had been a lie? Do you think this child could accept being abandoned by her companions? Or accept that the family she always trusted were all liars?
You really have no idea how to raise a child.”
The Red Hair Pirates had only ever raised this one child over all these years, whereas Nanamo had far more experience. There had been all her younger siblings, Chloe, and even Rebecca.
Nanamo had dealt with children often and was far more capable of considering the situation from Uta’s perspective.
“You… I… Then do you have a better idea?”
“We can sign the agreement, but I won’t help you hide the truth from her. She has the right to know everything that happened today and deserves to know the truth.”
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