Intrusion

"Has Moria always lived on this island?"

Ace stood on the small boat, looking at the towering walls in the distance with a curious expression.

"This isn't about building an island."

Xia Qiu shook his head and said, "This is a ship."

"Boat?"

Looking around, Heckle said with some surprise, "A ship that looks like an island?"

"That's right."

Xia Qiu nodded and said, "This area has masts and rudders, which can change course."

Ace said, "I see. Among the Shichibukai, the most mysterious are Hawkeye and Moria. However, the former sometimes goes out to sea, but Moria has rarely come out in recent years. I didn't expect him to be hiding in this area. What is he trying to do? Why is he attacking passing ships?"

"He was capturing shadows, seizing the crew members of passing ships, stripping them of their shadows, and then injecting them into the zombies that Hogback created."

Xia Qiu looked into the distance and said, "Those whose shadows have been taken away cannot survive in the sunlight. If exposed to sunlight, they will turn to ashes."

Ace frowned and asked, "Why would he do such a thing?"

Xia Qiu said, "I'm building a zombie army in the hope that one day I can return to the New World and defeat my old rival."

"Kaido of the Four Emperors."

Ace mentioned a name. He had heard of Moria and Kaido's past. Twelve years ago, Moria killed all of Moria's crew, and Kaido in disgrace. Since then, he had disappeared without a trace and rarely appeared in front of the world.

"Our goal this time is to take him down," Xia Qiu said coldly.

Heckle asked, "But boss, how are we supposed to get in? I can manage, but..."

This Thriller Bark was enormous, circular, like a small island, and surrounded by towering walls.

Heckle can reduce his body weight to one kilogram, and by jumping upwards and stepping on the wall, he can get up.

Ace can turn into flames, or he can fly away on his own.

But what about Xia Qiu?

A massive body measuring sixty meters tall, weighing a terrifying three hundred tons.

Although he was extremely strong, he had nowhere to put his weight, making it difficult to climb up, let alone jump up directly.

"Don't worry."

Xia Qiu slowly backed away and said, "This is just a city wall, and there's a moat inside. We just need to break through the wall."

With that, Xia Qiu turned her head and swam away into the distance.

"President, you don't mean to..."

Ace saw Xia Qiu's actions and guessed what he was going to do next, looking somewhat surprised.

Splash.

After swimming far away in Xia Qiu, it suddenly rushed towards this direction.

Xia Qiu's enormous dorsal fin sliced through the waves, and its body charged straight in, getting closer and closer.

Just as Xia Qiu approached the city wall, his six legs suddenly stomped out ten times in the water.

Xia Qiu accelerated again, his head enveloped in Armament Haki, and slammed into the city wall.

boom.

A tremendous sound rang out, and the next moment, the impact site caved in, blasting open a large hole fifteen meters in diameter that pierced through the wall.

Centered on the cave entrance, cracks spread outwards, especially above, where the walls shattered and boulders crashed down with a deafening roar.

"That's about it."

Xia Qiu swam directly into the cave entrance, which led to the moat. The various buildings were located on the small islands inside the moat.

"What immense power!"

Ace was speechless when he saw this.

The force was so great that it smashed a hole in the wall.

It would be quite difficult for me to do that myself.

Heckle was already incredibly surprised. He was the strongest member of the Baroque Works, but even with all his strength, he could only manage to create a small opening.

"Hurry up."

Xia Qiu entered the moat, he immediately shouted.

"Let's go inside."

Ace's small boat spewed flames as it followed Xia Qiu into the moat, after which Xia Qiu climbed onto the island in the middle of the lake.

With a light leap, Heckle appeared in a ten-meter-wide space, then stepped on the edge a few times with his toes, and went straight onto the island.

Ace then leaped up, his body transforming into raging flames that rose upwards before landing above.

"Let's go."

Xia Qiu led the two away into the distance, but after only a few steps, they heard rustling sounds from the surrounding area.

"Careful."

Ace waved his right hand, and the flames grew enormous, illuminating the surroundings.

Two strange figures could be seen not far away.

One of the two figures was a tree-man with arms, and the other was short in stature but had long limbs and an ugly head.

The two figures did not approach, but ran away into the distance and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"What is this thing?"

Heckle frowned, but then Ace shouted again, "There's more!"

The ground cracked open, and rotting figures crawled out from it.

These figures had bluish-gray skin, dull complexion, and were shriveled, emitting a foul odor.

Their hair was falling out, some had panicked eyes, some had wounds on their bodies, and some had twisted arms.

"Is this a zombie?" Heckle frowned.

These zombies crawled out of the ground, glanced at Xia Qiu's enormous figure, and then ran away into the distance.

"These guys seem to have some intelligence," Ace said thoughtfully, watching their movements.

Xia Qiu said, "If there are no surprises, they should be ordinary pirate corpses injected with shadows, while the two in front are zombies created by Hogback, which are still driven by shadows."

"The abilities granted by the Shadow-Shadow Fruit."

Ace looked around and said, "I wonder if there are any more powerful zombies."

But the moment he finished speaking, Heckle's body tilted to one side with a thud, and his head turned to the side. In that instant, he suddenly threw a right-handed punch at the empty space.

boom.

A figure was thrown through the darkness, flying heavily and crashing to the ground.

This is a man wearing a round hat; his nose, mouth, and jaw all resemble a lion's mouth.

Why couldn't I see it just now?

Heckle wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, looking at the falling figure with some confusion. He hadn't even noticed him before the figure touched him.

The figure lying on the ground was equally surprised. He had punched him, but the man hadn't even fallen down and had instead punched him back.

Its power is immense, far exceeding that of itself.

"Looks like I shouldn't have held back. I'll just kill you then." The figure slowly disappeared.

"He's disappeared again, everyone be careful."

The flames on Ace's right hand burned fiercely, illuminating the surroundings.

However, the surrounding ground was empty, and there was no sign of the other party.

"Hehehe, I'll kill you."

The figure arrived not far from Heckle, aiming the rocket launchers in both hands at Heckle and Ace.

But just as he was about to fire, a huge leg stomped him to the ground with a bang.

Gala.

The other person's body bent over and turned into a lump of flesh.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean you can't feel it."

Xia Qiu snorted coldly. This person was Absalom, one of the three oddballs under Moria's command.

The Devil Fruit User the Clear-Clear Fruit, who had parts of his limbs transplanted by Hogback, possesses extremely strong strength and bite force.

His ability is not to disappear, but to become transparent. He neither absorbs nor reflects light, appearing invisible to the observer, yet he has a physical form.

It's not difficult to spot him; you can use his scent, his voice, or even Observation Haki.

"Appetizer dessert."

Xia Qiu swallowed Abu, a cyborg. Hogback swapped the lion's mouth and arms onto Abu Salom's body, giving him the bite force of a lion and the arm strength of Masira.

Ultimately, however, his strength was very weak. Even with his invisibility ability, he was completely overwhelmed by Sanji when using a rocket launcher.

He could provide very little Reinforcement Energy, so Xia Qiu didn't have any expectations.

However, as the second most likely person to die, Absalom's death still brought Xia Qiu a moment of joy.

"Let's go."

Xia Qiu led the two forward and they arrived at the mansion in the center of the island.

The enormous mansion exuded an aura of gloom, and in front of it stood a young girl, dressed in a Gothic Lolita style, holding an umbrella.

Not only that, she was floating in the air, surrounded by several ghosts.

Perona.

The most threatening of the three oddballs is the Ghost-Ghost Devil Fruit User.