His Biological Daughter?

This Celestial Dragon, whose name was unknown, was casually handed over to Tesoro by Maud.

Then.

Tesoro cleanly killed the Celestial Dragon.

Taking this as an opportunity, Tesoro formally pledged himself to Maud.

At the same time.

A call from Yamato led Maud to decide on the spot to head for Onigashima in Wano Country.

With Tesoro, a considerable combat force, joining them, and a Celestial Dragon's corpse lying there, Maud defined the trip as—dragon slaying.

However.

Maud would not recklessly go to Onigashima to provoke the Beasts Pirates without making any preparations.

After all, the Beasts Pirates had already formed an alliance with the Big Mom Pirates, who were also one of the Four Emperors.

Under these circumstances, if Maud wanted to strike at either of them, he first had to investigate the situation thoroughly.

Otherwise, if Big Mom happened to be on Onigashima...

That would not be fun at all.

Besides that, Maud had to prepare some shadows in advance.

Looking back on the road he had traveled, Maud had challenged many enemies stronger than himself.

Defeating the strong while being weak was not exactly the norm for Maud, but he had experienced it quite a few times.

The reason he had achieved such dazzling results was largely due to the Shadow-Shadow Fruit.

Or rather—

the most representative ability of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, Shadows' Gathering Ground.

Absorbing shadows to enhance his physique, skills, and strength...

This ability had given Maud limitless possibilities for defeating the strong while being weak.

When he defeated Whitebeard during the Summit War, it was not merely because Whitebeard had grown old. More importantly, it was because of the boost in power provided by Shadows' Gathering Ground.

The recent Impel Down incident had been the same.

Without the power boost from Shadows' Gathering Ground,