Kill a Hundred Celestial Dragons

"Enough! Stop squirming! Keep twisting, and I'll drag you to the dormitory and take you right now—or... I'll take you right here!" Zhu Mang viciously said as he gave the Empress's "heart" a hard squeeze.

"Ah—" The Empress cried out like a startled little girl.

Then, an even greater fury blazed within her.

Buzz—

A powerful aura surged wildly from her body.

The nearby Marine soldiers collapsed one after another, unconscious.

Doflamingo and Hawkeye's expressions shifted slightly as they took a few steps back.

Only Zhu Mang, who was practically pressed against the Empress, faced that aura without so much as a change in expression or heartbeat.

He looked so calm that, if not for the Marine soldiers constantly falling around them to "play along," the Empress would have thought her Conqueror's Haki had failed.

But...

"How is this possible? My Conqueror's Haki has no effect on you at all?" The Empress parted her crimson lips, leaving them slightly open in forgotten shock. Her eyes were wide with utter disbelief. "You... who exactly are you?"

The consecutive failure of her Devil Fruit ability and Conqueror's Haki had shaken her badly.

Though she had yet to use her Armament Haki, if even Conqueror's Haki was useless, she did not think Armament Haki would accomplish anything.

Every powerful figure she knew from across the seas flashed through her mind—pirates, Marines, even the powerful Celestial Dragons she had seen during that unbearable chapter of darkness in her past... Yet none matched him.

"Me? Perhaps I could be your master?" Zhu Mang grinned.

"Shut up, filthy man! Dream on!" The Empress burned with rage, and her Conqueror's Haki grew several degrees stronger. "Even if I die, I will never become your slave!"

"That's hard to say," Zhu Mang said, looking at the Empress's defiant expression. Perhaps the Saiyan bloodline's innate desire to conquer was beginning to take effect, because he was feeling particularly wicked at that moment.

Saiyans were naturally drawn to strength.

That did not mean they absolutely obeyed the strong.

Rather, they were born to like strong people, whether in personality or power.

Conversely, what Saiyans hated most were weak people. Such weaklings might even be mercilessly killed by Saiyans.

Thus, within Saiyan society, their concepts of "beauty" and "ugliness" differed somewhat from those of Earthlings.

To Saiyans, strength was beauty.

Weakness, on the other hand, was ugliness.

It was an instinct rooted in their bloodline.

That was why, in Dragon Ball, Vegeta fell for the strong-willed Bulma, while Son Goku was struck head-on by Chi-Chi, a powerful woman among Earthlings. (Chi-Chi made it into the top eight of the World Martial Arts Tournament, could instantly kill dinosaurs in her teens, and though she relied on equipment, that was still incredibly impressive. If Android 18 did not count, Chi-Chi might have been the strongest Earth woman.)

Even Zhu Mang, who had only transmigrated a few days ago, had been unknowingly influenced.

Of course, Zhu Mang's soul was still that of an Earthling. Though his body desired her, he had not truly fallen in love with the Empress. It was merely a wilder desire to conquer.

He wanted this woman!

"What if I help you get revenge?" Zhu Mang forcibly pressed the Empress's body tightly against his own, brought his lips close to her pearl-like ear, and spoke in a faint voice.

"Re... revenge for what? I... don't have... mmh~" The Empress let out a soft moan, barely suppressing her fury.

At that moment, she seemed to be enduring humiliation for the greater good.

"Celestial. Dragons... How about one hundred Celestial Dragon heads as a betrothal gift?" A wicked smile curled across Zhu Mang's lips.

"W-What?!!" The Empress's Conqueror's Haki vanished instantly. Her pretty face, flushed red with anger and a trace of embarrassment, turned deathly pale.

Those three words directly stirred the darkest corner of her heart.

They were tied to the dark history of her enslavement by the Celestial Dragons. During those years, she had suffered endless abuse, and even now, the mark of the "Hoof of the Celestial Dragons," symbolizing a Celestial Dragon slave, remained on her back.

It constantly reminded her of that humiliation.

But aside from her two younger sisters and... Luffy, no one should know about this!

"Don't joke around! Killing even one of those people could cause enormous turmoil, let alone a hundred!" The Empress could not help snapping at him, but her fear of the Celestial Dragons made her unconsciously lower her voice to a near whisper.

If Celestial Dragons were really so easy to kill, that would be wonderful!

Was it that she did not want revenge, that she did not want to kill the Celestial Dragons?

No, she dreamed of it!

Day and night!

Yet she could not do it!

If a Celestial Dragon's death were connected to her in even the slightest way, it could bring about the destruction of the Kuja Pirates, or even all of Amazon Lily!

"If I say I can, then I can." Zhu Mang wore a confidence Hancock could not understand at all, as though the Celestial Dragons and the mighty World Government behind them were nothing but worthless rabble before him.

She did not know whether it was ignorance or genuine confidence, and fell silent for a moment.

"Ahem." Not far away, Doflamingo lightly coughed. "Um, sorry to interrupt, Lord Gebinz, but if you don't make some kind of move soon, that old man Sengoku is probably going to lose his mind."

As he spoke, he pointed in the other direction.

Zhu Mang turned his head and looked over. On the distant platform, Sengoku, who had been loudly delivering a pre-battle speech, was now staring at him with the expression of a pie chart made up of thirty percent anger, thirty percent helplessness, and forty percent confusion.

Below, the Three Admirals, who had been seated before, had all risen to their feet, glaring at him in fury.

Further below, the hundred thousand Marines were watching as well.

The Visual Den Den Mushi that had originally been broadcasting the Marines' operation to wipe out the Whitebeard Pirates were also focused on this side, faithfully transmitting everything happening here to every corner of the world in real time.

"Ah!" the Empress cried out, springing from Zhu Mang's arms and, for once, revealing a bashful look.

Well, it was probably bashfulness.

At least, that was what Zhu Mang thought.

"My god, that's the Pirate Empress! She's actually acting cute in a man's arms!" This was the lament of an ordinary bystander.

"Ahhh!!! I'm dead!!! The Empress is acting cute—she's so adorable!! Ah! I'm dead!!" This was some pervert with possible psychological issues—damn it, just a pervert.

"As expected of Lord Gebinz. He actually conquered the Pirate Empress so forcefully!" Doflamingo was full of admiration, while also feeling anxious once more about his previous plan to offer up women.

Even the Pirate Empress had been taken by Lord Gebinz. Would he still care about those mediocre beauties in Doflamingo's family?

"Didn't Her Majesty like Luffy? How could this be... Who is that man?" On Amazon Lily, Nyon voiced her doubts. The Empress's two sisters answered only with equally bewildered looks.