Second Release or Awakening?

"Brother Katakuri, your judgment was as accurate as ever!"

Having returned to the Queen Mama Chantilly, Snag looked admiringly at Katakuri, who stood at the prow. Earlier, when he had volunteered to fight, Katakuri had stopped him. Though he had never doubted Brother Katakuri's judgment, he had still felt somewhat stifled. He had not been entirely willing to believe that a mere twenty-year-old brat could put him in mortal danger.

That slight resentment did not last long.

While he and Cracker directed the Tart Ships away from Saiboy Island, they had not forgotten to watch the fierce battle between Aleus and Mother. The Mother Snag remembered as invincible had not ended the battle swiftly and decisively. No, more accurately, she was unable to end it quickly.

Up to this point, that Black Prince had seemed to be passively taking blows. His several counterattacks had been nothing more than an itch to Mother, while Aleus himself had been severely wounded by Mother time and again. The sight of those terrible injuries made Snag frown deeply.

However, Snag had no desire to mock Aleus for his battered state.

If the injuries Aleus had suffered had been inflicted on him instead, Snag had no doubt that he would have long since been lying dead on the ground. Being honest with himself, in terms of endurance and recovery alone, he was utterly no match for Aleus.

In the New World, simply avoiding being knocked down by a Four Emperor in an instant was already something worth bragging about.

The so-called Four Emperors

were beings that terrifying.

Even those defeated by a Four Emperor, so long as they did not die on the spot, were destined to become influential figures in the New World—as long as their luck was not too bad.

"Sokachio Aleus..."

Katakuri did not respond to his brother's pointless words.

He pushed his Observation Haki to its limits, monitoring the battle between Mother and Aleus with complete focus as he silently recorded all the information Aleus revealed during the fight.

"A Mythical Zoan user, with the regenerative ability to regrow severed limbs... a unique energy wave that interferes with souls... superb swordsmanship... possesses some kind of special high-speed movement technique... although inferior to Mother's, his physical defense is also remarkably good. Even weaker Armament Haki might not be able to break through that defense..."

Each piece of information was summarized and arranged in his mind.

As the list grew longer, an unpleasant premonition suddenly surfaced within Katakuri.

This time, Mother was likely unable to achieve her intended goal.

Due to his excessive training, his Observation Haki had reached the realm where he could foresee the future. Repeatedly seeing the future in battle had gradually given him a strange intuition that worked only sometimes. It was not an accurate vision of the future, but a vague sense of the future circumstances surrounding a matter or a person.

Just then, a new change occurred in the battle overhead.

Vivre Card's vast sword energy filled the sky. With no room left to maneuver, Aleus had no second option but to take Big Mom's terrifying slash head-on, a strike carrying the force to destroy heaven and earth.

"This is troublesome!"

Aleus raised his brows, the slight furrow between them revealing his gravity.

This move

was a little frightening!

After exchanging several rounds with Big Mom, and with this top-tier whetstone to test himself against, Aleus had more or less grasped the level of his current state. The combat power of this form clearly had not yet reached the level where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Four Emperors. Big Mom beating him senseless was the best proof of that.

Yet Big Mom had not given him a sense of fatal danger, only unprecedented pressure.

"Second Release—ah! No, this should be Devil Fruit Awakening..."

His murmur was swallowed by the destructive storm whipped up by the overwhelming sword energy. Aleus was like a lone boat adrift in a tsunami, swaying precariously as though he would be ground into particles too tiny for the naked eye by the sword-energy storm in the next instant.

"It's over!"

Sun Prometheus circled around Big Mom. Watching Aleus disappear beneath the sword-energy storm, it let out an incomparably cheerful laugh.

"Mother, are we going back to the ship?"

Even Thundercloud Zeus raised its head to look at Big Mom standing on its back.

However, "Zeus, attack with everything you have."

There was no pleased response of victory. Big Mom stomped hard on the black cloud beneath her feet, then reached out with her left hand and grabbed Prometheus. Blazing flames coiled around her fist, and as she threw a savage punch, a vast sea of fire poured down from the sky into the still-churning sword-energy storm.

"Gurarara!!!"

Thunder boomed.

Following Mother's command, Thundercloud Zeus opened its enormous mouth and spat out lightning brilliant enough to rival the sun. It needed no further orders; as a Homies created by Big Mom through the gift of souls, its attack precisely pursued Aleus, who should have been annihilated by the sword-energy storm.

BOOM!!!!!

High in the sky, the thunderous roar produced by the collision of destructive forces was enough to shake both sea and land.

A ring of fine, dense ripples erupted from the source of the lightning, fire, and crisscrossing sword energy, spreading in every direction—above and below, far and wide.

Wherever the ripples passed, the sea of clouds churned like boiling water, driven by the howling gale toward the distant horizon. The sea of clouds, which had watched the rise and fall of the world below, was not the only victim. The tempest stirred up by those ripples battered every tangible thing on Saiboy Island. Trees were uprooted, while buildings with unstable foundations collapsed in the storm.

The ships anchored at sea also suffered disaster. Many fishing boats were flipped completely upside down by the violent winds.

Even some of the weaker members of the Charlotte Family standing aboard the Queen Mama Chantilly could barely withstand the impact of the aftershock.

At the same time, they admired Brother Katakuri even more for ordering the Tart Ships to stay away from the Port in advance.

If not for Brother Katakuri, this wave alone would have cost them more than half of the Tart Ships in this expedition.

"This is..."

Katakuri stood like a boulder amid raging currents. Beneath the scarf that hid him from his younger siblings' eyes, an expression of shock—one he might never have worn before—appeared on his fierce face, which did not fit conventional standards of beauty. His constricted pupils stared unblinkingly at the blazing sea of fire falling from the sky, lightning coursing through it.

A streak of dark green light suddenly split the sea of fire apart.

Even the descending lightning was severed at the waist.

The dark green streams of light drifted lightly over the sea of flames with the gusts, like flying fluff, like ribbons, like a rainbow. They seemed weightless—and indeed, they had no weight at all. These dark green streams were merely Spirit Pressure overflowing from Aleus's body.

Devil Fruits—

As far as Aleus knew, Zoan and Paramecia Devil Fruits possessed a latent power called "Awakening." Only a small number of Devil Fruit users could unlock the realm of Awakening, and it was often accompanied by tremendous power.

Once a Paramecia ability underwent the rare process of Awakening, it could affect things "other than the user themselves." It could turn surrounding objects into part of the user's ability, making that ability more powerful and expanding both its range and effects.

As for Zoan Awakening, it granted a "powerful body," as well as "tenacious vitality" and "recovery ability" that allowed one to rise again no matter how many times they were knocked down. It also bestowed extraordinary strength and attack power, while even one's physical appearance and posture would undergo a certain degree of alteration.

Just like Aleus's appearance at this moment—

His jet-black wings had fully spread, appearing roughly a third larger than before. A slender, long black tail, tipped with a blade-like bony structure, swayed with effortless agility. Sharp claws extended from his feet, while the pair of pale, curved horns atop his head had become longer and larger, growing from just over ten centimeters to thirty centimeters in length.

And—

The clothes on his body had vanished along with the transformation into his 'beast' form. Black feathers covered his abdomen, legs, arms, and back.

Yes, his 'beast' form.

His current appearance was merely the humanoid 'beast' form of the awakened Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Black Winged Great Demon Form Devil Fruit—a Devil Fruit that had been elevated by the Hogyoku. It was similar to Marshal Sengoku's Buddha Form, both being humanoid Mythical Zoans.

"What is that thing?"

A baffled incomprehension rose in his heart.

Standing on the deck, Katakuri felt incomparably heavy-hearted. He looked up at Aleus in the sky and felt as though he were gazing at an ocean suspended above the heavens. That terrifying Spirit Pressure was constantly intimidating every living, intelligent creature nearby.

Even Katakuri himself could clearly feel the invisible, intangible pressure settling upon him.

Not to mention the weaker younger siblings behind him. At that moment, quite a few of them had sweat streaming down their faces, as though suffering unbearable oppression. Many were already looking toward the omnipotent Brother Katakuri in their hearts with pleading eyes.

"Cracker, Smoothie, Snag, you are not allowed to interfere. This is a good opportunity to temper everyone."

Katakuri did not lend a hand.

He even stopped Smoothie and the others, who still had the strength to help their siblings.

He had felt the nature of Spirit Pressure before. It had been nowhere near as powerful then, but he had still discovered the difference between Spirit Pressure and Conqueror's Haki. The intimidation of Conqueror's Haki was like a hammer crashing down violently, directly knocking people dead or unconscious.

The Spirit Pressure Aleus wielded was far more vast and imposing, making one feel as though a massive boulder weighed upon their back.

There was fundamentally no distinction of superiority between the two.

However, compared to the violent effect of Conqueror's Haki, Spirit Pressure was clearly more useful for tempering others. Katakuri had noticed this.

"This is an opportunity to temper your willpower. If any of you still want to become stronger like Snag, then endure it. Only after tasting pain will you have a chance to break through your current bottleneck."

Katakuri—

This man regarded as the pillar and core of the Charlotte Family used Aleus's recklessly unleashed Spirit Pressure to temper his younger siblings, whose strength was neither outstanding nor weak and who had been stuck at bottlenecks for a long time.

Of course, this was only tempering.

Katakuri's top-tier Observation Haki monitored his younger siblings' conditions from every angle. If anything truly went wrong, he could rescue them at the very first instant.

If Aleus had seen such a wild maneuver, he would probably have applauded in admiration.

All these years, he had never considered using Spirit Pressure to train the Aide or guards around him. It was not that Aleus did not think things through, but rather that with the Hogyoku in hand, there was simply no need to cultivate through such a clumsy method. Still, Katakuri's approach deserved some applause.

Having casually made use of Aleus, Katakuri nevertheless could not help raising his head to look toward the sky.

He gazed up at Aleus, an enemy who gave him a premonition of danger.

High in the sky—

Aleus waved his hand, stirring up a vicious gale that effortlessly extinguished the sea of fire around him. His swinging tail lashed out like a black whip, cutting the descending lightning in half with a whoosh.

He raised his head, looked at Big Mom standing atop Thundercloud Zeus and looking down at him, then shouted loudly:

"Sorry! I wasn't in very good condition earlier. Now... let's start over!"

"Mamama, so this is your full strength? But no matter what you turn into, I'll kill you."

Standing atop Thundercloud Zeus and examining Aleus's transformed appearance, Big Mom burst into laughter. There was not the slightest trace of irritation in her crazed smile, only savage, twisted anticipation. She did not dislike enemies who were difficult to kill, because she could kill those enemies many times!

The instant Big Mom's words fell, Black wings beat as Aleus lightly stamped his feet at extreme speed. He pushed the high-speed movement technique, "Sound Step," to its limit. With the speed boost from a gentle flap of his wings, he moved like a skipped frame with the transition cut out, abruptly appearing before Big Mom.

"Hollow Bullet."

Aleus viciously pressed a crimson, high-density Spirit Pressure projectile against Big Mom's face.

He did not fire it.

Instead, like a Rasengan, he slapped it straight onto Big Mom's broad face, which had long since lost the charm of her youth. Such an attack naturally could not break through the Iron Balloon's defenses, but its impact successfully blasted Big Mom off Thundercloud Zeus like a cannonball.

Sun Prometheus, wrapped around Big Mom's left hand, swiftly expanded, replacing Thundercloud Zeus as Big Mom's mount. It lifted the completely unscathed Big Mom back up. Standing atop the blazing fireball, she immediately swung the massive sword Napoleon in her hand.

"Clang!!"

The sound of weapons colliding echoed through the sky.

The Moonlight Sword collided with the giant sword Napoleon once more. This time, the Moonlight Sword shone far more brilliantly than before, and its destructive power was even greater. This form had indeed increased some of his physical strength. Although he was still no match for Big Mom, that humanoid monster, in raw power, he now had at least some footing.

When he crossed swords with Big Mom, he would no longer be sent flying time and again, nor would her brute force crack the bones in his forearms.

This was a truly evenly matched, vicious battle.

Big Mom held a slight, almost imperceptible advantage. Aleus was somewhat on the back foot, yet he could still trade blows with Big Mom. The battle had entered a genuine deadlock!