Jess, standing on the steps, trembled slightly. Her gaze fell on Buggy, who had barged in, and she tried her best to maintain a solemn and dignified voice. "You are... the Pirate of Destiny. As expected, destiny has not deceived me. The savior who will end Bag's evil deeds, you have finally arrived!"
Upon hearing God Jess's words, Priest Karma looked at Buggy in shock. "... The Pirate of Destiny, he is the Pirate of Destiny?"
"Hmm...?" Buggy looked up at the two women before him and said with amusement, "To elevate villainous pirates to the status of saviors? Well, it does sound rather tempting..."
"There's no mistake... those sharp eyes, there's no mistake..." Jess's eyes met Buggy's for a moment, and she cried out in disbelief, "It's fate, it's all fate!!"
"What kind of bullshit 'Destiny Pirates? It's like a ridiculous prophecy, it's laughable..." Bag stood up, coldly staring at Buggy: "I really didn't expect you to still be alive... So, the person who was following me before was you too... How did you manage to evade my Mantra?!"
"This is just a little trick called ' Mantra.' Do you really think it's your trump card? You're being far too naive."
Buggy's lips curled into a cunning smile. Of course, he wouldn't tell the other party the truth. First of all, Bag's Mantra could never reach the level of Enel's all-around detection with accompanying radio waves.
In the original work, Enel's Mantra could cover the entire island, but it couldn't detect Luffy and his crew who had been swallowed by the giant snake. It even thought that the latter's "voice" had disappeared. In other words, the Mantra cannot be omniscient and omnipotent in detecting everything. Under external sealing and isolation, the Mantra can be shielded. Secondly, the range of the Mantra's detection is limited to the "voices" emitted by living beings.
When Buggy was attacked by Bag's Thundercloud, he accidentally activated a mechanism on the Flying Dragon Chicken. As a result, a thick white armor appeared on the Flying Dragon Chicken's white scales, covering and encasing him. Surprisingly, he never encountered Bag's ranged attacks again. However, this armor only lasted for a short time before it rustled into powder and fell off his body... It was probably one of Nilek's unfinished inventions.
Bag had no idea what was going on and was instead intimidated by Buggy's bluff. "How could that be... wait, I clearly sensed your 'voice' when you came in!"
"That was just something I deliberately made you sense, can't you see that?" Buggy jumped off the Flying Dragon Chicken, patted its body, and sent it to the side.
"Hmph!" Bag snorted, his eyes turning icy. "Enough with the nonsense. I want to see how you evade my Mantra!"
A true expert's skill is immediately apparent. Bag launched the first attack, transforming his hands into two hard, Iron Cloud blades, and charged towards Buggy with lightning speed.
Although Buggy adopted a strategy of despising the enemy, he dared not be careless in terms of tactics. He dared not use his body to withstand an enemy of this level. After all, his sandification was at best a pseudo-elementalization, and he could not use other elements to take the damage for him.
With his full power activated, Armament Haki covered his entire body from his fingertips to his wrists. Buggy clenched his fists and met Bag's attack head-on.
A sense of unease crept into Buggy's Bag appearance. He cautiously swung his Iron Cloud Blade, testing Buggy's ability to control the two weapons at will, to instantly reassemble them from another direction and thrust them forward, seemingly annihilating them.
As Logia Devil Fruit, Bag focuses more on training his fruit. While his close-combat abilities aren't exceptionally strong, they're not weak either. After several rounds of fighting, he finally got used to Buggy's state, and his attacks became unrestrained. Like a madman, he wildly swung his Iron Cloud Blade, shouting, "You can't escape my Mantra at all! 'Voice'... Don't you feel your 'voice' trembling violently?! You're afraid, you lowly Blue Sea Insect!!"
"Stop talking nonsense, Cotton Candy. If I'm afraid, then what are you? Aren't you afraid of my reappearance and the 'destiny's' instructions? Don't forget what that woman said: I'm the savior who came to defeat you..."
"Hmph, you... Cloud Imprisonment!!" Bag sneered, and a small hole instantly split open at the tip of the Iron Cloud Blade in his hand, which suddenly burst open like a blooming flower bud. Rows of sharp teeth and spikes grew around the hole, resembling the huge mouth of a lamprey, and devoured Buggy.
" Chop-Chop. Shattered!"
Faced with Bag's sudden change of tactics, Buggy did not back down at all. His arms split into countless fragments and began to vibrate rapidly, while his palms, which served as the medium of attack, pressed down towards that gaping maw.
boom!!
The giant Iron Cloud hole formed after elementalization was blasted into Chop-Chop Buggy, scattering everywhere. Instantly, the shattered white clouds around it surged and undulated like water, obscuring the view, but then dissipated on their own in the blink of an eye.
But the battle had only just begun. When Buggy's vision cleared again, he heard Bag's barely audible whisper from a short distance away, " Four Directions Thunder Rush!"
Suddenly, four shield-like white clouds appeared at the four corners of the sky, flashing and crackling with blue Lightning Flash. In an instant, four bolts of lightning, like tangible white snakes, roared towards Buggy in the very center. Lightning moves at incredible speed, and in the next instant, they violently intertwined, forming intense sparks and terrifying electrical trails, emitting a chilling hissing sound. Buggy in the center vanished, as if he had been electrocuted into dust.
Bag's face did not show a smile. The wind blew gently behind him, and Buggy's figure, which had disappeared, reappeared. His right hand was clenched, and a fierce Armament Haki iron fist was thrown at Bag's head. Like an iron hammer hitting a full watermelon, it instantly smashed half of his head to pieces.
The shattered head turned into wisps of white mist, disappearing and settling into the air. The body also transformed into countless white clouds, scattering softly across the ground.
"What happened?"
Buggy's brow twitched, and time seemed to freeze around him, along with his body and movements, in that instant.
No, it's something else... Buggy's gaze followed his arm and saw strands of transparent, almost invisible cloud-like lines wrapped around his wrist, reflecting a white light.
Bag reappeared above the temple, his right hand outstretched, a fist-sized dark cloud condensing in his palm. With a flick of his arm, he sent the dark cloud hurtling toward Buggy, who was held in place by cloud ropes.
The dark clouds, like a snowball rolling downhill, expanded and grew larger as they rushed downwards. In just a few blinks, they became the size of a house, approaching Buggy with overwhelming force.
" Chop-Chop. Disintegrated."
In that instant, terrifying dark clouds crashed down with a thunderous roar, and the entire temple began to shake violently, as if it were about to collapse.
Buggy's head, body, hands, and feet emerged from all directions, gathered on a flat surface, and reassembled.
Bag looked down at Buggy from his vantage point and said, "Interesting... Among the insects of the Blue Sea, you should be considered one of the stronger ones."
Buggy's lips curled into a cunning smile. "You should really be grateful you were born on Sky Island. If you were in the Blue Sea, you'd be eaten alive by insects, leaving not even bones behind."
Although they were locked in a fierce battle, Buggy was already secretly adjusting his breathing. He wasn't in a good position. Due to the limitations of the Sky Island itself, his stamina limit would inevitably be lowered by a level. The brief one-minute exchange had already severely depleted his stamina. Clearly, a quick attack wouldn't give him an advantage.
"What an interesting yet ignorant insect..."
Bag sneered, his body enveloped in a layer of ethereal mist, unleashing a terrifying aura. "You have no idea who you're facing. You're the ruler of the Sky Island! I'll show you my true power!!"
"A truly captivating speech... Now, please continue your performance."
Buggy took out the red-rimmed glasses from his pocket and put them on his face. Instantly, the glasses spread outwards from his face, forming a mask of interwoven red scales that completely covered the upper half of his face, leaving only his eyes exposed.
After donning the Flying Dragon Mask, Buggy became even more cautious. This mask allows him to analyze his opponent's weaknesses and points of attack, enabling him to make effective "predictions" and strengthen his counterattacks. However, currently, Bag, shrouded in a layer of ethereal white clouds, appears entirely gray, meaning he has no weaknesses whatsoever...
Moreover, the mist emanating from Bag seemed to spread outwards in wisps, as if with a specific purpose.
He snorted softly and instantly appeared beside Buggy in a wisp of mist, sweeping a heavy kick toward the latter's head.
After putting on the Flying Dragon Mask, Buggy's reactions were enhanced. Facing Bag's Mantra abilities, he was no longer so passive and could quickly retaliate, preventing Bag from gaining much of an advantage.
The two sides traded blows, and the level of confrontation was even greater than before.
Standing on the steps, Jess clenched her fists, the intensity of the battle making her tense. "That's right, it's definitely him. Only someone destined by fate could inflict such a blow on Bag!"
The priest Karma, standing protectively beside Jess, exclaimed in disbelief, "There really is someone who can fight this demon for so long... This Blue Sea People actually possesses such strength..."
" Karma, as long as we don't turn our backs on fate, fate will not abandon us!" Jess's eyes were filled with determination once again.
Karma solemnly said, " God Jess, Karma will heed your teachings!"
Jess shouted, "Pirates from the Blue Sea, use all your strength to defeat this wicked demon and liberate the Three Gods Island!"
Buggy, who was fighting Bag, had no time to listen to what Jess was saying outside the battlefield. Although the Flying Dragon Mask brought him a "predictive" ability that was no weaker than the Mantra, allowing him to hold his Bag Buggy, it was still an unfinished product and its effect would probably only last for about three minutes.
However, Buggy didn't actually intend to use the mask to truly fight Bag; he just wanted to test all of Bag's abilities.
The sheer number of Bag's attacks was terrifying. There were rope clouds that could entangle people, Thundercloud that could summon Inazuma, swamp clouds that could stick to and devour people, Iron Cloud that could form blades and shields, dark clouds that could increase the weight of matter, and sticky clouds that could cause explosions. In just a short exchange, Buggy felt the pressure immensely. His elementalized body made him immune to ordinary attacks, making Buggy's attacks even more difficult.
The only saving grace is that, of all these techniques, Bag clearly doesn't have one that he's particularly good at, and he's not capable of mastering any of them to a completely new level.
Moreover, his physical skills weren't as impressive as one might imagine, and his strength wasn't the strongest among the opponents Buggy had faced.
Back in Santansidi, Buggy fought Diderot. Diderot's power was truly terrifying. His superb Armament Haki and the power brought by the Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit made him like an indestructible tank. If Diderot had been at his peak during the battle, Buggy probably wouldn't have been a match for him at all.
Bag prefers a mage-assassin hybrid style that can attack from both range and in melee. Although his strength is slightly lacking, his Cloud-Cloud Fruit combined with his Mantra is indeed terrifying. However, battles are not solely determined by strength; various other factors are also involved. If Diderot were to fight Bag, Diderot to lose.
" Shigan. Black Bell!!"
The Shigan, coated in Armament Haki, pierced through Bag's chest like a sharp blade. At the same time, Bag's voice could be heard from a short distance away. "Sticky Cloud. Explode!!"
Another cloud clone! Buggy knew something was wrong and immediately retreated.
In an instant, a powerful explosion erupted from Bag's cloud clone, emitting a dazzling burst of light. The decorative brazier was blown away by the immense energy generated around it, crashing into the wall. Ash from the ceiling poured down, leaving the surrounding area in complete disarray.
"They got away again... Heh, what a pathetic creature it is to live, only capable of running away with its tail between its legs..."
After giving a cold snort, Bag transformed into an invisible cloud of mist and chased after them outside the temple.
Seeing the two switch battlefields, Karma looked at Jess: " God Jess, they..."
Jess's words were resolute. "We're going out too! The outcome of this battle will determine the survival of all the people on this island. Let's open our eyes wide and see what fate has in store for us!"